theblueone

I'll be completely honest here, I was absolutely crapping myself when Cech got injured last night, but to be fair, Schwarzer made me eat my words. Bar one dangerous punch out which luckily was not punished, he pulled a good shift. Hope he keeps that up.

Well, after tonights performance, I'm a little more confident with Schwarzer in goal. Though he did do another Sunderland, punching it out, but luckily we weren't punished for it this time. As long as he catches the ball he's golden. We need Hazard and Eto'o for sure next leg. As great as Torres played compared to his rest of season, I would be more confident with Eto'o up front. Ba seems to be an impact striker it seems.

I did actually forget to say that the referee was fantastic tonight. Only brandished cards where necessary which is all you can ask for in a match official. That walking talking bin of filth and scum Mike Riley could learn a bit from tonights official.

Thoroughly entertaining match. Tell ya what, I will step up and eat my words about Schwarzer. He was brilliant tonight. In fact, everybody was. Including Torres. Seemed a lot more up for it. Though, Courtois.... on another level. His height is a big time advantage for corner set pieces. In a way I'm glad he played well, but in another it frustrated me.

I am not overreacting at all. He was poor on all fronts. Face it, he didn't have much to do in that game as the majority of thee shots came from us. But when he did have something to do, he just seemed real panicky and didn't look comfortable at all. He choked when the first goal was conceded, he kept slicing the ball and generally wasn't first team material.

I wouldn't fancy him in a blue shirt to be honest. He has been very very inconsistent this season. He has had a couple flashes of brilliance but nothing to write home about. Put it this way, with Utds season, I wouldnt fancy any of their strikers, except maybe Chicharito. But even he is nothing more than an impact player and we already have one of those.

Absolutely everything in this post is completely spot on and I cannot offer argument for any of the points. Gerrard is a self centred little turd and I would love it if us or City denied him that precious Prem winners medal. The prick is only on the goalscorers list for the season because he was gifted so many spot kicks. The fact that he nearly became the first player to score a hat trick of pens in a league match goes to show how abnormal those decisions were. To get back on topic, I absolutely loved it when I heard Jose's interview after the match. He pretty much stated everything I was thinking in a nutshell with regards to the officials. Luckily, I think Jose played it perfectly insofar as that he didn't offer enough rope for the FA to hang him with. He was extremely vague and very good with his wording to get the points across. A tactical masterstroke and a huge middle finger extended to Riley and Dean (and very well deserved too, the pair of tossers). I find it difficult to be mad at Sunderland as a team or Poyet for that matter as he was incredibly respectful about it and didn't gloat like some managers would. A graceful winner. But the player who played up for the pen when he slipped up should be ashamed of himself.

I would rather have Warwick Davis in goal than Schwarzer. He was utter toilet against Sunderland. That equaliser should never have gone in.

I too come here to talk in a friendly atmosphere amongst Chelsea fans and the odd fan of other teams who don't come here tooting their own horn. I hope we, Palace and Newcastle smash Liverpool. Would make this season a bit more bearable. Also how ironic would it be if they lost out to a penalty on these match days too. A man can dream.

Exactly, Dean didn't see the Ramires incident and I am sure he would have been more than happy to brandish the red had he spotted it. Furthermore, Ramires will be suspended for it. Deans report is being looked at on Tuesday. So its not as if he's getting away with it. As for blaming the Sunderland player, yes I do blame him. He could have been a man about it and stood up immediately because it wasn't a hard contact at all. But no. He pulled a Suarez and just layed there with his arms extended looking for a penalty. So no, its not bang out of order for blaming him for acting like a little fairy.

No way was it a pen. Both players skidded into one another after both losing their balance. Mike Dean was clearly not interested in either of our penalty shouts, yet he was positioned better to see those than he was to see the Sunderland one. Fact of the matter is, no matter what our lads did yesterday, the officials came in with one objective and it was completed. It was daylight robbery at the bridge. Yeah we were sh*t, but there is only so much you can do when the calls sit against you in a game. I'm sure that even if we did score again, Dean would have found a reason to disallow it.

Realistically, I want City to win it now. Never thought I would say this.

True but if the other team wins by an incorrectly given penalty decision in the dying embers of the match like yesterday, then clearly that screws the other team out of points. Especially in yesterdays instance where it has possibly cost us the title and given Sunderland an unfair two extra points in the relegation zone. Imagine if they stay up by two points and another team goes down because of some stupid penalty decision in a game they were nothing to do with? There are multiple implications in this instance.

Me too. I would love a shot at Mike Riley's face. I would take a good twenty foot run up for the hardest toe punt ever. Anyone else notice Garry Monk laughing about it on MOTD during his post match interview? My respect for him went up a few levels for that.

Agreed to an extent, but free kicks arent really the same as penalties. Penalties are almost a guaranteed goal most of the time. At the very least, confirmed dives should be punished retrospectively.

Probably never. He is a cowardly little cretin. I wouldn't hold my breath on it. Was so annoying watching the Arsenal and Everton matches on Sky Sports with my bro earlier, watching the pundits and commentators still carrying on like the penalty was genuine. Then Alan Shearer on MOTD last night. I usually like him, but even he was dead set against us all of a sudden. One point me and my brother touched on earlier was that since players can be banned retrospectively, penalties should also be able to be reviewed and retrospectively disallowed, points reallocated and player bans/fines dished out where necessary. This would stop diving big time.

I think it is vital for club owners to take a stance on it because it is within every bodies interest to see a fairly officiated match every week! I mean, there will always be personal error on occasion because nothing will ever be perfect. But not to the level of disgrace displayed in this seasons officiating. No way on earth should there be such consistently sh*t officiating.

Agreed. I have never seen such a horrendous season of officiating in any sport. I too believe that referees should face heavy fines for poor calls that affect the result of a match and consistently poor performances should warrant being sacked and blacklisted from officiating. I mean, there's no excuse. There were officials on most parts of the pitch with headsets. Furthermore, we should be using the technology to implement back room officials watching through the cameras. The cameras miss nothing. Mike Riley has been a huge f**k up in charge this season, so at the very least, he should be unceremoniously sacked at the end of the season.

I will never forget the Gareth Southgate miss and how bad I felt for him as opposed to the result itself. Also Michael Ballack being paired with an American footballer for punditry a few years ago was golden. I'll never forget the infamous "I'm not impressed" moment.

Same. A very nice consolation to take from an overall crap weekend of football.

I have sympathy to the Hammers for this. Absolutely awful news. Especially at such a young age with his future ahead of him. I guess it hits close to home for me in particular as my brother had the same form of cancer and it spread to his abdominal region too. Thankfully he had a good result but it could have been very different. Rest in peace Dylan Tombides!

Well I respect the fact that you disagree without giving me grief for it. I don't expect many to agree with me here but I am definitely going to stick to my guns here. I have suspected this since Villa Park when Foy was assigned to us. I strongly suspect that Mike Riley hates Chelsea and is a Liverpool romanticist. I hate how football is all about politics off field these days and long for a return of the days where it was a fair sport and everything was decided on the pitch amongst the players.

BJD, Sorry mate, but I stand by my words. Even my brother came in saying the exact same thing this morning without a word said by me and he's a Gooner. How on earth do you explain the number of incompetent TEAMS of officials at our matches lately? Not just a shoddy ref here and there or even just a shoddy linesman. But entire teams of shoddy officials all wearing headsets having poor games as a collective. I have my theories but I am going to keep them to myself for the greater good and yes, I also stand by my comments that the 3 arseholes mentioned in my previous comment should be looked into for match fixing ie: Altering the final result of a match through decisions and actions of theirs during important games.

The nasty streak is not what I dislike. I actually think that its healthy for some players to have a nasty streak. Everybody has one, but its how you use it that counts. David Luiz against PSG when he did the quick free kick at Cavani, getting Cavani booked in the process. THAT is a nasty streak but used correctly. Ramires hasn't got much intelligence when it comes to utilising his nasty streak in a clever way like some players do. But with that said, I think Ramires should go. He will never improve and I hate that nasty horrible gut feeling I get when I see him start a game. I say sell him to the highest bidder.

Mike Dean shouldn't just be fined. If I had my way, I would have Mike Dean, Chris Foy and Mike Riley sacked and put before a court on match fixing charges. Between the three of these c**ts, they have completely changed the league table.