TorontoChelsea

It will be an interesting match. Very much looking forward to Chelsea playing again. Very interested to see what RDM does with his starting XI. Since we play again on Tuesday and then again on Saturday which is a very quick turn-around for what are three very important matches, I think it's fair to say that we should see a few different players. The Spurs match is interesting tactically as well. Where do we give them space? Where do we try to exploit them? Can't wait.

Someone is itching for a ban.

I disagree. I think it's exactly the biggest worry for us. I read very little into histories of player versus player when there is such a tiny sample size. (And none when its international match especially when it's a poor side like Wales that are easy to shut down.) We're talking about a match and a half 2, 3 years ago in a different system with different coaches and different players. The game you're referring to at WHL for example, we played a 4-3-3 with Deco giving cover to the RB. To me, that has no bearing on Saturday's game. My worry is based on this season. Ivanovic's defensive positioning has been poor. Chelsea play a narrow style that requires the fullbacks to get forward and then doesn't give them a lot of help defensively. Spurs like to use their wings to attack but also like to get their fullbacks forward. Walker and Vertonghen get forward a lot. I am worried about Cole as well but his positioning is usually excellent and Bale is better than Lennon. (Mostly worry about Walker overlapping on that side)

Ivanovic played against Spurs once last year and he started as a CB (Bosingwa and then Ferreira as RB) had to come off in the 32nd minute. The year before, he played twice, once as a central defender and once at RB. So, he's played one full match at RB against Spurs and did OK,cContaining Bale pretty well and fouling him a 4 times but...that was 2 years ago and Ivanovic's positioning has been poor this year. Also, that team didn't need Ivanovic to get forward as much. This squad needs Ivanovic to provide width. It's possible he'll contain Bale but I think he'll need help.

It's not only that, but the fullbacks really get can forward for Spurs which means that both Cole and Ivanovic will need support which means relying heavily on Hazard and Mata for defensive work.

And completely deserved. Last week's games were mostly pretty dull, but some great ones today. Now, off to see if Northern Ireland can hold on against in Portugal in Portugal.

I disagree that the narrow system is working. We're winning, but we aren't creating scoring chances. You look at the four games we've used the narrow front three. Juventus, Stoke, Arsenal, and Norwich. Apart from the Norwich game which we would have won easily in any system, we've been very poor at creating chances. In those three games, we scored 5 goals. The two Oscar goals against Juve were both solo efforts and one took a lucky deflection or it wouldn't have gone in. The two goals against Arsenal were both from set piecesm and the goal against Stoke was scored only once we had brought on Moses and Lampard. What was our second best chance against Stoke? Apart from the Torres penalty shout, what was the next best scoring opportunity against Arsenal? We're winning and we're fantastic to watch, but the narrow system has not been able to break down half-decent defences at all so far. Even if you look at the goals we scored against Norwich. Torres scored on a long ball, great touch, and then a cross, Lampard and Ivanovic from volleys off of scrambles, and Hazard on a beautiful counter-attacking pass by Mata. As of right now, the narrow game is not really working for creating opportunities. Now, this could easily change as players get more familiar with one another, but I am skeptical that a team with no width will ever be able to have prolonged success (Nobody ever has as far as I'm aware of.). Which is exactly why I'd bring in Moses. My biggest concern going forward is lack of width and someone like Moses would at least keep Vertonghen busy so he and Bale wouldn't have the free reign on the wing. Also, absolutely don't see Romeu for Ramires as a straight swap. Ramires, for all his flaws, is a box to box midfielder and Romeu is a defensive midfielder, and the personality and history that is closer to a defender than an attacker. It's possible some teams play the 4-2-3-1 with two purely defensive midifelders, but I can't remember it happening. Oscar actually does seem to have the perfect abilities needed for that position (good passing sense, good defensive awareness, excellent vision, etc...)

And Lampard a doubt due to the knee thing. If those guys are out, I think RDM would move Oscar back into the middle of the pitch but it really underlines the lack of depth we have in central midfield (and striker and how much insane depth we have at attacking midfield.)

Yeah. Worst World Cup I've ever seen. Half the good teams were knocked out right away and the referees decided that South Korea were going to get through. Neither Germany nor Brazil were particularly impressive but that was the final.

It would be a disaster if we let him go because we won't sign him to a longer-term deal. Cole could easily be an elite level back for a few more years and finding another LB of similar quality will be virtually impossible.

Top clubs don't buy players for re-sale value. Even a team like Arsenal who is very willing to sell players doesn't buy someone because they think they can flip them for a profit. They bought Cazorla because Cazorla can help them win and he was excellent value. I'm not saying we have to go go for De Rossi, none of us know how much he would cost and therefore none of us know whether he'd be good value or not, just that only buying young players means that you are going to have to spend a lot more money.

I don't believe this for a second. Romeu is not playing because RDM prefers Mikel. That's it. There's no conspiracy theory. Barcelona had Romeu for years. It's not like they don't know him as a player and the idea that a team that the Chelsea are playing a lesser line-up because they scared of losing Romeu is insane.

It's very different with other major historical figures. You usually have documentation that talk about them in some detail from multiple sources writing at that time and later, you have statues made of them, or had buildings and streets named after them, and they are often even mentioned in other cultures. The references to Jesus are almost all fleeting and made decades after his death. The other issue is that there were contemporary historians who wrote about Jewish life in Judea and never mentioned Jesus at all. You would never find a historian writing about a slightly earlier period and not referencing Herod for example, Now, this could easily be (likely) because Jesus was a very minor figure when he was alive, but it does raise questions. I do believe that Jesus existed as a historical figure and that there is very strong evidence for it, but it's also possible he didn't exist (or that he was someone who was created off of multiple people). The majority of historians certainly believe that Jesus existed, but it isn't unanimous (and the dissenters are generally serious historians, not conspiracy theorists).

I think proven is a little strong. The evidence of Jesus' existence comes mostly from mentions by the historians Josephus and Tacitus but...both these writers were writing well after Jesus' life so it is possible that they were reporting reports rather than reporting fact. I'd say that it's extremely likely that someone named Jesus existed but not proven.

Yeah, he didn't dive (this time). He was trying to avoid contact, maybe even got clipped, and tripped himself up. I don't think it was a penalty though.

Canada is playing Cuba tonight and half of Cuba's team defected before the game so they only have 11 players in total left-no bench at all.

I think he'd be great but I don't think Chelsea will go for it. Our policy of buying new players is generally good, but also a bit silly if it's a rule. Older players are invariably much cheaper to buy so the risk is much lower. The best transfer values are almost always players in their mid to late 20's. (Michu, Cazorla, Demba Ba, etc...) and these players still offer a number of good years.

I bet babies will love him the best! When my niece was an infant, I used to stick my tongue out at her all the time and she loved it. (no smiley face with the tongue stick out?) Anyway, good for Luiz and Chelsea to be doing this sort of thing

So, we get to claim credit by predicting who won't come to Chelsea? This is great...here are a couple of predictions just to get started... 1) I predict that Chelsea will not make a 5M pound bid for Xavi and ALSO that if they did make that bid, Barcelona would not accept. 2) I predict that Chelsea will not make a 75M pound bid for Adrian Mutu.

Surplus to requirements? Not yet. Last season, Lampard was still among our best players and this year he still offers something that no other player does which is creativity from the central midfield. He'll still start plenty of games this season and in a perfect world, would stay on for a couple more years as a rotation player/super sub.

I actually think it's an awful piece. At first, I actually thought it was done through google translate because the language is so stilted, mannered, and uncomfortable but I'm pretty sure the writer's native language is English and just can't write...Bad writing and poor grammar when you are presenting a piece (rather than just, say, in a casual post) drives me crazy. This piece could have been written perfectly well in one or two simple paragraphs without the overwritten nonsense. (for example , what the hell is "buzz-bomb energy"? A buzz-bomb was a type of German guided missile used in the World Wars. Is that a good way to describe Mata's energy? Just write "he's energetic" or "he has tremendous energy". What does he mean when he says Spain remain "eminently good?" Does he mean that they are a morally upstanding team or does he mean that they are "very good". Writing simply makes you simply a better writer.) Anyway, I think he overstates Spain's need for Mata. Even had Mata been recalled, he wouldn't have started. ,Like many on here, I'm just happy he wasn't recalled so he can rest some more.

You didn't. Some terms can get lost or are confusing. He used a term that is incredibly offensive and that has centuries of persecution attached to it. He knew what he was doing and it was clearly wrong.

Yashin, Carlo Alberto, Beckenbauer, Bogarde, Maldini, Mikel, Makalele, Cruyff, Maradona, Malouda, Chris Sutton.

I get that 100%. It actually was more difficult for me to follow Chelsea after Roman came for a little bit. We had been spending a fair bit of money the few seasons before that bringing in players like Lampard, Hassalbaink, and Gronkjaer but it was a normal amount of money a big club could spend (and still more than we could afford at the time). When Roman came in, it just went to another level. Obviously, I was happy when we won anything, but it was just different. When you have such a ridiculous competitive advantage, beating most teams is to be expected. It's like racing against someone when you have an F1 car and they have a 1987 Chevy. What exactly does winning prove? That you have more money? Also, because of our spending, we attracted a ridiculous number of fans who view the club as a way to buy all their fantasy players. "Let's go and get him, 30M pounds is a bargain!". I miss the days when fixing an issue at the club meant trying different players in the spot or maybe making a smart buy instead of endless discussions of shopping lists of world class players. Top teams are always going to spend more money and I'm sure as hell happy Chelsea are a top team, but right now the gap between City, Chelsea, and to a lesser extent, ManU and the rest of the Premier league is just too big. We spend more on youth players than most clubs do on senior players. We have an exciting young team now and I really hope we can finally have managerial stability and reasonable transfer levels going forward and that football figures out a way to bring the spending back to sanity..

If Chelsea buy players like this it's to stash them and loan them and hope they develop. UEFA ranks the Swedish league 24th in Europe. This is not someone who has done well in France or even Belgium or Ukraine. Some great players do come from lower leagues obviously, but you have to prove yourself at some point. The chances that Chelsea buy him to play him now are virtually zero.