Elliott

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.

Jose bought new players straight away. No new manager will come in and completely replace the team, there's hardly ever any need, but they will always bring in a few players, players they feel suit their style of play and that is exactly what Jose did. He made the Chelsea squad his own by adapting it. Grant hasn't had the chance to do that yet.

Happy birthday Esk!

1. Zola 2. Mourinho 3. Gudjohnsen 4. Duff 5. Jimmy Floyd

He's only saying that because he's a young Spaniard who's ditched his home town club for a big London club in England. The parallels are obvious.

Nah the Drogba slaggers are now onto Kalou. That's what it sounds like where I sit anyway.

RIP

I don't think Barton should be kicked out of football. It's really up to the clubs as to whether they want to hire a problem player such as himself.

In the end we were lucky to win. We should have buried the game before they equalised, we had enough chances, but our finishing was poor and Given had a decent game. Our actual winning goal was miles offside and we got out of jail there. First half we played pretty well though, Ballack ran the midfield effectively. Ratings: Hilario: 7 - Did well, made a few saves Belletti: 5 - His passing was awful at times, had a bit of an off day Bridge: 8 - Very good performance from Bridgey I thought Alex: 7 - Missed a few great chances, defended decently Ben Haim: 6 - Never looks convincing Mikel: 6 - I thought he did alright in the first half, but in the second half it died off Essien: 7 - Got the goal, played alright Ballack: 8 - He was great first half, but his performance dipped in the second Wright-Phillips: 8 - Shauny had a very good game, was very effective up the wing, but he showed his height with two poor attempts as headers. Joe Cole: 6 - I wasn't that convinced with Joe, I can't really think of what he did Kalou: 7 - First half he did pretty damn well, second half his performance dropped with the team's. Subs: Pizarro: 5 - Awful. No touch, no vision. Sinclair: 6 - Showed promise, but didn't get anywhere really Sidwell: 6 - Didn't get the time to do anything.

True that. I guess you play it by the player.

Grant may even feel he had a hand in that loss to Villa, he was around at that time after all.

Well I'm honoured to have been mentioned in a thread I never replied to. I've obviously left an impression on you, so my views count all the more I'm even more honoured to be called a "college boy". Most people seem to think I'm 25 or 30 or something. But if you think my contribution to this thread will be to defend Grant, you're wrong. Those were some bizarre substitutions, especially bringing on Sinclair for Ballack. Bringing on Pizarro was understandable - a change was needed, but I don't think bringing off Joey was the right option. We didn't just chant You don't know what you're doing, the substitution roused the biggest boo I've heard for a very long time. The average fans is indeed now turning on Grant, so perhaps his days are numbered.

Only one match?

Amy Winehouse Anyone associated with X-Factor Scousers Anyone associated with Big Brother Andy Gray Phil Thompson Steve McClaren oh and Gordon Brown, for being a two faced hypocritical coward

Smelly scouser.

Maniche had a really good World Cup after he left us too.

Guys I don't think he was completely defending him. He was just saying he didn't go into the tackle to hurt the player, because he knew people would come out and say that he did. We don't know that he didn't give Riccy a good rollocking in private. Public defence but private criticism is definitely the right way to go if you want to keep hold the respect of your squad.

They did change their minds, he's going.

Yes we do rely on Drogba too much, which is why we should be more positive about Sheva because we need to him to reproduce that performance for us again.

I think you've misinterpreted what he meant. What he meant was what BlueLion said, it's starting to look like we don't need to rely on Drogba when he's not around. Of course he's still the best option, but now we have Shevchenko putting in a world class performance like yesterday's and we may well have another world class striker on our hands like we had originally hoped.