evissy

First of all: Football has to be entertaining. I don't get paid for watching football. It is not my job. I do it because it entertains me. If Chelsea plays unentertaining football I have to ask myself why would I want to use my valuable leisuretime for that. Of course it is not that simple, simply because I have grown to love Chelsea and the players. But the end of last season and the beginning of this season I wasn't waiting to see Chelsea play like a little child waits for candy. It wasn't entertaining to watch. Long ball to DD and maybe Lamps scored a goal from deflection(ok, again too much simplified) Even with valuing Chelsea's style of play under JM in the last season in the big picture it wasn't entertaining. You could sense that the players had to win and not lose. You could sense it from the way they played; save energy, score simple goal, defend with 10 men etc... If the players look uneasy you start to feel uneasy watching them play. Beginning of the season after we played B'ham and won them with great style of play I couldn't wait to see Chelsea play again, but then we went back to what it was before. I have always loved big personalities in the game, like Gullit, Zola and Vialli from our history. DD and Terry for example are big personalities now. JM is a big personality himself, but I think he tried to build a team full of robots, so to say. Players who can perform night after night, do exactly what the manager says and never complain or put their own spice in the soup. With JM we never had innovative style to give the freekick or backheel passes or small lobs behind the defensive line, that is something that our players were taken away by Mourinho. What we had/have is simple style, winning mentality, not losing mentality. It is boring in a long run and you feel for the players not to have any freedom of what they do.

I agree that Drogs is attracted to Mourinho, but if Grant makes us win and Drogs keeps scoring he wont be leaving to Valencia or anywhere lese for that matter. No way, I think that would be just stupid from DD. In Chelsea he can win, score goals, be adored by fans and get teammates he wants. In Valencia, well there is JM(possibly).

Both. First it was clockwise and I couldn't believe it could go anticlockwise. The trick is to make it go anticlockwise is scroll down the page so that you can only see her legs from knees down. When the legs are "on top of eachother" make yourself believe that the more outstretched leg is going the other way. That way I tricked(or however it works) myself believing that and boom she goes the other way. Now just scroll the page up to see the whole dancer going anticlockwise. It worked for me anyway. Answer for loz's test is: C) The boy who gets to do it. The task is to wash Rafa's back in the shower.

Yes, I agree. Sinclair needs first team experience, but more importantly Sheva and Pizza needs to play. Maybe they flop, but we'll never know what they are made of if they don't play constantly. Sinclair is still young but these cup ties are great place to make a mark.

------------carlo paolo-ben haim-alex-bridge ------------maka ----SWP------------sidwell -----------mikel ----sheva--------pizza I'd REALLY like to see Mikel playing right behind the strikers. I think he has what it takes to be that guy. I really hope that Avram gives Sheva 90mins and Pizza as well. SWP also needs to play. He probably feels sh*t that JM is gone since Grant really isn't favoring him. I predict 4-1 to us. Sheva 2, Pizza 1, SWP 1 - Nobody 1.

We got what we wanted: gave a good asswhipping to less annoying Manchester team. We didn't stop scoring after 2-0... Sheva scored ... Pool-Ars* drew like we wanted... I would say it was a good weekend!

Agree. Amazing speed from him at times. What happened to the old Ferreira? And we also got to see a great cross from his left foot. It's another one of those little changes that you have been missing Moos Avram clued him up that the half way line isn't electrified True. True. It seems like Jos? kept little Ferreira on a short leash while Avram now has cut him free and keep yelling "Run, little ferret. Run!" My thoughts exactly. Seems like JM kept lot of our players on a short leash. Grant has done something right, it has to be said. Our team obviously needed a change.

Playing Mikel in front of Lampard? Oh goody, I'm sure that will improve our attack. that's where he should be played- he has a better creative brain and better short passing than lamps, who is best making long diagonal passes and making runs into the box. it makes no sense to play lamps too advanced- he doesn't have the creativity or dribbling to cope with man marking (generally speaking), and a player like mikel should be close to the attacking players- to get the most out of short passing you need to have players a shorter distance from eachother. agreed, but I dont see Grant playing Mikel up there. That is what I'm hoping though.

----------cech----------- paolo-riccy-alex-bridge ---------essien---------- ----------------lamps--- -------mikel------------- ---joey---------malouda ---------drogs----------- 2-1 to us. I predict ciry tries to attack as well and wont be all 11 below the ball. eriksson is brave lad, will try to shake us.

Some people just cant handle criticism or people won't have the guts to say the truth. Sheva's been slow but probably no one has told him. Maybe he realized it himself and now he tries to do something to it. He is 30 something, of course he can get his pace back it is just the matter of will. Players even great ones should always try to improve. You can do a whole lot to your physics even when you are a little bit older. RUN SHEVA RUN!

I believe in the professionalism of our players. Some might be more professional than others. Dont try to build drama in something that possibly isnt there, women do that . The players are paid huge amounts of money and their fans are usually workers like probably most of us. I really believe most of our players think of these things even a bit. I dont think they want to look like bunch of arsenalholes in our eyes and act like primadonnas. Bosses change in normal workplaces also, but people move on. I think most of our players have moved on. If you think of it from the players point of view most of them are better playing in Chelsea, I mean what would be better team to win something. Ok you might say ManU, Barca or Milan, but the fact is that it is really hard to break into those teams.

arse-pool 0-0 would be best. teams ahead of us drawing is the best for us. our game against man city is crucial. if we win that and ars-pool draw it looks lot better. if we lose we are in a deep hole. more of a mental hole than pointgap. we need to put city where it belongs...behind us in the table. that funny looking bald swede just gives me the creeps..

Now my morning coffee tastes better and leaving to work while being really tired doesn't feel so bad, thank you Steve for making it better. Tubby's tactics have worked again. They wanted to be as good in EPL as they are in CL. Well, they are 4th in both now. Congrats Tubby.

We had that match at Wembley lately. Chelsea 1 Schalke 2 Sorry it was England : Germany Lampard (Chelsea) 1 Kuranyi (Schalke)and Pander (Schalke)2 So pander is injured You got a chance then Yes I watched that game. Lamps' goal was good. Robbo scored the second himself and Pander's shot was obviously out of Robbos reach(great shot by the way). England played Germany at Wembley but Tottenham lost it. Kuranyi is always dangerous even more so us being without JT. Long shots are not the solution against Chelsea since, well we got Cech(and not Spurs' finest). Cornerkicks and freekicks are what I am afraid of, hope Schalke don't get too many.

My prediction is that we will win 3-1 or 2-0. Drogs and Sheva will score. Sheva is still good in CL games. Shalke supporter, which players should we be aware/scared of? Goalscorers. Kevin Kuranyi plays for Shalke, right?

I don't think Pizarro has been given enough of a chance yet in my opinion, and its too early to say 'it hasn't worked out'. Plus he was brought to Chelsea to fill in Drogs during the ANC. Would be stupid to let him go. I think he has lot to give to Chelsea, he's just not given the chance.

No one if no one comes in. Drogba have been leaving the day he came here. He's emotional guy and a tendency to say before think. His status is so big in the team and Chelsea image that I don't think he will leave if he keeps scoring and Chelsea has realistic chances to win CL or EPL. Lamps is best off in EPL. I really don't think he would be as good in Spain or Italy as he is in England. Would he change to another EPL team? He could, but why should he?

Your optimism is really catchy. I like it. We shouldn't throw the towel yet. However when the difficult times hit us in the face this season(I mean it will come sooner or later) we are really tested and when I mean "we" I mean Avram and his assistants.

In a normal world Sheva and Drogs REALLY woudn't be that bad. Actually it should be one of the best striking partners in the world, but hey we are living in this world.. They should train together and work out some moves. Maybe their egos are too big for that. petr paulo ricardo alex ben tal claude michael frank joey didier andriy i hope 0-2 for us, but i predict 2-2 or 3-3.

Middlesbro game is 20th of this month and that is the next Chelsea game. Ten Cate is coming soon and he has time to get to know the players. Almost everyone is out of town with their national squads but they are usually 2-3day trips. With Ballack back in training soon we have pretty much everyone healthy. How should Avram and Chelsea use this time in your opinion? In my opinion we should train cornerkicks and freekicks. We need a few patterns in both to start scoring from them. At the moment we are crap in that department. We can't count on Lamps every time. J.Cole and F.Malouda should stay at the training ground few extra hours to train these. You don't come good with general training. Freekicks and Corners are in a rather small part of the game if the game doesn't work in general, but our game apart from scoring is working okay. We are playing well between the boxes, but not especially well inside them. Defence is okay, but attack is hopeless inside the box apart from Drogs of course.

Sheva and Pizza in attack, Malouda and J.Cole behind them, then Essien and Maka and the rest same as in Valencia. Edit: Sheva is known to Score, Kalou is known not to know where the goal is.

I vote Joe. He was brilliant handling the ball in many occasions. His confidence is back and now we can only wait Malouda to improve. They play close on the pitch so they will start to complement each other, hope sooner than later. Mikel was also great and Maka. In these hard times it is easy to spot our most important players. And Riccy. Don't even have to mention Drogs. BTW do you think Drogba's goal celebration was some sort of statement? He started to "fly" and then suddenly looked down and waved all the other players away. Maybe it was for JM? Dont know. Just a thought.

Essien to Sidwell. Hope Essien is taken by precaution, hope it is nothing serious. I predicted 2-2, hope we will make it even better. That tall Zigic guy really reminds me of Crouch. Hope he is not any better.

Did we score just now?? Cant believe it! We it is good. The lucky goal is cancelled. J.Cole

0-1. Bad luck is all we need right now. Villa scores from a bounce from our players. SH*T. Our guys really dont know what they are doing. they need guidance.