CHOULO19

Worse. They're broadcasting Brighton vs Leicester, Leyton vs Walsal and Hartelpool vs Coventry instead of the Chelsea game! Are they fucking serious?!!!

Venue Chelsea travel to Stoke to face to face Mark Hughes’ Potters at the Britania Stadium in the 15th round of the English Premiere League on Saturday, December 7th at 15:00 UK time. About The Game The Blues will be looking to continue their good run in the league and make it 4 consecutive wins and 3 consecutive away wins in a row for the first time in 2013. The game can prove particularly important as Arsenal will be hosting Everton the next day. The last time Chelsea traveled to the Britania Stadium, Jonathan Walters was the unlikely here when he scored two own goals before Hazard sealed a 4-0 win with a long range rocket. And Chelsea will be looking for Eden for inspiration again on Saturday after he put in one of the performances of the season on Wednesday and singlehandedly destroyed the Black Cats defenses. If Eden was the positive on Wednesday, the downside to that win at Sunderland was the three goals that Chelsea conceded from set pieces. Despite that all three were due to individual mistakes rather than collective marking issues, Jose Mourinho will know that his team cannot afford to be making those mistakes, especially against a side like Stoke who are renowned for their aerial abilities. About The Opposition Just three days after getting a vital but nervy 4-3 win against Gus Poyet’s Sunderland, the Blues will be facing a side managed by another ex-blue: Mark Hughes. Sparky, who spent 3 seasons at the Bridge scoring 25 goals in 98 matches, took on mission impossible this season of trying to get Stoke, a side known for their reliance on long balls and set pieces under his countryman Tony Pulis, to actually play some modern football. And while both the team and the manager received a lot of praise early on in the season for the new adopted style, the goals have recently dried up and Hughes and his passing style of football has come under a lot of criticism. In a weird-funny coincidence, Stoke are currently sitting 14th in the league with 14 points from 14 matches. And despite their poor away form, The Potters are still one of the toughest team to beat at home. Only Manchester City have conceded less goals at home than Stoke City’s 3. So the affair on Saturday might very well end up a cagey 1-0 win for either side. Key Players This hasn’t been a season of great individual performances from Stoke, but one man who has really stood out was goal keeper Asmir Begovic. The Bosnian has been in fantastic form for the Potters between the sticks and has singlehandedly kept them in many games this season. The most influential outfield player for Stoke, however, has arguably been Steven N’Zonzi. The Frenchman has been the dictator of play in the team and usually has the most touches and passes among his teammates. Jose might want to consider applying the same tactics he did against Sunderland’s Ki by playing Willian centrally to press and man mark him, especially if Hughes opts to play the 4-1-4-1 he used against Cardiff (not that that worked too well). Team News Jose Mourinho confirmed in his PC on Friday that Samuel Eto’o will be back for this match while Luiz is still out with that knee injury. Oscar who missed the Sunderland game faces a late fitness test. On the other hand, Stoke will be missing ex-Blue Robert Huth for the rest of the calendar year, while Pieters faces a late fitness test according to Physioroom. Expected Lineups Both managers have made lots of changes in both personnel and formations lately, so…erm…I’ll leave the “Expected Lineups” to you. Stats and Facts provided by StatsZone: -Stoke City have scored just three goals in 10 Barclays Premier League games against Chelsea, failing to net in the last four in a row. -Chelsea have won 10 and lost none of the last 12 meetings with the Potters in all competitions. -Chelsea inflicted Stoke’s heaviest ever Premier League defeat - 0-7 in April 2010. -The Blues also inflicted Mark Hughes’ heaviest ever Premier League defeat as a coach, with a 1-6 result when he was at QPR in April 2012. -Hughes has enjoyed just two wins and endured 10 defeats in his 15 matches as an opposition coach against his former club Chelsea. -Demba Ba has scored four Premier League goals against Stoke; only against West Brom (6) has he been more prolific. -In this fixture last season, Jonathan Walters scored two own goals and missed a penalty in a 0-4 defeat. -Chelsea will attempt to score 3+ goals in three successive Premier League away games for the first time since August 2009 and only the third time in the competition. -Eden Hazard has scored three and assisted two more in his last four Premier League games. -Frank Lampard (145) and John Terry (34) are the only current Chelsea players to have scored more goals for the club in the Premier League than Stoke boss Mark Hughes (25). Match Odds According to SkyBet: Stoke win 5/1 Draw 16/5 Chelsea win 8/15 Coverage UK: BBC One US: NBC Sports India: Start Sports Middle East: This game will NOT be available live on Al Jazeera. You can see if/where the game is available in your country here. Click Here To View Article

Not as tough as Juve or Dortmund, though..

Happy Birthday CLL

This is a funny coincidence: Stoke are currently 14th in the league with 14 points from 14 matches

Pat Nevin talking (mostly) about Eden's performance vs Sunderland: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x183jok_analyse-that-pat-sunderland_sport

No direct quotes but the Telegraph claiming that his agent is trying to get the club to agree to letting him leave in Jan: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10500208/Kevin-de-Bruyne-keen-to-leave-Chelsea-in-January.html

I didn't say he was on a different plant, I just think that Messi still well ahead of everyone else. I get it that people want variety and excitement in the award, but to my eyes, Messi is the best footballer of his generation. It is as simple as that.

So the the storm floods the tunnel. Every one is stuck in traffic for hours and with no way of getting out until the tunnels are emptied. What do Lebanese people do? The obvious of course: Turn the music up. Step out of the car and start dancing the "Dabke" in the middle of the highway:

Well I disagree. Granted that Ronaldo is a better Athlete, I think no one is even close to Messi as a footballer. His dribbling skills, his technique, his finishing with his left foot..etc

No I think he deserves to be in the top 3 with his recent performances especially in the qulaifiers, but I still think he's miles off Messi, as is any other footballer on the planet.

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.

Hey, mate. This thread has all you need to know about how to join: http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/11806-xpert-11-are-you-up-to-the-challenge/ When you join in, you can chose between creating a new team, in which case you will have to wait till the current season is over before you can play competitively, or you can take over an existing team and start immediately. Turrialba is in the in the PL; you can take over it if you want a real challenge, or you can take over one of the three championship teams available where things are a bit easier. Let me know when you join and I'll approve you.

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.

Alright, done.

Yeah, sure. Which one is your team, again? Is it Turrialba?

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

I just felt the world become a little bit heavier. RIP Nelson Mandela.

If someone wants it sure. We have a quite a few managerial vacancies, atm.

Next game I play away at X-Rated who have scored 38 goals in 9 matches and conceded Zero goals and just beat the ex-second place team, Blues Ultras, 5-0 away from home!