The Big Drog

Ivanovic has been super at right back this season. Granted he doesnt have the blistering pace of Bosingwa but he isnt slow either. Also Ivanovic's delivery of crosses is much better than Bosingwa's. Anyway two very good options to have. I gotta say though I really dont fancy Ivanovic at centre back , really doesnt impress when he plays there. I think Alex is the right man to play in that position. He is strong , fast , quick into the tackle with a good reading of the game and his height will help our set piece frailties.

Slow...plodding....predictable...sloppy. All words to sum up that half. Take a quick look at the midfield 4 we are playing today. You have Mikel , Ballack , Lampard and Joe Cole , not one of them are known for their fast closing down. It clearly means we lack legs in the middle of the pitch. Because of the system it also means that Fulham get too much time on the ball because the diamond takes too long to shift its self up the pitch. For the first goal questions must be raised about Ferreira's positioning , where is he ? Also I must say that those corners in the first half were the worst I have ever seen from a side above the age limit of under 14's , they were depressingly bad. Despite our managers threats of indecent exposure , we very clearly need 2 new players , a new striker and someone who can play at the tip of the diamond.

After seeing that team I now feel rather depressed , not usually pessimistic and I hope Im proven wrong but Pualo Ferreira , Ballack and Kalou all in the same team ! Zhirkov should be on the left , Sturridge should be in the starting line up and anyone else should be at right back , Id also have prefered to see Alex in the side today to deal with Fulham's aerial threat.

I would give my left arm ( admittedly that wrist of that arm is broken ) for Kakuta and Zhirkov to start the game , we seriously need some fresh legs in the midfield.

Ok not every decision has been perfect , there are flaws to the diamond formation and his bizzare lust for denying that Chelsea are going to sign a player in January is worrying , however only at Chelsea does this sort of talk occur. At the end of the day , when you look at the bigger picture , Carlo Ancelotti is coaching a side that are top of the league. There is no point in denying it cos we know why Carlo has been brought to Chelsea , if he delivers the premier league title then great , suoerb , everyone is happy , however his real purpose at Chelsea is the champions league. If Chelsea finished this season third in the league and went on to win the champions league then this season would be considered a huge success for Chelsea. I think that to be fair to Ancelotti , playing the same 4-3-3 that Chelsea have long used would have been the easy way out , he put his mark on the side for good or for bad , I dont think its perfect but then injuries havent helped and afterall this is his first season in England , he needs time to pick up on things. Despite what he says its pivotal that Chelsea buy in January because it may be the only chance to do so in 18 months , I believe he will spend and spend big.

The Mikel criticism is harsh. Man Utd are our main rivals for the league and their counter part to Mikel is Carrick and personally Id take Mikel any day of the week. I understand whats being said though about Kalou , Deco and Malouda. Too inconsistent , you cant rely as much as we do on hit or miss players , its that simple.

What is Florent Malouda doing playing out of position ? Not only that but you could ask what is he doing playing at all ? Yuri Zhirkov cost 18 fucking million pound , he is a genuinely talented winger with pace who can get past people..... play him ! Carlo , despite what he says , clearly needs to spend and spend big in January cos there is no chance in hell that , that squad can consistently win games in January , heck they are struggling now to win even with Drogba and Mikel intact. Flip side is that Chelsea created enough chances today to win the game. Lampard , Kalou , Sturridge and Malouda all should have scored , shitty December never fucking ends .... roll on Fulham.

Frustrating. Playing well up to the edge of their box then we lack a finish. Lampard should have scored when he got in one on one , incredibly unlucky that Alex's wonder shot didnt fly in , Sturridge perhaps could have done better with his chance at the end. Id really like to seeZ Zhirkov brought on , we need someone who can run at their 2 banks of 4 and take their lads out of position. All of that being said Birmingham look like they were denied a perfectly good goal.

I think its rather pivotal that we get him or a young player close to his level ( and there are very few of those around Europe ) , as stated above , this would be a star signing akin to Liverpool signing Torres or Man Utd signing Rooney , this guy would slot instantly into the side , a partnership with him and Drogba would be simply lethal and eventually in a few years he is the sort of player you can build your entire team around. The reason why its important is that he is young , he is an absolutely clinical goalscorer and he is one of those rare players in the Torres , Drogba or Ronaldo mould that can single handedly change a game , as good as Nicolas Anelka is ( and he is damn good ) he just doesnt have that single moment impact of a player like Aguero. Chances are we will not get a better chance to sign him because you canb bet if we dont then Real Madrid , Man City and Man Utd will all be sniffing around and if he goes to one of them clubs thats our chances of signing him down the drain.

Kalou every day of the week for me. Im not sure what exactly he is supposed to add tyo the team. He runs with his head down into a bunch of opposition players and loses the ball , he misses sitters and his positioning at times is mind boggling. Sturridge put him to shame in the 45 minutes he played yesterday. Bit surprised so many say Mikel , I quite like him , granted he doesnt haver the pace of Essien to cover as much ground at the base of the diamond but he is a big , strong player who is quite good on the ball , I think there are worse than Mikel.

Sunday 4 o clock kickoff , live on Sky Sports , with that away kit on , with our luck the way it is , all we need now is for a black cat to walk across the pitch before kick off and we are rightly done for.

Not exactly the convincing performance everyone was looking for with our recent poor form , however it is a vital 3 points that at the end of the day title winning sides occasionaly have to pull out of the bag. Positives : Alex being back , created the opening goal really well and looked solid at the back. Ancelotti showing that he has a plan B when he went 4-3-3 Borini doing well when he came on and unlucky not to grab a goal , he genuinely looks like the real deal. That we were able to grind out the result. The Negatives : Our luck , on another day Kalou would have had a tap in had the deflection gone his way ( then again he did miss a sitter earlier in the game ) , Pompy wouldnt have scored such a flukey goal. Kalou , how is this man the third choice striker ? We can thank our lucky stars that he will be gone in January , if we had to rely on him to replace Drogba in January then we might as well forfeit top spot right now. This one sort of links in with the one above but I think that despite what Ancelotti says , we need to buy in January. Tonight the proof was in the big green pudding , without Drogba it was all very one dimensional sort of stuff going forward , there was very little variation at all.

The defence was the shits today , you cant concede like that from 3 set plays. Somebody needs to do something about Cech , time to face facts , since the head collision he seems to have lost his nerve. Really poor perfomance again from him today. What I wouldnt give to see Alex back in the heart of the defence. Mikel also was simply too slow around the pitch , too plodding and too predictable. When we dont have Essien in the team our midfield doesnt work because neither Ballack or Mikel are very mobile. Also Joe Cole is bang out of form , he doesnt look sharp at all. However credit to Drogba , at times we look like a one man team and we can thank our lucky stars that , that one man is the best striker in world football , say what you like but there aint anybody better than Didier Drogba. Also Anelka continues his superb season and I thought Ivanovic did well today. However not all bad news as we are now 3 points clear. If you offered me the chance to go 3 points clear at the top at the start of the day I would have taken it. Improvements need to be made in January.

At the moment Id rather Kakuta over Deco or Joe Cole neither of whom has really impressed me lately , Cole clearly needs a few more matches until he is as sharp as we know he can be and Deco is a bit hit or miss. Anything but a win today must be considered a disappointment.

Poor mistake but I wouldnt base my entire judgement oof him on that. He is clearly a very good player with potential to become even better. Excellent on the ball , he is a big physical presence , he does however give away too many freekicks and he has struggled at the base of the dimond because he lacks pace.

Positives : -Kakuta was excellent , looks like a genuine top prospect. - We finished the group top and undefeated - Drogba scored again The Negatives : - Complacent. You got to see out games like that , confidence looks a little fragile at the moment. - Defensively frail , we have looked welland truly weak at the back in the last 3 games , not good enough. - Under performing by certain players ( Malouda , Belletti , Mikel , Turnbull ) - The tip of the diamond. I know Joe Cole is working his way back to fitness still but seriously from a creative stand point it wasnt good enough again tonight , too many missed passes , too many mis-controled touches , too many flicks that didnt work. Its a clear problem area in the side. - I miss Alex

Really hopeful that Kakuta gets a start tonight , its the perfect chance to introduce him to Champions League football , also Im optimistic about Zhirkov getting more starts under his belt. I wouldnt mind seeing Drogba start tonight and knocking in a few goals to cheer us all up a bit.

Beating Man City on the Xbox isnt enough for me , I wont be content until Tuesday night when we destroy Apoel , that might make me a little bit more cheerful again , then beat Everton at home and I will have my happy face on again.

I know quite a few Man Utd fans who were cheering for City today , clearly Howard Webb was amongst them , absolutely fucking disgraceful , a shameful display from supposedly one of the top officials in the English game , once again officiating in football leaves us all down. I wonder , if we had of been Man Utd would Howard Webb have given the handball by Richards ? Of course. Would he have given the Man City freekick for their second goal ? Of couerse not. How did so many of our players get so many yellow cards ? Ask Mr.Webb ,welcome to a footballing country which i governed by the Fixed Association. Its an absolute joke. The only reason Drogba has gotten a penalty is because his legs have nearly been hacked off in the fucking box. Well done Mr.Webb , you have served your purpose today. All of that being said , Cech didnt look very clever at all for either goals and for the love of God can we please buy an attacking midfielder in January , Deco and Joe Cole simply havent been consistent enough this season. Fuck Webb , Fuck the FA , Fuck it we will still win the league cos we are Chelsea.

Hopefully it might help him with his finishing.

To be fair I would say that Essien , Lampard . Ballack , Joe Cole , John Obi Mikel or Florent Malouda would walk into the modern day Man Utd midfield. It genuinely is the worst midfield that Man Utd have had in like 20 years. However no doubting the quality of Essien. I think at the start of the season Ancelotti's plan was to play Essien in the more attacking right hand side of the diamond ( the Ballack role now ) but Mikel failed so spectacularly in the holding role that Ancelotti had to shift the ever reliable Essien into that role. That being said Ballack has been excellent this season , if Mikel keeps playing like he did against Wolves then we have a top class holding midfielder and it will allow Essien to play in the role originally designed for him.

I heard he is pretty much fit , though he wasnt on the bench against Man Utd , Im guessing due to a lack of match sharpness. However he is in Russia's squad for their world cup qualifier games.

Yuri Zhirkov this is your time to shine.

Tense and nervous match , played with a lot of intensity but perhaps lacking quality. It was a defenders game anyway. Great win , 5 points clear , delighted John Terry got the goal ( dammit Im gonna say it was his ) , I thought it was exactly the sort of victory we would never see under Scolari , we held out , we were rock solid at the back and other than two long range efforts , Man Utd never really tested Cech , they never carved Chelsea open even when searching for an equalliser. A title winning side style performance from Chelsea. My man of the match goes to Carvalho , stunning today. John Terry and Ivanovic are close seconds.

Id rather see Joe Cole play in there too , I think Deco may be too static which will give Fletcher an easier job of marking him. I expect Deco to start though