Blue Armour

You can have your own opinion Sloth, but most of your posts nowadays remind me of this: Lighten up, man! At least a little

If there's one thing Romeu does have over Mikel- its pace. This allows him to track back easily when the whole team goes out on the attack, and suddenly there's a counter. Also helps in bringing the ball out of defense a lot quicker. Mikel pretty much covers everything else.

Not really...after all, he was the one who picked out Ivanovic who crossed to Lampard for the goal.IMO Mikel is one of those players who become noticeable when they're NOT on the pitch...its because he's not as dynamic as most mid-fielders ..

^....that was rather anti-climatic.

Agree. Chelsea's attack was more purposeful when he arrived...Should have buried that last chance though

MOTM-Petr Cech

MOTM- Cech

Thank you very much, Frank Lampard.

Good to finally see a solid defense in place..hope to see better from Lampard,Sturridge...

From the top of my head I can recall the two chances he created with long diagonal balls to Luiz and Drogba, in two games we played against Man Utd last season...While he's not what you call a playmaker, he does serve as creative outlet from time to time.... Besides CDM, he has also been used as an RB (under Mourinho) as well as a CB when we're short of players...

Agree that Essien is getting crocked too often for him to retain a squad place, but to say that Ramires' overall game is better than Essien is ridiculous. It'll take more than a few goals scored from runs into the box, before he supersedes a player who can create, defend and has the tactical prowess to play in different positions on the field.

There was no Lampard or any other creative mid available back then..hence McEachran...

Wow...never knew Robbie Savage did articles...

That's one of his neutral expressions...

I think if AVB needs to rotate his CB's he should do it in pairs...One pair of CB's for the weekend, the other for midweek...He should follow this at least until one of the four gets injured

Interesting stats...particularly the one regarding regarding "both" our full-backs... This one leads to another question; "Do we really need two bombing wing backs, namely Cole and Bosingwa to play on the same team in every match?"

Exactly..I think a lot of people on this forum are panicking just because Man Utd and Arsenal have begun to integrate Welbeck, Cleverly and Wilshere with their first teams.. Integrating youth has never been an issue this season with Sturridge and Romeu getting their chances. The disadvantage that Josh has is his age. Of course one might ask how Lukaku often gets the nod over Josh despite being the same age, but that has more to do with AVB's tactics for the game... The bottom line is you would expect more chances for the likes of McEachran and Bertrand. The former has been merely unlucky as the manager himself was expecting more playing time for him this season. As for the second its because Ashley Cole is a key component of Chelsea's attack, and is always picked for the must-win games (which basically includes all the epl and champions league games played so far)

You're telling me a man who's made more epic goal-line clearances than most just gave up going after a ball he could just knock to one side out of play? Not buying it...

Sturridge as CF...if I were the manager I would definitely give it a shot...

You can't deny that right now he's the best of the lot...

I would still try Alex, if only for giving us a clean sheet...It will also be testament to a fair rotation policy and prevent Ivanovic from tiring out...

There is one, and he's being played out of position....

Cole...wish the others had shown at least half the willpower and stamina he did...

Too casual for me...whether that was due to tired legs or lack of interest... We still top the group, but I guess McEachran's chances of playing this tournament have gone down the drain.....

Nice set-up by Torres...