EskWeston

Best ever Chelsea 11.... ............................................Cech............................................... Harris..................Desailly.................Terry.........................A.Cole .........................................Makelele............................................ ........................Lampard....................Wilkins.............................. .....Nevin............................Osgood............................Zola.......... Tough to choose from so many excellant players

First game of the season is always a good one. Although i do think we will have to break down Hull rather than them coming out to try and get a result. There are a lot of choices for Ancelotti to make, that is for sure. It is important for us to get the win on the first day and i can see us coming out 2 - 0 winners in this one.

Of course the goal was legitimate. It can't even be in question, the ref didn't give a foul, even if he did think it was a foul he allowed play to go on as Man U had posession, Man U then lost posession and we went on and scored. Firstly, the ref could have given a foul, secondly Man U could have kicked the ball out if they thought Evra was so badly injured........ Once again we see Manure are seriously bad losers, Ballacks challenge on Evra we see every single game, yes it could have been given as a foul, but Evra was NOT hurt, there was no connection with his face or head.

Purely on the basis that i am looking at fielding a team with creativity as well as strength. I want to see us put a team out with the right balance and be able to open teams up, not just put out the best 11 players we can and hope for the best. With Lampard and Essien offering the power and Zhirkov and J.Cole offering creativity i think we would see the best results. Also i never said from day 1, i think once we have got going i think that would be the best 11 we could field.

Personally, once everyone is fit and we have got going i think our best line up is going to be: ..............................................Cech............................................... Bosingwa.................Alex......................Terry......................A.Cole .............................................Essien............................................. .....................Lampard..................................Zhirkov.................... .............................................J.Cole.............................................. .................................Drogba.............Anelka................................. For me that is the perfect balance of power and creativity and where everyone feels comfortbale, except maybe essien, but Essien is just too good of a player to leave out our best 11. It is going to take time for the players to get used to the diamond formation, but we will get there. For me Lampard plays better comming from a bit deeper, the tip of the diamond is more suited to a J.Cole or Deco type player. I think we are going to have a very good season, but we are going to have work on maybe quicker counter attacks because at the moment our build up play is a little slow allowing the opposition to get back and then it is harder to get through and get the oppertunities to score.

Yes he was, but defensively at times he looked a little nervous, which is only to be expected and is by no means anything negative against him...... The first thing these players on loan have to do and that is to earn their right to be playing in every game, Van Aanholt certainly did that in this game.

He did good to be fair to him, first game on loan is never easy.... he looked a little nervous but he dealt with it well. He will get better the more games he gets and that is very encouraging considering the performance he put in today.

Excellant result... and thank god we finally won a penalty shootout! One thing i will say and it is something that has been said for a few seasons now, we have a fantastic squad of players. BUT we are missing a player who will cause a real nuisence. Someone who will take players on and cause some havock with real creativity. We can win lots and lots of games this season and will do very well indeed, but i do worry a little that without that special player we may just come up a little short. But great game today, the Ballack incident isn't even worthy of discussion, happens in virtually every single game in the Premiership.

Hard to tell as Bertrand is a lot further ahead in development. But Van Aanholt certainly seems to be as good as Bertrand, we will find a lot out about Van Aanholt from this loan move. Personally i think Van Aanholt could be better than Bertrand if he continues to develop on this loan spell

He has been known to lie to the press plenty of times before. So i wouldn't take this as a definate...

We have to remember that bringing kids through is a process that takes time. It is about getting them at the right clubs before they move on to the CFC first team. Mancienne performed at a club that was top of the championship and got his chances with the first team. It may be he needs a Premiership loan still but that is the standard we are looking at. We have Di Santo and Sinclair in the premiership, we have Bertrand at Reading and Stoch at FC Twente. When these loans are done we will know what level these players can compete at.

It is fantastic that this forum has managed to reach 1000 members. The activity on here has picked up greatly recently and hopefully we can continue this trend. A big well done to Jim and everyone who contributes to running this place, and all the people who post that make it what it is...

You can see now what our academy is producing. We will have more players out on loan than ever before. There are still some obvious candidates for loans, Hutchinson, Nana-Ofori, Cork, Bridcutt, Mellis possibly Mancienne. Back to Van Aanholt though, from what he has shown since he has come he is a very solid player and moved up levels very quickly. Has looked less comfortable at centre back so i think left back is where he is going to play. Physically he is strong and he can get forward very well, which is what we like to see our full backs do. And he can put the odd goal away too..... Left back is a very hard position to fill, and we are producing some good ones of our own. Bertrand is very highly thought of, Van Aanholt is looking top quality also and right behind him is Ben Gordon who will now be regular left back for the reserves this season.

Yes the age of our top players is a concern, it is not an easy situation to remedy. Bringing in Sturridge and Zhirkov has been a good move for us. And we would like to think that next season we could bring in a couple of our own younger player (Di Santo, Stoch, Bertrand, Sinclair, Cork ect..) But we do need to be looking at building for the future. It takes time for a new manager to truly build his team. Ancelotti will over this season get a true idea of what he has and what he needs.

Reserve team defender Patrick van Aanholt has today joined Coventry City on loan until 31 December. It is the Dutch Under 19's first temporary move since arriving from PSV Eindhoven in 2007, having appeared 27 times for the reserves so far, as well as being a key member of the Youth Cup run in 2007/08. The 18-year-old is still awaiting his first team debut. Source: Chelsea FC

Sinclair does have a lot of promise. But his only decent loan spell was at Plymouth, the rest of his loans have been a little dissapointing. I think this is the loan move that he really needs and it will do him a lot of good. If he gets the games i think it can make him and he can come back and be a part of the Chelsea first team.

Promising Dutch Left back(/centre back) Patrick Van Aanholt has gone on loan to Coventry until December 31st. Patrick had a very good season for the reserves last season, being probably the best player overall. A loan move is perfect for him at this point and i don't see a problem with him getting minutes there because he is a very good player. Left back is his best role where he looks the most comfortable so i hope that is where he will get the games. The loan moves arranged by CFC so far have all been very good moves for the players concerned, and hopefully they will be of huge benefit for those players.

The key point though is that Pirlo himself has said he is not leaving. I cannot see it happening now, and i can't say i am too dissapointed.

Pizarro will not be staying............. He is a definate to go, it is only a matter of time.

Alex had a fantastic season last season. And right now i would be more comfortable with him partnering JT than Carvalho. We shouldn't be even considering letting our better players go and Alex is one of our better players.

There is no reason why Sinclair can't go to Wigan and do well. He has all the ability and it is now just down to getting the games under his belt. He needs a good run of games, which he hasn't really had for a long while. Playing in the Premier League is great for him and he can cope with it.

Yeah, that bloody Anelka is a waste of space..... dunno why we bothered to keep the Premiership's top scorer!! You certainly are a glass half empty man arn't you? Sturridge needs to have an early impact to ensure he continues to get the minutes this season. He will learn off Drogba and Anelka, if he can take attributes from both and add to his obvious talent then he can grow into a very impressive striker.

Borini is certainly a top goalscorer!!! He has started this pre season the same way he finished last season, by continually scoring goals! Borini will hopefully have another good season, only reserves football for him this season though.

Would think AC would want to land a bigger name striker before they let Pato go, but it is still a possibility. A long way to go in the transfer window, and i think that we would be trying to do any deal(s) as quietly as possible, especially after the Robinho debacle last season. Aguero or Pato would be the best possible signing for us this summer.....

I think Kalou is staying myself, but we will let sheva go. We will have Drogba, Anelka, Kalou and Sturridge. Ancelotti seems keen on working on a partnership with Kalou and Sturridge. Although i do agree that we will make a big signing before the end of the window, and i think it will be a forward and most likely Aguero.... Pato could still be on the cards if AC Milan can bring in some good strikers.....