Chelsea Thread

[Plough Boy]

If Hilario had done that to Grant Holt this conversation wouldn't be taking place.
THAT challenge was not a penalty.
Ruddy cleaning out Ramires on the other hand................despite Lambert's protestations.

I sense your main irk is the fact that you feel you should have walked the match and in fact for 80 minutes you were matched comfortably by a newly promoted side. Doesn't bode well for title aspirations. You should have ringed us.
We need to start picking up the points we deserve or it's back to the Championship we go.

[nakamura]

It wasn't even a clear goalscoring oppotunity either.

[abigsmurf]

Drogba's out as a precaution but Luiz, Cech and Sturridge are all available now.

Wonder how many people will need to fiddle around with their FF now...

[abigsmurf]

On the way back now (long drive ahead) most solid we've played in a while. Shame we relaxed too much towards the end and we had a nervy finish

[prinnysquad]

I hope you booed Steve Bruce.

[abigsmurf]

Possibly the easiest to get parked of all the stadiums I've been to. Parked on the street a five minute walk away.

Next weeks going to be tense. Everyone's raving over Manchester at the moment (not that I mind Chelsea being ignored), will be their first game against a defensively strong side, hopefully we can put a dampener on all the hyperbole. But meh, going to be ultra tough and our team is still gelling (although the performance yesterday was the best of the season so far).

[prinnysquad]

Shame you didn't visit under better circumstances. After - what is it? 8 home defeats in the last 9? - there's a bleak lookout at the SOL these days. In the heyday of Quinn and Phillips all sides feared the SOL.

[abigsmurf]

If it wasn't for the late goal I'd have imagined there'd have been some almighty booing at full time (although I'd guess 1/4 had left at by the time the goal went in).

There was certainly a suprising number of empty seats for a Saturday game against a major side and I only heard the Sunderland crowd get into a full roar ~3 times over the match.

[prinnysquad]

The attendance was poor, but that's a by-product of being in terrible, relegation form, since January. Quinn embarked on his 'come and watch us' local roadshow last year just as Fatty was guiding the club through umpteen games without a win - truly SAFC timing.

TBH the Stadium rarely sounds like it's in full roar. The acoustics aren't that good. Back in Roker Park the Fulwell End was deafening. After a cup game in the 70s, one journalist sneaked around looking for amplifiers, he couldn't believe they could create such a noise. Danny Blanchflower once said "..nothing I have ever heard equalled the intensity of that wild roar at Roker Park when Sunderland drew level". The SOL is a damp squib for noise compared to Roker Park. I went to Roker plenty of times in 16,000 crowds, and they were noisier than 40,000 at the SOL.

[abigsmurf]

Starting to lose patience with Torres...

Isn't taking on the shots under pressure inside the box. His out of box efforts are no hopers.

We've been attacking a lot, just lacking the final end product, not too unhappy otherwise. Suprisingly enough I actually agreed with our goal being disallowed.

[abigsmurf]

So of course Torres would set up both our goals. Redeemed himself a bit.

Other group game was a draw too which was good.

[abigsmurf]

Torres can GTFO now. I'll swap him for a bag of skittles and a milky bar.

Never seen so many shocking misses.

Aside from him I've calmed down a bit over that game. Good performance, fast pretty football and a comic penalty miss from Rooney. Losing at Old Trafford isn't the worst result in the history of football and given the nature of two of Man U's goals it probably was destined not to be our day.

[Flabio]

One of those misses was an absolute YouTube special though. Belongs in our 'worst open goal misses' thread I think...

[abigsmurf]

Bleh, our game isn't on TV tonight. Probably won't even be streams of it. You'd think London derbies would get more hype, especially given the proximity of the two teams.

[abigsmurf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14992738.stm

Villas-Boas has submitted a complaint about the offside decisions.

For all of the moaning about Drogba's goal a couple of seasons back, Man U have had pretty crucial decisions go their way almost every game since. God knows what kind of rant Fergie would've spewed out had the situation been reversed.