ramires should've won it for us....sigh.a one on one and an open header from 5 yards..torres would've finished that header

who else thinks the goal spurs scored was down to a cech error..again.second game in a row now.the pattern of individual mistakes is still there.haih

espn news choosing to focus on the apparent 'handball' before cole put in that lovely cross. he wasn't even looking at the ball for God's sake. they even failed to point out we held out a very good tottenham side with only ONE natural centreback. don't think that many teams are capable of that

coming back to cole, i was delighted to see the quality of his delivery for studge. let's face it, ash hasn't been putting in those type of accurate crosses for a looong time. overall i guess it was a fair result as both managers had to deal with forced substitutions early in the match. harry made the wrong decision by removing a player from midfield and bringing on another striker. they completely surrendered their dominance after that. AVB took a risk by slotting bosingwa into CB but boy he's pretty decent there isn't he!

what about that last ditch block from JT though? fantastic piece of defending with the media circus and crowd all over him. ramires's missed chances have been touched on, and if he got us the winning goal he would've easily been the MOTM. however my award goes to meireles who ran non stop and put in some important tackles/interceptions all over the pitch. he looked shattered towards the end but kept on running. lampsy u want to know why you're not starting? have a look at a recording of the 90 mins.

who else but studge gets us the goal? perhaps it should've been his second after mata's stinging drive was spilt by friedel. good performance from danny as he got the goal, but him and mata's impact on the match could've been better.


i wouldn't mind turnbull / hilario getting a start vs fulham actually. this is cech's second big mistake in a row and maybe its time to give him a rest as well. light a fire under his belly and see how he responds. its one thing if you're an outfield player making mistakes, but if you're a keeper who's a direct cause for goals conceded it becomes a whole different problem. i think cudicini has recovered, but seems to be third choice now.

drogba had a decent game, looked threatening on occasion and could've had an assist for ramires. better than vs wigan, definitely.

i'm not sure how different the treatment is, to be honest. i think the trio of kalou, malouda and torres have all come into some severe criticism from fans at various points this season. come to think of it, EVERYBODY has including AVB himself. i can point out about three standout players this season who have received constant praise from everyone though : studge, mata, and ramires in that order. lately there's a new favourite as well in the form of oreo!

p.s : if luiz isn't fit, chalobah vs fulham anyone?

release the kraken/torres!

hmm suddenly it seems we'd all rather take a draw/defeat to city and consecutive wins vs spurs, wigan, and fulham instead. experts at shooting ourselves in the foot, that's just vintage chelsea

the biggest criticism that should be laid on the players is the LACK OF PRESSING. spurs, city, and united all pressure the opponents when they have possession 10 times better than us. we treated fulham like it was a walk in the park, so a draw is nothing more than the players deserve. christmas party hangover? pure and simple laziness? manager's orders? whatever it was it needs sorting out because if fulham were braver we could've been staring at another home defeat . i'd say only luiz, torres, and drogba later on played like they gave a damn. our no.9 was chasing down players (even beckoning the rest of the team to follow suit in the 2nd half), assisted mata for our opener and should've had a legitimate penalty after a clumsy dembele challenge in the box. oh and he was wrongly flagged for offside when he on a clear run towards their keeper. still looks rusty, but he can hold his head up high after putting in a good shift.

the goal conceded was due to ashley letting ruiz waltz past him, and for some reason none of our CBs were close to dempsey. cech's position was also questionable to be frank. too eerily similar to the one adebayor bundled past our no.1. bosingwa is another player in dire need of some good form, along with meireles who had a stinker. apart from the goal, mata couldn't quite work his magic to setup or score a second. take nothing away from that superb strike though. lampard was anonymous.

so the great news is we get to stay fourth after arsenal and liverpool took a leaf from our book, and threw away some cheap points. but the BEST news is hutchinson making a remarkable recovery, and will be named in the squad at the start of january 1st, 2012! bosingwa better watch out. still lots of positives in what's supposed to be a horrible week for us



not too keen on kaka, i think he's the type of player who needs time on the ball to conjure something from midfield. the pace of the premier league will shock him, and he'll take about a year to adapt. by then he'll be 30 and with his injury record i'm worried he won't have enough time to live up to his name and above all, help us out. u can chuck cavani and hamsik into the highly unlikely category as well. although hamsik would be an ideal replacement for lampsy.


now this is the type of player we should be going for! i watched some sao paolo matches just to catch a glimpse of the lad and he didn't disappoint. one thing that stood our for me is his work rate, where closing down opposition players looked natural to him and his pace as well as creativity is an asset. could just be that right footed version of mata we're looking for!

p. s: if true, the kakuta loan to dijon rumour is really disappointing, especially after malouda moaned about wanting to leave if he doesn't get enough first team opportunities. we're going to gamble on hutchinson, why not afford kakuta the same treatment? surely he deserves a shot after all that trouble we went through to secure his signature..

gotta say that's one the most bizarre rumours i've read. but u have to remember one thing though..are those three players ready for the first team? i doubt it. if this rumour has any legs, i'd rather get them to push pedro our way like what AVB is supposedly trying to do. he's someone who can slot right in and definitely make an immediate impact. pedro + cash or pedro + alcantara would make much more sense. this journalist has a good imagination, i'll give him that!

one rumour that's certainly interesting is this one!
Hulk hungry to work with AVB!

it'll be extremely difficult, but AVB's relationship with the player puts us in a good position. wouldn't mind him at all, at a reasonable price.

hmm looks like we're well on our way to winning the most ill disciplined side in the epl award.medals anyone?oh and torres needs to stay in the box more.

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Jan 3 2012, 12:02 AM

celebrating like a boss!!

hard fought win against real madrid!!eh wait..that was just wolves..yes.sorry my bad.torres my man of the match for being involved in all our best attacking moves.meireles can't pass a ball to save his life.i want mikel back.nite guys.

oh yes bosingwa..my word.possibly the worst rightback playing in a top six team at the moment.forget ju-on and freddy krueger.watching him trying to defend is 10 times more terrfying.those two look like little baby kittens on screen in comparison.

hard to disagree with this. he has been dodgy the past few games, and in all honesty that last minute save vs wolves was good but its 'expected' for top quality keepers. can't compare it to say..the blackburn keeper made (forgot the name..huhu) against andy carroll to grab a share of the points. now that was spectacular and much, much higher in terms of the degree of difficulty.

this was frustrating to watch. all normal hallmarks of a team short on confidence. hopefully that last gasp goal from lamps gives us some belief that we still have a very decent set of players capable of securing a top four finish. especially after fulham helped us retain our current position for the time being.

its a good time to start watching those french league highlights soon. hope kakuta becomes a weekly feature!

i really wonder about those didier rumours...shenhua seem so sure of themselves. there just might be some drastic changes in january and lukaku might suddenly find himself thrust into the limelight. maybe we're gathering funds for a big signing.

i don't know about u guys but i'm starting to miss the highline now.at least we played some good football and the transition from defense to attack was lightning quick.teams actually LOOKED UNDER PRESSURE when we had a go at them,rather than us creating the illusion of pressure with some pedestrian sideways and backwards passing.

its not only torres or meireles or bosingwa that's the problem.i'm now more worried about what kind of philosophy AVB is trying to implement as its clearly not working.the last game we actually looked dynamic in attack was vs newcastle,and after the spurs game our style of play went on a downward spiral.

being inconsistent is one thing but the fact that we've been playing at a snail's pace for about a month now with no end in sight,is what's most likely to cost AVB his job imo.

well let's just be thankful fulham,bolton,city and united all did us a favour.that's a point gained on all the other teams clamouring for champions league football,courtesy of their help.still unhappy that watching us play was akin to watching paint dry but all in all it wasn't such a bad weekend i guess.

de bruyne or willian..hmm.i'll have both please but considering our dire need for a winger,kevin should be our priority.16-18£ million for willian ain't too bad either tbh.

BEST news of the day! i was getting worried and quite annoyed after failing to spot a single advert on astro displaying our match time. a quick check on the guide has allayed some serious fears. too bad it clashes with that other big red battle so there's i understand they moved our match time earlier to reduce the chances of untoward incidents..wonder if it'll work.

a bit confused with the raft of rumours recently..some sources saying de bruyne is a done deal, then we have avb denying we're in the market for willian, then in brazil they're saying we're still in the running for lucas moura (my personal favourite btw ), some murmurs about hazard also being a main target, etc, etc. pretty sure everyone is in the dark as to who we're really after, and when chelsea is concerned that's a good thing!

i see nobody's really liking the look of willian in a blue shirt. i'm shocked. he's got to be the most famous member of the black eyed peas.

oh wait..

on a more serious note, has anyone watched some of shakhtar's big matches against roma and barca in the CL? some members on vital chelsea claim the lad can really turn it on when he wants to, so the talent is definitely there. let's put it this way..those ramires clips we were all watching when he was at benfica..they didn't really made our heart flutter did they? but look at him go now! he's at least twice the player he was back then. so all i'm saying is he can't be that bad, and our recent signings have surely given us hope. the board and roman were 'on form' with the signings of ramires, mata and romeu. its not impossible for them to continue with that hot streak.

tonight's match with qpr will be a high pressure game, make no mistake about it. the crowd will be on our backs until the final whistle so i hope that sunny holiday AVB planned does us some good. daily mail (yes, DAILY MAIL) reporting some superb finishing by nando at the camp..now if he could just stay in that darn penalty box. studge and mata is due back with some good form too hopefully.

wow. the lot of you who are going all out to criticise torres while complaining about back and sideways passes..

u do realise you're contradicting yourselves right? what do all strikers need? nevermind torres. even studge was anonymous apart from that fantastic appeal to the ref for a penalty which was given. answer : they all need GOOD SERVICE. how many times were our strikers put through on goal today? how many good crosses? u can't have one without the other. u lot can clearly see our forward passing was close to non-existent and then cry 'torres is rubbish' when nine out of ten times he has to try and create for someone else (which he did on a few good occasions) because our midfield is too rigid and slow to get the ball forward.

in the first half the best chances fell to florent bloody malouda who's SUPPOSED TO CREATE FOR OTHERS for heaven's sake. that says it all. where was he today? where was studge? where was meireles? some of u guys are beginning to let your need to 'bash' torres get in the way of your judgement and its becoming tiresome. the midfield is still the biggest problem and if u can't see that maybe u should start following another sport. i'd suggest bowling. its much slower paced and when things don't go your way, there always just ONE person to blame.


good to see there are still people here being sensible. i wonder with some posters here sometimes..why ask for mourinho to come back? he can't overcome guardiola to save his life. just go for the whole shebang and ask for pep instead. we'll start playing sexy football and win the quadruple in no time!

dodged all the dangerous teams. *phew*

oh my...we're going to miss ramires. good thing essien is back, but he just doesn't have the pace anymore after those horrible injuries. are we going to see some even slower build up play after this...frightening thought but at least the bison gives us more steel in the middle? pretty sure he'll be pumped up for the utd clash

a big welcome to de bruyne!happy that he's joined but i'm quite disappointed we have to let him leave on loan straight away.could use those shooting and crossing skills right now!

a good price too,about 6.7£ mil which is considered dirt cheap in today's climate.

memo to avb: malouda is not a midfielder. and stop the favouritism with meireles and bosingwa please.at least show some heart in the second half chelsea.we're looking like a division 3 team at the moment.