Strike

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

Hull

Courtois Ivan Cahill Terry luis Matic Fabregas Schurrle Oscar Hazard Remy

Win here and this will be the best November run in years

yeah... i would love reus

the forum's new wet dream now taking over from hulk, falcao , cavani.

none will happen

@yuvala beautiful pics

nobody in nobody out

has a history of fading towards the second half of the season. should be rotated sometimes

this. i remember the 0-0. he was terrific. it was around this time that his performances were good and i thought he would quietly replace ashley at some point but unfortunately never got an extended run of games to prove himself. also, both di matteo and rafa tried him on the wing for some reason when there were clearly better wingers in the team