Strike

i hope malouda plays. helps keep the first team fresh for the arsenal game

work in progress but we got the 3 points. good sweeping counter attack for the goal but the lack of penetration is worrying. Moses should start against arsenal. he is much more direct and provides genuine width. defensively sound as well

Oscar Mata and Hazard are good players but together they are way too narrow. tough day again but 3 points in the bag and that's whats important. should kick on now though

Lamps and JT dropped. let's kick some stoke ass now. this is the team everyone wanted right. ramires in the pivot instead of lamps. oscar mata hazard behind torres.. orgasmic

nah. attendances are dwindling and the people here are less and less interested in cricket. before, even an india v zimbabwe game would be packed but now even an india vs newzealand t20 game is not sold out. overdose of cricket i reckon. football is picking up. especially since messi, bayern etc played in India. chelsea being a big club now has gathered a fan base in india. forget blackburn, there aren't many liverpool or manc fans as far as i know. chelsea, manu and arsenal heavily followed though

@, good luck and good bye, mate. re-use this a/c sometime in the future maybe

Cech Ivanovic Luiz Cahill Cole Mikel Oscar Hazard Mata Marin Sturridge i want to see this team play against Stoke - provided Danny's injury was just a knock and that Marin is fit

too casual imo. casual passing throughout the night. have to snap out of this slump ASAP

well it is. the shortest game you can have takes over 3 hours. plus the overdose of cricket in this country has led to increased popularity for football.

the big clubs are heavily covered here in India and thus there has been an exponential increase in the number of Chelsea fans here. that and the general realisation that cricket is such a boring sport

can't turn this into a slump. need to get a move on in the league now. up the ante and pull clear of arsenal and manchester city

first half second half sums up the game, really

don't see the point of dumping it long to torres. the defenders ipass the ball back to cech whenever they are closed down and cech dumps it long for the opposition to gather the ball. plus, it doesn't help when luiz is also dumping the ball long every now and then. better to pass it along the ground and create space/openings

^agree. ramires' passing and decision-making have been shockingly bad

nah. robbie will be too concerned about juve swamping the midfield but expect mata in for bertrand to add that bit of spark we missed at loftus road

Hazard and Mata behind Torres. that's where Juve will get pumped

@KonohasOrangeFlash, kof calm down! but i agree. it's our game to lose

^aye. Frank Lampard. driving force in midfield. way too many goals for a midfield player. catalyst for chelsea's domination in the past decade

i get you. but we are better off this time around. Hazard is a class player we have added to the squad and adds that bit of dynamism needed against the bigger sides. under avb we didn't have that spark or live-wire who would help us get forward against a top side. now we have quite a few of them in hazard, oscar, marin, sturridge etc and if we get the balance of the team sorted, we will be bettter the worry is that it is mid-september and we are still experimenting

cech ivanovic cahill terry cole mikel lampard ramires mata hazard torres . mata switching with hazard . not particularly a fan of ramires on the wings but juve's wing-backs are double edged swords. while we should try and expose them, they could easily double team ivanovic and rape us. ramires, the machine can keep running up and down the right flank all day

we win this and the group looks much easier to tackle

good read. his point about the midfield will be something to watch out for. good chance of us losing the midfield battle. should tighten up the middle

the right players have been signed. the footballing philosophy has been radically different. give him time, he'll come good. i love how everyone on here were like "di Matteo has got some balls " after the Reading game and then "di Matteo should grow some balls" after the QPR game. di matteo will learn from this. remember the falcao horror show? di matteo must have been concerned about the defence and thus went with 2 defensive wingers supplementing hazard. we were defensively solid although it was compromised in attack. plus we did not have Juan Mata. the proverbial glue that holds the team together instead we had Lampard in the creative mid position who had a poor game. this lead to a lot of astray passes and inevitably we came under pressure. too early to judge di matteo

good choices for mods not sure about spike though

agree with the player power. disagree with the sacking part. calm down before judging rdm. sure he needs to be more ballsy but give him time. atleast the defense has bn sorted