Kostas

He had to choose between upsetting an established midfield and players he will have to work with in the future and forcing a kid that will be gone in May onto his team. Maybe McEachran just didn't earn a chance.

Hindsight much?

^ A possible interpretation: AVB didn't realise Mata couldn't be a winger in his 4-3-3 until we started getting shit.

Their roles are hardly comparable. Afaik we had our own ex-Spurs DoF that got the boot not too long ago..

I had the impression DeGea has the best stats among keepers this season. His performance against us in the second league game was better than anything Cech managed to do for us in the big games.

Pressing and a higher block was always going to cause more bookings. Not to mention how Foy burried us at the bottom of the fair-play league in one game.

The 2 biggest clubs that work with Adidas, it's only fit we joined them.

Good luck to him. Shame for whoever was their Defensive midfielder.

Not the first time Liverpool are compared to a religious cult. I hope there are at least some Liverpool fans that are ashamed by the image the club and the most vocal supporters have built.

Wanktastic.

DM as in the position (deeplying midfielder) rather than the role(defensive midfielder). On the article, it may had a point about 2 years ago. Now I struggle to think of any Chelsea midfielder who offers less than Lampard.

There is a slight chance the badge is making us biased but at the moment I can't think of any nicer modern football shirt.

The crest doesn't look too much altered so I see no problem there. I wonder however how will the white letters and player number on the back work with the gold.

Absolute class. Best we've had since 04-05. This should make our teamwatchable.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20120409/finding-coaches/?sct=sc_wr_a1 A brilliant article which underlines the importance of stability not in terms of coaches but in terms of club vision and having people that are willing to lead the club to a specific direction. As I write this the age-old "football-people in the Board" complaint if the first thing that comes to mind. As ever topics like this one are more important than the annual manager wishlists and any thread in the transfer forum.

Am I the only one who remembers Arnesen and the power he had at the club? I can't say I have but I've seen some pretty shocking figures in this thread and on Twitter. Unfortunately most are limited to the PL but I can remember a few cup and CL games which would paint an equaly grim picture. I could certainly agree if you were talking about his team.

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.