Thomas Williams

although he'd be equally as useless as bertrand, if it gives us an excuse to start Ba next game then it'll be a genius move

Id don't understand how he could even be an option in midfield, ahead of marin and piazon. Its not a midfield role even, its a winger which in our formation is more of an attack than a defense. I can't understand for the life of me why he'd be chosen for this.

"cracking finish by Walters"

Beautiful shot by walters!

wd Ba

Bertrand is among everything else, way too slow to play winger

Also, Hazard needs to be stronger, stoke is just bullying him

Lukaku just scored! (irrelevant)

We got lucky

@, did you get my link? (sorry guys for the double post) here's an hd link http://www.vipbox.tv/football/118385/5/stoke-city-vs-chelsea-live-stream-online.html this has all the EPL games and plenty of others http://www.vipbox.tv/sports/football.html I assume this site works in your respective countries, I'm using it in the U.S.

I don't understand a pick of bertand, how could he be better than at least marin or piazon in this situation?

@ Mr. F9T http://www.vipbox.tv/football/118385/5/stoke-city-vs-chelsea-live-stream-online.html

Yeah, that's what the article says but the emphasis is that it says pourrait etre, doesn't really tell us a whole lot necessarily, the article is just speculating that with lampard gone chelsea will be looking for a new star midfielder and may go for him. The article kind of covered their asses.

(not sure if mentioned before) but imagine him and Luiz in the pivot, no team could handle that combination of hair.

If they're going to try to force Torres upon this team, I'd rather see it as occasionally playing both Torres and Ba up top some games, to rest either Hazard or mata, than just replacing Ba entirely. I know it would ruin the 4-2-3-1 they love so much, but two be honest, none of our players look super comfortable in the pivot position, so tweaking the formation to allow two strikers and rest either Mata or Hazard (who look really tired some matches) might work out better than trying to play Marin or some alternative. And Benitez can still play his love Torres on games we still need Ba out there. Of course I'd rather just do away with Torres altogether, but that never seems to be an option.

I like that he looks so calm and cool headed.

I have to agree with you on this one, all of our recently signed players (especially the big names) have had an emphasis on being technically gifted, smaller players. Imagine mazacar trying to play strong physical football. :lol2: That's why Abramovich practically salivates over Guadiola.

I think we can sum up this wage talks as such: Having Lamps on the team is very beneficial to us, but not at his current wages. We would like to have him back but on reduced wages. Then all we can do is wait and see.

I wonder if we could all start a "save lampard fund." If die hard lampard fan donated a fiver, I'm sure we could resign him How could the club complain then?

The beautiful thing about Ba is that he can score very well from a well placed aerial ball, which our team is so good at delivering, we finally have someone who will have the off the ball movement to receive it and score.

I'm racking my brain for other examples, it's very difficult. Robben for 12 million wasn't a bad investment, but that was ages ago. Sturridge is probably our best under 8 million signing in a long time, and I think Mata has probably been worth double what we paid for his transfer fee (which was still very high). Mind you, every good investment Chelsea ever made in recent years has been nullified by Torres. At least we have Abramovich's near endless pockets to make up the difference.

I mentioned in my post that the immense differences in the sports make them hard to compare (except in name) but I feel the idea that we need to give Benitez time before we give him the final verdict. I think you agree with me on that .And about my passion being American football---I actually prefer the European version, and no sport gives me as much pleasure as watching the Blues (haven't missed game in years that I wasn't in class/work for [damn time zone differences]). But I am much more an expert on American football, and I make a few hundred dollars a year betting American football (much more predictable sport to me at least--Chelsea beats Aston Villas 8-0? Man-ure beats reading by 1? How you guys could profit off betting these games I have no idea).

Hey guys, I'm going to give you some "bloody yank" perspective. My passion in addition to real football is our American version (with the pads and helmets ). University sports are huge here (bigger than national league sports where I live), and my local "football" team was awful for the better part of a century, despite being a large university with a large fanbase. One conference title in a dreadful conference in all those years. Then we signed a new coach with a famous record for a large fee hoping to turn the program around. The first few years the team did no better and tons of fans complained of him and said he was a waste of money. But now closer to a decade record he has brought the team to success it has never known before and consistently ranks in top 10 in the country (would be like reading becoming a consistent top 10 in the premier league).z Now I understand the sports are very different, and a football manager especially with Chelsea's resources can make or break a team very quickly compared to what an american football coach can. But my point (finally) is Oftentimes it takes a while for a coach to make his complete impact-positive or negative. I'll praise or ridicule Benitez on a game to game basis, but I feel it's way too early to call him sh*t or call him our savior. I don't think we can fairly say yet. At the end of the season, when I see our silverware (or lack thereof) and premier ranking, then I'll decide.

Especially with the manchester teams struggling lately (Manure seems to be getting by more on luck than dominating their opponents) and Chelsea keep looking better and better.

I'm betting on the draw, but hoping for the win! That way I'm content no matter what. I'm definitely feeling a 1-1 or 2-2, but seeing the blues win is definitely worth the $10 I'd lose. (A littler over a fiver to you folk?)