ethicalstrategy

It was all sounding so plausible until you said that!

Next thing you know the chairman will stopping all that pretty football and insisting on winning something! I want to buy Arsenal - Usmanov

Injury Update It appears that Frank will be back fairly soon - if he misses Bolton and the International break then he will be in good shape. Seems JT's injury is not as bad as it sounds. SWP and Essien will probably also be out until after the internationals. No mention of Riccy

Am I the only person who thinks that our captain needs to be protected from himself? Over the last 12 months he has had to endure back surgery and a brutal kick to the head and has then played and trained with pain killing injections on a regular basis to overcome a broken foot. His form has not been as dominating (hardly surprising) and now he has a depressed fracture of his cheekbone and wants to play with a protective mask 3 days after surgery!!! I know that the club is having a bad time and that he is the leader but at the same time we have probably ruled ourselves out of contention for major honours by appointing Grant and now the club should be thinking about protecting one of our major assets. If it was up to me JT would not play again until his foot, cheek and back are all properly healed, even if it means him missing 2 months football.

I think we must have a different idea about what constitutes a good player! If I wanted to see someone who is good at flicks and tricks I would go to the circus. I would much prefer it if he actually did something with the ball. Like hit the target when he was through on goal, or pass to someone on his own side after he has beaten two players. Or maybe not sell his centre half short with a careless ball in the middle of the pitch (and what exactly was he doing in the middle of the pitch when he was playing out on the right?) Joe is a very skillful player, easily the most talented player in the squad, and probably one of the most talented in the whole premiership. The goal he scored for England against Sweden in the World Cup, the goal he scored against Man U in the PL two seasons ago - both sheer genius. But he has sh*t for brains and no discipline whatsoever. Watch Messi and see how it should be done. Well, it seems like quiet a few people have a different idea to you as to what constitutes a decent performance. Cole has picked up a very healthy slice of the votes judging by the poll so far. That's not unusual. We all see players and games differently. Must say though, I really can't see the truth in your comment about him not passing well. That's not what I saw from the Shed Upper at all. Cole made two outright bad decisions all game as far as I was concerned. Firstly, as you rightly point out, when he got disposessed in the 2nd half in the middle of the park. And then when he elected to volley that effort near the end. There again, if it had gone in, another genius goal for you to add his list. But let's look at the positives. What he did give us was the ability to go past opponents 1:1, passed the ball well, retain posession in tight areas. He was involved in practically all of our good moments going forward. Pity we had no-one there to finish them. That's the problem I have with Joe though. He does things that catch the eye - I mean apart from flying recklessly in to tackles - but when you look at what has come of it it doesn't add up to anything. Where is the good in beating two players and then losing the ball to the 3rd or taking it past people and then bringing it back to try and do it all over again? What I wanted was for him to score when he was clean through on goal and to play as part of the team rather than for himself. But as we''ll never agree on it it's best to move on to the next game. I'd love him to put his talent to good use and we saw some of it under Mourinho but it was still like getting blood from a stone. I fear he will be an ultimately wasted talent - someone who could have been more than just a good player.

Yep, that's it. Recipe for disaster there. And your team would be...?

Where did you read this? The club website says that JT had an op on sunday and they weould assess his fitness over the coming days. nothing about Essien at all.

Agee 100% On saturday he was captain after JT went off and he really tried to lift the team and the crowd. Whatever he may have said and whatever anyone might say about other aspects of his game he really cannot be criticised for lack of effort.

No thread for this yet - everyone too depressed? I can't say I am really looking forward to it - not with the tactial genius and motivational powers of Mr Grant at the helm. I guess any sort of result would be good in circumstances. Team: (My guess not my choice) Cech Ferreira, Alex, Ben Haim, Cole Cole, Sidwell, Makelele, Kalou Drogba, Sheva i expect Paulo to play as a more defensive full back. The rest of the back four pretty much picks itself. As does the midfield - just depends on Essien's fitness and I suppose Mikel is available. It will be interesting to see if we persist with the 4-2-3-1 formation or not. One benefit of all this upheaval is that my nerves aren't being shot to pieces whenever we have a match!

I hope Grant doesn't really believe this: Quote from the Guardian: "I would be worried if the problems started last week but if you remember before, against Rosenborg [in the Champions League], Blackburn and Aston Villa [in the Premier League], we didn't even create many chances," he said. "I'm happy that we're at least creating more chances than in those games. It was a problem that was here before but I see that the players want to be positive. We have some problems but it's part of team life. We need to fix it." As I recall we created a hatful of chances against all three of those teams without actually finding the net. The man really is a dinosaur

I have to agree with you here Glory. There was nothing in the least bit intimidating at the match.. I was surprised how subdued the whole thing was. Nothing was sung about Grant that I could hear - good or bad. There was some booing for Sheva when his name was read out before the match. We had one chant about Mourinho after about 10 mins and then again with a bit more feeling near the end. The only time the crowd really got going was when Drogba tried to lift things before he was sent off. I think people were more disillussioned than angry - it probably helped that we didn't play the match immediately after Jose's sacking. People had had a chance to calm down.

Mourinho didn't pick Joe. At least he's getting a game. I think we can see why now!

Because he replaced Sheva, who also played midfield. So yeah, go on and say Sheva and Pizzaro were poor. But never ask yourselves why as usual. I was having a go at Grant not the players

As far as I can tell we played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Sheva in the middle of the 3. Hence Pizarro playing in midfield when he came on. By the end I had no idea what formation we were playing and nor did the players.

I think we must have a different idea about what constitutes a good player! If I wanted to see someone who is good at flicks and tricks I would go to the circus. I would much prefer it if he actually did something with the ball. Like hit the target when he was through on goal, or pass to someone on his own side after he has beaten two players. Or maybe not sell his centre half short with a careless ball in the middle of the pitch (and what exactly was he doing in the middle of the pitch when he was playing out on the right?) Joe is a very skillful player, easily the most talented player in the squad, and probably one of the most talented in the whole premiership. The goal he scored for England against Sweden in the World Cup, the goal he scored against Man U in the PL two seasons ago - both sheer genius. But he has sh*t for brains and no discipline whatsoever. Watch Messi and see how it should be done.

He didn't have to go. The ref has the discretion to be sensible. It was a complete accident - a lot more of an accident than when Dempsey broke JT's cheekbone - he could easily have awarded a freekick and given Drogba a talking to if he has wanted. Of course Drogba was a fool to get booked for arguing with the ref in the first half so in the end he only has himself to blame.

---------------------Cech Belletti------Carvalho---JT-------Bridge -------------------Essien --------Ballack--------------Lampard SWP------------------------------Malouda/Cole -------------------Drogba I would go for Belletti over Paulo because he looks good going forward and has enough pace to get himself out of trouble defensively. Paulo has hardly looked secure against good wing play (FA Cup final excepted) Cole looks more dangerous to me on the laft than on the right. If he is prepared to play a more disciplined role then he would get my call over Malouda. The only draw back to the above is that Drogba is potentially isolated and so he won't be a 30 goal man. But that didn't stop us winning the league two years in a row so let's go with it. Of course the other problem is that SWP/Ballack/Carvalho/Lampard/JT/Essien are all injured!

I'll agree with some of that. We do need someone who knows what he is doing, but the players were not good yesterday. There is still plenty of talent but our starting midfield yesterday was not going to frighten anyone - Cole-Maka-Sidwell-Kalou. Compare to Maka, Essien, Lampard or Robben, Essien, Lampard, Duff. The problem is that something needs to be done now if we are to get to the 4th spot. I we wait until January then we will be too late.

for now we are seriously in the sh*t - go watch yesterday's game again if you think I'm wrong

I'm assuming this is a serious poll and not a joke one? The players who stood out for me were Cech who did all that was asked of him, Drogba who really lifted his game and tried to lift the team and the fans in the second half and Maka who really took charge in the second half. It was good to see Maka realise that we needed someone to get a grip and come over and take corners. He was my MoM.

It's not the result. It's not even the performance (well aspects of the performance). It's the sheer ineptness of the side tactically thats the problem. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. We were like a chicken with it's head cut off yesterday. Players were just running around all over the place without having any idea of exactly what they were supposed to be doing. Can anyone explain why Pizzaro played in midfield when he came on? or why Malouda had to wait until the 80th minute before he came on? or why anyone who fancied it was taking corners and free kicks? If people don't believe that there are serious team spirit problems then they need to watch more closely. Malouda was not in the least bit interested when he finally got on. At one point he lost possession near half way and made absolutely no attempt to chase back - he just let the guy go. and most telling of all for me, at the end of the match, not one player came to the fans to applaud them, not one player! I can't ever remember that.

Funnily enough I would have given Joe no more than a 3 for yesterday. He made a couple of jinking runs in the first half that lead to nothing, but otherwise he showed everything that is frustrating and bad about his game. He was ill disciplined, hot headed and totally ineffectual. He went for one of his lunging tackles in the first minute which was fortunately so bad that he missed completely. He constantly drifted inside. He ran down blind alleys. He lost the ball in dangerous positions. Whoever said Mourinho would have subbed him is absolutely correct - after about 20 mins I would have thought. For those who think I am being harsh, I refer you to last wednesday's match between Barca and Zaragoza and to Messi. If you are going to cut in from the right then that's how to do it effectively. Mourinho leaving is not just the worst possible thing for the team it's also a disaster for Joe.

If it had of been Jose, it would have been 1 - 0, maybe, perhaps 2 - 0, but we would have shut up shop, no question, no! it is nothing to get carried away over, but none the less it was 0 - 4 away from home, so it was a start, a decent performance, hopefully a sign of better things to come. Yeah that's right What are the chances of a Jose team scoring more than two goals in a cup competition? Wycombe 4-0 Villa 4-0 Maccelsfield 6-1 Nottingham Forest 3-0 Norwich city 4-0 Oh! Quite high apparently - or maybe they just forget to stop at 2! You'd think we never won a match or scored a goal under Mourinho if you read some of the comments on here

No no, I wasn't trying to be selective, I just didn't think that was the best game we have played since January. Better performances (off the top of my head) - taking in to account the opposition and the occasion: Valencia away in CL Arsenal in the Carling Cup Final Man U in the FA Cup final Spurs away in the FA Cup Liverpool at home in the CL semi Arsenal away in the Prem (with 10 men) Birmingham at home this season Porto at home and away in CL West Ham away apart from that none

It was an okay performance against a bottom of the table championship side. It was nice to get a win under our belt and it showed that we do have a strong squad, but the best we have played in 9 months?? Are you sure?