Oblivion

JM on Drogba

That's a long list of crocked. Sheer bad luck that 3 of our four CBs are packing injuries. Can Mikel do box-to-box? He may have to, with Beletti filling in as a 5th CB when defending (Mikel's current role). I still feel that Anelka and JT may be rushed back, but when did Ballack and Cech pick an injury?

I'm bored, humour me please ;) One international match down, one more to go and no (more) injury scares (fingers crossed). This coming weekend, we'll have Boro over the weekend, a team that have reached the stage where they should remain unbeaten at home all season. Thus far, they've won 2 of the three games at home, losing 1-0 to West Brom. We, on the other hand, have reached the stage where we need to beat teams like Boro in order to stay competitive. Many of our injured guys should be back this weekend, so: .....................Cech Bosingwa.....Alex.....JT..........Cole ...................Mikel .........Lamps......Ballack Joey..............................Malouda ...................Anelka Hilario Belletti Ivanovic Kalou Deco Di Santo Sinclair 1-0 to the Blues?

On home draws: Scolari on home draws Sounds like he knows what he has to do this season (as I'm sure, the players do also), but there's always the luck factor

Managed to catch the first half and noticed something interesting about Drogba - he's lost a lot of weight and actually looks a lot like the Drobga that first came to Chelsea 4 years ago, body build, hair and unfortunately, ball control. Here's to him regaining his sharpness soon.

Thanks Benji Thankfully its only a few days. This early in the campaign we can't be having our top boys getting crocked for weeks on end.

Why was he ruled out? Injury?

Kalou has done well in his last two games for us, and given his direct style of play, will be more incisive going forward. Joe has done well thus far, and is far more consistent than Malouda. I believe that this will be our primary support players

I've read here and in another thread some of you disagreeing with this signing and Phil's overall lack of youth development. I heartily disagree with most of what is being said. IMO, Scolari is doing the safe thing. He's had a look at our kids and picked a few out bring sparks, but he's not going to commit them just yet. His faith in older players (inclusive of signings) means that he has more time to adjust to the club and the Premiership. He needs players whom he's worked with in the past to help implement his new system. The other players, like Lamps, JT and Ballack are all model professionals, so working with them will not be to difficult. This ought to take a season as he beds in. From next year onwards, expect to see more of the youth team featuring in bigger games to replace the likes of Ballack (whom I believe is going to be out of a contract soon) and become understudies to Lamps and Deco. Give the man time. We've had a good start and he's managed to get the players happy and hungry. From what we've seen against Pompey, he's willing to bleed youngsters, but not en masse like a certain Frenchie from across town.

Having fluffed our lines somewhat against Utd, the attention now turns to Stoke, who are third from bottom with 4 points from 5 games. Surely no more than a training ground run-out yes? One can only hope. ....................Cech Bosingwa.....Alex....JT......Cole ...................Mikel ............Ballack.....Lamps ..........Cole............Kalou .................Drogba Cudicini Belletti Ivanovic Malouda Anelka Sinclair Di Santo Chelsea to win 3-0 Thoughts?

Given the recent CL matches, Utd may line up as follows: ................van der saar Neville......Brown/Evans...Rio....Evra ...........Hargreaves...Anderson .....................Scholes Nani...........................Tevez ....................Rooney The front 3 will form a fluid (if unprolific) trident, interchanging positions, while Old man Scholes will link up with the attack one every 37 minutes (since it roughly takes him 35 minutes to recover from forays upfield. Regardless of whether Evans OR Brown plays in defense, we really shouldn't have too many issues getting behind them. Things are looking better and better.

Drogba has only played what, one Reserve game and a bit of the Man City game. After nearly 3 months out (or was it longer?) you want to start him against Man Utd, despite having a fully fit Anelka ready to play? Surely a bit much. 30 minutes against Utd and Villa after this, then he should be ready to start

Despite our central midfielders being much better than theirs, shouldn't we be focusing on exploiting lack of said width? Both Malouda and Cole (the former especially) spend a LOT of time in the middle of the park, despite originally setting up shop on the wings. With those 2, we can alternate smoothly between tightening the middle and bombing the wings

Given Fergie's willingness to sacrifice team balance to fit his 3 most expensive (and arguably talented) attackers in one squad, it is possible. Rooney has been shunted wide to accomodate other more central forwards (Larsson, Solksjaer, Saha). And the formation not working is EXACTLY what we want ;) @ evissy: Berba is lacking some match fitness, having not trained properly with Spurs and hardly figuring for them before his move. Don't expect him to be at his best.

Haven't done one of these in ages, feels good again So after winning the Battle of the Ca$h last weekend and opening our CL account with a convincing victory over Bourdeux, attention now turns to Man Utd this weekend. Team news on their end includes the loss of Vidic and Carrick, possibly Ronaldo. Therefore, we MAY see: ..............van der Saar O'Shea....Brown.....Rio......Evra ..........Anderson....Scholes Rooney.........................Nani ..................Tevez ..................Berbatov This is possibly the best they can put out. On our end, with the lifting of JT's red card, we have almost a full squad to choose from: ..................Cech Bos........Carvalho.....JT.........Ashley ....................Mikel ..............Lamps....Deco Joey................................Malouda ..................Anelka Basically an unchanged side from the game against the Frenchmen. Subs Hilario Alex Bridge Kalou Ballack Drogba Ferreira Chelsea to win this one 2-0 Thoughts?

Ballack is only 50% fit apparently, so don't expect him to start. Since we're at home to a team with shaky defense, I expect Scolari to take the initiative and send out: ...................Cech Jose Carvalho JT Ashley ..................Mikel .........Lampard....Deco Joey........................Kalouda (one or the other basically, but I feel that Malouda will start) ................Anelka IF things are going well, then two of Deco, Joey and/or Anelka will be brought of starting around minute 65 to make way for Ballack and/or Drogba. If things are not going well, then Kalou gets introduced for one of the wingers. Don't expect Di Santo to feature at all.

Ironically, my mom just asked what happened to Jimmy a few days ago.... This is sad news indeed, but I guess all good things must come to an end. My favourite moment was his free-kick against West Ham (I think). He didn't even wait for James to position himself. He just asked the ref is he could take the kick and smacked the ball into an empty goal. Also, his link-up play with Eidur. I think its safe to say they BOTH have never played better football before or after that point (except Eidur who had a good season with JM initially)

*Ehem* I believe it was Campo at Bolton. Good point though

Soccernet says its Kaka. Which, if true, is one HELL of a back-up plan. However, as usual, the question (which will most likely define our season) is: How will ALL our midfielders play together? I'm aware that Kaka and Deco are deceptively fast and possess skills allowing them to slot anywhere across the middle, but what if Scolari is going to use him as a striker? Milan do that on occasion (their forwards are rubbish anyway)?

Fabio Paim was a 13 year old Portugese winger (aren't they all?) waaaaaay back in CM 4. The kid was amazing in almost all departments and was one of the youngest available in the game. Hopefully he'll be just as good in real life.

Not necessarily. Were we linked so strongly with him back then? I don't recall. Neither do I recall this theory being touted by the Sun. In fact, I remember a number of posters here agreeing that was the real reason we bought him.

At the foot of the article, there was a comments section, which I decided to venture into (somewhat hesistantly, braced myself for the barrage of anti-JT crud). Most of the posters there actually agreed that JT was the best choice, but one guy actually believed that Stevie Me could still do it at the international level as captain. He said that in the past few seasons, Steve was the only one that showed real commitment to the team and carried them through thick and thin. I pity some of these poor souls. I know we all see the world through different couloured lenses, but at least in this part of the Web, some common sense still prevails.

What Barn said basically What does Berba have that we don't already have? Strength? Drogs and Anelka. Some aerial presence? Drogs has that in spades, and Di Santo is on the up. Pace on the turn? Puh-leeeeze. Buying Berba would be just like what happened with SWP. Nicking him away from our opposition, just because we can. And that's no way to do business (or run a club)

I've seen both Woodgate and King play some seriously cracking last-minute saving tackles (neither being Kolo Toure-inspired) but haven't seen enough of either player to pass judgement on their..err..commitment. If JT is hated for being a hard-case, well then there really isn't much to say about it. Its just on of those things I guess. But what shocks me is that other so-called "Brits" are slagging him of and pissing on him when he's down, even at the international stage. I mean, he's playing for the nation, shouldn't club loyalties or whatever you call it, be put aside, even if its for the duration of a game?

Do people hate JT coz he's from Chelsea (and they hate us)? Was it always like this when we were skint and almost buried by debts? I don't remember it being this bad (or illogical)