bombayblue™

Feel a small part of the win just because he is a Chelsea fan

Earl's Court, Imperial Wharf and Battersea

Talent doesn't always turn out into the end product. Besides Kompany there aren't many experienced heads around. Van Buyten would be lucky to still be playing at 36-37. And how all these talented kids turn out remains to be seen.

Yes we do at Irish Pub Khar for all games against Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, Citeh, Spurs and few other fixtures if there is too much of a gap in between such games. We had a turnout of 300+ for the ManU game

As some of you may know, I am the head of the Chelsea India Supporters club. We have been featured in a lot of media related articles over the years, one of the stand out being when David Lee and gareth hall came down to Mumbai a few years back. Someone posted it on Facebook today and I saw it apt tat I post it here, although I may have posted it a few years back, not sure.

I can understand how fans who've been going to bridge for all their life feel about the move and I would want us to stay at the bridge too part selfishly because I have not been able to save up enough for a month long trip yet. But I wouldn't even bother comparing what I feel to people who go there week in week out. I'm sure many of them share their disgruntledness towards constantly increasing ticket prices, though the new stadium wouldn't guarantee that prices will not increase it will ensure that they won't increase as radically if we were to stay put and compete at the top level and also satisfy the UEFA Financial Fair play. Put it this way, your family has for all the generations you can remember, through thick and thin, stayed in a house of 3 bedrooms. Quite a palce when it used to be the talk of town 100 years back. Now you have your parents, a brother, both the missus, and 4 kids in 3 bedrooms. You'd ideally want to expand the house and fit everyone in or buy 3 houses to fit everyone. The family is broke and can't afford to expand it. Option is stay where you are how you are or sell it off to buy 3 houses which will fit your needs. Actually I'm not too convinced by my example but what I mean to say is I trust that all other options have been checked which would have provided for us to stay at the Bridge and only when none of them seemed viable are we going in for the move.

I honestly can't understand how people still expect to see Ivanovic start at RB, when AVB has shown no signs of playing him there and Paulo has been played/preferred at times as the second choice to Bosingwa. The hangover of the last two seasons should've have gone by now.

Haha.. Well put.

If Ramires can be just a little more clinical, I'm sure he would threaten the 20 goal mark for the season. The Keeper Deigo Alves doesn't even start games in La Liga for them, so he played out of his skin, kind of akin to Cudicini and Cech when Cech first arrived. I thought the save from his own player (Ruiz not sure) to avoid and an own goal was top notch too.

And that's why we love Salomon Kalou

Torres shouldn't have been subbed but may be it was to give Anelka some playing time as I expect now Drogba and Sturridge to start at the weekend. I was surprised why was Kalou brought on for Lampard but what AVB said in post match at least justified the thought behind it albeit it didn't work. In this team, which plays according to AVB's philosophy, the attack starts from the very back. So when you expect defenders to provide offensively (not translating into assists or goals particularly) through direct forward play, I think Mikel's work is only glass half full. Look at peers around us who use the similar formation and tactics. Barca, Pique starts play, runs up with the ball, is Busquets role restricted to just covering up for Pique's forward runs, mind you they even have Dani Alves in their team. We obviously don't enjoy their kind of possession yet because we are still a work in progress but the attacking ethic has to be there, however small or puny in nature, and it should translate into Mikel's game play. Like AVB said, a draw before the match wouldn't have been a bad result but when you give away 2 points like that it is really very frustrating. Anyways the team seems to getting better in play every passing game and that is even after accounting for the host of changes made to the starting XI so all in all its positive.

I think its best this thread be locked and the Valencia Match thread be opened up again.

Nope, he can't play against us.

I might have understood where you're coming from before the United game but I don't see why would you doubt our chances against Arsenal at this moment.

Spot on! The thing is they had embarked on it before the recession of 2008 and after the recession they ended up with two stadiums one they couldn't fill and one they couldn't complete. Their President Manuel Llorente has done a wonderful job ever since he's come in to keep them afloat and competitive at the same time.

Well he had initially signed a 2 year contract when he joined from Almeria which had an option to extension by a year and was taken up by Valencia. They are very financially unstable and hence they end up selling a star player every season to ensure they don't go in to administration even if they didn't qualify for Europe. They also know they can't afford to shower a big contract and should Unai fail end up with a 5-6 million seperation money which is generally their net budget every season. Pablo Piatti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Piatti

Most of Valencia's players were away on international duty but had to start on following Saturday just before the Genk game as it was a biggie against A. Madrid at home, so some names were rested against Genk. Genk was their 3rd competitive game of the season which also happened to be away Valencia enjoyed 69% of the possesion and had 26 to 9 shots by Genk. They also happened to draw against the so called invincible Barcelona last week. Count them out at your own peril.

Sagna?

I am a big fan of Emery and he was one on my wish list after AVB. They had a big game away to Sevilla whilst being perched at the top of La liga but Emery made a host of changes to the side that faced Barcelona (2-2) midweek and eventually lost the tie to Sevilla 1-0 and in turn the top spot to Betis. Soldado, Pablo Hernandez, Canales, Albelda, Miguel and Jordi Alba were all rested this weekend so they should all walk straight into the starting line up. They'll line up as 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1. Guaita Miguel Rami Ruiz Alba Albelda Banega Pablo H. Pablo P. Mathieu Soldado Miguel and Alba play like wing backs and love bombing forward. Mathieu is a work horse who tracks up and down and often plays in defence too. Soldado has been is sublime form but has been guilty of missing Torres-esque chances too this season. No exaggeration. While Albelda provides the muscle in the midfield, Banega is everything I wish Mikel adapts to when going forward, defensively Mikel is more solid albeit flat footed at times. I think our right side will be tested at its very best and Bosingwa, Ramires and Anelka/Sturridge will have to be up for it. We might line up as Cech Bose Bane JT Ash Ram Meireles Lampard Anelka Torres Mata If Mikel starts I think it shows AVB's cautious nature away from home in the Champions league and I think it would persist in the future. Should be a great spectacle of football.

Sorry if this has been posted earlier. When Lukaku had cramps - “At the end, I had a little bit of cramp and JT [Terry] came up to me and said I had to keep going because the team needed me. “You have to suffer if you want to win something and go through pain." http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/london-sport/london-chelsea-fc/2011/09/22/lukaku-takes-advice-from-chelsea-heroes-82029-29469041/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz1YgjqHGBZ

AVB: 'With Sturridge somebody fell on his legs and he felt a strong pain in the knee but the ligaments are okay so there shouldn't be any problem. He will only miss the next game at the most.'

Romeu was instrumental in keeping the clean sheet after playing 120 minutes and being down to 10 men for almost 75 minutes. He is over enthusiastic in his pressing and got rounded off one time too many by a simple side step and almost gave a goal away with a careless backpass but to his credit he ran back and won the ball back himself. Keeping in mind the 3 year age difference with Sergio, he is nowhere near the quality of Sergio 3 years back. But there is huge potential which is quite easily evident and he knows how to stay on his feet unlike Mr. Busquets something highly appreciated in the Premier League.

Just when you thought the next game after last weekend's thriller against United would be drab. To be honest the game wasn't as end to end but so many talking points. Bertrand was solid and kept running up and down, still needs to be tested against a better opponent. Shame Josh had to come off, he was playing really well. Alex looked more solid of the two and it was Luiz who was being caught out until the penalty incident. I thought a yellow would have sufficed. Can't blame Lukaku for effort but he clearly isn't ready to start games for us just yet, a work in progress. Quite justified his exclusion from the CL squad but then how miserable was Kalou. Romeu had a good game but often pressed too much and was rounded by the opposition a fair few times. The sloppy back pass almost cost us a goal but credit to him, he ran back and won the ball back himself. When Lampard's penalty was saved, I was like, here we go again. The fans behind the goal were immense, especially before Ruiz took the final penalty.

Expecting a lot of changes, my XI Hilario Paulo Alex David Luiz Bertrand McEachran Mikel Lampard Lukaku Kalou Malouda Ain't gonna be easy, should be fun.

Thibaut Courtois now has 3 clean sheets in 4 starts. With just the Soldado winner for Valencia against him. He surely has made the GK position his own for the rest of the season. Major fuck ups apart. As much as everyone talks about getting a better GK for second choice. I don't want us to call him back next season and have a Shay Given - Joe Hart situation at our club and then lose out on one of them a season later.