27 minutes ago, chi blue said:

You sound like a Gooner, the fa cup and all it’s tradition, the Premier League, FA and Sky tv, have done their up most to kill it, but still means lots to me, a day out at Wembley fantastic

While i do get what you mean the difference between us and Arsenal is we would go into the CL looking to actually win it.

Regarding the FA Cup being watered-down rightly or wrongly if they want to change they have to offer financial incentives to clubs like they do in the league. The harsh reality is the financial rewards of surviving in the big league is what many clubs rely on to sustain themselves, clubs like Hull, Wigan and Birmingham took the cups seriously and have been "rewarded" by divng down the league's with little resources available to help them get back.  

If they offer rewards atleast akin to what PL survival gets you for a deep run in the Cups then the lesser sides may gamble more with a cup run knowing they would have the means to bounce back if they lost their top flight place rolling the dice!

Edited February 5, 20215 yr by Argo

FA cup is my favourite tournament. Got to love the away games at league 2 stadiums or even below if we get lucky. There’s something special about the FA cup, love seeing the minnows play against giants and often you’d hear about nice stories etc behind the minnows.

You don’t get that in the Premier League or Champions league.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

FA cup is my favourite tournament. Got to love the away games at league 2 stadiums or even below if we get lucky. There’s something special about the FA cup, love seeing the minnows play against giants and often you’d hear about nice stories etc behind the minnows.

You don’t get that in the Premier League or Champions league.

Agree Dan I'll watch a Cheltenham Town v Mansfield Town if it's a FA Cup match..

9 hours ago, Argo said:

While i do get what you mean the difference between us and Arsenal is we would go into the CL looking to actually win it.

Regarding the FA Cup being watered-down rightly or wrongly if they want to change they have to offer financial incentives to clubs like they do in the league. The harsh reality is the financial rewards of surviving in the big league is what many clubs rely on to sustain themselves, clubs like Hull, Wigan and Birmingham took the cups seriously and have been "rewarded" by divng down the league's with little resources available to help them get back.  

If they offer rewards atleast akin to what PL survival gets you for a deep run in the Cups then the lesser sides may gamble more with a cup run knowing they would have the means to bounce back if they lost their top flight place rolling the dice!

That is quite difficult to do though, the tv money is just not the same unless pl want to subsidize fa cup (very unlikely) 

Some interesting fixtures this weekend which again should help us close the gap on 4th. 
 

Liverpool v City

Wolves v Leicester 

United v Everton

 

Liverpool and Leicester are the ones to catch for me so let’s hope they drop points

2 hours ago, JM7 said:

Some interesting fixtures this weekend which again should help us close the gap on 4th. 
 

Liverpool v City

Wolves v Leicester 

United v Everton

 

Liverpool and Leicester are the ones to catch for me so let’s hope they drop points

I would not say that United is completely out of reach but I agree that at the moment Leicester and Liverpool seem to be the main opponents for the 4th.
But lets not forget Everton as well because they have 2 games in hand.
Anyways the most important is to win the next two games against Sheffield and Newcastle and then the 4th should be in reach no matter what the other clubs are doing.
Especially in the next round Leicester will play against Liverpool. So it is guaranteed that one of them will drop points.
 

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by TheGermanOne

Hope no one thinks sheff utd away will be a walkover...they may be bottom but i.m.o only by bad luck....this will be as tough a game as weve had all season....sheff utd have some tough players....if we win this ill believe in our good seasons end...but...gone are the days of elite 6 clubs...there are 22 good clubs capable of good things...head says 1 1...

Heart says 1 2....

I actually think this is the most difficult game Tuchel has faced so far, they won't sit back in 2 banks if 4 and give up possession as easily as the last 3 teamd weve faced.

12 minutes ago, Mike Carefree said:

Hope no one thinks sheff utd away will be a walkover...they may be bottom but i.m.o only by bad luck....this will be as tough a game as weve had all season....sheff utd have some tough players....if we win this ill believe in our good seasons end...but...gone are the days of elite 6 clubs...there are 22 good clubs capable of good things...head says 1 1...

Heart says 1 2....

I agree and out of the bottom clubs they are on better form.

No easy games in the PL.

2.0 Chelsea - honeymoon period still intact but expect a physical encounter and without Silva let’s see when Rudiger is at.

Thinking Werner still fresh enough to start , cho goes back to wing back leaving room for Pulisic or better havertz if fit to play up top with Werner   Maybe Chilwell could come in for alonso. 

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by ozboy

Important game to win, won't easy. In their three last games, they won 2 (2-1 against United) and lost to City only 1-0.

They're not going to give up. 

This is the lineup I'd like to see:

--------------- Mendy -------------

---James ---- Rudiger ---- Azpilicueta

CHO --- Jorginho -- Kovacic - Alonso 

-------- Mount -------- Pulisic -------

----------------- Werner -------------

 

Without Thiago Silva won't be easy to be safe and confident in the back. But we have to get our win there, there's no way we're coming home without the three points.

COME ON CHELS!!!

They have no pace or creativity and will have < 35% of the ball so if we don’t win it’s on us. 

If city beat Liverpool tomorrow and we win we will only be a point behind them..

All of a sudden the clouds start to break and it’s not as gloomy as things were painted in franks last days. 

Sheffield could pull a Wolves and just sit back all game and go for counters. 

They've been grinding out some results tbf to them but we should be winning this, they're awful. 

The front 3 is the most interesting question. If mount is healthy he pretty much will play one of the 10. The other two is very complicated, we have Havertz, Ziyech, Werner, tammy Giroud n Pulisic (6 players) competing for 2 spot, that is just madness.

Kante will probably will be ease in we will need him soon. 

Edited February 6, 20215 yr by Bob stark

6 hours ago, TheGermanOne said:

I would not say that United is completely out of reach but I agree that at the moment Leicester and Liverpool seem to be the main opponents for the 4th.
But lets not forget Everton as well because they have 2 games in hand.
Anyways the most important is to win the next two games against Sheffield and Newcastle and then the 4th should be in reach no matter what the other clubs are doing.
Especially in the next round Leicester will play against Liverpool. So it is guaranteed that one of them will drop points.
 

Newcastle lost 3 players to injuries and have Hendricks suspend against us now so that could prove to be helpful for that one.

6 hours ago, Mike Carefree said:

Hope no one thinks sheff utd away will be a walkover...they may be bottom but i.m.o only by bad luck....this will be as tough a game as weve had all season....sheff utd have some tough players....if we win this ill believe in our good seasons end...but...gone are the days of elite 6 clubs...there are 22 good clubs capable of good things...head says 1 1...

Heart says 1 2....

Absolutely agree with this. And chances are that it may be snowing, at least they forecast snow down south so, if anything, is going to be tough cold conditions up in Sheffield.

7 hours ago, Mike Carefree said:

Hope no one thinks sheff utd away will be a walkover...they may be bottom but i.m.o only by bad luck....this will be as tough a game as weve had all season....sheff utd have some tough players....if we win this ill believe in our good seasons end...but...gone are the days of elite 6 clubs...there are 22 good clubs capable of good things...head says 1 1...

Heart says 1 2....

It is simple, match their work ethic and desire and our quality shines through, same as facing any of the sides at the bottom. If we dont then we are in trouble.

We have a 100% win rate since I have been using night mode. Can't beat that.

21 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

FA cup is my favourite tournament. Got to love the away games at league 2 stadiums or even below if we get lucky. There’s something special about the FA cup, love seeing the minnows play against giants and often you’d hear about nice stories etc behind the minnows.

You don’t get that in the Premier League or Champions league.

Same here and the Magic of "Coupe de France" in my country. 

On 05/02/2021 at 22:22, Argo said:

While i do get what you mean the difference between us and Arsenal is we would go into the CL looking to actually win it.

Regarding the FA Cup being watered-down rightly or wrongly if they want to change they have to offer financial incentives to clubs like they do in the league. The harsh reality is the financial rewards of surviving in the big league is what many clubs rely on to sustain themselves, clubs like Hull, Wigan and Birmingham took the cups seriously and have been "rewarded" by divng down the league's with little resources available to help them get back.  

If they offer rewards atleast akin to what PL survival gets you for a deep run in the Cups then the lesser sides may gamble more with a cup run knowing they would have the means to bounce back if they lost their top flight place rolling the dice!

Some fans think we just want top 4 to get top 4. 

Common sense will tell you that a club of Chelsea's size wants to sign the best players to be seen as favourites in winning both the PL and CL (preferably with an easy route to the final).

We're not a club like Leicester who lets be honest, would be more elated at winning the fa cup than us and also praying they draw the sides like Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the CL.

On 06/02/2021 at 08:55, chi blue said:

You sound like a Gooner, the fa cup and all it’s tradition, the Premier League, FA and Sky tv, have done their up most to kill it, but still means lots to me, a day out at Wembley fantastic

If your priority is playing in the Thursday League then you are the one sounding like a Gooner.

Match day.....COME ON YOU BLUES !

Match Day!

Come on Chelsea !!

What's the weather forecast, can we expect the match to be called off? That would not improve my mood....