kmk108

His antics annoy me, because you can be a physical nuisance without actively searching it out the way he has. BUT, he always showed that he was about the team before anything and would do anything for this team. However, I don't see what he did today as showing that it's for the team. There certainly has to be some kind of self-confidence to believe that you playing makes the team better, but there also has to be some self-awareness to realize you had an argument with your boss. Your boss is right, even when he's wrong. You have to expect some punishment for that.

Exactly. If he's playing like this as a pivot and as an attacking midfielder, would I be crazy to think he'd also play like this in a traditional CM role? He's got the talent to have good games every now and again, but he just seems like he's completely lost what he had even last season. Look at the play where he stands over the ball for a few seconds, dancing around it. There were 4 options for him to play a safe ground pass, but he decides to lob it up halfway across the pitch. Add that it was a poor cross as well.

I wouldn't equate what he did with "one of us." If he was one of us, he wouldn't have a bad attitude for being benched. Plenty of starters have been benched this season and we haven't seen a poor attitude.

F*ck me. That's an amazing away shirt.

I'm pretty sure everyone would take that, but that's not reality. Reality is we've been horrible this season and you have to look at every game itself. Tottenham were at home, in form and looking dangerous. This team, who has been pretty bad on defense this season, canceled them out and kept a clean sheet. That's a good sign of progress. Progress will come in steps. This team isn't going to just start winning every match. It's a process that's going to take much of this year to fix. I remember looking in the pre-match thread and seeing most posting things like, "I can't see us getting anything." "Spurs are going to smash us. 3-0". Some people just like to complain.

3-0 to us with Kane having a shocker. F*ck Sp*rs

He means if Porto win. He meant Chelsea lose, not win.

I don't think it's that bad of a comment, but that won't stop people from twisting the words. IMO, it simply says that things go stale after a few years, and the players had a hard time at the end of the few years. They still liked Mourinho and he was trying, he just couldn't get it through to them. That's not on Mourinho, that's on the players.

They're not the only ones contributing to the results. Don't forget the 11+ players.

You're tellin me. I've got a flight to Beijing next week.

I don't know where you live, so I don't know about your music exposure, but in the US, I'd say Bieber is more "popular" now than he was in the past. When he first became popular, he was adored by teenage girls and loathed by pretty much everyone else. Fan girls went crazy and people loved to make fun of him. but these days, his music is appealing to more people and I see less Bieber hate.

He has two Champions League titles. Only Ancelotti and Paisley have more than him in the entire history of the tournament.

It depends on the player/manager/situation. After the 2006 title, focus shifted to winning the Champions League. We had won two leagues since the takeover, and winning the Champions League became the big focus. If I remember correctly, the big reason Ancelotti was brought in was because of his European success. I think the big reason Hazard signed for us was because we won the Champions League. Players want to play Champions League football, especially the players that aren't from England. Last year, I got the general feeling that the focus was on winning the league again, disregarding the Champions League. I got a general feeling that this year's focus was going to be on the Champions League.

Why kit suppliers will never "get it right" I think it's horrible

The one you play 38 games in or one in which you play 13? Sure, there's arguments for both. The Champions League is the "best teams in Europe" and it's the best known continental tournament, but no other competition is played (nearly) every weekend of the season with the same rivalries year in, year out that has the kind of history that the first division title has.

MARK-DEN Both of those sound like awful slang terms

Useless fact of the day: Sweden plays Denmark in a Euro 2016 playoff. When they play, it will be SWE-DEN. The unused letters in the names will be DEN-MARK I have to amuse myself with the international break somehow.

Or we are giving the new manager a full summer. From everything I've seen, there's absolutely no reason to suggest that he's going to be sacked at any time during this season, unless we're still this bad in January. Other managers have backed him, the board has backed him, Roman has backed him, most of the supporters back him. The only ones who aren't backing him are the media and some vocal minority of supporters.

We're in a very important period. Jose isn't just representing Chelsea's recent past. He's representing stability and consistency in club decisions. Roman's keeping his finger off the trigger for the first time since he's been here, and if Jose doesn't come good, we will see the revolving door continue to spin.

Hazard can be given special attention, but it can only go so far if he's willing to work at it. It seems like his current attitude toward the game is that he's a great player that cares about the game, but not enough to stick around and work to get better. He'd rather go home and spend time with his family than stay at training and work to get better. Time will tell if he has a change in attitude. The last couple of games since his benching have shown signs of progression back to what we saw of Hazard last year, but he still has a ways to go.

Especially when you're just going to get mauled off the ball when someone like Charlie Adam gets to you. The few turns and touch and go's that Hazard had were a fresh sight to see. When he gives the defenders a chance to come up to him, he's usually getting himself into a bind that only passing away will solve.

Who cares what others think of us. We've done so well for so many years, they're finally getting a chance to give some back. Let them have their few months, because when we come back, it'll be that much sweeter.

I'm truly willing to give Ivanovic some time. Things could have turned for the better during his time off