Tomo

Its strange how Rooney scores two goals and all off a sudden he is player that is rawing with passion for his country, shame he could not find this "passion" when it mattered most. Back to the Lamps topic we need to stop calling for replacements for Lamps he won't get replaced, yes McEachran/Modric or some-one will come into the team but no-one will ever truly replace Frank he is one of a kind, a 20 goal and 15 assist midfielder a season we not come around again in our lifetime and possibly ever. He might not be as good as he was in the past but we better make the most of what we have left of Lamps because we won't find another one. You see young players that play in the mould of Drogba (Lukaku) even young techinical midfielder are mini Inesta and Xavi's, you see a bit of Terry in Phil Jones and a bit of Gerrard in Conor Clifford for example, but there is not one young player around that resembles Frank he is truly unique. McEachran will be amazing for us in a completely different way but he is no Frank replacement, lets make the most of what we have left of Frank because the phrase "their is only one" does not ring more true than it does with Frank.

Exactly and lets be honest this City and United side's are not even close to the class off the Arsenal "invincibles" that we had to overcome that year.

As ive said in a previous post IMHO our main culprits for our slow game are Alex, Mikel, Lampard and Anelka, if Andre plays 2 of them maximum each game i reckon we will see a completely different ball game.

:goodpost: Basically summed up what im trying to say, we may have some weakness's in our teams but so do Utd and City, infact both in vital areas, United serious weak link is their goallie will he win them 15 points like VDS did? will Mancini go all out all season? i reckon City will lose more points due to managers tactics than we will and De Gea will without doubt lose United more points than Cech will lose us. yes we may no be fav's and no it wont be easy, but we have the best young manager in the world and have streghened from last season, so putting that into concept i cannot honestly see how we can just settle for top 4, we should be aiming higher than that.

im hoping for this -------------------------------Cech--------------------- Bosingwa--------Ferreira---------Terry--------Cole -------------------------------Anelka--------------------- --------------------Mikel----------------------------------- ------------------------------------Lampard-------------- Kalou---------------------------------------------Malouda --------------------------Kalou's twin brother------------

Would love to get English players but the harsh truth is their not good enough and the one's that are will be far too expensive, Liverpool proved that £75m on 3 english players that are shit (2 of them have been relegated) lol.

fair point, but even if i do beat you at home i still have to hope someone else does the same and i upturn the GD, neway your right only a game and 500,000 econ in it

Am i the only one worried that Josh may turn out to be a new David Beckham publicity figure? Even tho he hasn't (fully) broke into our first team yet his realtionship with Brooke is getting quite a few paper colums, if their stlll together when he is a regular its not inconviable that it could happen.

your telling me their not the toast of the country anymore thats me told, now get to sky sports and try and tell that plumhead Phil Thompson

I dont get this massive hype around United, imo Fergie is the only reason they are contenders because in short he is a miricle worker. They are badly light in centre midfield, they have let expierence go and replaced them with inexpierence, their goallie makes Almunia look like Buffon. In short i reckon a few injuries their in the shit Fergie or no Fergie. What every one has to realise is VDS, Scholes and Neville were not just big players but big charracters in the dressing room when the going gets tough their presence will be a huge loss, because of Fergie there be there or there abouts butto rate them miles ahead of us im sorry but its insane.

Lost 1-0 to Blue Bulls despite having more chances and a better manager rating (they scored with their only fucking chance, a free kick), so basically ive given Sinised JK the title giftwrapped

We didn't in Jose's first season either.

Correct me if im wrong but didn't last season's champions fail to beat West Brom at home?

We can't have it both ways. Has Ryan got picked, played the last game against Valencia with Cole injured and qualification at stake and makes a mistake that gets us knocked out you would all bemome his selection and say we should have gone with expierence.

Its pathetic how England's failures are always our players fault but Ferdinand, Rooney and Gerrard beyond shite performances somehow get praised. Im caught in the middle here in one way i don't want a Chelsea player to play for England again but in another way i want to see the Jones, Smalling, Cleverly, Wilshere, Carroll and Welbeck wankfest come crashing down when it hits them Chalobah, McEachran and Sturridge are acutally better.

welcome

Tough one, i went for styles but to be honest all 5 of them are worthy winners this month. BL you have to put yourself up next month, i insist

+1 So that means last season (given the 6 they let go) they had 14 over 30s

Agree with that but they still lack compared to champs in the past, even themselfs when they had Ronaldo. When was the last time 80 points was enough for 2nd let alone 1st? 09/10 we played slow and shit at times (the Inter and Blackburn games in March nearly had me in tears) but we ended up with the double. I personally think Anelka, Lampard, Mikel and to a lesser extend Alex are responsible for our slow game atleast 3 of them out and 3 of Luiz, Romeu, Meireles and Danny in we will see a different game. Best to wait and see what Andre has up his sleeve now the windows shut he can focus fully on the squad and the players at his disposal. Were understandably not fav's but we are more than capable.

To be fair they only won it because the rest of us fucked up, we had our worst season for a long time yet we took them to the last month. United started last season similar to our start now, infact its not really until December you can get a true indication off how the season goes, unless a team are leading by like 12 points (Chelsea 05/06), if we are still playing slow sideways football in November ill start to worry but for now ive got every faith we will slowly improve like United did last year and in 07/08 for example.

So were too old but their expierenced, what a twerp that coach is. Surely he should have learned from Fergie's error in2008 of writing us off. What he does not realise is United's CM options are horrendusly thin, they have a goallie who makes Almunia look like Cech and Buffon combined. Also have lsot 6 expierenced players and replaced them with 3 players with not ONE CL minute between them. The portuguese press did not give Andre a chance with Porto last season to win the league apparently, surely the English press and rivals would learn from their mistake. Don't know why im complaining out of our 3 prem titles we were only expected to win it once of the 3 (in 05/06) writting us off suits us fine.

Well McEachran, Chalabah, Romeu are in the squad ...

Cech back and a Delac work permit please, the further Turnbull is down the pecking order the safer i feel.

Thats a fantastic shout and if i can i would like to 2nd the nomination for Esk Weston, although in reality there has been a lot of good active user's this month in this growing (best) Chelsea forum.

Im getting so fed up of the dross pessismism that has been lingiring our club like a cloud, reading some comments over the summer you would think were odds on to get relegated and have signed players from Accrington Stanely. But ive seen some obsence "we will be lucky to get europa", "manchester clubs are just a class above us" bolax, which is not true. United only won the league last season because every one else was shit, we had our worst season since Roman took over the club yet we were a win at Old Trafford away from going top with two games to go since then United have lost 6 expierenced players and replaced them with 3 players with not a minute of CL expierence between them now all of a sudden they have strengthened and are going to leave us behind? ok then if you say so. Van De Sar has left he won them about 15 points last season on his own now theve got a expensive Almunia in goal who while has made good saves has made stupid mistakes nearly every match, like Almunia does. Its only the Fergie factor that is worrying me if he was not there i would say they would struggle this season and they still might with a few injuries, espeically in centre midfield. Manchester City have spent well but to say we cannot beat them is ludicrious, they have IMO a better team than United and on paper the best in the league but inlike United their achilles heel is their gaffer. People seem to forget we have strengthened over the summer aswell, we have let go 2 players who never really made any impact and brought in a amazing spanish winger (something every Chelsea fan was crying out for) some fantastic young players and Raul Meireles, who while he might not be the flashy player you all wanted is still a very good midfield player who is proven at the top level, have a look at the Arsenal - Liverpool match at The Emirates you only need to see what he did to them when he came on to know how good he is oh and saying all that i have still not came to mention we have the best young manager in the world (unless you count Guardiola as young) who broke numerous records in Portugal last season and before you say its only Portugal if it was so easy why weren't those records broken in the 100 years previously (Souness take note). We also may not have seen many young players so far this season but maybe thats more because the games have not gone to plan, before any one pulls the Fergie plays Jones, Welbeck, Cleverly and Jones they all had to get prem expierence first, i guarentee without their expierence at another club Fergie would not have been as willing to play them as he is so far. I can re-call last season many Chelsea fans were calling for the young players, i can remember Bruma's match against Villa and despite not being at fault for any of their goals (dont say the Heskey one even Drogba has got outjumped by Heskey before ffs) he was the one being made the scapegoat. We call for young players then when they go play they get shot down when don't perform like Messi (Kakuta at Villa Park another glaring example). Look at our 2 teams roughly, when all fit: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Essien, Ramires, Lampard, Mata, Sturrigde, Torres. Other team: Hilario, Bosingwa, Alex, Kalas/Chalboh?, Bertrand, McEachran, Mikel, Meireles, Anelka, Drogba, Malouda. Thats even with Lukaku, Ferreira, Romeu and dare i say Kalou aswell how many clubs can name 2 sides as strong as those with those type of players on the sideline? Only City imo. This teams are not including the loaned out players. We have got fantastic players, competition in every outfield position yet with the negativity you would think we are Plymouth (case strapped, cannot rub too pennies together, have glaring gaps in their team and are bottom of the whole football league facing). We will no way be as bad as last season every team has a bad season and we still managed to battle for the title and have since strenghened. we have one of the best teams and managers in the world, we have a fantastic academy that is slowly getting stronger year by year, STILL have world class players and best off all a owner that loves our club from top to bottom. What more can we ask for i mean seriously?