EskWeston

Yup those are the roumers, lets just hope our interest wasn't that firm and we have other players in mind or it is another good player slipping through our hands.

Pizarro was very frustrating, at times he did some brilliant things, but when it counted he completely fluffed it every time, but he did play pretty good. Although i wouldn't want to rely on him in January too heavily. On another day that would have a 4 or 5 nil drubbing, just wasn't going to happen for us, i found myself laughing by the end that we couldn't get a goal...

Yup, although i would much rather better quality Wingers than Malouda and SWP, quality squad members but i think our first choice players should be higher quality.It really is fantastic to watch Joe in action at the moment, he is really opening teams up for us now and creating some great chances for himself and others. We should be playing him down the middle more often.

LOL, all you can do is laugh after a game like that. Never before have i seen a team dominate so much, create so many chance and yet not score The chances were created in bundles and real good ones too but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping meant the game stayed goalless.Some of the football was wonderful, it was really good to watch, and with the added bonus that we never really had to over exert ourselves to stay in control of the game.Just damn unlucky.....

What a difference we are starting to see in him now. He is such an influence on the team now and we massively rely on him to produce the goods for us in games to open the defence up. There is no doubt that Joe is enjoying a new level of freedom, however coupled with the work ethic installed in him by Jose Joe looks to be becomming a sensation.He is now becomming to us what the like of Ronaldo, Messi, Kaka ect.. are for their respective clubs, with all the skill and creativity to go with it. Pretty much everything he tries now comes off and defenders can't handle him, he is a nihtmare for them, and as we saw last night his influence is massive.I think as has been discussed on here a few times now we could really utilise him by playing him down the middle in the attacking midfield role to give us that edge there.

Absolutely spot on i must say, although with SWP he would drastically need to sort his service out which is on the whole pretty poor from wide positions and seems to do better when cutting inside.

Blimey where did you dig that characature up from, uncanny likeness It's like a cross breed of Phil Thompson and Richard Keys.

i see enough of old big nose already on Sky, could do without seeing him in countless scouse press conferences.....

Curbishly?

Of course there is. Nevin is right though, since he got here there has always been the look of him not getting the sort of service he is used to.He has some games now where he will be relied on, and hopefully he can come through it. A good start with a goal on Saturday, lets hope he carries it on.

As much i am interested in seeing them go out i just couldn't bring myself to switch over our game to watch the theiving scum ***spits on floor*** even for a second I f**king hope they get dumped out though. Although if the yanks boot out the fat controller they might actually end up with a decent manager....

Well i didn't want to dissapoint...

Blues legend Pat Nevin has spent the past week studying strikers. In his latest weekly column he shares his findings. The story on Saturday against Sunderland was all about Andriy Shevchenko, as I exclusively revealed it would be four days previously in this column. OK, so if you get it wrong as often as I do then the law of averages starts working for you instead of against you. Anyway the bold Ukrainian was in the right place at the right time to bullet in the vital opener to take the heat off the team. In his illustrious past he has scored all sorts of goals, but there are three types that are his stock in trade. Firstly, the classic hanging on the last defender's shoulder, timing it perfectly to run into space and on to a through ball, before firing it past the advancing keeper. This type of finish will almost certainly become more rare the older he gets and the less able he is to streak clear of fitter, younger men. His second most memorable style of goal used to come from those vicious long shots from outside the box. He still has a kick like a mule but Frank Lampard generally expertly patrols that area at Chelsea. The third specialism for Sheva were those simple six-yard box finishes, just like Saturday's. They look easy enough, but the real talent is having the knack of being there at the right time. I have no doubt that this natural striking instinct is still 'in his locker' but it hasn't really been the style expected from a Chelsea centre forward over the past couple of years. Didier Drogba is of course the complete centre forward, actually he is the complete one-man forward line, but he is also one of a kind in the modern game. Chelsea have played to the Ivorian's strengths for the past few years but an adaptation to that style may be necessary in his absence, however long it turns out to be. There are great teams around the world whose entire raison d'etre is to get the ball across the six yard line, so that their natural striker has little more to do than make sure he is between the posts and able to divert the ball, with any part of his body, towards the goal. Last week I witnessed the masters of this game plan at first hand and surprise, surprise it was Sheva's old outfit AC Milan. The man playing in the position of goal hanger at the San Siro on the night was Filippo Inzaghi. I watched him closely to see what I could learn about the dark art of hanging around the six-yard line, waiting to pounce at the first momentary lapse from a defender. I learned a great deal. First of all, when he is outside the penalty box he controls the ball further than I used to be able to kick it. He was hopeless, almost to the point of being funny. His balance was so bad, he appeared to be wearing roller skates and the whole aura of ineptitude was only brought into clearer focus by almost balletic movement of Kaká behind him. Then after 70 minutes of ineptitude he popped up to score the winner against an aghast Celtic defence, though not before missing the worst sitter I have ever seen in my entire life. Have a look at that one on YouTube if you haven't seen it! The goal that he did score propelled the Italian to the very top of the all time Uefa competitions scoring charts. How could this be? Think of all the great players he has left behind in his wake? The answer is in his very specific style being perfectly suited to his team. Kaká, Pirlo, Cafu and a myriad of others have spent years getting into positions to deliver the right kind of ball across that six-yard box. From that sort of range with a goal in front of him, Inzaghi suddenly develops an impeccable touch - most of the time. Sheva is still a far better player than the Italian and I am sure if Chelsea decided to major on getting behind the opposition full backs over the period when Didier is out, then Sheva is perfectly capable of ensuring that he takes up the right positions at the right time. With the resulting goals we may well be able to keep up with United and Arsenal in DD's absence. Tomorrow against Valencia should be a fine opportunity to work on some new ideas with the group already won. It also gives a chance of resting a few who have had a gruelling time internationally. What would be a shame would be the surrendering of our incredible home record of no defeats since?well almost since I was playing. (A bit of an exaggeration, but it does feel that way.) Another Sheva goal would help and remember the system and style that Milan play was pretty successful for them in the Champions League last season. You never know, it just might work.Source: Chelsea FC

Neither team has anything to play for other than pride, and both have more important things on their agenda. We will play the fringe players like Ben Haim, Sidwell, Pizarro ect.. so not exactly a weak team.Will still be a good game though and i am sure we will win.

I would agree Carlo is better at penalties, whilst there is a lot of luck involved there is a skill to it from a keepers point of view and i think Carlo is better at it than Cech in general.

You old cynic

Barring Sheva and Ballack our signings have pretty much been aimed at the long term. Mikel, Kalou, Essien, Cole, Alex ect.. all have many many years in them. The idea is to start producing our own which is why we are going for players like Mitrovic, but this doesn't happen overnight.

We can't take the risk on anymore, Mikel, Essien and Kalou are all very young still and will be going every 2 years, to add another 2 into that would be a disaster for us to lose every 2 years for a large period, and that is without including Drogba...

Absolutely, which is why the article is probably nonsense, at 22 he is either good enough to join us or not.

I agree, if a player is going to become world class then what differnece does it make if you pay that now or when he is 23 and the biggest thing around?However with Rooney he was already proven in the premiership and even then it was a bit of a gamble still. If the club think he is worth the gamble then i think they will pay the money.

No way will we be going in for anymore african players....

We are picking up some of the very best young talent around now especially in Europe. Obviously Stoch we picked up a couple of seasons ago and last season we picked up Tejera who is extrmely highly regarded, and this season we have picked up the likes of Jeffrey Bruma and Patrick Van Aanholt amongst many others who have very bright futures.Our problem is either picking up the ones from outside Europe or the slightly older players who would be verging on the first team straight away.The fact we look like signing Mitrovic is a good thing because we have a lot of forwards at the moment and if the club believe he is good enough to compete with them then that says a lot about him.

Indeed we was looking at him last season, was spotted while the scouts were watching Sinclair playing for Plymouth..

Lampard is not and has never been an attacking midfielder. He is the ultimate box to box midfielder, the amount of ground he covers is staggering, and more often than not you will see him pick the ball up well in our own half, the fact he scores a s**t load of goals doesn't mean he is an attacking midfielder. I agree, as far as our squad would go for next season with the "2 for each position" we stick to i would like to see DM = Mikel/Essien , CM = Lampard/Ballack , AM = J.Cole/New player. Like you say it would encourage a more inventive system of play. I thought everyone came out and said there WAS money available last January (and there certainly was in the summer) it was more of a case of not wanting to get ripped off as clubs were asking stupid money like Bolton for Ben Haim when he had a few months left on his contract... I can't see how this can be viewed as a dig? It is more like stating the bleeding obvious really......

Nothing wrong with that.. But the team is doing very well.