Phillip

You would be a tough juror, Moi. Isn't hearsay enough for you?

I will let you know my opinion after the Everton game. If we win that game, then I will just chaulk this up to a short bad patch, but if we lose or draw that game, then I will go bonkers.

According to a story that I was just reading: "The latest raft of claims in the British press say Pulis was naked when he launched a headbutt at Beattie after he had emerged from the showers in the dressing room at the Emirates. The melee caused his towel to fall to the floor, say the Daily Mail." When does the manager take a shower after the game? This is just too weird, and even though I don't really like James Beattie, I feel for him to have a mad, naked manager head butt him after having taken a shower. Pulis needs to go to a mental institution for a few weeks, or perhaps have a lobotomy.

I rarely ever see a referee make the call of the keeper moving too soon. I guess they figure if they move soon, they do so at their own risk, and a good spot kicker will see that and just kick to the other side. Anyway, as to the two Citeh players moving into the box too soon, I have rarely ever seen that called to cause a re-kick, but in any event I don't recall any Chelsea players even close to moving into the box. I guess they have been accustomed to Lamps making his spot kick, and so they were a bit lazy about that. My biggest issue with keepers moving too soon was the Women's World Cup final in China, I don't recall when (10 years ago?), when the U.S. keeper Brianna Scurry made a mockery of the "leaving too soon" rule, whereby she moved at least two full steps towards the Chinese spot kicker and basically was on top of the kicker when the kicker took her shot. It was unbelievable to see, and to this day I am shocked that no one has ever made a big deal of this (the U.S. won the World Cup final on penalty kicks, and I think Scurry stopped 3 or 4 shots -- which is no shock given that she was no more than 1 yard from the shot takers when the shots were taken).

I like Belletti, but he is one petulant bugger. He always is getting mad at the referee or an opposing player, and he kind of reminds me of Shrek in his mindset.

I disagree, since the ball went to the right of the wall, and not through the wall. Cech set up the wall, and if he wanted another player (5 instead of 4), then he should have asked for it, but he did not. The goal was no where near the left post, and so Cech should have gotten a paw to it, plain and simple. I still cannot fathom why he took a step to his right before Tevez shot, since that area was being perfectly covered by the "wall". Anyway, I need to get over this game, and on to the next game. As to the other thread, Neuer of Schalke04 is top class, and I would love to see him at Chelsea.

I really like the young keeper with Schalke, but I think United already has their eyes on him.

How does Fergie keep United hungry? With threats and cajoling?

I would take Brad Friedel over him right now. Sorry to say that, but I truly believe it.

OK, then, perhaps he can come out like one of those masked wrastlers (do you have those over there?), like Mils Mascaras (I think I butchered his name), where the one thing not covered on his face is his eyes. The Mexicans love the masked wrastlers, whereby the "good guy" then tries to pull off the mask of the wrastler for the entire match. I remember in the glory days of wrastling, when Andre the Giant wore a mask in one or two matches, and it was so funny because who was he fooling? Sorry for the digression.

I made it to 53 seconds, mainly because I love pigs, and I was hoping to see that person in a pig suit again (he/she does show up at 53 seconds, but I had had enough by then). Reminds me of a poor man's Techntronic.

I, for one, would love to see him come out of the player's entrance in a very important game, WITHOUT HIS HEADGUARD! I think our fans would go wild, and it would spur us on to a famous victory. Perhaps he should save that stunt for a CL final.

I don't know. Maybe its the large collagen-filled lips, or maybe its the extreme overbite. Though I do give her credit for not having a boob job. She just does not float my boat, that's all. OK, she is not heinous, but I would not give her a second look if she passed by me on the street.

I just checked out some pics of her. To me, she is kind of heinous. Certainly not pretty (at best, OK).

You should look at Deco's performance as a striker who does nothing all game, but the once chance he gets he slots away for a goal. Most people would rate that striker did well. OK, now Deco had some bad passes, but the times when he split Citeh's defense apart, which should have led directly to a goal (are you listening, Didier?), make up more than enough for his bad passes. On that alone, Deco performed best in our midfield, and had a good game.

Along the same lines as Just's thread, I am having more and more worries about Petr Cech's performance over the last two seasons. 1) Citeh's second goal was due solely to Petr Cech somehow thinking that he should anticipate Tevez's shot and move to his left (behind the wall) right before Tevez makes contact with the ball. Why would anyone do that? Are his keeper instincts inferior to others, like Given and Pepe Reina? 2) On penalties, Cech seems to do the same thing as 1), whereby he moves way too early, allowing the penalty taker to go to the other corner. 3) Cech seems to have a hard time with crosses that come to about 10 yards from the goal line. The cross by Citeh that Cech startly very belatedly out for was a prime example, whereby he never got within 5 yards of the ball, and Lescott got his head to the ball and would have scored, if not for a great play by Carvalho who ran back and headed the goal-ward bound Lescott header out for a corner. Again, instincts come into play here, and it is troubling to me. 4) Not really Cech's fault, but our defense kept back passing the ball to Cech, who whoofed it to the center line time and time again. It seemed like we had no confidence in our defense and midfield to pass the ball to an attacking position, something ManUnited does with aplomb. Thoughts?

Agreed, Abramovich. Deco was by far the best of our midfielders. His reverse pass to Drogba in the 4th or 5th minute should have resulted in our first goal, and he had several other great passes that should have resulted in goals. As someone else posted, I felt that Lamps looked like he was not going to convert that penalty, and during his "hesitation" runup I totally felt like we were doomed.

But you would have thought with the rainy pitch, which would slow down the game, it would have suited our "aged" midfield to a tee, but it did not. Frustrating, kind of reminds me of the CL Final in the heavy rain. I don't think I want to see Chelsea play in the rain again, since it always seems to end badly for us.

It reminds me of the English top division in the 70s, and it was not a pretty sight back then.

Where is Lofty when you need him???

One thing about the commentators, they were correct in saying that every time JT or Carvalho had the ball, they would pass it back to Cech, who would kick it long to whomever, usually to a ManCity player. That is stuff that the relegation-level teams do, and you never see ManU do that (they always pass it forward without backpassing it to their keeper). It was very frustrating to see it happen time and time again.

That is the reason why Cech rarely saves a penalty. His timing is very bad in deciding when to make his first move. On penalties and on Tevez's free kick, he makes his move way too early, and just allows the spot kicker to have an easy go to the other side.

On Drogba's "sitter", even on that one Given had guess correctly (to guard the near post), and so even if Drogba shot was on goal, it would have been saved. Given seemed to guess correctly where all of our shots would be going today. Also, how many times did our left and right backs make runs into Citeh's half? Not many.

I am not sure that you can blame Ancellotti for this loss. The players, yes, but the manager, no. Did Ancellotti tell Cech to move to his right and allow Tevez to score a goal that should have been easily saved? Did Ancellotti tell Carvalho to leave his foot out after making a clearance, and thereby allow Webb to call a foul on Carvalho (I was on the fence on that one, but it did allow Webb the chance to make the call, and he was making all of those calls against us today)?

Yes, you are a good luck charm, BlueCelery.