EskWeston

Lol, well of course i agree with that also. But i think it would be very unlikely for us to let go of the deadwood and fill our squad with ONLY our youngsters. The wage bill is certainly something that needs to be addressed, still so many stories comming out at ensuring clubs run at a profit ect... that we are going to have to keep and eye on.

Would completely baffle me if we were to consider any deal for Stoch........

Why wouldn't Ribery want to play for us? If he signs for us then he wants to play for us....

Yes this has turned into a must win game, that is for sure. We need to be able to keep our noses in front. These games against West Ham though can prove to be unpredictable. Also not to sure how our injury situation is looking. I am pretty sure Deco is going to be available for this one, but not sure on anyone else. I am sure Ancelotti will continue with Ferreira at left back if Zhirkov is still out.... still could be a tricky game.

Yes there are a lot of our young players who are going to be looking at our first team in the summer and wanting a real go at it, Cork, Kakuta, Bruma, Matic and Stoch are certainly the frontrunners but also Bertrand is one who will fancy stepping in to back up Cole and probably Van Aanholt too. However we can't accomodate them all in 1 go when the squad needs to looked at.

Yes Robben was without doubt injury prone, but when you consider where we have gone since i would have taken an injury prone Robben any day. Because when he was fit he was pure class. Some of the things he did in his first season were just brilliant.

It is really not a great situation. Joe at the moment doesn't deserve a pay rise, and the truth is that the only club who will better the wages we would offer would be City. Would United offer Joe Cole the money he is asking us for?I seriously doubt that. He also at the moment doesn't really deserve a pay rise as his form has been way off. I want Joe Cole to stay but he needs to be realistic.

Ribery would be a decent signing. A lot of our summer activity will have a lot to do with what formation Ancelotti sees us favouring. A 4-3-3 will need some serious injection of quality wingers...

Tough tie for us and probably the one i didn't want us to get. However i know we are more than capable of turning Villa over and i am sure that playing for a place in the final is more than enough motivation for us,

His forward play is something that surprised me as it was not something he really had in him when he was playing in our reserves and just goes to show how much he has improved in his various loan spells. I agree that i would like to see him involved with our first team next season.

Sorry, was he watching the same game as me? Everyone expected it to be a boring tactical game but the game i saw was a game with attacking intent from both sides....

Alex showing why he should be first choice to partner JT!! One thing i will say that has become a feature of our play recently is the slow buildup, everything is so slow paced and we cannot break on teams anymore and catch them out of position. Also today there is a bit of lack of urgency in closing down and winning the second ball, hopefully will be sorted in the second half

Not the sort of player we should be looking at...

Robben was pure class, and exactly the type of player we have missed since him and Duff moved on....

I am really pleased that Jack has got his premier league chance and he is doing very well with it. Jack is a player who i like very much and i hope that he can get some chances with us next season, him an Matic looking good for the future of our midfield.

Yip big shame for him to miss the World Cup. And a massive shame for us that he is going miss the rest of the season. Would have liked to have seen him back at right back as soon as possible but that isn't going to happen now.

Ray Wilkins has confirmed Jose Bosingwa will miss the rest of the season, and is due to have another operation on his knee injury, keeping him out of the World Cup. The Portuguese defender has not played for Chelsea since limping off against Aston Villa in October, and will now have to sit out this summer's tournament in South Africa as well as the rest of the club season. 'Bosingwa will be out for the season and have another operation, so that's him unfortunately, and he'll miss the World Cup as well,' Wilkins said, adding that the injury 'just needs clearing up.' In other injury news Ricardo Carvalho is a doubt for the weekend after withdrawing from Portugal duty in midweek, but Wilkins is optimistic that the centre-half could be involved against Stoke on Sunday. 'We have been very fortunate that most players have come back in fine form from the internationals during the week, and there is only Riccy Carvalho that has a slight problem with his hamstring, a little bit of tightness but we'll have a look at that today and see if he'll be okay for Sunday,' said the assistant manager, before discussing the rest of the absentees. 'Michael Essien is doing well, there has been a slight complication which means it needs a couple of weeks longer but he's out [in France] with Ashley [Cole] now and they're both doing extremely well, so from that point of view we're delighted with their recovery. 'It's difficult to give a timescale but hopefully he'll be fit as soon as possible because when we lose players of that quality it is damning on any side,' Wilkins said. 'Petr [Cech] is doing very well indeed, he was doing some half-squats yesterday in the water, and he's coming on very well.' Source: Chelsea FC

Still a few question marks over players fitness for this game, but i would like to see this team put out for this game. ............................................Hilario........................................... Ivanovic...............Alex........................Terry...................Zhirkov ................Lampard...............Mikel.................Matic................... ..............................Kakuta..................J.Cole............................ ............................................Drogba......................................... Just to see something a bit different behind Drogba and to let Matic to show what he is all about in the absense of a lot of midfield players.

Yeah i agree, why take that level of abuse from your own fans? Being forced out of the captaincy by the media to be replaced by a drug cheat and a thug..... The thing that i find interesting with this whole JT saga is that the bint at the centre of it all hasn't said a word, infact i think she has denied a couple of times anything has happened. The papers keep reporting it as an "alleged" affair still.... makes me wonder if anything even happened there. How ironic would it be for bridge to have given up his England place on the back of nothing but paper stirring. Just goes to show the power of the media that they could potentially completely destabalise the England team before the World Cup just because they can....

Have to say you are spot on FB, football reporting has turned into a soap opera and no better than heat magazine at the moment in my opinion. The worst was saturday morning before the city game where you had Pompey who had just gone into administration but the headline on Sky Sports News was "will wayne bridge shake JT's hand"..... it's a sign of what this country has turned into and will continue to turn into. And the England team is the worst of them all, panders completely to the media and i find it so hard to have any enthusiasm for the games at all..

It's a good point, i would very much like to see Alex back in the starting line up again on a regular basis, obviously injuries has been a problem for him. Also i agree with BlueLion that we miss Bosingwa, even though Ivanovic has done an excellent job, another player who i think would be prefereable in the centre back position. I am just not too comfortable with Carvalho at the moment...

Deco should be leaving in the summer anyway...... The problem this has created fo us now is being able to sell him knowing that he wants to leave. We will probably end up having to loan him for the season which does us no good whatsoever....

I see no evidence of a lack of team spirit. There is no sign of the players not playing for each other at all. Media stories coupled with a couple of poor results make it easy to point at the media stories and say that is the reason why. There was no media hysteria when we struggled in December. Truth is we are just not as strong this season. You say that we are self destructing and handing over the title to united but do you honestly think United are looking any stronger than us? If that was the case they would already be ahead of us because we have given them more than enough chances to overtake us and they have not been able to. As for JT, what would be the point of coming out with an apology. Would it really achieve anything truly? Would anyone really think better of him, of course not. And besides, why should he have to apologize? It is his personal life, i would rather he said nothing than do something like Tiger Woods and stand there giving some vomit inducing apology just because people think he should. Terry and Ashley Cole are 2 of the best players in our squad. Footballers will always draw stories because they are overpaid and under-bright in most cases.

Yes you are right, don't think i worded what i said very well. As far as the title challenge goes, it is the weakest it has been for a long while.

lol, meltdown.......