Jase

Can we sue animals for vandalism? One of 'my' cats went and scratched someone's bicycle tyres!

According to the interview in the UK's Men Health April edition magazine, Mata has been doing yoga once a week and he does it because it is good to stretch and relax the tension in the body. Also said it helps with injury prevention and good for the mind. Slightly unexpected coming from him but not bad. Another interesting thing he said is that Ivanovic is one of his best friends around.

It just had to happened before we play them next weekend...

Being proven in the league is a tad different from being proven at the highest level. Moses has done OK so far(form dipped after returning from AFCON) but yet to fully convince. As for Marin, he hasn't proved himself at the highest level yet but how do one even expect him to prove himself in the league when he only gets the odd game here and there and when he does, the team always play poorly which in turn, affected his game and performance too.

That somehow slipped my mind. It was crazy to see him bringing on Benayoun instead of Ba while he continue pumping crosses into the box without any sort of a big physical presense upfront. As you said, it made no sense!

Hardly surprising when our corners have hardly beat the 1st man. Sometimes you gotta wonder what the players are doing during training. It's clear that our corner takings and even the crossing needs to be improved but yet they don't seem to be working on it in training when we keep on producing rubbish corners and crosses! Compare the amount of consistent quality crosses(especially!) delivered during the 09/10 season and now, you will see a massive stark contrast. It's quite ridiculous really!

Other than Benitez's horrendous rotation of players today, there's one thing I cannot understand about his sub. Why on earth did he decided to bring on Ramires for Mikel and then asked him to play the latter's role in the pivot? I know Lampard offers the goal threat in the team but other than that, he doesn't give much else and yet Benitez kept him on instead. Mikel might not have the best of games today but partnering him with Ramires makes much more sense than the Ramires-Lampard combo as already illustrated in the difference in performance at OT recently. By asking Ramires to just sit in the pivot basically takes everything away from him. His biggest strength is making those driving runs at the opposition's defence and create chances for us, which is similar to what Lampard does but yet Benitez stick him in the pivot and continue to allow Lampard to get forward when it was hardly even working when playing alongside Mikel. Should have went with Mikel and Ramires in the pivot, ask Mikel to sit and then allow Ramires to make his marauding runs. Furthermore, Southampton were playing with a high line and having someone running deep from midfield can cause major problems but we didn't even look to exploit it!

Funny thing is, everytime Marin has started a game this season, Benitez hasn't played the best XI and the overall team's performance have been either average or poor. And in turn, it made Marin looks bad every single time.

Fun Fact: Chelsea have failed to win any of their games prior to facing Manchester United in the last 4 occasions - D1 L3. 1. Steaua 1-0 Chelsea, Man United 2-2 Chelsea 2. Shakhtar 2-1 Chelsea, Chelsea 2-3 Man United 3. Chelsea 2-3 Man United, Chelsea 5-4 Man United 4. Swansea 1-1 Chelsea, Chelsea 3-3 Man United

Chelsea have only won 2 of 11 matches in all competitions this season when Juan Mata hasn't started - P11 W2 D5 L4. Both of those wins came against Wigan in the league and Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.

Seems to me that most of the senior players here have took their foot off the pedal after winning the Champions League last season. You look at our defenders this season. Apart from Azpilicueta, a new signing this season, the rest of them have been rubbish most of the time or at some point during the season. It's like they don't even bother trying anymore because they have already won everything there is to win here, the PL, FA Cup, CL etc.

Some team news...

Mata was apparently ill today, hence why he didn't play. And even if he was available, I would have played him today and next Sunday. League comes first before the two cups but Benitez obviously doesn't bother. The game in hand would be better if it was our insurance policy in the sense it allows us to pull further clear of the rest. Not so much of a must-win but now, it has become a must win! Furthermore, that game in hand is Fulham at the Cottage, where we have not done well in recent times and not played well against them. And yes, we've still got Spurs to come but forget them for a moment. The major concern now is Arsenal in 5th. Only 2 points behind and we don't have a game in hand on them. Slip up one more time and they'll overtake us into 4th. They can concentrate solely on the league while we can't. That's the big worry now!

Seriously, is there even any purpose in playing Ivanovic these days? He has become so passive and rubbish in his defending that it's ridiculous! The first goal conceded today demonstrated that. Was clear that Southampton wanted to play the 1-2 and what did he do? Stepped out and caught ball watching Steven Davis on the ball. No pressure, no nothing and allowed Rodriguez to get into that space vacated behind him to score. Such a simple and pathetic goal to concede! Heck, there even a few incidents where he got turned over so easily by Rodriguez, Lambert etc later on. He's getting absolutely atrocious! At this rate, he should probably be one of the players that need to be sold come the summer!

Back down to 4th now, sitting 2 points behind Spurs and ONLY 2 ahead of Arsenal now. Two weeks ago, we were all feeling happy and positive that we can finish in the Top 4. Now, it's back to the worrying state again. AND all thanks to Benitez's idiotic rotation and prioritization of the FA Cup on Monday. We should be playing the strongest team here, get the 3 points and then think about Monday. Instead, we lost this game and lose on Monday and all hell will break loose once more. Benitez CLEARLY bothers about winning the trophies more than ensuring us finishing in the Top 4 because it boosts his CV. And heck, he probably wants to ensure we doesn't finish in there knowing Mourinho will only return if we are in the Champions League next season!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbSoSk6vkuk

Have created a match thread on the final game vs Aston Villa. http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/15728-chelsea-v-aston-villa/ Use that thread to discuss everything about the game, including pre-match and post-match thoughts, analysis etc.

Chelsea vs Manchester United PRE-MATCH DISCUSSION AND LIVE CHAT FA Cup Quarter Finals Replay 1st April, Monday 2013 Stamford Bridge 12:30 Kick Off (UK time)

Chelsea vs Manchester United POST-MATCH DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS FA Cup Quarter Finals Replay 1st April, Monday 2013 Stamford Bridge 12:30 Kick Off (UK time)

No problem. Enjoyed it very much.

Show just started on Chelsea TV. Tune in people. P.S. It started late due to the replay of our NextGen SF game that went to ET.

Asia. Matches will be played in July. http://www.chelseafc.com/pre-season-tour

Speak the common and general language CHOULO.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3125596/title/st-louis-date-set-for-city-test This has to be one of most stupidest and pointless ever thing done by the club! We are playing through the longest ever season at the club and they decided to have post-season friendly against City all the way in US! ---------------------------- http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3136854

Erm, nope. He scored the 1st goal in MK Dons's 2-0 win over Hartlepool.