Elliott

Example: Alex's goal against Villa

Well he's started scoring, he works hard and creates chances. There's three things for ya.

Pff don't defend yourself in that way, Gate 16 would certainly use that term in such a way. I'd pick Ballack at the moment, he's playing well. We could try the two next to each other, but that means either Essien and Mikel miss out and they are both also very important.

Welcome Another addition to a growing Indonesian contingent!

It's all a great conspiracy

We don't strictly need him, but he is a good player and capable of playing for a top 4 side in the future.

We could do better and I hope we do. We could also do worse.

Haha that was hilarious Mike. Belletti didn't have exactly a great game yesterday, his defending was shoddy at times. Several times he committed himself to a crap tackle on the half way line, leaving a massive gap for them to run in behind us.

Hahaha.

The reason we've done better this time around is because apart from Villa the opposition has been a doddle, and this time, thanks to Mourinho's signings, we've actually had adequate defensive cover.

I think it's time we put the snowflakes away, the holiday period has finished now.

You know what he means. To anyone outside of the top 4, we are the top 4. Can't really call them the top 3 cause then that places us 4th or below!

Scousers

Liverpool a few weeks ago, numbnuts

He's a scouser, that's why

We missed his forward running and drive.

We didn't play well in the first half because everything we did didn't come off. If the moves had worked, we'd have looked like world beaters. Just the way it is.

His only fault today was giving that lad Sidwell a run out.

Yeah that's the answer, but any time we do well it's down to Clarke. How do we know this? We're just guessing. I've caught myself saying it sometimes, and I just had to take a step back and think about it.

I'm just sitting here wondering how everyone knows that Clarke has had this effect and Ten Cate has had that effect. How do we actually know this?

Kinda, but then again, if we got all the games live, no-one would actually go to the games.

You foreigners get more live games than we do

I'm not sure I would take 3rd in the league 6 points off the leaders. But the main problem with Grant is his luck is beginning to run out and he doesn't look as if he has any more ideas. We could be in a much worse position though I agree, but that's just the calibre of the players at Grant's disposal.

Eh, if you didn't accept Grant after he won us a quadruple, I think calling yourself a Chelsea fan would be a bit iffy. The reason is if he still pisses you off after that kind of miraculous never done before season, then you've obviously lost sight of what is important, which is winning things. He'd never reach the status, if he achieved those things than if Mourinho had, and that's okay, but I'd certainly be willing to accept Grant if he actually managed to win all that. No chance that he will though. I was willing to give him a chance to begin with because basically there was no other option. After it became clear that he was here to stay, which was very quickly (there were many of us that hoped blindly otherwise, but the fact is Kenyon and co. had come out straight away and said he is our solution), I had to give him a chance for my own sanity. We weren't going to get another manager, so he had to be given a chance. He's made it quite clear he can't do it against the big teams though. The Man you loss was acceptable due the fact that it was a) days after his appointment and largely down to shoddy refereeing. The Arsenal loss though, he clearly sent them out with the wrong tactics and we lost as a result. Had we won that game we'd be in a great position now, but as it is we're well off the pace and will probably have to settle for 3rd place this season.

All these options are better than what we have at the moment. I'm not sure about Wisey, but I have no idea what kind of resources he has. I presume not a lot, in which case he's done a fantastic job with Leeds. Might be too much of a jump though, we should go with one of the other options. If Rijkaard ever became available, he'd probably be what Roman would go for and that suits me okay.