LDN Blue

André didn't bring Eva, she was already here

Yeah, I'll give time for new applications to come through and such.

--------------------Hart----------------- Richards - Cahill - Smalling - Cole ------------Cleverly - Wilshere-------- Sturridge -------------------------- Young -----------------Rooney---------------- --------------------Welbeck------------

I won't comment on the Cole one, I believe it was a fitness thing, but who knows. As for Meireles, well for me it was about a. Essien doesn't have the legs at the moment & Lampard's attitude in recent games has been dire. The game was restless and for all of of Meireles' poor qualities he did keep up with pace of the game. I don't even think that was a game costing decision. The game wasn't won/lost in the middle of the park. Egotistical? I don't think so. I see a man who's forcing needed changes into the squad and excluding those who aren't happy with those changes. So he should. Would we not expect the same of Mourinho, Hiddink et al. Managers shouldn't adapt to players, players should adapt to managers.

Indeed. Cole surprised me because he comes across as quite humble. I thought his issue was regarding fitness, I hope it still is. But you're right, and we didn't play bad last night. It was an open game where we also created and threatened. I am not so disillusioned by André as everyone else is, I still think we have a bright future ahead with him.

Make it Oxdale-Chamberlain and you might have something..

Neither would've had the legs, in my opinion, to control that midfield. Agree that Meiereles isn't the greatest alternative, but for the position he's a safer bet than Lampard would've been. And anyway, look at Lampard's attitude of late, doesn't deserve to play.

AVB proved why he should stay last night. He has the balls to drop big names when they're not performing. Well played.

Considering what I expected, I was genuinely pleased. I mean, yeah it's bad in the terms of the fact it's 3-1 and that getting 2-0 at the Bridge isn't an easy feat by any means. But we played well! Like I thought it would be wave upon wave of Napoli attack but we saw a game where as the commentary said 'it could be 4 or 5-1 to Chelsea if they played their cards right'. We were granted a lot of space and created our chances well. The goal was a thing of luck but it's significant as the magical 'away goal'. We kept creating, and quality in the middle prevented us creating a few more. On another night it would've been us walking off at 3-1. We played well, some passes were misplaced but mostly they were good, player movement was excellent. The 2 in the middle were very important, they were sloppy sometimes, but they were good. I imagined quite a bit of doom and gloom, but I don't think we did near as bad as people think.

High-Flyer FC has been accepted into the league.

What a self-righteous, pretentious, arrogant imbecile

Brilliant!

That white kit is superb!

Interesting how they've been presented together before the individual clubs have had a chance.. Rather odd.

Too late for that, that penny dropped for the players when Scolari was dismissed.

I agree haha, but it doesn't seem piazon will break through yet. Then people get annoyed with André for not giving him a chance.

Not dislike, overhype.

Pato's story is quite sad on reflection. He must do all he can to improve his fitness otherwise he won't be able to remain at the top for too long. Almost opposite to Messi's case, this is probably worse.

Isn't it this afternoon, not evening?

Let's hope it's just another stupid tabloid story.

Look no further than Meireles when it comes to that. Some people are blinded by his thuggish look, he'll shy away from a lot of one-on-ones.

*ignores innuendo, reluctantly* Yes it does, in the Premier League. Not saying everyone needs to built like Drogba, Lukaku, Rooney etc. But there must be some work on body strength especially in central positions like striker, attack mid, defensive mid & centre back. Out wide it's not so important because less body weight can give you better speed which is why the likes of Ron, Alves etc can get away with it. The obvious case here is of Josh McEachran. He's far too under-built at the moment to come with the demands that are required for him to play at the level we all want him too. Of course, he's very young so it's not like he's not going to change in the next 2 years, but I'm sure coaches are telling him to spend more time in the gym and alter his diet so that he can grow. Not saying it's everything because you do have the exceptions like Messi & co who can adapt, but I believe in the PL (especially) you do need to be able to hold your own. Not necessarily by being built as an ox, but just have upper body strength to hold off some defending players.

Exactly man. Exactly..

LMAO Tx, well played.

I really hope Henry doesn't score tonight lol