Chelsea Thread

[abigsmurf]

Looking better so far, good consistant pressure... Why weren't we like this in the first half?

Still think the chances of us getting anything out of this are slim though/

[abigsmurf]

Ball hits the underside of the crossbar and bounces out. Sums up the second half.

Didn't deserve anything purely on the first half. Ancelotti has a lot to answer for with his decision to bench drogba at the start. Poor game. We're having our traditional end of year drop in form a bit early this year.

We need Lampard back and we need cover for him that isn't Ramieres. He offers us nothing going forward and he's too risky on the ball.

Still, Liverpool away is one of the hardest games of the season (especially as they decided to get some form a week before playing us) 2 points ahead at the top and Man U have a very tough mid week game.

[hudson]

Didn't Drogba have the snivels and that's why he didn't start?

[ShadowDancer]

Didn't Drogba have the snivels and that's why he didn't start?

Thats what skysports said.

[abigsmurf]

Until Chelsea get Lampard and Essien back, we're going to put in more performances like our first half today.

We don't have the strength in midfield with Ramieres and our bench of kids. We're going to have to buy someone in January if it looks like injuries are going to keep hurting us. Ramieres could be one of our worst signings in that last 2-3 years if he doesn't strengthen up, move the ball around in a safer manner and start pushing to attack a bit more.

Gotta hope Man City take points off of man U, we could do with building up a 3 point+ buffer again. Kinda typical we face Liverpool when their form is returning and Man U play City when their form has collapsed.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Smurf, what's the word with Essien?...his injury problems seem to have built up over the last few seasons or so, to the point where he seems to be breaking down regularly.

When fit and in form, he's Chelsea's best midfielder, imho.

[abigsmurf]

I've no idea really, could be the injury which put him out for a few months has sprung up again. Lampard's injury is a mystery too, he was supposed to be out for 2 weeks after that keyhole hernia op. He's been out for 2 months now.

These injuries are really hurting us as we simply don't have quality cover in these positions. Our weak midfield is likely what's causing our awful first half performances. It's only teams getting tired and/or not pushing as hard in the second half that is causing us to step up our game after half time.

[abigsmurf]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/nov/08/chelsea-leave-stamford-earls-court

Seems we're openly going for Earl's Court again. It'll be a shame to leave Stamford Bridge but we'd outgrown it even before Abramovich arrived. >60,000 would mean an extra 20K for each game which would mean a boost of £600K a match.

I can easily see the council torpedoing the move though which would be incredibly frustrating. Chelsea will never get a better location to move to (a mile from SB, already has infrastructure around it, choice of 2 tube stations).

[Kongster]

Drogba, like Cheryl Cole before him, had apparently been suffering from malaria.

[abigsmurf]

Thank god they're the only two people ever to catch the disease. It would be quite nasty if a whole bunch of people caught it.

Bit of a faux pas on Drogba's behalf though, trying to cash in on Miss Cole's popularity by catching her disease!

[Kongster]

lol

Ahem... Drogba and Chelsea have apparently teamed up with "Right To Play to support the United Against Malaria initiative". It's a charity apparently.

[abigsmurf]

Essien scored but then did a stupid tackle in the last minutes. Looks like Ramieres could get a couple more starts ¬¬

Still 3 points out of a game that could've been very frustrating is nice.

[abigsmurf]

Just seen the red card. Yeah I'd say that's deserved, no contact but it's a potential ankle breaker. Kinda frustrating seeing other teams getting away with red card offences though.

Dempsy should be a embarrassed by his theatrics, there was no contact.

[Baseley09]

Any reasoning behind Wilkins departure?

[abigsmurf]

General thinking is that he didn't really have a role any more Ancelotti has reasonable English, knows about English football in general now. Wilkins was brought in under Scolari as someone to help him manage non-footballing matters.

Bit of a shame it was out of the blue (*baddum tsh*) but he's leaving with his head held high. Wasn't perfect but he did a decent job.

At least it means one more Chelsea pundit on TV (even if he was harder on Chelsea than most 'rival' pundits)