BLionheart

some people think that our squad is too old and we will soon not be a great power . they are absolutely wrong ..... also others specially our fans like to think that the likes of kakuta , McEachran and Bruma can start from where terry and lamps finished , i hope it was that easy but it's not .. well giving a look at the future after terry , lamps and Drogba will all retire chelsea will never be the same again and here is why 1-Terry & Lamps factor: why don't you try to google chelsea fc images , what did you notice ?? it's almost as if this club was built around two players (Terry & Lamps) 2 of the greatest icons in our history !!!! that is not only because they are great footballers but because what they represent while terry without a doubt will go out as one of the greatest captains in history , lampard is known for his super human statistics of 20+goals and around 20 assists from midfield , can you even imagine chelsea without those two !!!! no one can replace them , period ... those types of players can't be replaced , what you can only do is change your whole game plan as there will be no replacements for them . 2- Physical strength : chelsea has been always known for it's physical strength and was always a place fo tough players like essien , mikel , dogba , ballack ,alex and many others but if the likes of Kakuta , McEacheran , sturridge and borini are the next chelsea stars then let's just forget that chelsea were once the strongest and the most physical team on earth ... i mean really can you imagine those 4 making a big physical presence as much as Drogba alone !!!! even the players we are casing right now seems to be too small like neymar for instance ... i love that part of our game and i love that we can out muscle any team in the world right now so i will be very sad if we lost one of our greatest strengths . i know terry and lamps have got to retire one day and i know that chelsea will have other great defenders and midfielders but even if they were better in quality and skills they will never be terry and lamps . i am not doubting that those great achievements we had so far was due to great team work and some other players have been just as good on the pitch as lamps and terry but i am talking about off the pitch that is where no one will be able to match those two . also i know Kakuta , McEachran , borini , sturridge and neymar can all turn into world class stars but none of them will have the presence and power of Drogba . so for all of those who say chelsea won't be the same .... yes , they won't be the same but hopefully they will still be a team of champions not the same terry , lamps and Drogba story but hopefully another beautiful story because let's be honest terry , lamps , Drogba , cech , essien and those goup of playes were the 1st real champions in our history that is why i think they will always be our heroes . may be that article was supposed to be written 3 or 4 years in the future but what the hell if people are starting to talk about it from now i am gonna post it .

cristiano ronaldo , didier Drogba , nicolas anelka , daniel sturridge , wayne rooney all had attitude problems at some point of their careers , you know who else had attitude problems Diego Armando Maradonna did ...!!!!!! so my point is we don't have to leave a player because of his attitude but we need to work on that area and fix it just like if some player lacks strength or a certain skill and we help him improve that we can help neymar impove his attitude and it won't be hard under carlo' management with the help of terry , lampard and Drogba .... also the boy has some amazing skills , he is really talented if he adds some muscle he can be a world player of the year material ..... i still hope we get him .

what the fuck !!!! new contract !!!! this boy is crazy i thought he will transfer to one of the top clubs and make history for himself as one of the best players but he prefers to stay with atletico madrid !!!

one of the best prospects in football world and as the big drog and slam dunk has pointed before his attitude problems will be sorted out because let's face it he will be playing for the EPL champions and one of the biggest teams in europe along with the likes of Terry , Lamps and Drogba and also having a lot of very promising players like Kakuta , McEacheran and Sturridge means he will not be the focal point of his team and in training he won't feel like he is a football god as he feels right now with santos ..... so that will either increase his power and will for the greater good like what happened with ronaldo at the start of his career or worst case scenario if he is having attitude problems we will sell him and may be make some profit out of him .

alex is good in the air but in any other defensive aspects terry is better than any other defender , no one can make vital interceptions/tackles like him and his positioning and anticipation is second to none so i don't think any defender should be compared with terry right now .... he is the only CB i can think of that will make your defense look good even if he is playing next to belherouz , ferera and del horno .... terry = legend

alex before terry !!!!!!! watching terry in a chelsea shirt shouting and leading the team shows what chelsea is all about he is the heart of this club and lamps is the brain

what a vital win !!!! i love it when we get the three points even when we are not at our best but let's not carried away .... we had some problems during the game that sometimes , tbh they were always looking more likely to score but i am sure when lamps is back we will get back to our best

well carlo must be pretty satisfied with the result .... we didn't play the best first half out there but what a magnificent ending ... and Drogba's finish is real class although it reminds me of joe cole's flick against Man Utd last season .. Ramires had a very bad 1st half ut he started to get into the match in the last 10 min. of the first half and he did some great work for the goal . but anelka looks tired he is off pace and lost some promising balls , anyway i think this goal will make our life a lot easier in the 2nd half and i still think it's gonna be 3-0

2-0 at half time and 3-0 after 55 min. then kakuta and McEacheran will get to play their first big 4 match . Damn !!! that will be awesome !!!

come on ramires show what you are all about . if he runs into space on counter attacks he will give arsenal real trouble with his lightining pace.

great news can't wait for lamps and Bos to be back but i don't think any of them will start the astonvilla game but may be the game after that

hopefully i will be ramires or McEachran , zhirkov doesn't do any good from midfield so if we are looking to some creativity McEachran should start but to add more strenght and discipline then ramires will be the man for the job . i think ramires hasn't shown what he is really capable of yet , if he continiues to get this gametime he will improve a lot and will start to be our star signing in the second half of the season .

just the fact that kakuta starts will make the game special for me , i love all of our players but man this boy is very pleasing to the eye to watch and i can't wait for him to turn into the player we are all expecting him to be

Offloaded !!!!!!! that was a bit harsh i would say , he clearly has some quality and the lad's talent is very clear but he is still struggling to show what he's got . although i agree with you that this season will have a great impact on his career as a footballer .

i hope that both sturridge and kakuta start giving anelka some needed rest before the arsenal's game ,this will be his 3rd game in less than one week if he starts . not one other player has played the full 90 minutes in the last two games and is more likely than not to play the full 90 minutes against gunners so it's pretty clear that nico needs a rest . and since this is not a must win game or anything so we can afford to start some youngsters i hope it will be : cech - ferrera - ivan - terry - a.cole - mikel - essien - zhirkov - malouda - kakuta - sturridge . with McEacheran , bruma and Ramires coming off the bench or hopefully borini WoooW if this team actually starts we will have 6 lefty players included in our line up

nope , i don't think that is why he was such a disappointment ... for me the reasons behind his failure to impress are pretty clear , he tries too hard that he ends up screwing every ball he gets ... sometimes he is trying to get past 3 or 4 oppositions or shoot from 40 yards and off course the outcome of that wasn't so pleasing . his positioning is very bad specially for a lefty player on the right wing , when a lefty player plays there he should always try to get more involved in the game , break to the inside of the field rather than the outside but daniel is always moving next to the line that i can't recall him being anywhere except on the very right of the field . with all the pace he has , he doesn't know yet how to use that in his favor and he ends up running into his opponents instead of getting past them , it's not as simple as kick the ball and you will get it first cause you are faster that might have ended up well for him in the reserves but welcome to reality .... you have to have some tricks , to look one way and go the other , to move one way and quickly turn back and may be back again , so untill you can do those kind of tricks , you need to keep it simple and just pass the ball or play a one two . his shooting is not good enough really , the only times i recall sensing danger coming from daniel is when he cuts inside to shoot but his shots is not really good . and that as well affects him badly because as soon as he scores more often he will get more comfortable playing with the team and will just stop trying too much at the same time . that's what i think of daniel sturridge and it's only my opinion so may be it's not 100% right

1- Chelsea are not invincible!!! : yes they are not , and i think most of us already knew that but we didn' know exactly the type of teams that can beat chelsea and now we do , those teams are the likes of Man city , Inter milan and may be Real madrid . in other words teams who have very solid defense in terms of discipline , physical strength and aggressiveness and very sharp and deadly on the counter attack having speedy forwards with clinical finishers . so for me i am not too worried about this as there is only one man city in the league . and to be honest i have expected this even before the league starts , we can beat any team in the EPL but we tend to have problems when facing Man city so as Drogba has said if we were told that we will lose both games against city but win the league we would have signed for it , and i think that we would win our first five games , lose against city and still be the top of the league with 3 points ahead of united most of us would have signed for it as well . 2- Chelsea has improved since last year but they are still gonna lose if they are to face the exact same intermilan of last year. well 22 goals scored with only 2 in return , yes we have faced some of the bottom table teams but compared to last year's first six fixtures i don't think there was a big difference . scoring from every where and it sure looks like they are all on fire malouda Drogba anelka and kalou have already scored more than 5 goals each . chelsea has definitely improved but let's not get carried away , yesterday it was pretty clear that we still lack the extra spark a la messi , yes lampard was missing and it might have been a lot easier with him on the field but he is no messi . when i was watching the game i couldn't help but notice that this match was very similar to both of the inter clashes specially the bridge game which ended with the same result with the same exact manner . 3- Chelsea has one of the smallest squads in the league : last year when we had mikel , essien , belleti and deco injured we still didn't have to use the youngsters like McEachran or Matic . in the very few times we used kakuta , sturridge or Matic it was to give them game time not because we didn't have other options ... but still i like that because it means we will get to see a lot of Kakuta and McEachran this year . the only place i am worried about is defense with iva the only decent cover for CB and RB because as much as i hate to admit it bruma looks way far from being ready for regular first team action and ferrera is completely useless now . the other player that can not be replaced in chelsea is Lampard , yes you can play ramires while he is injured or benayoun but no one will be able to provide what lamps does . 4- Sturridge still has a lot to learn and he must learn quickly . after his cameo in the community shield a lot of the fans have been crazy about him waiting for more but he was very disappointing to them as he has been one of our worst players against zilina , Newcastle and man city . so unless he starts listening to what Carlo says and improves quickly he will just turn into another kalou . 5- we have every right to say that kakuta and McEachran are the future of the club . those two are absolutely future world-class stars if they stay away from bad injuries and i am talking about near future . they are both very smart players and clearly have special talent . so while kakuta proved that with one moment of brilliance he can change games like our first goal against new castle that was pure class assist also his assist in the U-19 final , Josh McEachran proved to be very mature for his age , i have never imagined a 17 years old midfielder playing with this calmness and awareness of the game some are already linking him and jack wilshire with Lampard and gerrard . they will be provided game time not only because carlo said so but apparently he doesn't have a lot of options as i have mentioned before and that will help their progress to turn into wold class footballers

Lampard is the holder of the Premiership record of playing consecutive league matches dating back to October 13, 2001, set on November 26, 2005, breaking the previous record of 159 appearances by David James. The streak ended on December 28, 2005, after 164 games, when Lampard was taken ill before Chelsea's game at Manchester City.

well let's be honest , that was just unnatural for any player not just players over 30 !!! the only players that can compete with that are goalkeepers .

when i watch the likes of giggs , scholes and maldini i can't help but think that terry and lamps can even be better ... with there workrate and hard training with carlo behind them they can easily play at the highest level till they are at least 35 or 36 . giving a look at Lamps today he doesn't like a story that will end within the next two years like other players at his age . you know what just compare him now at 32 with his old mates ballack and deco , that will show how much different his case can be !

20+ goals every season 20 assists every season a player that can score with his both feet and head , that can score from distance , from one on ones , free kicks and one of the best penalty takers in the world . are we talking about a central midfielder here !!!!!! we all have heard that before and in any discussion about lampard those facts must be mentioned but what super frank actually provides to our team is way beyond that and here is why i think so ... with our game plan which depends on one striker and two wingers a lot of times and specially on counterattacks our wingers will find some lack of options inside the penalty area finding only Drogba standing within between two defenders and here comes lampard in the right place at the right time . when anelka , Drogba or Malouda drop back to build up play u will find lamps sneaking behind the oppositions defense acting as second striker and he has scored a lot of goals from there like his goal vs man city in the 4-2 game last year . one of lampard's best quality is his awarness , he is always ready to pounce on a lost ball or to follow up a ball that rebounded from the defence or the keeper . he is one of the best passer in the business but what i like most about his passing game is that he know each and every one of his mates , you will find him passing a long ball to A.cole some metres away as he know he has the pace to get the ball on the other hand he won't do the same with ivanovic . so he know how and where does Drogba , anelka and malouda need the ball he understands everyone of them . with all the above mentioned he doesn't mess with any of his defensive duties and he always makes great tackles and blocks and helps the defence . may be lampard is not the most skillful midfeilder in the world , may be he can't keep the ball at his feet the same way iniesta or our McEahcran does and may be he doesn't posses the same drive and pace essien has . but no midfielder can move the kind of superb movement lampard does on and off the ball . so our lamps is the most unpredictable player in our squad and he is the best predictor in our squad as well , you will never know where he is gonna move or where he is gonna pass or when will you find him back blocking berbatov from scoring or in the opponents six yards area to score but on the other hand he is second to none when it comes to anticipating what the other player is gonna be or where the ball is gonna go or where his mates are gonna move . this kind of awareness accompanied with smart movement from a man whose IQ is more than 150 is what makes him more than special . i just wanted to highlight his importance to our team as some has doubted him before the man city game .

i think kakuta even posses more threat than McEachran .... yes josh was superb in the last couple of games but kakuta is the type of player that can change the match with one flick or one pass , he can really make a difference like he did against spain in the final of the U-19 tournament . i think kakuta should get the nod ahead of sturridge now as sturridge is not at his best now

ivanovic was more than good defensively , may be he wasn' a great aid coming forward but defensively he had a perfect display , i don't think he made any mistakes and he was very solid and always got the better of milner

i don't know why but it absolutely does make me feel better you know who can make me feel even better ?? who else but bolton

well here is what i think is our players ratings : Cech : (7/10) was very good dealing with high balls and coming out of his goal , no one can blame him for the goal . only mistake was when he misplaced his wall in the free kick that tevez played from the right side , the wall was totally out of place . Ivanovic : (7/10) well i don't think there is a better right back defensively in the world , completely got the better of milner and was very unlucky to see his ball hit the post in the 25th minute . but i think bosingwa will be a better option in attack when he is fully fit as ivanovic support in the attack on the right side is very poor . Alex : (7/10) made some good blocks and tackles and as usual was very solid in the air but between him and terry you will always find the pairing caught on counter attack against pacy strikers because of their lack of pace . Terry : (8/10) our best player in the match , was very solid and disciplined as well as a true leader on the field although could have given more support for cole in the goal as there were no other city players to watch for so he should have gone on tevez along with cole . A.Cole: (6.5/10) well wasn't one of his best days , his passes lacked efficiency in the final third but he was a threat from the left as usual . defensively had a solid display but could have done better with the goal if he didn't turn his face the other way ! Mikel : (6.5/10) made two vital tackles along with other good blocks but he was caught of position by silva in the start of the match and his passing wasn't as good under pressure as it was in the last five games .still he is not makelele but he is improving a lot Essien : (7/10) apart from his shooting which was surprisingly poor today , his pace and drive in midfield was obvious and in lamps absence he did all what he can do to link up the play but a times he failed to do that under city's pressure . could have won the game if his shooting was better . Ramires : (5.5/10) well he lacks strength and was caught out of position more than once and his passing was very poor but his drive and pace in midfield is superb he is very fast that all he needs to do to get through his opposition is to run with the ball infront of him and say catch me if you can !!!! and it helps him going backwards as well , so if he can bulk up a little and work on his passing he is gonna be one hell of a player may be the next bison but a little faster . Malouda : (7/10) well if there was any player wearing a chelsea shirt today looked like making things happen it was him or anelka , in lampard's absence he did a great job dropping behind to start and link up plays . had some good efforts with a.cole and zhirkov . Anelka : (7.5/10) our biggest threat , he was everywhere all over the pitch linking up play , making moves and his movement was superb as usual but sometimes he kept the ball at his feet for too long when he should have just played the killer pass . needs to think faster . Drogba: (5/10) well , may i say our biggest disappointment !!!! with the form he was in we wall thought that he could be our savior today but apart from his great corners i haven't seen one good pass or one good move or one good strike from him . i am afraid Drogba always struggle when he faces big , physically strong defenders like kompany and toure , lucio and samuel , ferdinand and vidic . or was this just one of his bad days ??? referee : ( 0/0) No need to explain ....!!!!!!!!