Blunder

Not in the Stamford Bridge upgrade apparently

I'll be gutted if he leaves. Where are the goals going to come from?

Same for me. First game: 3 Dec 1960 CFC 7 v WBA 1. Next game CFC 6 v Man C 3. A month later we were put out of the FA cup by Crewe!

That's me standing about six rows from the back of the West Terrace just this side of the half-way line.

I doubt it. Letting your emotions get the better of you doesn't work in any circumstance. It's called ill-discipline. Just ask Antonio.

I agree and in fact don't go along with most posters here. We weren't blameless. Sure the foul was dreadful and always a red but other than a few appropriate words from David Luiz the incident should have been left to the ref.The "Fracas" started after Chalobah came rushing in and pushed Aguero. He was way out of order. He's the youngest player on the team, not a regular and should leave enforcement to the senior players (just not Diego!)

Good deal! Then we can buy him back at half the price in two years!

Surprised not to see any eulogies here for the great Peter Brabrook. I know there are several other old fans from the 50's and early 60's trolling on this forum and expected to see some memories posted. Peter was a super player; fast and skillful. He was one of my first Chelsea heroes and I was devastated when he left for West Ham. My understanding though was that he always wanted to go there and was talked into it by Phil Woosnam. As a 15 year old I used to stand near the back of the West Terrace and there was one fan who always used to get really excited and shout "Garn Peda!" every time Peter received the ball. And he often did something magic with it. I wonder if anyone has any stats on the number of assists he provided for Jimmy Greaves? Now THAT was a combination! RIP Peter and thanks for the memories.

Might be a little less vulnerable down that side if we switched Azpi to LB and Cahill to RB.

A big problem at Chelsea is that there seems to be a huge gulf between the first team squad and the youth players. This was blatantly evident in the friendly at the end of last season when Chelsea played Sydney FC. Jose brought on a bunch of youth and fringe players like Loftus Cheek and Ake and they looked clueless as to what their role was and where to fit in. Only Boga was the least bit impressive (and I haven't heard of him since). On the limited opportunities this group has had this year in the BPL it's been the same. None of these lads look like they're going to really light up the League. All this is puzzling as these guys are supposed to have been training with the first team squad. It doesn't look like it when they get on the pitch. Maybe they just practice bench-warming. This was the exact opposite at ManU in their heyday under SAF when the young players fitted straight in and looked like they'd been doing it for years. This needs to change if we're ever going to see any product from the Academy at any stage let alone this season.

There won't be many on here who will remember Terry but he was an occasional starter in what today would be called Holding Midfield I suppose. I don't think he was a first choice, but he was an honest trier. Anyway 5.5M - not a bad draw! Well done Terry.

After seeing Remy's performance against Sydney I'd say it would be a real shame if he leaves. I appreciate SFC isn't exactly Premier League but he looked very sharp and pacey wide right, great left foot shot and seems to offer something we didn't have much from that side last year.

And for those not as old as me or who are and can't remember: Chelsea vs Burnley 1955 FA cup 4th round took 4 replays! (Chelsea won 2-0 at White Hart Lane) No coin toss, corner count-backs or penalties in those days. Real men!

Better than Fred though!

I agree with The Brit. Scolari had them so wound up by the Neymar and Thiago absences (did you see them during their anthem? It looked like they were on something) they all completely lost it when Germany scored. Everyone wanted to rescue the team on their own; none more so than Luiz. He was everywhere except where he should have been. It was total chaos. They were swarming around like 5 year olds while Big Phil just sat there with that frozen look on his face. He should have been on his feet yelling to them to hold shape. It must be the most disastrous example of coaching seen in professional sport Sadly I don't think Luiz will learn anything from this. They are saying they don't know what went wrong! that's been the trouble with him all along.

Yes but JM wants someone who can make something out of nothing. Costa doesn't seem able to do this. He'll end up with the same service others have had here and likely with worse results.

Mandzukic looks much better for us than Costa from what I've seen. Better positioning and work rate. I prefer the German ethic as well. Much closer to what works in the Premier.

I'm not hopeful either. Weren't we promised our young players would all improve? Don't think they have except for Azza, (but he was already good last year). Most have dropped off badly over the past three months and there's been very little sparkle. One striker wont fix that and I agree we most need a replacement for Lampard if the attack is going to function regardless of who's leading the line. There seems to be too much focus on players that run and chase the ball all day - even if they don't create anything once they've won it.

Wasn't that about what Ba was doing at Newcastle before he came down? Look, I hope you're right, but there've been too many disappointments in this position to get carried away

Not sure what all the fuss is about over Lukaku. Yes he scored a few for WBA last year but so did Sturridge at Liverpool. He'll have to be a hell of a lot sharper than he looked in the pre-season friendlies last year. His first touch was woefully clumsy.

Not many of us left apparently. I used to follow Chelsea all over England in those days. I remember the Anfield game quite well. We were Division 1 still though we went down at the end of the year while Liverpool was Division 2 and would be promoted that season. So we knew it was going to be tough. My mate Freddie and I went up on the BR Special and had tickets in the stand to the left of the Cop. We were about the only Chelsea fans in that stand. The place was packed and the Cop was literally heaving where it was a sea of red scarves. We were sitting about half way between the centre and the corner at the opposite end of the end opposite the Cop. If my memory is correct we scored first but Liverpool were attacking the Cop end and with their crowd support were all over us and scored three themselves before half-time. At every goal it was deafening and the crowd surge was amazing, how anyone survived I don't know. In the second half the fog was so thick you could hardly make out was happening in the far goalmouth but Chelsea came back and scored twice but we lost 4-3 in the end. Not sure of the scorers. Bobby Tambling probably got one or two. He was great. It was a terrific game and we were well respected by the opposing fans. No violence. Maybe if we'd got another goal they wouldn't have been so friendly! I'm guessing a bit at the prices now but I think it was about a quid on the train and 12 bob to get into the stand. There wasn't a lot of away support in those days. British Rail would usually run a train and the Supporters Club had a couple of coaches. That all changed a few years later of course but I migrated to Australia at the end of the sixties and didn't see any of that. Don't think I'd have wanted to frankly.

Anyone concerned that all our recent signings people are talking about as candidates for widemen seem to be very right foot players, Hazard, Marin, Oscar (if the rumour is true)? Add ramires to that group and while I know some of these will be midfielders, what have we got on the left? Malouda yes but everyone seems to want him out. KDB but he's surely a long way off a regular first team place. It's popular to play players on their "wrong" side particularly if they can cut in and score eg Robben, but with a striker like Torres, we'll need player that can occasionally run to the by-line and cross rarther than crowd him. You cant do that from the left if you're a right footed player.

No one would ever argue that he wasn't a hero in that role but I for one don't want to see that reliance on a lone striker again; long punts up field (Cech the biggest culprit), no other blue shirt within 10m and hoping Drog can either hold it up or turn one-on-one. That works about 1 in 20 attempts and is horrible to watch (except when he does someone like Gallas!!). Hopefully we wont need the bus so much in future but that requires a more solid back four and midfielders playing further up and getting into space. Whether we go for RDM or Pep, we have to move in that direction.

I started going to the Bridge as a fan rather than a visitor (Dad was a Man U supporter) in Jimmy Greaves' last year. The first two matches were against Man City and WBA and Chelsea won 6-3 and 7-1. That did it for me. But within a couple of weeks we'd lost at home to Crewe in the cup and next year Jimmy was gone and we went down. I used to stand about half-a dozen steps down from the back of the West Terrace on the half-way line. There was a group of blokes who used to have a draw for the first goal scorer - anyone who got Greaves was celebrating. I remember one chap who'd be quiet as a church mouse until Peter Brabrook got hold of the ball when he'd go ballistic, then shut up as soon as he'd lost it. I think it was 4 bob to get in in those days.