Stoke 1-1 Chelsea

[HRiver 1,512]

I've got two things to say:

We didn't deserve to win. We must be happy that we got one point.

The fact that i'm not even that upset sums up our season.

Let's hope we'll somehow play a lot better against Man Utd.

And almost forgot, Malouda plays like he's 55 years old. If it was up to me, he'd be warming the bench for the rest of the season.

Shame that I cannot give you 10 rep points for the Malouda bit.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

People are being far too melodramatic today.

Maybe its because I was at the game today I'm not at all disappointed. Some people are doing Stoke a real disservice. Today, they played far better than they did when they beat Newcastle 4-0. It was a real good effort from them, and only Cech stopped them from winning today, thankfully.

I thought the game was lost before kick-off, however. If United had have drawn or lost, the boys would have been really up for it, but that result I think had consigned us to a battle for second place (which I'm not at all disappointed by, in fairness).

Cech and Bosingwa were excellent throughout, and I think by taking off both Bosingwa and Ramires, we lost all of our attacking balance and impetus. I think Ancelotti got his tactics wrong today on a number of occasions:

• Mikel should have started. It is easy to say this in hindsight, but with Stoke being a physical team, his guile and physical presence would have beneficial to the cause.
• Malouda should simply be dropped. I'm not going to be fickle and slag him off here, he just strikes me as being plagued by a lack of fitness. The man needs a rest and a run in the team for Zhirkov, whose creativity was missed today in my opinion, would certainly result in him having to up his game.
• Carlo's substitutions were quite simply useless. As I've already said, by replacing Bosingwa and Ramires we lost our shape and became far more narrow when Kalou came on. The substitutions are too simplistic - they are like for like, whereas bringing on Kalou and switching to a 4-3-3 with Zhirkov on the left would have been far more creative.

I was impressed by Ramires again today. The man is excellent and a Blues hero in the making, I feel.

However, on the plus side, away games are always a special occasion and it was a great early birthday present. A pleasure meeting Steve and Ray, and the atmosphere from the away fans was excellent. A fair result in reflection, both sides had their chances but neither pressed the issue enough to warrant the three points. Ultimately, the title was always going to be a long shot, so don't think of this as two points dropped in that respect. Any point at the Britannia is a good one, in my opinion.

[HRiver 1,512]

Credit to Stoke. They played much better than us during the whole game and their quick counter attacks and the great chances they had to score made the atmosphere and the game itself special, and quite entertaining to watch. They must be proud for the way they played against the champions of England. Well done to them and their manager.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Cheers B'Burn

[neel 257]

A different blue make me happy today.

[Tomo 21,681]

And almost forgot, Malouda plays like he's 55 years old. If it was up to me, he'd be warming the bench for the rest of the season.

I think your being way to kind there, im thinking more on the lines of the reserves.

[Peace. 4,352]

Very disapointed.

We should never play this defense again. When I saw the official lineup, I wasn't reassured by the Bosigwa-Luiz thing and thought it was a bad idea. I was proven right. It isn't well balanced. If we want to play Bosingwa, then we should play either Ivanovic or Alex (when fit) in the center. Because both Bosingwa and Luiz are going to much forward. And that problem is increased by the fact that Essien, contrary to Mikel, doesn't stay deep to help out the defense. Fortunately it was just Stoke, because in my opinion we would have conceded many goals today against a better side. The first goal was a result of this imbalance (Bosingwa was way too high on the field).

In my opinion we should consider to sell Bosingwa and find a young talented righ back... Defensively he wasn't that good, imo...

Malouda has had another shit game. I can't understand how on earth Carlo, and Laurent Blanc as well, can still play him. I really hope he won't start manure game... If it was up to me, he would sit in the stand for one or two game (at least), in order to give him a wake up slap.

With Zhirkov who isn't given a proper chance, we really need to look for left winger... And a right winger too, lol.

It's been a while that Drogba hasn't played like that. I was pleased by his hunger. He has recovered his strenght, not entirely, but he's really on his way back. He had a good game. Though I believe he should have scored a second goal.

Once again Ramires has had a very good game. He becomes more and more important for us. Cech was as good as usual. Terry and Luiz has played quite bad to be honest, I think they had an off-day, and they weren't helped by the fact that they were lonely on the counter attacks.

We haven't deserved to win to be honest, so I guess we should be happy to come back from the Britania Stadium with one point in the bag.

PS: I fucking hate Manure.

[Henri 115]

Gotta respect Stoke, they fight really good in Britannia. Only plus is Arsenal and Tottenham also lost points. :541:

Drogba`s answer to all those who says he is history.

[Madmax 9,219]

Right so Luiz's first costly mistake in our shirt has arrived. And in a twisted sort of way I'm glad it has. Just takes away some of his heroic aura and helps to avoid that burden of expectation of some brilliance from him everytime he walks out. He will make mistakes, but easily has the potential to go down as the best defender in Chelsea history.

Stoke deserved a point to be fair. They showed us what they are all about and we couldn't deal with it. A just result.

Moving on, we've got bigger fish to fry midweek. Bring on those jammy bastards!

[Tomo 21,681]

Luiz to me looks a lot more comftable when playing at Stamford Bridge.

[Steve 10,227]

Just got back from the game. Had a great day out, shame about the result. But at the end of the day, we were lucky to get a point. Not going to take anything away from Stoke because they were outstanding all game. We had a couple of good spells of possession but made nothing happen. Don't really want to single players out but Malouda needs to pull his finger out of his ass and start working for the team. He is so frustrating and if he doesn't sort himself out he will be off at the end of the season.

The defence looked lost all game long. Luiz fell asleep for there goal which was really disapointing because he has been such a rock at the back the last few games.

As soon as United came back and won i had a bad feeling and nothing surprised me. When the lads were warming up you could see them watching the game on the screen and Drogba was shaking his head. Just knew from some of the reactions it was going to be a bad day at the office.

Will try and upload some videos from my phone of us chanting. We put the Stoke fans to shame imo. Where was there famous atmosphere?

[termninja 5,290]

Forgot Stoke already, the time has come to face those lucky bastards from Manchester!

Waiting for photos Steve

[Steve 10,227]

Forgot Stoke already, the time has come to face those lucky bastards from Manchester!

Waiting for photos Steve

[chrismada9 1,948]

I was impressed by Ramires again today. The man is excellent and a Blues hero in the making, I feel.

Amen to that dude!

[Madmax 9,219]

Thank you for my new ava!

[Steve 10,227]

Thank you for my new ava!

[ack17 205]

What's the point to support ancelotti?

Making same mistake again and again, put ferreira on the bench and leave mceachran out is nonsense

[5354 204]

Don't worry

I believe Luiz wil find a way to fight these strong defenders.