Nibs

This is something I DON'T agree with. Man Utd have come a very long way this season and have improved considerably. When Man Utd are on fire than maybe. But you could argue that is down almost soley to Ronaldo. With a bit of help here and there from Saha, Rooney, Giggs and Scholes and the fact that their defence is better this season. But at times Man Utd have looked very average (bit like us really). I tell you, take away Ronaldo and you take away most of their threat - he really is that crucial to them.

Will be Just. Hopefully see you and some of the others there.

Getting a bit ahead of yourself there GB. We play Fulham on Saturday before we play Villa. Lets get 3 points against our little brothers before we worry about Villa!!

Thought it was time to resurrect this thread. Not just because I like saying told you so, but as soon as we let Eidur, Gallas & Duffer go and I saw we'd brought in Ballack and Sheva, I knew we would struggle to do as well this season. The injuries have had a huge impact - I do realise that. But even with JT and Cech the defence was never gonna be as solid with no Gallas around. He was so realiable ALL of the time that we just took him for granted (and the club did that literally :cry: ). As good a left back Cole might turn out to be he can never make up for the loss of Gallas. And Joe? Well I've missed seeing him play as there is no other player in our squad who can do the things he can. But lets face it, even when he is fit and available, Mourinho doesn't always pick him and he certainly isn't one of the untouchables, so we cannot really use Joe's injury as an excuse. We look nowhere near as good as we have done last couple of seasons but what is more depressing is that the competition doesn't look to have improved much - they are benefiting from our squad changes. Anyone who is still saying Ballack and Sheva will come good - just give them time are talking utter bollox. I don't want to read one more comment about how they are doing ok and lets give them a bit longer. These are meant to be WORLD CLASS players for f**ks sake - how f**king long do they need? Neither are up to it - both are past their best and I'll be surprised if they are still here come the beginning of next season.

Yeah but youll still be at the Bridge for Fulham - c'mon Coombsie youve seen a lot worse - must be Chrimbo blues! Course he will. And I'll be there with him, 'cos he's treating me. Well, that's what Big Brothers are for!!!

Thought I'd just revisit this and vote for Drogba AGAIN!!! Three goals in three games and ALL match winners at that. I know Essien has a good work rate but that don't necessarily win you games. Drogba does and for me he is far & away our best player up to now and more importantly the player we would miss most if he got injured (heaven forbid!!). We've done without Cech, Joe, JT and we can even go through games without Lamps, Essien and Maka. But no DD - doesn't bare thinking about.

Ballack has improved lately and in our last game he was one of the best in my oppinion. But that's still a LONG way from being an "Untouchable". For me, the only untouchables are really Cech (when fit), JT and on current form Drogba. Even the midfield players can all be left out of certain games depending on the opposition.

At this stage, my vote has to go to Drogs. JT has been brilliant but it's got to the stage where you kinda take it for granted that he'll always be so. Essien has been good, but for me, there are still many occassions where he doesn't totally dominate games, and at times you forget he's on the pitch. Don't get me wrong, in the games he has played really well, he has been brilliant, but at times I'd just like him to go that bit further and maybe also get on the score sheet more often. But DD has been a revelation. Lets be honest Sheva has been a huge disappointment up to now and if DD had not stepped up to the plate, we could really be struggling big time.

If Ballack was still in his mid 20's I'd say give him time to come good, but a youngster he ain't. I'm not saying he is past it, but despite being signed on a free, he is still not good value due to his massive wages. Essien was signed with a view to the long term and although he has stuttered at times, he looks far and away a better player to have in the squad. No Contest.

Yep, my boys are on a roll (and would be doing even better if JM gave Joe a bit more playing time!!) Expect to be back to normal next week..................

Would that be Robben and Joey? As much as I like Joey, I have to admit he hasn't looked particularly bright in the games he has played so far. I fear it may take some times for him to get back to his oldself. On the matter of Robben, the guy is currently the most frustrating player in the team. His selfishness is incredible, to make things worse his shooting is currently so abysmal he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. I love the way people are saying Joe hasn't looked that great in the games he has played. Blimey, how many minutes pitch time has he actually had? What are we expecting, for him to come on 15 minutes from time and score a couple of wonder goals like he scored against Man Utd last season? If he was getting games, I am sure that we would have seen more from him than we have of Ballack so far. I have slagged Ballack off to a certain extent as I don't feel we needed him in the first place and I have seen little to change my opinion. Sure he is bound to have the odd good game here and there and we now have yet another player who will be useful in defending set pieces. I would never boo him but there are plenty of players I would rather see in the team ahead of him.

I used my wild card before last weeks fixtures - bit of panic activity in the old transfer market. Did me no good whatsoever. Still, the old cliche of it's a marathon not a sprint.......... I've decided that there is a huge element of luck involved in this. Not like the original fantasy football when you actually knew how your players were earning points & defenders ended up with minus points. Yep, it's all down to luck. Although of course if I do happen to miraculously climb the table and find myself anywhere near the top, it will down to my thoughtful and skillful team selection with no luck involved whatsoever.

Excellant choice Loz. Any super group I had would have to have Weller in it, but him aside, that would pretty much be my line up.

Be good if you can keep this going Butch. Trouble is at some point you'll have to change the heading of the thread, as I stand by the view that we look a fair bit worse than last season at the moment and I will be totally amazed if we end the season with a higher points total than we did in the last two.

It's always tricky when a player who has been reliable with pens for so long, starts missing them. Trouble is Lamp's penalties haven't been great for a while - even some of the ones that have gone in have been VERY close things. It's all very well saying let him keep taking them, but if that Charlton equaliser had not been disallowed, that would have been two more dropped points and the missed penalty would have cost us big time. As we no longer have Eidur, who also used to take a good pen, I'd go for Ballack or Joey.

I agree to a certain extent that it's a wider problem than just us. But that said, I don't think any other club has a guy that has this vision that he clearly has and therefore signing more and more big names, despite the fact they are getting on and not really needed will continue as will tours the the USA just before the season starts to boost our profile there.

I wouldn't say it is ALL down to Kenyon but I've still voted yes. I think it's no coincidence since he has got more involved with "Our Club", that it's just been one embarassing incident after another. There really are too many incidents to mention now that leave a nasty taste. Kenyon clearly has a vision of Chelsea being a Global Brand and if that means getting rid of players who don't fit in with his image of things, then so be it. Gallas & Gudjohnsen - great players and great servants to Chelsea FC, but not high profile enough for us nowadays. I'm certain that if Kenyon had had his way, we would have signed Beckham and Carlos too. Totally fed up with it and this line says it all for me: Forget success!! OUR identity is more important!!!

I'd have to disagree there. Even if he has been wronged, who in their right mind is going to take on Chelsea in a court case with our unlimited resourses? Might just as well throw his money down the drain.

That's incorrect, as under Raneiri, we had Desailly who played just about every game. So JT and Gallas did not play that often together.

Which bring us exactly to the problem we all knew would occur before too long. That it is not possble or feasable to have two TOP QUALITY players for EVERY position. You just cannot keep everyone happy. It's one thing having a sh*t hot player in the starting 11 and having a player as cover who is adequate, possibly even very good. But when you have supposed world class or internationals battling for every position it just isn't going to work. Perhaps if a player lacks real ambition and is just happy to sit on the bench and collect his ?50k a week, then yeah. But the likes of Bridge, Duff and Gallas want to play all the time and that's why we no longer have them. Just wait for one of our central midfielders to get the arse next..........

I've voted no as I cannot think of another manager in his league at present. BUT, at times I don't like him and his transfer comings and goings up to now have been piss poor as has his handling of some of the players which comes across as very childish at times. He's a bloody good and successfull coach but far from "the Special One" in my book.

Perhaps I should rephrase it - getting carried away by the emotion of it all!! Can't recall Gallas & Carvalho being paired too often so not sure of any stats. What I do know is that JT & Carvalho is nowhere near as good as JT & Gallas. JT never looks as good a defender as he does when alongside Gallas - even for England be it Rio, Campbell or Carragher. Gallas complimented JT and vice versa so well and they were the best central pairing I've ever seen play - bar none. It will be interesting to see how JT copes this season, as although I know Carvalho played a lot last season, more often than not, Willy was still playing at full back and he covered for their lack of pace - he always read situations so well. We've lost a lot more than we've gained.

No, Gallas is the world's best centre back. He also just so happended to be able to cover at full back (left or right). Pretty useful player to have really!!!

I'm FIRMLY in the no camp. Lets not forget that this whole saga also includes Bridge who must now be feeling pretty bad. It's gonna take me ages to get over this saga and feel the same about the club.

Shame on you Butch - I thought you were above distorting facts & figures. Surely last seasons Blackburn defeat has a lot to do with playing them when the lads were still in celebration mode and the result mattered not one iota. A better comparison would just be first three results from last season, regardless of opposition. Haven't got time to check and memory is not what it was, but I guess 3 wins? So we're not better!!!