AAF

Reasonably pleased, no more. The team showed it has potential in terms of a passing game, but they also showed that Arsenal wanted to win more us. In the second half Sheva just stands still and looks how a defender receives the ball, controls and goes forwards. There was a moment when defenders were walking at 1 centimeter an hour after winning the ball back instead of pushing up. And just looking at the faces of our players I didn't see enough determination. Arsenal players looked berserk, especially Billy Gallas, Eboue, Flamini, Hleb, Rosicky and Fabregas. When Jose left, the firm belief that Chelsea can beat any team in the world disappeared as well. Simply put, Grant is weaker than Wenger and Fergie and so will be his team. Jose, on the other hand is as strong as Fergie and stronger than Wenger, that's why Wenger could never beat us while Jose was here.

Roman Mourinho and no more inside arguments.

He does, 6 out of 12 means that he saves 50% of penalties, which is not that bad at all, but there must be someone who saved more than 6.

i dont know the answer, but my guess would be David James. He saved a fair few for liverpool and villa and has been around for longer than most goalies in the league. I, myself, think it is James for the same reasons, but I'd like some hard proof

I became very curious to know what goalkeeper has the most penalty saves in the Premier League. Does anybody have statistics on that? Alex

I still respect Lampard as a footballer, but I have just lost respect for him as a person. He wants more money and he wants to make it out of nothing. How is this Frank TV useful to anybody? It only sucks the money out of stupid average people who think that Lampard is someone special, who burst into tears and run to buy his shirts when they see Lampard stroking and feeding 6 cute puppies on the Frank TV.

Although he is really better than Cudicini at overall goalkeeping, he is completely helpless at penalties. For me it is surprising that such a great keeper is so bad at it. The only one I remember that he saved was against Dick ov when he set the record. In other times I do not beliebe in him that he will save a penalty.

The goals I have watched on YouTube are as many are saying genius and just breathtaking. The goals which raise your eyebrows and make you shake your head in disbelief. My questions are to the older people who were following Premiership in mid 90s. How was the rest of his game and what is the main reason for him not being picked for England? Thank you very much, Alex

Thank you.

I go to Ball State University Hoosiers and americans in general are mostly strange, but I had no choice but to get used and stop paying attention. Good luck on this forum.

BLUENUT, it is a really bad joke, because I can write a thesis about how sad most of the american football fans are. The truth is that americans are first of all consumers and Chelsea first of all is going there for money. We won't get many real fans there, but will sell shirts and get full capacity stadiums when on pre-seasons just because it's "a new cool fashion trend". If I was in Kenyon's place I'd send Chelsea to Russia for a pre-season, the people there have a different mindset, plus Russia is getting richer and richer.

Again, thank you for more welcome wishes.

Lauren, good luck with your crusade ;) Thank you all for the welcome.

;) Probably in Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool too. Where is the world going? I'm from Indiana.

Thanks for the welcome and for the tip . All my life I have been calling it football and when I speak russian I naturally call it football, but because of the 4 years in the usa it is now a reflex to say soccer. After a couple of posts here it will go away and football will become football again :).

Firstly, welcome to the forum, mate. Secondly, personally speaking, I'm not someone who's panicking. Partly because the game wasn't screen downunder, so I didn't see how crap we played. But mainly because it's pre-season. However, your point about us not comparing how we're doing v how Manure are doing is null and void. Come next Sunday the fact that we're trying out a new system (or two) and they're not, will count for very little if they stuff five past us at Wembley. By the last couple of games of pre-season, we should be fine tuning the engine in readiness for the start of the race. Not overhauling it and trying to work out where the spare tyre is... Because if - to continue the metaphor - we take four or five laps to get up to speed, we'll find ourselves in the self same position we were last season. Chasing the race leader. And if history's shown us anything, it's that overtaking the lead car isn't something that's easy to do. Thank you for the welcome. Yes, we SHOULD be fine-tuning THE engine, but speaking in your words, we are trying 2 backup engines at the moment, thus problems with which people are unhappy. And by the way we are trying the two backup engines because the same people are screaming that they don't like THE engine because it's too boring. I, personally, trust Jose and this season will be very interesting to see how the backup engines perform.

My name is Alex, currently I am a student at an american univeristy. Originally I am from Russia, and has been in the USA for only 4 years. I have been watching soccer since I was little and playing with other kids in the backyard. I started following Chelsea in Jose's first season after I heard that a russian guy bought an english club as big as Chelsea, it was interesting to see what will happen. So, whatever followed was and still is intersting, sometimes boring, but for some reason I still watch Chelsea and read news about the club, am happy when we play beautifuly and win and not so happy when we lose. I have been visiting this forum for a very long time now to understand football better and I should say that the forum is very informative. With some opinions expressed here I agree, some are new to me, so I start thinking, with others I don't agree, which is why I have just registered and left my first post in the Chelsea vs Rangers thread. That's it for now. Alex

Hello, this is my first post on this forum, but I have been visiting it for more than a year now. Regarding the friendlies: EVERYONE who are panicking need to calm down. Understand, that Jose is actually trying A NEW system. What does it mean? Clear and exact instructions to each player to something new in terms of movement! That's why the players are more cautios than adventurous! They are training and not playing for fun. They are still good at what they usually do: e.g Mikel is calm on the ball as always and has space all the time, was very good by the way against Rangers in tackling, etc. BUT, I think that Jose is not giving them freedom yet, but strict instructions, that's why we don't see creativity and imagination. Over the last 3 years it has been normal by the way, and Duff+Robben weren't brilliant every minute, but only sometimes. For people comparing with Man Utd: are they trying a new system? Are they changing anything at all? How long have they been playing their system? Around 20 yers SAF has been in charge! So they are just getting fit and doing what they are used to. We on the other hand are studying! So, stop panicking.