Davey Baby

The excrement was thrown at the away end. I remember listening to 606 that night. That was interesting. http://www.guardian....ewsstory.sport1

How ironic, given the fact Liverpool fans used to give Lucas dogs abuse. As for constant sniping and buggering off .. the words "pot" and "kettle" spring to mind .. you never hear Liverpool fans moan when they're losing .. greatest supporters in the world and all that. Ahh yes. He broke his leg and they threw excrement from the stands. How dignified. And then they tried to roll over his ambulance, which could have killed him. And then they blamed it on Evertonians. Classy.

Not strictly true Katon. We have room for two homegrown players, but regarding foreign players, yes you're right. When Mourinho arrived, he asked for a DVD of every one of our games from the previous season, and on the basis of that undertook a massive overhaul, getting rid of players aplenty and bringing in players. He didn't mess about. Also, Mutu went shortly after. As soon as Jose realised he didn't want him, he ordered a drugs test. That was decisive management. I heard Hasselbaink say that he was dispensed with without even getting a chance to impress in training. Jose called him into his office and said, "You won't play for me, find yourself another club". Same goes for lots of players, all of whom had to go. Jose didn't need time to evaluate. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he didn't want. Andre has taken a far more pedestrian approach in this regard, perhaps sagely, and also due to the fact he arrived later in the summer than Mourinho (I think).

That's the last time I use the wife's phone.

Good post Lauren, although I found that last line a bit strange. I wrote in the Terry thread that the witch-hunt against him, one that no doubt has huge repercussions for his family, particularly his children, could cause him to kill himself. I wrote that weeks ago and some thought I was over-dramatic but I firmly believe the press have a greater responsibility here. They overstep the mark, and if someone is mentally fragile, it will happen. We can only speculate what it's like to have to go through what Terry does on a daily basis, especially given the fact his "crimes" are trivial compared to some. It's disgusting.

Silver linings and all that ..

Great post Star, and I hope Roman is reading, but it begs the question why didn't the manager address these issues in the summer?

Class is the word. The guy made scoring look easy.

You "think" ..

Here's the squad .. Cech Turnbull Hilario Boswinga Ferreira Cole Bertrand Terry Luiz Ivanovic Alex Mikel Romeu Ramires Essien Lampard Mereiles Josh Mata Malouda Kalou Sturridge Drogba Torres Anelka Lukaku For me it's .. Bertrand Luiz Ivanovic Romeu Ramires Josh Mata Sturridge Lukaku Of those nine, four of them are youngsters, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, we don't really know how good they'll be but it would be stupid dispensing with them at this stage. That leaves only five established players, including Sturridge, and only one (Ivanovic) who's been a mainstay of the side for a while. I'm not saying these are the only ones I want to stay, I'm just saying if anyone else left, I wouldn't be too distraught. Thoughts ..?

He seems to be saying AVB's job his safe but it might come under threat if we lose our next three games. Does he get paid to write that?

Mod, I keep getting ads for penile enhancement popping up. Can you help?

The wife will be most jealous.

Do I win a prize?

It really is a bummer that we have to play other teams .. What's that about?

I think he has no complaints. He should play well, and if he does, his teammates will adapt to his strengths, that's what happens. I maintain that any striker in the world would fancy their chances of scoring more goals if they were playing for Chelsea than if they were playing for Wigan, so I don't think the excuses have merit. Sure, more creative players mean more chances, but that doesn't excuse his performances, far from it.

Got a nasty feeling Mikel will return for this one. Say it ain't so, Andre. A midfield three of Romeu, Mereiles and Ramires worked fine against Wolves, albeit Wolves were sh*t. I would play Luiz but he can't be trusted, and Newcastle will be cooking, he needs to keep his cool. Up front is the big conundrum .. Drogba or Torres ? It's not a nice problem to have, as they're both sh*t. Got a feeling Gutierrez is banned for this one, which should make things easier for Sturridge on the right.

By the way, if that's what counts, I feel sorry for Torres ;)

Sorry mate you're wrong. Anelka can't play on the right but he is forced to. Up front I'm talking about .. He has always scored goals for us up front. He's not my favourite player, far from it, but I'm interested what makes him so different to Torres .. And I'm still waiting.

For the same reason Barca struggle without Messi .. they're damn good players. Edit: You take the best player out of any team and they won't be as good. Even an idiot like me can work that out.

Anelka has scored more for Chelsea than anyone else (edit: by that I mean any of his other clubs, and there have been a few). I don't like him, especially on the right, but up front he has banged in loads of goals, even top scorer one season I think. Now that we've established that .. How come he could do that and not Torres? I'm interested.

Sturridge is going to have bad games. He has been exceptional by and large, certainly compared to you-know-who. Did you watch all his games for Bolton? No. Therefore you're not qualified to speak. He is learning the game. He has played hardly any Premiership football, did you know that? As for Messi and Van Persie having the teams built around them .. not even sure that is true but if it is .. that's because of them. They made it so, by showing their teammates their strengths and imposing themselves via their performances. Of course their teammates are going to play to their strengths .. they're giving them no choice. It's down to the player. Arsenal aren't built around Van Persie at all. They just have a very good striker, one that would walk into our side and score. Don't worry we'll probably buy him for 150m when he's knackered and old.

I think we've lost something like 5 of our last 7. We've lost our last 3 home games, which seems incredible. Liverpool have beaten us twice at home in succession. Now, to some of us, this will all bring back feelings of nostalgia, to a time long ago when we were sh*t, and we won't mind as much, as we've seen it all before. However .. Roman. He has never witnessed such a thing. He has sacked Carlo and Jose and Avram and Claudio and even Big Phil Scolari for far less crimes. That's a who's-who of football management right there (okay not Avram). Not deemed good enough by Roman, for daring not to win every single trophy and every single game in a swashbuckling style. You have to wonder what he's making of this. Meanwhile Hiddink waits patiently by the phone .. And we all know, if anyone can get the best out of Torres, Roman's 50 million pound acquisition, it's him. After all, he made Malouda look a player .. I just don't see Roman settling for a place outside the top four, and the squad is good enough, it just appears it's not, because the manager is not getting the best out of it. Three things can happen in January .. One, we go mad and act out of desperation, as we did last winter. Two, Roman refuses to back a manager he has no belief in, learning from the past and realising there's no point buying players a new manager might not want. Three, we already have a new manager and his name is Guus. Take your pick.

I'm in a bad mood so a bit grouchy. Yes, you may have said that but you also said Messi would struggle to play to his full potential at Chelsea, and you also said Sturridge was playing far better at Bolton, blaming the team rather than the striker, and I think all of this is untrue .. Mata seems to be playing well. Sturridge is playing exceptionally well, scoring just as many as he did at Bolton, and out of position too. Where are all the excuses for him? He doesn't need any. It's interesting that nobody has dared answer my question .. Why do sh*t strikers playing for sh*t sides score goals whereas Torres can't? Also .. How come Anelka scored all those goals for us when he played up front? What was so different then, seeing as we only have one tactic, and that's to play to Drogba's strengths? Can't wait for the response. I have been saying that Torres should play ahead of Drogba, because there were signs of form prior to his suspension (90 minutes at OT, 90 minutes at home to Genk, and 40 minutes at home to Swansea) and Drogba has been woeful and looks to be spent. However last night it became apparent why AVB has been preferring him .. We lack leadership, we lack mental toughness, we lack character, and despite Drogba's wretched form at least he provides all of that (sometimes), whereas Torres doesn't. It's funny, Torres fails because of his teammates, the tactics, the formation etc (there have been excuses aplenty on this thread), yet Kezman, Fleck, Sutton, Sheva, Furlong etc failed because they were not up to it. For some reason, Torres gets special dispensation, and I don't know why. We have the ludicrous situation whereby pages and pages of this thread were taken up by his apologists explaining that his miss against Blackburn was actually a difficult chance, whereas the truth is, to anyone with half a brain, that he f**ked up a simple ball to Sturridge, who had to lay the ball back to Cole, who delivered a perfect cross to Torres, who once again got it all wrong. Now I don't care that he missed chances, that doesn't matter at all, what matters is that people go out of their way to concoct fairy tales as to why he fails, to the point where they can't even bring themselves to admit he missed a simple chance. "Look" they scream, "We played better in the second-half, that must be because of Torres!". No. Torres played sh*t. The ball bounced off him. He couldn't find a teammate from five yards. He looked laboured and missed sitters. We played better in the second-half against Liverpool, without Torres. Explain that. Drogba was sh*t that day but we still played better. We just played better. It had f**k all to do with the striker. The problem we have is that Drogba looks finished and Torres looks sh*t. If Sturridge plays up top (as he deserves to) that means Malouda plays. It's obvious that even Anelka will score more goals than Torres if given a shot up front, despite the teammates, formation and tactics being the same. Right now we need balls, and for that reason alone, I understand AVB's thinking ..

Okay so it's not just his teammates or the formation it's the tactics. Got it now.