BlueLion.

No, I'm half Irish

Best birthday present I've ever had.

Someone just sign him ffs.

That's a pretty sweeping statement you've just made, and one I find very offensive. How dare you come on here on question our support to this club? The majority of us here are faithful Blues fans, and a lot of us don't have the luxury of getting to Reading for the game tomorrow.

He was so productive under Grant, because Avram basically played both he and Lampard as attacking players, with Mikel or Essien holding. Hiddink did the reverse, and played two holding players, meaning Ballack wasn't played in his strongest position. However, in both roles he showed his usefulness - his ability to create and score as an attacking player, and his ability to deny the opposition space and time in a more defensive role. He's a useful player to have around. Plus he always works his socks off, and never stops running.

Welcome to the forum, I'm Alex, one of the Admins here. Enjoy your stay.

Great post. Especially the first line But I agree with you, I don't think Joe Cole is vocal enough to be the third captain of the team. I think another good candidate would be Ashley Cole, however, he wore the armband against QPR in 07/08.

The majority of Shevchenko's goals in his Chelsea career have been very, very important ones. One that stands out for me is the equaliser against Valencia in 06/07.

Sturridge has more PL experience, which is why we signed him - he is a young, aspiring, talented footballer who has already played at the top level in England, to reasonable success for somebody his age. Franco di Santo has a lot of raw talent, but if I was to pick a partner for Anelka during the Cup of Nations, it would be Sturridge and Shevchenko over di Santo, at this moment at least. I really think we need to send Franco on loan until January to see what he can do.

No doubt one of the greatest. I think in 20 years time, we'll be talking about him the way we do about Zola and Osgood.

I don't get all the Ballack bashing. He's one of the most effective players in our midfield; he was played out of position all season, yet he didn't moan once. He played to the best of his ability in a deeper role, adding a lot of backbone to the midfield, and still managed to score 4 goals for us; 3 of which en route to winning the FA Cup.

I think the overall design is a lot nicer than the other two kits, and I think as a full kit it will look fantastic on the players. I don't actually think they'll be wearing it all that often next season though, unless we end up playing a team that has both blue and black on their home kit, ie Inter.

I have a feeling Petr Cech is going to be our player of the season next year. I have no idea why, just a gut feeling.

Cech can take his helmet off now then, I suppose.

From the official site.

I didn't go... but I have the match on DVD. I remember it being 4-0, though, and I think Duff and Drogba scored two of the goals. David Villa played for Zaragoza that day.

I also thought we played brilliant away in Munich where we lost 3-2, even though we conceded those two late goals. Drogba's goal was the best header I've ever seen.

Sell Deco, get Sneijder, then I won't EVER complain again. I promise.

I think our win against Arsenal was probably the greatest European game, but I think our best European performances are as follows: 1) Chelsea 4-2 Barcelona (04/05) 2) Liverpool 1-3 Chelsea (08/09) 3) Galatasary 0-5 Chelsea (99/00) 4) Chelsea 3-1 Barcelona (99/00) 5) AC Milan 1-1 Chelsea (99/00) 6) Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea (03/04) 7) Lazio 0-4 Chelsea (03/04) 8) Real Madrid 1-2 Chelsea (70/71) 9) Chelsea 4-2 Bayern Munich (04/05) 10) Valencia 1-2 Chelsea (07/08) 11) Chelsea 4-4 Liverpool (08/09) 12) Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea (06/07) 13) Valencia 1-2 Chelsea (06/07) 14) Chelsea 7-1 Tromso (97/98) 15) Chelsea 3-1 Feyenoord (99/00) I know I wasn't born for 8), but I have the game on DVD, and what a result that was!

I think Mourinho saw Diarra and Mikel as his two options to replace Makelele, and when he realised Mikel was the better of the two, he let Diarra leave. Mourinho must have thought Mikel has the strength and positional know-how to become a perfect defensive midfielder, and tried to make Mikel replicate Makelele's game; breaking up attacking play by the opposition and covering when the full-backs venture forward. Whilst he is without doubt good at that, whilst Makelele was in the team in 06/07 and 07/08, we saw Mikel sometimes played in a more advanced position in certain games, and was able to join the likes of Ballack and Lampard in a more creative, supporting midfield role, where he made some strong performances, before Mourinho and Grant respectively decided his qualities as a holding player are immediately stronger. I think if he is played in a more advanced role, he could become Chelsea's own Patrick Vieira, or if he stays in his defensive role - which, IMO, is his best position - he can be as good as Makelele in the years to come, if not better.

It's alright I suppose, I thought it was nicer when I initially saw it though. An improvement on that cycling jersey of a home kit at least.

Stoch and Kakuta are much, much faster than Anelka, and Ryan Bertrand is fast as well, for the record. Ancelotti's comments, about Joe playing in "a small space" suggest to me he will play Cole as an attacking midfielder, behind the two strikers.

I think John Mikel Obi can become one of the best players in the world, in time. His vision is excellent already, and if he improves it then surely he is the missing piece to the puzzle.

Not a chance of that happening.