bjd

Ive not read the book so i dont know if he names the player, but ive always thought it was pretty well know who it was.

Personally i think he needs some patience, lets judge him this time next year. Or at least in the Autumn. Timing of the signing was strange though, Jose has said a few times he will need some time to settle and thats fair enough but can we afford to be carrying passengers during a title run in ? Just means more game time for the usual suspects which isnt doing us any favors. Perhaps we'd have been best of leaving the deal until the Summer, though of course you could argue we've had Schurrle (and Salah) as passengers all season too!

Was nice to see the roles reversed and see us finish strong as opposed to us starting well, but fading and hanging on. Hopefully this bodes well for the run in. Lots to be positive about in that 2nd half as i said previously Swansea apart that's the best we have played in 2015, against a strong team and an especially tough defence. Its been a draining week, but we've now a full week to take stock and work on the Hull game. Play like that and we will win up there, im sure of it.

Double post!

I would've taken 1-1 at ht but in the end was disappointed we didn't win it. Tibo was motm in the first half and Forster motm in the second which says it all. So much better in the second half, Swansea apart that was the best we have played in 2015, which bodes well for the weeks ahead. Thought the introduction of Ramires was key and fair play to him, he certainly made a difference. Few people starting to get on Fabregas back but he picked up as the game went on. The next weeks rest will be good for us I think. We gained a point on our nearest rivals after a tough game against a good team and we nearly won it too. There's been worst weekends to be a Chelsea fan, but yet still some cretins decided to boo which I find abhorrent. No wonder the team look jittery with these 'fans' in the house.

My thoughts entirely. It's funny, but who on earth authorised that?!! Sometimes we should just leave it alone.

Michael Essien. Nows theres a name. My word what a difference he in his prime wouldve made last night. It wasnt so long ago Essien and Ballack were utterly dominating games like last night. Was a shocker from minute 1 to minute 120 i thought. On and off the pitch. I thought PSG fans and players simply wanted it more than we did last night. Whilst i obviously want us to win everything, normally im not to fussed about exiting the CL but it did hurt a little last night. At least against Athletico last year we could say we tried but were beaten by the better team. Last night was just limp and meek. I mean, that midfield...Furthermore Jose has got to look at how he approaches these games. Same old story. Onwards and upwards. Utterley no excuses for the League now. Massive game Sunday.

Bad day on quite a few levels. But plenty of twists and turns to come. Only two weeks ago we were joyous over City's unexpected draw against Hull. Our turn today. Shocker from Atkinson but personally I thought we were piss poor from start to finish. Too much pissing about trying to walk the ball into the net and too many big names waaaaaay off the pace. Forms been a bit stuttering all round since Swansea really. Like I said the ref was poor and whilst I've never been one for conspiracy theories we certainly aren't getting the rub right now. Not going to blame Matic as I have no idea how id react if someone did that to me, talk of the FA over turning that however is laughable. It'll be 3 games. At the end of the day you need to be beating Burnley at home, the sending off and pens (as galling as they are) should've been a side note but we simply weren't good enough today. The form of Costa , Fabregas and Oscar is a worry. Not concerned yet, plenty of ups and downs to come. It's going to go all the way this one. 5 points clear and a Cup Final next week, it's a hard life.

The last time we conceded 4 at the Bridge we actually conceded 5. Arsenal in 2011 under AVB. What a grim day that was. Things didn't turn out too bad in the end that season either.

Personally I wouldn't be surprised if come the New Year City are top. No panicking though, they have some tough fixtures coming up in Jan and Feb. We have 4 tricky games, 3 of which are away. We should be looking at 9-10 points which is a nice return though Id be staggered if they didn't win all of theirs. Who knows? As the man says above games aren't won on paper. As we suspected back in August i think it will come down to the pair of us in May. I think it was important they got through in Europe too. Right now they are showing their strength in depth and grinding out wins and we are looking a little wobbly, which is a world away from how it looked a month ago. I'm sure the tables will turn again. It was never going to be a cakewalk, and if Chelsea fans were starting to think it was all sewn up and in the bag they were being a little naive! A great few months ahead.

Yep that article is about 6 weeks old now. Sam Wallace I think, he's been keeping a close eye on the Bridge stuff these past few years.

State of some of these posts. 'Livid' !!? Behave. You can't and won't win every game you play. Bad day at the office that's all. Take a look at the league table. It's November. We are the luckiest fans in the world.

Sad news. My first ever Chelsea manager. rIp

Tottenham and it's not even close. Guess it all depends on your age and possibly location? Certainly age. 1-Tottenham 2-West Han 3-Arsenal Not many shouts for Leeds which surprise me a little, again , possibly an age thing.

Well in the League we had a stronger start (9 wins and a draw) but by now we'd already been knocked out of the League Cup and had lost one of our Champions League matches so overall it's prob a stronger start now. We had a better squad in 2005 too. Its just stats though and can't read too much into them apart from saying we are looking very healthy!

Nothing to panic about. They played well, and for 60 mins we were poor.their keeper played a blinder, we were robbed of a good goal and should've had a second penalty and their goal was a beauty. Bad day at work, it happens. Two toughish games left but I'm sure we will be fine. One point sees us through and one win sees us top the group. No drama here. 16 games unbeaten , our best ever start and we are well clear in both league tables. Anyone having a pop should take a look at themselves.

When was the last time you went to Selhurst Park out of interest? Not trying to be facetious just I don't think sweeping statements should be made without knowing the full picture. It's a fan led initative and it's not just brainless morons though I've not doubt there are some there!!

This is not accurate at all. Far be it from me to stick up for Palace but what happened there was that there was an initative by a group of fans there a good few years ago to try and improve the atmosphere at Selhurst Park. I know this because the majority of my family are Palace fans and many of which have season tickets or are regulars. Oh and I can quote assure you none of them are morons and none of them shout abuse for 90 mins. They have worked very hard to change things and it's made a difference. Credit to them for that. Of course there will be an element who take it too far and think themselves above the law and go over the top, and let's face it the 'ultras' tag is cringeworthy but a lot of thought and effort has gone it to the change at Palace. This was all done by supporters groups coming together and drawing up ideas many of which involved liasing with the club itself - we could do a lot worse than to follow their lead.

Overall I think Jose's comments were about complacency in general. Not just from the crowd turning up expecting 3 points but the players doing the same too. We saw both yesterday I think, though I maintain the atmosphere was no worse than normal.

Of course the club/stewards can't stop people singing. But it's the overall attitude towards the home supporters that doesn't help. Particulary compared to the away fans. Yesterday for instance every QPR fan stood up for the whole 90 mins, that simply wouldn't be tolerated in any other area of the ground. Why is that? It's gone on far too long. Home supporters have had their season tickets cancelled for persistent standing. It's galling. I maintain Jose shouldn't have bought this up. It's a can of worms and he should probably stick to managing the players, I'm not getting uppity about it at all - he is clearly doing this to increase the volume for the rest of the season, that much is obvious. But I do think there is a bigger picture here.

Wrong from Jose in my opinion. He should understand the measures the club/stewards take to stop creating any sort of atmosphere amongst the home fans before he opens his mouth on the subject. It wasn't even that bad yesterday, there have been plenty worse atmospheres at the Bridge this past year. perhaps for the next home game he should let Rui Fara take charge and come in the MHL and show us what he means or - at least try to ...

Some interesting posts and well argued too. We've lost the crux of the matter though, been sidetracked a little And that's the fact that Mikel was utter pony last night. Thats undeniable. He had a right shocker.

Which has worked so well....

Fascinating game last night i thought. So different than so many other matches we will play this season. You really learn things about certain players in matches like last night. Clearly the biggest issues we all have are with the performances of Schurrle, Salah and Mikel. Mikel in particular was shocking and its utterly unforgivable for a player of his experience and seniority against a team 70 places lower than ours to perform like that. Everything surrounding Salah just confuses me really. I think we'd have been far better off keeping Moses who offers more and would also give us a homegrown place too. I doubt we will see much more of him this season now, barring a run of attacking injuries. The youngsters were fine. Such as shame we didnt get to see any more from the bench. I think Jose wouldve loved to have given Baker and Brown a run out. So pleased for Drogba, 3 in 3 and suddenly looking like a very astute signing. All in all a win is a win and we got through. I get the impression Jose really wants to win this competition, just like in 2005 hoping it will give the squad that 'winner' feeling ahead of a title run in.

Part of me really wants to blame Dowd for yesterday and start throwing childish insults in his direction. It would make me feel better for a minute but deep down i cant really. Their goal shouldve been an afterthought.We should have put them to the sword at 1.0. Those 20 min after our goal was was men against boys but they just didnt seem to really have the desire to put it to bed. And that comes from the top. We all love Jose but we should all realise that this is how it is with him. Some of these matches we will see through others we wont. Dont be surprised if the same thing happens at Anfield in a fortnight. Think we'd have taken the point beforehand with City losing the day before. They are our biggest rivals and we have gained a point on them on a weekend where we had one of our toughest fixtures and our 2 first choice strikers were injured. Thats the way to look at it. We are 6 clear of City (in October!!) having won 7 out of 9. We have also played 3 of out toughest away fixtures. Things are very, very healthy.