Niall1905

The Haribo FC victory parade will go ahead tomorrow for those wishing to attend. Kinetic have been on the phone already and there’s talk of the Strasbourg job for the new year.

Briefings on an experienced replacement. To go with the other days briefings that we want experienced signings too. Come August we’ll have neither and we’ll be briefed it was because the managers weren’t a fit with the structure and we couldn’t spend because of Europe

Haven’t been logged in for a while, I would like to plead insanity

What a f**king club man, sat in an empty pub on a Sunday night absolutely gleaming at seeing what those boys have just done. Nothing like it, many will play it down, purely for the money, Micky Mouse, who gives a f**k. I f**king love this club. Up the Chels.

Im one of the biggest Jackson apologists around, I think hes got the potential to go on and be a cracking player if he can sort some things out, but even last night it was clear what Delap is going to give us that Jackson doesn't. I'd also probably argue that Delap would get a free pass for last night considering he's hardly played competitively for us. I agree, I don't look at Delap and Jackson as a set of striker options that screams title winning, but I think they compliment eachother well and Delap looks like he has huge scope to make massive improvements in a very short space of time. I also have huge doubts over any realistically achievable striker alternative on the market actually coming here and making any sort of impact.

Thought last night was a decent insight into how we may potentially fare in the CL next year and thought we were solid. Age old story of missed chances potentially coming back to bite us but we easily could have been 4/5 up before the weather break hit. Benfica are a great example of the decent CL sides that you'll have to be good at beating to make progress, a clear step up from the best the Conference had to offer and we dispatched them confidently. Thought delap really struggled but even when not playing great, it was clear the different dynamic he gives us in being able to play long into and gain some territory. Jackson has his use in link up into his feet, but isn't much of a presence to relieve pressure or offer an out ball. Colwill has transformed in these last few months, turned into a bit of a leader in how he plays but also communicates. If we can nail down a consistant partner for him our defence is pretty solid. This tweak of system Maresca has brought in is also very interesting, i've rarely felt as confident with a narrow lead under him as I did last night. Of course the weather ruined that and we were slow back out of the blocks, but prior to that we looked great. Credit for putting them to the sword in ET too. Many a team would have accepted the world (and that f**king ref) were against them and started throwing thier toys out the pram but once that red card hit we pressed on in the way that proper sides do.

Just remembered we get to watch this PSG team against Spurs in the Supercup. I beg Ange to play his high line against those demons.

I'm actually more happy we've done this the way we have, than played them off the park and breezed it. Seems stupid, but i've seen us play well and coast to results. I didn't think this group had it in them to not turn up but also grind out a win. Above all else, just happy. Lets sign off on a high on Wednesday and enjoy the summer.

Never in doubt...

Took a break from this place whilst our form was bad as the ratios of reactionary crap against logical posts (don’t get me wrong, there’s loads of you that consistently make good points) just goes insane. I don’t get to many games, but prior to our good run earlier in the year, the groans and moans from fans about us playing out from the back were loud, booing the players at half time and generally giving this ‘process’ no time. Fast forward a few weeks, we’re doing the same stuff, but with confidence and good results. Suddenly Maresca is the second coming and we’re playing the best football in years. Now we are back to the start, but the reality is that nothing has changed. The football has remained the same, we never reverted to playing like prime stoke to get into a title race, so why would we now? Fed up of making the same point over and over again, the board and the owners are at fault and deserve the blame. It’s been a long 2 months but I can’t fathom Maresca getting the boot based on what we have seen so far

Frustrating run of games for sure, feels like the complete opposite of the first half of the season so far where we were winning these tight games, getting the tight calls, having those ‘moments’ in games. I don’t think there is a huge difference in the quality of our play or performance levels. We were simply getting the margins then, which led to an over inflation of our league position. And we aren’t now, which is bringing us back down. it will go in cycles, we’ve just got to remain level headed. I’d have been happy with our league position right now if offered at the start of the year.

Lets have this right, it’s our first real blip of the season, Enzo has to stand up and show why he got given a big job in the first place. Will be disappointed if fans start going for the jugular with him though, he’s been doing a good job of building a better culture at the club and the results have been good. He deserves a buffer before people start getting on his back too much. 1 point from our last 3 is un acceptable, but it’s a credit to the work he’s already done that we still sit in the top 4 despite it. Let’s see how he gets on.

At least 80% of the posters on here can go back to doing what they love best - moaning. Decent chunk would have been fuming with us winning the league

Having Felix dropping into the inside left and cucu wide is really disrupting our build up. Felix isn’t disciplined enough to stay where the system needs him and there’s a huge gap there. Could do with Jadon on for him, let Cucu invert into the inside left 10 and see how our build up deals with that.

There was always going to be a need for differentiation between being in a title race and being capable of winning the title. The media and rival fans have no motive to bother with such critical thinking, but as a fan base it makes the next 5 months or so easier to manage. We are in a title race, simply through league position and difference in points to the leaders. With no context on why or how. However, we aren’t ready to win the league. Every sane Chelsea fan knows that, we have serious deficiencies in our starting 11, we have a young squad, a new manager and owners prone to throwing grenades into situations. You never want to lose. But today’s result will have done a good job and lowering our stock in the outside world. Hopefully we can go back to quietly getting on with our business and focus on securing CL for next season.

Think it’s inevitable he goes at some point. He isn’t a striker so frustrations at Wacko getting picked ahead of him are ill placed. His biggest problem is Palmer’s burst onto the scene and Estevao’s upcoming arrival. Hope we sell him outside of England if he does go, because he solves a lot of problems for a lot of our rivals

News coming out he’s been caught doping. Will hold real comment until something concrete but it’s the end of him here if true

Looked like he was really in his own head prior to scoring. The miss from 6 yards - his body language was so negative and lethargic. But, as he has a lot this season, he picked it up and scored a very good goal. Yes he could have put it beyond question but, whilst we are winning, take it for what it is. Wacko scored a very important winning goal.

Don’t think anyone’s suggesting Frank wasn’t great. Axman is suggesting Essien would have been best in class as a Midfielder all round and that the only area he would be clearly beaten is goals by Frank. I still think Frank and others edged him in certain other areas but as a complete midfielder, not many in world football could come close to the Bison

Getting scary how good this bloke is. Almost more surprising than how he’s turned his form around, he’s got a bit of bite about him too. Some sort of Kante and Essien hybrid that I’m not sure the league is ready for

Best and worst of him again today. Constantly dangerous, good finish for his goal, couple of dodgey decisions especially in the second half. His ability to switch between coming short and going in behind is going to create a lot of space for us

I'll whack my blue tinted goggles on and strap myself in for this one. On form, from the back end of last year, through the Euros and now this season, he's the best LB in the world.

Snobbery in here is crazy, there isn't a striker in world football right now who is clinical, contributes regularly to build up, can pass and is flawless week in week out. Unless Haaland scores you hardly ever know he is on the pitch, yet he's seen as the best of the best. Wacko absolutely bullied their centre half for his goal, completely out of nothing. Should have had an assist off of a good cross into Noni. There was the potential for a pass in the lead up to the Palmer/Madueke mess up but its not straight forward and would have had to go perfectly between 2 defenders. We want our striker to be shooting there. And don't get me started on the header assist/no assist debate. I couldn't care less if he gets the assist for it or not, he bullied the centre half again. No way he should be getting his head on that let alone scoring. The bloke isn't perfect, he can be frustrating. But he's held against such an unrealistic yard stick by some in our fan base, where anything other than a complete performance is seen as sh*te. If you listed off the contributions above for any other prem striker, we'd be clamouring for them to replace Wacko in January.

Absolutely get your point, but I think there is also a modern push towards a group of captains rather than a traditional club captain. And in regards to the club calling time on the signing, I think they would be silly to be too rash given that in his 2 1/2 years at the club he has been under 3/4 managers. Conversations have to be had at the end of this year if he hasn't began to progress, as there are already signs of other 'strugglers' kicking on e.g Cucu, Caicedo, Wacko etc

f**k knows what is or isn't obvious or tangible, but i'll give a go at giving Enzo a defence. Maresca has spoken numerous times about a lack of natural leadership within the squad. When you have a team of younger players, you have players that are more naturally inclined to lead that will do so. And you have others that have to work on it, something he has identified Reece as needing to do. Enzo is a natural leader, he appears vocal on the pitch and his style of play is to try and get on the ball to take control. Whether you believe the quality of his play is up there, his reputation and price tag was built on the fact that he was playing with a level of maturity and experience you wouldn't expect from a 22 year old when we signed him. Whilst other players learn how to lead and take responsibilty on the pitch, I think Enzo is already there. He's made mistakes both on and off the pitch, sure. I certainly won't defend the off the field mistakes. He's also a winner, he's won a world cup. We are a club in a pretty unique scenario of having won the champions league recently, yet have a squad filled with people that haven't won anything. In fact, we are littered with losers given our recent struggles in cup finals. Thankfully, this is starting to change, Palmer has won with City, Cucu with Spain, Enzo with Argentina. But its not widespread through the squad, so having Enzo and the mentioned others is vital for now in providing some form of baseline for what it takes to win silverware. Don't get me wrong, Lavia and Caicedo are my preffered midfield for now and Enzo certainly has significant steps to take to earn his spot in our side. But im not ready to give up on Enzo, particularly with the form he is showing more recently. I've always thought a more structured set up would suit him, as opposed to Poch's choas ball. Lets see where we are in 6 months time.