Tomo

The world cup trophy they lifted at the end of it suggest's so. If they came head to head at their peak Lucio, Cafu and Carlos would handle Pedro, Sanchez and Villa (whichever two are playing) and maybe Messi, could you seriously see Puyol, Pique or whatever makeshift defence they have in handiling a fully fired and on top of his game Fat Ronaldo?

Fat Ronaldo at his peak like he was then = best forward in my lifetime by a million miles, Messi included (im 20). Rivaldo at his peak = best midfielder in my lifetime. Ronaldinho = pure class. Cafu and Carlos = argubally 2 of the best fullbacks ever. Marcos = about 100 times the keeper Valdes is. Lucio = miles better than Puyol and Pique. As for rubbish opinions, you saying Vermalean is one of the best defenders around takes some beating.

Best team in the world yes Best team ever? bolax, Brazil's 2002 world cup team would beat this Barca side.

We should tell Liverpool Turnbull and Yossi are underperforming because they miss their old pals Brad Jones and Steven Gerrard respectively, when Daglish falls for it, ask for £100m

Suarez would have got chased out of Cobham by Essien.

Thats good enough for me.

As much as id would pay huge money to see it neither Arsenal or Spurs will go down mate be realistic. Out of interest does any one miss Charlton in the premier league? (good a time as any to ask) they had some good players and established premier league club till Dowie came in with his relegation curse, they were a decent side imo.

I think the main problem stems from the very start of his Chelsea career, the Liverpool match, he should not have played or been near the team that match, it was too much. Maybe if we had Liverpool in April, May after he has been with us a few months and scored a few times but it was that match that killed his confidence IMO. He was getting kicked about all game and had a shocker. Fulham away would have been the perfect time to introduce him playing him in the Pool match was criminal.

:goodpost: What we need to start realising is things wont change overnight. Scolari treid to change too much too quickly and fell flat on his face and there has been progress i cba to go into detail again because ive done it a millions times. In 09/10 we started the season playing goodish football then by the end of it we played some of the best football the premierleague and certainly we have ever seen, we started last season in the same matter, we got complacent and the football gradully declined to the dross we were witnessing in December, we did not go from one extreme to the other straight away and we wont go back up to 09/10 end of season standard football overnight either.

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United - Great start but United had us on the ropes for much of the game. Birmingham 0-1 Chelsea - Rubbish performance, lacked much fluidity but we still came out winners. Crystal Palace 0-2 Chelsea - Drogba and Tiago scored in a not great display but routine win. Chelsea 2-1 Southampton - Southampton scored early on and we stuttered our way to a 2-1 win, which performance recently is that similar too? Aston Villa 0-0 Chelsea - Boring game, neither team looked like scoring and neither did. Chelsea 0-0 Tottenham - Chelsea had most of the play but lacked the penetration. Middlesbrough 0-1 Chelsea - Another lacklustre display had us staring at the barrel of a 3rd straight league 0-0 until Drogba bailed us out with 5 minutes left. Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool - Moment of magic by Joe Cole won us a pretty uninspiring match. Man.City 1-0 Chelsea - Anelka's penalty condems Jose Mourinho to his first Chelsea defeat as manager. Only 8 goals in 9 games (including only TWO GOALS in the most recent 5), we looked short of ideas and the defeat to Man.City has us trailing current unbeaten champions and unbeaten leaders Arsenal by 5 points and 15 goals. It looked to soon for Jose and Chelsea and it was looking increasingly likely that Wenger's Goonies would walk the league again possibly unbeaten. Morale of the story, we cannot really judge a season after 2/3 months let alone 2/3 games.

Is their any point in this season? 90% of you seem to think we have no chance and Utd and City will jizz on us from now to may? If we truly think we cant go above them is their any point in this season? As ive said in numerous threads if we can beat Arsenal's Invincibles at their peak in 2005 we can more than beat those two. And yes before you say our team aint as good now correct but City or United aint a tad on what the Arsenal team was like then either.

or maybe he just wanted to avoid a backpage spread saying he is slating his own team, which at the same time will be over-exagirated by the rags and make the players wary of him.

This is getting horrifically redious and depressing to read. Ill start with Liverpool, short answer their not good enough, if they could not regually trouble us with Alons, Mascerano and Torres do you honestly think that will change with Henderson, Adam and Carroll? give it a break. Man.City and Utd have had good results today but its only 3 points when they shit hits the fan, we got as many points fot the Norwich game as both City and Utd got for this, we beat Arsenal 4-1 away in 08/09 and where did we finish? If we can take on Arsenal's invincibles and wipe the floor with them like we did in 2005 we can beat these 2 Manc clubs and before you say wer'e not as good as we were then granted but United and City aint as good as that Arsenal team was.

I know its a bit late but i just cam across this and nearly chocked on what i was eating, Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll yes England teammates and that but what possible connexion would either have with the ex Aston Villa assistant? As the author said this holiday trio take some serious beating

funny thing is all the rival fans against us have the same drivel when losing a argument. WIth Liverpool its how many european cups, with Arsenal its weve gone unbeaten you aint and with Man.Utd they go into plastic mode "nah nah nah were man u man u woo woo better than the rest so fuck you man u man u". Ive got mates who support all the top 6 teams and they often join forces and resort to biggin up each other's teams against me, biggest compliment i can ever get, one Liverpool fan even said (just to get one up on Chelsea) "what can you say about Man u when your a Chelsea fan? they are the most succesfull team in England" yes a LIVERPOOL FAN SAID THAT TO ME

and what was needed to get Rooney back to his best? a overhead kick in the Manc derby, say Torres has a goal at the SOL that goes in off his backside then one minute later scores a screamer goes to the thearte of shit the week after scores the winner then we suddenly have a different and more confident proposition. There's a thin line and it will only take one moment potentially to kick Fernando off.

What if United fans wrote Rooney off when he went on a 8 month barren spell? Swear if Torres turns his season around and ends up one of our best players there be some serious naming and shaming going on.

get well soon Didier, glad everything is good

:goodpost: thank god for that I dont honestly think our performances have been THAT bad, bar the first half against Albion, it's only bad because i think many of us are comparing expectations and Andre's total football reputation at Porto. Jose we were shite at the start, ground out 4 wins at the start of the season, then won 2 out of 5 only scoring 2 in those 5 games then we got Robben back and Duff to full fitness and we were laughing, how does any-one know something similar wont happen with Mata, Danny and Luiz, without even mentioning possible signings before wednesday. As much as some will try and tell on the contary there has been improvement from last season, our possesion stats for one, yesterday we had 67%, previous two games 64%, last season we struggles to win the possesion stats let alone boast them that high. We also showed more urgency when we were introuble another thing missing last season and ive heard some ludicrious statements like our display's have been worse than last season i mean please have these display's been worse then the one's last season against Sunderland (home), Liverpool (home and away), Wolves (away), Arsenal (away), Everton (away), Everton (home FA Cup), Fulham (away), Marseille (away) amounst many others? not in a million years. Also the extreme pessismisn displayed is getting depressing and boring, all the "were no good, we dont have this that, or that, Cuty and United are so much better" and the "same as last season, were be lucky to get Europa league" is all BS, im happy with reality but extreme OTT pessismism like the latter statement is just grrr, if we were going to drop to Europa we would have done so last season but we didn't and the only way is up. Its like we were expecting Andre to walk in straight away and have us playing like Brazil and Barca rolled into one, it won't happen we had trouble with injuries, suspensions and late signings in the first 3 games something that will be sorted by the time we travel to Sunderland and i honestly expect us to get better as the season goes on.

things?

I think we are being a bit harsh on Andre with his team selections. There is one reason he is playing Lamps and no its not because he is too scared to drop him its because none of our other CM have as much attacking instints bar Josh (who is too young to be carrying Chelsea, had we been in more comftable situations i would have bet my backside he would have got gametime) which is why Lamps has been playing. We cannot throw Josh into situations like drawing with 20 mins to go str8 off, we did it at Villa Park last season and he nearly lost the game for us (imagine how much that would have set him back). He has dropped Drogba for 2 of the 3 matches, so that alone proves he is not scared to drop players as Drogba is probally the guy with the biggest ego, he dropped Malouda after a shite display at Stoke and he hauled Kalou off after half a hour and didn't even have him on the bench today so that surely says something? Malouda had a poor game at Stoke and was dropped, Kalou was hauled off after half a hour, Alex had a poor game against WBA and was dropped the only reason Lamps has not been is because off the reason i gave above. Andre has made changes between and during matches that (as much as i love Carlo) Carlo never seemed to do as much. Today Andre put Josh and Lukaku on the bench you could bet your bottom dollar Carlo would have put Yossi and Kalou there and put it to expierence. So i think the critism he is getting right now is extremely harsh to say the least. Remember Jose's opening premier league games? we were shite and grinding our results till mid October then we took off, don't be suprised to see something similar this time.

Dunno but the fact Andre put McEachran and Lukaku instead of those two says something, Carlo would have opted for Yossi and Kalou and put it down to expierence.

AS ive said everyone thought Deco would kill Iniesta and what happened? We need depth, Modric won't play every game and in a few years he will be 30, Josh will be 23 and ready to dominate europe. If Modric's arrival does anything to Josh it will improve and enchance him not kill him. Plus we can't rush him into a first team regular, how many players that are regulars at teens aint burnt out by the time their 29? look at Wilshere he is showing signs of possible burnout already. Robben, Owen, Van Persie other examples.

I hate it when that gets said, its not the case at-all, remember when Barca signed Deco? that was suppose to be the death kneel for Iniesta and what happened?

oh right lol, i thought you meant the forum