The Big Drog

Alex and Terry have been rock solid at the heart of the defence this season, for me they are certain starters on Sunday with Ivanovic starting at right back.

Pefect chance for Bosingwa to get another 90 minutes under his belt and for Ramires to return from injury.

Adidas is a mjaor brand and its great to be associated with them. I just got the new away kit today with slong sleeves, Im delighted with it.

Speaking of achieving legendary status, Carlo Ancelotti anybody? Only manager in our history to do the double, he has brought a sense of stability to the club both on and off the pitch, he has drastically improved our public image and of course he wins trophies, if he maintains this sort of success rate for another 4 or 5 years then there is no reason why he cant go down in history as one of our great managers.

I understand why some are disappointed, with Man Utd dropping points today it would have been nice to open up a 7 point lead. However at least they didnt win and the gap at the top is still 5 points which, if it was on offer, Im sure we all would have taken before the start of this weekend. Something that bugged me a bit though was that too many times when we got crosses into the box there was only Nicolas Anelka to aim for, nobody from midfield or coming in from wide were able to support him often enough. When Drogba plays he is a big target in the air and Nic is usually running in behind him and you have Lampard coming from deep, not enough options I thought today. Also some of our passing was very sloppy, not Chelsea like at all. I thought Ivanovic played a stormer and it was good to see McEachran and Bosingwa get game time, all in all decent result and we remain 5 points clear at the top.

lol its a landslide.

I know he has an attitude but what the hell people? This guy is the future of Brazilian football, the guy who will eventually be Brazil's main man, why would we not want to sign him? You know who else had attitude problems? Didier Drogba but he hasnt done too badly at our club, the same goes for Nic Anelka whose nickname was "Le Sulk" but has been an absolute gem of a signing. Perhaps playing at a big club (which its clear is where he wants to be playing rather than in Brazil) under guidance from the likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba and Ancelotti Im sure his attitude problems would soon resolve themselves in much the same way Danny Sturridge's have. This guy has got it, a special talent who we can build our team around. If we can make this happen it would be one of the best transfers, if not the very best, of the Roman era.

Pure quality

If anyone could post a vid of that up on here or send a link to one that would be really great.

Personally I think him being "out muscled" by City has been over exaggerated. Aside from that side of the game, another positive aspect of his performance today was his willingness to get forward and support the front three and that he looked to play the ball forward, he looked for the killer pass and thats a positive in our midfield. I dont think its a matter of filling out, I think he has just neededa bit of time, I've always thought he will be a big hit in our side and I stand by that.

Great performances practically throughout the team. In particular the 3 man midfield of Essien, Mikel and Ramires. In the second half, when Arsenal were piling the pressure on, when it seemed a goal for the Gunners was inevitable, these 3 were simply meticulous in front of the back four, each of them magnificent. Delighted for Ramires, who answered his critics in the best possible way today. Having been written off by some already as another Kleberson, he shows he is cut from significantly better cloth than that with a man of the match performance today, the best player on the pitch, rampaged around midfield, got up and supported the front 3 well, off the ball he is tenacious, rabid to win it back, on the ball he is forward thinking and creative. Created the opening goal, made a goal saving block against a Chamakh shot in the second half, this was the game where he truly showed his worth. Hailed by Ancelotti as the future of Chelsea and Brazil, hailed by Kaka as the best young midfielder on the planet, today he lived up to those expectations, definitely more of an Essien than a Kleberson. Also as always Im over the moon that Drogba scores again against Arsenal. Alex's freekick was out of this world, a wonderful, intelligent performance and now a nice lead at the top of the table. Come on Chelsea! Note: Shame about the injuries to Alex and Mikel, hopefully they aren't that serious and they have an international week to recover so it could be worse.

Im really hoping its Ramires. Like last season, we didnt beat Arsenal by outpassing them or dominating possession, rather we sat back, absorbed the pressure, used our physical strenght, attackled at the right times and caught rhem on the break a few times. Yuri Zhirkov is not a central midfielder, he doesnt get around the pitch aswell as Ramires, he isnt as defensively reliable as Ramires, he isnt as quick into challenges as Ramires, he doesnt offer the same physical attributes as Ramires does and Im dont think he is as good a passer as Ramires. It must be Ramires for this one surely.

btw the sitting back, soaking up the pressure and hitting them on the break approach is the one we used twice against Arsenal last season and twice it worked very well,I fully expect to see the same thing on Sunday.

Very good first half, particular down the left side where most of our chances were created. Sat back second half, defended well, didnt give up any silly chances and even in a half where we sat bck we still hit the post 3 times and Sturridge missed a tap in so it cant have been all bad. Terry, Cole, Essien, Anelka and Kakuta all had good games, best of the lot for me was Malouda. Good, pretty easy win, good confidence builder for the Arsenal game on Sunday. Note: Alex should hit more of our free kicks and please start Ramires on Sunday ahead of Zhirkov.

Cant believe the bashing Ramires is getting on here, I mean if we are going to find a scapegoat then at least lets scapegoat the player who most deserves it, Im a big fan of Ivanovic but he was poor today, granted on the ball Ramires wasnt always wonderful but off it he did a brilliant job. He hasnt been in England for very long, lets cut him some slack.

Not good, we mustered virtually no goal threat at all. Turns out we missed Lampard quite a bit today. Cech-did well, coped well with crosses into the box. Ivanovic- Not good, not good at all, positioning was way off, going forward looked laboured, hasnt looked at it at right back this season, Bosingwa's return is a real plus. Alex- Did well, strong, efficient. Terry-Excellent, our best player today. Cole- Perhaps could have done better for the goal? Decent performance. Mikel- Played well, found options hard to come by when on the ball, did very well screening the back four. Essien- Decent, not one of his better games, his passing was a bit off and his shooting wild. Ramires- Tale of two halves really, off the ball he was excellent, on the ball not so much, still adapting to the speed of the game. Nic Anelka- Looked the most likely of the front three, but really lacked support from deep(see lack of Lampard) and Ivanovic's overlapping was suspect at best. Drogba- Got no service at all, starved of service, that being said had 2 strong cases for a penalty in the first half. Note: Yuri Zhirkov is not a central midfielder, Daniel Sturridge didnt impress when he came on, however with the little bit he did McEachran looked more than comfortable in a big game, even playing in the holding position, keep an eye out here. Anyway all in all, I didnt think either side were spectacularly good, probably neither deserved to win it, Chelsea arguably had the best chances but City caught them on the counter. City and Tevez are fast becoming Chelsea's bogey team/player. If you want to look at the positive side, the game midweek against Marseille is the perfect chance to rebuild confidence.

Seriously...what the fuck? Petr Cech is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, he could be the number one at Chelsea for another 10 years or more, what goalkeeping crisis? Jeffery Bruma recently earned his first senoir cap for The Netherlands and is an excellent prospect at centre back, learning from Alex and Terry, and previously Carvalho, he will only get better. Van Aanholt did well last night, esentially he is the 3rd choice left back but looks like he has all the tools to make it. Gael Kakuta set up one last night and is one of the top prospects in Europe, a young player any club would love to have in their ranks. Daniel Sturridge was very poor last night but he is still a top prospect, one bad game does not make you a bad player. As he rightly says McEachran was stunning last night and also looks like a real top notch prospect. Thats not mentioning the likes of Delac, Kalas, Rajkovic or Matic who are all out on loan. I think we have all the makings of a great young team.

Not sure how there wasnt another minute added on considering the Newcastle sub and injury during injury time and the pitch invasion. All the same, in one way that was tremendous. Attitude is so important in football, for another team being 3-1 playing with 10 men for the last 30 minutes in a meaningless competition would have given the players the perfect excuse to not put in any effort, that was one of the bravest performances I can remember. Didnt let our heads drop, playing a man down, 3-1 down but rallied back. Obviously there was negatives, for the first 3 goals you cxould easily single out one player who made an individual mistake that cost us the goal, the fourth was just bad set piece defending in general. Yuzi Zhirkov made absolutely no impact whatsoever but most of all that performance from Paulo Ferreira was one of the worst I've ever seen from a player in a Chelsea jersey in recent memory, off the top of my head the only one that comes close to rivalling it was Daniel Sturridge's tonight also. they both had absolute shockers, I dont think any team (let alone one with 10 men) could have won with them on their side tonight. The other 2 huge negatives are the injuries to Benayoun and Kalou. The huge positive to take away from this though is Josh McEachran, despite being only on the pitch for about 30 minutes, he was our best player. I've always wondered how would we find somebody who could possibly fill Lampard's boots, well it looks like we have a winner, against an experienced, combative Newcastle midfield he was stunning, that is how you make an impact. Other positives include Nic Anelka showing once again that the days of him being "Le Sulk" are long gone(unless your Raymond Domenech) an inspiring performance that others followed. Ramires again notches up a very good performance, he will have a huge part to play in Chelsea's pursuit of domestic and European success. Van Aanholt, despite making the mistake for the first goal, was excellent, scoring one and providing a tremendous assist for another. So the quadruple dream dies tonight, however there are a lot of positives to take from that game, not least of all Josh McEachran, it would have been nice to have gone through and see the fringe players get more game time but mistakes, circumstance and poor individual performances counted against us in the end, still though we are on the right track, with a squad attitude like the one displayed tonight we can go very far indeed.

not great, I missed the first 30 minutes but but I've got a wonderful stream on sopcast going. Anyway thats means I've seen only the bad and not the good of Chelsea(though Ive just caught a hiughlight of our goal, great work Kakuta) imo the problem is the midfield lacks steel. Against Blackpool we had Essien, Mikel and Ramires in midfield, 3 players who can more than handle the physical side of the game, tonight we have Benayoun, Zhirkov and Ramires in there, its a huge difference. Zhirkov is not a central midfielder, of that there is no doubt, Yossi is good at what he does but he wont ruffle the oppositions feathers from a physical standpoint. Im not sure whats going on here with all of the hate being directed at Bruma, stupid mistake to give away the freekick that led to Newcastle's 2nd goal but in the last 15 minute I saw he made one vital challenge on Ameobi and one key interception. Not bad. Personally Im not a fan of Kakuta playing out on the wing,I think he would be much more effective coming through the cnetre. Daniel Sturridge, from what I've seen, is having a shocker. Still hopefully we can turn it around.

Everyone constantly saying "this is the first time they will be tested" its really annoying. Granted the sides we have played so far this season have not been the cream of the crop in the Premier League but they are decent teams, before this weekend's fixtures Blackpool were higher in the table than any side Man Utd have yet played so they cant be that bad. Hopefully we will be back to our regular line up in this one with Terry, Lampard and Anelka all restored to the starting line up. That being said I saw it mentioned elsewhere that picking Ramires over Lampard would be a better option, Im not trying to talk down Lampard, everybody knows his quality but what City have going for them is energy and drive and that midfield 3 of Essien, Ramires and Mikel can more than match that energy, power and drive, I dont think it would be the worst thing in the world if Ramires started ahead of Lampard. However if that doesnt happen, well Frank Lampard is more than a good consolation:yes:

I thought he was very good today. Displayed a good range of passing, along with Essien rampaged around midfield when it was needed, covered well for Ashley Cole, looked more in tune with the pace of the game than he did against West Ham.

I think that could be pretty close to what he will play but I think he will opt for Zhirkov over Van Aanholt.

With Kakuta not getting on today it practically assures him of a start against Newcastle. Would rather see Borini start over Kalou as he is already established in the first team squad.

Why the negativity about the second half? No goals but we created alot and at the end pf the day the name of the game is conserving energy for the Man City game next weekend, we had already won the game in the first half, no need to go full throttle in the second. Lots of good performances, practically everyone played well, though the standouts for me were Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Malouda and Drogba but my man of the match vote goes to Essien who was utterly dominating today, everything and anything that came near him he made his, got forward well, his passing was top notch, just tremendous. Roll on next weekend when we put to end this "your only winning cos of easy fixtures" crap.

Im baffled as to why there are mentions of Gibson in this thread, he is really poor, to the point where Glen Whelan and Paul Green get in the Ireland midfield ahead of him, His passing, positioning, reading of the game and defensive attributes are nonexistent, he can shoot and thats about it. Marin, Kroos, Pacheco(though he isnt a midfielder), Arda Turan and Adam Johnson.