hjperdeath

No. I don't get to decide. Criticism is fine, but call him a piece of shit or anything as derogatory as that is and there is nothing more than vile. That is not criticism. Criticism is saying that he can't play anymore or he should leave the club, he won't do us any good or anything on the lines of that. If you go out calling your own players a piece of shit, I can have an opinion and question someone's loyalty, because that is not how you support a club, my opinion. If I could go around calling my own players a piece of shit after a bad performance, the whole starting XI would get to hear a lot from me.

But don't think he deserves any kind of abuse. I would take Eto'o over him in a heartbeat, but to abuse him, call him names is just pathetic (not pointing at you at all) and these people will never be proper Chels. I understand the frustration since he hasn't been able to play as we want him to but he in no means deserves to be called names.

But thank fully Iva was there for the brilliant follow up. But City seriously suffered defensively yesterday and often found themselves outnumbered in defense due to the lack of mobility and dynamism or Toure and Dimichelles. Yeah I did expect him to cross it in first time, but luckily space for Ramires opened up.

Analysis on goal done, proof-read as well, all clear.

Ivanovic puts Chelsea 1 nil up at the Etihad with a goal that took merely 0.7 seconds to hit the back of the net. Kompany walked away in disgust as his team-mates picked the ball up from the net. He did everything he could to make sure no holes opened up. But what went wrong? Hazard received the ball and went on an amazing run. In the process he shielded the ball from Demichelis and walked right past him, as the Argentinian slowed down with disgust at himself. Kompany at this time was holding the line very well. The players were well positioned and ready to repel Chelsea’s counter-attack. Hazard came face to face with Yaya Toure, and to avoid trouble, the Belgian poked the ball towards Ramires. Here’s where the problem starts. Demichelis is loitering around at the far end of the field, when he should actually be in the middle, assisting Toure from blocking out Matic and Ramires. Toure is busy covering Willian , Eto’o and Hazard, as Kompany and Zabaleta have their hands full ( he converts a 2v3 situation into a 3v3) . So Nastasic is forced to press or Ramires has the liberty of taking his own sweet time to pick out a pass or have a pop at goal. Ivanovic at this point smartly makes an entrance. Hazard knows that he needs to shift the game to the other side, so he tries to make a run in-behind Kolarov which would give Ivanovic more freedom to attack without getting ahead of the play. The extent of the damage is seen. Red circles denote the City defender covering the Chelsea attacker and the white circles denote the culprits. Toure is standing still when he should be moving towards Ivanovic. What this does is that Kolarov is now concentrating on Hazard and Ivanovic while Nastasic has to cover both Hazard and Ramires. Nastasic drifts towards Hazard, confidently knowing that Kolarov will cover Ramires. However the poor Serbian is in a dilemma as he has to cover the Brazilian and his fellow countrymen lurking at the edge of the box. The ball is played in by Hazard , the architect again, and Ramires’s shot is blocked by Kompany who throws himself at the ball. The ball however ricochets off him and we all know what happened. To end it, Demichelis is the one who acts as the catalyst for Hazard to pull the strings, Toure makes it even worse by making Torres look like an expert in positional play and Ivanovic, well, doing what you would expect a Serbian to do so. The tale of two Belgians, we all know which one wasn’t swearing at his team-mates in the locker-room. Click Here To view Article

Please... I see where that comes from, but I genuinely do feel I would prefer an Englishman to be the leader of the team. There's something about them.

It'll probably go to an Englishman, and we all know who that is.

Sources from the stadium confirm that WIllian is still running on the pitch.

People think he cares about being hypocritical? That's one of the many reasons he has been successful. Deal with it.

Additional point of interest -

aye, no problem !

Habibi, one day I'm going to reach Lebanon. You better hide quick.

Ramires and Matic, or Luiz and Ramires.

Manchester City welcome Jose’s Chelsea to the Etihad, in what seems to be a game that could tilt the title towards the club that grabs all the three points. The noisy residents of Manchester banged 5 past Hugo Lloris and Tottenham, while Chelsea struggled to convert their chances into goals against medieval football. For all the hype surrounding City’s blistering form in front of goal, what should Chelsea expect? City while transitioning into attack, hold nothing back. Taking the term all guns blazing to another level. Freedom is given to a lot of players, and responsibilities, not always equally shared. The center-backs push up and Kompany orchestrates and organizes the structure. On paper it is a 4-4-2, but it looks far from it when City are in full flow. Fernandinho and Toure are the so called central midfielders. Fernandinho prefers to defend, while Toure prefers to attack. Silva and [enter name of your choice except Navas] are the wide midfielders, who function as interiores . However when City need a bit of width due to their full-back unable to do because of the opposition’s strategy, Navas gives them an edge. He hugs the touchline and drags players out wide for small pockets of space to open up. City when using an interiores function a bit different as said before. Both the full-backs are to get themselves forward, with the full-back who is not directly taking part in the attack, holding himself back and being level with the last man in midfield. To explain that easier, if the ball is being played on the left, the right-back will hold himself a little back and be level with the defensive midfielder to make sure counter-attacks lose their efficiency. A screen grab from the Arsenal game. Zabaleta has positioned himself well to either receive the ball or retreat quickly in case the ball is lost. Another area to look at is the vital three man engine. The engine that keeps the team fluid and running at all times. Silva drops in the middle, and works with Toure and Fernandinho. They try to make each other available through their movement, which is exceptionally clever. One man always defends, and we all know who that is. By doing so, they also negate the problem of having no man behind the two strikers as seen on paper. To an extent it’s largely seen as a 4-1-3-2 . If Chelsea are to win it’ll be vital to shut that area down, that is the bottom line. Block passing lanes, be physical and make sure that at least one of the three is never in the game for 90 minutes. That increases our chances of getting a favourable outcome to 40% . Now if those three form the engine, one of the two strikers is the fuel. Aguero and Negredo was a blossoming partnership, with Aguero acting as the front-man and Negredo often dropping deep to collect the ball and link up play. This also helps negate another problem. City on paper would be heavily outnumbered in the attacking third when the midfield joins in. With a striker dropping deep, it could essentially change a 2v3 scenario to a 3v3 . Dzeko and Jovetic have also been used, and in that partnership, the best part is that both of them can drop deep naturally to facilitate the play. All their strikers are exceptionally good at drifting to wide areas. Versatility is key in their play. Now I don’t have much to say about their defensive transition but, there seems to be this kind of idea that City are going to be really easy on the counter, and that isn’t the truth. It was quite easy at the start, with Pellegrini having quite a few problems in defining a philosophy that could make ball retention easier. City also have their fair share of players tracking back, notably on the side Silva starts in, as it tends to be more open. From one of the strikers, to atleast two of the midfielders, they don’t hesitate to pull themselves back and recover possession. On a tactical perspective, Monday to a football fan is going to be what cocaine is to a drug addict. Click here to view the article

So I've somewhat of a problem. Been playing a lot of NBA 2K14, and am I like the only one who watches football differently now? Everytime we make a tackle, it is now a steal in my mind. A clearance from a set-piece is a block. Counter-attacks are called fastbreak, and West Ham had so many 3 second violations...

I'm guessing he's arriving at the club today . Think Jose said that during the pre-match presser.

Get the ball and release. No nonsense for from him. A very good and assuring performance. Good times ahead.

Sorry but you really come off as a Mata fanboy. No one is being blinded. The team's philosophy is set in such a way that a no.10 that has a huge attacking work-rate, can only be the one that fits in. No one is denying how good he has been in previous seasons. There is a strong reason behind him being our two time, consecutive, POTY. Mata always gets to play centrally, but our system means the three upfront are a hybrid profile in such a way that they switch positions constantly. That's what makes us fluid. To stop that progress and go back just to fit Mata in is stupid. Chelsea FC, not Mata FC. Oscar didn't have the best of days against United, but he has been one of our standout performers this season so far, along with Eden and JT. Mata suffered against Soton, even though he did everything right, we all saw the difference Oscar and Willian made. No one here want's to sell him to United, but we also want the best for Juan because he deserves much better than what he's getting right now. A scenario in which it is neither ours or the player's fault.

Ake takes his place. Effectively covers the CB and LB positions.

^So now that Phil's gone, how's this guy still here?

In London, waiting for Spurs to do the medical.

This deserves the most over-used meme -

That's brilliant ! Always great to see people who make new acquaintances on an online forum, actually getting an opportunity to meet up.

Guess who started it....