Naked Mole Rat

Exactly. I want to point one thing out though, and that is that the two teams looked equally demotivated going into that match. Leverkusen, however, changed their attitude when they conceded, and we didn't when we scored. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing, but our attitude actually got worse after Leverkusen's equalizer, and the game in general reminded me of our loss at Goodison Park at the end of last season, except that that time nothing was at stake, and this time, a loss could mean humiliation of having to play in the Europa League.

Sturridge. Could've been Cech except that he ticked me off by showing no sense of urgency after Leverkusen had equalized. Playing for a draw against a side who are weaker than us both on paper and on the pitch? Unacceptable.

Is that you, Sepp?

Am I the only one who's outraged by yesterday's performance? The whole team looked down, they weren't pressing enough, and we let Leverkusen, who came into that game not even expecting to win, to exploit our defensive flaws. That's how I see it. It was especially infuriating because it wasn't even like Leverkusen were pushing up like Liverpool had because they wanted to play safe. Yet, they won the game and had more possession than we did. Yes, they were lucky, but we once again let the opposition penetrate our defense way too easily with one single pass and couldn't deal with them in set pieces. Also, I don't understand why Drogba started and why he wasn't taken off in the second half. I don't blame him, but he was clearly unfit and wasn't pressing enough, and other than the goal, he played pretty badly. That was the same sort of reaction I had when he played against Liverpool; beside his free kicks he was sub-par. And something's gotta be done about Mata. I don't think he plays very well on the left wing. He should probably play in the centre. If there's one thing I was happy with, it was Sturridge's performance. He was really up for the game, made some good runs and crosses and showed some signs of a mature player.

I thought that was a pretty poor decision from Cech. It never really caused a huge problem before that incident, but he really does put Mikel in unnecessarily difficult situations with passes like that. Usually Mikel is able to turn away from the other player but it was always going to happen.

By the way, I feel kind of sorry for Mikel. That was a pretty big mistake and all, but it was Cech who unnecessarily put him under pressure, and that always happens. It's not just Cech, but with Mikel being a formidable ball-keeper, his teammates tend to rely little too much on him and put him in situations like that. He usually does well to spin away from opposition players, but it was always going to happen.

The best manager is one who can bring the best out of his players, not one who implements a system that requires whole new players. It's still early, but clearly, AVB hasn't brought out the best in his players yet. Instead, he's brought his fancy Barcelona romance thing to Chelsea, which is the total opposite of what we had been doing for so long, and now, our defense, which used to be one of the best in the world, is in shamble, and we're doing well only in keeping possession but not with doing anything useful with it. (YAY now we're like Arsenal!) I can see how efficient it can be if it works out well, but with lack of discipline and teamwork at the back it's never going to happen. Those aspects of the team he completely ignored and it showed today. Half the time, Ivanovic and Luiz didn't even know where each other was, and Terry, Luiz, Mikel, and Cole tried to do some fancy turns to try get out of trouble instead of using their sense and clearing the ball away. I hate to say this, but I completely agree with what Neville had to say about our defense. (Not that it helps to listen to that asswipe when we're losing. Anyway, who the hell gets Neville to commentate a match between Chelsea and Liverpool?) Anyway, I'm not quite sure whether AVB does or does not have the right players for his philosophy, but either way they are not ready for it. He probably took a wrong approach of hurriedly implementing his style of football before he solved the problems we had since last season, and it's going to be very difficult for him to turn things around now in the middle of the season. In other words, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but we may be screwed... for the season.

Nah. 70K per week at Chelsea? There are probably not that many people stupid enough not to realize that that's way too good for Kalou. I just wonder how we haven't figured that out in 5 years.

Hardly relevant, though, to be honest. He didn't have to be racist to call Ferdinand a black cunt. He just had to be very unprofessional. If he had, that is.

Please, you don't understand how difficult it is to be like them.

It is his choice to kill himself but that doesn't mean people shouldn't try and help. And I personally will never be able to let a person die if I could save them. Btw, isn't it illegal to just stand by and do nothing even if someone decided to kill himself?

Holy crap, look at some of these guys. They're over six feet and still growing. Jelly... I used to think I'd outgrow Crouch then I stopped growing taller when I was 13, and now I can't even tell who's taller: me or Messi. Anyhow, Name: Kurt Age: 17 Nationality: South Korean/Canadian Height: 172cm Mass: 54kg Positions: Striker, Left/Right WInger, Sweeper Favourite number: 17 but 10's good, too. What makes me so special: Pace, One-footedness (reason why I score so many wonderful goals), Heading, Tackling, Off the ball Why I suck: Stamina, One-footedness (reason I miss on an open net from a foot away), Diving, Elbowing, Kicking in the shins and balls, Flimsy ankle Players I want to play like: Bale Players similar to me: Kalou, Malouda, Anelka

One way or other, he had to fail just like Almunia and Fabianski. But, seriously, it really can't be him?

There is no way I or most other people can tell if he'd actually said something racist to Ferdinand. I never thought the lipreading video was enough for people to go about claiming he's racist, but at the same time, what Adam Phillip and some of the other players said about him doesn't really tell me much about what happened either, although it's good to see them back their captain. Maybe Adam's right in that JT isn't racist, but he could've just blurted it in anger. In any case, if he turns out to be guilty, there is no doubt he should be punished. Racist remarks like that shouldn't be tolerated anywhere on this planet. And this is a more personal thing, but if it proves to be true, he'll let everyone except the journalists down, and he should give up both England and Chelsea armbands. He already made one huge mistake as the face of this club but still was given a second chance. I appreciate his commitment to the team, but it turns out he actually said it, he will be an embarrassment more than anything else, and I will not back him. But having said that, I don't believe this was something they should've taken to the court. I don't live in UK, and I don't know what things are like there, but to me, this is something the FA and the club should take care of, because even if he had said something racist to Ferdinand, it most likely would've been of frustration rather than of malice. If he'd just called him a 'cunt,' people wouldn't even be talking about it, and I don't think the fact that he called him a 'black cunt' should make a world of difference and turn this into something the court should be involved in especially when this happened during an exchange of angry words in a heated football match. It wasn't like he'd beat the crap out of Ferdinand like Gerrard did that DJ a couple years ago or like he'd insulted him in public. Like I said, I don't condone racism and will be more than just disappointed at Terry if he proves guilty, but people are making a ridiculously huge fuss about this, and that's not right.

He was just very, very wasteful in terms of possession and the final ball last season. He was very unsure on the ball and screwed up a lot of easy passes, which was very frustrating. I don't ever recall getting mad at him for being a terrible defender, though.

I don't think Bosingwa's a bad defender (at least not for a wing back). Rather, I think his real weak point is in his selfishness.Many of his dribbling attempts border on stupidity. I wasn't much disappointed with his defensive display against Arsenal, but I was absolutely ticked off when he tried to dribble past Walcott I think at the halfway line and lost out. Also, it's pretty obvious Bosingwa hates to (or just can't) work with Sturridge. Whenever he knows that he can't get to the byline, he either cuts in or passes to a player in the middle but rarely passes to Sturridge. In a game a few weeks ago, I noticed how Sturridge got really annoyed at Bosingwa when he kept on refusing to pass to him even when he was open. To me, a wing back who can't work with the winger in front of him, is... well, I want to say 'useless' but I think that's a bit harsh. Anyway, if he can't figure out that he's a defender and Sturridge is the attacker, I don't want to see him playing any more.

So, I guess this means Foy got off the hook? What a joke. But then Riley is the chief of referees, so it all makes sense I guess.

Not that surprised with the number of interceptions Bosingwa made because he really is a good interceptor, but what's up with Cole? It almost looks as if he hasn't done any defensive work.

Hmm.. wonder why Josh is wearing 21.

Andre's been playing Mikel more like a playmaker than like an anchor man, and I'm glad about that because Mikel is one of the two best passers we have along with Mata. Mikel is playing in the wrong position, though. With Andre insisting a high line, we need a midfield sweeper with decent pace like Romeu in the DM position. Mikel should move to the CM position where we can influence the game better.

Good news. With the way Swansea's been playing, McEachran should fit in very well there, and I think we can trust Brendan Rodgers.

Speaking of impatience and faulty logic, how can you claim "Hes slowly becoming Arsene Wenger" when this is only his first season with us?

Own goal. Arsenal won't miss out on this glorious opportunity to humiliate themselves.

The roles of a DM and a cover defender are similar (they both sweep), and both Romeu and Luiz are defensively and physically capable so they should be able to swap positions and play decently. It's a good option to have in case of emergency, but I don't think there is any point in training Luiz to be a DM and Romeu to be a CB. I'd say that it would be much more efficient to teach Luiz discipline to turn him into a proper CB and keep Romeu in his position as well.

Mike Dean and his linesman Simon Beck got demoted after our victory two seasons ago at OT for missing a Drogba offside. I think Ferguson was raging after the game, although they also missed Macheda's handling, and the FA decided to listen to him. Anyway, the same has to be done to Foy. He is far from impartial, and he has a serious problem controlling the game. For fuck's sake, I've never seen any referee who flashes his cards as often as he does when it'd be much better if he'd first talked to the players first to calm them down. I'll be absolutely disappointed if they don't punish Foy and instead punish AVB. BTW, does anyone know if that linesman at OT this season when we visited there was punished for what he did (or more like didn't do)?