Kostas

That's signature material!

Another atrocious performance coupled with a 2 point loss which only serves as a wake-up call for those who couldn't look past the results and expected positivity no matter how we kept getting them. The Napoli home game aside, we've been shit for longer than I care to remember and our last semi-good period of football must have been back in December. Normally you'd blame the midfield for such an unconvincing display but since we've played much better football having the same choices, our "forwards" and the decision of playing them has to be questioned. Lampard was the usual passanger he has been ever since his injury last season and Meirelles looked as lost as ever in a Chelsea shirt but Mikel was the one who had an extremely poor game by his usual standards. I refuse to believe that Di Matteo played Ramires over Sturridge to prove a point but as a managerial decision that didn't pay off I expect him to not repeat the same mistake again. Not to insult the Bertrand bandwagon (who has been very solid IMO) or scapegoat Kalou (who is far from the biggest culprit for our appaling football, or our worst player/problem tonight) but given what I've witnessed in the last few weeks I'd take the link-up play between Ashley Cole and Malouda every single day of the week over the one's inability to dribble and keep his head up at the same time and the other's over-eagerness to cross. The stats on points being dropped and goals conceded in the last 10 mins deserve a topic on their own. This has fucked up our season worse than bad luck, refereeing decisions and the "high-line" put together.

Not gonna defend his tactical nous but in an ideal world we would have at least one reliable midfielder with better technique than Mikel.

Goes missing for huge chunks of the game but he was twice today in positions would have provided him a simple tap in had his teammates passed to him. I'd rather play him as a striker these days than a winger.

Some terribly long overdue luck and refereeing decisions (even in Europe). On a less important point, we actually chase games, but only when they look lost.

Baffling post, absolutely baffling. The Wilkins part is just bizarre. As far as leadership qualities are concerned the only footballer the club had who had been close to Terry was Ballack, and he's been long gone. Not sure why you have such a hard time distinguishing between a big personality and a leader.

I swear I've been watching another team these last 10 years.

Mikel is completely fit. Having a fit Mikel start over anyone else has been the general rule for more than a couple of years.

I think the viewed topics were reset with the update so any topic recently viewed works fine when you use the "bubble" but with older threads that haven't bumped since the update like old transfer topics and player-specific topics it takes to the first page rather than the first unread post.

Because reverse psychology works better than retirement checks.

Yup that's the cunt. Can't say you're missing much, he has never even been the best CB playing for the Greek national team.

Almost as premature as the frequent shouts in favor of Terry losing his starting place in the team and being replaced by our fans' latest CB sensation.

First post-match thread that I manage to fully read and post before it gets locked Not much to add to what's been said but I agree this was a particularly poor game quality-wise both for the neutrals and from Chelsea's point of view. Credit is due to Benfica for managing to dominate us for most of the game despite being 2 goals down, 1 man down, having half their players yellow carded thus unable to commit fully to challenges plus having no regognised central defenders in the game. On the other hand it's a mess that they got themselves into by giving away a pretty needless penalty, and losing their nerve for the rest of the game over a decision on which the most vocal of them did not have a good view of. Their manager has got to be as much responsible as the card-happy ref for his team's ill-discipline and constant pathetic attitute. As far as we're concerned we can only hope that we'll be at the very least 200% better in the games versus Barcelona or we're in for some embarrasment. They only possitive I can keep from this game is not letting Benfica create many clear-cut chances. Given how many factors went against the Portuguese there's no denying that defending well as a team was not good enough. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ While I can't dissagree with any other part of that post I have my doubts about stupidity being one of his weaknesses(the how he got into professional football has been bugging me for quite some time, my guess would be nepotism with his brother in the begining and then Drogba helping him achieve much greater recognition than his ability ever would) With all of Kalou supposed advantages being little more than myths (e.g. decent score-rate, pace) it may actually be his footballing intelligence that has helped him being occasionally useful to his coaches. Thursday's match was a fine example of how he successfuly gets himself into positions from where any player could potentially do harm but ultimately fails to contribute. Despite him having acres of space like Mata and Torres he did arguably get into better positions than any of our other forwards partly due to him not being as closely marked (a very frequent theme in his Chelsea career) but also partly because he made his runs into the correct space,only to be later let down by his technique. The same goes for his defending where his only real advantage over our other forwards (workrate) is enhanced by smart rather than desperate positioning. It is actually when he has the ball that he looks the dumber as he has to constantly look at the ground to figure where his touch moved the ball and 7-8/10 times dissapoints with either his choice of his inability to execute it. I can only assume the following: a) You have not seen over 10 games of him. b ) You have not been following the Premierleague or Chelsea's not-quite-big-games very closely for the past 5 years. c) You are not aware of his wage demands, and more importantly how do they compare to that of other similar (in either role/ability) strikers in Europe.

Sometimes I feel like xPetrCechx posts just anything that comes his way.

If we score first it would be mad not to sub Cole immediately.

We haven't had the same (group of) person(s) picking the team and assembling the squad in years. He's never going to get a new contract no matter how many desperate starts Di Matteo provides him.

Not one to speak against negativity that that's just way over the top.

Hoping the football will be tolerable. We should should qualify without much trouble as long as we defend like a decent team and don't concede from a set-piece. A Torres goal at this stage would be golden for many reasons.

Did the view new posts balloon get fixed (for the old threads) or is it just not working for me?

Not much wrong with him as far as ability is concerned but as far as character, on and off pitch behavior, general attitude and apparent(=based on all he's shown rather than a media image) intellectual level is concerned he's no different to the current generation of Greeks playing for(or unfortunately supporting) that team. I believe the following phrases will give you a better feeling/view than anything I could say. Think of C.Ronaldo acting tough. Think a mix of Suarez/Bellamy with RAWKite devotion, delusion and cuntishness.. Think a lifelong brain-dead QPR/Millwallf fan who manages to play for his team in every game like they're playing against Chelsea/West Ham. Think a Juve fan who's at best proud of Calciopoli and the methods used. Think Dani Alves whenever Barcelona are not winning. Think of Roy Kean being smug.

Didn't we use to have a member number somewhere?

I thought you were talking about the one who plays at CB for Olympiakos. I had the impression the other one was actually a defensive midfielder, or at least that was his position when they played against United. Guess confusions like that are bound to happen with the most common Greek surname.

Keep that inbred away from Chelsea.

Surely it's all Emenalo's fault.

Second time's the charm