axman2526

Well well, as it stands Uncle 'Arry can cheer on Frank in Munich because it will be Arsenal in the prone 4th place.

Anyone see the 11 min applause for Didi and how it was recieved?

Fair enough, not found Spurs to be anything more than annoying rather than dislikeable, mind you in my 18 years of following the club we have basically owned Spurs so yeah... Can but hope, but is the team effort that will decided it for me. Didi at his best will win nothing if our other 10 play poorly.

Italian cup, Spanish Cup, German cup et al are mostly looked upon like most English sides look upon the league cup. When we lost against Spurs did it make losing the CL final to United worse? Would have winning the league cup lessened the heartache or would have winning it improved the euphoria of winning the CL? No, not a chance. Maybe this is the comparison I should have drawn rather than Liverpool. It would have been good to beat Spurs on that occasion but the pain has long since gone from it, the memories have faded. How about Drogba thundering a drive against the bar? Or JT slipping at the vital moment? Those memories are still fresh, as they will be against Bayern (whatever the outcome). The same will be said for them, and the occasion is grander for them. It is their country, their stadium, in front of a majority share of their fans (you can say tickets are sold equally but we all know more Bayern fans will get the "neutral" seats than we will). A final against an English side, once more another chapter in the Germany and England chronicles. It could not be a bigger final for them. In comparison a final against Dortmund looks far less important.

Good indeed but a shame if Flo Mo is the one to start ahead of him...

Bayern are a more infamous club than Dortmand (bigger if you will). This was the end of Dortmund’s season, not Bayern’s. You think winning the German cup matters whether Bayern beat us or not? Win the CL and is this groups biggest achievement, you think the fans can take any solace by saying "oh well we lost the CL final but won the German cup" or boast further "winning the German cup makes winning the CL even better". Now our FA cup, steeped in a great history. We will all be gutted if we lose to Bayern however we once more got OUR trophy back this year and was a great moment beating a rival like Liverpool in the final. Bayern losing this game is like us on Tuesday, a group of players who did not care about the game because they have something more to focus on. Bayern’s defence may be bad, but whoever they put our will be better than Paulo, Essien, Boswinga and Cole at the back (as we may have to play). So best not to jinx us by mocking their defence eh? Two sides capable of the great will meet in Munich, hopefully it will be a great game. Play at our best and we can win, but don’t kid yourself in to believing it will be the same Bayern side that rolled over for Dortmund.

I do not believe we will beat Bayern, if that ends up being the case I would want us to play a strong (motivated...) side in the Europa. Too many times have the Vikings, Hapeols et al embaressed us in that comeptition because the players did not give two figgs about it...

Well we are doomed then...

Wonder if those 2 or 3 youngsters inlcude Betrand in the count, given he has now put himself firmly in the regular squad.

Can go either way, both sides have lots of quality so is about who produces it on the day, and/or who gets lucky. Got to be Lamps btw, he deserves it.

Anything is, but Barca compaired to Bayern is like Oil and Water. Where Barca will keep the ball for fun and try and carefully play their way through Bayern have the options of chucking the ball at Gomez (not unlike what we can do with Drogba). They also do not need anywhere enar as much of the ball to be more deadly than Barca. I wish I had confidence for this game, but I do not. Either way though it is only our second ECL final in our history and I would like to try and enjoy it, whatever the outcome.

Hilario, Todd Kane, Hutch, Brana, Bertrand, Meireles, Essien, Ramires, Piazon, Torres, Lukaku for me. JT is still nursing those injured ribs, no need to push him in a game where the result has not end meaning in terms of our league position. We want to see Torres used out wide for maybe the CL final? Use him wide in this game. More game time for Paulo in case we use him in munich, ditto Essien. Couple of kids also get the chance to show what they can do. What I would like to see anyways.

Is Lukaku even in our CL squad? Is Hutch? And far as weak line ups go, the one we had after JT got sent off for near 60 mins in Barca will probably be weaker than what we put out against Bayern. What matters most is whether the side we put our show as much concentration, determination and desire as the 10 lads (plus subs) we had that night or not.

This. Even if they are is a hard ask, Bayern on their own pitch will be very tough, but with Essien and Bosingwa at CB vs Gomez, Muller, Robben etc. Will make the Anfield game look a close match.

Shows our B options are not good enough, if you will. JT had a poor game, but what does he have left to play for? He won his cup final, as did Brana. We put Turnbull in goal, he is nowhere near the level of Cech so not a surprise we shipped 4. End of the day though the only result that truely matters in the one on May 19th. Win and all will be forgotten and a legacy we will never forget will be written. Lose and they will be remebered as just being one step short of imortality.

Is all on that now. Win the CL Robbie makes himself unsackable, I mean how can you remove a manager who just won for you what you most crave and who would become the greatest manager in Chelsea history. Lose the CL final though Robbie is gone, no mattter what we think of that. Winning a 4th FA cup in 8 seasons for Roman, and failing to qualify for the CL, will, in Romans eyes imo, makes Robbie a worse manager than Grant, he got us CL football the next season even in losing to United in the final. Just then way I believe Roman thinks from what he has shown to us.

Seems tonight showed Essien and Romeu are not going to be able to cope with facing Bayern, and as has already been discussed keep Flo Mo AWAY from this one. Playing Torres wide is looking more good by the minute...

No Cech...hmm...think we might be in trouble then, he has saved our butts many times of late.

For league games it is up in the air but your cup final, like ours, I expect both sides really want to win. Now with Luiz and Cahill out we could not use our (hopeful) CL defence however we could have used a midfield 5 we would use but did not, using Ramires who got the first goal. Winning the FA cup ensured that this legendary group of players at least achieved one final salvo and gives us one last memory of the strength and ability. If they can win on the 19th then, well then they finish on the ultimate.

Will be for the bench but for a midfield 5 we should be fine. 2 of Lampard, Essien and Romeu deep. Then from Ramires, Mata, Malouda, Sturridge and Kalou behind the striker. Not bad overall. Though to be fair we need to see what Essien AND Romeu can Do I guess so them deep, Lampard in the middle with say Ramires right and Flo Mo left, Drogs up top.

Those 3 are huge to us. In adversity we overcame when Cahill got injured and JT sent off, but we had Ramires and Brana to help us do it. Without them and JT we need the whole team to step it up again.

Yup if you want to be offensive. Have to have faith Robbie will pick the right side. Much as being in the CL is important he did what he needed too it was proved against the Toon, rested players and the result was we more or less got knocked out of the top 4 race BUT helped us to go on and win the FA cup. While some may disagree adding a trophy, and one of the big 3 in the FA cup, is more important than one league match, one set of 3 points. End of the day useless performances and results early in the season are what have hit our top 4 chances.

Cech, Paulo, Brana, JT, Bertrand, Essien, Lampard, Ramires, Mata, Malouda and Drogba for me. Lamps does better when he keeps playing games, and as was said keep JT, Brana, Ramires in, using Meireles too to rest players. Cole, Mikel, Boswinga and Kalou can have a rest in this one, can test Essien's and Paulo's fitness in case Robbie decides to start against either against Bayern. Rest Mata and we lose our creator and if we are going to use Flo Mo then has to be the Drog up top, Torres + Malouda does not make for good viewing...

Just is not in his makeup imo, there are some players who just do not switch on fast enough to help back and Danny is one of them imo. Depends what you are looking for, for the game. You want to be more offensive? Ok use Danny, he has a goal in him (because of two things, he takes up good positions in the box and is a greedy sob). Or you can use Torres, also has a lot of offensive quality and will cover more than Danny but, imo, will be less effective than Danny wide (because he is rarely used there and is a forward, whether the main forward or second striker) You want to be defensive? Play Kalou on the left (who mostly does track back well) and use Essien or Boswinga on the right (both have pace and a better defensive mindset than Danny or Torres). Or play Kalou on the right and put Bertrand at left midfield for a similar effect. You want to try something different? Change the system, use a diamond or 4-2-2-2. Drogba and Torres up top, Mata at the tip, Kalou or Essien on the right, Lampard left and Mikel deep. Keeps Torres in his natural position, can even vary it to 4-1-3-1-1 with Torres dropping off Drogba or vice versa, Lampard dropping deeper and Mata drifting to the left with Kalou to the right, or vice versa for in swinging crosses. All options to Robbie. No doubt our list is much more damaging than Bayern's, captain and leader missing for being a moron, our most energetic midfielder in Ramires and most dependable defender in Brana all missing, in addition to Meireles who has been solid in Europe.

Not sure if Zippy will agree but, for me, Gustavo being out is a good thing for Bayern as it forces them to start Muller, who always has goals in him and will feed on knock downs from Gomez. As for the midfield, is about who turns up on the day. Lamps could out play Schweinsteiger, Schweinsteiger could out play Lamps or they could be as effective as each other. Kroos is likely compared to Mikel for the game not Essien or Romeu (assuming Robbie starts with Lamps and Mikel as the deep two). With that being said depends which Mikel turns up, he can be a monster that destroys attacks and keeps the ball with ease. Or he can be a moron that dwells on it and gives it away in key areas. Mikel has the potential to impeed Bayern well, whereas Kroos from deep could end up being Bayerns best creator. Then you have the 3 further forward, likely to move around a lot for Bayern but with Ribery on the left, Robben right and Muller middle most of the time. I'd take Mata over Muller as he is, in general, more creative however Muller has more goals in him. Kalou against Robben? No contest going forward, Kalou for better work ethic. Ribery against ? Now that is the question. Could well be Kalou and Essien/Danny could be on the right. Could be any number of other options. That is the one I cannot answer now, but I hope we do not start Danny, we need everyone pulling their defensive cover for this one and Danny just switches off too often.