EskWeston

Ballack has had a decent start to the season so far. But i think the club are doing the right think by taking it a year at a time, especially with someone like Ballack who is on a lot of money and has been known to go up and down with his form. We don't want to get into a situation where we are just keeping all our players as long as possible, Ballack will have his situation evaluated at the end of the season, which i think is the right thing to do.

That is a horrific injury and a horrific tackle also. Look at that tackle you would have to say that he either deliberately went in to catch the player (other than Roy Keane i find it hard to believe any player would go into any tackle to seriously injure another player) or it is a very stupid accident, either way it was bloody dangerous.

Not another!!! Hopefully it isn't too bad and he can be back as soon as poosibel

This is one that is never going to go away. First off, it is going to be very hard indeed for youngsters to break into the Chelsea first team. Secondly and most crucial of all for our current crop, the rotation of managers has made it impossible for any to take the chances on them properly.... On the positive side we have a fantastic crop of youngsters, that is true no matter how anybody wants to look at it, we have 13 players out on various loans, 3 of those in the Premier League. Of those in the Championship they are doing extremely well. And Stoch is impressing everyone in Holland and causing havock on defences. Lets go and touch on the JT point. JT came through at a different time, there was much much much less pressure on the team at the time so it was always easier to give young players a chance. JT only spent a short spell on loan, only a couple of months. Mikel was another exception. Despite what a lot of people think Mikel is an exceptional talent, his abilities are completely natural and if you look at his footballing path it is even more incredible how good he is. A player like Mikel who is that good at that age comes along very varely. Our set up at youth is getting better and better, we have players who can make it and some that will make it. Ancelotti will have more knowledge and faith in these players as times goes on and will be able to give them their chances. It is very obvious that the club is determined to use their youngsters, this comes from the very top. That means that it WILL happen at some point. Mancienne, Cork, Hutchinson, Bertrand, Stoch, Sinclair, Van Aanholt, Di Santo will all get their chance at some point in the future with the first team. Then after that ther are any number of players who can follow in their footsteps.

UEFA are known for not being consistant. Look at when they punished Essien, they have not done something similar since. I think that blatant cheating like this should be punished, it does make it difficult in the future but still the right thing to have done.

Would like to see Drogba and Anelka linking up well again in this game, getting them gelling quickly could be a the vital detail in us winning the league this year.

This is by no means an easy draw for us. Porto and Athletico will be tough prospects, especially away from home. Would have liked an easier group but at least we avoided Inter and Real Madrid.....

Glad he never went to United. Would have liked us to keep Robben, even though he picks up injuries frequently, when you do get a game out of him he is a very effective player....

This is an awful idea, it will keep the big clubs on top and will effectively stop any team ever breaking into the top 4 barring a miracle. The only true way to level the playing field is to impliment transfer and salary caps....

Starting to pick up even more celebrity fans. The trips to the states seem to have aided in that cause..

It will certainly be interesting to see how Ancelotti approaches this game. Burnley have certainly given teams a tough time already this season so we will need to be very clever in how we go into this game.

There is not a single supporter who didn't gladly welcome Sheva with open arms. It is a real shame how things turned out for him, i don't think his first season here was that bad! Sheva was judged on his goals, which didn't look good.

I doubt that means that Sheva is on his way out this summer (although of course he could still). Our Champions League squad is going to have to be short again due to our lack of "homegrown" players. And with Drogba, Anelka, Kalou and Sturridge it was somewhat innevitable that Sheva was going to miss out on the Champions League squad......

The trouble is that strikers are judged on their goals. And when playing in a 4-3-3, particulary in those first 2 seasons Drogba has to play more for the team which limits his scoring chances. It is no coincidence that his best scoring season was when we played with 2 up top for the main part....

Should be an interesting draw. There are some potentially very tricky draws there indeed. Hopefully we won't pull out Madrid.....

lol. Your right, bloody swarming with the buggers round here!!! Had to laugh at the pitch invasions though, no attempt to do anything other than run on the pitch waving their arms about going "look at me"!! Don't think a single made an attempt to get to the Milwall fans

So bloody stupid..... The funny thing about it is that the main reason that there was trouble and violence is because it was expected of them in this game....

Without doubt they will not underestimate Burnley, Ancelotti has already mentioned Burnley a couple of times in press conferences and i am sure he will have studied very closely their games so far this season. It will be a tough game for sure...

Excellant, just what we need, another centre back.......

Yeah i think they did, absolute madness when these things happen in friendly matches....

Yup, a pretty much perfect start to the season so far. We havn't done much wrong and have looked like we can do very well indeed this season. Obviously it is early days but there is just a good vibe i am getting from the team and Ancelotti at the moment and i hope it stays that way.

Kalou is an excellant squad player. Can really pop up with a vital goal or assist. His stats have always read pretty impressively, but he is one of those players that people tend not to get on with for some reason. I hope he signs another deal and has a very good season this time around.

lol, very good..... And £24m for him is just outrageous....

Absolutely, having Joe Cole and Zhirkov in a diamond with Lampard and Essien would be something i would very much like to see.....

Absolutely, and Ancelotti is not mug. But when you have Mikel, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Malouda, Zhirkov, J.Cole, Deco fighting out for 4 midfield spots then you can afford to rotate and keep players fresh, replacing one for another does not weaken the team in the slightest, also you can see that he wants to use certain players for certain types of games and situations.