nullabletype

And I've told you now... for like the third time, that I agree. At no point today do I think we looked good. I'm simple disputing your position that the referee blaming was an excuse. It was a perfectly fair criticism on top of our shit performance and a point well made regardless of whether they'll be held accountable or not.

Already complained about the F.A. in a previous post. Also noted that Matic was rightly sent off.

It's like you didn't even read my post... Did you miss the part where I said we were poor or my previous post that said we weren't nearly good enough? We have ourselves to blame, but also referees. Just have a fog horn sound off at KO, HT and FT and let it be a free for all. If teams shouldn't rely on officials, why have them?

Is anybody arguing to the contrary? The best that could be said of today's performance is that whilst poor, we didn't look uncomfortable until Matic's sending off. That's the great thing about refereeing though. It doesn't matter how good or bad you're playing. The referee is supposed to be there to make the big and proper decisions when called upon. So it shouldn't matter if we're playing sublime football or sleep inducing crap. When there are two blatant penalties waved away, and a player -- rightly -- sent off for an overzealous reaction toward another player whilst the latter escapes unpunished for a shocking challenge which provoked his aggressor, then fans have the right to feel aggrieved.

We weren't nearly good enough that game with the exception of the five or so minutes each side of the goal. That said, despite being poor we never looked uncomfortable -- at least until Matic got himself sent off which was daft, but entirely understandable. Officiating was dire as usual but that will come as a surprise to nobody. The odd decision going against us is palatable, two blatant penalties ignored is not. How Ashley Barnes walked off the pitch at full time with not so much as a yellow is farcical. But then this is the Barclay's Premier League brought to you by the ever scrupulous English F.A. Get your fine money ready Jose.

I haven't posted on the forum in a very long time. But I just had to pop in to express my utter disgust. Absolutely brutal. No excuses from the squad or José. There is absolutely no scenario where even our worst 11 should be dropping a 2-0 lead at home against League 1 opposition. Pathetic.

Today's outcome was crap and has effectively handed Liverpool the title assuming they continue to play as they have been. Nobody can look at that penalty decision and say it's legitimate, but these things happen. I think JT's goal should have stood following the alleged foul committed by Matic. I also can't see how Larson in to the back of Rami is not a foul if the Matic one was. Then there's Rami who should have been sent off. For me personally, those sort of love taps are barely worth mentioning, but I can see why others feel strongly about them, and things as they are mean he probably has to walk if Dean sees him. So poor refereeing all round but I think it ultimately cost us the game. With that said, it's a sad state of affairs when we have to rely on not being duped by poor referees to win games. It should never come down to that. The truth is we have been poor for the best part of this season. I think Mourinho's return as made us made us defensively solid, but the rest of our play has been pretty awful. We take it teams yet lack any real threat, and when we do go up we fail to kill the game off. More often than not we're our own worst enemies.Complacency against weaker opposition has cost us. Bad decisions happen, but they happen to everybody. And whilst they certainly can shape the outcome of a game, I'd like to see us reach a level where only the worst of the worst Chris Foyesque officiating can foil us. In short, we haven't good enough and I'm honestly surprised we have gotten this close. Anyway, onward and upward. KTBFFH

We've had zero threat from the get go. We controlled the game from the off and have just waltzed about with no urgency. Serves us right that Newcastle should decide to step it up and punish us. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see Newcastle slipping at this point. And of course, we would put in this performance on the day that the league leaders meet the team who are breathing down our necks. A perfect game to grab the league by the boys and we've been gash.

Don't think there's much need for concern. We played a disjointed pick-n-mix team of new signings, returning loanees and some experience. We also lacked crucial players due to injury. Plus with players coming off and on you're toying with formations. All that against what is a well established Madrid team, put together by our current manager no less! Yes, our play was brutal at times and we were completely out classed. But we aren't putting out our best side who are playing every week and in sync. We'll find our feet the first few weeks in to the season.

UK licencing system has a points scheme whereby more serious offences are punished by the issuing of points - usually in multiples of three. Once somebody incurs a total of 12 points they either lose their licence or are issued a driving ban. Not sure which.

I'm a big fan of plain black kits. The only thing that puts me off this is that stupidly daft huge collar.

I see the usual Talk Chelsea bean counters are dismayed at the price.

Have to say, I'm not a fan of the blue socks. I prefer white kits to be all white. I thought the socks looked dodgy in the images of the kit -- like they had been photoshoped. And, as I see in the video, the players are actually modeling white socks which look much better in my opinion. Anyway, the shirt itself does look well. I'd mirror this. I found this years to be ever so slightly neater than last seasons shirt whilst I found the length to be shorter. It's my only complaint about the new shirt, the length.

I've read quite a number of your posts, and honestly, you come across as an out and out contrarian. I get the feeling you don't want to enjoy the moment so you can be the guy who says "I told you so" if it all happens to go tits up. I won't dismiss your opinion on his time at Madrid -- although I do disagree with it -- as it's your right to think what you do based on what you've seen. But so far I've not been convinced by a single argument you or anybody else has delivered in regard to Jose's "failure". He himself has said that the last year of his career was his worst -- and it was. But a trophy every year, a league points and goals record is the reality. So yes, his last season, relatively speaking, was terrible, and no doubt his handling of the situation contributed to that. But it has been well reported that the egos in the dressing room would not cooperate. There are more cogs in the wheel than the manager. I've seen you talk about the price of his squad, but it doesn't matter if each of your players cost 100 million if they won't do as they're told. It also doesn't help that prices of football players are, for the most part, entirely arbitrary values. Gareth Bale allegedly worth 80 million tells you all you need to know. A player or number of players not living up to his/their price tag cannot solely be blamed on a manager. I've also seen you talk about Jose not being Chelsea's first choice, and you named Pep and Klopp. When Pep was free Jose was contracted to Madrid, and in fact, had either just signed or was on the brink of signing an extension. So he wasn't even an option. As for Klopp, I don't know if our interest was real or paper talk. I should hope it was real as the club would be fools to put all their eggs in one basket hoping for Jose -- given anything could happen. Ignoring a manager like Klopp would be foolish, but it certainly doesn't signal the clubs intent in as far as who was favorite. As for him saying "whatever people want to hear" (paraphrasing), that just sounds like more dismissive pish from your end. Just tonight on Sky Sports 1 -- and for god knows how long in the papers -- was there interviews with Jose's players past, non-Chelsea players too, talking about how much Jose loved Chelsea and how it was his favorite club. If it's not true, why are they saying it? For the good of their health? If he says he wanted to come back and that he feels he belongs here -- something backed up by countless sources -- then chances are it's true. If it looks like a duck, and it sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck. He said he always wanted to go to Italy and Spain, he makes no bones about it. But has also said that he wanted to settle at some point, and here he is. The fact is that fans of this club love him, and all signs point toward the feeling being mutual. But this story I hear of his failure completely ignores all the variables that were in play at Madrid. It's also to negate his, quite frankly, incredible history. You can't win all the time, even if you're Jose Mourinho...

Edit: ugh, never mind. Talking to the wall.

I never understand why people throw out stats and then say, but if you ignore this and you ignore that. Look over that for a moment, but consider this. And finally, never mind all that stuff. What's the point exactly?

It's official when pen has been put to paper. Just because it's not been published on the website doesn't mean a deal hasn't been agreed.

The guy has pictures on Twitter with himself and Jose -- make of that what you will. Seems to be the first to break any news on stories relating to Jose and his info has seemed consistent. He's also close to Chelsea and is a Chelsea fan. Has pictures with players and one of him wearing Franks UCL winners medal. He may work for The Sun, but his info so far should speak for itself. I know my brother has been following him closely -- as he was skeptical of him at first -- and says he's been spot on with all of his news/info to date. By spot on of course, I mean the first to break everything.

Why should him being a supporter diminish the quality or validity of the article? The fact is that most Chelsea fans don't know what Emenalo or his predecessors roles are/were. Of course you could apply the same purported ignorance to the writer, but you'd hard pushed to do so given the fact he's produced a fairly informed article with researched sources to boot.

Song making a right mug of himself lol...

We're a goal away from me eating my words. You kept the faith, I hope it comes through!

Don't get me wrong, if we win I will come back, quote myself and happily eat crow.

What part of being a supporter means you have to blindly believe your team will win when absolutely every aspect of the game points toward near certain defeat? I admire your optimism, and after all, anything is possible, but from the get go we have looked impotent. All the possession and no end product. Villa have looked like scoring every importunity they get. We are a man down and our opposition wants it more than we do. I'm a supporter too, and I want us to win. But that doesn't mean I should ignore the fact that we've barely got a hold on this game.

You're drunk.