BlueLion.

Benayoun was very good, impressed by Anelka and Sturridge took his goal well. Mikel as good as ever but I thought Ivanovic and Malouda looked a little slow and off-pace. Good performance and very happy. Their goal was very lucky as well; it could have gone anywhere but que sera sera.

And if they avoid the 'half-decent' teams, they've got a chance. I'd put a lot of money on Arsenal reaching the last eight at least.

I think I might buy it at some point, it's a great cause and I'm always interested by managers and footballers' biographies/autobiographies.

Can't believe some people think Arsenal can't win it. Each to their own of course, but even though the chances of them winning it are small compared to Barca/United/Chelsea, they still can. It's luck of the draw. No-one would have said Liverpool would have won it in 2005, or Porto the year before.

Amen to that, great post.

Hi, resident Linkin Park fan and site admin at your service! Welcome to TalkChelsea, stick around! We're different to most football forums - we have a small, tightly-knitted community which lets us know the majority of members in terms of what their opinions are. We've got a great community and a handful of really active, controversial posters, and we certainly have some interesting discussions Hope you stick around and prove to be active! Alex.

I believe in karma. What goes around comes around. We've had fuck all in terms of luck in Europe - someday we'll get the benefit and some other team will be cursing their bad fortune.

I was once critical of Mikel, but over the last 12 months his stock has risen considerably. He's brilliant, in my honest opinion. Underrated by opposition fans as well, much like Makelele. A true Chelsea star, and a legend in the making.

Well all he did was argue. It's not as if he was spouting anti-Semite Nazi propaganda. I banned him because he was constantly derailing topics; I don't like banning people and thus we decided as a Mod team it would be fair to see if he 'learnt his lesson.' If he doesn't, I ban him again but this time delete his account.

Frankly, Mikel has been sublime. Ancelotti has been encouraging him to play in a more attacking position now Essien has returned; the two of them alternating between the holding position and the 'behind-Lampard role' that was filled previously by Messrs Deco and Ballack. And it's working. One of the two of them is always on the rampage; but whilst Essien got the goals on Saturday, Mikel has been the star of the season so far. In the past he has frustrated Chelsea fans with his negative sideways passing; always slowing down the tempo of the game. Whilst his passing has always been excellent (Mikel had a higher pass completion rate last season than any other Chelsea player), he tended to hold up the play and make the 'safe' pass rather than the adventurous through-ball. But that seems to have changed this season. Mikel was always an attacking player, but was moulded into a holding player by José Mourinho and Avram Grant as the successor to Claude Makelele. Initially though, he was let off the leash; his début against Levski Sofia saw him operating further up-field than even Frank Lampard. But when Mourinho's experiment with the enigmatic Lassana Diarra failed, the strength and versatility of Mikel fell into his hands. His transformation into the complete holding player has been slow, but for one so young he has so much intelligence and maturity. Mikel is always one of the first names on the team-sheet for Carlo Ancelotti when Chelsea are playing a 'big game' against the likes of Arsenal - much like how Darren Fletcher does for Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Mikel is competent and reliable and rarely puts a foot wrong; just as long as he isn't running one-on-one with Craig Bellamy or Mirko Vucinic! There has been a change in his play - only a subtle one, but a change nonetheless. And that is in his passing. When he sees the opportunity, Mikel now makes the adventurous pass. He even takes on the odd shot; he had two decent efforts against West Ham, one of which left Rob Green's crossbar trembling. His pass out to Paulo Ferreira for the third Chelsea goal was instantaneous and inch-perfect, allowing the full-back to whip in the perfect ball for Essien to head home. Ferreira will get the plaudits for the cross, but he barely had to break strike. Mikel's switch of play was glorious thanks to its simplicity. No 'over the top' pinpoint lob or a 60 yard switch-pass, simply spraying the ball majestically to the right flank in the same sort of style as the wonderful Paul Scholes. But, unlike Scholes, Mikel can actually tackle. His attacking intent this season was perhaps best shown with his glorious raking through-ball to Nicolas Anelka in Chelsea's 6-0 win at Wigan; Anelka's run spotted and the perfect pass executed to perfection. The finish was sublime but it was Mikel who was congratulated by his team-mates. And against West Bromwich Albion on the opening day, he found himself inadvertently setting up Florent Malouda as his scrambled effort in the box after a Scott Carson fumble fell perfectly to the Frenchman who duly opened the scoring. If Mikel keeps showing the same sort of intent, his 43-month wait for a goal will soon be over.

Anelka was great when he played up top by himself in March against Villa and Man United, and especially well when Drogba was away with the Cote d'Ivoire for the AfCoN in January/February. I have faith in him to be able to score if he does play up top. And granted, Anelka has been shit for France, but so has their whole squad, so that's a null argument

No disrespect to Žilina, but I think we can afford to rest all three of Cole, Lampard and Terry. I'd like to see Yuri, Yossi and Bruma replace them: Cech © Ferreira, Ivanovic, Bruma, Zhirkov Mikel Essien, Benayoun Sturridge, Kalou Anelka I think that team has more than enough firepower to beat Zilina, even without Lampard and Drogba. You'd have Ramires and Malouda amongst the substitutes as well. However no doubt Terry probably will play because he's our iron man, but if he doesn't, I think Cech will be the captain over Essien as he wore it in the Crystal Palace game when there was no Terry, Lampard or Drogba.

Mbokani is more like Anelka than Drogba, so it's nice to see the Daily Mail make themselves look like complete and utter fools with less competency in writing than a four year old at pre-school.

Interesting read. The decisive moment was Green's calamity, which won us the game.

I think any one of the following teams can win it: Inter, Chelsea, Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal or Bayern Munich.

A decision has been made. Terminator X has been unbanned.

Carlo Ancelotti has this afternoon discussed the fitness of his three England players, two of whom will not travel to Slovakia for our Champions League date with MŠK Žilina on Wednesday. The manager is able to include his captain on the trip but the vice-captain remains sidelined. 'John Terry trained today and he will travel. The players we have out and unavailable are Bosingwa and Lampard,' Ancelotti said. 'Jose still needs some time. Frank also needs some more time before he is ready to play, but he should be okay for the game on Sunday. 'Ashley Cole will also stay out for the game on Wednesday because I want to give him some rest. He played two games with the national team and he also played on Saturday. There is no problem, but it is better for him to rest.' http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2152984,00.html

Cheers mate, thanks to everyone for reading :cfc:

Steve is the guy who deserves the credit for the idea - but I'll help run the forum and keep it looking tidy

Yes, he'd have his account unbanned. I'm just waiting for Jim's two cents on the matter, it's his site at the end of the day so he gets the overruling vote

Agreed, but think of it this way - we lost to Wigan and drew with Wet Spam last season; that means we're five points better off from last season's corresponding games.

I've put it up for discussion with Jim and Steve and the rest of the Mod team.

It's up to Jim if you're 'allowed' back or not, although I don't really see how we'd stop you since you can carry on making accounts. As far as I'm concerned, I hate banning people, it's just plain stupid and isn't something I enjoy. However I did it because I think you were a disruptive influence, and I stand by that decision. I think it was the right thing to do, because I think you were getting a little too involved with sparking arguments. You also derailed a lot of topics. On the other hand you have your plus sides - you're controversial and thus generate a lot of activity. I don't mind you coming back on TalkChelsea, but basically as it is Jim's site, it's up to him. For the record, I didn't know you'd tried to message me. I have no messages in my inbox on here and I'm not aware of any emails from you. And if you are allowed back on, your TX account will be unbanned.

If it'd have been Kalou, he'd have probably knocked the ball out for a throw-in.

That was one of the five times in the 100 that it's a shit punch