Madmax

Kakuta has everything to prove. He'd be best served ignoring all the stuff said or written about him.

Wow keeping one clean sheet makes him that happy? Small victories ...

So 3 poor performances from Sturridge make him worthy of being 'offloaded' yet a couple of decent cameos from Josh and Kakuta make them potentially 'world-class'? Crying out for some perspective here. Why can't everyone just view them as youngsters who are dying to impress the gaffer, the fans and the footballing universe in general? They are expected to make mistakes because they are still just barely out of their teens. They aren't 30 year old regular first teamers. Everyone knew we'd have among the smallest squads in the league so it's not fair bringing that up now that we've lost 2 games. No one talked about the small squad when we won 5 on the trot and obliterated everyone put in front of us. I don't know about you but I'd rather have 19 seniors and 5 youngsters rather than 25 seniors, 6 of whom are there just to make up the numbers.

In 06/07 he played 62 games, the highest ever by any Chelsea player in a single season. Before that, he went on a run of 164 consecutive Premier League appearances that ended with him missing a game due to a virus in December 2005. One word for SFL : Indispensable.

Zhirkov has been poor when he's got his chances so far, as has Sturridge even though he got a goal against Zilina. I'm worried we'll face the same problems we faced against Man city if we start with Mikel-Essien-Ramires. So I'd love starts for McEachran and Kakuta. But considering this is the CL, I think Carlo will stick with the City lineup with Zhirkov in Ramires' place being the only change. Cech Ivan, Alex, JT, Ash Mikel Essien, Zhirkov Sturridge, Anelka, Malouda

We missed Lamps. An all too similar midfield trio of Mikel, Ess and R7 gave us nothing going forward. Also, both overwhelmingly defensive midfields cancelled each other out. We got no width going forwards either. Ash didn't bomb down the left as we've become used to see him doing. Ivan didn't either. And Drogba was so isolated upfront it seemed we were playing 10 against 12. We were crying out for a Lampard or a Benayoun in midfield just to make a run at the box, spray the ball to the flanks, beat a player or two ... in other words, do something other than getting a foot in and hoping for the best, but injuries did us in the end.

BomTrett beat you to it http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/8023-buck-off-letter-to-the-guardian/

It's an interesting one isn't it? We need a new, capable backup, that's for sure. But we're going to find it very difficult to find one. We already have Delac, Walker and Taylor waiting in the wings. If we bring in a young GK, it is going to interfere with the progress of these guys. Which means ideally we would want someone who's a good 8-10 years older than the likes of Delac and Taylor. But at he same time he's got to be good enough to keep Cech on his toes yet remain content in the knowledge that he is going to play second fiddle to one of the top 5 GKs in the world. It's going to be really difficult to find someone who fits this profile. If only we had held on to Cudicini ...

Very proud of our boys today. So unlucky with the injuries, but what great resilience to come back from 1-3 to 3-3. Also hit the post twice. Only one I'm disappointed with today is Sturridge. But he's young and so are Bruma and PvA and they'll only become better after games like these. Great effort lads, chin up! P.S. Josh McEachran - a star has been born

HT. A whole half to turn it around. KTF , C'mon you Chels!!!

1-1 at SB

I've got a very laggy stream ... am missing everything!

Surprised about Anelka. Thought Carlo would have wanted him fresh for City. Otherwise strong line-up, hopefully McEachran will come on at some point. missed his debut vs Zilina and am dying to see him play.C'mon you Chels!

I don't see why we should be happy with this 'back-handed compliment' as they put it. If United or Arsenal would have been champions, there would be raving articles about how great they are, their manager is blah blah. We don't get the credit we deserve, and that doesn't change no matter how many trophies we win.

Mirror says McEachran will start

Drogba strikes me as being the joker of the pack.

Aye good lad Carlo!

Welcome

Got to give Ross some minutes. I'd take any side that's got the young ones in it along with Yuri and Sturridge. No Kalou please.

Only if Scolari hadn't arrived when he did, we would have won the league that year by a mile. He took the club backwards a year or two. The players looked listless and lethargic, there was no spirit to our play bar one or two occasions. Probably the worst 3-4 months we've had since Roman arrived. It was a huge credit to Guus though who really turned our season on it's head. The damage to the league campaign had been done by the time he took over, but he still took us to the UCL semis and but for that thug Overbo we should have been in the final. The FA Cup win was a great way to see Guus off.

Who?

myp2p.net does have the game listed but on occasions the links do tend to go dead just before kickoff.

Updated till after Gameweek 5.

But Mancini plays Johnson on the right, so he would be up against Ash. Ivan is more likely to come up against Silva. Big test coming up for Mikel. As great as he has been so far, games like City away will tell us whether he will become as good as Maka was. He was quite frankly horrible last season at the Bridge against Citeh, at fault for atleast 2 of their 4 goals.

Drogba - 'Who are ya, who are ya' LOL Also, Bosingwa and Ferreira - hilarious!