UEFA has started disciplinary action against Chelsea following the club’s actions at the end of their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona a couple of weeks ago.

It appears that the club, along with players Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba, will have to answer for their behaviour after the match on May 6th, and will then be dealt with on June 17th.

For anybody who’s not familiar with the events, Chelsea went tumbling out of the Champions League after Barcelona scored in injury time on their only shot of the game to go through to the finals on the away goals rule. Neither team was happy with Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who was brutal throughout the match. Ovrebo sent off Barcelona’s Eric Abidal and then proceeded to turned away several legitimate penalty claims from Chelsea, including a handball in the box on the last kick of the game.

The players’ frustration got them better of them understandably when the final whistle blew as they surrounded Ovrebo to argue and Drogba swore into the television cameras to say Ovrebo’s performance was a disgrace.

Bosingwa was charged because after the game he said: ”I don’t know if he’s a referee or a thief. I don’t have any words to describe that man that was on the pitch. We have nothing against Barcelona’s goal but the penalties that he didn’t give us and his way of managing the game weren’t right at all. This referee should never referee a game again. What happened was a disgrace. It was a well contested game but the referee came to spoil our game,”

Bosingwa retracted those comments the next day though.

Drogba might be suspended for about five games for telling the truth, will probably be handed a stiff fine. The club itself will also face a substantial financial penalty.

In other Chelsea news, England midfielder Frank Lampard has become the first Chelsea player to win the club’s Player of the Year award for a third time. Lampard also won it in 2004 and 2005. Michael Essien’s left-foot volley at home to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, was voted Chelsea’s Goal of the Season by supporters.

England left-back Ashley Cole won the Samsung Players’ Player of the Year. The Young Player of the Year award was presented to English youngster Michael Mancienne, who turned 21 and made his Chelsea first-team debut this season. Mancienne’s a defender and an England Under-21 regular. He also received a call-up to the senior squad during the season.

Back to the  disciplinary front, the English  Football Association said that Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas won’t face  any action over an alleged of spitting incident where Hull City’s assistant manager Brian Horton was supposedly spat at following an FA Cup tie with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on March 17.

Fabregas was injured for the match, but joined his team mates on the pitch at the final whistle. Hull manager Phil Brown accused him of spitting during a TV interview after the game. Fabregas denied the incident and the FA have let it drop as there is no evidence that it ever took place.

In off field news, Everton has signed defenders Phil Jagielka and Joseph Yobo to new five-year contracts with the club.

Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips will miss England’s World Cup qualifying games against Kazakhstan, and Andorra on June 6th and 10th due to a knee injury. Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing will also miss the games as he’s out for the next three months because of a foot operation. Goalkeeper David James of Portsmouth is also out of action for the games.

Barcelona will play Manchester United in the final of this season’s Champions League after a dramatic late goal from Andres Iniesta saw them through their tie with Chelsea.

Chelsea had led at Stamford Bridge for virtually the whole game before Barca struck with the last kick of the game to break the heart of every blues fan in the country. Michael Essien had put the home side ahead with a sublime 30-yard volley, which flew past Victor Valdes and into the top corner.

Much in a repeat of last week’s first leg, Chelsea stayed disciplined and Guus Hiddink’s men worked tirelessly to keep out a Barca side that were finding it difficult to get a shot on goal. Eric Abidal was sent off before Iniesta scored meaning he will miss the final along with United’s Darren Fletcher.

Chelsea will feel hard done by. The London side had four good shouts for a penalty turned down by referee, Tom Henning Ovrebo, as the official looked reluctant to make many decisions of great significance on the night. However, they maybe should have had the match wrapped up before any decision could have an impact on the game. They had more shots on target than Barca and should have put a second away, the Spanish side only ever needed just the one goal to win.

Barca’s winning goal was met with scenes that resembled a rock concert as opposed to a football match as virtually the entire Barcelona staff ran across the pitch to celebrate. A number of Chelsea players hounded the referee at the final whistle, something that UEFA are set to look into.

The pressures and feelings in such a big game can be very intense but this is not reason at all to think that you are above the officials and the result will not be changed. Chelsea’s actions, especially Dider Drogba who swore and shouted into television cameras, may well be punished by UEFA, and could well become something the blues forget.

Hiddink said after the final whistle had gone: “There were three clear penalties and the boys feel that this is an injustice. Two of them the Barcelona players went straight with their arms in the air.”

On balance it was probably a justified result. Chelsea played with a lot of heart and determination but anyone watching the match could see that Barca were clearly the more dominant of the side, at times having just over 70 per cent of possession. Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, would no doubt have preferred to be playing Chelsea.

The final at the end of May is now set up nicely. United will be spurred on by their domestic success and may well have secured yet another league title by the time the match comes around. For Barca, well it was obvious what the win in the tie meant to the players and staff last night and they will not get a bigger lift than this.

They had to rely on Iniesta in the final three seasons ago and they had to rely on him again last night. It was just rewards for a side that played such dominant football over the two legs.

I thought that making it to the Champions League final was supposed to be a good thing, but after watching Chelsea and Barcelona take turns in giving it away like a hot potato, I’m starting to wonder.

The match itself was fine and both goals were excellent strikes. In fact, Michael Essien probably won’t be able to reproduce a goal like that again in his life. But both managers seemed intent on blowing it and Guus Hiddink actually managed to do it, however Pep Guardiola came pretty close to handing it back to him in injury time.

When Barcelona scored to win it on aggregate it wasn’t a surprise. In fact you could see it coming as soon as Hiddink took off Didier Drogba in the 72nd minute and brought on Juliano Belletti when Barcelona was down to 10 men. Hiddink gave Barcelona an avenue back into the game with this move and they eventually found it. Taking off a striker when your opposition is down to 10 men isn’t the smartest thing to do, especially when a goal against is going to knock you out of the cup.

If Drogba was injured and you had no choice other than to substitute him that’s fine, I understand, but you have to replace him with another attacker to keep Barcelona on the back foot. By taking Drogba off, it simply meant Barcelona only had Anelka to worry about and let them push up in attack.

Now, Guardiola inexplicably pulled off an even stupider move, and I rate this as stupider because he actually did it not once, but twice. This came after Andres Iniesta tied the game up in the 93rd minute. Instead of letting time run its natural course and waiting for the final whistle, Guardiola gave Chelsea two more chances to snatch a late winner themselves by making two separate substitutions in injury time. It’s a ridiculous move as you’re giving Chelsea all the ammunition they need to come back and bury you.

At this point of the game you want the final whistle to come as quickly as possible, not making substitutions and having the referee tacking on more injury time for you to throw away the game. And throw away the game they nearly did if a last second penalty had been called for handball.

Now, on to the refereeing, and it was pretty pathetic to say the least. And the man to blame here is one Tom Henning Ovrebo of Norway. Drogba and Anelka were manhandled and thrown around the pitch all game long with no calls, but after Anelka tripped over his own feet in the 66th minute, Barca’s Eric Abidal was red carded and sent off. Throw in a couple of blatant handballs and Chelsea probably could have had four legitimate penalties.

It’s no wonder Drogba went nuts and had to be restrained, by Hiddink, teammates and stewards after the game. I can’t really blame him as football refereeing has gotten progressively worse over the years. It’s about time FIFA did something to address this ongoing problem by either using a two-referee and four-linesman system or utilizing video replay.

Tonight Chelsea face an absolutely massive task in Spain that could see their European ambitions completely destroyed.

Guus Hiddink’s men face up to the favourites for this years competition in what promises to be a mouth-watering occasion. It will take a tremendous amount of team spirit, combined with quality and skill to get the two time Premier League champions through this tie.

The loss of Ashley Cole will mean Jose Bosingwa steps in at left back to try and counter the attacking influence of arguably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi. Otherwise, Chelsea look fully equipped to pack out the midfield and give Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka the best possible chance of scoring an away goal to take back to Stamford Bridge.

Both sides are packed with talent so it is difficult to work out where tonight’s game will be won. Chelsea have only beaten Barca on four occasions, as opposed to the Spanish side’s five victories.

Chelsea will be looking to dominate the midfield battles. The likes of Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack must all dominate Iniesta and Xavi. The Spanish side will clearly look to play a quick passing game to breach the Chelsea defence.

The recent form of Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech, has come under increased scrutiny and as Barcelona will be looking to kill the tie in the first leg, the Czech international will have to be on top of his game.

The basis of Chelsea’s success under Jose Mourinho was Cech leading from the back, allowing the defence the time and movement to deal with attacking problems easily. If Barcelona look to exploit Cech then it could be one of the very few weak points in the West London side’s armour.

Leadership will also be vital. John Terry will still be hurting from the final defeat to Manchester United last season. Terry will need to pull out a big performance to martial his side through their most important game of this year’s campaign. Terry will also be paramount to stemming Barcelona’s attacking influence.

Hiddink will no doubt want to get one over on the club he faced during his time at Real Madrid. It is likely he is to be very shrewd with his tactics and considering the talent Barca will have on display, this is no surprise.

He has to deploy a clever system in order to impose his Chelsea side on the game. Sitting back and consolidating will knock work as it allows Barca to build up pressure and eventually pick off a goal or two.

As for Barcelona, the defence of the Spanish side has come under recent criticism especially the keeper, Victor Valdes, and captain, Carlos Puyol. Both of these players have been going through rough patches, but are likely to play as they are two of the most experienced players in the Spanish side.

The attacking combination that Barcelona go with is unknown, it could be Henry and Messi or it could be Messi and Eto’o, but the one thing that is guaranteed is that whoever plays, they are likey to give Chelsea a few headaches.

Chelsea will get through this one with vocal support from the fans and with a massive team performance. They have to keep Barcelona’s influences quiet, while at the same time imposing themselves on the game. If all of this unfolds then there is no reason why they can’t go back to the Bridge with a one or two goal advantage.