Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours

CHD

Drogba isn't in another league to Torres, they are in the same league but it looks like this.

1 - Drogba
2 - Torres

Bubs101

Sure lads Anelka's been streets ahead of Torres this season and last as well.

smuckers

Nico were superb today too, and I think Boswinga may have trouble getting back in the team if Ivan continues his rich vein of form.

DazMarz

Great game today. Brilliant result, claiming big scalps now!

And yes, Ivanovic is proving to be one of the best full backs on display at the moment. And he is a big threat moving forward as well, getting almost as good as Bosingwa. He was immense today.

The_Hustler

Fouls a lot though in my opinion.

Same goal difference as last time with an own goal thrown in again, great stuff.

I don't have a clue how next week is going to go.

GavRedKing

Would have loved to see Anelka grab a goal yesterday, I think his general play deserved it, the way he brings peopel into the game is stunning to watch, sometimes he looks laboured and couldnt careless but then he just sprints past people with ease.

Yet again he played really well and the way he can hold the ball up at the right time was great as he slid a ball to Cole to setup Vermalen :pac:

At the back JT and Ricky again were brillant and credit to both full backs who pushed on and defended whenever they had to.

I though Mikel idd a good job in the holding role, broke up play and how he got away without being booked for so long I'll never know.

Great team performance, and after taking 9 points off the other top 3 teams so far we are the team to beat this year, at times we look unstoppable.

Jagera

Yeah I would like to see Anelka get a few more. He's really developed into a team player (comes with age maybe). But as you say, he's not just out there poaching for goals, he's creating chances and providing service. A very valuable team member - not a player completing against Drogba as was the case when he came initially. Fair play to him for adapting.

And fair play to Joe Cole for his quality after such a long break. I only rated him as a quality sub - I've changed my mind now.

This is the year.

SlickRic

Bubs101 wrote: »

Sure lads Anelka's been streets ahead of Torres this season and last as well.

he's been fit more often, that's about it.

good win yesterday.

you're going to walk the league as long as you can get through Jan.

ancelotti's no scolari by the looks of it anyway.

GavRedKing

SlickRic wrote: »

ancelotti's no scolari by the looks of it anyway.

Thank christ, but seriously, Carlo is on another level compared to Big Phil, I think Roman's choice after sacking Grant would have been between Carlo and Hiddink and for one reason or another we couldnt get either so he went for Big Phil.

Carlo is up there with some of the best managers around, given the fact hes a football man also, winning plenty with A.C. as a player, 2 European Cups and a few leagues hes been around football along time.

He has a great record and im absolutely delighted he has started this well and that he brought in the diamond to, it suits our midifeld perfectly as we dont really have the players to play wide, that said with Cole and Bosingwa we dont need wide men.

I hate to say I expect to win the league in late Novemeber but surely any team that wants to beat us to the top must go on a sort of run of about 10-15 games without dropping many points and hope we lose maybe 3 or 4 games.

Europe is a different problem though, you can never be sure in Europe and there is a quite a good selection of top teams that could finish second inthere group to face us in Feburary. If i had to pick I would happily take the EL this year with a good run in Europe, dont want to be greedy and say I want both but if any squad can do it, its our current squad with the current management in place.

Bubs101

SlickRic wrote: »

he's been fit more often, that's about it.

.

Yeah, fitness, if you ignore the fact that he's scored more often despite at the same time adapting his game to be something other than an out and out striker and he also picked up a Golden Shoe. Must have missed Torres'

SlickRic

Bubs101 wrote: »

Yeah, fitness, if you ignore the fact that he's scored more often

again, he's scored more often due to Torres' injuries imo. just look at their general goals/games ratio.

Bubs101 wrote: »

despite at the same time adapting his game to be something other than an out and out striker and he also picked up a Golden Shoe. Must have missed Torres'

the reason he scored so many is due to the fact he was the main man while Drogba was injured, and/or out of form. and fair play to him. it takes nothing away from him. and kudos to him on adapting to a different role now, and he is a better player for it all round it seems.

Torres can also play both roles. he played, and made his name, in Anelka's current role at Chelsea at Atletico.

CHD

Bubs101 wrote: »

Sure lads Anelka's been streets ahead of Torres this season and last as well.

Goes without saying, he has been lethal. Ran the show for France even. Top class, won' get recognized though.

JPA

The fact that Torres seem to be constantly injured has warped peoples opinions of him.
If Drogba and Torres are fully fit and on form then I think they are equal.

invincibleirish

Whats Torres done to get status alongside Drogba and Anelka at club level? banging in the goals for teams whose only real ambition is to get CL football pales in comparison to the exploits of Drogba & Anelka who have at least taken Chelsea to the top of the PL and to the CL semi finals(on top of everything else they have won).

IMO Torres needs to join one of the ambitious clubs like Chelsea, Man Utd or the 2 Spanish giants and play to win things. Does he want to dedicate the best years of his career to a club seemingly on the decline?.

Anelka/Drogba have won european cups and league championships between them with the strong prospect of more success, meanwhile Torres will have the thought of winning the WC with Spain to keep him warm as the red side of Liverpool look to him to keep their place in the top 4 this season and every season as they await a financial miracle to keep the club competitive.

SlickRic

CHD wrote: »

Goes without saying, he has been lethal. Ran the show for France even. Top class, won' get recognized though.

who says he's not top class?

anyone who doesn't say he is, is a moron.

SlickRic

invincibleirish wrote: »

IMO Torres needs to join one of the ambitious clubs like Chelsea, Man Utd or the 2 Spanish giants and play to win things. Does he want to dedicate the best years of his career to a club seemingly on the decline?.

ignoring the cheap shot at Liverpool not being ambitious...

how does this take away from how good a player is?

is Shearer worse than Andy Cole?

of course not.

there's a difference between a player's quality and a player's success. the line blurs at times, granted, but there is still a distinction.

GavRedKing

Roght lads, with the Carling Cup Quarter Finals what do you think Carlo's approach should be??

Youth and experience are just send out the youths??

City, regardless of recent results (7 draws) are still a tough team so I would hope he would go with some squad players and youth to see us through the next round and be fully fit and ready for City at teh weekend.

Would like to see

Hilario
Belletti
Alex
Ivanovic
Zhirkov
Mikel
Malouda
Matic
Kakuta
Kalou
Sturridge

Should be good enough to see us through. There is enough strong, tough players there mixed with good ball playing players that should deal with Blackburn.

Im going to say 2-0

CHD

Alex and Sturridge are injured

GavRedKing

CHD wrote: »

Alex and Sturridge are injured

My mistake, I was wondering alright about Sturridge but didnt know that Alex was injured.

CHD

gavredking wrote: »

My mistake, I was wondering alright about Sturridge but didnt know that Alex was injured.

Think he did his hip again. Seems to trouble him a bit lately.

Gonzovision

Blackburn 1 up after 10 minutes.



Chelsea team: Hilario, Belletti, Ivanovic, Paulo Ferreira, Zhirkov, Mikel, Ballack, Deco, Joe Cole, Kalou, Malouda. Subs: Turnbull, Drogba, Matic, Hutchinson, Bruma, Kakuta, Borini.

DazMarz

Never mind. Only the Carling Can Cup. Shame to lose any game, but still... At least in Prem and CL things are still on track and looking very good.

Ush1

Blows my mind how underrated Anelka is. In 1st gear he's too good for most.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

GavRedKing

Of all things I am surprised that Ballack missed a penalty, Germans rarely miss penalties, if the world cup stat is taking into account.:(

Losing Kalou didnt help the cause but with the CC out of the way, we can focus on the three main one's.

I think the CC is just a place to give the second string a game as most teams dont play half of there best players, in saying that we started with a very strong team that I hought would be able to take it.

Bring on the weekend, with City having a big win playing there strongest team I think it will be a difficult game but having watched it last night if Drogba and Anelka play as well as he has the last few weeks we should cause them no end of problems at the back as Lescott and Toure looked soft against Arsenal.

Johner

Ah well 3 points on Saturday will do.

Should be a cracking match can't wait because I'm heading over. Hopefully we will destroy them.

SlickRic

gavredking wrote: »

...if Drogba and Anelka play as well as he has the last few weeks we should cause them no end of problems at the back as Lescott and Toure looked soft against anyone.

fyp.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Does anyone know much about the Blue Brothers (Chelsea/Rangers/Linfield) connection? Just curious that's all. Always noticed Red Hand flags at Stamford Bridge on the telly but never paid much heed to them.

Edit: Not saying there's anything wrong with the connection btw - each to their own.

CHD

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

Does anyone know much about the Blue Brothers (Chelsea/Rangers/Linfield) connection? Just curious that's all. Always noticed Red Hand flags at Stamford Bridge on the telly but never paid much heed to them.

Edit: Not saying there's anything wrong with the connection btw - each to their own.

Basically started with the Rangers firm inviting the Chelsea firm to Parkhead to help in the violence after the game. The Chelsea firm has links with Hearts too and traveled to help them in fighting a few times too. Linfield has strong links with Rangers so thats how the blues brothers thing came about I think. I'm not too sure but that is the jist of it. Scummy firms finding like minded scum to help them attack opposition firms. Think I'm right.

Dozen Wicked Words

Play in natty blue shirts too.

Also, one other thing, Chelsea played Rangers in mid 80's in aide of Bradford disaster. Police were extremely worried about post game trouble, but the Chelsea fans applauded the Rangers fans out of the ground as they had travelled all the way down for a charity match. No trouble at all. Cemented the positive relationship. (although these days I think it is overstated)

There are nearly as many tricolours as Red hand of Ulster in the crowd these days.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

dooferoaks wrote: »

Play in natty blue shirts too.

Also, one other thing, Chelsea played Rangers in mid 80's in aide of Bradford disaster. Police were extremely worried about post game trouble, but the Chelsea fans applauded the Rangers fans out of the ground as they had travelled all the way down for a charity match. No trouble at all. Cemented the positive relationship. (although these days I think it is overstated)

There are nearly as many tricolours as Red hand of Ulster in the crowd these days.

Haha good to hear.

DazMarz

City in Wastelands tomorrow at 5:30pm...

Chelsea to win 2-0.

City are weak in defence.

Chelsea's attack is far too strong, and our defence will nullify their attack (their unarguable strongest area).

Drogba and Lampard to get on the scoresheet here.

Johner

Can't wait for this. Heading off in the morning, already pumped for it. I'll say 3-1.

DazMarz

Johner wrote: »

Can't wait for this. Heading off in the morning, already pumped for it. I'll say 3-1.

Great that you got a ticket for it, man! Sold out ages ago! Should be a good game, but can see our defence just OWNING their attackers.

Johner

Haha cheers mate, I ended up with a pair in the end for the away end.

Bubs101

Dunno, City have a very fast attack so it depends if they get a chance to run at our defenders. Bellamy, Robinho, SWP and Ireland could cause us problems there while Ade is no slouch in the air

CHD

Bubs101 wrote: »

Dunno, City have a very fast attack so it depends if they get a chance to run at our defenders. Bellamy, Robinho, SWP and Ireland could cause us problems there while Ade is no slouch in the air

Yeah but we have Essien.

DazMarz

CHD wrote: »

Yeah but we have Essien.

And Terry

And Riccy Carvalho

And Ashley Cole

And Ivanovic...

FFS, the most solid back 4 going, plus Essien as arguably the best defensive midfielder you'll get at the moment. Robinho, the little shíte will regret the day he pulled on the wrong blue jersey.

jrar

I'm a little wary of all this talk of Ireland, Bellamy & W-Phil. all being doubtful - what's the odds of least 2 of them being in the starting eleven come 5:30 tomorrow evening ?

I'd worry about Bellamy going at Ivanovic the most - I think Essien/Terry/Lord Percy can handle the Tevez/Adebayor threat - the main thing will be to keep them busy defending and watch for the breaks.

Our record up there is excellent - tomorrow is not the day for us to suddenly lose that ! Utd, Arsenal and L'pool should all win their games at 3:00, so a little extra pressure on us going into the late game of the day to keep the 5 pt. gap

ShoulderChip

jrar wrote: »

I'm a little wary of all this talk of Ireland, Bellamy & W-Phil. all being doubtful - what's the odds of least 2 of them being in the starting eleven come 5:30 tomorrow evening ?

I'd worry about Bellamy going at Ivanovic the most - I think Essien/Terry/Lord Percy can handle the Tevez/Adebayor threat - the main thing will be to keep them busy defending and watch for the breaks.

Our record up there is excellent - tomorrow is not the day for us to suddenly lose that ! Utd, Arsenal and L'pool should all win their games at 3:00, so a little extra pressure on us going into the late game of the day to keep the 5 pt. gap

Nah United will slip up tomorrow, tomorrow we will win the league!!

Jackobyte

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Nah United will slip up tomorrow, tomorrow we will win the league!!

Like the optimism!!!

jrar

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Nah United will slip up tomorrow, tomorrow we will win the league!!

OK, we've beaten Utd and Pool at home, and thumped Arsenal at the Emirates, but we're only 1/3rd of the way thru the season - cannot understand the media (and some fans') view that it's all over.

Remember Wigan and Villa - a defeat is never too far away - the main diff. is that we're not drawing matches so our points haul at this stage is better than last year, but Utd. are still very much alive. I think Arsenal have gone out the back door and even a rejuvenated Liverpool have too much ground to make up on both us and Utd. to be able to claim the title.

Our next 8/10 fixtures are all very winnable - do that and get over the ACN absence of 2 key and 2 regular players, and we could be looking at a great season, but there's a looonnnngggggg way to go yet !

DazMarz

We're on a high at the moment, and I can't see Man City having enough to come close to Chelsea tomorrow.

Man City are far too porous at the back, Drogba and Anelka will tear them to shreds, and with Lamps popping up and potentially testing Given from range (as Anelka is also wont to do), it could easily be a very lopsided game.

Man City look impressive on paper, but against the big boys, they will wilt.

2-0 Chelsea tomorrow.

Headshot

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Nah United will slip up tomorrow, tomorrow we will win the league!!

Gonzovision

Poor Poor performance. Only got stuck in the last 10 minutes or so. Not good enough at all. Ballack and Deco were awful, not that the others in midfield were too much better. Could have drawn with the peno and Drogbas chance at the end. Oh well:(

DazMarz

I will say one thing: it may be my favourite jersey to wear, but I don't think Chelsea should wear that away strip again for the rest of the season. Why? Every game we play in it, we lose.

Wigan, lost 3-1 wearing away strip.
Aston Villa, lost 2-1 wearing away strip.
Manchester City, lost 2-1 wearing away strip.

Retire the bloody thing...:D

Nah, Chelsea were piss-poor today, both in terms of playing football and their attitude. I'm amazed Belletti stayed on the field, and they were really reverting to a terrible form of belligerant complaining that I'd hoped had been gotten rid of.

My only hope is that John Terry isn't seriously injured.:(

pistolpetes11

gonzovision wrote: »

Poor Poor performance. Only got stuck in the last 10 minutes or so. Not good enough at all. Ballack and Deco were awful, not that the others in midfield were too much better. Could have drawn with the peno and Drogbas chance at the end. Oh well:(

Decent game , we were beaten by the better team on the day and can have no complaints , a timely kick up the arse before Christmas , it seemed to me a bit of an arrogent performance by Chelsea .

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

ShoulderChip

Can someone explain to me why we brought on Mikel and Belletti instead of Malouda and the Joe Show?

Soby

I challenge someone to find out the last time(excluding saturdays match) the last time Lampard missed a peno.I cant remember anyway