If we win this we equal our best winning run of the season .. four.

Norwich are good and Lambert a very impressive manager.

Spurs go to City the following day so if we win this we put pressure on them.

Will Cahill start? Will Ivan be back? Will Ashley ever get a rest?

Will Sturridge start? Will Torres score? And who will comprise our midfield .. ?

My guess is Romeu, Lampard, Ramires. Meireles and Essien on the bench.

Cech, Ivan, Cole, Luiz, Terry, Romeu, Ramires, Lampard, Torres, Mata, Sturridge.

Here's hoping ..

I imagine we'll see basically the same side as Sunderland, with the possible introduction of Sturridge in place of Merieles or Romeu.

I'd have thought Cahill was a good bet to start.

Massive opportunity to close the gap on spurs to just 3 pts.

I'd imagine we'd play with pretty much the same side apart from Sturridge coming in and one of Lampard/Meireles making space for Ramires in the mid.. Cahill might get a start, who knows!

This is pretty much a must win game, it will be hard no doubt about that.

Every single game from now to the end is a must win

In years gone by, a run of Sunderland, Norwich and Swansea would have been a guarenteed 9 points, but I'm not so sure. We still looked very bad against Sunderland and with a bit of luck they could easily have beaten us. Norwich won't be any easier and Swansea are playing very well at the moment.

If Cahill comes in (presumably for Luiz) hopefully we'll be a bit better at the back, and maybe Torres will finally sc- ... No, never mind.

What's the news on Ivanovic and Sturridge? Will they be ok to start?

Lambert has been fiddling around with formations all season, but he seems to have settled for a 4-4-2 at the moment. At home to Arsenal and away to Man City they put three in the middle however so we might have a 4-1-4-1 to deal with. How about this:

---------------------------Cech

Ivanovic----------Luiz---------Terry-------Cole

------------------Romeu-------Ramires

------Sturridge---------Mata---------Malouda

--------------------------Torres

This could be tough as Norwich have looked fairly decent of late and we.....................well we really haven't.

I would like to see:

---------------------------Cech

Ivanovic----------Cahill---------Terry-------Bertrand

--------------------------Luiz-------------------

------Ramires---------Lamps---------------Mata

---------------Sturridge-----------Torres----------

Subs: Hilario, Bosingwa, Romeu, Miereles, Lukaku, Malkovic.

Think Cahill needs to go straight in and Ash is well overdue a rest of at least a couple of games. Want to see Luiz in front of the back four and see how he does and Romeu has looked a bit of the pace after a terrific start and maybe needs a rest too.

Norwich don't look great at the back and do like to concede a few penalties so just get Mata, Ramires, Sturridge and Torres trying to cause havoc

.

Who the f**k is Malkovic?

Who the f**k is Malkovic?

Lalkovic I guess.

I would go with:

Cech

Ivan, Cahill, JT, Cole

Romeu

Ramires, Lampard

Sturridge, Torres, Mata

I think putting Luiz infront of the back 4 would be silly, his main weakness is positioning, and that's the most important attribute for someone playing the makelele role.

------------Cech

Ivan--Cahill--Luiz--Bertrand

------------Romeu

---Ramires----Lampard

Sturridge-Torres--Mata

I think JT's gonna finally get the rest he deserves and hope Ash gets rested. I wanna see Mata move to the middle and Malouda start on the left to see how we'd do if we started a game like that but that's just not gonna happen :(

Who the f**k is Malkovic?

Typo - only one letter out!

Edited January 16, 201214 yr by Nibs

I think putting Luiz infront of the back 4 would be silly

One could argue playing him in defence is sillier still but we've done that enough times!

Forget the "Makelele" role. No-one can play that role like the man himself so let's not try to with imposters like Mikel. Luiz would give us something totally different in that he is comfortable carrying the ball forward and he has a very good range of passing. He can and will open teams up ione way or another. It's worth giving a go IMO and against a side like Norwich would be ideal opportunity.

Luiz used to play midfield before he switched to defence, so could always try it. Especially if Romeu is heading back to Barcelona in the summer

What about Luiz at right back, could it work?

Perhaps, but Ivanovic is a solid RB if he's fit.

Didnt know where to post it, so i am just doing it here

According to an article in skysports (http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11731/7436000/Pass-masters) which praise swansea passing game, Chelsea has the 5th best passing accuracy in europe with only Barcelona, Real, Bayern and City have better accuracy. Also Terry! has the third best passing accuracy although almost all of his passes are close ones in the back with no real pressure.

Its still remarkable though

One could argue playing him in defence is sillier still but we've done that enough times!

Forget the "Makelele" role. No-one can play that role like the man himself so let's not try to with imposters like Mikel. Luiz would give us something totally different in that he is comfortable carrying the ball forward and he has a very good range of passing. He can and will open teams up ione way or another. It's worth giving a go IMO and against a side like Norwich would be ideal opportunity.

It doesn't matter what you call the role, a holding midfielder needs to close down the space infront of the back four, making sure they aren't exposed. He needs to go back and defend when the fullbacks (or libreros) go forward and needs to have excellent positioning in order to break down attacks and counters. AVB tried having an anchoring player who goes forward at the start of the season (which is why we had Meireles there) and concluded that transitions in the PL are too fast for that, so the anchoring player no longer gets forward in attack. Basically only Luiz's passing would be good in that position, whereas Romeu and Essien are far more complete anchors. Having him at CB allows him to get forward more than DM as the DM will just cover as though as fullback has gone up, and usually when formations are similar/the same, a CB is the "spare man" on each team, meaning that it is a better place to burst forward from than DM.

Stop with all the fantasy teams please with luiz at right back and in the dm role. The lad was brought in to play cb and will stay there and I'm glad. In the long term the lad is not going to be a world class dm or rb. He has the potential if coached the right way yo become a great unique cb and the only way he can be this is if he carries on playing there.

We also don't need to speculate on the formation as I thought by now you would all grasp the fact that avb wants to play a 4-3-3 and will start with it each game.

The team will be if everyone is fit

Cech

Ivan Cahill/luiz Jt Cole

Romeu

Lamps Rambo/mereieles

sturridge/Rambo nando Mata

HUGE game, not least because we play before any of our rivals who will drop points on the Sunday.

Going to be tough but we have to win.

HUGE game, not least because we play before any of our rivals who will drop points on the Sunday.

Going to be tough but we have to win.

Spot on.

We need 3 points both for our form and to put pressure on the closest challengers....all or some of which will be dropping points this weekend.

------------------------------Cech--------------------------------

Iva----------------Cahill------------Terry----------------Bertrand

---------------------Ramires/essien----------Romeu-------------

Sturridge-------------------Mata------------------------Malouda

--------------------------Torres------------------------------------

Iva covers Sturridges lack of defensive play and Bertrand finally gets a chance to rest a tired Cole. I find it strange we havent played Bertrand more, considering how solid he has looked defending and also helping us get some crosses in.

Mata in a free playmaker/target man role to start majority of our attacks, while Romeu and Ramires/essien covers most of his defensive work.

Didnt know where to post it, so i am just doing it here

According to an article in skysports (http://www1.skysport...00/Pass-masters) which praise swansea passing game, Chelsea has the 5th best passing accuracy in europe with only Barcelona, Real, Bayern and City have better accuracy. Also Terry! has the third best passing accuracy although almost all of his passes are close ones in the back with no real pressure.

Its still remarkable though

Not wishing to be synical but these 5 yard passes in our own half are real killers!

Luiz used to play midfield before he switched to defence, so could always try it. Especially if Romeu is heading back to Barcelona in the summer

What what!?? Has something changed since AVB said he was our player now?? :(

Who is still injured?

cech

ivan/bossy luiz terry cole

romeu

ramires essien mata

sturridge torres

And although I haven't shown that as 4 3 3 its easily done that way