BlueLion.

Agreed. A 1-0 or 2-0 win would do wonders for this team. For some reason, clean sheets do more for our confidence than big wins, I suppose because as a team we play and build from the defence.

You can say Torres isn't taking his chances, but he's had about eight clear goalscoring chances in six months for us. That begs the question - where is his support? We are so used to seeing Drogba hold the ball up and we are so geared towards the vertical through-ball that anything requiring guile and skill seems to evaporate. Thankfully Mata and Sturridge will offer support, genuine width and additional goal threat, instead of us having to rely on Bosingwa and Ramires driving from deep.

It doesn't matter when Eva is in the physio's room :eyebrows:

Anyone thinking we're going to trounce them is either blinded by faith or simply naive.

I think it looks awesome tbh.

Pah, we'll be lucky to get past the fifth round in either. And be realistic, what have we seen that suggests either of them will get that many appearances this season?

I agree. Skin colour shouldn't come into it - in fact, nothing should except for the manager's experience and track record.

We'll play Kalou and Anelka, don't worry.

Wonderful post, a great summary of Mikel's importance to the team dynamic. Again, this is another case of Makelele - no-one truly appreciated him outside of Chelsea, and even our own fans doubted his quality at times! Just imagine us not playing Mikel and having Luiz in the defence... sounds like a disaster waiting to strike.

Barca play with a dynamic front three, you'll find Pedro either plays on the right or comes behind Villa with Messi in a Christmas Tree.

Precisely, now or never. Instead Bertrand and Lukaku will be trying to keep warm in the stands while Paulo Ferreira and Salomon Kalou are playing.

Done

The age one is the least surprising one in my opinion - I joined this forum when I was 14 and I've known people like Ollie, Laylabelle, Kez et al. who are a similar age to me and have been here even longer.

It's a shame less than 3% of that are active contributors though Either way, its testament to the growth of this wonderful site. Its good we have a smaller community than forums such as CFCNet, largely because there is the ability to socialise a little more on TalkChelsea. Wonderful site with wonderful members.

He's a good player, he's English, and we can get him for a realistic price. Three good reasons afaic!

Is that true about Piazon? From what I've seen of him he is someone like Pedro who can play as a CAM or winger.

As a massive Lampard fan I am normally highly critical of him in terms of his performance, whether good or bad. Yesterday I thought he was okay, nothing spectacular but he certainly did more than either Milner or Young. If he'd have netted that beauty he'd probably have been named MOTM, as far as I'm concerned.

Haha, good point. Although I disagree about Patch-Bertrand... maybe it's something to do with our nationalities?

BTW, in regards to the topic title, I have something to help:

:lol: Surely Neville will be playing for us and the Fat Spanish Waiter will be our boss?

Agreed it will be ages before we see Piazon, but I hold a lot of hope for him. Hopefully he follows the route of McEachran and not Stoch or di Santo...

Not now, maybe I should have been clearer. He will eventually need replacing, Cahill would be a good signing in that regards, plus it looks as if Alex has been told he can leave after being offered to Spurs.

I defended him out of naivety. I always held a belief I would fully support whoever wore the blue jersey. Now I've revised that notion to whoever wears the blue jersey and gives their best. I've become impatient with Kalou, five seasons without improvement is enough for even me to lose faith in him.

I thought he played well, him and Barry were the two best England players I think. England lost their shape and cohesion as soon as he went off.