evissy

Sheva hasn't been playing well that is a fact, but who could have known that one of the best strikers in the world turn out to be misfiring old man in one night for us. In fact he isn't misfiring for his country where they play in formation suitable for Sheva. I think Sheva is very sensitive guy and everything that has happened and said has effected his play. I think he is very sympathetic guy and I wish him all the best... He still could turn out one of the best strikers in the league, but not with the formation we are playing. I really feel sorry that he is suffering..And don't start that "he's making 120k a week" talk. He isn't paying it for himself and he didn't negotiate that salary for himself.

The game was more or less like a friendly, but Pizarro showed some skill that I think we should expect from him. He didn't score, but he hasn't been playing either so i'll forgive him. As soon as we changed our formation to Pizza being the lone striker he showed why Jose bought him. To backup when Drogs is away. He was totally controlling our attacking side in the second half. He passed the ball really well and found open spaces on the pitch. He was far from perfect but again he hasn't played too much lately. I think he can really create scoring chances to our wingers and midfielders and in time he will score himself. Then again maybe it is too early to praise him after this "friendly". Just read the postmatch comments from Av and was sad to read that he is going to start with Sheva against Arsenal. Sheva is slow and don't know what the h*ll he is doing on the pitch. It is really sad sometimes to watch him play when you how good he can be/used to be.

-valencia is total crap, seems uefa cup spot isn't their goal -we play calmly -i like pizarro -sheva is finished -it easy now for avram. sheva out, pizza is okay replacement for drogs. -hope we can score in the end -oh goddamn kalou misses a whole lot

Well I care about attractive game since following Chelsea is not my job, it is my hobby. I love to see us win don't get me wrong. In the big picture winning is the key, but football is entertainment for me anyway. Winning is entertaining and I hate to see us lose, but still would be nice to win with a style. We got all the material and money to do so.. At the moment we are doing well so I'm not complaining.

Super Sunday you must mean... Hope we don't lose any additional players against Valencia.. Could we play Ballack in that game? We want to win that game because it is home game and it would be a good boost heading to Arsen*l. I think we still should start with unusual lineup.

I think he would do good in the holding role since he isn't far away from that role normally. Only problem is Chelsea has the best holding midfield players in the world. I don't think anyone will disagree. I mean names like Essien, Mikel and Maka are something that I don't think any team can match. Mikel is already showing his promise and to me looks like Vieira in his better days. Ballack should play the role Essien and Lamps play at the moment(when Mikel or Maka is playing the holding role). But again three is a crowd. Ballack will probably take Essiens place while is playing for Ghana.

Looks like no one believes Ronnie is coming to Chelsea, but still this topic is already 4 pages long...He's an interesting player for sure. Last night I watched Barca-Deportivo. Ronnie returned to the line-up and you couldn't see that smile on his face. Only when he kicked home the penalty he communicated with the crowd. He tried, as usual, to work the crowd but in my opinion he didn't get the response he hoped for. There is so much attacking power in Barca that Ronnie seemed to left second or even third(behind Messi and Iniesta). Maybe he is just in a slump or Barca's other players don't consider him the best anymore. He is still great, but if we are going to pay big bucks on someone I would choose Kaká over Ronnie.

I think Alex played good. Cudicini got a clean sheet so defence line did well.. Belletti was good. I really start to like him. He has a really personal style of play and he tries all the time. Not the most secure player but thats why we got Terry. I think Mikel is the one we should try to keep. The guy is 20 and plays like Vieira at his best. Okay he has the moments when he goes totally blind, but otherwise he is top class. His passes are just silky and accurate. Kalou is really good with the ball, but he just looses all his talent while crossing the white line of the opponents box. Sidwell is useless. We dont need him. Joeys goal was top class!

Our attack is hopeless at the moment Im glad our defence is handling all right.. As I watch Sidwell I see how much we miss Essien..

Rosenborg tries to attack and that is why we are 3-0 up. They have no midfield. We are running through the mid-part of the field wondering where is everybody...I have to admire their risky tactic, but this is what you get against a top team.. Alexs' strike was just great!

3-0. What a strike from ALEX! Now please put Sheva on for second half!

Drogba's done his job. Now put Sheva on. 2-0

Just to think how JM would be fuming right now...He would openly claim how Chelsea is picked by the bigger boys and how it is always Chelsea and no one else. . Good old times.. Grant does the same actually, but in a gentlementlish(probably not a real word) manner.

I'm not saying you will throw long balls to your strikers. You can play short passes going forward and still defend with 11 the rest of the time(what I think will happen), but I think you will try to come from the wings and try to give hard time to our sidebacks. When you get cornerkicks or freekicks they are pretty much the only places I can see you score. There is a small chance Iversen will score in the end of a normal attack, since he's an old T*ttenh*m cun..sorry, player. I watched the both games you played against finnish side TamU and in those games you didn't impress me that much. This is why I'm sceptical about your chances against us. You have been great so far, but I think this is just not going to be your day.

I think we will win. We just need to score that first goal early in the game so they will have to open their game. Our sidebacks will be in a big role in this one. If we concede too much cornerkicks or freekicks they will put one or two behind us. They are not able to score from a normal attack, they need corners or freekicks to score. And I bet that is the tactic they will be using against us. They will defend with all players and try to create those situations with odd counter attacks. I'm hoping they feel all the pressure since it looks so good for them right now. We need to focus really hard early on to score that goal. I predict 3-0 for us (if there is blizzard or a lot of snow on the pitch i have no idea of the outcome)

Would be great coach for England IMO. He seems to be a great "project" coach. Premier league with the cups is too long for him, but coaching England or some other country would suit him well. I mean he is coaching england's most uninteresting side at the moment. Okay, he chose the players, but would be good to him to leave now...

You are absolutely right. But if we become a revolving door in the summer we are going to buy good players to replace these possible huge losses. If we want to be more creative side for example loss of Lampard opens new door for us. He is so dominant at the moment, that we would have to buy Kaká or Ronnie to change our midfield formation. But if he goes we could buy some creative players: VanDerVaart, Diego... I want Lamps to stay, but it would open few doors if he'd left. Cech, JT, Essien, Drogs simply irreplaceable.

We should let some of our profile players rest so others can play. We need to give Sheva, Sidwell and Pizza some time on the pitch. I think we could handle Derby with our number 2 choises. carlo bell-alex-ben-bridge swp-maka-sidwell/lamps-malouda pizza-sheva ..essien, lamps and drogs can come to save us in the end if we still are goalless after an hour.

I have a feeling Grant will be the best in his class. I also think he will be the fastest to graduate.. There might be also some upgrades to this school made with money donated by an anonymous supporter from Russia

Great player for Germany's national team, but not for Bayern. At the moment anyway. I think he will leave Bayern, but probably not to London... He reminds me of Milan Baros. Great for the national team, but underachiever for his club.

It is not the quality that matters if we are talking about Chelsea. We have had the quality in terms of footballing skills for many years now. At the moment I think we have as good chance of winning it as any other team. There is really no superside at the moment. ManU and Real are the best at the moment IMO, but I can see us winning either of those sides on a good day. Few years back when Barca won it, it looked like all year they are going to win it. At the moment there is no such side.

...that's a bit rude to compare that nice looking chap in that baggy fleece outfit to Ribery. Ribery is a great player. He has lot of skill and usually never uses his dribbling ability to show off. He usually means business. If our bosses here think that we need players to sell more Adid*s shirts, maybe Franck is not our guy then. Would love to have him in Chelsea though.

This is how I see our formation from midfield up at the moment. ................maka/mikel.................. ..essien/sidwell....lampard/ballack .....joey/creative mf....................... ........................malouda/kalou...... .........didier/sheva/pizza................ If we are in fact looking for a creative midfielder a.k.a. Zola, Diego, Kaka, VanDerVaart? etc he would fit to take joey's place as joey simply isn't effective enough for that job. I'd like to see joey succeed there, but just don't see it happen at the moment.

good point. I forgot to put a smiley in that post to indicate I was sarcastic/drunk(you choose). My point on Rosenborg is from the fact that I saw them play their CL qualifying games against Finnish side TamU. They didn't show me signs they would be obstacle to us. They have been okay winning struggling Valencia, but their luck is about to change..I just hope there is no snow in Rosenborg's pitch...that has been sort of obstacle to us in recent history. My bald prediction: derby-chelsea 0-2 (2xsheva), rosenborg-chelsea 2-3 (drogs,2xsheva)