bombayblue™

Every club has certain fans they aren't too proud of, would be wrong to generalise a few opinions as that of the entire club.

United typically line up 4-4-2 with Welbeck and Rooney upfront and now Chicha and Rooney. Rooney dropping off a bit when not in possession to make it 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1. They'll stick to it against us as they're playing at home and more so because we use a high defensive line with relatively slow CBs and they'll look to exploit it with Hernandez's pace. I can see them lining up as De Gea Smalling Rio Jones Evra Nani Carrick Anderson Young Chicha Rooney and us as Cech Jose Bane JT Cole Ramires Meireles Lampard Studge Torres Mata Their strength lies in their pace and attack down the wings and their weakness through the center. Ramires and Lampard will have their hands full helping out Ash and Jose with Nani and Young. We need to dominate the midfield and keep possession, if we do that we'll negate them to a large extent. Remember they've conceded the most chances in the league and even in their 8-2 mauling of Arsenal they still ended up conceding 2 goals to a toothless Arsenal and were almost beaten by West Brom on opening day. So if we're clinical in front of goal we should see this through. God be with Bosingwa. Up The Chels!!

Couldn't have put it any better.

Wouldn't put it past him

I must admit, I have the same doubts about Kakuta. Hope he turns things around just as well.

Seeing that Young with just a year's contract went for 16m, 30m at least. 50 if Liverpool were interested.

0 - No side has ever won the Premier League after scoring more than 11 goals in their opening four matches (nine have done this). Deceptive Courtesy - Opta Joe

Mata, Luiz and Torres made impacts in phases but Ivanovic was a rock throughout the match so my vote goes to him.

Torres had a zip in his game but frustration at times was all too evident. This is just a case of confidence as the chances keep coming but his first touch, finish keep letting him down. Bosingwa was caught in possession a couple of times and as impressive as he might have been going forward, he still scares me when defending. Sturridge and Ramires will have to help him out a lot to shut out Young and Evra against United. I'd really like to see David Luiz play alongside JT and Bane at right back.

And while you debate and rant about everything you can because he isn't banging in those goals. Here's a little OptaJoe stat for you.. 14 - Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has created more goalscoring chances than any other Premier League player this season AVB dropped Drogba and he will drop Lampard when he sees him not performing to what is expected of him. His role has changed, he makes fewer lung bursting runs forward and roatates at it with the other 2 in midfield 3.

JT lost a few headers to Bendtner. A great defender, an even better captain but him and Ivanovic make the center partnership look too slow for a high defensive line. He is brilliant defending in and around our box but when pushed high up, often ends up committing a silly challenge when beaten for pace. Still have my faith though to turn things around and hopefully he'll be better alongside someone like Luiz. I'd really like to see David Luiz start alongside JT in center, although I do think they'd be competing against each other on who gives away the clumsier foul. Bosingwa has been putting in his 8/10 performances but I still have my doubts and would like to see Bane at RB. Mata and Ramires are full of energy and speed, they don't hog the ball and like to move it up fast. Sturridge was less involved than I would have liked but he played well and the cheeky backheel was icing on the cake. I think the fluid and dynamical look to our midfield, brought in by playing Meireles, really stood out. On two occasions when JT passed him the ball and a Sunderland player was charging down on him, instead of doing the Mikel thing and passing to Ivanovic/Cech, he just hoofed a diagonal towards Sturridge. Agreed it has more than 50% chance that it may lead to loss in possession but I'd rather he did this than pass to Bane/Cech and give time to the opposition to regroup. Torres, after being dropped completely from the Spain squad, I expected to be low on confidence but he was much worse. I guess he'll start against Bayer and hopefully score a goal to have his confidence back for the big United game.

I own the trademark for MTS™

Meireles starting would be a big statement, particularly as he would have had just 2-3 days training and it would mean dropping either of Mikel and Ramires. That gives out a clear signal of what AVB plans to do with the team. For me Mikel doesn't do enough going forward, you can defend him and his role all you want but the modern day defensive midfielder provides something going forward. He's been through a lot already this season and I don't blame him for his head not being in place. He lost possession and it resulted in a goal not so long ago and yesterday to Messi and it ended up as a goal as well. Not suicidal, I know, but when your ball retention and pass completion, backwards, are the only highlights of your CV, you aren't doing enough if you can't even do it well. For all the talk of the Maka role having changed since he left, he still provided more going forward than Mikel does. He sprayed balls to Duff and Robben and there was the classic to Frank Lampard at Bolton to win us the league in 04-05. He had 4 assists in the 04-05 season. Although assists aren't the best way to judge DM's since they'll be more involved with the pass before the assist. So let's leave it at that. Ok, Mikel may not have had the luxury of pacey Duff and Robben but he does now have Mata and Studge and I eagerly await him turning his game around, because even your average joe knows the talent is there, the frustration arises because it is being wasted and for what? For Sunderland I'd try Frank-Mikel-Raul but I foresee Ramires starting ahead of Raul. For me Studge has to start and we are all assuming Mata will too, although the fact remains Mata has never started for Chelsea and has had just 1 substitute appearance, however bright it may be. Common sense to prevail and both of them starting wide in 4-3-3. Don't wanna see the diamond against Sunderland, more so away. How the game pans out depends on who and when gets the first goal, Sunderland will park the Antonov 225, if we get it then it'll open the game up to suit us, hoping the defence will be up for it and Cech will be in goal, well figuratively not literally.

His goals last season made his perfomances flatter to deceive.

Cech generally takes the armban after JT, Lamps and DD but I, like most of them in here, would prefer an outfield player. So accounting for players who are almost certain to start and stay around for a while, I voted for Ivanovic.

Guess this spells the end of Kevin De Bruyne.

Who hasn't?

Sign Freddy Adu I say, Next Pele

How is the saga over? It just says we'll be applying for a work permit, which was already an open secret.

Very well said. If I may add, despite the media trying to make us believe all managers were sacked for not winning the CL, none of them actually were. I doubt if it was even part of the reason. The teams were struggling or becoming stagnant when the managers were fired/left.

So I guess we're winning the league this season.

Marin wouldn't cut it in the Premier League, I curse myself for not having followed Gotze last season.

What everyone seems to be forgetting is that the contract also includes a clause for the amount at which we can buy him. It is a deal where in we get to try a player for a few years, if he makes the cut, we can retain him at a pre-decided price obviously much higher than the sum for which Barca are bound to buy him back. Think of it as a loan to Barca, a move where we pay his wages and try him out, if he doesn't work, we get 3 million as interest on the loan we gave them.

Agent Talk = Bollocks of the Highest Order