BlueLion.

Fair point, I suppose in some respects the worst corners are the best ones because they take defenders by surprise. But some friggin elevation on the ball would help beat the first man.

Hamsik just needs some blonde in his hair and he can be the new member in Jedward.

It would indeed. I always loved Lampards Bitch, she never minced her words

I'm sorry guys, but Kakuta's just had no end product to judge him from. However that is largely down to the lack of playing time he's had, so it is unfair to judge him for that. So people saying he is crap, like the people saying he is brilliant, have no argument at all. However, he cannot take a corner for shit. Lampard please. Kalou's scored a great number of goals considering how many appearances he's made from the bench - if you saw his goals-per-minute ratio I'd say it would be as good as Anelka at least.

Its a real shame Patch got injured against Ipswich, Cole could do with the rest. I say we play all of the big hitters, ie. Essien, Ivanovic and Terry and just get them to snap Diouf. Alternatively just get Alex to play for five minutes and give him a double fracture in both of his legs.

Great post

I think he's great. He's 28 years old and experienced at this level. Put it this way - he'd be a squad signing and be on the bench most of the time. But I'd rather play Pienaar in the Champions League against Bayern Munich than Malouda or Zhirkov, for instance. He is a naturally-talent box-to-box player and would really benefit us, ESPECIALLY at that price.

The only way we'll bring him here is if we either pay something ridiculous (£50 million+) and offer them Drogba or Anelka, for instance. Milan will not sell unless they can milk millions out of the boy.

Chelsea are pondering a £3million bid for Everton's Steven Pienaar. The 28-year-old midfielder is out of contract in the summer and looked destined to join Tottenham but Carlo Ancelotti is eager to freshen up his squad and is willing to test Everton's resistance to a sale. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1345933/Chelsea-weighing-3m-Steven-Pienaar.html#ixzz1AiNBU65r

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11668_6649321,00.html

Pique?!

Football fans (for the most part), seem to express their passion through other methods now (namely getting pissed before a game). Plus stadia are so policed much more efficiently nowadays, such a riot is unlikely to happen.

I'm sure he's very sorry to inconvenience you with his career-threatening injury.

Hey mate, great first post! I've moved it to the Reserves and Youth Teams forum for now, however Stick around a keep posting like this, top stuff! I agree with you, there seems to be a special dynamism between the two of them. It strikes me to be very similar to the relationship between Lampard and Makelele, or even Gerrard and Alonso at Liverpool. The two players compliment each other very well because they are such different players - I see Clifford as a future box-to-box player in the Gerrard/Lampard role, whilst McEachran strikes me as someone who could be like Xavi. The closest English football has produced to such a deep-lying playmaker is Michael Carrick - McEachran's pure natural ability will put that one right.

The British Home Championship is set to return to the calendar for the first time since 1984, the BBC understands. The catalyst for its revival comes from Vauxhall, which is set to announce the first of four sponsorship deals with the Home Nations at Wembley on Tuesday. Northern Ireland won the last British Championship before concerns about crowd trouble and fixture congestion saw the competition discontinued. The most likely date for the tournament's comeback is 2013. The annual competition was a mainstay of the British schedule for 100 years, with England and Scotland the dominant forces. But the growing importance of the European Championship and World Cup made it appear old-fashioned and parochial. This view was particularly prevalent at the Football Association, where successive England managers made it clear they wanted to play stronger overseas opposition. The interruption of the 1980-81 competition by the Troubles in Northern Ireland did not help the championship's cause, nor did repeated bouts of hooliganism. When England and Scotland fielded weakened teams in 1983-84, the British Home Championship was effectively finished. Recent years, however, have witnessed calls for its return, with only the FA remaining opposed. But that is about to change for three important reasons. The first is that years of uninspiring friendly internationals have left England fans - and managers - eager for a return to the fierce competition of the home internationals. The second is fears about crowd trouble have waned as England have played British rivals in recent qualifiers for the European Championship and World Cup without too many problems - Wales host England, for example, in Cardiff on 26 March. And the third is that Vauxhall - keen to be known as "the driving force of British football" - wants this to happen and has considerable leverage with the FA and its counterparts in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The FA's finances have been hit hard in recent years by the expense of rebuilding Wembley and the implosion of its broadcast partner Setanta. This has come at a time when the governing body has spent heavily on the likes of Fabio Capello and making a bid for the 2018 World Cup. A precarious position looked to have taken a turn for the worse when the FA turned down a £20m offer from financial services firm Nationwide to renew its 11-year association with the national team - the FA had hoped to get more money following a good showing at the 2010 World Cup. The South African campaign ended in ignominy but the Vauxhall deal is expected to be an improvement on Nationwide's offer, with the return of the Home Internationals as the quid pro quo. In truth, this should not be too much of an imposition as Capello has already hinted he would like the games to return and all four home nations could do with the upswing in interest the games would undoubtedly bring. In fact, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have already agreed to play a Home Championship-style event, with Ireland taking England's place. The Nations Cup starts in Dublin next month, with all six games taking place at the Aviva Stadium. The final game between Ireland and Scotland is on 27 May. The BBC understands the details of a revived British Championship are yet to be sorted out but it is likely to follow the format used by rugby union's Six Nations, with home advantage in alternate years. Inviting Ireland to take part is also a possibility. The Scottish Football Association (SFA) said it would welcome any discussions about the revival of the famous tournament. An SFA spokesperson said: "We haven't been consulted yet but it is an interesting idea and we would obviously hope to be part of any discussions should the opportunity come along." And the Football Association of Wales added: "[We] would be delighted if the British Home Championships were to return." ------------------------------------ http://news.bbc.co.u...all/9355809.stm

A Chelsea legend has today joined Liverpool as assistant to Kenny Dalglish.

I'm fine mate. I LOVE ARSENAL. WOOOH! GO WENGER BOYS! See, absolutely normal.

The most pleasing thing for me? 27 shots - 20 on target.

Watched the extended highlights on CTV, the commentary certainly wasn't wrong... Anelka was excellent but Frank was superb; pinging passes everywhere. Excellent performance from him and two deserved goals.

A very good post. We've lost a lot of leaders recently - Ballack and Carvalho were both leaders and Joe Cole was a respected member of the squad too, and we've replaced none of them. We always used to have a leader of the bench as well in Cudicini, but he's long since gone. I think we haven't replaced those four leaders, and we most certainly need to. Like it or not, Malouda, Ashley Cole. Ivanovic and Essien are the next in line as leaders and they have to start shouldering responsibility. Something I saw in the Stevenage-Newcastle game was Joey Barton pulling over a few of the players for an on-field meeting after about 25 minutes. You just don't see that anymore at Chelsea, and we certainly need someone to big the team up on the field. Ballack used to do that a lot by encouraging players.

Haha yeah, watched it this morning

Chelsea FC 7-0 Ipswich Town Sunday 9 January 2011, the FA Cup, Stamford Bridge Chelsea put their recent Premier League troubles to one side as they began their quest for a third successive FA Cup triumph in stunning style. The reigning Premier League champions have struggled of late, and another morale-crushing defeat away at bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers looked to have completely ended the Blues' title chances this season considering they now sit nine points behind leaders Manchester United, having also played a game more than their northern rivals. But the FA Cup has been a competition that has brought the club great success over the past ten years, with three cup victories in the last four seasons underlining the Blues' dominance of the competition. And with Carlo Ancelotti's side looking to win a third straight FA Cup - becoming the first team since 1886 to do so - it was evident that this game was the perfect distraction from the team's faltering league campaign. And Chelsea did not disappoint. Like last year, where a 5-0 demolition of Watford inspired the run of form which formed the cornerstone of the team's title challenge, the Blues were unwavering and ruthless in their utter domination of a managerless Ipswich Town, who saw head coach Roy Keane fired in the week. A single run does not halt a rot - after all, the Blues; 1-0 win over Bolton at the end of December was proved to be a false dawn. But this result will give Chelsea great heart, especially considering the nature of the victory. A 7-0 rout is enough to galvanise any team, and the impressive individual performances of youngsters Josh McEachran, Daniel Sturridge, Patrick van Aanholt and substitutes Jeffrey Bruma and Gael Kakuta will certainly be enough to keep the first-team on their toes - particularly the likes of Malouda, Essien and Drogba, who were all forced to watch from the bench. Funnily, this is not the first time that Chelsea have scored seven goals in a game without their talismanic forward, and with Salomon Kalou and Nicolas Anelka returning to goalscoring form - and an excellent brace from young Sturridge to boot - Chelsea's number 11 will now surely know that, malaria or otherwise, he must absolutely up his game to maintain his place in the team. Even without a handful of the talent that began the season in such blistering form, Chelsea were reminiscent of their absolute best, with the clever movement and incisive passing that typified their early-season dominance of the Premier League again evident. The performance, if not the result, will give courage to manager Ancelotti ahead of a testing fourth round trip to Everton at the end of the month; a repeat of the 2009 final. However despite the flowing football that would return during the game, it was not necessarily an instantaneous improvement to the lethargy and lack of creativity that had undermined the team in recent weeks. Whilst the Blues were ahead on possession and predictably bossing the match territorially, Ipswich were more than holding their own and forced Chelsea keeper Petr Cech into a good save when Jason Scotland launched a ferocious effort from distance. That particular warning shot was duly noted by Ancelotti's charges, who began to up the ante as half-time approached. Firstly, Nicolas Anelka - looking rejuvenated in the central striker's role - saw an effort hacked off the line before he bent a curling effort wide of the far upright. But the Blues were not to be denied the lead their pressure perhaps warranted, and a deserved opening goal was netted by Kalou's poacher's instinct, turning a goalbound effort from Anelka into the net. The shot was dribbling in after Martin Fulop had only managed to slow the ball down with a slight touch, but Kalou was desperate for his half-century of Chelsea goals and the resulting breakthrough did little more than open the floodgates - the football was still not quite right, with the Blues' dominance in pressure not yet accounted for. However, Chelsea had drawn first blood and Ipswich were spitting, and it took merely another brace of efforts to register an impressive half-time lead that saw the confidence flowing once again. José Bosingwa had scored an own-goal in mid-week and was determined to make up for his error, and he certainly played his part in the romp; setting up Daniel Sturridge with an intelligent low cross that Sturridge flicked in with equal gusto. It was a goal that had shades of Drogba in his early-season prime, and the watching Ivorian was clearly impressed by his understudy's quality. There was time for Ipswich to offer a helping hand as Carlos Edwards diverted a whipped Lampard free-kick beyond his own goalkeeper with a glance off his forehead, giving the Blues a handsome lead that half-time that their pressure had deserved. Ipswich were contributing to their own downfall by sitting incredibly deep and inviting a lot of pressure, and in truth they were looking a side who were even shorter on confidence than their West London opponents. And their mood will not have been improved after a second half battering which saw them ship another four goals; each of resounding quality. Whilst teenage starlet Josh McEachran was impressing in his deep midfield role alongside the tenacious and energetic Ramires, Frank Lampard was beginning to come into his own. A goal seven days ago had improved the midfielder's standing following three months out with persistent injury, and suddenly the England midfielder's confidence was brimming as he masterminded a total devastation of a beleaguered Ipswich side. He began that particularfeat with a pivotal role in Chelsea's fourth as Kalou and Anelka combined for the latter to superbly crash the ball across Fulop and into the corner of the net. Daniel Sturridge then scored the best of the seven with a delicious curling shot from 16 yards to truly underline Chelsea's dominance, completing a deserved brace from the hard-working forward. Sturridge had scored five of Chelsea's seven goals in a 7-3 rout of Tottenham's reserves in midweek and his confidence was no doubt cruising as he went in search of the match ball. But any hopes he had of stealing the show were dashed when Lampard seized control. First he lashed in from 20 yards from Gael Kakuta's corner after it deflected his way, before he scored the seventh through sheer experience as his tactical nous again saw him make a trademark run and finish beyond Fulop for his fourth goal of an injury-stricken season after Ivanovic had done well to turn in the box and cross for his team-mate. Dare I say it, it looked as if our Frank was back. Ultimately, Chelsea were a class apart, and that sort of performance against any opponent would surely had seen the Blues to victory. Feet must remain grounded, however, as a single win will not end Chelsea's league problems. Nevertheless, the confidence granted by such a morale-boosting win will no doubt be welcomed by Ancelotti and his men, who will now look to use this superb cup result as the base of greater triumphs to come. A potential return to form continues next weekend with a home Premier League fixture with Blackburn, before trips to Bolton nine days later and then Everton away at the end of the month complete a tricky-looking-but-winnable hat-trick of fixtures coming up next for the Blues. Three wins out of three and we'll all be smiling. ___________________________________________________________________ Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry ©; van Aanholt (Bruma 70); Ramires, McEachran, Lampard; Kalou (Kakuta 55), Anelka, Sturridge Ipswich Town (4-4-2): Fulop; Brown, McAuley, O'Dea, Kennedy; Edwards, Norris ©, Healy, Peters; Scotland (Murray 49), Wickham (Priskin 63). The TalkChelsea.net Man of the Match was Chelsea's number 8, Frank Lampard

Welcome along fellas!

This will be hard because it is played on a Saturday - we play the Monday before whilst Everton play on the Saturday, and we have a game the Tuesday after... 3 games in 8 days.

From what little I've seen of the game and the radio commentary, Anelka was seemingly the most-involved player. However I'll have the watch the replay on CTV before I vote.