Iggy Doonican

Job done you could bet your house on a 0-0 when the team was announced. Step nearer to the title and a potential huge piss up next Saturday i can't wait.

This all stemmed from Alex saying we are not winning by the odd goal in games when clearly we are. It would be pretty churlish to argue with any win regardless of how a game pans out. But the fact is winning and playing negative football the ends justify the means but next season questions will be asked if we play negative football and lose.

The point is Alex said he'd be worried if we were only beating teams by the odd goal and that's exactly what we are doing. We played West Ham on the fourth of March they might have had an outside chance of the Europa League then but the Champions League that's laughable. I've got a couple of West Ham mates and not once did they mention making the Champions League. You don't think Remy's goal against Hull wasn't a gift to cancel out Courtois one?. (Sorry fucked up the editing this is a reply to Curly)

But that's exactly what we've been doing.2-1 against Stoke, 3-2 against Hull, 1-0 against West Ham, 2-1 against Villa, 1-0 against QPR 2-1 at the Bridge , 2-1 against Palace , 2-1 against the might of Shrewsbury, 1-1 against Burnley. We've hardly been putting these so called lesser clubs to the sword have we?

I couldn't give a fuck about Real squire. The mighty Real Murcia now that's a different matter.

What would be scarier if Real didn't thrash the mighty Ponferrarina (Who?) Athletic (not a clue) Real Murcia (no idea) Almeria (is that a make of car?) Racing Santander (team of bankers?)

https://youtu.be/1La5s_CLLx8

I agree about what your saying that he's better then Livepool's strikers but i'm asking how he fails a medical and then has an injury prone season for us. In the space of a week how can you fail a stringent medical and then pass one seven days later. Mind you Liverpool have bought some proper pony players but surely they didn't pull the plug on the Remy deal to buy Ricky Lambert?. (Edit: It's Liverpool and Rodgers so maybe they did !)

Remy failed a medical at Liverpool and since he's been here he's been plagued by injuries. Hope it's just a coincidence or is he one of those players who to keep fully fit has to play regularly like he did at Q.P.R and Newcastle. I'll grab someone's hand off for a point tomorrow especially if Drogba starts.

I'd try the Goose on the North End Road one of the cheaper pubs in the area

Torres was a terrible buy there's no getting away from it. But in his defence he made his debut against Liverpool and should never have started that game. It can't have been easy for him leaving the scousers for 50 million on Thursday and playing against them a couple of days later. His confidence was shot from day 1 and he never recovered.

It's like the parents of that geezer who went to Syria to commit jihad. They told the police so when he gets back he gets 14 years or something. The parents then criticise the police saying the sentence was to severe. They do realise that only a few months earlier he was prepared to kill himself and others?. They should be thankful he's still alive and he'll have 14 years to dwell on what a colossal twat he's been.

José Mourinho, the anti-Barcelona, stands alone in modern footballThe Chelsea manager is close to seeing his team win the Premier League but of everyone involved in the Barça team in the 1990s, from Pep Guardiola to Julen Lopetegui, he is the outcast who now revels in his role as the dark lord • Sid Lowe: Barça’s philosophy makes them coaching incubator for top clubs A Barcelona fan with a cardboard mask of José Mourinho. Photograph: Jasper Juinen/Getty ImagesJonathan Wilson Thursday 23 April 201512.20 BST Last modified on Thursday 23 April 201512.48 BST Modern football was invented in Barcelona in the mid-90s. Of this season’s Champions League quarter-finalists, four sides are managed by players who turned out for Barça in 1996: Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Julen Lopetegui and Laurent Blanc. Within a couple of years, they had been joined by Frank de Boer and Phillip Cocu as well as the coach Louis van Gaal and his assistant Ronald Koeman. In slightly differing ways, the eight are apostles for the Barcelona way – or, more accurately, given the influence of Ajax on that style, the Barçajax way. However, there was another presence there, initially as a translator and then as a coach. In the Barçocracy of modern football, there is a fallen angel. In the modern world, at least at elite level, José Mourinho stands alone. At the greatest coaching seminar the world has seen, when the game as we know it was shaped, but he did not draw the same lessons everybody else did. The other eight espoused the proactive, possession-based football seeded at the club by Vic Buckingham, developed by Rinus Michels and taken to new levels by Johan Cruyff. Mourinho, however, was different. Mourinho believed in reactive football. He was the outsider, the outcast who now revels in his role as the dark lord. Saturday’s game against Manchester United was typical. Others, playing at home in a match that could effectively ensure the title, might have felt compelled to attack. Mourinho fielded Kurt Zouma, a central defender, in midfield, sitting deep and won the game with 28% possession. Mourinho may have objected to Diego Torres’s biography of him but the passage describing his methods against the better sides was as true of Saturday’s win as it was of the victory over Liverpool that determined the destination of the title last season: 1. The game is won by the team who commits fewer errors. 2. Football favours whoever provokes more errors in the opposition. 3. Away from home, instead of trying to be superior to the opposition, it’s better to encourage their mistakes. 4. Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake. 5. Whoever renounces possession reduces the possibility of making a mistake. 6. Whoever has the ball has fear. 7. Whoever does not have it is thereby stronger. It’s true that earlier in the season, Chelsea were more expansive. When Diego Costa, Cesc Fábregas and Nemanja Matic were fit and in form, they attacked and racked up goals. The talk was all of how, after the regular failures to break down massed defences last season, Mourinho had taken decisive action. As the squad has tired and form has waned, as the finish line has approached, though, he has reverted to type. Chelsea have been struggling for form and consistency all year and yet, in the 12 league games since the 5-3 defeat by Tottenham on New Year’s Day, they have conceded only seven goals and dropped only six points. There was a concern earlier this season that Mourinho might be losing his touch. Against Manchester City (home and away), United (away), Southampton (away) and PSG (home and away), Chelsea took the lead, sat back and ended up conceding equalisers. It could even have happened on Saturday, Falcao hitting the post with 11 minutes remaining. However, even if Chelsea have been unusually vulnerable at times in a lead this season, Mourinho hasn’t changed – and it could be argued that Saturday was vindication. FacebookTwitterPinterest From right to left, the then Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal, assistant coach Ronald Koeman, keepers’ trainer Frans Hoek and assistant trainer José Mourinho during a friendly in Amsterdam in 1999. Photograph: VI-Images/VI-Images via Getty ImagesAnyway, the sense is that it’s not entirely a matter of utility: Mourinho has his sides play that way because he enjoys it. Cast out from Barcelona, overlooked by them when they appointed Pep Guardiola in 2008, he is now the anti-Barcelona, determined, like Milton’s Satan that, “glory never shall his wrath or might; extort from me,” vowing “To wage by force of guile eternal war, irreconcilable to our grand Foe.” Every defensive performance, every win with limited possession, is a blow against Barça. There’s probably no game Mourinho has enjoyed so much as Internazionale’s Champions League semi-final second leg at the Camp Nou in 2010, when his side, down to 10 men for more than an hour, had only 19% possession and lost 1-0 to win 3-2 on aggregate. Who needs the ball? Mourinho is not a pragmatist in the way that, say, Fabio Capello is, changing approach according to his players and, where necessary, adopting reactive, defensive tactics. Rather his preferred way of playing is reactive, which is why he sold Juan Mata. He may have been Chelsea’s player of the season in each of the two previous years but he had no place in Mourinho’s conception of football. The paradox is that if Mourinho really has allowed his philosophy to be defined in opposition to Barcelona – he is that which they are not – then he is still allowing Barcelona to dictate terms, creating a dichotomy where there could be multiplicity. It is not that there is the Barçajax school and Not-the-Barçajax school; it is that the Barçajax school is one way of playing among an almost infinite variety, as represented by Jürgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone among others. And that, of course, is testimony to the astonishing influence of Barcelona over modern football. Mourinho cannot escape his upbringing as a coach; even as a rebel, it is Barcelona he is rebelling against

I'd be concerned if any of Putin's mates rang up Roman and said '' Fancy meeting up for a cup of tea?''.

Keep away from our door

Ha ha yes she does i'm the sort of bloke who can light up a room just by leaving it.

Yes sorry about the spelling i know what a millstone is i've been married to one for 20 years!

This boring Chelsea tag is going to be a millstone around our necks for years to come. Arsenal had it for years under George Graham. Football is more then spending millions of pounds on some of the worlds best players and making them perform in a perfunctory manner. Football was called the beautiful game by Pele and yes its a results business but Chelsea have always played attacking football it's in our D.N.A. I think Chelsea fans have every right to criticize our style of football especially the Madrid and P.S.G. games where the formation was so inflexible. And when against P.S.G. your up against ten men and all the movement and ball retention was from the opposition. I've said it in another post but the one thing Mourinho care's about above everything else is to protect his legacy. It's ok playing negative football when your winning but if you start losing playing that style that's where the problems will arise and Mourinho will have to really show his tactical nous.

Funniest thing i've seen in ages brilliant

Compare yesterdays game to Liverpool away last season and there are some similarities. A point for us yesterday would have been acceptable, now last season a point for Liverpool against us would have been acceptable for them. But the one thing i feel is overlooked when Gerrard slips there is not a single Liverpool defender in sight and Ba has a free run on goal. Yesterday if Matic had slipped for example our defenders would have been on any United player instantly. Is that an example of Mourinho's nous and Rodgers inexperience possibly. So it's either play conservatively and win or play gung ho and lose.

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Bye bye Gerrard close the door on the way out

Yes an embarrassment a living endoresment

All that Mourinho is concerned about is Mourinho. His one aim is to protect his legacy and if anyone asks him an awkward question he'll just say look at my record. And in that respect you can't argue but when your the self proclaimed special one surely you have to at least attempt to play attacking football. 30% possession at home is a shocking statistic against a team who were ravaged with injury. Now fair enough you could argue that with just Drogba up front he had no option but i don't think if Costa or Remy had started it would been drastically different tactically. If Man U had taken an early lead through Rooney's chance what would have happened then?. Plan A out of the window what would have Plan B been hit it long to an octogenarian Drogba?. Thank God for Eden Hazard who has been a joy to watch and is carrying the team almost single- handed (hopefully) to the title. The fat lady hasn't sang but she's clearing her throat.

http://t.co/uXnNytkDlM