Chelsea 0-1 Man United

[GodZola 630]

That was a clear foul..

Essien is simply lost in that holding role.. he lost possesion countless of times tonight.. Ramires is described as volante..what is like holding player that is the pillar of the team..

Barca played with Keita and Mascherano tonight...

No it wasn't a foul, he lost possession because he is to slow please take you're Mikel glasses off. I do though agree that Essien was poor & have already said he should of been taken off. As for Barcelona they are a totally different animal, they have creative players such as Xavi & Iniesta with decent full backs like Alves who provide width & cause problems in attack & that's not to mention they have the best player in the world in Messi, full of creativity - we don't have those players that can do that infront of a DM, Keita & Mascherano are quick so that rules Mikel out of their side:straight away.

[eldo 868]

No it wasn't a foul, he lost possession because he is to slow please take you're Mikel glasses off. I do though agree that Essien was poor & have already said he should of been taken off. As for Barcelona they are a totally different animal, they have creative players such as Xavi & Iniesta with decent full backs like Alves who provide width & cause problems in attack & that's not to mention they have the best player in the world in Messi, full of creativity - we don't have those players that can do that infront of a DM, Keita & Mascherano are quick so that rules Mikel out of their side:straight away.

Exactly you answered all questions..We need to get players like that for the next season.. Buy them and promote them to first team.

[BlueJewel 56]

Please tell me what service Torres had tonight or any other game for that matter..... All his chances he has to create from nothing off his owm boot.

He had enough chances to had scored a goal or two and they were both from crosses from Drogba and Bosingwa, We all want Torres to succeed but the guy signed a 5 and a half year contract with us. There is no need to rush him to succeed. Drogba is in far better form at the moment and has proved it in recent games, his corner kicks,crosses and freekicks are world class. Torres is having a hard time settling but the team always must come first before any player. Anelka has 7 goals in the competition and Drogba knows the team inside out and is really hungry for success.

Anelka and Drogba should start any day until Torres can regain his form of old. Torres looked uninterested and lost for a lot of the game, he should at least put in some effort a tackle to win the ball would not do him any harm. 12 games without scoring a goal eats up a strikers confidence.

[NattyBlue 44]

What a shit game.

[- 25 - 167]

So depressed...

But realistically we score first at the theatre of cunts and it's game on again.

Optimism is the only thing that'll get me to sleep tonight.

[GodZola 630]

Exactly you answered all questions..We need to get players like that for the next season.. Buy them and promote them to first team.

I havn't answered any questions eldo, just pointed out that we lack creativity & on a previous post that I couldn't understand Ancelotti's reasoning for bringing on Mikel (another DM) when we need to score? I could get my head round it if we were winning & he was trying to protect our lead but not when we are losing, very bizarre? For me I would of taken off Essien, put Ramires in the middle & brought on Kalou, & before the knockers get on to me I dont really rate him either but he always plays better coming off the bench & can provide a spark now & again, its just we didnt have many attacking options left, just a pity we don't have Sturridge or Benayoun there.

We do need a playmaker without question, Snieder would get my vote but a decent winger like Robben would also give us more creativity.

[Sparkie 27]

Sneijder could be quite handy as he can play on the wing too, if needed.

[Term-X 7,891]

[Tortilla9 390]

I was watching at the office on a stream that kept freezing and going back and forth on the forum. I thought "Chelsea were shit". Came home, turned down the volume and watched the DVR.

Chelsea were dominant at streches of the match - first ten minutes, last five of the first half, last 10-15 minutes of the second half. Unfortunately they weren't the other stretches.

I don't think you have to have two creative center mids but can at least one keep the ball, move forward, and be a little creative? Carrick who doesn't impress me easily outplayed both Lampard and Essien. That may be the worst I've seen Lampard play in a while. I think the game was won and lost in the middle.

Terry had a very good game IMO. He was calm and composed in the back and looked to be the most attacking at times. That's sad to think.

Onto the Torres/Drogba issue. They weren't all over each other as I thought they'd be. They were either dropping deep to get the ball or going wide to carry and try to deliver the ball. To me it was a tossup who you subbed out, both had their moments and both didn't. I thought Anelka on helped because he was actually a link between the middle and the forwards. Is Anelka the missing piece of the puzzle? One note, I actually like Drogba but the theatrics make watching him painful at times. The face clutching, the falling on the ground, the arm waving.

Onto the ref. I'm not one to say that's a penalty whenever a player goes down in the box but how that one wasn't for Ramires makes you wonder. And Torres getting a yellow for diving? I rewound that a few times, paused it, and Torres' front foot got caught up with back of Valencia and he fell. If there was any over-reacting it was by United defenders. Disappointing was United getting in Torres face in the first half and second half and not enough Chelsea players support. How do Chelsea players stand by and watch while Ferdinand dragged Torres up off the ground in the first half? Don't quite get that.

Last, Chelsea are only down one goal and they didn't play great. For the supposed domination of United, they are only up one goal. The middle can't play as bad as they did today (one would hope not) so that will improve. The defense will be ok. Carlo needs to get the lineup right and break down the United bus. The second leg is there for the taking. I'm drinking the blue koolaid.

[HRiver 1,512]

It's a disgrace, a fucking disgrace.

[gary gordon 1,777]

What gets me is that United could have really hurt us tonight. Our defence tends to all swarm on the player with the ball instead of marking up and trusting in there own personal ability. I think if united kept up the tempo they started with it would have been over in the first half. I think we were lucky.. Very lucky.....

what i thought of the team

Cech: Decent performance.

Terry: Played well but lacks the speed to cover Rooney or Hernadez all game.

Ivanovic. One of the best as always.

Ash: Played a solid defensive game but we are missing him in attack.

Bosingwa: Showed again why he was hooked in the Community shield vs United. Simply can't keep up with them and if an 38 year old can run circles around you, you simply aren't good enough.

Essien: Does more then he should. Saved the defence numerous times but was too tired to complete any decent passing.

Ramires: One of the fittest blokes on the pitch. Seemed to struggle with his role and finds himself running around like a headless chook.

Lampard: I hope it's an injury because i hate to see Lampard playing like this. Lacked vision and motivation. For somebody that has had nightmares since 08, he sure ain't doing anything about them.

Zhirkov: How Carlo can throw him in there after fuck all game time leading up to last night was stupid.

Torres: I saw shades of a decent player but i still feel like he is saving himself for something. It looks like he could use a few Red Bulls.

Drogba: Works too hard for a Striker! Attacks, Drops back to the MF and also defends... Why he was hooked for another slow player is beyond me. Even my wife was in shock and she doesn't know much about football..

Mikel: I literally stared in shock when this substitution was made! Absolutely no strategic value!

Anelka: Not enough time to make a difference

Malouda: Clearly has issues with the club or a certain player or players. Needs to either put in the game of his life next Tuesday or start shopping himself around...

My line up for next Tuesday:

Ivanovic---------------Alex-------Terry--------------------Cole

---------------------------Essien---------------------------------

---------Lampard---------------------Malouda--------

---------------------------Kalou--------------------------------

------------Drogba----------------------Anelka---------------

[Owizzy 19]

Guys and fellow Chelseans!!!!, Let the truth be told; here are some instances we went wrong against MUFC, if we strive to correct our flaws, the current Man U is no match for CFC, in terms of strenght. When it comes to power and muscle my fear for CFC was Man city, they have all the strongly built guys who usually have the penchant of bullying out our dear CFC players. The opposite is the case when you compare CFC with Man utd, we are the more physical side in these case.

What went wrong today (yesterday) here are my blames: # 1 BOSINGWA, played like an inexperienced defender in intercepting the pass to Giggs, distance was not on his side neither was it on Giggs side even though Giggs was at advantage with less distance to cover. What Bosingwa should have done then was not to go chasing a ball that he was more than likely to miss and just a simple deft touch from the opposing attacker would put him off track, what he should have done was to aim his run towards Giggs and simply stand provide an obstacle between giggs and the ball, bearing in mind that Giggs also had some little distance to cover to get to the pass. Worst outcome would have been a foul against him because at the end of the day Giggs will run into him and maybe get the foul. ( when I was much younger in my 20's I used to play defence, right full back, one thing i used to do then was to lure opponents to give a pass to the right wing attacker by pretending to create some distance between myself and the attacker. first thing that comes to the attackers team-mates is that the winger is free and they are lured to make a pass, but since i was expecting that move I was always quick enough to quell the pass 9 out of 10 times it worked for me but then I was much younger and fit. I actually use that trick to get some cheap recognition as a sturdy defender). While i dont advise creating space for your opponents to be free, I am suggesting that quick thinking is required in such scenarios. A simple bump (collision) with Giggs could have quelled that move.

#2: We need to resort into man-to-man marking simple as that, with such a rule you wouldnt have a Free Rooney to convert. All the hue and cry about 4-4-2 OR 4-3-3, is all paperwork in the real sense of the word when the game starts its all a joint task of 11(maybe 10) men attacking and defending for the soul purpose of victory.

#3: If lampard underperforms let hime warm the bench. We shouldn't allow past glories to becloud our rightful decisions, I counted a series of at least 4 faulty passes dished out by Lampard, that don't come from an in-form player with confidence.

#4: On Torres he still a useful man his tricks are sublime, so far he and his fellow teammates have not been able to enmesh him into the attacking network once these can be acheived the floodgates of goals will come back because Torres will score, then others will follow. I bet you guys the moment Torres scores the confidence level will rise again and we will start to see goals from Essien, Lampard and from distances too, of course the likes of Drogs/Anelka/kalou will always score once the floodgate is open.

So what is the way to kick out MUFC next week? Simple! man to man marking (no rough play so we dont get cards) , just making sure we dont give MUFC players yards of space to play and leaving no free Man U player on his own whereby he will be very composed enough to make good kicks into our goal area. We have a good attack that just needs to re-discover its sharpness and from midfield to defence no opponents player should be left unmarked. if we do the right things we can turn around this situation Then let CFC stop waiting for opponents to score first before they start playing why don't we change our approach and be the first to score a 2-0 lead and concentrate fully on an error free defence while occassionaly going forward to increase the tally. This season we have given away many cheap goals due to player error as opposed to well worked-out goals by our opponents. Let us change the tide. NOW IS THE TIME, to prove that we CFC are no fluke.

[HRiver 1,512]

What gets me is that United could have really hurt us tonight. Our defence tends to all swarm on the player with the ball instead of marking up and trusting in there own personal ability. I think if united kept up the tempo they started with it would have been over in the first half. I think we were lucky.. Very lucky.....

what i thought of the team

Cech: Decent performance.

Terry: Played well but lacks the speed to cover Rooney or Hernadez all game.

Ivanovic. One of the best as always.

Ash: Played a solid defensive game but we are missing him in attack.

Bosingwa: Showed again why he was hooked in the Community shield vs United. Simply can't keep up with them and if an 38 year old can run circles around you, you simply aren't good enough.

Essien: Does more then he should. Saved the defence numerous times but was too tired to complete any decent passing.

Ramires: One of the fittest blokes on the pitch. Seemed to struggle with his role and finds himself running around like a headless chook.

Lampard: I hope it's an injury because i hate to see Lampard playing like this. Lacked vision and motivation. For somebody that has had nightmares since 08, he sure ain't doing anything about them.

Zhirkov: How Carlo can throw him in there after fuck all game time leading up to last night was stupid.

Torres: I saw shades of a decent player but i still feel like he is saving himself for something. It looks like he could use a few Red Bulls.

Drogba: Works too hard for a Striker! Attacks, Drops back to the MF and also defends... Why he was hooked for another slow player is beyond me. Even my wife was in shock and she doesn't know much about football..

Mikel: I literally stared in shock when this substitution was made! Absolutely no strategic value!

Anelka: Not enough time to make a difference

Malouda: Clearly has issues with the club or a certain player or players. Needs to either put in the game of his life next Tuesday or start shopping himself around...

My line up for next Tuesday:

Ivanovic---------------Alex-------Terry--------------------Cole

---------------------------Essien---------------------------------

---------Lampard---------------------Malouda--------

---------------------------Kalou--------------------------------

------------Drogba----------------------Anelka---------------

Playing Malouda, Kalou and Anelka instead of Mikel, Ramires and Torres would be shocking. Malouda has been our worst performer, whereas in contrary Ramires has been our best. And we can't afford to play Anelka who in big games doesn't do much, and let Torres on bench, someone who we paid 58 million for.

[BlueSunshine 672]

I was so sad and dissapointed after the game that i had to wait all this time to calm down to be able to write a post.Damn it we were all waiting for this match since the draw with so much enthusiasm that we couldn't sleep last night (at least that was the case for me) and what did we get in exchange?Our team let us down.Big time.

The problem is not that we lost,is how we lost.This was the most important game of the year ,yet our players didn't show any desire for the win.No determination,no passion.Sure i can blame our luck,i can blame the referee,i can blame myself for the fact that i didn't wear the chelsea shirt i usually do when i am watching a game.I have done all that during the game but the truth is far more simple.We lost cause we proved we are not "big" enough to handle such an important game.

Ancelotti lost the fight before the game even started.Why the fuck did we play 4-4-2 tonight is beyond me.Everyone and i mean everyone knew united was going to overflood the midfield and use the wings to counterattack.As much as i hate Ferguson i can admit that he is a clever manager.He analyzed the last game they played agaisnt us and he ADAPTED his tactics for tonight's game.That's what good tacticians do.What did Ancelotti do?He fell right into the trap,like a rookie.First he uses Bosingwa as a RB when it's not a secret he sucks in defending,then he uses Drogba and Torres up front with noone able to pass the ball to them.When will he fucking understand that those two can't play together ffs.We were outplayed by the worst united team of recent times.Every time we were trying to attack our players were being outnumbered.The mancs were all over the field while our players were isolated.

Someone can say that i am being too harsh on Ancelotti and that anyone has the right to make a mistake.That's totally acceptable.So when he saw that his plan couldn't work what did he do?Did he make any changes during half time?No.We continued with the same ineffective plan.Then he decides that Anelka will take the place of Drogba,who was the only real threat to united.That's brilliant,it's like telling him that his performance doesn't matter,he needs to come off instead of Torres.NIce way to keep the balance inside the squad.Oh and where was Benayoun?

I am not saying that Ancelotti was the only one to blame.Most of our players were shocking mainly Bosingwa,Lampard,Essien and Zhirkov.Our midfield couldn't string 2 fucking passes together under pressure,which was all the time.But players don't turn from world class into average in just one season.Something bad is happening inside the club.I don't know what that is but they better solve it during the summer or else next year will be as bad as this one.And 3 more expensive trasnfers is not the solution.Anyway i hope the lads prove me wrong next week.I wish they go to OT and win the game and make me look stupid for all the things i said.I believe they can do it IF they want to.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Where the hell is Tommy?! Only he can bring joy to TC now!