The Swan

We played well from start to finish. For much of the season Frank has highlighted the need for a quicker tempo. Everyone was on message. Free kicks taken quickly, lots of good movement off the ball. We could have won this 5.0. Palace game will be tougher but we are good enough to win that game too. Last night we showed more intensively than we did against West Ham, feeling pleased.

What a depressing thought about the scousers.

There appears to be too much hysteria and much of this is coming from new members to this board, I think there could be some fishing going on here. Yesterday’s game was disappointing. Let’s move on. Many people quite rightly feel that the premier league is the best league in the world. If we were as poor and hopeless as some people are writing, we would not be sitting fourth in the table. League table positions don’t lie. Is it a cast iron guarantee then we will end up in the top four? Of course not. Back in August with a new inexperienced manager and a transfer ban any true Chelsea fan would have taken a top 6 place. That would have been great given the circumstances. This team is going through a building process and Frank is still learning. People need to take a better perspective on things. It’s not as bad as people are suggesting. We are inconsistent but taken as a whole Chelsea have been good this season with many encouraging signs.

So frustrating. I am usually quite rational after a defeat but this really did my head in. We threw it away. Frank went for attack and underestimated their attacking threat. Give up playing Alonso in defence, he is a midfield player. Their first goal - our two central defenders were ball watching. Blame Alonso for their winner, he has not got a defensive bone in his body. Anyway, move on. Top 4 is still there for us. Up the Chelsea!

The drinks break almost worked - we got a shot in. Expect us to be poor again until the drinks break, then win 2.1

A game of drink breaks. in each half after the drinks break we became a more forceful counter attacking team and looked like scoring. We also played longer passes and used our pace after the drinks break. Despite their possession we had more shots than they did. I like these drink breaks - can we keep them for next season? Frank’s substitutions worked well again. Who knows we might steal 3rd spot again, not bad for a team going through a rebuild.

Never in doubt!

So frustrating but we can still win this.

Thanks for sending this, have sent it out a few times and caught some bites.

The reality is that all successful clubs are bankrolled by money, but money in itself is not enough. The players must gel as a team and a manager must have a certain degree of tactical and even strategic acumen. It is too simplistic to simply say Chelsea’s success was only due to money and when other teams say this it displays an amazing amount of ignorance. 1997 was the breakthrough year for us and culturally the club began to engender a winning mind set and an appetite for success during the mid and late 90s. Over the decades we had experienced many false dawns but where we have arrived at now is where we were always destined to arrive at. I am not saying that we could not go into decline again, we could of course. The secret to sustainable success is how well you are managed at the board level. Look at Aston Villa and Leeds United, two clubs not fulfilling their potential and much of this has been due to poor boardroom management. Those of us with long memories have experienced gross incompetence at board level during the 1970s which prevented us from reaching our potential then. After beating Real Madrid, Chelsea should have gone on to more sustained success but as we know poor director management crippled us and it took decades to recover. Teams begrudge Chelsea winning things, but the reality is that Chelsea were always a club with big potential and so our success in in the last 15 years or so should not be that surprising.

Virtually impossible at $25 Ed De Goey Dave Lebouef Terry Ivanovic Essien Wise Lampard Robben Dixon Di Matteo

To be honest the title of this thread should be changed to 'How and when will next season begin' because it looks like events which involve social gatherings will be stopped further for several months. Just can't see football games being allowed to have fans in the stadium until we reach at least December. Forget how to end this season, think more about how we accommodate next season and how the game is actually going to survive without any people attending.

Back in March I was making jokes about Liverpool not winning the league. But now I don’t care. They have been the best team by a mile. If people want to give them the title, then fine. I just can’t see how this season will finish and we will have our work cut out just to make sure we start next season when we normally do. Olympics cancelled, European Championships cancelled, English Premier League – doing all that it can to keep going despite all that is happening around it. Perhaps a bit like Boris a few months back – in denial.

With all the chaos and all the death it’s difficult to see this football season resuming. People have said that we need to resume to uphold the integrity of the game. Sadly, football lots its integrity years ago. In the midst of all this chaos those pushing for the season to restart are driven by one thing - money. As a nation it’s going to take us years to recover from this trauma. Just getting next season to start on time would be a challenge given the circumstances and probably what the football authorities should be focusing on now.

Liverpool Despite all that they have won they still sing songs about us having no history. As we all know, Chelsea won their first European trophy before Liverpool did so in terms of history on the European front Chelsea’s is older. If Liverpool want to sing songs about having won more than Chelsea FC, then fair enough. No one is going to argue with that. Something about us really gets up their noses. Even when they won the league at Stamford Bridge in the mid- 80s, something about Chelsea appears to have brought out the worse in them. Even though they have won more than us I have often sensed envy from them towards us. Spuds When it really mattered their fans were found wanting. They know it, we know and everyone else knows it. Now that football has changed and become more ‘civilised’ their fans are acting like they are category one types. Sadly about 20 years out of date. West Ham You would have thought all things being considered the beasts from the East would feel secure with themselves but that is not the case. Something about Chelsea really gets to them so much so they copy a song sung by Liverpool fans. I think it boils down to Chelsea never really showing them the respect they thought they deserved. Barcelona I have met many fans who support this club who get really worked up about Chelsea, both the club and fans. They often tell me how big and successful their club is, like they have a point to prove against Chelsea. All very strange. Teams who don’t necessarily like us but appear more at ease in their own skin about it Man Utd Arsenal Leeds