Closed Newcastle 3-2 Chelsea

[Superblue 6,372]

This really annoys me, with the exception of Azpilicueta, Romeu and Moses, all of our transfers over the last few seasons have been incredibly lazy. I'm not saying the likes of Mata and Hazard aren't fantastic buys but they arrived with big, well known reputations and price tags to match it.

Spurs have snapped up Holtby and Newcastle snapped up Sissoko each for under £2m. Both would offer a LOT to our squad at this moment. But no, we're more likely to make a move for someone like Fellaini in the summer for about £25m. That's not saying Fellaini is a bad player or I wouldn't have him, but he's a big name player again carrying a big price tag.

Emenalo must already be sweating on his position for pushing for us to hire Benitez, and his lax work in the transfer market is not helping him either.

[Billy. 2,742]

Wtf is it got to do with players not liking the manager? It's the fans that make our relatively young squad panic and afraid to commit mistakes, which ironically is exactly what it does.

well thats what im talking about im not talking about the fans, Under RDM they wanted to fight for game Under Rafa they dont, Witch indicates to ME my opinion they dont like playing for rafa

[SinineUltra 1,170]

This really annoys me, with the exception of Azpilicueta, Romeu and Moses, all of our transfers over the last few seasons have been incredibly lazy. I'm not saying the likes of Mata and Hazard aren't fantastic buys but they arrived with big, well known reputations and price tags to match it.

Spurs have snapped up Holtby and Newcastle snapped up Sissoko each for under £2m. Both would offer a LOT to our squad at this moment. But no, we're more likely to make a move for someone like Fellaini in the summer for about £25m. That's not saying Fellaini is a bad player or I wouldn't have him, but he's a big name player again carrying a big price tag.

Emenalo must already be sweating on his position for pushing for us to hire Benitez, and his lax work in the transfer market is not helping him either.

Feel the same way, we need a big fighting spirit not a big price tag. Good post!

[Laylabelle 9,535]

They did it under AVB and Scolari it seems this just 'mehhhh' attitude to games..its pathetic!!!!And takes the piss really

[Leif 6,006]

#BringBackAVB

[Ankit 3,176]

It took Scolari 35 games to lose 5. It has only taken Rafa 21 to equal it! #CFC

[chrismada9 1,948]

[laura90 556]

Can finish, wins headers, has pace, gets into the box, does the dirty work, is back for the opponenet counter, goes forward for the counter himself - Moussa Sissoko is precisely the sort of player we miss in midfield.

How much did he cost again?

Sorry I forgot. Our double pivot is just bloody perfect.

We have the brilliance of 5 years more of Mikel, he is awesome so we offered him a twelfth of Sissoko's transfer fee as weekly wages. Diame, Vidal, Fernandinho and now Sissoko, all all-action midfielders who have absolutely owned our midfield.

What to say about result...Both teams had major issues going into the January window. Newastle wisely made several quality signings, we decided to stay as it is and actually loan out one more player for good measure when it was obvious we needed reinforcements..the difference is clear to see.

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

Emotions aside. A dreadful outing for Chelsea. The first half deserves no words, there was only one team in it. Schoolboy errors in the defence. Ramires has been so sloppy the past few weeks with his challanges. The one against Arsenal, before the first goal, the one against Reading and now in this game, which to all fairness could have been a red card very easily. Having said that Coloccini made a blatant foul on Ba. That's ridiculous how you can't take a ball of an out of order ball boy but you can smash in a player's face without a punishment. It's not like Ba was diving, the blood was real and the likely fracture is real. Nothing there to defend Coloccini. Penalty any day, every day.

Second half was better. Atleast the forst part of it. We seemed to get back control - scored two absolute beauties. Well done to Lampard and Mata. So it's 5 goals to go for Lampard, right? We've been so lucky to sign a player like Mata. Even at the tens of millions he came with he has been a bargain. Talking about bargains - Sissoko for 2 mil give or take, what a player. After Newcastle's second goal we totally lost it again. Newcastle in control and constant threat throughout. Can't really say that we didn't deserve a loss, they were the better team as hard as it is to say it. Though the refereeing leaves a taste of shit in my mouth. Easily could have given one if not two penalties, no "Fair Play" in sight.

What next? Sacking Rafa Benitez has it's ups and downs to it. It will surely boost the morale of majority of the fans, perhaps even some players. But it will only be worth it if we get a permanent manager in. Enough of interim managers, they'll never have the influence nor authority within the squad if they're just interim managers. Very hard to take over now aswell with the club in shambles. A lot of the blame goes to the board, if not all. They were the ones who appointed RDM and later sacked him only to hire Rafael Benitez, knowing what kind of reaction and atmosphere it would create. On top of that they denied Benitez the transfers. Rather than putting the club first and thinking about finishing THIS season, they're planning for summer already. They've not thought one thing through - we might miss out on Champions League place and with every game thus far it's more of a "when" not "if" we drop out of the top four places. Keep in mind that even with Rafa gone, we've got the same poor squad. So nothing's going to change in that department. It's a two edged sword.

Do I want him sacked right now? Yes, but only if we get a permanent manager on board. All we need is stability and a little bit of patience.

[Mustafa 885]

Seriously, this loss hasnt bothered me as much as i thought it would... Our first half performance was rather shit and thats because our players are absolutely KNACKERED ! We werent so bad defensively in the first half. Yes we conceded but that was because the pressure in the end was too much... whenever we got the ball away, it would just come back at us.

Second Half was a different ball game.. Two top quality goals. Lamps was poor overall if im honest bar his goal ofc. Mata was great as usual. JT was obviously to blame for the 2nd goal... what was he thinking ?? But once we were in that position Oscar was the closest to the ball and he was jogging instead of sprinting towards the goal ! That i think was down to the tiredness of the players...

Positives to take away from the game: We put up a decent fight against a new and refreshed Newcastle side (who had a day extra to recover btw) with a very below par starting XI. Hazard is back for our next game and i hope none of our players play for their countries during the break.

Get Well soon Demba

[Liquidator 5,176]

I wouldn't be surprised if we get turned over by Wigan next week

[Laylabelle 9,535]

And with the board still mental why would Jose come back?If he hasnt got complete control then cant see it...we needed someone to change things okay we got Ba but still..but a wasted window and a long time till summer

Hah we're at home against Wigan course we're gana get a bad result..though doesnt matter home or away anymore we're shite wherever

[Waterfall 893]

Ramires was a liability today and usually is when the game's not stretched.

[communicate 2,703]

This really annoys me, with the exception of Azpilicueta, Romeu and Moses, all of our transfers over the last few seasons have been incredibly lazy. I'm not saying the likes of Mata and Hazard aren't fantastic buys but they arrived with big, well known reputations and price tags to match it.

I dont think our transfer policy is any different than any other big club. We just bought too many am last transfer

[Manuf 1,448]

even when he's in Africa, doing good in a tournament, there are still people who can blame things on Mikel. gtfo.

[xPetrCechx 13,571]

mehhhh' attitude to games

[Kieran. 6,317]

Benitez: "I was really pleased with the reaction of the players, that is the main thing for me."

THAT'S the main thing?

[Leif 6,006]

Assuming Benitez has a pet dog or cat I'm going to force my cat to anally rape it and scar it for life. He deserves it. Turning us into a blue Liverpool.

[Milan 17,958]

Benitez: "I was really pleased with the reaction of the players, that is the main thing for me."

THAT'S the main thing?

I hope I will be please with the reaction of the board.

[HRiver 1,512]

For me it has gotten to the point where I'm not even getting angry about negative results anymore, I am used to it now and I'm expecting losses. But what hurts me is that we show no desire for most of the game, we only played well for about 20 minutes today, maybe even less than that. Just not good enough.

In 2007 Rafa claimed we were a passionless and a soulless club, and that's what we have become now. If his mission was to turn us into a club without a soul, then it is safe to say he has successfully accomplished his mission.