Styles

The third goal (Drogba) was simply magnificent. The "where's your famous atmosphere" chant makes it even better!

It's not a video I made but enjoy - I remember buying several newspapers the following day and I still have a few knocking about somewhere. A great day to be a Chelsea supporter.

I already knew our squad was very thin and we are 2 or 3 lengthy injuries away from a crisis. If Drogba for instance is injured we're done for. The Man City game just highlighted two things for me; we need an attacking right back with pace. If Bosingwa isn't going to return the same player that is now a priority for January or the summer. We still do not have a dribbler in the team capable of unlocking good defensive teams.We didn't have one against Inter last year and we certainly didn't have one against Man City this year.

Genuine lol

And so they should be; he is in there with 2 other holding midfielders (Barry/Yaya) breaking up play with 4 spare defenders behind him defending deep on the edge of their box. If he doesn't have a good game under those circumstances when will he ever? The true test of talent for holding midfielders is when there are just 2 central defenders behind him, the fullbacks bombing on and all the other midfield players are advanced. A defensive midfielder playing well in a defense minded team is nothing supsrising nor should it be acknowledged in my opinion Look at this photo - 9 outfield City players behind the ball and that was the pattern for most of the game. You could replace him with Robbie Savage and he would have put in the same performence.

I wouldn't mind a tit for tat aproach to the games against City i.e. play just as defensively as they do. Sort of like the Chelsea/Liverpool games under Mourinho and Rafa. A point is better than nothing. What can you do against teams like that? Perhaps the best thing to do is have more creative set pieces. They effectively played with a 9 man defence for the majority of the game and unless you have a Messi who can effectively take 4 or 5 players out of the game with a dribble you're going to have to be lucky to get a goal.

More like Inter-Chelsea last season. They defend very deep with large numbers, we just couldn't break them down. Could we have tried a long ball approach playing the percentage game? That was worth a go as it would have turned their midfield around which we didn't do much in the game. Quite disappointed with the referee but what can you do. We've been sterotype as a big bad team so a lot of teams are allowed to get away with heavy handed tactics against us no matter how obvious it is. I think we'll have a lot of problems this year because our squad is very thin.

City had a back 4 playing extremely deep well protected by 3,4 and at times 5 players. Chelsea forwards/midfielders rely on movement and space and City denied them any space whatsoever. It was a very cagey game in which a 0-0 would have been a fair result. These are the kind of games settled by a set piece or counter attack. Unfortuantely for us we hit the crossbar and Essien headed over from 4 yards out. Not particularly worried or disappointed about the defeat. A 50-50 game decided by Ramires cheaply giving the ball away on the halfway line when more than half the Chelsea team were in the City box. It would have been very interesting to see how City would have played had they gone a goal down because at 0-0 they just wanted to counter attack and if they went a goal up their game plan still doesn't change. City is probably the hardest game Chelsea will play all season in the league. No other English team has the physical attributes and defensive mindset to shut Chelsea out All this talk about we were dominated, out played, out muscled etc is nonsense One other thing; Bosingwa can't come back soon enough. Ivanovic is a good player and great defender but he doesn't half offer us the options Bosingwa does going forward. Bosingwa is one of the very few players in our team who can actually take the ball past an opponent. We have a real shortage of dribblers in this team and Yossi being injured was a real shame yesterday.

Josh McEachran vs Newcastle

He is is 17 not 21. Who is going to be blocking his path for the next 6 years? Use him wisely this season but I'd throw him in as a senior squad member next season as serious option. Jack Wilshere at 18 is no better than Josh but the whole world is raving about him. Kakuta is a very skillful player. We all know that but skills don't always translate into senior football. He is a good young player and was impressive at the under19's playing against other kids. I just don't think he is very close to being a serious player for Chelsea.

What games has Kakuta played against decent opposition when the result has been in the balance? He gets useless minutes against useless teams. He isn't any closer than any of the other kids.

That isn't very harsh criticism at all. This was a great test for the kids that are constantly talked up and they weren't very impressive. I really hope we don't suffer many injuries this year because our squad is really thin and that was proved today.

Technically he is incredible. His feints and checks are very impressive. You're right he is nothing like Lampard.

PVA is decent going forward. But his defensive positioning and awareness was awful

Great game for the neutral. Nerve racking for the rest of us. As this was considered one for the kids I'll give my opinion on them; I thought Kakuta, Bruma and Patrick Van Anholt were very unimpressive. They are not ready to play even the Carling Cup games which is a real worry for the club considering how thin the squad is. Bruma in particular was completely out of his depth. Not suprised to see Kakuta halued off at haltime, besides the assist he was out of the game and seemed to panic at times. Josh McEachran looks the best player of the lot. He is so composed on the ball and is the most likely to break into the senior squad. The others look another year away or in Kakuta's case two years.

Carlo won the double which was a fantastic acheivment. What really helped is that we were dumped out of Europe in the round of 16 with relative ease by an inferior Inter team. Fair enough we had a few injuries but I, and many others, expected better. In fact I would say Carlo isn't much of a tactician. He has himself admitted as much. What he is, in my opinion, is a great man manager and seems to have built a fantastic atmosphere at the club where the players feel at ease. Could Carlo do better? Of course, to suggest otherwise would be naive.

You can't really compare Moruinho's first season to Ancelotti's. Personally I think Mourinho is the better manager. I am however fond of Ancelotti and hope he manages the team a bit better than he did last year i.e. squad rotation and more chances for the likes of Sturridge. He was outsmarted by Mourinho in Europe last season and I hope he's learnt his lesson.

I voted yes as he could quite easily play the position. In fact sometimes he fills in as a 3rd centre back when we're defending so it wouldn't be completely alien to him. However it would be an epic waste of talent because he is currently playing in his best position. I'm so happy people are finally starting to realise just how good he is because even when he was getting stick it was completly unwarranted. I think the formation that suits him best is a 4-2-3-1 which allows him a bit more freedom as opposed to the 4-3-3 that he so often played in previous years. Essien and Ramires have more or less stuck next to him and it's really allowed him to have the ball more and look forward.

I know Frank Lampard's worth! Our greatest ever player. But Lampard started the season slowly and is coming back from an injury. It's not the ideal first game back in my opinion.

If Man City are there for the taking I'm sure the players will attack but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Which is why I wouldn't mind seeing Lampard sit this one out. Essien, Mikel and Ramires will protect the back four very well.

That's if he can get pass Ashley first which I doubt.

And none of those top sides played good attacking football against us either. We can counter-attack very well. Man City are playing at home so the onus is on them to attack and win the game. I wouldn't be disappointed seeing us defend in numbers and look to hit on the counter.

Think both teams will be very cautious and cancel each other out. In tight games so much depends on good refereeing and just sheer luck. The 4-2 defeat last season was just simply bad luck and Mike Dean, a referee who hates Chelsea. We have a better team and would hope we can win but a draw will do. We didn't treat them like a proper team last year and were too gung-ho at times. Also if Lampard isn't 100% I'd hate to see him play. Mikel, Ramires and Essien are more than good enough to win that midfield battle and we have enough of a goal threat in Malouda, Anelka and Drogba to not have Lampard rushed back.

Easy win with the job completed in the first 75 seconds. They were going to have to do something special to beat Cech in that kind of form. Cech, Ashley, Mikel and Drogba simply magnificent. Malouda is a goal machine. Kalou was hit and miss, so frustrating to watch at times.