CHOULO19

Expected. They have Villa in two days and then City.

Have fun, bro

I think Kevin (and probably Ryan) are already out of the club, unfortunately. The most he'll get today, imo, is an appearance off the bench. Oops. That's what it says on the site though..

No I don't think we'll go with 4-3-3 again because we'll struggle to create much. Plus, Jose will be looking to rotate a bit and we don't exactly have a whole lot of talent at CM. He'll want to keep at least one of Frank, Rami and Mikel fresh for Liverpool, imo. But regardless of whom we put out, we should be able to get the points. Swansea are in bad form and missing a lot of key players.

Match Preview Here

Venue Chelsea host Swansea at the Bridge on Boxing Day, Thursday, December 26th in the 18th round of the EPL. The Match Despite not being able to replicate some of the performances of last season especially against the big boys in the league, Swansea have still managed to maintain their mid-table position away from the drop zone like they have done since their promotion to the EPL two and a half seasons ago. But with just one win in their last five and Chelsea and City in their next three fixtures, Michael Laudrup will know that his team will inevitable join the relegation battle unless they pick up some points soon. That is why it would not be a surprise if the Swans had their minds on their game against Villa two days later rather than the tough game at the Bridge. Chelsea, on the other hand, cannot afford to drop points with how tight things are at the top. With the top five teams interchanging positions in every round, Chelsea can finish the day anywhere from top of the league to fifth. The Blues will also be fancying their chances at home against this out-of-form Swansea team that is largely weakened by injuries. But Jose Mourinho will also be more worried about the game at the weekend against Liverpool and is likely to take advantage of the great squad depth and rest a few players. Team News Swansea find themselves in serious trouble injury-wise. Their main man, Michu, has been playing through injury and will most likely require surgery. Keeper Michael Vorm is also injured and won’t play along with key player and top scorer Nathan Dyer. Varquez and Monk will also be out for this match leaving the Swansea squad very thin. In contrast, Chelsea have no injury issues apart from the long-term injury to Marco Van Ginkel and the mystery injury to Ryan Bertrand. Expected lineup Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Iva, Luiz, JT, Cole; Ramires, Lamprd; Mata, Oscar, Hazard; Torres. Swansea (4-2-3-1): Termmel; Rangel, Williams, Chico, Davies; Shelvey, Canas; Hernanez, De Guzman, Lamah; Bony. Key men: Lord Voldemort (a.k.a. Jonjo Shelvey) has been one of the standout players for the Swans this season, especially in the past few weeks. The ex-Liverpool man has relished his new box-to-box role giving Swansea an extra man in attack often to very good effect. Jonjo has been helped by the reassuring presence of Jose Canas who himself has been vital to the Swans; often the man with the most completed passes and defensive actions on the pitch. De Guzman is the man that makes things tick for Swansea in the final third with the most key passes in the team (23). Facts and Stats - Chelsea have been reduced to 10 men in three of their last 6 meetings with Swansea. - Chelsea took part in the highest scoring EPL match on December 26. A 4-4 draw with Villa in 2007. - Frank Lampard has played more games on December 26 than any other player in the history of the EPL (15). - Gerhard Tremmel has conceded a goal every 40 minutes on average this season in the EPL. - Despite Chelsea’s shaky form they have won seven of their last 10 home fixtures with middle-third clubs, drawing the other 3. - Only Man City have picked up more points at home than Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea (22). - The Portuguese manager is also defending a 68-match unbeaten home run in the Premier League, a record. - Swansea have won just 1 of their last 5 league matches and have lost 8 of their last 10 away encounters with top-six clubs. - They have won only twice in their 13 matches against the Blues in all competitions. Match Odds According to SkyBet, the match odds are: Chelsea 1/3 Draw 4/1 Swansea 17/2 Coverage The game will be live on BBC One in the UK, DirecTV in the US and Al Jazeera +2 in the Middle East and North Africa. You can see where the game is live in your country here. Click here to view the article

I think your cousin is trying to tell you that he thinks you're fat

Merry Christmas. I hope you have a nice day

Well this is forum represents a diversified sample of the Chelsea fan base. And for the record, the general consensus here about Frank is the same as on other forums and on twitter. Unless you have a different means of showing that a large number of Chelsea fans think otherwise, it'll just be claims in the air. The thing with Frank this season is that straight after the display vs Westham he went and had one of the worst performances of the season against Basel. This has been the story of his season so far. Against Sunderland and Southampton he was good but nothing special. He did what you expect a player in his position to do, nothing more. Just because he (and the rest of the pivot players) was doing less of what you expect of him most of this season does not make those performances special. 1 great game, 1 good game and two average games does not make you one of the standout performers. Our stand-out performers lately in the past month or so? JT, Azpi, Hazard, Schurrle, Willian, I'd even put Rami ahead of Frank. On any account, those "rankings" are absolutely pointless. I just hope we see more from Frank like the last performance.

Frank one of our best performers this season? Well, that will be a largely unpopular notion to say the least. Just go back in this thread and read what everyone was saying about his performances after every match. I think he's had some very good performances, the best two being yesterday and against Westham, but he's also had some terrible performances.

:')

That is very far from reality, though, lately. Most if not all of the goals that we have conceded in the past month have come from individual mistakes from the back four. We do need a CB. Maybe not in Jan, but certainly in the summer. And we definitely need a new LB.

I have to say @Jim, I love the snow that you added to the site :xmasbiggrin:

Go for Schurrle. He's German

Happy holidays to the best online community on the net. Hope everyone enjoys the festive season :xmasbiggrin:

Well, it's kinda hard to celebrate the life of the inventor of the world's most used assault riffle.

I don't think he'll be here next season, though. He's hardly featured at all for Inter. Wrong loan, imo.

All 74 goals scored by Chelsea loanees so far this season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gCBM6zHiVY

Most of the Arsenal players are at their prime while most of our players are either in the twilight of their career or still in the development stage. That makes a huge difference.

Yeah Arsenal have a much more cohesive squad made up of players that are in the peak of their careers and who all like to play the same style of football and who all fit their system. That's what you get when you have 8 years to build a squad.

Actually didn't we include him in the Luiz deal to knock 2m off the price? Would be a huge f*** you to our board if this does happen.

Of course it is important to win every game, especially at home, but I won't commit suicide if we did not beat Liverpool at home.

He had a very good game, but I can see why he was subbed off as he was showing a few signs of exhaustion which is no surprise by the amount of running he made.

I actually thought he was excellent. He kept the Arsenal back four busy by him self. Chased every lost cause. Showed good physicality and a lot of pace. And won first balls quite often. I'm happy with his performance.

A disaster? Why does ever one act like we have always been the nailed on favorites to win the title?! We are contenders no doubt, but the target has always been top 3. No need to put that kind of pressure on the players that they NEED to be top of the league when City and Arsenal have better squads than us.