The Big Drog

Luckily enough I got mine online so it has the official numbering. In my town they have the jersey (without print) for 75 euro, online, with print, the jersey cost 70 euro which is why I tend to get most of my jerseys online these days.

They are the two greatest teams in the world and, arguably, two of the strongest sides that both clubs have had in their respective histories. It would be a more than worthy final if it were to take place.

Im delighted with the draw. Benfica aren't a walk over but they aren't Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or even AC Milan. It is also brilliant that the second leg is at Stamford Bridge, I think we can be quietly confident of progressing, Im sure Benfica fans are probably happy that they got us instead of Real Madrid or Barcelona aswell. In terms of the semi finals, we were always going to have to play a top quality side at some stage. The only slight disappointment is that the second leg will be away. That being said, after years of not reaching the semi final stage I will be delighted if we can make it there. Who knows, maybe AC Milan might get a result against Barcelona, yes that is fairly unlikely but you never know. And even if we do play Barcelona, wont it be great to see our lads play against, arguably, the greatest team in history, that's what the semi finals of a competition like this should be all about and, while Barcelona would certainly be the hefty favourites, I wouldn't count us completely out. All in all, Im just glad that we were involved in the draw today, that we have these big games to look forward to because, as we have seen this season, it isn't a forgone conclusion that the top teams in England will reach this stage anymore so lets be a bit more optimistic.

btw the sight of Di Matteo charging into a completely unaware Torres continues to make me laugh.

I think/hope we get something like this. Cech Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Bertrand Romeu, Lampard Sturridge, Mata, Kalou Torres

I just hoped they enjoyed watching us play in Europe on a Wednesday night just in case they have forgotten what it feels like.

Vintage Chelsea. For 2 hours we were transported back in time. Forgotten were the doubts about the old guard, erased was the idea of instituting a new style of play at Chelsea, gone were all of the criticisms, all of the off the field antics that have dominated the back pages and what we were left with was pure, raw Chelsea, this was Chelsea at its very core, the fight, the spirit, the quality that made us a force to be reckoned with. The lads were nothing short of heroic tonight, you could find examples all over the pitch. Terry was absolutely immense at the heart of the Chelsea back four, transformed from disgraced ex England captain back onto his rightful pedestal of Chelsea legend, the club's greatest ever captain. David Luiz beside him was equally terrific, playing the last half hour with an injury he was every bit as heroic as his centre back partner. Ivanovic as steady and reliable as you can possibly get at right back and a spectacular winner to boot. Frank Lampard, transformed from a substitute who was past his best under AVB to midfield general. Michael Essien, from has been crock to midfield powerhouse. Ramires, from much maligned Brazilian to powerful box to box runner. But greatest of all, for my money, Chelsea's greatest ever striker, Didier Drogba. When the occasion calls for it, Didier still delivers. AN awesome performance leading the Chelsea attack, striking fear into the hearts of the Napoli back 3 as only Drogba can, his all important opening goal was Drogba 101 and set the tone for the rest of the game. His assist for Ivanovic's winner, simply sublime. It has been said over and over again, repeated to death but I will say it one more time, never ever write off Didier Drogba, he remains Chelsea's great man, a Chelsea legend. Also I loved the post match celebrations. Di Matteo running and jumping straight at Drogba and then at Torres, it was telling of their contribution. Suddenly the feeling in the press that the players didn't like him all seemed a bit flimsy, he embraced the players, the players embraced him. Also loved Terry and Di Matteo talking tactics at half time, Terry's reputation at the club is such that he deserves to be listened to by the club managers. Terrific win, one of our best ever in Europe. How far can we go? With a favorable draw you never know, this win, with the right draw, might catapult us into a Champions League semi final or even a final. We are the 4th favourites with bookies, with that kind of heart, spirit and determination, we cant be taken lightly. Are we favourites? of course not, but will we give anybody a game, absolutely.

Cavani is right. A Napoli goal tonight and that is pretty much tie over.

I just ordered the Germany 2012 jersey with Ozil on the back (and the number 8 on the front and back). Fair play to Adidas, it's a beautiful jersey.

After Arsenal's late victory yesterday, the run of form that they are on and the way they are playing it has really put our Champions league place in doubt. Not getting into the Champions league would be an absolute disaster, Im struggling to imagine a season without it.

I cant remember ever saying that Drogba played well every single time. I do think that even when he is having a poor game (by his standards) he is still capable of producing a match winning moment, I also think that even if things aren't going his way his sheer physical presence is a positive to the team. Ye guilty as charged on that one, Didier has been Chelsea's talisman for the best part of 7 years and will probably go down in history as the clubs greatest ever striker and one of the finest strikers to have played in the Premier League, on top of being an absolute hero in his home country of the Ivory Coast, I think he warrants that "great man" tag.

Yes, when it mattered, the great man came up with the goods, as he has done many times down through the years. As I've said before, I know Drogba isn't the longterm answer but in the short term he remains a hell of a better option than Torres and he proved that again yesterday.

Thing is, I dont think you do. Torres has done nothing to justify inclusion in the side, Mata and Sturridge are key players (Mata probably being the key player in the whole side) but aside from his pricetag, there has been nothing else that makes Torres warrant a starting place, Drogba scored today and played quite well, he fully deserves his place ahead of Torres.

I find it amazing that in a game where we are trying to break down a 10 man Stoke team at Stamford Bridge whose sole intention is to park the bus and with the manager making 3 (seemingly) tactical substitutions in an effort to find a goal, Torres is left on the bench. He has had some pretty low ebbs here but today might be the lowest. These days, he isn't even considered a decent impact sub, to bring on and find a goal. If he isn't even a decent impact sub then what in the name of God is he doing at the club? He cost 50 million pound, he is on monster wages and yet he isn't even worth bringing on when chasing a goal? It is well and truly time for him to go.

Important 3 points, puts pressure on Arsenal and made even better by Liverpool's loss. Performance wasn't great, Stoke went down to 10 men fairly early which pretty much meant they presented no attacking threat for the duration of the game so it became a question of could we break them down? It turns out that yes, we could, once. The game did highlight the continued problem of creativity in the side. It doesn't matter who the manager is, if he has to rely on playing the likes of Kalou, Mikel and Ramires on the right wing in the hope of breaking down a mid table side then he is destined to fail in the long run, it is a situation that desperately needs to be fixed in the Summer. Far too many times all we seemed to have were shots from long range, most guilty of this was Frank Lampard whose only thought these days seems to be "shoot" that isn't good enough anymore, there has to be more craft in the in the team. That being said, if there was ever a reason to be optimistic about the future it is Juan Mata. Played in a central position and looked on an entirely different level to everyone else on the pitch, his clever 1/2 touch play, his darting movement, his jinking runs and the clever slip passes, the lad is the talisman of the team and his outstanding assist for Drogba won us a hugely valuable 3 points today, he borders on the sublime. Cahill did quite well at the back when he was called into action, infact this was probably the ebst I've seen him in a Chelsea jersey, dealt very well in the 2 one on one situations he was forced into. Drogba took his goal very well, managed to find some room in the box and delivered a cool finish, nice to see that one of our strikers can still score. Wednesday night the initiative will be with us to break down Napoli and score, all the while be aware of their lethal counterattacks. Our attack will have to be far more creative, far more varied, far more fluid and far more penetrating than it was today if we are to qualify.

I would. He is a top prospect, surely having actually identified and signed a player of such rare talent as Courtois, we should then reap the benefits of him rather than selling him on for profit.

lol Im not sure why it happens, possibly just my mouse double clicking, as it tends to do sometimes.

C Cheers mate, anyway Im off for the night, still in a state of euphoria following Bilbao's sublime performance.

Arsenal's decline in style is simply down to a decline in the quality of player at their club. They replaced Cesc Fabregas with the less mobile Mikel Arteta and Samir Nasri with the less mobile Thomas Rosicky. Also Wenger has prioritized wing play far more this season than I can remember. Liverpool under Benitez were more fluid then than now though still they were very much an English type side, their transitions were quick, which gott he best out of Torres, and they had a well organised, well protected back four in place. Ye it is a shame that AVB didn't meet the same success in terms of changing the philosophy of a club as Bielsa did as Bilbao, though circumstances at Chelsea certainly made it more difficult for AVB to successfully implement his methods.

Im not saying that every single Talk Chelsea poster is an avid Bilbao fan. What I am saying is that throwing around wild percentages like 90%, 99%, 113% is crazy because there is no possible way of proving them to be true and percentages are supposed to represent factual data. Id agree that probably more than half of the posters on here dont watch la Liga or at least dont watch any games outside those involving the big two, but I can't prove that, that's simply an estimate based on things like previous experience on here, the La Liga discussion thread ect. Id say that is a bit of an exaggeration, Id say a decent amount have seen them play at least once or twice.

But that is 1 poster, speaking on behalf of....1 poster. If I were to say "I hate jaffa cakes and Im sure 99% of the forum couldn't give a shit about them either" would that now make it absolute fact that Talk Chelsea is a community of jaffa cake haters?

Arsenal's current style is very different from that of Bilbao's. Their midfield is not as fluid as Bilbao's, Arteta and Rosicky dont have the freedom to make the type of forward runs that De Marcos or Ander Herrera make. The will to play it out from the back is not nearly as great as Bilbao's (possibly because they dont have the same confidence in their technical ability as the Bilbao players) and while Arsenal's attack these days is quite heavily concentrated on the flanks and penetration down the flanks with direct runners like Walcott, Gervinho and Oxlade Chamberlain, this is not the case for Bilbao, with Susaeta often found popping up in inside positions, though thee rampaging full backs provide a lot of width. Bilbao were said to be the most "English" like side of all La Liga teams, however that was prior to this season. Bielsa has changed the menality, where it was once "get it up to Llorente" to allow him to physically dominate centre backs, they have taken a far more technical, subtle style to heart under Bielsa, this Bilbao side is far more in the likeness of Barcelona (though there are some profound differences between the Basque and Catalan sides) than an English team.

I know.

I didn't realise the Talk Chelsea forum members make up the entire television viewing population, I must have missed that announcement. I love these entirely random percentages which cant possibly be justified. I reckon 113% of the people on this forum dont like you. Did I just pluck that percentage out of the air? Yes, I did.

Barcelona yes. And he probably would improve the fluidity of Chelsea or Man City but I dont think he would be the roaring success in England that he is in Spain. That is because La Liga places a higher emphasis on tactics, this is because the tempo is slower in Spain than in England, because there is less of a reliance on the physical and because teams dont go from back to front in Spain as quickly as they do in England. As AVB noted during his time in England, the transitions are much faster in England than elsewhere. As a result, it proved a pretty major setback on certain areas of his philosophy (most obviously, the pressing game he wanted to employ) Bielsa's Bilbao can press in Spain and the 11 members of the team can move together as a single unit because the transitions are slower and because they know that their opponents want to try to pass the ball around. In England, the high press becomes almost redundant against teams like Stoke, Aston Villa, Blackburn ect. who can simply lump it from the back to a physically imposing frontman with one simple kick, the press then leaves gaps for the opposition (with their physicality based players) room to exploit both in front of and behind the defence. On the ball it is also more difficult to get the same fluidity in England as in Spain. A key reason being that in England, physically gifted players are prized. Whereas in Spain it is technically gifted players they are prized. Those Bilbao players tonight, all 11 of them are technically proficient footballers, each capable of playing the same Bielsa imposes on them. I couldn't imagine any current English team replicating that kind of style.