lionsden

The evidence on ground suggests otherwise. if he's still a good player, he needs to start showing it and fast. What facts. What have you based your assertion on? In the last 6 months, He has played consistently below par yet you claim facts suggests he's still good. Yes you are right, he's no longer Chelsea standard which only begs the question why is he still a regular starter? No one is immune to criticism.

And who says AVB can't be wrong?

Kalou is not good enough for a club the size of Chelsea under any capacity (squad player or X1)

Do people still believe Lampard is a starting 11 material for Chelsea? on the evidence of his performance in the last 6 months, he's on downward slope, his level of contribution has dropped significantly and he was selected today purely based on reputation. It's a shame how many people left Ramires out of their pre-match starting line up. despite his contributions in the 2nd half of last season, there are people who still believe he isn't a Chelsea material and if it was up to them, he would be starting most games from the bench while we still show faith in HAS BEENS. once Sturridge returns from suspension, I expect him to displace Kalou from the X1 and a quality left winger/wing forward will significantly improve this team as our lack of width/creativity was part of our undoing today. All in all. The team came back fighting in the second ha;f and was unlucky not to have won the match in the end thanks to some dodgy officiating and lack of genuine creativity.

That's because it's ineffective to tackle aggressiveness with aggressiveness (the like for like approach rarely works). when you face a rigid team like stoke, you opt for fluidity and finesse. that's how to break such a tough defence down. the only time the aggressive approach is ideal is against highly technical sides like Barcelona. in a nutshell Drogba is built for the likes of Arsenal,Barcelona, Man utd et al while players like Torres are more suited to the stoke fixtures.

Who said mikel cannot shoot?

Says a lot about the quality of the squad in wide areas when we are contemplating on substituting a dud for another dud: garbage in garbage out

As far as I'm concerned we need TWO new wingers/wing forwards

Malouda???

Torres looking very sharp

Atmosphere cannot get anymore hostile than this

We are WINNING this game

AVB has gone with the exact team selection I predicted on this thread. . .what do I get?

While we are at it, let's sign Dennis Rodman and Robbie savage as well

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is pure unadulterated bullshit.

Did anyone pay attention to where he said "we were thinking of sending him out on loan again" which indicates it took an impressive pre-season to change the board's mind. . . . despite his magnificent loan spell at bolton and his clear superiority to the other options at RWF (Kalou and Anelka) to even consider sending him out on loan again in the first place is mind boggling

Heskey will win WPOTY award before our best wing forward goes out on loan this season.

People expressing pessimism and fear over a team that has never beaten us since 1975. what would then happen when we face the big boys: barca, madrid,man utd, man city et al?. doomsday?. smh. If anything this is an indication that people lack confidence in the team's ability this season. I doubt man utd fans would find a stoke city fixture threatening the least bit

How else do you measure competitiveness if not by stats? It's the result that counts at the end of the day. Stats can be misleading in some instances but it's perfectly legitimate in this case.

I wish we can produce/buy attackers and midfielders of the same quality as our defenders more often. quality wise, the other outfield positions pales in comparison to our rock solid defence

No that's not true bar blackburn and fulham, there's stats to support my claim how teams have fared against us in the last 10 prem encounters Stoke city-5 pts in 10 games. We have won 5 of the last 6 encounters and they last beat Chelsea in 1975 Everton-12pts in10 games Spurs-9pts in10 games Liverpool-14pts in 10 games clearly you can see that Stoke fall below expectation on the competitive scale here. Liverpool and Everton deserve far more respect as a competitor than Stoke city and that's a factual statement and not a matter of opinion. With all their strength, we still have a vastly superior squad and a master tactician at the helm add that to our impressive statistics against them and it's fair to say stiffer tests lies beyond the stoke city game.

People are grossly over-estimating Stoke on this board. . .I suspect Andy Gray's comment is partly responsible for this. Yes they have physically dominant players and can be difficult to beat at home but so are teams like Man utd, man city, Everton , Liverpool,Blackburn, spurs and Fulham . . . .so I don't get what the fuss is about.

I'm not a believer of addressing physicality with physicality. If that was the case then teams like Blackburn would have a good/decent record against them instead it's the less physical but highly skillful sides, notably Man Utd and Spurs that have enjoyed great and consistent success against Stoke in recent years. even Manchester city's beastly squad have only managed a victory ONCE in their last 4 premiership encounter.

Any decent player would kick Malouda out of the team

You need to apply for a coaching badge. Your formation and team selection is revolutionary and a stroke of genius