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Drogba was absolutely crucial in defending corners. He got the first header half of the time.

We see how the RCB acts when we are on the ball. That needs to be James. Saw Josh in Arsenal’s box on several occasions.

He’s sh*t.

vs Arsenal, Neto was the second worst Chelsea player on the pitch, just ahead of Fofana. He was poor defensively (which I struggle to have a go at him for as he’s a winger not a defender) and beyond wasteful going forward. Crossing was pathetic, passing and positioning were consistently poor and these are basics he should be excelling at in this system. I think for a lot of people (Not El Cheesey obviously) the thought of Neto far exceeds the actual ability of Neto. You picture a quick direct winger, you get an out of position, terrible touch, unable to cross, poor decision making wide man. Essentially the Madeira Madueke. The point is moot because at full strength he doesn’t start for us, he becomes the 4th choice RB (Palestra, Gusto & James) and 6th/7th choice attacking option (JP, CP, Rogers, Stevie, Quenda, Welbeck) and this whole thread can go to the Jackson graveyard.

Way more than 28 K at the Bridge. I’m not sure how many other clubs fiddled attendance figures to lower tax bills? They’re always been one man upmanship amongst fans; especially with youngsters. Can imagine conversations along the lines of “ Chelsea only had 28 thousand in for an important game. Come to Spurs, we get 35 thousand “ etc etc

What's your point exactly? You make it sound as if people saying neto is better than palmer in general which is obviously not the case but that doesn't mean palmer can not have a poorer game than neto. Take the arsenal game for example, while neto might not have a stellar game, he certainly had a decent game compared to other Chelsea players but your view is constant that he always played very poorly. You went hyperbole with praise for the player you like (or sexually attracted) and grossly criticize the player you don't fancy at every opportunity regardless of his performance. This only proves you're bias in your review. Just out of curiosity, do you have a thing for males? Because you seem to be the only one here who view at player in sexual way.

Blimey. I can't believe you have never seen Drogba play. And Jose kept subbing off Joe Cole until he started to get the defensive side of his role up to the level Mourinho required. And Duff always put in a big shift defensively whenever the opposition had the ball. Robben? You have a valid point there though.

@Mod Can we move this thread to the Tedious Repetitive Rehash section?

Seems to be 4-6 weeks. They'll bring him back.

Wake up, get out of bed. Count. I still have 10 fingers and 10 toes. The world hasn't ended, the dog hasn't pissed on the floor during the night and I haven't wet the bed for that matter. Life is good. A day to look forward to. Check in here. Back to bed.

I dont think they bring loans back if its just a tweak or pull and out for a few weeks, its usually if its more serious.

Is there any way of hosting some of the old CSR stuff on this forum somewhere, it would be great going back to the day Roman was rumored, when he was announced, that first few months of splurging on players etc... I remember being on the CSR when it all kicked of and it was a mental few months,

Looks like a hamstring? I wonder if the club bring him back to Cobham for treatment?

Dont agree with that, hes looking for consistency and understanding and we arent exactly swamped with fixtures, we need to settle partnerships as early as possible, I expect he`ll stick with the majority that started sunday, maybe Estevao and Baco in at most.

100% agree

Best attacker with checks notes zero shots on target and zero accurate crosses. Running fast in a straight line doesn’t mean a good performance. You may be easily fooled by someone looking busy, but watch and understand. Yes his opinion means less, watching the game via YouTube highlights means less than people that go to games and are engrained in the culture. He’s a fan, I can post thousands of tweets of people sh*tting on Neto’s performances. Maybe go and read the Garnacho thread and what I wrote about his performances at the time rather than making things up.

Reports Shankland could be out for upto 3 months, just as he was getting going as well.

I don’t know wether it’s a bit of a small club mentality creeping in or wether it’s just further degradation of the beautiful game by modern ‘tactics’ but this notion that our forwards must also be defenders does irk me somewhat. I think we’d all be in agreement that two of the best Chels sides of ‘recent’ memory would be that early Jose side and the Carlo teams. Now I could be misremembering but I don’t think any of Robben, Drogba, Joey Cole or Duff were particularly lauded for their defensive contributions. The same goes for a Drogba, Anelka, Malouda approach. We took the game to other sides, made them game plan for us not the other way around. Like I touched on our strength is in our attack, we should play to that and for me that involves getting all our best attackers on the pitch at once to give us the best chance. Looking at it this way, would you trust JP, CP, Rogers and Stevie to score more than you would trust Hato, Fofana, Levi, Lacroix & Gusto not to concede?

Looks like our recruitment policy is changing but 4 years of disastrous decisions , ridiculous transfer trading and massive spending ruined our club instead of improving us. We're still nowhere near the club that was sold to this lot.

All true, we did see a lot of the 4-2-3-1 in pre-season and vs Luton, but without Caicedo we would just get overrun in the PL imho. I'm sure we'll see it more once he is back though, and especially when/if we get a partner Xabi trusts alongside him. Even in the 3-4-3, I dont think its the idea to start with Rogers/Palmer every single time, but this early in his tenure you probably dont want to change too much from game to game. I'd expect Estevao to start more games after the international break, no matter what formation we play

Yes, you're right mate, I forgot about those substitutions, obviously made with the CL game in mind , bit depressing to realise how far behind them we are right now.

Seconded. Doddle scored an amazing amount of vital goals from midfield. Goodness knows what he’d be worth in today’s transfer market. Let’s start at say £75 million.

Remember when...Geoff Hurst's Chelsea were denied final-day promotionOriginally posted on 17 MAY 2020. Official club site. On the day the 2019/20 Premier League season was due to be concluded, we recall final-day drama at Stamford Bridge 40 years ago when a win proved not enough to secure promotion back to the top flight... Before the current pandemic hit football this Sunday would have been the Premier League’s day of reckoning, when the title is settled, and clubs land on the snakes and ladders of the professional game. The last match can also be imbued with finality, as match-going supporters might not see their football friends again for a good few months, and departing players wave their farewells to the crowd. After 19 seasons in the famous royal blue, Ron Harris was about to make the 795th and final appearance before moving to Brentford, and out-of-contract Tommy Langley would move to QPR the same summer. Both players had given everything to the cause while the Blues grappled with financial debt and relegations. Sometimes, though, decision day can be cruel and deceiving, and that was certainly the case on 3 May 1980 when Oldham Athletic were the visitors for the last hurrah of 1979/80. Ron Harris and Micky Droy were among the post-match celebrations but their smiles proved premature There were 28,253 present to see Geoff Hurst’s side thrash the unusually listless Lancastrians 3-0 and end their campaign in third place in Division Two, enough to earn promotion to the top tier after a one-year absence. Some supporters even invaded the pitch at the end to celebrate. That was premature, at best. ‘Two tearaway goals from Clive Walker and a fizzer from Mike Fillery add up to an agonising nine-day wonder for Chelsea,’ was how The People newspaper saw it. The agony they referred too was the wait for other teams to complete their fixtures. Chelsea had played all 42 games, enough (in the days of two points for a win) to equal Birmingham’s final total of 53, albeit with a worse goal difference, and finish two behind leaders Leicester. Clive Walker pictured scoring one of his two goals on the day Excited reactions to events unfolding elsewhere had added to an already carnivalesque atmosphere at the Bridge during the Oldham game. This was a day when the fabled fan-with-the-trannie (a portable transistor radio) had come into his or her own, relaying to terrace neighbours each incident from St Andrew’s, where Birmingham hosted Notts County, and Brisbane Road, where the Foxes faced Orient. A pitch-side phone had also been set up for Hurst’s assistant Bobby Gould so that he could receive updates on the ebbs and flows throughout the match. Leicester scored early and held out to beat the Os 1-0, but dispatches from the second city were far more roller-coaster. Birmingham raced into a 2-0 lead but were pegged back to 2-2, only to take the lead again before the break. There the scoring paused for almost 20 minutes before County equalised again. One late strike for the visitors would have promoted Chelsea outright. Sadly, it never came. Annoyingly Sunderland now stood in fourth place, one point shy of the Blues with a superior goal difference and one game remaining, at home to West Ham on 12 May. Worryingly, though, just two days before their date with the Mackems, the Hammers were due to contest the FA Cup final with Arsenal at Wembley. ‘I’ve always thought well of John Lyall at West Ham,’ Hurst joked. ‘Let’s hope he’s thinking well of me.’ The east enders beat the Gunners to win the cup, and the story goes they were still hungover when they lost 2-0 at Roker Park, consigning Chelsea to another season in Division Two. It would be a further four seasons before the Blues finally returned to the big time.