The Rising Sun

Hoping for a win today. I know we will score, it all depends on how our defense and DM'S cope with Newcastle, as if We are not on top form defensively, Newcastle's quality will punish us. I really think due to our defense not being great in the last 2 games, we really would have got punished if we were playing Newcastle/totenham type of a team instead of reading/wigan. Now today we are playing Newcastle, and while we will score goals, if our defense is as disjointed as the last 2 games, i can see a draw or even a loss as a possibility. However, we still are favourites.

#1-Do you worry about having Torres as your main striker with little cover? Should Drogba have been offered the contact he wanted? Not at all worried about Torres, his movement was superb last season, but couldnt finish to save his life.... Now with our new bunch of talented players, he will have more chances. His movement has not been as good as last season, but has managed to get the goals. As long as he scores the goals demanded from a CF, no worries. In any case, Drogba scored 13 goals last season and Torres scored 11. This season Torres has already got 2 goals in 3 games, and unlike last season, i can only see that statistic getting better. Drogba had to go for our playing style to change, and it is for the greater good that he left. He is a Legend none the less. #2-What do you make of all the young, talented Attacking Midfielders you have all vying for 3 places in the team? Does it worry you that this may lead to some disharmony between those who miss out and the manager? Again, nothing to be worried about, as we have alot of games this season, and apart from our top 6 of oscar hazard mata marin sturridge and now moses, all the other players are not in contention IMO, such as malouda benayoun etc. So rotation will be key, and all 6 will have enough oppurtunities to make their claim to the available places. Hazard already has. Lampard will not play every game this season, so Oscar/Essien can fit into that role. #3-If you were to have a joint NUFC / Chelsea team, which Newcastle players (if any) would you pick over your first teamers? Tiote/cabaye over mikel anyday. Would have picked Cisse, but our formation does not allow 2 CF's. I believe in Torres, unlike the hate club we have on here. Ben Arfa as well, he is your prized possession and i really think next summer you will have alot of european clubs bidding for him. I actually cant believe Newcastle has managed to hold on to ALL of its players.... good management by your club. #4-Do you think Di Matteo has bought responsibly, or has he been focusing too much on 'attractive' players? In other words, would you rather have seen some of the £50+m spent on Oscar, Hazard etc. bring in some replacements/back-ups for John Terry or Bosingwa? Well we have brought in a replacement for bosingwa in azpicueleta. As for Terry, we have Luiz Cahill and Ivanovic who are natural to that position. Its very easy to nitpick and say we have bought attractive players, but we needed a change in club philosophy after the last decade, and we really needed such flair players, to avoid a repeat of last season, and to challenge for the title again. #5-Which Newcastle player are you most fearful of and why? Ben Arfa. I know Cisse can finish really well and is capable of some spectacular strikes, but Ben arfa is the guy the cuts through the opposition midfield and atleast takes 3 players out of the game by his pace and trickery and skill. He is by far your best player. #6-Do you think Di Matteo will take Chelsea to the next level (I.e. challenging for the title with the Manchester clubs)? Sure. He has Man management skills and has a Chelsea heart. He has great motivational skills, and as much as being tactically brilliant is supposed to be the most important thing for a manager, i dont think so. He is tactically good, not genius, but he has balls and guts to make the important decisions at the right time. He has made every Chelsea player better, Torres confidence higher, and has reinvigorated Bertrands career. Now when Bertrand is picked, us supporters are not worried. RDM showed faith in him and allowed him to flourish, as he does with all players in my opinion. He is smart. Would be great at Poker. Cheers.

I have absolutely no Kalou what you;re talking about, but since it matas, and is potentially a hazard, im going to double cech the post, and stop writing such storres.

I have Guthrie - reading - in midfield (bench), not going to do special stuff but gets 90 mins so 2 points assured. He takes free kicks so there is always a chance of some extra points. He could have replaced hazard but i also have joe cole injured....so im screwed unless he is back for week 3. So if Joe cole is back for week 3 and hopefully fit enough to start, then im good for a 4-4-2 while keeping hazard and torres in subs.... Defensively i made a howler in terms of my choices.... while choosing i thought they were a decent call as it worked last season. I have 3 stoke players, Fabio and Mcartney -westham,,,, Week 3 Stoke has Wigan, so i think i should be fine defensively.... Will just have to wait for this weekend game results to see how much i will need to risk overall. Lastly, off topic, but swansea's next 5-6 fixtures are really good, so if week 2 doesnt go too well for me, i might think of the wildcard.

This post goes out to anyone who has 3 Chelsea players in their Squad, or even 2..... How are you guys going about Week 3? I could have removed Mata and replaced him with some other teams player, but could not resist replacing him with Hazard, as i feel he will finally score a goal against newcastle at home, if not, he will still get assists. Additionally i dont think mata will play against newcastle so had to replace him. So i will have 1 free transfer for week 3, which i will replace cech. But will still have Hazard and Torres, but not playing week 3 matches. Is it worth losing 8 points to change these players? From a betting perspective, the risk return says that losing 8 points to get 2 new players for week 3..... the probabilities are that these 2 new players will not get/ or will just about get 8 points. If they do get more, by scoring or by assists, then it could go to maybe 10-12 points. The chances of making 12-13 points after losing 8 points is about 20%, while the chances of making less than 8 points is 70%, and the chance of making 20+ points is 10% Sorry for so many numbers, but what do you guys think.... I cant decide whether the risk is worth it for only 1 week, as i will want to get them back into the team from week 4, and if i remove all 3 - 1 free transfer and -8 for the other 2, then i will also have to get them in over week 4-6, and possibly if i want them in sooner, not over 3 weeks, then sacrificing another -4 points to get them in faster. Tough call to make, think maybe some others with 2-3 chelsea players might have the same issue?

haha SO true. Quite funny really. People dont want him to do well. The drogba example is perfect. "Drogba may not have done too much in the game, but when it mattered most, he scored. LEGEND." He is a legend, but Torres did exactly that yesterday, but he was crap, and it was offside, lucky goal,,,, OMFG, give him a break. Many here were saying that this is a make or break season for torres this season, and i agreed, but now that he is making rather than breaking, people are hellbent on rubbishing him already. This is a make or break SEASON, not 3 games, in which it just happens to be that hes got 2 goals already.

TORRES IS BACK! Scoring goals is the most important job of a striker. Last season, Torres gave some really good performances and assists, but couldnt show the statisticians anything in the goals column. Now, he hasnt been as good overall, but has 2 goals in 3 games to show in his statistics. Bar Ramires Selfishness, it would have been 3 goals in 3 games. He will score 15-20 goals in the league this season and 25 or so in all competitions. He will be back to scoring, dont care whether he doesnt provide as many assists as last season... We have Hazard and Oscar for that. TORRES !!! If we buy another striker, no harm done! Even better!

A strikers job is to score goals. Earlier he wasnt scoring goals and the keyboard warriors(great terminology someone on here used) were saying, " It does not matter if a striker is playing well, his job is to score. FACT." Now he has stopped with his countless assists and has started scoring, so people have chosen the next reason to slate him. He scored the winning goal yesterday, and had ivanovic not been sent off in the CS , he scored a mighty important goal there as well. Ramires should be ashamed of himself for that moment of selfishness yesterday. Cant blame Torres for that too, as he was in the right place, made the run, and when he was open on goal, and ramires had a clear super easy pass, decided to go for the spectacular on his wrong foot. He has done all the right things, and like most players do, is growing into the season and is starting to hit full fitness, that, and gelling with the new players and understanding their style of play. He has scored 2 goals in 3 games, while not being in the best of form. He has learnt how to dribble and win many more balls in the air than he could last season. Im not saying dont buy another striker, if RDM wants, buy another striker to strengthen the side. But the guy is scoring goals, and being involved in some good play with players around him, why all the hate? We are NOT in crisis like last year so there doesnt need to be a fall guy..... He is contributing and getting better, getting goals, we are 6/6 points top of the league. There is no reason to force the doom and gloom scenario that Torres will be cause of later in the season, when he will miserably fail and wont score goals. He has shown no signs of that to deserve such an assumption. I actually think he will be prolific this season. Not as clinical as his Liverpool days, but he will score atleast 15-20 goals in the Premiership itself this season. Thats good enough for me. about 25-30 goals in all competitions is what i expect from him, and i believe he will get his goals this season. Thats what matters most.goals.

4-1-3-1-1 then? ----------------cech--------------- iva----cahill----terry------cole-- -------------Mikel------------------ mata------lampard-----hazard-- -----sturridge---------------------- ------------------Torres------------ That iformation when we're away to any bottom 10 team, And ----------------cech--------------- iva----cahill----terry------cole-- -------------Lampard------------- mata------Oscar-----hazard-- -----sturridge---------------------- ------------------Torres------------ this formation when are at home, so sturridge can be an inverted second striker rather than a winger. Additionally, while defending, we can form back into a 4231 with Lampard slotting back with mikel in formation 1 and oscar slotting back with lampard in formation 2. Then while attacking it becomes a 4-1-3-1-1. Or, replace sturridge with Cavani/hulk in both formations.

Hey guys! quick question here..... Basically i had Joe cole in my starting lineup, and he got injured on matchday 1, so i only got 1 point for some 11 minutes of play. And that is Fine. However, i have Guthrie( Reading) in my subs bench, so for tonites game where Joe cole is injured, will danny guthrie automatically get into my squad and points? Since Joe cole played on matchday 1, i might not, but there was still a match on tonite, and shouldnt i be getting Guthrie as an automatic sub since he was playing?

I really feel like CRYING. WOW. Emotional roller coaster. This is what we are capable of when we play an attacking line up with a full on attack,( after all subs) And no Mikel. What a difference. We can demolish teams if we have such line ups.

haha wrote long post and somehow while i was not in the text box, backspace got pressed and it loaded the previous page. Now i dont want to write again. dont porto need reinforcements if hulk is to go? If so, they arent dipping in to the market. After sooooo long, howcome Chelsea have not lodged an official bid of any sort? Porto are legally required to tell announce any bids. Forget what newspapers report, as UK sports newspapers serve up an entirely new level of garbage when it comes to transfer speculation, prices of players etc. Whats up?

I think its time someone asks Agent 007 to check with his sources on whats the scene with Romeu. Atleast we will get some nonsense to work with. Right now we are so in the dark, this must be the best kept secret on earth. Maybe he is an alien.

Well you're right in a way, and i hope if we as fans can see it, hopefully RDM sees it as well.... For all the Reinforcements and improvements we are doing in our attack, the basics of getting it out of defence and to our attackers needs to be sorted our fast. Our DM's and Defence cannot handle it when they are being pressed and pressurised by oponents, whether its no one making themselves available for a pass or not, dont know..... but some serious work must be done behind the scenes to get some sort of methods and plays of taking it forward in a fluidic fashion.

Wait.....What? sorry if you believe in Mikel, but never have,never will. He gives one good performace in 10 games, meaning 3-4 good performances a season, but starts 40-50 games a season. He is decent for a backup, not for a Chelsea starter IMO.

This guy is such a joke. The transfer window will shut after late next week, so now he has quoted his inside sources as saying it will happen then. Obviously Sherlock. If he is to be transferred then his medical has to happen before deadline day, i.e. late next week.

Totally Agree with people here who were frustrated by Cech's inability to use intelligence in the game, always launching the ball long and high, resulting in a loss of posession. There were also a few times where, while cech could have picked the ball up and started a counter, instead he chested it and kicked it around and waited for the Wigan player to close him down, and then picked up the ball. Then he launched it and we lost possession. His greatest asset is his throw, which too, he got horribly wrong and almost gave away a goal. Our defence looked stronger as a group. but there were way too many individual errors happening there, and that is worrying. They need to get in sync fast. Cech also saved the game for us by making some crucial saves, as they could have easily levelled the score, if not for a few brilliant saves, and some bad finishing and crossing by Wigan. The worrying bit is that it could have so easily become 2-2 with the way the play was going and they were creating chance after chance, and been a repeat of last season,i.e. dropping points in the last 15 mins. It is concerning and worrying that after scoring those 2 goals in 7 minutes, we switched off. There is a difference between Energy conservation and Switching off. Its a bad football culture/style chelsea has picked up over the last few years and we need to be like champions again, and play for the kill. My views.

Happy with the 3 points, but sadly.... We were everything we want to be in the first 5 minutes, And then we were everything we dont want to be for the next 85.... really dont know what to think about this performance. Will wait till our reading game to form a stronger opinion on where we are going, whether we will be the "playing good in spells:", then back to defending and soaking pressure or do we have the desire to bomb on. This was a wierd game. We could have had so much more if we really went for it.

Firstly, good to have 3 points in the premier league opener. And secondly, with all due respect to all Mikel lovers, SELL HIM. He is a liability.

We dont really have the depth required IMO.... even with bertrand playing, we only have a couple of players that can change the game from the bench....

EPLAgent007 has said he will close his twitter account if hulk does not sign for chelsea this transfer window... but moses was supposed to have his medical yesterday and azpi today...which hasnt happened.... so he's wrong most of the time...

These are pure nonsense stories ..... Anyways, i really really hope we dont sign him. Have never thought he is good enough. Always thought of him as a micheal owen sort of player.... Anyone but him.

The Championship is too unpredictable for me..... premiership is much more safe IMO.

Well he is difinitely not worth his price tag, but he does have the correct skill set, pace and body type to fit in the premier league. His power and pace are a good combo, and since we dont have powerful players in midfield or attack, he would make a good addition. I'll be happy as long as we make atleast one more class signing, but im quite contented with what we have... Cavani would be quite a signing for the same or less cost, including offloading meireles.... But that purely depends on a change of formation.

Would love to see him at our club.... difference between Hulk and Moses is Finished Product vs Potential.... We currently have enough players with 'potential'.....wouldnt do much harm to get a finished product to bolster our credentials, taking us from "could challenge" for supremacy to "will" challenge for supremacy. The other angle is the direction our club is going, which is more financially viable, i.e. the players we buy now are young and we will make money on them while selling them on, rather than hulk, who will command less than 1/3rd of what we spend on him today. Whether Roman can afford it personally will not matter in a few years time as FFP concentrates on club earnings rather than Owners wealth. Also, lets not be like the City and Arsenal supporters, who while they are linked with a player, that player is great, then if its not happening or the player goes to another club.... the player is crap, useless. Hulk is a good player and will definitely add to our squad.... Van Persie and Rooney will kill it in the League this season..... Hulk has too many dimensions to his game and missing out on him will be bad. I still think Porto will sell, its just a matter of whether we are willing to play their game or not.