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Bobbywoodhogan

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Are you confident that we will win the title or not?

I for one was at the start of the season and especially after we won the League Cup, however recently I'm not as confident below par performances and the form of Arsenal for example do have me fearful especially with the upcoming fixtures including a trip to the Emirates.

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Very confident we will win it, Expecting us to drop a few points but even looking at city's fixtures i'm expecting them to drop just as many as us if not more.

 

Also City have been dragged into the top 4 fight, That will take a lot out of them.

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sh*tting it!  But then I always am.  I have often referred to Giles Smith's article from 2005 and it sums up how I felt than and how I feel always really.  Until it's mathematically certain, I will worry.   For those of you who don't know it here it is (with thanks to Huttsey for finding it for me when I last referred to it):

 

Chelsea title threats: killer bees, a Taleban election victory, bombs . . . oh, and Peter Kenyon, obviously 


“CHELSEA will be champions unless someone puts a bomb here.” Arsène Wenger at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

 

UNTIL the Arsenal manager raised the bomb scenario, it hadn’t really occurred to me. Which is surprising, given how carefully I have gone over in my mind the various combinations of events that could lead to Chelsea not ending up as champions this season. Call me paranoid, call me pessimistic or call me a Chelsea season ticket-holder; it amounts to the same thing. The point is, we’re not there yet and until you’re there, a lot can go wrong.

The bomb, though. I hadn’t thought of that. And it is a real worry. A slip-up against Fulham this afternoon, a victory for Arsenal at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night, a terrorist atrocity on Wednesday morning . . . how easily it could all unravel.

I know, I know: five points from five games. For a team who have lost only once in the league all season, this should not be, as they say, a big ask. At the same time — five points from five games! That’s a point per game, for heaven’s sake. Those players aren’t machines, you know.

If you care about this outcome, you are exiled for ever from the casual confidence of the neutral observer. I saw it written that, had they beaten Chelsea on Wednesday night, Arsenal would merely have been “postponing the inevitable”. The inevitable! If only. A fortnight ago, when Chelsea could only draw at home to Birmingham City and their lead dipped from a potentially useful, if not remotely comfortable, 13 points to a positively panic-inducing 11, it seemed to me that the title race had been blown wide open.

“I’m worried that Chelsea aren’t going to win the title,” I told a friend and he laughed more loudly than I have ever heard him laugh at anything. Which I suppose I might have found reassuring if I hadn’t found it so insensitive.

And that was before Wednesday, when the result, I concede, did bring the title within touching distance. But then Wenger had to go and mention the bomb — like I didn’t have enough to worry about.

For instance, scenario one: Chelsea lose all of their remaining games while Arsenal win all of theirs. Arsenal thereby become champions instead of Chelsea. (This is, in many respects, the most simple of the scenarios, but that doesn’t make it any less haunting at certain restless hours of the night.) Scenario two: on the afternoon of Friday, May 13, with Chelsea taking a seemingly insuperable 11-point lead into the final weekend of the season, the FA Premier League finds heavily against the club in the Ashley Cole “tapping-up” case and imposes a 15-point deduction, making winning the title a mathematical impossibility.

Scenario three: Peter Kenyon, the chief executive, does something so colossally stupid that the club automatically have their licence to operate rescinded. (Chelsea supporters of a nervous disposition inevitably spend a lot of time worrying about the next colossally stupid thing that Kenyon may or may not do.)


Scenario four: at the general election on May 5, with the league programme dangerously incomplete, the country controversially elects a Taleban government, whose first move is to ban, on pain of death, kite-flying, professional football and all items of silverware. (In the event of this happening, the knowledge that I was likely to be put up against a wall and beaten about the knees for owning a CD player would be little consolation.).

Scenario five: on May 7, after a title-clinching home victory over Charlton Athletic, John Terry reaches for the trophy only for a swarm of highly trained killer bees to swoop into the stadium and sting it from his grasp. The bees then carry the trophy out over the rooftops and into hiding and the season is declared void, pending a full investigation by journalists from National Geographic magazine.

Still, it’s nice to realise that it matters. One hears people saying that Chelsea’s first championship victory for 50 years (assuming it happens) will mean little to their supporters, or possibly even deflate them, because the club have “bought the title”. This would be in contrast, presumably, to the organic, or “naturally occurring”, titles won by Manchester United and Arsenal over the past decade.

It may be as well for all these late-onset friends of the earth to admit that, until such time as managers can wander dreamily into the sunshine and pluck a football team from the wild, we’re probably stuck with a world in which people end up paying for them. And that’s not as easy as it sounds. You still have to be clever enough to pay for the right players, preferably having appointed the right manager to blend them together. Talk to Sir Alex Ferguson about it.

Meanwhile, an article in The Guardian this week was claiming that Chelsea supporters would not sleep easily over their success, knowing that it was paid for with money gained by the privatisation of formerly nationalised Russian service industries. Hold that champagne cork! While accepting that life presents many opportunities indeed to feel guilty by association, there surely comes a point for everyone where you have to stop whipping yourself in the interests of having some flesh left.

True, if I was a Russian peasant, I might retain a mild grudge or two about the flogging of my heating supply to a man who now lives in Sussex and has his own helicopter.

But in the main, I’d be looking at what the likes of Arjen Robben, Petr Cech and Claude Makelele have brought to the Barclays Premiership this season and feeling that my gas bill had been pretty well spent.

And when you think about the range of things that Roman Abramovich could be spending his money on (backing a South American military junta, for instance, or supporting the Daily Mail), then even the purchase of Hernán Crespo begins to look like an utterly innocent and life-affirming diversion. We say, long and happily may he spend.

We also say, may the Premiership be put beyond doubt as soon as possible. At the final whistle on Wednesday night, parts of Stamford Bridge joined in singing the great, traditional, end-of-campaign battle hymn. But not me. “Oh, now you’ve got to believe us . . .” Not until we’ve won it, I haven’t.

Did I get around to mentioning scenario six? I don’t believe I did.


Scenario six: locusts.

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Are you confident that we will win the title or not?

I for one was at the start of the season and especially after we won the League Cup, however recently I'm not as confident below par performances and the form of Arsenal for example do have me fearful especially with the upcoming fixtures including a trip to the Emirates.

Fear not, jose will do his usual thing of not being beaten by our main competition,draws against the arse, and liverfool!

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Very confident we will win it, Expecting us to drop a few points but even looking at city's fixtures i'm expecting them to drop just as many as us if not more.

Also City have been dragged into the top 4 fight, That will take a lot out of them.

Not concerned about Arsenal or United then?

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I think our next two games are crucial.

Win the next two and we are well on the way. City and Arsenal have a tough fixture one of those weekends too.

Win those 2 games and then get through the Arsenal and Utd games unbeaten and its done. Actually we could afford to lose one but it wouldnt surprise me if we set out defensively in both. Any points we drop there can be made up in the game in hand. In fact in that respect I also think the game in hand is a massive factor too. There really shouldn't be any excuses.

Biggest concern for me right now is Matic and Fabregas both on nine yellows ahead of the April 12th amnesty. Worst case scenario they both get booked at Loftus Rd and miss the Arsenal and Utd games. Our midfield doesn't bear thinking about in that scenario.

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Yes

We want Jose to stay here because he's the man we love but if he can't win the league from this position then he's not the same Jose.

I think he is.

Therefore I think we'll win.

Put positivity out there and it'll come back to you.

Edited by Blue Daze
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No.

I'm not a confident kind of guy though, I won't believe we will win it till we basically win it.

If the team was playing well and not conceding goals then I might feel a bit different but I honestly think this will be a close finish, I just hope we can do it.

We have one of the hardest run ins of the top 4-5 teams so it's not going to be straight forward, arsenal and to a lesser extent United are playing really well just now and it's probably the wrong time to be playing them since we are a shadow of the side who started the season.

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Chelsea Megastore Away Shirt
Chelsea Megastore Away Shirt

Chelsea Megastore Away Shirt

Don't be ridiculous bjd, you will greatly enjoy watching a Mikel-Zouma-Oscar midfield.

You've forgotten Ramires! How's about Mikel, Ramires and Zouma. Elegance personified!

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You've forgotten Ramires! How's about Mikel, Ramires and Zouma. Elegance personified!

 

Haha well there's only one man in there we can rely on to keep the ball... ;)

 

I was trying to imagine the most ridiculous midfield we might realistically start, putting Ramires in seemed a little too balanced (maybe he'll be starting on the right). Ramires is on four yellows himself - will he get suspended if he gets another or do you need ten at this stage of the season?

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Yes.

6 points clear with a game in hand and only two losses all season so far.

At this moment in time I would be very surprised if we don't win the title.

Yes our form hasn't been perfect but we're still picking up points and maintaining our lead.

I just can't see a Mourinho team bottling it that badly basically.

Doesn't make me any less nervous watching our games though!

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Ramires is on four yellows himself - will he get suspended if he gets another or do you need ten at this stage of the season?

 

I think he's two cards away? Matic/Fabregas are each one booking away from suspension - perhaps they'll both take yellows at home to Stoke to avoid being suspended for United/Arsenal (not that i'm cynical but assuming he plays hopefully at Charlie Adam's expense)

Edited by the special one
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Not concerned about Arsenal or United then?

 

Arsenal? Nope, Expect them to drop points against Liverpool, Us and United. Also think the FA Cup might distract them slightly.

 

With United we could be 11 clear if we win our game in hand, Also as good as they have played in the last 2 games, let's not forget they have been average for most of the season.

 

I know most are worried, I mean if we didn't win it it'll be worse than Liverpool slipping up last year, But we have Jose in charge. As someone else said, He will go for a draw at Arsenal and will most likely get it, Also the same with United at home. As negative as some think (At times i don't like it either), This is the time to do it and get over the line

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I think he's two cards away? Matic/Fabregas are each one booking away from suspension - perhaps they'll both take yellows at home to Stoke to avoid being suspended for United/Arsenal (not that i'm cynical but assuming he plays hopefully at Charlie Adam's expense)

If they get another yellow its a two game ban

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Yes, but performances need to improve, I can't help but feel our luck will run out and the 3 big games we have to play are troubling me.

 

Our defensive performance against Hull cannot be overlooked, it was dreadful and we were lucky not to lose.

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Don't be ridiculous bjd, you will greatly enjoy watching a Mikel-Zouma-Oscar midfield.

 

You've forgotten Ramires! How's about Mikel, Ramires and Zouma. Elegance personified!

I know you guys are joking about this but in all honesty I do not personally have a problem if Mikel has to step up for Matic. 

 

I know a lot on this forum tend to think Mikel is a poor player, to say the least, but for me he does a decent job and always has done. Makes mistakes like anyone else but usually steps up in the big games, as he did in Munich. Matic is hardly been pulling up trees of late either and we did not miss him in the league cup final. He is still better than Mikel overall, but is not in his best form.

 

Far as Cesc goes, I would sooner have him in the team than not but, if we beat Stoke and QPR, I think we would be better off with a 3 man middle or two of Mikel, Matic and Ramires sitting deep against United and Arsenal, with Cesc further forward if he is available. If he is not, we will hopefully still have Eden to create chances.

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I know you guys are joking about this but in all honesty I do not personally have a problem if Mikel has to step up for Matic. 

 

I know a lot on this forum tend to think Mikel is a poor player, to say the least, but for me he does a decent job and always has done. Makes mistakes like anyone else but usually steps up in the big games, as he did in Munich. Matic is hardly been pulling up trees of late either and we did not miss him in the league cup final. He is still better than Mikel overall, but is not in his best form.

 

Mikel is an excellent player and a fantastic club servant, I love him to bits and would be heartbroken if he left. I think we have missed his calming presence in midfield and his ability to circulate possession methodically, as well as his great record in big games.

 

He is probably our most underrated player; I cannot wait for him to get back from injury, even if he doesn't start.

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I doubt he would leave, so long as he is happy accepting a role as basically Matic's understudy there would be now reason for him too.

 

It is not like the same situation as with Cech. Mikel is good, but would he force his way in to Real Madrid's team? Or Barca? Or City? Or PSG? Personally I would say it is unlikely.

 

Cech is hands down better than any of those sides keepers. He has just ended up in the unlikely scenario that the club he served so loyally have ended up with a keeper that is maybe just fractionally better than him, maybe.

 

So yeah, little off point but thought the situation was comparable. Mikel certainly has a role to fill for us imo, and is a more than capable back up for Matic. 

 

I think the likes of Willian, Oscar and Ramires should, with all things being fair, be the ones more concerned about where they will be next season. All well and good saying they make it work for Hazard, but for me I do not buy that, it seems a poor excuse.

 

Is ok lads, you can be sh*t when given a chance in the opposition half so long as Eden continues to be brilliant. Yeah...Eden being good is the reason they offer nothing going forward most of the time...I guess Costa, and recently Remy, did not get the script that we are the Eden Hazard show.

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