CHOULO19

Name: Samuel_24 Reason: Ticket Tout Punishment: Verbal warning only.

Wouldn't be the transfer window at TC without 200 pages about Falcao!

No doubt, Stoke are still pretty physical, especially if they have to defend deep in the half. As for Frank, he has a good scoring record against Stoke IIRC and I feel he will start, but I would personally rather have him come on in around the 60th minute as you suggested.

Not really. We've only had striker issues in the last game where Torres was terrible. But before that, our strikers were doing exactly what Jose wants from them. Eto'o works the channels brilliantly to create space for diagonal runs, Ba is a great target man and offers us an option to play a more direct style, and even Torres before his injury was having his best time in a Chelsea shirt and provided us with physicality and speed up front and very good link-up play. The issue with our attacks this season cannot be blame on the one man up top, in fact, imo, the issue more down to the three behind the striker struggling to implement Jose's system, especially when it comes to movement. In fact, Jose said so himself (can't remember after which game). This is due to a lot of factors; mainly that this is still a new system and the players will need time to get used to it, and the constant changing of those three players from game to game didn't help much and some of it is not even the fault of those three but the fault of our pivot being too easily overrun in midfield at times especially when Lampard has played in the pivot against teams that press. Bottom line is, we've gotten used to just throwing money at our problems at Chelsea, but right now, what we need is not new expensive players, but time for the team to gel and the players to learn the new system and the manager to pick out and fix the little bugs in the team.

I wonder if Jose will use the same tactics he did against West Ham. On one side, this season has proved that using Frank twice in three days is just looking for trouble, and on the other, I think 4-3-3 would work well against Stoke.. On any account, Stoke are not the side they were a couple of seasons ago. They actually play football now, but they are still physical and tough to break down.

Yeah, we might get a CM if someone is available for cheap, like a stop gap till the summer, but I very much doubt we'll be making any big transfers in the winter. Our squad is stacked like you said, we do not have to pay those inflated Jan prices.

I don't want to get into this debate here, but Jose, JT and Ash are NOTHING like Suarez. Ash is hated for moving to Chelsea, JT is hated for mistakes he made in his personal life and a stupid thing he might have said on the pitch in a moment of rage, and Jose is just hated for being successful. Suarez on the other hand is hated for being a dirty cheating c*nt who often looks to cheat the ref and intentionally hurt and injure opposition players. There is no comparison. Anyway, back to Eden. I can watch that vid by Feroze for a thousand times and I won't get tired of it. It was just magical.

Longer version if you wish: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1814ck_reaction-hazard-on-sunderland_sport

No one in the club knows if we intend to buy any players in Jan? I'll be very worried about the club if that's the case..

You guys realize we won't be buying in Jan, right?

LOL No, I'm not saying we should get him and I don't think we are genuinely interested in him either. I was just giving my opinion of him

NO!

I like him. He can be error prone, but he also has the potential to become a world-class defender. I think he can fit English football very well. But it's just the mirror so probably nothing there.

I think the headline should be "Hazard destroys Sunderland by himself" or something

Excellent performances for both him and Ramires. He made the difference with some experience and class.

Jose on Eden after the game: "I don't like to single out individual performances after a game but tonight I have to be cause Eden was incredible." "He is a funny boy, Eden. He doesn't worry about things, he just enjoys himself." "Yesterday at dinner, he said to me 'I haven't scored in a while, boss', I told him 'so, score'. He said 'okay, I'll score tomorrow', so he just decides to perform today and be incredible. He was unplayable. He just destroyed a very organized defense by himself."

There should really be only one option in that poll.. Even better, only the second consecutive away wins in the PL in 2013!

Thanks for that!

The Lakers used to have a play called "Give the ball to Cobe". Tonight, our game plan should be "Give the ball to Eden". The boy is really in the mood!

No I think the question here is why are you watching Al Jazeera in Finland?! His third was just as good. Video-game goals!

Nottingham Forest have released the following statement on behalf of Nathaniel Chalobah following an alleged incident during last night’s match at Millwall. At half-time, the on-loan Chelsea midfielder told Forest’s deputy manager Ned Kelly that he believed he was subjected to racist chanting from a section of the home support in the first half. The 18 year old, who claims to have been initially subject to verbal abuse from the same section after receiving treatment for an injury in the opening minutes, was upset by the alleged abuse and struggled to keep his concentration during the interval as a result. Nottingham Forest treat any incident of this nature extremely seriously and will be liaising closely with the relevant authorities in their investigation of this issue. Both clubs are in communication regarding the alleged incident and hope to uncover the truth as quickly as possible for all concerned parties. Read more at http://www.nottinghamforest.co.uk/news/article/statement-regarding-nathaniel-chalobah-1215870.aspx#zCYFPSHvQbw6ZODM.99 Some rumors going around Twitter that he won't continue his loan at Forrest as a result. Should know more about this in the next couple of days.

That was just sublime by Eden. Great cross On a different note, did anyone see Suarez's goal?!

I don't get what exactly is your point by taking that post out of context? You didn't even quote the whole post: I was talking about his first two games in preseason where he did have bad games and did the things I said. I had rarely seen him with Vitesse and was giving my opinion on those two games. Starting from the third game he picked up his passing game which was way off in the first two and I said so: In any case Marco is well ahead of Nathanial in terms of ability and development. And to answer the last point you made in that post, tell me, what TOP PL team has has made a young player a regular in their team before a PL loan or at least a few champion ship loans?

Match Preview Here

Venue Chelsea travel to the city of Sunderland to face Gus Poyet’s Black Cats on Wednesday, December 4th at 19:45 UK time as part of the 14th round in the EPL. About the game Chelsea have bounced back from the disappointing results against Newcastle and WBA in the EPL with two convincing wins over West Ham and Southampton. The Blues will be looking to keep that momentum going and build on those two wins in what looks like an easy against a relegation battler on paper. But any PL fan would know that a trip to Sunderland on a cold Wednesday night to play a team fighting against relegation is about as tough as it gets, especially in this crazy season where any it has been proved on several occasions that any team can beat anyone. A recent example would be when Sunderland themselves managed to beat City 1-0 at the stadium of light. About the opposition After a short stint for Paulo Di Canio that didn’t go too well, Sunderland have hired ex Stamford Bridge favorite, Gus Poyet, just over a month ago. The Uruguayan, who spent 4 years at Chelsea scoring 49 goals in 146 appearances for the club, took over a team that sat rock bottom with just one point from seven matches. And despite losing 4-0 to Swansea on his first game in charge, a derby win against Newcastle in the following game saw the team gain some momentum and self-belief. The Black Cats have picked up 7 of their 8 league points so far this season in their last 5 matches. Key players In his pre-match press conference Jose said: “Sunderland are better than the points they have”. He was probably just saying that as part of his mind games to make them attack more, but that does not change the fact that it’s actually true. The Stadium of light is home to a group of players who, on paper, should not be battling for relegation. This includes the likes of John O’Shea, Steven Fletcher, Phil Bardsley, Sebastian Larsson..etc But the main threats to us tonight will probably be versatile ex-Juve man and star of the Azzuri team from the last Euro, Emanuel Giaccherini, along with Adam Johnson who is by far the most involved man in the Black Cat’s attacks with both the most shots and most key passes in the team. Team news In his PC, Jose confirmed that Eto’o, who was injured against Basel, has returned to training and is available for selection while Oscar, picked up a knock on his ankle against Southampton, is not. Along with Oscar, Luiz is still out with a knee injury and of course MVG is still a long way from returning from his ACL rupture. On the other hand, Sunderland will be missing Cuellar for this match, while O’Shea and Westwood face a late fitness test, according to Physioroom. Expected lineups Gus is expected to continue with his 4-1-4-1 formation: Mannone; Celustka, O’Shea, Brown, Bardsley; Ki Sung-Yueng; Giaccherini, Larsson, Colback, Johnson; Fletcher. As for Chelsea, I can guarantee that Cech, JT and Ramires start. For the rest of the team, your guess is as good as mine. Stats and facts* - Sunderland have scored just 12 goals in their last 14 EPL matches. - Chelsea have won 16 of their last 17 EPL matches against Sunderland (we all know what the other one game was ) - Sunderland is the side that Torres has scored the most goals against in the EPL. He has 6 goals in 7 matches including 3 in his last 3 visits to the stadium of light. - Chelsea have only won back to back away EPL games once in 2013! - Sunderland have attempted the fewest shots on target in the top flight this season (30). - Sunderland have conceded more OGs than any other team in the EPL this season. - Against Villa at the weekend, Sunderland became only the second team in EPL history to name 4 Italians in the starting XI. The first team was Chelsea in 2000. - Chelsea have been caught offside more than any other team in the league (43 times). Match Odds According to SkyBet: Sunderland win 5/1 Draw 3/1 Chelsea win 8/15 Coverage UK: BBC One US: NBC Sports Middle East: Al Jazeera You can see where the match is being broadcasted in your country here. Or you can follow our TalkChelsea Twitter account for a live match feed. *Match stats and facts are provided by The Football App for Android. Click Here To View Article