The Big Drog

I think most people will agree that Ramires and Luiz are very much Ancelotti buys, Torres perhaps not so much but Luiz and Ramires, certainly. Because he is the coach? If Carlo Ancelotti is coaching a team then Id be pretty confident Carlo Ancelotti will buy players that Carlo Ancelotti rates, not ones that Hiddink rates or Mourinho rates. How do we know there isn't anyone better than him? If Mourinho is available in the Summer (very much possible given whats transpired at Madrid) then he is a better option, perhaps we can pursue Hiddink, I think he is a better option, Andre Villas Boas could turn out to be a better option. Finishing second, losing out in the Champions League quater final and the way we have lost such bigg ames this season is the reason that Ancelotti's future is under such scrutiny. Fulham, a side who were involved in a relegation battle for a while so were hardly likely to trust young players.

When has McEachran stepped into the first team? He has started a few games and none of them in the Premier League (I think Im right in saying). Now he cant even get a spot on the bench. Rafael and Fabio were given far more opportunities much sooner once they were available.

There's taking it slowly and then there is this. Look at Wilshere, he starts week in, week out for Arsenal. Im not saying lets start McEachran in every game but lets gradually introduce him, Ferguson plays Gibson in competitive games (and has done for a couple of seasons) lets gradually introduce McEachran in the same way Ferguson introduced Gibson. Its no good giving him the od 15 minutes when a game is won, he wont learn anything from that. What about Sturridge, he has shined at Bolton, he looks a very special player and exactly what we were missing today (speed out wide) but instead he was sent out on loan because he couldn't get ahead of Anelka and Kalou in the pecking order, thats shocking. Kakuta hasn't been given a chance at all either, forget slowly introducing him into the line up the lad hasn't been given a chance.

My point is that we have a high quality squad, one that has just won the double and one that has been consistently successful for the past 5-6 years and yet under Ancelotti this is the type of season we get? Yes he won the double last season (though doubters will say we only won the league by a point over a very average Man Utd side) but we had an awful European campaign and we have had another awful European campaign this season, last season Ancelotti's saving grace was the Premier League, this season we we have been poor, there is no 2 ways about it and with the kind of resources that Abramovich has invested in this squad, with the players he has available to him and with the deflating manner which some of our most vital defeats have occured (Sunderland, Arsenal, 3 times against Man Utd) then I think sacking him would be absolutely justified. What I've read on here since the defeat is change, that everyone wants change to the squad in the Summer and so do I but the absolute worst thing that can happen is if we keep Ancelotti, he brings in his own players, we have another season like this one, then he is sacked, we get a new coach who then has to work with a group of players who are not his own, thats exactly what we dont need. When Mourinho came in he was allowed to bring in his own players and it worked. We must allow whatever manager we want to bring in to do the same and that means we cant waste time, we cant risk having another dud season like this one, if we plan on big changes tot he squad in the Summer then the board must make sure we have a manager in place who they see leading us long term and I dont think anybody is convinced that that is Carlo Ancelotti.

I dont agree, we have unearthed a few gems in recent times, Sturridge and Kakuta being two low key buys by the club who could be big hits but neither have been given a proper opportunity, its still a bit perplexing that Kalou is ahead of Sturridge in the pecking order and Im not even mentioning Josh McEachran who also hasn't really gotten an opportunity this season either. When you see Ferguson throw in the likes of Rafael and Fabio, Smalling ect. into the first team from a young age so that they have the experienced required to do a job when called upon, I never understand why we dont do it with our youngsters who are just as good, if not better, than Man Utd's. You can bet if McEachran were at Man Utd or Arsenal he would have a good amount of first team experience, why not gradually introduce our young players into the starting 11 in the same way so that we wont have to splash out huge sums of money.

Spot on, I mean Ferguson has beaten Ancelotti 3 times in a row in recent weeks, for a top club and a supposedly top manager thats unacceptable.

We are aiming to be the best club on the planet, Roman wants this lcub to be the best and the standard bearers are Real Madrid and Barcelona, not Inter and Bayern. On paper I dont think we are worlds apart from either of those 2 clubs but our squad does need changing in the Summer, that is for certain.

That was pathetic today, really awful. I just dont understand how on a day like today, for a game which we have had so long to prepare for and think about with such importance that we end up looking as disjointed as that. For the first goal the ball breaks through our midfield so easily, how does Park get that amount of time and space in that position to pick a pass, why does Terry think we are playing offside but Luiz think we are tracking the runners? All of that comes to orginisation and structure and that is what the coach of a team is reponsible for. How was our passing so poor? Slow, sloppy, plodding, predictable, it was dreadful. In such a big game it really says a lot that Salomon Kalou is in the starting 11, if thats the best we can muster up then there really are problems. What in the world has happened to Michael Essien, formeyl regarded as the best all round midfielder on the planet, the man seems to have lost his speed, strenght and general footballing ability, Lampard's legs look like they are slowly going. I thought it was pathetic how Ancelotti scapegoated Luiz, he was hardly spectacular but I thought there were worse players in blue today than him, he looked confused with what our defence were trying to do as did the rest of the defence. Cole was poor, Malouda was poor, Im trying to pick out positive Chelsea performances but I cant find anymore than Cech, Ramires and Alex, irnonically the latter 2 only playing for 45 minutes. Its the straw that broke the camels back, two times under Ancelotti we have faield to reach the Champions League semi final which used to be a given in the recent past, tactically it all looks so average, he hasn't made the changes to the side that were required, its been business as usual and just as his AC Milan side faded out with old age and became a parody of their former selves, we are in danger of doing exactly the same, no game could have highlighted that more than todays. Todays performance on top of our performance over the course of the season is unacceptable, not only will we finish trophyless but the manner in which we have lost out on trophies has been incredibly disappointing and frustrating. Big changes are needed in the Summer and that starts first and foremost with the changing of the manager.

Proud of what? Sure we did well to get back to within 3 points and make todays game against Man Utd meaningful but far from feeling proud, we should feel angry and disappointed. Rather than looking at the last couple of months and concluding "ye we did well to get where we are and we just came up short" instead maybe we should look at the season as a whole and ask how did we go through such a bad run for so long? I mean you dont see Real Madrid going on a run like that for such a lenght of time, you dont see Barcelona go on a run like that and isn't that the standard that Roman Abramovich aims for with this club? Yes we did well to fight our way into a title race that we had no right to be involved in but our opponents today aren't Barcelona or Real Madrid, by their high standards this is an average Man Utd side and were hardly runaway leaders. How did this season all go so wrong? Today we were dreadful, slow, predictable, disjointed, especially compared to a faster, slicker Man Utd side. Todays performance might have been the worst I've seen from us since our 3-0 defeat to Man Utd. It was awful from start to finish. Far from proud, we should be asking how we have let our standards slip so dramatically that getting 2nd place, being eliminated at the quater final stage of the Champions League and enduring a torrid few months can now be considered something to be proud of.

On the line up, the last thing we need is the pretty dire Drogba and Torres partnership starting up top, if we are going to win then it will be with the 4-3-3 system. Id go with this. Cech Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole Ramires, Mikel, Lampard Kalou, Drogba, Malouda Drogba is in form so I chose him over Torres and the other absentee is Essien whose form this season has been poor by his standards, in contrast Ramires has been excellent and has been playing like a younger Essien, I know Essien will get the nod over either Ramires or Mikel but going on performances this season he probably doesn't merit it.

For me is has undoubtedly been the best lone striker on the planet for close to 6 years, nobody leads a line better than Didier Drogba. He can be a bit tempermental at times and not always as consistent as we would like but he has been Chelsea's main man for a long time and our truly great attacking player. This season for him was disrupted so much by the bout of malaria and the fact that he had to keep playing despite the fact that he was still recovering, lately we have seen him back to his absolute best, his strenght seems to have returned, a bit of his speed has returned and his confidence is sky high, he's a phenomenom. Im not sure if we should keep him going into next season. If Torres has a bad game next season then instantly the question will be asked "should we play Drogba instead" Torres has to be the main man at this club and the large, looming shadow of Drogba really doesn't help that transition to take place.

<br /><br /><br />Id bet any of my limbs that next season you will see us line up with a 4-3-3 with Torres through the centre and Sturridge on the right.

With no outstanding candidate available this Summer (barring Mourinho being sacked by Madrid and even then there is the big question if he can Roman could work together again) it looks more and more likely that Carlo Ancelotti will get next season, finish out his contract and then Pepe Guardiola will arrive. Personally Im a fan of Pep's I think him a great manager.

Sturridge to be given a starting spot. More first team opportunities for McEachran and Kakuta. Buy Van Der Wiel, a playmaker and a quick winger. Sell Anelka, Bosingwa, Malouda and more if eneds be. Fernando Torres must be the first choice striker.

Best player (more than 10 apps) - Petr Cech Worst player (more than 10 apps) - Jose Bosingwa/Nicolas Anelka Most improved player - Daniel Sturridge Best goal - Didier Drogba vs Bolton Best buy - David Luiz Worst buy - Tough one because I think all of our buys have been pretty good and all could play a big role in the future but I'll have to go for Yossi Benayoun simply by default. Best team performance - vs Man City home Best individual performance - David Luiz vs Man City/ Didier Drogba vs Spurs 2nd half Best youngster - Josh McEachran Most memorable moment - David Luiz goal vs Man Utd

Jack Wilshere and Nemanja Vidic are stupidly overrated.

An excellent display from Sturridge against a big team, it had it all, showed his speed, his skill, his strenght and his positioning. A couple of his passes (both to set up Lee) were sublime by any standard, his outside the foot flick to Lee was what won the corner from which he scored, second half he then won a penalty, his hold uo play throughout was excellent too. He offers something different than anything we have, he has a trick, he has blistering speed and he can take players on. The reason why a Sturride/Torres partnership could work was on display today, he can play off the main striker, drop deep and even drift out wide and create from their and still get goal scoring opportunities, he absolutely must start next season, a hugely talented player.

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A fantastic cameo from Torres, when the ball stopped up in the soaked grass after he had gotten through on goal I fully thuoght the chance had gone, fantastic technique to turn on it with 3 West Ham players around him and bury it with his left foot, a sight I thought Id never seen, Torres doing his trademark celebration at the Bridge in a Chelsea jersey, a special moment. On top of that he also notched up an assist but aside from the goal and the asssit, he looked so good when he came on, his pace is gradually returning, thats obvious from the way he burst through with the ball from midfield, getting away from a West Ham midfielder and when he beat Bridge for pace even though Wayne had a significant head start, he looked up for it, when he lost the ball he charged down the West Ham defender, slid in and won the ball back, it all seemed to tick, I still think that next season is when we will really see the best of him and what a fantastic prospect that is, this guy can become Chelsea's main man. On the game as a whole I thought we played well, Drogba was excellent, his passing was sublime at times, David Luiz was superb at the back and was really unlucky not to score with his curling shot from outside the box, defensively he is just so good but my pick for motm goes to Mikel, I've not always been a big Mikel fan but I thought he was brilliant today, played a couple of lovely killer passes and his defensive positioning was top notch, made a few vital interceptions.

Fantastic half for Chelsea, everything has gone to plan. 2 goals up, we've limited them to very few chances, defending very well with Essien and Mikel dominating in the sitting role and Lampard looking on song with and without the ball, Kalou and Malouda have played their roles and both have a goal, Kalou's was a screamer, a magnificent strike. This half though has belonged to Didier Drogba, the man is in inspired form, anything played forward he seems to be on the end of it, anything he latches onto he makes something of, he makes the ball stick up front, he creates so many chances, everything about Drogba's game tonight has been right, the incredible first touches, the moments of magic, the vision to see things around him that others just dont see and I think its fair to say he has 2 assists to his name so far, a quite incredible half for Didier Drogba, on this form there is nobody better at doing what he does.

I doubt Abramovich has spent 50 million pound on Torres for a laugh, he is banking on him to be the main man at Chelsea for years to come (just as Drogba has been Chelsea's main man for years), its vital that he performs but instead of playing him in a game like tonight where there isn't as much pressure on him as there would have been in a Champions League quater final at Old Trafford, he is stuck on the bench. It just doesn't make sense, the only explination seems to be that Ancelotti is on his way out in the Summer anyway and for the new few weeks he will do it his way (which is with Drogba)

But how is he going to get into form if he doesn;t get games? Ordinarily Id agree that the in form striker should start but this situation is a different in that we are banking our future on Torres, not Drogba, so Torres should be our priority.

Drogba's form lately has been close to his absolute best, however unless we really believe we can cause a huge upset and win the league, I just dont understand why Torres isn't playing, all its doing is building the media pressure on him, its fueling the theory that Ancelotti prefers Drogba over Torres and thats sure to kill whatever confidence Fernando has. Anyway I never feel overly convinced when Paulo Ferreira is in the side, great servant but I just dont have the same confidence in him as I have in Ivanovic, hopefully we can scrape a win but it will be tough.

Isn't that all part of the fun of Kalou? To quote Forrest Gump Kalou "is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you're gonna get" some days he is great, other days mind boggling, today was a good day for him.

After the shakey start where we conceded the goal (btw guys neither Luiz or Terry were at fault there, watch the goal again and you will see just how far out of position Ashley Cole is, the gap between him and Terry is huge and thats where Odemwingie got in) Mikel and Essien were superb sitting in front of the back four, both absolutely dominated the game, Lampard was excellent in making things happen, Cole's offered such a dangerous threat going forward down the left and was always the outball, Malouda and Kalou were both on their games today and both always carried a threat but the star performance came from Didier Drogba who entered a masterclass in target man striking, he was everywhere today and had a big hand in all 3 goals (scoring 1) his reutnr to top form continued today as did his goal run, the problem we now have is that with Drogba showing this kind of form and Ancelotti saying Drogba has a future at the club for next season, what in the world do we do with Torres? btw he was unlucky not to score today, I really thought he had but turns out it was offside.