just

First half Ballack. Second half Alex. Over the whole 90, Anelka or Alex. Hard to choose. Paulo was alright defensively, (though there was still a number of glaring errors), against the world class attacking force that Reading have at their disposal, but he was still miles behind Belletti going forwards. "The cross" I hear you cry. Yes, the cross for the goal looked great, (do remember, even Cashley and SWP hit one good one every now and then), but I urge you to watch it closely and then comment. Did he time his run to perfection? Did he want the ball? Did he look up and pick Ballack out deliberately? Or did he hesitantly run very late to a ball he never wanted to have and just loft the ball over without looking? You decide. I can't help but notice that a lot of the people who criticised Jose for being too defensive and demanding a more expansive game are some of PF's biggest fans, and yet he has all the attacking finesse of Phillip Neville. Felt SWP was very poor tonight. Two absolute gilt edged chances to finish the game and he never took them.

Eh? Essien.

Pauly, when I was playing I used to have my boots paid for by the club. Two pairs a season. Moulded and screw-ins.

I stopped reading when I got to this bit: "Claude Makelele, who is one of the best holding midfielders we've seen in years" One of !!!! In years !!!!!! The bloke is obviously new to football. The best there has ever been mate and don't you forget it.

We'll certainly have to be on our toes Loz. Look how the scouse genius fooled us all with his earlier posts. http://www.theshedend.com/forum/viewtop ... f=7&t=6190 More cunning than Mr Cunning of 21 Cunning Road, Cunning Town, Cunningfordshire.

Oi, muppet. Johnny Cum Lately's my arse. Learn your 'istory. Look who's in front of your boys. http://www.nufc.com/html/attendance-all-time.html Mod, let him back on. We can have some fun with this knob.

Oi, muppet. Johnny Cum Lately's my arse. Learn your 'istory. Look who's in front of your boys. http://www.nufc.com/html/attendance-all-time.html

Maka, Anelka, Cole. Sidwell played well in a Robbie Savage kinda way. Malouda was pooh.

Same problem here Pudge. Just checked out my LP's on the official site. I'm in the first band with 92 points. About 10 of us, (all ST holders), wanted to buy tickets together. Some don't have as many LP's as others. This staggered loyalty point system means we can't all order at the same time.

Personally, I am way more than impressed. I am drooling every time he gets on the ball. For people that like technically gifted footballers, (and I do), the fella has everything you could ever want. Left foot, right foot, on his chest, on his knee, doesn't matter to Nicky boy. The ball is his slave the second he touches it. Pace, movement, strength, intelligent passing. Defenders panic when they see him bearing down on them. A Drogba/Anelka partnership has the potential to be devastating. The very best in the world.

Top quality Liam.

Had to laugh when 2nd half, well before the goal, the SKY TV commentator said: "All the noise is coming from the Chelsea fans" It definately is a merseyside thing. Why do they think they have a monopoly on creating an atmosphere............ ?

And Neville Southall had a prior engagement opening a cake shop!

I too voted Cech for his saves, they were class. But anyone looking at the votes so far would think we were under the cosh big-time. Truth is we weren't. For much of the game we were in command. For parts of the game we were in cruise control. And if the final ball had been better on any one of our numerous counter-attacks the result would have been comfortable. Expected much more from Everton. Both from their team and the fans.

Interesting minute by minute report Loz. I noticed Joey tackling back. I remember applauding him at the time. I notice you didn't include any of the times Joe just lost the ball in your stats either No lesser expert than Peter Reid felt that overall Joe didn't have a great game overall. What a great goal though! Peter who? That bloke that once played for......... Everton? You're right. You couldn't find a lesser expert! PS. ES, you'll be pleased to know Joe's stats look a bit better after that goal.

I thought effective means how many times you scored or made an assist out of all your atempts to do so. I dont know if there is any stats of this but lets say Joey shot the ball 10 times and scored 3, and Kalou shot it 25 times and scored 5, then surely Joey is more effective. Somebody have stats on atempts? Brian M will. He has stats on everything. And they influence his entire football philosophy. He doesn't have them all though. Ask him who holds the record for "best in game percentage for less yards run per attempted pass from a team-mate, and toppling over backwards heavily on arse". He hasn't got those. PS. For some people the best thing about Joe's goal tonight will be it gets his stats up!

Why do you think Kezman was brought to be a back up striker Qaz? I don't remember him being signed as a squad player such as Sidwell or Ben Haim. He was brought with the expectancy of being in the shake up for a starting place. Incidentally, another flaw with stats is that are rarely based on the same criteria or set of circumstances. For example, formations. Jimmy often had good "assist stats". Principally this was because he was always played with another forward right alongside him. And not just any old forward, but usually a fine player in the shape of Guddy or a genius in the shape of Zola. Compare that to say, Shearer or Van Nistlehorse, both of whom quite often played an isolated, lone, hold-up role, (similar to Drogba's for us.)

I'm also going to side with Bluebeard's and Tim's opinion, but not to such a degree. I think Frank has been below par for practically all of this season and for part of the last. However, that is not to say he has been downright rank. He hasn't. He just hasn't found the form and hit the heights he did in our two title winning seasons, when he was absolutely superb. I also can't say I've noted any lack of physical effort on the pitch, but I do think his mind is perhaps not 100% right at the moment and I feel that maybe because he knows he is not going to sign the new contract and is intending moving on at the end of the season. I'm probably totally 100% wrong on that last thought, but it's a feeling I've had for awhile now. At the moment, with players injured and missing, Frank walks straight back into the side, no questions. But if everyone were fit and available and we were playing a big game against big opposition? Well, that is a different call altogether based on his form this season. Who would you leave out? Ballack? No way does he deserve to be dropped on current form. Not only has he played really well, he's looked a real leader for us in the absence of JT and his set-piece delivery around the box is superb. Makelele? Righty oh! Haven't you watched how he's played in the last two games since his return? And Maka always, but always, performs in the really big games. Essien? Arguable. Like Lamps he hasn't been at his best this season either, but personally I'd be loathe to leave him out of a massive game because he is capable of winning so many midfield battles on his own. In the tackle Essien holds the fear factor. Other players are frightened of him. One thing's for sure it would give Grant a welcome selection dilemma. And though I believe he would try to shoe-horn Frank in somewhere, I don't think it would be at the expense of any of those I've listed above. Not on his form this season.

Nice come back, Nibs. I see why Joe has been playing better than Kalou. It's crystal clear now. How many miles did the player run during the game? How many tackles did they make? What is their pass completion ratio? What is their goal assist rate? How many goals have they scored? Well gee...slap my buttocks and call me Nancy, but I'm guessing those stats and many more like them, are derived by the performance of the player DURING THE GAME... Sigh. Big deep sigh. Brian, how many times have I gone over this for you in my Basic Football Theory (Beginner) classes? OK, let's go over it once more before the bell using your own favourite subject............. Jimmy. When I, (and TBB and Geezer and BJD and Cubano Pete and Loz and Bluebeard and way too many others too mention), argued our case against Jimmy you always, without fail, pointed to his stats as conclusive proof of his quality and worth to the side. We, in turn, invariably pointed to the centre-forwards our domestic rivals were employing at that time. Henry, Van Nistelhorse, Shearer, Owen. Now, Jimmy sometimes had goals stats and assist stats that rivalled or even exceeded those players. You were always at pains to point that out remember? But myself, and all those others I have named above, we all knew, whatever stats you quoted at us, that Jimmy was not in the same class as those players. We knew that not by reading statistics and studying figures written on bits of paper, but by watching him and those other players play football week in, week out. And based on that, we knew, 100% correctly, that there wasn't just small gap between him and those other forwards, there was an almighty chasm. Whatever the stats said. So, to summarise once more. Stats can be informative and they certainly make for great debate, but they never, ever, in any circumstances, give the whole story.

Ah, Just chimes into the debate with his famous, 'Jimmy Arguement'! You'll find that stats count for little in Just's universe. Far better to think about how much somebody runs around. What their nationality is. And whether the stars were correctly aligned with Uranus the day they made their debut in a blue shirt! They'll tell you A LOT more about how good a player is than those pesky old stats like goals and assists... I mean honestly...who cares about them! You do. I remember you telling us how good Kezman was gonna be when we brought him because................. he had great goal stats!

Great goal! Got a bit of fortune when he stood on the ball and it popped back up. That seems to do the last defender. But running directly at opponents like that is what we want from him.

Stats are informative and can always help an argument, but they rarely, if ever, give the whole picture. For example, if you had to choose only one between Lampard and Ballack to get in the side on Wednesday and you used stats to make the decision, Frank's stats, (yes, I know he's played alot more football), are much more favourable. Therefore Frank would get the nod. Yet if you made your choice based on current form and all-round effectiveness when playing this season, Ballack would be the choice of 99.9% of neutrals and most honest Chelsea fans. As for Kalou and Joe Cole, I don't think either has looked a world beater this season. And neither are a true winger in the Nevin/Overmars/Kanchelskis mould. In fact, we don't have one.

Can't vote in this one because I really can't split them. I've tried but I don't believe you could fit a rizla paper between the two in terms of overall ability, and I've said this from the day we brought Cashley. As such, we never needed to buy Cashley.

Personally Ken, I'd say the truth was half way between great and poor. I've been very, very impressed with him since his return but he didn't play to the same high standard yesterday. Average performance from him IMO.

Peyton how long have you supported Everton? I've followed Chelsea since the 70's and have been to Goodison several times over the years. I've always got home safely. In fact I've always enjoyed going there. I won't be there myself on Wednesday. I'm afraid the Champion's League trip to Norway was very expensive and the next trip away to Greece will also take a fair whack out of my football budget. So I have to make my choice, Everton in the Carling Cup or another foreign trip in the Champion's League knock-out stages. It's a simple case of priorities and it's a fairly easy choice to make my friend. I'm sure many other ordinary Chelsea fans are making the same choice too. Maybe one day you'll be in the same situation. And if your boys ever do reach the knock-out stages of the Champion's League I'm sure the Worthless, sorry, Carling Cup, will not hold the same wonderful magic for you as it does now.