Did Mourinho really leave?

[octville]

After Sat's laborious 1-0 win, I begin to think that Mourinho's influence is still at Chelsea with a vintage 1 nil again. Drog's " stupid fan" comment aside, we are on a long unbeaten run again since the 2-0 defeat at Manure.

4-0 vs Hull, 2-1 Valencia, 1-0 Bolton, 2-0 Boro, 2-0 Schalke, 6-0 Man City, 4-3 Leicester,

2-0 Wigan, 0-0 Schalke, 1-1 Everton, 2-0 Derby, 4-0 Rosenborg, 1-0 West Ham

All this are done without Terry, Drogs, Carvalho and Cech at various stages.

Did Mourinho's leave us?? I think he would have been proud.

I still think Avram Grant is a caretaker manager. Maybe Ten Cates will take over, or Frank Rijkaard will arrive ( yucks !). But i hope the focus on all front remains.

Now,all i want for pre-Christmas is for Chelsea to beat Arsenal at the Emirates... we have to because we need to stop their momentum

There are crackers of a game coming up ... We start with ease on a home game against Sunderland and an inconsequential CL game against Valencia. This is followed by Arsenal,

Liverpool ( Carling Cup), Blackburn, Aston Villa ( Boxing Day Revenge ) and ending the year at home against Newcastle.

That's 15 points for the taking. I think we are good enough for maximum points.

Let's be the first to kickass at Emirates

[ethicalstrategy]

Yep I'm afraid Jose did really leave.. Luckily, he left a good team behind him.

Grant is finding out that playing expansive, attacking football against teams who are well organised and determined to stop you playing is pretty tough.

Beating Man City 6-0 has only made the situation worse in as much as no team is going to come and play against us. So I expect a lot more 1-0 thrillers at home this season.

The main thing though is that we won. And I was pleased to hear Avram making the stunningly obvious point that sometimes winning ugly is needed if you are going to finish top.

[BLUENUT]

But he's not here to win ugly ....remember

[bonetti]

But he's not here to win ugly ....remember

No, you get sacked for that

[JT26CFC]

well technically this is Jose's team. It'll be interesting to see what Grant does in the transfer market because we'll have to sign someone. And to win ugly, well it doesn't hurt to win the whole season at 1-0 and win the premiership. I'll take a 1-0 win than a loss anyday. 13 game winning streak aint bad for a "uncapable at top flight" manager.

[Chippy]

I can take winning ugly with a new manager trying to stamp his mark on a team where he has not bought any new players,

I can even enthuse about winning ugly against a team who come out with a good gameplan and shut us down and make it difficult from the off,

I can take winning ugly against opposition who are playing well and on top of their form.

what would not be great for me would be grinding out results against teams who are no match for us and hardly even putting up a fight, sitting on 1-0 and not even trying to entertain when the opposition is beaten and we could have a hatful,

not seing our fullbacks cross the half way line or every other attack being the type we scored with Saturday.

still no chance of that with Avi in charge, he knows how to mix it up and he knows when to go ugly although we still attack in his version of ugly.

Ethical said it at least how it is with hardly any hint of sarcasm, have a look mate theres a new smiley for us

[octville]

I rather win 1-0 than an entertaining 1-1 draw with Everton

By the way, 1-0 against Arsenal and defend all the way... who care sh*ts?

Just get the 3 points to close the gap and dampen the gloss on that traitor Gallas

[BLUENUT]

what would not be great for me would be grinding out results against teams who are no match for us and hardly even putting up a fight, sitting on 1-0 and not even trying to entertain when the opposition is beaten and we could have a hatful,

not seing our fullbacks cross the half way line or every other attack being the type we scored with Saturday.

Derby away?

[Chippy]

what would not be great for me would be grinding out results against teams who are no match for us and hardly even putting up a fight, sitting on 1-0 and not even trying to entertain when the opposition is beaten and we could have a hatful,

not seing our fullbacks cross the half way line or every other attack being the type we scored with Saturday.

Derby away?

Derby away was a bit of a lak lustre performance against a team defending for their lives who's main priority was to not get another drubbing,

the players never had a ood day and thats not always down to the manager,

also IMO they could have stepped up a notch if they had needed to.

but good argument,

[loz]

I don't think it has anything to do with whether a team is no match for us in terms of the expectation before the game. Football is a sport played by human beings and not by statistics.

Some days Derby will be a pushover, other days they won't. Some days we will but 6 past City, on another they will beat Man Utd.

It is far too simplistic to go into a game assuming you are vastly superior and should, by default, turn on the style. It is more about judging the game as it happens and making tactical decisions accordingly.

As soon as Chelsea grind out a result we have people saying 'I thought Grant was not going to be doing this anymore' but that, for me, was never the message he was portraying in the very occasional quotes that Callista seems to want to make it look like he says on an almost daily basis.

For me he was saying that overall we should be looking to be a more attractive side to watch and that he would be looking to move us toward that however that doesn't mean we will never grind out results again, it means when the opportunity is there we will look to play a more expansive game. I don't think that is a philosophy Jose had and I don't mean that as a criticism, just saying that it means Grant and Jose have different philosophies and so when Grant does comment on it he is simply stating his philosophy - he is the man in charge and he is entitled to do so, just as Jose was.

[Tim]

I also love this idea, mainly perpetuated by the media, that Grant said we would play more entertaining football, so 2 months later, we should be the new Barca. Look how many seasons it took Arsene to get his troops in order again, and he already had this mentality instilled in the club's ethos from his previous title winning team!

It will take time, but given that it's only been a couple of months and in that time we have had a handful of games where we have been a pleasure to watch, I'd say Avram's done ok so far, even if I am still pretty sceptical about his appointment and our chances of silverware in the long-term.

[octville]

So what will silence the Avram Grant? Another cup double this year?

Maybe win the Champion's League? For me, it is never !

This is Mourinho's estate. He built the team with the current core set of players.

The style of play is still very similar, albeit more open. It is still an enigma to me why we

conceded 3 against Leicester while could put six against a quality Man City side.

The players are here because of their technical qualities which Mourinho is looking for.

So i think Avram is just filling in the gap because the shoes left by JM is not made for Avram's walking.

Btw, what happened to Florent Malouda? He has been out so often when i think he should be playing

more regularly. He is suffering from the first season bug, so we should just give him more opportunity.

[DimaCFC]

Btw, what happened to Florent Malouda? He has been out so often when i think he should be playing

more regularly. He is suffering from the first season bug, so we should just give him more opportunity.

I think he's been injured for a month.

[Chippy]

I don't think it has anything to do with whether a team is no match for us in terms of the expectation before the game. Football is a sport played by human beings and not by statistics.

True

Some days Derby will be a pushover, other days they won't. Some days we will but 6 past City, on another they will beat Man Utd.

another strange fact with this game

It is far too simplistic to go into a game assuming you are vastly superior and should, by default, turn on the style. It is more about judging the game as it happens and making tactical decisions accordingly.

How about the old "we could win this in a rout, we could grind out a 1-0 or we could lose? safe bet for sure

As soon as Chelsea grind out a result we have people saying 'I thought Grant was not going to be doing this anymore' but that, for me, was never the message he was portraying in the very occasional quotes that Callista seems to want to make it look like he says on an almost daily basis.

If a manager came out with that he would have no chance of delivering, glad someone else can see a bigger picture here.

For me he was saying that overall we should be looking to be a more attractive side to watch and that he would be looking to move us toward that however that doesn't mean we will never grind out results again, it means when the opportunity is there we will look to play a more expansive game.

Spot on (IMO)

I don't think that is a philosophy Jose had and I don't mean that as a criticism, just saying that it means Grant and Jose have different philosophies and so when Grant does comment on it he is simply stating his philosophy - he is the man in charge and he is entitled to do so, just as Jose was.

Exactly,

I have defended Grant as everyone knows to the point where I sometimes have little digs at Jose, these are just to get a point across and not to in any way degrade what he done here, he was brilliant...that said there were things I always thought we could have done better

and I think we could have been more entertaing, this will take time to bring about and wont happen every match but I believe we are heading in the right direction,

Grant is always judged against the best of Jose and thats using selective memory(imo), the time of substitutions, the tactics, the team selection all these things are compared unfavourably to Jose's reign and nobody remembers the times he got it wrong.

Both these men are only Human and both want whats best for our Club....lets just get behind the one who is working there.

I've not seen a post I dont have to defend the bloke in in so long I just thought I would put some blue bits in anyway

Good poast Loz