Closed Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal

[Nando 106]

We could see the contrast between sublime and average in our game in just 90 minutes.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Finally got round to posting...

1) Torres - lol epic fail again! I just watched 8 out of 10 cats deal no deal Xmas special and the deliciously sexy Rachel Riley said she had named her box Torres, as she was sure it was blue and worthless - good girl. I now want her more than ever

2) substitutions too slow again !!! Rafa FFS clean your glasses! Or fuck off to specsavers!!!!

3) Mata looked tired and got sloppy, should have been subbed for Marin - or someone sooner

4) Oscar doesn't work on the wing! Sigh...

5) game of 2 halves, lucky to hold on and hope it kick starts our home form again!

6) Spuds 4 points behind, nice Gap. Lets keep it !!! Make it bigger!!!!

1 correction mate...

[Heisenberg 1,824]

Rafa has no class & no charisma, i prefer AVB & Ancelloti interviews, the best is José of course

[Muzchap 8,966]

Rafa has no class & no charisma, i prefer AVB & Ancelloti interviews, the best is José of course

To be fair that's a bit harsh.

I couldn't fault anything he said - looks like he knows the problems but cannot do much about it...

Hence another midfielder being loaned out.

His substitutions are rubbish - but thinking about it we have little quality to come on? We basically are like a newly promoted team - what's on the pitch is it...

We either recall some players, sign some more or accept it...

Think it's going to be a case of acceptance

Just hope we have enough in the tank...

[Land 331]

Oscar,hazard and mata were amazing,mainly on the first half... some true drama queens here.

[Rupert 130]

I asked him this in the benitez thread. He sounds in love with rafa

I'm a football fan. I was delighted when Rafa came to Chelsea. It made it a more interesting team with greater potential. I've been supporting Chelsea since before you were born, I don't care how old you are.

[SinineUltra 1,164]

Great win, especially Spurs and Manu playing for a draw. Great performance, could have gone either way seeing the second half, but again we had chances, more in the first half, and we could have added more to our scoreline. Nevertheless, a win is a win, moreover such a vital win against a city rival. I don't expect Rafa to be here after the summer, but I'm reluctant to show disrespect to him, he has done good and I'm happy our board had the balls to hire him. MOTM for me is the Blue Kenyan. Look for the positives, life's too short to pick on small details.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

To be fair that's a bit harsh.

I couldn't fault anything he said - looks like he knows the problems but cannot do much about it...

Hence another midfielder being loaned out.

His substitutions are rubbish - but thinking about it we have little quality to come on? We basically are like a newly promoted team - what's on the pitch is it...

We either recall some players, sign some more or accept it...

Think it's going to be a case of acceptance

Just hope we have enough in the tank...

I was more talking about the way he speaks, i never liked him, but i think he could do better, some decisions since he came are not the right ones and some decision are obvious, like to play Nando today 78 min and his substitues are always very predictable.Even us supporters we know what are the problem of our team, maybe he knows that he cant really fix in this short of time.

Case of acceptance, maybe.Rafa will be accepted if he stays here, we are top three thats the main aim since the season debut, if José cant come, i really dont see anyone better than Rafa for the job, he'll be accepted, time will play his part.

[Rupert 130]

He is making a very valid point about our transition from being dominant to being lucky to hold on. We are all very happy in regards to the fact we beat arsenal and got the 3 points, but we made it much harder than it should have been and some of his tactical decisions leave a lot to be desired.... Especailly his subs and lack off them. Everyone saw the need at half time to put our star striker up top early on yet again as always he was reactionary and not proactive. This is something which isn't just specific to this game, but several games. Vs southampton is a prime example of waiting til its to late to impact the game and then deciding to take off lampard for torres, which is absolutely ludicrous when you are drawing with 10 mins left... To then add to that he puts torres on the right... He can't play down the middle let alone on the right. These are all pressing concerns and something that the result does gloss over somewhat.

What you mean is that if Chelsea lose or draw it is Rafa's fault. Even if we win it is Rafa's fault because we should have won by more.

[Rupert 130]

I was more talking about the way he speaks, i never liked him, but i think he could do better, some decisions since he came are not the right ones and some decision are obvious, like to play Nando today 78 min and his substitues are always very predictable.Even us supporters we know what are the problem of our team, maybe he knows that he cant really fix in this short of time.

Case of acceptance, maybe.Rafa will be accepted if he stays here, we are top three thats the main aim since the season debut, if José cant come, i really dont see anyone better than Rafa for the job, he'll be accepted, time will play his part.

If Rafa is offered the job on a long-term basis and if he accepts (he will have other offers and might be advised to take them) he will be the best manager Chelsea have ever had. He will influence transfers. He will bring in a strong central defender and an aggressive defensive midfielder and a playmaker. He will introduce zonal marking and make Chelsea as exciting a crushing machine as he made Valencia and LFC (before the LFC owners started selling his players and denying him money for replacements). He will develop young players. He won't give a toss if some so-called supporters continue to insult him childishly. He only cares about the success of the team. He is a good man with a good conscience.

[The only place to be 11,313]

If Rafa is offered the job on a long-term basis and if he accepts (he will have other offers and might be advised to take them) he will be the best manager Chelsea have ever had. He will influence transfers. He will bring in a strong central defender and an aggressive defensive midfielder and a playmaker. He will introduce zonal marking and make Chelsea as exciting a crushing machine as he made Valencia and LFC (before the LFC owners started selling his players and denying him money for replacements). He will develop young players. He won't give a toss if some so-called supporters continue to insult him childishly. He only cares about the success of the team. He is a good man with a good conscience.

It's amazing that you claim to be a Chelsea supporter but don't seem to like anything about the club, including their supporters. When Rafa gets sacked in the summer (a happy day that will be), maybe you're be more comfortable following him.

We'll try and get by without the pair of you - in fact as a parting gift, why not take our most expensive player ever. You know, because we love you both.

[termninja 5,290]

Great 1st half, but high pressing like that was always going to catch up with us. Despite it, we stood rather well and seemed generally great in all areas except attack or let's say finalizing our attacking moves due to Torres' awful movement or his inefficient wasteful tries to create space for his teammates.

It's evident that Demba Ba is 3 times a striker Torres is at the moment. Shame he missed that shot that would've killed the game of.

Perhaps Rafa wanted to shock Arsenal after they got tired and we got tired after that high rhythm 1st half, so he kept Demba Ba fresh for long ball battles if things weren't going our way by the time 2nd half reached it's half.

But yeah, Torres is just ... unbearable to watch anymore ... at least I don't have to stare at his awful hair anymore. He looks like a man now at least.

Difficult to pick a MOTM for me, but I'll go with Ramires, cuz he was running like a madman for 90mins and helped both in defense and offense. Had a few very dangerous runs and broke some great attacking moves from Arse...

Our back 4 deserves a mention, all of them were great, except that slight mistake from Ivanovic which Cech cleared. Lampard did good in 1st half also, though his rhythm dropped in 2nd half due to his fitness level. Ba made a great impact as usual, and MAZACAR will give nightmares to Wenger for quite some time.

On to the next game now, our morale and confidence have improved after beating Arsenal and winning a big game like this, and with Demba Ba fresh, I am really optimistic about our clash with Swansea.

Oh and yeah, Giroud is a dumb clown

[Rupert 130]

It's amazing that you claim to be a Chelsea supporter but don't seem to like anything about the club, including their supporters. When Rafa gets sacked in the summer (a happy day that will be), maybe you're be more comfortable following him.

We'll try and get by without the pair of you - in fact as a parting gift, why not take our most expensive player ever. You know, because we love you both.

Rafa won't get sacked in the summer. He is an interim appointment until the summer. He may or may not accept the offer to continue with Chelsea but he won't get sacked. If Rafa does go to another team of course I will continue to follow his career with interest. Meanwhile I think it would be more rational if you and some of the other Rafa-haters and Mourinho-lovers started supporting Real Madrid or whichever other team Mourinho finishes up at when he is sacked this summer or sooner. He's not wanted there by supporters or management and he's desperately politiking for another job.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

If Rafa is offered the job on a long-term basis and if he accepts (he will have other offers and might be advised to take them) he will be the best manager Chelsea have ever had. He will influence transfers. He will bring in a strong central defender and an aggressive defensive midfielder and a playmaker. He will introduce zonal marking and make Chelsea as exciting a crushing machine as he made Valencia and LFC (before the LFC owners started selling his players and denying him money for replacements). He will develop young players. He won't give a toss if some so-called supporters continue to insult him childishly. He only cares about the success of the team. He is a good man with a good conscience.

That is a scenario coming from an optimistic rafa fan.He cares about his reputation too, he wants to prove people wrong, lets hope he'll win & the team will win some trophies, only way to stay at CFC.

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

Didn't get to see the game today, will watch it later, but if someone had offered me a nervy 2-1 win before the game, i'd have bitten your hand off. Now we just need to build on todays result, no point in ruining it with a poor performance in the next home game (which isn't for a while I don't think).

[Henrique 9,133]

The stupid move was not making the change at half time, or at least 5/10 mins after the first half, which put us in a terrible position throughout the second half. Also, If he was making a defensive change then why didn't he put our best defender on?

Im no saying he didnt made stupid moves, Im just saying a striker wasnt needed when Betrand arrived in the game.

[zolayes 14,489]

Rafa won't get sacked in the summer. He is an interim appointment until the summer. He may or may not accept the offer to continue with Chelsea but he won't get sacked. If Rafa does go to another team of course I will continue to follow his career with interest. Meanwhile I think it would be more rational if you and some of the other Rafa-haters and Mourinho-lovers started supporting Real Madrid or whichever other team Mourinho finishes up at when he is sacked this summer or sooner. He's not wanted there by supporters or management and he's desperately politiking for another job.

It would be MORE rational if YOU fucked off to another forum. I don't think you are wanted here.

[bushman 2,043]

It's amazing that you claim to be a Chelsea supporter but don't seem to like anything about the club, including their supporters. When Rafa gets sacked in the summer (a happy day that will be), maybe you're be more comfortable following him.

We'll try and get by without the pair of you - in fact as a parting gift, why not take our most expensive player ever. You know, because we love you both.

How come you keep jamming you fucking view on folks here ? You tried it on me, until I & the mod told you to hit the road.

Have I not told you out with the old view but in with the fresh outlook ?

Just wake up now !