Blues midfielder loving London lifestyle

Raul comfortable in capital

Raul Meireles is aware of the challenges confronting Chelsea after the West Londoners lost their second match at home to his former club Liverpool in a span of nine days but the Portuguese international is happy to be in the English capital.

Meireles followed in the footsteps of Fernando Torres to swap Anfield for Stamford Bridge and even though the departure of both men drew an almost equally severe wrath from the Reds’ supporters, they have had different reactions to life in London.

While Torres recently stated that the extremely busy lifestyle of London feels overwhelming at times, Meireles feels quite comfortable in his new surroundings.

“I like the lifestyle in London. Everybody has their own style and nobody cares,” Meireles explained in an interview with Chelsea’s official website as he hailed the diversity in London.

The 28-year old added: “Cities like this shine because they have lots of people here from different countries.’How do you say it? Cockney? I don’t know, I will ask some of the guys to teach me.

“The accent here is maybe a little bit easier to understand than in Liverpool.”

Liverpool faithful will argue that the feelings of Meireles are irrelevant to them now that they have claimed their consecutive win at Stamford Bridge in the calendar year.

Although the midfielder was ironically the one who scored the decisive goal in the first of these three victories, Kenny Dalglish’s new-look squad was able to effectively replicate the same outcome in the Premier League, and more recently, the Carling Cup quarterfinal on Tuesday.

But Meireles, who described himself as a lot more sensitive than he looks on the field, is convinced that the holiday spirit will bring the best out of his new team.

“I think traditions are important at this time of year, which is why I understand we have to play lots of matches in England. It’s really good to see all of the families at the matches with the Christmas spirit, and to see people dressed up as Santa,” he concluded.

A tough visit to Tyneside awaits the Blues in Saturday’s early kick-off, which will be followed next week by a virtually must-win match at home to Valencia in the UEFA Champions League.

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