Strike

PSG it is. Don't mind it. Chelsea is going through

didn't remember that. oh well

Have the psychological advantage over PSG. Kept their strikers quiet last time too. Won't mind that draw

It’s weird. Chelsea strikers are actually scoring. It’s been a long time since that’s happened (regularly). Diego Costa, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy – between them have scored 21 goals already this season and it’s not even January. Around this time (mid December) last season, Samuel Eto’o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres had combined to score 11. In the same stage in 2012-13, Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge combined to score 10 goals between them. The 2011-12 season, the one that is now fondly remembered by Chelsea fans everywhere, also saw a distinct problem when it came to the strikers actually scoring. Three strikers in the squad then – Torres, Drogba and Anelka – and by this stage they had combined to score just 10. (Not counting Sturridge, because he played predominantly on the right side) In 2011-12, the strikers eventually contributed a paltry 25 goals. Numbers don’t tell the whole story but they give you a fair picture here. Fernando Torres had a wretched season highlighted by his open-goal miss in September at Old Trafford. The goal in the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona and the subsequent hat-trick at home to QPR, gave fans false hope that he was finally beginning to shine at Chelsea. Didier Drogba was quiet for the most part but in typical fashion, roared to life when it mattered with crucial goals towards end of the season. None more crucial than the header in the Champions League final, which is now part of Chelsea folklore, yet it was not much of a surprise to see him leave at the end of the season In 2012-13, pretty much the same story continued, with Torres having a comparatively better season, especially in the Europa League, but still struggling to get the goals consistently. The strikers combined for 31 goals. Torres, amazingly, scored 23 of them but it’s important to note that Chelsea played a ridiculously high number of games in this particular season due to involvement in seven competitions and Torres, more or less, struggled to score when it mattered – scoring just 8 in the Premier League. Whose idea was it anyway to go into the season with just 2 strikers with one of them being Torres? In 2013-14, the strikers once again combined for 31 goals, almost evenly shared between the trio of Torres(11), Eto’o(12) and Ba(8) but none of them seemed to grab the mantle of first choice striker. The strikers were heavily rotated and while each striker had a burst of goals at one point of the season or the other, none of them came close to cementing the first choice striker slot. Mourinho went as far as publicly bemoaning the strikers, off camera in a press conference. Maybe that’s why he opted to completely reshuffle the strike-force bringing in Diego Costa from Atletico for 32 million, Loic Remy from QPR for 10.5 million and Didier Drogba back to the club for free. And so far it’s working. Costa exploded at the start of the season and already has 12 goals (all in the Premier League) while Drogba, after an alarming start at home to Schalke, has settled in well on his return to Stamford Bridge and Remy has chipped in with a couple of well taken goals. Chelsea do not depend on goals from strikers, not as much as other teams anyway. The midfield has always contributed with a fair chunk of the goals - Frank Lampard in particular scored 20+ goals for six consecutive seasons. Then there were others like Joe Cole, Malouda, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard chipping in with goals. In addition, Chelsea's defenders have a good reputation for goalscoring. Cahill, Terry and Ivanovic have all found the net this season. But strikers (barring Drogba and few others like Gudjohnsen, Anelka) have historically failed in the last 10 years. Hernan Crespo, Mateja Kezman, Claudio Pizarro, Andriy Shevchencko, Demba Ba and the elephant in the room – Fernando Torres – all arrived with varying degrees of hype but failed to translate that on the pitch in Chelsea blue. Crespo, Shevchencko and Torres in particular arrived at the club for big money and with international reputation. Demba Ba joined in the middle of a prolific season for Newcastle but none of them had the impact that was close to what was expected of them. The last time Chelsea had free scoring strikers was under Ancelotti in 2009-10. The double winning season. The three strikers then – Drogba, Anelka and Kalou – had combined to score 32 goals by this stage of the season and went on to score a staggering 64 in total. Drogba was the clear main man contributing 37 of them on his way to the golden boot and Anelka worked well as second fiddle to Drogba, helping himself to 15 goals with Kalou scoring 12. While the current crop will probably not come close to those figures, it’s refreshing to see the strikers performing well after the dreary years of Fernando Torres. Sure, Sturridge and Lukaku did not make it at the club and are flourishing elsewhere. That has to go down as a failure particularly when the two of them were scoring freely in Merseyside, Chelsea were struggling for goals from their strikers. But this season has amended that. Diego Costa is already beloved by the fans. Loic Remy has shown flashes of brilliance and Didier Drogba is playing like he did few years ago. Long may it continue.

Absolutely. Action speaks volumes. Mourinho can say youth integration in any number of different ways he wants but ultimately, I'd rather see the youth players given a chance on the pitch rather than be talked about in the press. League cup game at Derby tomorrow and Mourinho has belted out "We will pick a strong side" etc.

Yeah that 2-0 vs Arsenal. Especially with Fabregas sticking it to the Gooners

Would love this. Zero injuries and because Ivanovic and Azpilicueta can play multiple positions, Mourinho has managed the defense somehow this season. Need another CB though. Varane will be tough to sign from Madrid but would be great to see Varane-Zouma in the future And some internal promotion. The likes of RLC, Ake, others out on loan. Maybe Bamford for Drogba.

No Pogba Strootman or anyone in midfield. We have Loftus Cheek

a total WTF story from Bangalore, India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mehdi-Masroor-arrested-confesses-to-operating-ISIS-Twitter-handle-Cops/articleshow/45503070.cms

Even without the goals, he's a bull upfront.

Loftus Cheek

Was hoping Schurrle would start. Willian is just weird sometimes on the ball.

three points. let's move on from the performance

think i've put it up. not sure

Chelsea host Hull at tea time on Saturday looking to bounce back from their first league defeat of the season and get their title charge back on track. The Blues were brought crashing back down to earth in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle. With the invincible talk over and done with, Chelsea will be looking to extend their lead at the top after Manchester City cut it down to 3 points Hull, on the other hand, are struggling. Languishing in the relegation zone, they’ve won just once since the opening day of the season and have scored just twice in their last six games. If Jose Mourinho could pick an opponent to face this weekend, it would probably be Hull. It’s the start of a typically busy Christmas schedule and Chelsea head into it on top of the table. However with 5 points dropped in the last 3 matches, Chelsea can ill afford any more slip-ups especially with Manchester City catching up to Chelsea’s coat tails. Venue: Stamford Bridge Date: Saturday 13-12-2014 Kick off: 1500 GMT Team News Cesc Fabregas, with 11 assists already, has been an influential figure in Chelsea’s campaign so far but Mourinho will have to do without him tonight as he serves a one game suspension. Petr Cech is set to make his first Premier League start of the season after Thibaut Courtois suffered a minor injury in training. Nemanja Matic returns from a domestic suspension. Eden Hazard, Willian and John Terry could all return to the starting eleven after they sat out the midweek Champions League tie against Sporting. Gaston Ramirez has completed a 3 game ban and is available for selection. So is Nikica Jelavic after he only made the bench last weekend returning from injury. Teams (Probables) Chelsea : Cech – Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpilicueta – Matic Ramires Oscar – Hazard Willian Costa Hull – McGregor – El Mohamady -Dawson Chester Davies - Rosenior – Huddlestone Meyler Livermore – Jelavic Hernandez Form Guide Chelsea - WLWDW Hull – DDLLL Last meeting Hull 0-2 Chelsea (Hazard, Torres) Stats and Facts Chelsea's defeat by Newcastle last weekend was their first in 18 Premier League matches. Jose Mourinho's side have kept 12 clean sheets in their last 15 home matches in the league. Hull have gone eight matches without a league victory and only won one of their last 14. Allan McGregor has saved all three of the penalties he has faced in the Premier League - no goalkeeper has ever saved four consecutive penalties in the competition. Match Coverage Australia: Fox Sports 4 Australia USA: NBCSN Middle East: beIN Sport Click Here To View Article

yes. will put it up in a bit

Why is the forum obsessed with Mikel?

The Sporting match thread is locked so I'll leave this here You're wrong. Youth integration does not happen this way. If Schurrle and Luis, two fantastic players who would walk into any other team in England, have to impress in such limited windows, what about the actual youth players? You cant expect Loftus Cheek to walk in and impress in 8 minutes of a dead rubber. Look at how the best youngsters were blooded into the senior team. Wilshere, Pogba, Varane, Zouma, Sterling etc Sometimes you have to give them a chance and see how they handle it. At Chelsea, it is tougher I agree, the competition is obviously very high and Mourinho is a competitive man who will stick to the best choice of players. But this is precisely why I don't have faith in his promises whenever he talks about youth integration. Yesterday he talked up RLC, in August it was Bamford, last year it was Chalobah and so on..

Maybe Jose was saving Loftus Cheek for this game

I don't know about that. I'm skeptic. Mourinho can make all the promises he wants in the press but as long there isn't anything tangible to back the claims, i'll remain skeptic. He's shown a strict preference to a core XI, where by even Luis, Schurrle aren't getting much of a look-in let alone the youth

i'll have to see it to believe that academy players will get chances

it's time for RLC

Ivanovic at Centre back. Cahill sits out a couple

The loss is out of the way. Should light a fire under some players.

Hull