i have to say, knowing chelsea of old have always been very capable of settling for being just good (forgetting the mediocre/cack days hopefully) amongst other good teams, now since Jose left i get the feeling weve moved up into the "top 4" but not likely to win a season again unless Man U f**k up royally.

we rode a wave shortly after he left with avram but even with ancelotti's steady hand, i fear the transfer embargo will lock us into place as just an also-ran of the top 4.

Anelka is shining but his kind of light is that of a dying star, and drogba surely cannot have that much left in the tank even if it is for 2 years still.. lamps has been moved into the dreaded central midfield workhorse/playmaker role that doesnt bring goals for him, though does ensure the defense>attack is always linked with the help of essien/ballack ofc... and our width is almost all gone.. with malouda stuttering and joey only just coming back and no strength in depth there i fear we will have a fairly lengthy wait until we can recapture the halcyon form of JM's reign..

Placing 2nd/3rd i feel will be the best we will see with maybe some cup glory along the way sure.. maybe even the CL. Even without Ronaldo, i think Man U outclass us and possibly if Arsenal were to somehow make this squad last the whole season they could run us to the wire. Liverpool im not worried about, theyre pretty gash.

Its a shame but the price to pay for JM;s success was the spotlight gaze of the FA's disciplinary board who will use us as an example wherever possible for ever more.

this looks to seriously undermine our continued growth into Romans ideal "Real Madrid" league of club. we tasted the glory and were firmly cemented as an English Top Four side but are we on the path to being held in the same regsrd as Real and Man U? No. not unless big changes are made and i fear many of them cant be done untill after the transfer embargo.

thoughts? am i totally wrong? or is there a growing feeling i may be right..

Yes, the sky is falling. We might as well present the trophy to Manchester United at their next home game, what is the point of playing the other 29 games?

The "halcyon" form of Mourinho's reign is an illusion. We were great then but that means nothing now because the other clubs of the league have improved drastically.

As sh*t as the competition is, it's the Champions' League that makes a 'glamour' club. Win that and we'll be well on the way to your idea of success.

We are a point behind man u at the moment. Our squad has the best depth in the league. I have a feeling we are in a 2 horse race for the title, should we win it and our transfer ban get reduced we will be able to land some quality targets in the summer window. Just hae patience and belief in the team.

far be it for me to add to the list of people who rant "they sky is falling" after every loss, but this isnt a snap opinion.. I calls em like I see's em.. our formation is wrong. jut wrong, but the scary thing is theres no other formation we could use better with the teamsheet we have currently.

Not getting the Marquee signing we now clearly could use is another reason we arent on track to Romans plans.. Theres so many wonderful players that moved about and we watched the whole parade go by, buying one simple left back which we desperately needed, yes, but nothing else?? I dont count Sturridge or the keeper who's name i forget right now as they are not in the same league as current other players of their age in first teams. Why didnt we snap up one of Villas fantastics newbloods? imagine us with Milner,Young or Gabby in the side!

Instead we watch the same guys who finished 3rd last year give it another shot. Are they going to change somehow and win the Prem? no, of course not. theyre all a year older and a lot richer.

losing to Wigan and Villa costs you 6 points against teams you should be snapping up to offset the 6 you might lose against the other Top 4 away.

i still have faith of course, anything can and does happen, but there is a growing trend to spot here.

I calls em like I see's em.. our formation is wrong. jut wrong, but the scary thing is theres no other formation we could use better with the teamsheet we have currently.

So you're saying Deco and Anelka would have tucked those chances away if we were using a different formation?

Nothing wrong with the formation at the moment. Today was all about getting it done when it counted. Carvalho didn't, Deco didn't, Anelka didn't and on and on.

The tune will change when we start racking up the wins again, and beat United.

far be it for me to add to the list of people who rant "they sky is falling" after every loss, but this isnt a snap opinion.. I calls em like I see's em.. our formation is wrong. jut wrong, but the scary thing is theres no other formation we could use better with the teamsheet we have currently.

Not getting the Marquee signing we now clearly could use is another reason we arent on track to Romans plans.. Theres so many wonderful players that moved about and we watched the whole parade go by, buying one simple left back which we desperately needed, yes, but nothing else?? I dont count Sturridge or the keeper who's name i forget right now as they are not in the same league as current other players of their age in first teams. Why didnt we snap up one of Villas fantastics newbloods? imagine us with Milner,Young or Gabby in the side!

Instead we watch the same guys who finished 3rd last year give it another shot. Are they going to change somehow and win the Prem? no, of course not. theyre all a year older and a lot richer.

losing to Wigan and Villa costs you 6 points against teams you should be snapping up to offset the 6 you might lose against the other Top 4 away.

i still have faith of course, anything can and does happen, but there is a growing trend to spot here.

Can you remember what that squad who got 3rd were capable of in the 2nd half of last season. Correct me if im wrong, but in the prem under Guus did we not lose one, draw one and win all the rest. That is what our squad is capable of, and this squad is more than capable enough to win the premier league this season. Whether we will or not will come down to a lot of factors such as injuries and form and whatnot but we have as good a chance as anyone.

You are not only on the list of people talking about the sky falling down, im afraid your headlining it. Our formation makes it very tough for teams to break it down and it was just some defensive lapses coming in that we lost the match yesterday.

Fact is we are one point off the league leaders. Yesterday we were the league leaders. Reasonably sure there is absolutely no reason to panic yet.

So you're saying Deco and Anelka would have tucked those chances away if we were using a different formation?

Nothing wrong with the formation at the moment. Today was all about getting it done when it counted. Carvalho didn't, Deco didn't, Anelka didn't and on and on.

The tune will change when we start racking up the wins again, and beat United.

very well said sir. if we had put away the chances we created yesterday we would have won, and they should have scored at least 2 of them. if we werent creating chances then i would agree we had problems, but the fact is we are creating a massive amount in every game we have played bar wigan.

I think we have a good squad that really can win the PL this year. Yesterday's result was not good enough although I think we didn't played to bad. But correct me if I'm wrong didn't we have always problems against Villa? They scored after setpieces because of poor defending from us. That's something that really needs to be sorted out sooner than later.

I saw the last 30 minutes of Man United against Bolton yesterday and Man United can be very lucky that they didn't draw Bolton had a few good chances in the last minutes. They are only one point ahead of us ffs not ten. I don't think they are as strong as the last years with Ronaldo playing for them and tbh I think they had more than luck during the last games. Remember the match two weeks ago or the added added-time to make sure they score and win. Without that they would still be behind us.

Anyway I'm not too worried about our team we're second place one point behind the leader. Man United are definately not unreachable and the only option to win the league there other teams around and we are one of them.

God, we lose against a very good side and suddenly the end of the world is upon us? Just calm down.

Our defence against set plays yesterday was awful, but that's nothing we can't iron out. Ancellotti knows what he's doing, 8 years at Milan is proves that.

Threads like this really piss me off. 9 games into the season, one point off the top which is held by another team who aren't as yet performing at their best either and we start questioning whether we are top 4 also rans? It's a marathon not a sprint, we do not have a god given right to win every game and the only pattern I see emerging is the never ending stream of pessimists who continually darken my day.

I don't think this is a knee-jerk reaction topic about Chelsea's imminent doom, because I've had feelings like this recently as well. I think what Essien's Strike is saying is that we are clearly inferior to how we were in our 'prime' under Mourinho, and with factors such as Abramovich investing less than he did previously and the transfer embargo mean we are probably going to keep gradually decreasing in standards with no real injection of quality into the squad, and thus, eventually we're going to be in the weaker half of the 'top four', especially with Man City entering the fray.

ES, the answer to your question is NO. It's too early in the season to say that mate.

Ancelotti was never my personal first choice for the job, however, on the day the club announced his arrival, I decided that I'll reserve my judgement on him until January atleast.

And to be very honest, I have been pleased with what if has produced for us so far. And the number of positives are definitely more than the number of negatives.

Agreed, Lampard has not been on the top of his game and we are conceding a lot of goals, I think it's atleast 1 per match. However, we finally have an amazing chemistry between our two star strikers. Our passing is much more fluid and quick, and after scoring once, we do not park the bus in front of our goal. Ashley is showing superb form.

It's just a matter of time before we attain supreme consistency and I am sure Carlo is working on all our weaknesses and we'll soon come out of our patch of poor away run.

Be carefree mate. :)

actually i appreciate the fierce rebuttals, its always good to have people stick up for the team even if they are arguing against me..

as plokoon kinda got a hold of my thread wasnt a "oh my god we lost a game wah wah wah" thread, its more a overview, a view from ten thousand feet, if youll pardon the lame corporate-speak, of not just a team but a business model and a plan that isnt on course.

i dont really mind losing to villa, as has been pointed out, we do have a history there - its the fact the momentum has been allowed to slow back to a more normal pace without really capitalising fully on it, and that the imminent transfer embargo will ensure that we cannot rectify that for a long time.

we needed something special, something people in other countries talk about with awe, in respect of something we are uniquely great at.

what roman wants is one of the greatest teams in the world not a top 4 also ran. he has the ability to make that happen and why shouldnt we, once assured that this is a real possibility, expect that to be on course?

i dont want people to talk about chelsea with hate in their voice all the time. no one would. you can point out that a lot of ppl hate real madrid for their galactico spending but you cant deny they are fascinating and have been for a long time.

you have to admit we are not setting anything on fire, let alone the premiership right now, and you also have to admit that theres nothing in the forseable future that would change that situation.

in response to geezer, you are completely correct sir, though what happens when we lose drogba,essien,mikel and kalou during the ANC? we will be significantly weakened. no one is filling those shoes trust me. our marathon will lose pace further then. we NEEDED to strengthen in the summer. we did not. we told everybody we would sign a marquee player. we did not.

confidence in the club as a business was dented and the FA's punishment will amplify that..

Look at it this way imagine being a Liverpool fan right now , the butt of endless jokes , playing sh*t ,depending on 2 players all season no squad depth and a manager who's basically useless.

Defending cost us the game yesterday , and id worry if we'd played the way we did at Wigan but i thought we did enough to get a result. Man Yoo are hardly setting the place alight either and have depended on luck since the start of the season . Carlo has to spend more time working on our weaknesses but we have too many good players not to be in a position to beat anything we come up against.

What? We're a point behind and still most people's favourites to win the damned thing.