Ozztheboss

Such a shame with Sturridge. If a hamstring injury keeps you out for, let's say 3-4, maybe even 5 weeks, then it's pretty serious and it most certainly will affect you later in the career.

The POINT is that every player screws up, no matter how good they are. Messi missed a penalty against us in the semi final last year. Ronaldo missed his penalty in RM's semi final last year. Half of the Bayern team missed their penalties in the final. If Torres was wasteful against Arsenal, what do you read out of our other players? Torres' in-efficiency can't be blamed alone without discussing the other players dis-functionality. As I said, Torres should have scored against Nordsjælland. He will be livid with himself, but even on a bad day he still created two (three if you count the PK for the second goal) goals, the first one arguably the most important for the match. That's a decent performance for me, in a match where no one was really gelling.

Well. It could of course be that most Chelsea supporters are tired of the media (and our own supporters, by the look of this thread) slagging our players, managers, supporters and team all the time, and therefor feel a responsibility to defend ourselves (of course within rational limits...). At least that's the way I feel it.

Lewandowski misses a sitter. No striker scores on every opportunity, you know... Balotelli in instead of Tevez. Mancini has lost it.

Pointed out exactly the same in the "Following our rivals"-thread. If a striker scores 2 goals from his 7 good chances, then he's being saluted. If he doesn't score 1 from his 2 chances, then he's rubbish (at best). That being said, I felt that Torres should have scored yesterday. However, it's good that he has developed his footballing brain and general skills and can contribute in other parts of the game as well. Some of his through balls are Mata-esque, and he's good and energetic in the pressure.

Aguero has missed two 1 on 1 chances already.

Tore Andre Flo. The nicest man in the world!

Firstly, my hate towards Savage is mostly based on his appearances on the pitch. Where he was a c**t. A proper one as well. Secondly, how do you define wasteful? He was "only" dispossessed three times playing in a difficult role (lone man up top). Mata was dispossessed 6 times, Oscar 5 times and Ramires 4 times, all in much more critical areas on the pitch. Yes, he probably should have scored that 1 vs 1, but no strikers scores on every opportunity. He also got hindered quite strongly just before his shot (I thought it was a penalty, but we won, so yey). I saw Aguero miss two 100% chances against Fulham, and Van Rapist didn't exactly do well in front of goal against Spuds. I've also seen our very own Drogba miss tons of chances 1 on 1 against the keeper. I also feel that Torres' goal doesn't get nearly enough credit (except from "just", of all people :)). It was pure football magic. The amount of skill, strength and balance that was required was immense. But you know, it's easier to remember the misses than the goals, huh.

One of the biggest pricks to ever enter the Premier League has something (very) smart to say. Wouldn't have thought that five years ago. Even Phil Thompson (the man who had his nose replaced by his cock, and his brain replaced by his ass) was full of praise for Torres, and I find it difficult that the anti-Chelsea pundits salutes our striker, whilst our fans thinks his performance was very inconsistent and not enough.

That depends what you're looking for in a full back. If you want gung-ho, then Marcelo and Alba are both great and the best in the world. If you want a full back that doesn't leave an autobahn behind themselves, then they're absolutely rubbish. A full back is after all a defender.

Agree with pretty much everything you said. Comparing Oxlade to Gazza is almost on the boarder line to blasphemy. Gazza sure has to be one of the most naturally gifted players to ever come around, and Ox just isn't. The "special"-bit in Oxlade is the physical side to his game. He has a good acceleration and a good top speed, but he isn't very good at getting past players, especially from a "standing still"-start. His touch lets him down far too often for him to be a consistent performer in 1 vs 1 situations, situations that are very important for a winger. Walcott falls under this category as well, imo. A guy like Le Tissier could go past players like they didn't exist, and he didn't have an ounce of pace on him.

Zone marking system when defending set-pieces is pretty much suicidal when the level of the athletes are so high, yes. It was the same against City, wasn't it?

Van Persie. Haha, what a finish!

Himself included.

OMG

AVB made magic!

The work has started.

Let's see if AVB can do his magic in the dressing room, or if he really has turned out good (at least for now)...

Belgian SW6: How many goals do you think Lukaku would have bagged today?

That's your opinion. However, saying that Kosc' touch didn't hinder Torres is wrong. And that's not an opinion, that's pure fact.

Well, then it's mostly down to definitions. I thought Torres was clearly hindered in the finishing moment, but I see that the decision was tough for the referee. He not only had to give the penalty, he would also have had to send Kosc off, and there isn't many refs that are that ballsy, especially only 20-25 minutes into a London Derby match. The thing about being wasteful is an argument I can see, but not really understand, given that the likes of Van Rapist and Aguero are highly regarded as a "get out of jail"-card. When Rapist scored that hat trick against Soton he had also missed a sitter and a penalty before that. Aguero had a good opportunity when he headed the ball outside the post from three yards out. Even Drogba had his flaws in front of goal. The argument therefor must be that Torres doesn't do enough do get into scoring positions, but I saw at least two clear opportunities where our wide players could have squared the ball to him, the last one with Bertrand the most obvious. Given the amount of work he did on our half today, it wasn't that strange. What I liked about Torres' performance today was that he really gave his all and was a brilliant link up player. With the likes of Oscar, Mata and Hazard on our team, it's just as important to be able to link the play as it is to score (even though both is needed for a club like Chelsea).

The slight touch certainly explains the miss hit. If you don't understand that, then you're suggesting that Torres can defy the laws of physics. He can't. For what it's worth, Phil Thompson seemed to think it was a blatant penalty. And he hasn't been the nicest to Chelsea and our striker in the past, huh.

Souness, for all his many flaws, understands and knows a leader.

Ohh, lucky schmucky.

This is dangerous.