manpe

So once we get beaten, where will our youngsters get a chance then

It's impossible not to see faults in our own game. The Bosingwa red situation should not have been. The red to Drogba definitely should not have been. A handful of rookie mistakes throughout the game (especially first half). The miss by Anelka that should also not have been. The ref was a puss but I blame us too to be frank.

Everton line-up?

I doubt AVB would've made his selection based on Drogba's history. No sane manager would've chosen an out of form striker over an in form one. Although it is nice to have both available for selection, makes the manager's work more difficult in a positive way.

Yeah, the Mata and Malouda comparison will probably be the most one sided here

Sloth, your defensive line looks slow with Ivanovic, Alex and Terry... We would get raped by Walcott, Gervinho, Arshavin and Van Persie in quick counters. I hope Ramires is back though, his pace and energy will be needed. I think Bosingwa and Ivanovic will play in defence.

It's a fake myp2p... but if they provide good links then I don't care. Wiziwig doesn't seem to have links for it though.

We will find out later tonight I guess... I think there will be streams, just shitty ones.

I bet if somebody had said "white cunt" nobody would care... and had it been a team in red, we wouldn't hear anything about it (Suarez and Evra, anyone?). But Terry is a convicted cheater and the england captain, so they must take him down.. and the media has always been biased against Chelsea. They really do want to undermine us. QPR really are a vile team... somebody asked do we want them to be relegated or not... I guess we have our answer now. The first premier league game in ages and already we are being fucked with.

Mikel or Romeu McEachran or Ramires Sturridge or Lukaku Drogba or Torres Ivanović or Bosingwa Mata or Malouda (lol) Turnbull or Hilario Alex or Luiz Bertrand or van Aanholt Lampard or Meireles

Okay after calming down and watching the highlights and key moments of the match all over again, I've come to a few conclusions and observations... mainly about Luiz. The Bosingwa red situation, I mean the situation where SWP cut through, was largely Luiz's mistake. He made a bad pass upfront (although Drogba made no effort to get on the end of the pass) and tracked back poorly, allowed a pass to go through his legs when he had acres of empty space behind him for SWP to run in to... This left Bosingwa no choice but to run with SWP who clearly outruns him, Bosingwa was on the wrong side because SWP ran to his right (hence the short pulling by Bosingwa, hoping that the ref doesn't see it and that SWP won't be able to run away).. Jose had no choice but to go in hard or SWP would've been through with Terry being in a 50/50 position to cover. In retrospect the red could be seen as the correct call and Luiz will have to take responsibility in letting this situation unfold in first place, Bosingwa just got unlucky and panicked. The penalty conceded by Luiz was a foul, but it is rarely given in EPL and Luiz must've had this in the back of his mind. Helguson made it look worse, so the soft call was given. Luiz let the ball bounce beforehand, but the ball was travelling pretty quickly over his head, he misjudged the flight off the ball. He did that one or two more times, misjudging the flight of the ball. Luiz made a few rookie mistakes which led to bad situations for us. Luckily we were facing a shit team, they weren't able to capitalize. Nevertheless, the ref didn't show us mercy but did to QPR.. that's the main thing to criticize about, inconsistency.

hold back you two, we're discussing Romeu and Luiz... refrain from using the K name, it won't do any good I can see where the OP is coming from, this could be tested in trainings or friendlies (but imo it shouldn't, I think both of them are at their natural positions)... never would I want to see such needless risks taken in competitive games though. Luiz is 24 already and he's been a defender for his whole professional career, it wouldn't be easy to suddenly start adapting him in other positions. The team simply doesn't need to experiment with that atm imo, Romeu and Mikel are very capable at DMF. Even Meireles. If we had a freak injury crysis, I could see us suiting Luiz in midfield temporarily... like Essien did at right-back and centre-back at times and Ferdinand played in midfield a couple of times for ManU if I'm not mistaken.

why does Eto'o wear nr. 99... is it because he likes big numbers? ZING

nope, it's a 1-game ban because it wasn't serious foul play

what a surprise... don't care, was bound to happen

I don't agree. Why? Explained it in other threads, no need to repeat myself.

AVB was probably ready to take one for the team, the most important thing for him was not to be perceived as a cowardly puppet, so he got his message across and will accept his punishment for the team. Other managers and referees will test his nerves as he is a rookie, but now they will see that they won't get away with it easily. Works for Ferguson, will hopefully work for AVB too. Absolutely love his media handling so far, level-headed and thought through... the last interview looked more emotion driven than usual, but he still managed to maintain his class in doing so. I don't doubt AVB's commitment for a second and the fact people still love him despite the defeats speaks volumes.

perhaps, Foy's still a cunt though

Haven't seen Evans's sending off. Terry was there to cover... although in retrospect it was a 50/50 call, still think the penalty and the red for Bosingwa were too soft (although by the rulebook it was a red if you don't consider Terry to be covering). Fair enough, let him do it, but do it for both teams ffs... he was biased towards QPR. And like AVB said, many of the small decision went against us also, not only the big decisions. He was biased beyond belief, totally controlled by the home crowd.

where did you hear Cole will be absent from the game? why? :S

Bos pulled his shorts, that's automatically a foul... not a red card though

i translated it in google and it was complete gibberish... something about Ronnie killing somebody, soldier etc.. wtf?

That's the point I've tried to make earlier. Granted, we could be wrong, but I trust in AVB to know what suits him the most... and we saw no sign from Ancelotti and haven't seen a sign from AVB to even think about it, nor did the staff at Benfica if I'm not wrong. I wonder if Ray Wilkins had been around after new year, because in commentary I think he said that he looks good to be a midfielder.. so he might have actually tried to persuade Ancelotti, but it wasn't to be. I still maintain he's the best as a flamboyant CB.

would love to have a football discussion with AVB and DiMatteo, they don't seem the cocky type and are intelligent and could explain everything in depth, more than a simple "he sucks" or "he's good". We have heard so little of DiMatteo, actually not at all, he should be at a interview/press conference or two.

Seeing the second half fills me with confidence... AVB strikes me as a man with a plan, he even has a working plan for 9 v 11. The slow start to first half was nothing special, we are known as a 2nd half team and I'm sure with 11 players we would have won.. their 1-0 lead shouldn't have even been, since there was a foul on Luiz before going into the box, and even then that fucker dived and that was a really soft call. Should've been a yellow card to the dive fucker, and in all honesty to Luiz too for the later dive. Bosingwa, not a red in a million years. Free-kick max for pulling SWP's shorts, but there is no way ref could've seen that unless it was the linesman staring at SWP's balls. Drogba is a real bitch, going all Rooney again a la Torres... and then has the right to hush Mikel. Drogs is supposed to be a BEAST. At least we have Torres back now, not gonna miss him much anyway tbh the way he's been playing. But in that game it was a really reckless thing to do, at least one call that the ref got spot on. Oh and Lampard, what a man. He ran his socks off, a real super effort. The same goes to Cole and Luiz. After Anelka missed his header, Lampard clearly showed his frustration by kicking the post and once when he headed wide he was visibly annoyed with himself. A real legend with pure passion, he as a true blue and a club legend didn't want to lose to those dirty fucks and you could see it. The english boys will be really blood thirsty in the home fixture. I can see Lampsy running them ragged next time. And Luiz, what a man. That wasn't a penalty and he really was full of anger and dedication. Take note Drogba, you vent your anger in the game by giving everything, not earning pointless reds and not fighting with everyone. Man of the match from Chelsea's side, for me, was Super Frank.