EskWeston

Aparently had surgery on cuts to his chin and lips according to the CFC site..... Would be nice to have Cech back for the run in!

Was a decent performance. We created some good chances and Kalous goal was very very good!! It was good too to see Anelka playing well and being very much involved. Going to be very very tight now. We have to win all of our games now and hope that Man you can drop some more points somewhere. We can very much still win this title....

I would agree that we havn't seen enough of Mikel's attacking abilty since he has been here.... however, i don't think i can see him as a playmaker for us ever, but i think he can be played further forward more still at times....

That has been obvious for quite some time! Basically we have never still been able to replace Robben and Duff properly. We need those types of players.... Malouda wasn't as bad, but still against poor oposition for and hour didn't do enough!

4-3-3 was the right formation to start with, although i still mantain Malouda isn't worth the effort at the moment! Should have changed to 4-4-2 though at half time....

It did have! But Grant is doing his hardest to make sure it comes off........ I still can't believe we lost that game - incredible!!

What a f**ing disaster that game was!!! That game was harder to actually lose than it was to win it! We had them on the ropes completely steamrolling them and didn't take advantage, we could have killed the tie off there and then! But we were far too casual about it and didn't take our chances. At half time we should have really gone 4-4-2 and gone for the kill but we didn't. Then when we conceded we fell apart! The subbing of Lamps was stupid, not just bringing him off because he was playing well! But off for Mikel!! Crazy sub.... then to try and get back and draw bring on Anelka and put him on the wing!!! How has Grant not learned from the most basic lessons is beyond me! Once again a cock up when it counted, we should already now be in the Semi Final but now we have a lot of hard work to do!!!

Could be a tough game, will be hard to judge how this one will go! They are not usually a team for sitting back which could help us but we will have to be careful to not concede if possible and if we do we need to get a couple more than them.

Well we didn't lose!! We have picked up another 3 points and we have now only a handfull of games left to see what this season has left in store for us...

Lol, yes there is the money factor. But it isn't much of a pre season warm up to go out and smash a team of amatuers!!!

Yeah i do think he will go, i don't think it would benefit him or the club for him to stay any longer! Unfortunately it just hasn't worked out for one reason or another...

I don't think Mikel will ever be the same sort of player as Maka, Mikel offers us something different in that position. Would be nice to have Maka stick around and even better to keep around in a coaching capacity long term..

Yup pretty much agree with that. He has shown great attitude so far here and seems happy at the moment. Could be because he knows long term that he will part of a strike partnership. Certainly wouldn't grumble too much to have our strikers for next season as Drogba, Anelka, Di Santo + one other....

The only formation that suits our players is a 4-4-2. When you play that formation with 2 decent wide men - likely to be Cole and Bently going forward - then we are a better team because we just don't have the forwards who can play alone. Beckham was past it ages ago! His positional sense is awful and his crosses are not even that good anymore! Waste of space especially considering that you can pretty much gurantee that when the World Cup comes around he will be long gone - probably taken up acting by then!

He has aparently played in a couple of behind closed doors friendlies for us. He came to us when his previous season had finished so was short of match fitness then have been told he picked up an injury. I read somewhere that he played last night (can't confirm at the moment, can't fins a site with the team news) so we would hopefully be expecting to see him sooner or later. We don't even know yet if he is going to be a right back or centre back...

Di Santo wasn't brought in to spend any time on loan. He was brought in to spend the rest of this season training with the first team and playing in the reserves to acclimatise and then will be a first team squad member for next season - and he is showing is ready to do that. There have been a lot of hints that providing Grant is staying that the formation will be changing next season, and that is more than likely to involve playing 2 upfront. I agree if Drogba leaves then another big name will come in and it is possible that one could come anyway as it is likely that Pizarro and Sheva could move on in the summer...

To be honest i don't know why the club said anything at all!! There was no reason to come out and say this other than to virtually be confirming that Grant is still going to be here in the summer.... It appears that the closer we get to the end of the season the more obvious it is becomming that Grant is here to stay! I hope to god that there is still a way he could be on his bike but it is looking less likely... Ben Haim i am sure was just lumped into it for the sake of it and i am sure your right that it doesn't mean he will be here next season. Although to me this does seem to be some sort of statement to say that Grant will be staying...

We never seem to create any chances when playing a 4-3-3 - Rooney is arguably one of our best players and he never got a look in! Your right that the style of the way we play is just not right either! So where does this get changed? At manager/coach level?

He was not put in the CL squad so he can't play in that! I notice that he played last night for Serbia!!! So when are we going to see him play for us. The fact that Essien was deployed at Right back Sunday shows that position is still an issue so why are not giving him a chance to show what he can do?

Anelka as a lone striker doesn't seem to work. He drops deep or wide far too often leaving a massive gap down the middle and no focus point for attacks to build. We all do certainly hope that Drogs can stay and form a great partnership with Anelka. Drogba is more happy with a strike partner and will score more goals that way and Anelka will score more goals too. Should be something tried more often. Although should Drogba leave (and even if he doesn't) Franco Di Santo is looking a top player and one who CAN work the lone striker role or be the target man in a front 2 for Anelka to feed off.

I am sure that he is just trying things out and it would have (hopefully) been a good lesson to him as to which players can cope at that level. Brown, Crouch, Barry and Beckham for example shouldn't be anywhere near an England team....... Also another thing that is quite obvious from recent years of England performances - England play 4-4-2 anything else is a waste of time....

Absolutely, there is something very wrong with English football... Also doesn't explain why certain players are STILL being picked when they are plainly not good enough at international level, and certainly not when we are playing even half decent teams let alone the Frances, Italys and Brazils....

I have a feeling Anelkas was a move with a view to the long term after the short term cover we needed! I can see us playing 4-4-2 as our main formation next season, the 4-3-3 being used this season so as not to disrupt the team too much during a period of change. Would love to see Drogba and Anelka line up together more... it takes a very special sort of player to play the lone striker role - Anelka and Sheva are not those types of strikers...

There are not many explanations for Grants appointment on the basis that our owner wants to run a successful club, did he honestly believe and does he honestly believe now that Grant is a coach good enough for a team that wants to be the best in the world??? Right now i really don't know what to expect from this summer, i do feel that there will be some exciting additions to the squad but i am not confident that they can be successfuly moulded into the team under the current regime.. Ben Haim, Pizzaro, Sidwell = very very poor signings, thank god they were free!!!

The England set up has been a Joke for ages. Twice now a new manager has come in and we have expected the necessary changes to be made. So far that hasn't happened.