Next season

[Castiel]

Real quick, if we win the FA cup do we play the Mancs again in the community shield for coming second?

Main point, as wonderful as this season is turning out; I'm a bit worried that the Mancs are only a point behind us after gutting their attack and replacing superstars with the not so hot Berbatov. What do you think our main stumbling blocks were this season, why we didn't take the opportunities we had to break away and steal the title earlier and how can we improve? (Although the second half today looked better than anything I've seen Barca produce) I can't see Fergie giving up until he's overturned Liverpool's record and expect a very strong challenge from them next season.

 

[BigIzz]

It's obvious that the problem this season was consistency. Chelsea punished weaker teams on numerous occasions this season. They also did fantastic against the top competitors. The stumbling blocks against Blackburn, Everton, Tottenham, Man City are puzzling. Clearly they are teams that Chelsea could beat at their best but for whatever reason they weren't at their best on those days. I'm not not sure how to fix that problem. Let's not forget we had a ton of injuries this season. Essien, Carvalho, Bosingwa, Mikel, Cech, Ash Cole, Joe Cole, Ivanovich, etc all missed significant amounts of time. Those losses would be more then a lot of clubs overcome.

 

[sals]

yup we do play the mancs next season in the community shield if we win the FA cup. The mancs largely got carried by rooney, should he not fire the same next year they will be in a lot of trouble. Will be interesting to see who fergie signs in the summer and whether he can finally find someone suitable to replace VDS

 

[Castiel]

Rooney is undoubtedly their driving force, and also their Achilles heel. They can't seem to afford the kind of signing they'd have to make in order to sufficiently cover him when he gets injured so it will be interesting to see what they pull out of the hat. I'm tempted to blame a lot of inconsistency from us this season on the frankly deplorable onslaught both the team and individual players have received in the press. But that isn't going to end any time soon, Chelsea is the axis of evil after all and must be stopped for the greater good of football. :431:

But it'd make sense to me. We both had bad injures and we also had the African contingent out for a month which didn't affect them at all I don't think. The only variable that affected us and not them was the press issue, in fact the press backed United to the end - I think the mirror is still backing them and its over... Perhaps such a successful season will revive some confidence so its easier to ignore those idiots in the press and it wont bother the players so much next season.