Closed Stoke 3-2 Chelsea

[dee25 1,044]

Yesterday there was often quite obvious pass for Cahill to play quickly but he was taking 5 touches and letting him a more difficult pass to play.

I noticed the same thing too. John terry is good at releasing the ball quickly, but Cahill is just so slow. I don't know why he feels like he has to take so many touches before making the simplest of passes.

Or sometimes he'll leave the defensive line and move up the pitch with the ball, but instead of moving the ball quickly he'll literally just stand there with the ball looking around! Eventually he ends up being pressed, he then panics and has to make a pass back to John terry or a hurried long ball. You're putting the team under unnecessary pressure. I know he's trying to help the attack but he either needs to make his decisions quicker or just stay in the defensive line.

[Ollie 4,400]

Waited until today to respond because i was so fucked off. After thinking about it, i've come to the conclusion that these matches happen every season and we will be here many more times but i still believe we'll be top by Jan 1. I've also come to the conclusion that we need Lukaku back and we need to sell Ramires. I admire Rami's work rate but his ball distribution is awful and he's not the level of player we need now imo. We need a Yaya Toure.

I knew at half time that it was gonna go wrong because of the way we dominated the first half and conceded such a horrible goal to go in level. I had hope when Shirley made it 2-2 but they were much more in our faces in the 2nd half and we seemed a bit fragile against it.

The Arsenal away game in a couple of weeks is gonna be the biggest match of the season so far. Arsenal have a really tough next few games for a change. They will drop points very soon so we must now capitalise after yesterdays shocker.

It's not all bad.

[ZOS 580]

gutted hazard, mata, schurlle were great up until our defenders decided to fuck it all up ...

• eto'o was mistake of the game,
• torres and ba are incompetent
• we still have an inferior quality in the midfield compared to most of the top 10 teams in the league... watched the manure vs new castle game where tiote, cisoco and cabaye run the show... I guess, I've forgotten what it felt like to have Ballack, a young Lampard, a fit Essien behind Drogba and Nico

let's hope everton will do us a favor tomorrow, up the chels :blue scalf:

[zolayes 14,489]

two players we have never been able to replace Carvalho and Ballack ,,my worry is Drogba will be the third

[Billy. 2,742]

I keep sticking up for Cech because all he has done for us, but he keeps making mistakes this season. i think next season we need to use Courtois because i also fear that we will lose him down the line if we do not start playing him.

[Tomo 21,751]

Didn't we try to sign Jores Okore? Was that just because he's young talent and another one to send on loan or were we actually looking for a CB? Knowing us, the latter.

Could do with someone like Vertonghen or Chiriches. Good, cheap CBs.

Vertonghen is probably the most over-rated CB i have ever seen in my life. The amount of times he gets caught on the wrong side of a striker is shocking, like against Villa when he had to resort to pulling a players short's down.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Waited until today to respond because i was so fucked off. After thinking about it, i've come to the conclusion that these matches happen every season and we will be here many more times but i still believe we'll be top by Jan 1. I've also come to the conclusion that we need Lukaku back and we need to sell Ramires. I admire Rami's work rate but his ball distribution is awful and he's not the level of player we need now imo. We need a Yaya Toure.

I knew at half time that it was gonna go wrong because of the way we dominated the first half and conceded such a horrible goal to go in level. I had hope when Shirley made it 2-2 but they were much more in our faces in the 2nd half and we seemed a bit fragile against it.

The Arsenal away game in a couple of weeks is gonna be the biggest match of the season so far. Arsenal have a really tough next few games for a change. They will drop points very soon so we must now capitalise after yesterdays shocker.

It's not all bad.

I noticed this too about ramires. He has great tackling, insane stamina, speed and 1 on 1 finishing. He is our best cm.

But his disadvantages makes him a far cry from people's best CM. He cant pass, too inconsistent at it, and he is too tiny to help us aerially.

Because he is our best CM, we cant even go out and buy small playmakers like verrati, modric or cabaye or pirlo to play beside him because it will render our pivot too physically weak.

But he is still our best CM because of his tackling rate.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Vertonghen is probably the most over-rated CB i have ever seen in my life. The amount of times he gets caught on the wrong side of a striker is shocking, like against Villa when he had to resort to pulling a players short's down.

Well according to the ref he's allowed to that!

[yuvala 2,167]

I noticed this too about ramires. He has great tackling, insane stamina, speed and 1 on 1 finishing. He is our best cm.

But his disadvantages makes him a far cry from people's best CM. He cant pass, too inconsistent at it, and he is too tiny to help us aerially.

Because he is our best CM, we cant even go out and buy small playmakers like verrati, modric or cabaye or pirlo to play beside him because it will render our pivot too physically weak.

But he is still our best CM because of his tackling rate.

Well he's not perfect, but he is very good. Put a world class Pirlo esque passer paired with him and we have a great pivot.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

Waited until today to respond because i was so fucked off. After thinking about it, i've come to the conclusion that these matches happen every season and we will be here many more times but i still believe we'll be top by Jan 1. I've also come to the conclusion that we need Lukaku back and we need to sell Ramires. I admire Rami's work rate but his ball distribution is awful and he's not the level of player we need now imo. We need a Yaya Toure.

I knew at half time that it was gonna go wrong because of the way we dominated the first half and conceded such a horrible goal to go in level. I had hope when Shirley made it 2-2 but they were much more in our faces in the 2nd half and we seemed a bit fragile against it.

The Arsenal away game in a couple of weeks is gonna be the biggest match of the season so far. Arsenal have a really tough next few games for a change. They will drop points very soon so we must now capitalise after yesterdays shocker.

It's not all bad.

I also convince myself this is just those stupid gutted defeats which top teams are bound to take few times in a long season. I rather take it now than when we get into a white heat to challenge for the title.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Well he's not perfect, but he is very good. Put a world class Pirlo esque passer paired with him and we have a great pivot.

Thats another problem, because of ramires small size, mourinho will never buy a small CM like pirlo. It becomes too weak aerially, but if ramires had vidal's size or ballacks size, it will be easy.

[Special Juan 28,141]

I have learnt my lessons and stayed away from here in the last 12 hours.

It's a poor loss but all is not lost people, lets stay grounded and bounce back like Chelsea do. A season has lots of blips and it's how we react, lets not worry too much how Arsenal are doing, lets be positive about us and keep moving on.

All in this together lets not fall out and get angry.

CAREFREEEEE!!!!

[The only place to be 11,313]

Waited until today to respond because i was so fucked off. After thinking about it, i've come to the conclusion that these matches happen every season and we will be here many more times but i still believe we'll be top by Jan 1. I've also come to the conclusion that we need Lukaku back and we need to sell Ramires. I admire Rami's work rate but his ball distribution is awful and he's not the level of player we need now imo. We need a Yaya Toure.

I knew at half time that it was gonna go wrong because of the way we dominated the first half and conceded such a horrible goal to go in level. I had hope when Shirley made it 2-2 but they were much more in our faces in the 2nd half and we seemed a bit fragile against it.

The Arsenal away game in a couple of weeks is gonna be the biggest match of the season so far. Arsenal have a really tough next few games for a change. They will drop points very soon so we must now capitalise after yesterdays shocker.

It's not all bad.

I think I agree with what you say about Rami - his workrate is utterly phenomenal but I've always preferred players who can control the tempo of a game with the skill and vision rather than simply run around a lot.

He's capable of sublime pieces of skill but it's unreliable and in that position you need a metronomic presence like a Xavi or a Scholes who can make other players play at his speed rather than trying to keep up with them.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I can't believe the blame is being directed at Eto'o. Hahahahahaha.... Wake up people! It was a shit giveaway but Chelsea shipped 3 more goals to shoddy opposition. We are shipping WAY too many goals!

The problem the last two games and pretty much the whole season is our shit defense. We can't protect a lead and we are conceding far too many. Cech, Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic are playing way too much right now. Terry looked every bit like 33yr old yesterday and Cech.... Why does he just stand there on so many of the goal attempts???

Ramires needs a rest that much was obvious to me.

Nobody wants to hear it but Essien needs some game time. we are running guys into the ground and its not even midseason yet. Essien needs a game, Bertrand needs a chance, maybe give Ake a run out for Ramires at some point too.

[The Mak 4,459]

Vertonghen is probably the most over-rated CB i have ever seen in my life. The amount of times he gets caught on the wrong side of a striker is shocking, like against Villa when he had to resort to pulling a players short's down.

I said good, not great!

Like him or not, he's part of one of the more solid defences this season and he was bought for half of Luiz.

[remains of the day 564]

I've also come to the conclusion that we need Lukaku back and we need to sell Ramires. I admire Rami's work rate but his ball distribution is awful and he's not the level of player we need now imo. We need a Yaya Toure.

Ramires' distribution is normally a big problem and has personally been a point of frustration for me, but this season it's improved significantly. Yaya Toure has 3 assists, Ramires has 2 and both have created similar number of chances. So he can't be all that bad can he? The problem though is that he's basically played every single minute of every single game in the League and also in the CL bar one game - Basel at home. So in the 20 league & CL games we've played this season, he's only been rested once. It's ridiculous when you consider how hard he works. The guy must be tired and it's bound to have an effect on his performance. I really hope that Mourinho has a rotation plan for him starting January. It makes me uneasy that we're so reliant on him.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

I can't believe the blame is being directed at Eto'o. Hahahahahaha.... Wake up people! It was a shit giveaway but Chelsea shipped 3 more goals to shoddy opposition. We are shipping WAY too many goals!

We would have been second now if it wasn't for his terrible mistake. But that aside, he's lost the ball every time he touched it yesterday.

And this is the biggest mistake Jose made = bringing in Eto'o/not bringing in a classy striker

Ramires is a bloke I'll never blame for anything, he's one of those guys that always gives his best. This is what I respect no matter what.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

We would have been second now if it wasn't for his terrible mistake. But that aside, he's lost the ball every time he touched it yesterday.

And this is the biggest mistake Jose made = bringing in Eto'o/not bringing in a classy striker

Ramires is a bloke I'll never blame for anything, he's one of those guys that always gives his best. This is what I respect no matter what.

So much hilarity in one post.

[Tomo 21,751]

I said good, not great!

Like him or not, he's part of one of the more solid defences this season and he was bought for half of Luiz.

The reason that defense was so good at the start is because of the midfield protecting the shit out of them and Lloris, if AVB opens up that defense would get picked apart with ease.

[The Mak 4,459]

The reason that defense was so good at the start is because of the midfield protecting the shit out of them and Lloris, if AVB opens up that defense would get picked apart with ease.

I suppose we'll wait another while yet so!