Chelsea190512

Think there's still some negative feelings towards Barcelona as Puyol and Xavi seem like players who he really would have picked.

John George Terry: Mr Chelsea

Horrible to see. I'm sure whether you're with the firm of your team or not the unwritten rule is women and children should be exempt from any that nonsense. The fact he punched a person roughly 17 times without knocking him over says a lot more about him than the mind boggling celebrations he proceeds to do afterwards. Also in what sense of the word is that a brawl??? It's simply a bully who's targeted someone he's a favourite against. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think that'll earn him any more respect than he might already have. Surely they can't respect him for that? It's just an assault on an average matchday fan rather than a real target i.e someone who's really involved in the darker side of football.

Southampton (h) 2-1 W Hull City (a) 1-4 W Stoke City (h) 2-0 W QPR (a) 1-2 W MAN UTD (h) 2-1 W Arsenal (a) 1-3 W Leicester (a) 0-1 W Crystal Palace (h) 0-0 D Liverpool (h) 2-0 W West Brom (a) 1-1 D Sunderland (h) 4-1 W

We look very tired, we fizzle out very quickly after we start with a spark. It's not even complacency or arrogance a la Arsenal vs Monaco where they dominated for 5 minutes and thought they could play however they want and cruise to a win. I think our problem is we have been guilty of playing in first gear in certain games but it seems like we're incapable of maintaining periods of high pressure. The players seem like they want to just score a goal and hang on for a win or even a draw. The don't lose mentality is great but I'd like to see the must win attitude from time to time as well. Not all out attack and leave ourselves open but more urgency and purpose in attack. The only attackers who seem to want to attack are a Left sided attacker and a central midfielder. Fabregas injects the urgency the team requires at times but the problem with this is that it leaves Matic vulnerable. Playing him as a 10 isn't plausible either as CM is his preferred position as he has stated he doesn't like playing elsewhwere.

Joao Moutinho was subtly impressive tonight, can remember us being heavily linked with him a few seasons back.

Missing one player will not end our hopes of the title or any silverware this season. What will affect the outcome of missing a key player is how the 11 men on the pitch respond in the coming games. We're top of the league and the absence of one player should not mean we should all be nervous wrecks. I expect who ever replaces Matic to be more than up for it and everyone to be determined, have heart and ultimately be successful whatever the situation.

To concede 3 away goals in the first leg is suicidal. So now Arsenal need to score at least 3 goals against a team who seem to enjoy defending. Can't remember his name Abdennour maybe? He looked like he loved every single challenge he made today, I was fairly impressed tbh. Crazy Arsenal once again and to think after their masterclass (or fluke) against Man City I considered a flutter on them to win the league. I can only thank God I got that idea out my head asap. Why on earth would Mertesacker run past the half way line (David Luiz esque) when Monaco were on a break. To make it worse the player he left he had little chance of keeping up with in the first place allowing him a free run and time to pick a pass and find Berbatov who scored with his only touch in the box, which isn't too bad if you ask me. Games like these remind me that although we're generally quite boring in these types of games we wouldn't concede 3 at home unless it's a rare occasion and you're called Tottenham. We are very very lucky to have Jose who still is the undisputed special one.

Agreed. Way too risky with not much reward.

What makes this even funnier is some idiot put a 2.7k lump on arsenal to win. Ouch!! One thing about betting is don't trust Arsenal. Ever. Feel for the guy and another missed out on 100k plus returns because Arsenal let him down.

As I've mentioned in the other thread. Matic is well within his rights to respond like that. People claiming he should stop and rationalise clearly haven't played football where when adrenaline's pumping around your body you choose fight or flight in situations like that. He felt an opposing player not trying to win the ball, not trying to be aggressive but attempting to injure him. A challenge like that does end up with a broken leg more often than not. Watch the videos you can see the pressure on Matic's leg!! So please before you label him selfish or stupid use a bit of inititative and understand why he reacted as he did.

Saw the result on bbc live score initially though Matic was stupid to get sent off. Thought maybe double yellow. But have saw the foul since and he's well within his rights to react like that. F#%king horrible challenge potential leg breaker. Red card should be overturned.

Oh ok just missed a sitter 6 yards out, ball did skip across the surface to him in all fairness.

Hat trick against Young Boys in the Europa. Was just watching thinking the usual of absolute dogsh#t touch. But scored a hat trick nonetheless.

One of the most likeable players we have.

Yep if any of their players were on a yellow relatively early in the game which imo they should have. We wouldn't have seen those tactical fouls everytime he got the ball and he would have been able to drive at the back 4. So who knows how that could have worked out?.

Haha of course Thibaut deserves the plaudits for tonight.

Hazard.

I'm a big fan of Icardi, but seems to suffer from the 'a bit of a pr#ck' disorder. Saw a game where he gestured at Osvaldo calling him a to#&er. But then again it is Osvaldo. That aside he seems very capable in front of goal. Although Dybala is just as capable but with better link up play, think he has 7 assists compared to Icardi's one. Saw that Arsenal are in talks to sign Dybala for 31m. I agree with the Schneiderlin shout.. a very composed DM.

Amazing how reliable and consistent he still is even at this age. Imo still the best centre back in the league. Players with pace are his biggest weakness but how many times do you see him get roasted? Not too many times purely because he doesn't allow himself to be caught out like that. No player is perfect and the sign of a very good one is a player who knows his weakness and doesn't allow himself to be exploited.

I don't see how people can rate Barca as being so much better than us. Their defence is woeful ours isn't. Just because they can keep the ball well better than we can doesn't mean we couldn't beat them. Did we not draw against them with ten men. With the man sent off being our most important defensive figure. Or is that irrelevant? They aren't the Barcelona of Guardiola anymore and even in that case we've gave them some very good games even when they were in their heyday. Losing to an injury time goal, and a game with so many ridiculous decisions is no embarrassment.

His screamers seem to come when he shoots on his left foot. His left foot is all power and right is more finesse. For instance that almost great goal against LPool second leg he shot on his left. In his first season Stoke, that team in the Europa maybe Prague and Villa were all scored on his left foot. So I think in order for a screamer shooting on his left is a must.

Great news, so what are his p/wk earnings now?

Told myself a point would do.. but the longer it went and saw City scoring for fun felt like it would be a great confidence booster. Now let's keep winning.

Cech saved us