Chelsea thread

 

drogba got another 2 match uefa ban. oh well, pretty used to starting the ucl campaign without him these days

Zhirkov should be able to win enough penalties to get a win over United.

In all seriousness they were both legit penalties and what a fantastic display that was.  I really rate Villa but they were just dismantled.  It won't happen often (probably will seeing as I said that) against a side like them so enjoy it.  Pity Anelka didn't get on the score sheet.  Easily my favourite striker in the Premier League.

yea zhirkov was bloody good getting foward and yea there were no real complaints about the penalties. both legit.

It was Jose who first developed the lone striker system at Chels and I think it's our best formation by a mile. We've tried the diamond system and it just doesn't work over a long period. It's asking too much of the full-backs to bomb on every game.

I think it gets the best out of Joe Cole and Florent Malouda to be playing either side of a lone forward. I would be quite happy to see us continue with that system up at OT on Saturday. The only problem with the system, as I see it, is that you can't play Drogba and Anelka. It has to be one or the other, although Carlo has tried to accommodate Anelka by playing him out wide.

Rooney getting injured is a huge plus for us this weekend (though I pray he's fit for the World Cup!). Whilst the Mancs are no slouches even without him, he is definitely their biggest threat by a country mile.PaulSG2010-03-31 20:51:07

Blue is the colour....

f**king sick of sir alex having a whinge when the lose, hes complaining bout the offside but doesnt seem to care about anelka being almost rugby tackled to the ground and mancheda using his arm

A HUGE result for us and a game I knew we were going to win once Rooney was out.  I was beginning to doubt we could do it this year.  Still gonna be a few twists this season but hopefully that will give the boys the impetus to push on.  Fantastic first half, bit of a wobble in the second, but then when he made the substitutions I thought we looked in control again. 

Chelsea should have had a penalty, possibly two.  At one point Anelka beat Ferdinand who fell over and completely chopped Anelka down, to his credit Anelka got up, this time in the box (I think) and got very clumsily tackled again.

The Neville(?) challenge on Anelka was just blatant though.

I agree, no complaints at all about the offside goal after that goal from the handball.  10 United lads I was with couldn't comprehend that which only backs up my theory that their intelligence lacks far below the fans of other Premier League teams.

I think United and Chelsea will both drop a game before the end and, with a bit of luck Arsenal will win the rest which will make us lose to you on goal difference.  I don't want it to happen but think it will.

Maybe the lads you were with may lack intelligence. However intelligence has nothing to do with understanding football.
I think you are entilted to think that Arsenal will win the league-but I think you will end up where you are now-3rd. As I said months ago Chelsea will win cause the are the best team.
No sure what game you were watching but yes it was a penalty against Neville and no Utd's goal was not a hand ball, off the gut area.

 

so 5 wins from 5 vs the other top 3.

aston villa this weekend. i get the feeling this game is falling at just the right time.

i think drogba will start, he has quite the record in the fa cup

would be very nice for the players over the last 5 league games to know they have a cup final to look foward to

A fantastic result on Saturday and the celebrations matched all weekend!

I have to say I thought we were good for the win over the 90mins. The Mancs are up in arms about Drogba being offside (and he clearly was) but, as has already been mentioned, Macheda's goal was clearly a handball. Even the most biased Manc would struggle not to admit that.

The Park penalty decision was a fair shout. I've seen them given, I've seen them not given. But by the same token, Neville played Anelka and got none of the ball in the first half and that wasn't given. It's the old addage that these things always even themselves out in football over a period of time. This just happened to be in 90mins.

I'd like to give special mention to the two full- backs (Ferreira and Zhirkov) who I thought both had good games. A welcome resurgence from my mate Paulo who has had his critics in the last three seasons. Our support at OT was fantastic too, as always when away from home. Also, if Joe Cole had been Brazilian or played for Ar$enal, that goal would've been lauded over by all pundits and commentators for weeks...

Now for the semi at Wembley. I don't see us handing Villa another 7-1 caning but we're in form and anything is possible...

i like your mention of ferriera there paul.

any idea what time the villa game is on? it was good timing for the man utd game, 1230am so didnt have to get up in the middle of the night and my sister watched it with me live so trying to mould her into a diehard chelsea fan

hopefully i will be able to find a stream for the villa game

You're not wrong Downey. Malouda has been playing out of his skin for the last month or so, and Joey appears to be coming into a bit of form - he had a great game against Villa too. Carlo says he's "certain" Joey will sign on before the summer.

As for the semi this weekend, the kick-off is 5pm. I know we've sold out our allocation and I'm hoping it's as good as last season's semi when we turned Arsenal over.

yea last years semi was a cracker. i really would love to watch another fa cup final so heres hoping

drogba starting vs villa. ivanovic may be on the bench and word is ashley mey be back for stoke

Looks like the Ess-Express will be back the week after Ashley too. All bodes well for a strong end to the season, providing we can stay consistent until then.

Flying high up in the sky

f**k yea final here we come! cant wait

Absolutely sweet as! Was an awful first half but that spell towards the end of the second buried Villa. I can't say we were three goals better than them over 90mins, but you take whatever luck you can get in football.

pompey it is in the final, much preferred option than spurs.

big result this morning with man utd only drawing with blackburn. bolton game wednesday morning is a biggy. the chance to go 4 clear with 4 to go is a good thought.

at previous points in the season we have failed to win big games after man utd havnt won, vs hull and everton i think. lets hope the boys will be up to it

just forgot that if arsenal beat spurs and we beat bolton they will of course be 3 behind. though our gd is far superior so its like having another point in this case

I see Terry's been up to his usual tricks then:

that was just the poor pitch that caused that.... 

not alot to say about that really, ref shoulda sent him off really.

he did get the ball...

Only accidentally by the looks of it!

looks like ballack and kalou will start against bolton, no word yet on which striker will start

We always struggle at home to Bolton. I'm hoping we can break the hoodoo tonight. Starting Ballack would be no bad thing but I wouldn't be too keen on starting with Kalou - I simply struggle to rate him and always have. He's capable of the odd superb performance, but we're talking about one in every 20-odd games unfortunately.

A win tonight puts us firmly in the driving seat so fingers crossed we've left our inconsistent spell behind us now.

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well thats a valuable 3 points. i thought we didnt play well at all and tbh we were lucky to get away with the win. bolton played well and had 2 decent penalty shouts

zhirkov was brilliant once again as was ferriera. kalou was frustrating and we looked alot better with malouda and cole on the park.

cole is playing so well to try an cement an england spot i just hope it doesnt get in the way of the teams objectives. he shot twice with his left foot where maybe a pass was on.

we could easily have drawn this game but then again had lamps shot off the post squeezed in it would have been comfortable.

spurs away
stoke home
livpool away
wigan home

then the final.

lets keep the blue flag flying high

Win your next game please.

No.

 
ok  

Downey, you have summed up everything I was going to say in those two sentences. I thought Zhirkov was absolutely awesome last night, even with a bandaged head. Ferreira had a great game and kept Ivanovic out of the side, but was exposed once or twice late on down the right. Kalou, as I feared, was awful. I'll back him as long as he's in a Chelsea shirt but the one-on-one he missed at the start of the second half told you everything.

At the end of the day, it wasn't pretty but winning titles is all about digging deep and scrapping for points at times. It took me back to the days of Mourinho when we could go to Blackburn on a cold Tuesday night in January and grind out a 1-0 win. That's the sort of metal we showed yesterday.

Yes, Bolton could have had two penalties but we had 21 shots on goal last night and hit the post. Davies could easily have been dismissed but the ref bottled it twice that I could see.

The atmosphere was the best it's been for ages at the Bridge. I only wish we could replicate our away support at home more often.

From the remaining games, we have to be looking at maximum points from Stoke and Wigan (while respecting both clubs). Although I was quite impressed with Stoke when they came to the Bridge in the FA Cup a few weeks back. Spurs away might be a little kinder to us given that they had 120 minutes on Sunday and have Arsenal tonight. The scousers away is always unpredictable but our record against the big sides (Man City aside) has been good this season.

Carefree...!!!!

a second goal is always so crucial and when kalou was put in clear he didnt look composed or confident at all to score, which is worrying.

riteo tottenham have had their moment, lets put them back in their place this weekend. wont be easy at all but hopefully theyre a bit drained after 2 big games this week. Downey262010-04-15 10:55:34

Not sure who to cheer on for this one lol.