Barbara

Cahill is a bit shaky there... it's making me nervous. Seems like the weak link so far

Ramires inability to give even a 2m pass is the most frustrating thing in football. He kills all our counters. ALL of them

We're made for these nights. It runs in our blood. COME ON BLUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's do our thing

Yep. In those live interviews for English TV he's awful - even worse than Torres - but at least he's been scoring some HUGE goals. So I'd keep the trend

So José said Oscar has been injured and not fully recovered - which is why he hasn't made even the bench last weekend and is in the bench. Still it's Etoo's absence that worries me the most. I'd rather a non-100%-fit Etoo over 120% 'fit' Torres.

Oscar may be a PR thing, but I don't think Schurrle is. I think Schurrle is very honest and the way he talks about us and the club always seems very sincere and true. It seems like he's speaking from his heart. There's an emphasis that seems gratuitous which makes me believe he means it. He hasn't changed his speech at all and he's saying those things since his first interview. Normally PR moves start later... Oh the Oscar comment I meant you posted about a week ago. It's in his thread, I didn't even remember such discussions from when Mata left. I know he left some widows and I know it's hard for some people to cope with one of their fave players leaving the club - especially the way it happened - but I meant something much more recent, as I said, like a week or so ago when Oscar said he wants to stay as long as Lamps and Terry have been.

Sorry then. I was annoyed by the repetition in the forum as in the Oscar thread when he said he planned to stay here for many years a few days ago you mentioned Mata. Then André says he loves being here you bring the Mata case again. It's just that we're happy for the players being happy about being here you kept mentioning a guy that left so easily... just thought it was annoying. 2 reactions in 2 possible cases in a few days apart. Seemed like a trend but I apologize if it was just something else

Possession is overrated

they don't have a weak defense, they have a shaky defense at moments with two short-tempered players that are really unpredictable and they'll feel the loss of Alonso. Not that Bayern's defense is any better - it's worse imo - but RM don't have an impressive defense by any means. Not bad, I agree with you, but far from the best. It doesn't come anywhere close to ours.

are you sure? Because people in this very thread in their delusional hasty assumptions said RM was a poor PSG. I agree with you, Bayern is better for us, but we can beat anyone... and people overrate and underrate teams according to whatever suit their crazy thoughts. RM is a great team and for a long time I've been saying it's the worst match up for us when there were 8 teams. I just think at this stage I trust Chelsea over anyone... Not really, I prefer them to play short-tempered Ramos rather than Varane. Ramos is unpredictable and he can make some serious mistakes when things get tough, not to say lose his mind.

WOOHOO!!!!!!

Pep SUCK IT LOOOOOOOOSER

Bale missed it, Oscar scored that, just sayin'

I'm not sure if he's physical enough to play in England... and that's my only doubt about having him here (would love him here). Nearly every striker can be called wasteful if you watch them week in week out. We need a striker that can create for himself because sometimes we struggle to create chances. It isn't only about wasting them. We need a more resourceful striker if we're going to have Costa and Lukaku who are sort of the same... physical, strong, poachers but really weak technically Imo. And they also 'waste' a lot. But then again every striker does

Second player in a week you imply will pull a 'Mata' on us.Two things though: 1) how many of our players did it in the last decade? 2)That joke got old pretty fast with you doing it every time a player says they love this club or that they want to stay long. Also maybe some of our current players aren't afraid of fighting for their spots in the main team and won't leave at the first bump in the road. Just saying...

Zabaleta defending us and Mourinho That's what really matters. We're in an UCL SF and we're fighting for the title. The haters are jealous and bitter, but deep down everyone thinks this way. They just keep taking jabs because they get their pride hurt by us. I'm sure Zabaleta would say otherwise if they were the ones losing 0x2 to us (he probably did in one of their two defeats to us). That's the thing, they know deep down (as well as all fans in the world) that what matters the most is the result. Teams will progress and start showing better football as long as they have one of two things 1) stability with managers and players staying for long so they can develop a work throughly; 2) an inherited style that defines the club such as Barça with the tiki taka and Real Madrid as a counter-attack team. We don't have either because José didn't even inherited a style as our last 3-4 managers couldn't have any more different styles and they covered only three seasons. So while I think every fan would like a more appealing and beautiful style you won't see them disregarding a title because we didn't play the most attractive football in the world or at least attractive enough (although I don't doubt a few members here would do that). x

Speaking as a True Blue - which is btw and I've been saying as much since his first interview. He seemed sincere when he said he was a fan of this club since he was a kid and that it was like a dream come true playing for us. Now he's also one of us, following Mourinho's footsteps and saying things as they are and defending us downright. Haters are gonna hate til they're green in jealousy... oh, wait, they already are I chose my faves quotes, but he delves into what Mou asked him and Salah to do. I just love this boy!!!! Andre Schurrle says the Chelsea haters are jealous as midfielder hits back after Jose Mourinho is criticised for Anfield tactics and to illustrate that, I've found this on tumblr x

exactly that, Jason It's only an opinion where I can write whatever I want about a match. I hardly consider that a proper match preview. There was missing a 'don't' in my previous post that maybe made you have a different idea. If I write a bunch of words about the main headlines before a match after the third or fourth nobody will even bother to click the link because it seems pointless imo. Everyone here and people who only access the main site have an idea about a few things prior to the match, writing only those in a paragraph with more than an opinion than an objective article won't attract much readers - which I think is the goal. The Guardian link makes sense because it's a summary about many matches, with some catchy things. I'm not sure many waste their time reading that. I read The Guardian quite often and I've never bothered to click on that link, for example. Although that's only me we should really think if we're going to make something just for the sake of doing it or do something that really matters. I don't think a match preview like that really matters, I don't believe it'll be have the clicks Jim wants and while it makes our job easier, it also makes it less worth imo. I'd rather not write at all than write a bunch of things that state little more than my opinion and a couple of headlines everyone knows about. If you're going to add the match facts - this part I've missed from the previous post - it isn't that bad, but far from ideal. It's not a coincidence Thomas' previews are the most visited and liked posts. People want to read interesting things, not all of the same that they already read everywhere else. But that's just my opinion - even if not a casual one. I know what I'm talking about, I'm majored in communication, I'm editor to one of the biggest Chelsea news websites out of England and I can tell you, nobody stops to read something like that after the third or fourth case and the moment two different people are writing an article, one with the opinion part and the other with the technical, it lacks the compelling aspect of it being a whole. Why do you think Alex's post-match articles are so popular? They're well written and insightful. If they're boring, people will stop caring about them. Do a test and come talk to me six months later with the visits numbers for what you're proposing. I'd be really surprised if it doesn't drop considerably. Unless what you have in mind is completely different of what I'm envisioning. Either way, if we're doing it just for the sake of having it, go ahead, if the goal here is to increase the clicks in the main site it'll backfire completely. Up to you, Jim or whoever makes the decision to tell what it's supposed to be.

but what takes more time is researching, not simply writing a non-factor about an upcoming match. The amount of words written isn't the problem, but we don't simply give our opinion in 3-4 paragraphs about a fixture. We have to make research to do it, especially about the opposition. If a match review doesn't cover teams news, record, and some match facts (not all of them, but at least a few) it's pointless imo and those things demand time. Writing them down doesn't take much. I understood perfectly what he's saying, I just don't think that it'll solve the problem. Whoever doesn't have time for them will continue not to have, even if you can write it faster, you still have to make research. If it's only an opinion, then I don't see much of a point of doing it.

People with amazing memory around here should remember how we struggled with City (away and home) and Liverpool away recently. I really don't get how you can question this man. He makes mistakes like any other does - he's only human (until proved otherwise ), but he's a genius, he's impressive and he's doing the best he can with the team we have. Actually I think he took from this team more than it had. I completely trust him to find a way - whether it's tactics, training, maturing process or signing new players - to break down defenses next season. I don't think he's as defensive as some believe, I think he's pragmatic and assessing his players, he goes for the tactics that will give him the win. Of course many times that translates into tight defenses, low blocks or buses parked, but the man does what he has to do. I'm counting on him to make the necessary adjustments so we can play against weaker, defensive sides and when he's got that figured out, there's no stopping us. That's step 1 towards the changes that are to come in the next few years. I feel like first we get the foundation with those changes I see coming next year and from there he'll work on getting a more deadly style. People forget that changing a team's philosophy takes years and that we can't magically have it done from night to day. I trust José, I trust Roman and I think the future will be bright. And I fear and fret not about the UCL. That would be the kind of crown this king deserves at the end of the season.

I think it was only because of the red wedding It was just as glorious red ripping

“Ask Jamie Redknapp, he knows everything, he has a brilliant football brain.” — Jose Mourinho I love Sassy Mou. He's perfect

<3