manpe

He'll probably be on the bench... Ivanovic will play CB and Ferreira will be RB provided Bosingwa doesn't recover from whatever's bothering him (injury?)

I want to leave right now to go on holiday to America. Apparently the quickest way to get out of Europe is Manchester.

He looked the type of player who scares the living crap out of defenders... They just can't keep up with him, at least manu defenders couldn't

Laughable... Daily Fails again. The whole article is a big pile of steaming sheet. First of all we bought him for €25m, and no way would we sell for £15m. Secondly, no way would we sell 2 centre backs in one window. The Chronicles of Narnia seems like based on true story next to that. I have a better chance splurging ink out of my butthole like squids.

I'm counting last season as well.. I'm pretty sure over the year DD has been better, he most definitely has scored more goals (I won't bother searching for stats, it's not hard to top 5 goals in gadzillion games). But taking into consideration only this season, then neither have been consistent... Torres's good patch seemed to last only through August-September, after that it was all tits up for a while and now Drogba is starting to look good. Let it be Torres or Drogba, I just want one of them to be on form and firing regularly. Btw, Torres has been injury-free for the whole time with us, while Drogba at age 33 has suffered injuries and has taken out screws from his arm... In ideal world it should be no brainer that Torres would already be lightyears ahead of him.. go figure.

"to name a few"... few being the keyword, because these are the only games where he has managed to impress (not up to his old standards, but still impressed in his Chelsea standard, which isn't exactly high).. and we all know what happened in the Utd. game, he was doing well but he still managed the miss.. Hence the "1 step forward, 2 step backwards" analogy. And not to mention the Swansea game, that's probably even a better example of that analogy. When he's being good, he still manages to suck and fuck all up.

he just has more hair now

True.. AVB and Terry said it themselves

Oh look... black people

The commentators said that before the game AVB named a list of Valencia players who he considered to be main threats and he left out Soldado... probably intentionally. Anyway, him leaving out Soldado was a good call, he had like 0 or 1 shot the whole game

he's just slim

That's harsh. I thought he did okay yesterday.

The Mikel sub was very good... we could have easily conceded if it wasn't for that tactical substitution. Valencia were starting to find a way into our box and having 2 DM-s prevented that further.

I don't know what all the fuss is about this "joga bonito", why is it so important... Abramovich wants entertaining brand of football but why? To be as famous as Barca? Fuck that, we will merely be seen as wannabe barca copycats... Why not implement a new brand of football, which would see teams copying us instead? I as a fan want what's the best for the team, and if it means playing """""""""boring"""""""" but effective football, then so be it.

Best I've seen are Carvalho, Cannavaro, Lucio, Terry and Puyol

RZA... I'm enjoying your posts today. Keep em coming

yeah, they were his level

Drogba with 2 goals and an assist. Immense! He didn't even play the full game, was on a hattrick. And I clearly remember the moment when he flicked the ball over the defender, headed the ball to the ground, went on to bully the defender and had a shot that nearly missed. That one moment summed up his contribution yesterday.

Drogba will go, we can't rely on him forever. And he really is a unique striker.. he has brushed Sheva aside and now Torres at the age of 33. He just simply suits our style of play and our players are already used to relying on him. You can see when Drogba comes off some players still hoof long balls on Torres.. just to find out that he's no DD. And no, I wouldn't bet on Torres to be our saviour... he's too effin' inconsistent and may well be past it already.. or he simply doesn't fit the bill. If he does leave and if Torres doesn't start firing, then we will have to sign a striker in summer... who? I don't know, I won't speculate with names. Mario Gomez or Cavani would be perfect, but I doubt we will get them... they'd cost too much. I have a shitty feeling Torres will take over even if he continues sucking.

RZA makes too much sense.... but what I can't wrap my head around is that people still consider him a striker. What the fuck is that about?

When he plays now, it feels to me it's like 10 men + Torres... he seems so, I don't know how to explain it.. a non-Chelsea player playing for Chelsea. It's almost as if all focus and attention is on him, and not in a positive way, but in the way that whenever he's involved in a play, everybody stops and watches if he's gonna fuck up again or not... he knows it and that mental pressure gets to him, hence it's like a curse to him and the whole team. Everything seems to go against him, everything.. even small things like throw ins. I was becoming used to him being a Chelsea player in September when everybody was "El Nino is back" and he showed some promise, but now he's alienated again. I really don't know what to think of him anymore. I'm starting to agree with what RZA said above, but I hope he will make us eat our own words, because he has to prove us wrong... there is no other way, it's for the benefit of the team. If his mere presence hinders team progress, then he must go, and at the moment it's looking that way.

Two good results and already we're winning the league and CL, how quickly peoples' minds change. If we get a playmaker and an on-form striker (Drogba's getting there, but we'll lose him in January and most likely next season), then we will finish top 3 easily in the league. But the point about pace, I agree... Sturridge is lightning quick, and what I like about him is that he has developed so much in only 4 months.. he tracks back and defends properly, he uses his right foot more often - it's harder for defenders to predict if he'll go left or right. His passes and crosses have been finding the intended targets lately. He is really playing like a winger now.. and ooh how he reminds me of Robben. Ramires's pace is also worthy of a mention, fast guy. But when Lampard's playing, we tend be a bit slower in tempo.

Wow. I don't think even TSO went so aggressive on them. I also love his sarcastic laughs everytime he has a stab at them and the vultures laugh with him, knowing that he's right. He thinks just like us about the press.

indeed, good point... I always read these kind of "analysis" as a form of cheap entertainment rather than a sophisticated opinion.

I don't know if this is a bug, but the search function is pretty useless... For example, I just searched for keyword "bruyne" and Kevin De Bruyne's topic was on the bottom of 2nd page.. while totally non-relevant topics were first. It's just one example, I've encountered this problem many times.. You will have to search within the search to find what you're looking for. On some occasions it didn't even find anything, even though the keyword is firmly in thread's title.