Views from the Stands - Chelsea 3-0 Bolton

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Goals from David Luiz, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard gave Chelsea a comfortable win over Bolton, and here's what the TalkChelsea.net members make of our performance this afternoon...

It was fitting for Luiz to make the crucial breakthrough - one of the very few players to emerge from that first half with any sort of credit I thought.

Agreed. Luiz has been excellent for much of this season, but whether it is through ignorance or acceptance of mass media bullshit, he is very much underestimated as a defender by our own supporters. We are all aware of his footballing qualities and admittedly he is suspect to defensive lapses, but he is one of a small contingent who we can say hav

e applied themselves well this season.

Wins a win no matter who against and hopefully not a one off and is the start of a turn around

This is the most important point of all. Many people are making a point that as we were only playing Bolton, this basically doesn't count as a win. You can only play the team in front of you, and on so many occasions this season we have been guilty of failing to beat teams when we have been by far the superior side. Today was an exception to this as we matched a good result with a decent performance. We must remain grounded, however, as it will take a chain of positive results to turn our season around. We have definitely given ourselves a platform - the first win is almost the most difficult.

Only caught the 2nd half and i must say i thought it was a very good half, good passing, good attacking, good tempo, nice comfortable win. Happy.

Lampard appeared very influential and involved in nearly everything.

Agreed on both accounts there. The difference between this and recent matches is the movement, which was very intelligent today. He may have had a bad game defensively but Cole was a key attacking outlet, and having some genuine width certainly aided us. We were helped by Bolton sitting back and defending deep, but we matched some good first-time passing with the movement necessary to outplay teams.

Ye we played far better today. The tempo was higher from the start, we kept possession well and always looked dangerous going forward and the backline was mistake free. Yes it was against struggling Bolton but we needed this kind of result and performance.

Fair play to the players for stepping up. Lampard was excellent, Essien did well in midfield alongside Ramires, Sturridge, while a bit greedy, provided a genuine threat, Mata created well and put in a lovely cross for Lampard's goal and Drogba led the line well, had a few nice touches and scored a vintage Drogba header. It was easily Gary Cahill's best game for Chelsea, but my pick for man of the match is David Luiz, scored a beauty, defended very well when he had to and played some wonderful passes in the process, unlucky not to score a second.

I'm also glad Roman was there to see it in person, I hope he has the patience to stick with AVB. This was always going to be a difficult season, lets get it out of the way, get new players in that suit AVB's vision and lets push forward from there.

Anyway important win, puts us 4th with pressure on Arsenal to get a result against Spurs tomorrow.

Agreed on all accounts, it was a comprehensive performance that saw goals matched with a clean sheet, and then paired with a good performance. The fact Newcastle slipped up is an added bonus - they have somewhat slipped under the radar since we beat them 3-0 back in the winter, but remain a team with good quality, particularly up front. They are guaranteed European football, and as many have predicted, they have indeed slipped away from the top four. Nevertheless they remain a threat, but we have put ground between ourselves and the other teams in contention for fourth, and Arsenal have a tough-looking game. Another important result is Sunderland's loss at West Brom - it would not be too radical to suggest O'Neill's men may challenge for Europe with their current form, and thankfully that loss will slow their momentum massively. It has been a very, very good weekend already for us.

Better performance. Let's not forget that Bolton were shambolic at times. But a more spirited display for sure

I take back what i said about Drogba before the match. He was really good and played with a lot of energy.

Great goal by Luiz. Love the guy. Good header by Drogs as well. Lamps with a good finish.

Can't wait for the newspaper headlines tomorrow: "LAMPARD SAVES AVB'S JOB" blah blah lol he was completely average and yet despite scoring a goal - a good one - he will somehow be viewed as a saviour of this team.

An improved performance but not getting carried away.

Drogba put in one of his Jekyll and Hyde performances today, but he was generally a lot better than against Napoli. His inconsistency makes him little better than Torres, but his team ethic is something that cannot be faulted. He also expressed his importance defensively today, and his goal was deserved. We could have ran up a hockey score today, largely thanks to his commanding presence up front.

As for your other point, Bolton were poor and we cannot afford to take too much from this. Confidence is the key, but we must not allow it to be shattered again by sub-par performances. A lot of work is still to be done.

Like I said, not getting carried away at all. This Bolton side were unbelievably bad. Practically gifting the ball to us with a ribbon on top.

We couldn't break them down until the Luiz goal. A few good moments which Luiz and Drogba were instrumental in - but it was kind of the same "Chelsea" display we've been seeing for a while now.

I hope this win brings a lot of confidence to this side. Would love for us to go on a 3-4 winning streak and it IS possible. Our next fixtures: WBA away, Birmingham away in the cup and Stoke at home

Then we've got Napoli and City!!! We need some confidence to go into those two games!

Good point, we have some very tricky ties coming up. Thankfully if we beat Birmingham, our game against Man City will be postponed, so there is chance of us building up some momentum before we go to the Etihad. As for today, you're quite right that we just weren't able to supply the final piece of the jigsaw (ie that killer pass) until Luiz scored. It was a bolt from the blue and knocked the stuffing out of the Trotters, and from that point on they became ragged and disorganised from the shock of conceding so early. From there on, it was a case of how many.

I thought Drogba was rather good! His link-up play was intelligent and slick. A million times better than how he fared against Napoli - or any of his recent games come to think about it.

He's clearly lost some muscle and a hell of a lot of pace but he gave a spirited performance today

He's not going to drag us to 4th place by himself but it's better than our useless #9

Correct again. Drogba is the best option we have up front at present because he puts himself about more than Torres. However AVB needs to learn to play the correct man in the correct fixture; as Torres would have been better suited to playing against the three defenders of Napoli on Tuesday. Torres' confidence is shot and his ability to score goals seems almost extinct at the moment. Nevertheless his application and work rate is still good, and though he is not scoring goals himself we have seen many times this season that he is capable of supplying assists and key passes at will. He needs to up his game in the department we require the most, however; scoring goals.

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Remember you can have your say on today's game by checking out the post-match thread - discuss the game, analyse the key moments and vote for your man of the match! You can do that by clicking --> HERE! <--

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[Madmax 9,219]

What's this now?

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Exactly what it looks like... comment from the members

[manpe 10,855]

BL probably got high after winning in a long time.. can't blame him. The drug is the strongest after a long pause.

[Madmax 9,219]

Shiny new feature

[Sheva. 5,373]

BL probably got high after winning in a long time.. can't blame him. The drug is the strongest after a long pause.

Haha shame i can't like any posts for the rest of the day.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

This is something I've done a few times before. It is something I am going to start doing regularly as it is easier to do than a match report.

[zolayes 14,489]

Exactly what it looks like... comment from the members

thank goodness you didnt use Justin

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I like!

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Haha cheers for the (somewhat mixed) comments folks

Some people are just pissed their thoughts didn't make it on there

[FranklyFrank 103]

I like this format.

[Ollie 4,400]

i like the idea, i remember you used to do it before. Gives everyones views in a summary kinda thing.

[Justin_3d 1,140]

You forgot the truthful comments from Justin.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

i like the idea, i remember you used to do it before. Gives everyones views in a summary kinda thing.

Cheers Ollie. I used to stick them in at the end of my match reports you might recall

[termninja 5,290]

I actually like this, keep doing it

I got tired of your match reports

[Badboy 1,526]

I like this feature, I think its brilliant and its better then a long match report. I love the way this forum keeps innovating its fantastic ! I think this is the best forum on the internet, we probably have the most consistent regulars of any other forum on the net. I have been posting on the same Chelsea forum as a lot of people on this current forum since bloody 2005-2006 Ollie - Cj revo - Bluelion - Fulham Broadway - Eskweston its fucking mental we only have 3 years to go to make it 10 years of up and down emotions !

[Strike 6,958]

let's not get ahead of ourselves......beating bolton is one thing but napoli are no pushovers...

[NattyBlue 44]

Great read, more user involvement too which is brilliant!