Didn't see a thread for this. Matchday two, hopefully we can take our good form from the Villa game and transfer it to here. I'm not too sure how Sporting are doing domestically at the moment but away games in the Champions League are never easy.

 

Thoughts on the lineup, with one eye on the Arsenal game on the weekend?

Lisbon haven't lost but they have been drawing quite a lot of games. Solid midfield and I can see their wingers like Nani, Carrillo, Mane, etc giving Ivan problems if he does play, that said their strikers aren't great and their defence is quite inexperienced which is probably why they keep giving up leads. 

 

I would start Luis and Schurrle but leave the rest of the line up the same as the one v Villa. 

Certainly Luis and schurle, maybe mikel for matic remy for costa

Remy to start please

Remy must start. He is certainly more useful on a pitch than Drogba.

 

Maybe give some time to Zouma, a place in starting XI would be nice.

Jose has said he wants Costa to start this game AND Arsenal, i'd rather see him rested though.

 

After the draw at home vs Schalke it's fairly important we win this one, so  i'd like to see pretty much the same team that started vs Villa except with Remy and Luis in.

Jose has said he wants Costa to start this game AND Arsenal, i'd rather see him rested though.

After the draw at home vs Schalke it's fairly important we win this one, so i'd like to see pretty much the same team that started vs Villa except with Remy and Luis in.

Yeah wants doesn't mean he'll get what he wants though

Courtois

Azpi

Cahill

Terry/Zouma

Luis

Matic

Fabregas

Schurrle

Oscar

Willian

Remy

Courtois

Ivanovic

Cahill

Terry

Luis

Matic

Fabregas

Schurrle

Oscar

Hazard

Remy

Hoping for a victory here. Even a scrappy 1-0 will do me.

We need to win this, so I want Costa to play. If he isn't fit, then Remy. In any case, Drogba shouldn't be starting.

Jose has said he wants Costa to start this game AND Arsenal, i'd rather see him rested though.

 

After the draw at home vs Schalke it's fairly important we win this one, so  i'd like to see pretty much the same team that started vs Villa except with Remy and Luis in.

 

That's precisely the reason why I wouldn't mind Costa starting actually, normally we'd be able to settle for the away draw here but with the draw in the first game, we can't really afford to drop points here.

Must win game after our draw in the first game.

If we had won the first game I think Costa would have been tested, but he has to play now.

Off to Lisbon in the morning...the weather looks great too so this is going to be some trip...I'd rather we save Costa for arsenal...we have the players to do the damage in the counter attack without him...

Rest Costa for the weekend, but keep him on the bench just in case we need a late goal. A win will be important otherwise we may start to worry about our chances of qualifying.

 

2-1 Chelsea, Schurrle and Remy to score.

My team:

 

Cech, Azpi, Cahill, JT, Luis, Fabregas, Matic, Schurrle, Oscar, Hazard, Remy

------------Courtois-----------

Dave------Cahill----Terry-----Luis

---------Cesc-----Matic-------

Schurrle--------Oscar----------------Hazard

---------------Remy---------------

I'm sure Jose is playing mind games with Costa's fitness. Will he, won't he play. Makes it difficult for the opposition to plan ahead. We could see him climbing out of his wheelchair to score the winning goal.

This could be a tricky lineup to figure out, we have to field a strong side considering we dropped points against Schalke, but we have to make sure we have our strongest XI ready for the Arsenal game. An away game followed by a game against a quite desperate Arsenal is a bad time to be without Ramires.

I'm sure Jose is playing mind games with Costa's fitness. Will he, won't he play. Makes it difficult for the opposition to plan ahead. We could see him climbing out of his wheelchair to score the winning goal.

I think he's also talking it up to try and convince Spain to give him a rest...costa contradicted Jose last week, by saying he was getting better and better fitness wise, was working hard in training, and was happy about busy fixture list cos it would help him recover even more

Drogba didn't travel with the squad

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2014/09/lisbon-bound.html

Drogba didn't travel with the squad

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2014/09/lisbon-bound.html

Hopefully Remy will get start then

Costa probably starts. No rest for him..might Remy as well.

(i'm sorry for my bad english)

 

Hi guys!  I'm a Sporting Lisbon fan and this is my first post here. Hopefully the first of many because i follow the EPL a lot and Chelsea is my favourite team in England (Mourinho was always my favourite manager although i really hated him when he was at Porto for obvious reasons XD).

 

Anyways, tomorrow we will play a 4-2-3-1 and we usually play a lot of long balls to our target man Slimani who scored a couple of goals in the World Cup btw, our most dangerous men are Nani and Carrillo. They are both very fast  and skillful wingers and i expect them to create problems on the counter.

 

Our main weakness is the centre of the defense. You should watch the goal we conceded against Maribor in the last minute to understand how bad how central defenders are. If Costa plays he'll get an hattrick in the first half.

 

To the matchgoers (no idea if this is a word or i just made it up) you should expect a decent athmosphere. Here in Portugal most fans dont go to games during the week but there should be around 40000 since its our first game back in the champions league for 5 years.

 

I'm preticting a 0-2 victory for you because i don´t see Mou making this easy for us after you tied your first game.

 

P.S. Hopefully the stadium is as crazy as when we faced Porto in the weekend (even during halftime people were singing XD)

You should also keep an eye on William. He is absolutely fantastic.