Stamford Bridge. 4.00pm. Remembrance Sunday, 11th November.
An immaculately observed minute’s silence to remember those who gave their lives for others. We shall never forget.
Ah Liverpool. They know what they were. Only they aren’t any more.
Before I write this I have a confession. Don’t panic. I’ve never been employed at the BBC. I’ve never been to North Wales, not even once. I am, shamefully, a big fan of Luis Suarez. I know, I know but the lad is a Chelsea player in the wrong kit.
Racism allegations. Check. Media pariah. Check. Controversial. Yes. Brilliant. Definitely.
Team
Cech. Azpilicueta. Ivanovic. Terry. Bertrand. Ramires. Mikel. Mata. Oscar. Hazard. Torres.
A reshuffled back four was the only major team news. Azpilicueta was handed his full Premier League debut. Terry returned from suspension. Bertrand came in for Cole and Ivanovic moved alongside JT in the centre.
First Half
The game began as we might have expected from Rodgers’ Liverpool, with them having plenty of, essentially meaningless, possession and us looking sharp on the counter attack. In truth it was far from an exciting first half. The undoubted highlight being our captain’s bullet header from Juan Mata’s inswinging corner. His delight and celebration towards the fans a recognition of their unstinting support throughout the most turbulent of careers. That joy was to be short-lived however. A tangle with Suarez on the edge of his own 18-yard box ended in an awkward fall and a blood curdling scream that immediately made me think cruciate knee ligament injury. The delay while JT was replaced seemed to help Liverpool somewhat and maybe served to remind them that we are almost completely incapable of keeping a clean-sheet at the moment. Especially without JT, whose organizational abilities were evident in the first half-hour. Mata really should’ve made it two just before half time but a minuscule bobble sent his left-footed shot over the bar.
Second Half
This was a match that never really caught light, perhaps due to midweek exertions, perhaps due to the style of football now favoured by both teams. Chelsea however were well on top dominating meaningful possession, bossing midfield and creating some decent chances. Unfortunately and annoyingly the second goal never came. Even more annoyingly a Liverpool corner resulted in a Jamie Carragher flick-on and a headed tap-in, if such a thing exists, for Suarez. In the right place at the right time as he so often is he scored his 11th of the season for Liverpool and salvaged another draw for them. He celebrated alone. Much huffing and puffing later but without any significant action it was all over.
On Reflection
In all honesty a decent performance from Chelsea but I never really expected a result. United 2-0 down at Villa were always going to win late on. Spurs 1-0 up at the Etihad were always going to give it away and we were always going to fail to take three points. It’s November after all.
Azpilicueta looked better than he did in his debut against United. Far more solid. A few ill-advised crosses to no-one capable of heading the ball but a decent game. The whole defence managed well considering. Until they all decided to stand around looking at each other for Liverpool’s equalizer. Man-to-man/zonal I don’t really care. Just don’t let them get two free headers in the box from one corner.
Mikel and Ramires look very good together in the pivot. I’d prefer to see Ramires getting forward more and Mikel holding. I really like Jon Obi but he looks a bit clueless when he gets too far forward.
Mata, Hazard and Oscar showed their usual quality without ever really carving Liverpool open on a regular basis. To give Rodgers some credit playing five at the back seemed to help in that respect.
Torres. Is there anything left to say? Unlucky not to score with a header but in truth we knew he wasn’t going to get the chance to not celebrate against his old club. Worked hard. Looked fairly sharp. Decision making was questionable but never going to be someone who wins us games on his own. It wasn’t his fault we didn’t win yesterday but I’ve long since given up expecting anything special from him. I still support him and will continue to until he goes but it’s looking like it’s time to move on. If we’re going to build a truly great team we will need a truly great striker.
Liverpool were very average but Suarez got them a point.
West Brom, Juventus, City and Fulham will determine how things look for us in both the Champions League and Premier League at the end of November. I’d take two wins and two draws right now.
Win or lose. Up the Blues.
Press Reports
The Guardian, Dominic Fifield: “The onset of winter is freezing Chelsea’s title pursuit yet again. Points were wastefully shed to Liverpool here, the celebratory mood that had briefly flared when John Terry marked his return from domestic suspension with a first goal of the season doused long before the end. The captain now faces a spell in rehabilitation after sustaining a knee injury. Quite what state this team’s Premier League challenge will be in when he returns remains to be seen.”
The Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “Football can be such a fickle creature at times. One moment John Terry was celebrating his return from suspension with a goal, blowing kisses to the Chelsea fans, relishing the homage of those who laud him as “captain, leader, legend”. The next Terry was writhing on the cold unforgiving turf, brought to earth in painful fashion, his season thrown into doubt. The sound of Terry’s piercing scream and the sight of Chelsea’s medical team being scrambled said it all about the seriousness of his knee injury.”
The Independent, Sam Wallace: “When Brendan Rodgers says that he would not change Suarez for any other player you can see his point. In fact, this current Chelsea team with Suarez rather than Fernando Torres as their leading striker would be a whole different package. As it is, the European champions have now slipped to third in the Premier League behind the usual suspects from Manchester after the brightest of starts to the season.”
The Official Chelsea FC Website: “An early header from John Terry, who would later be carried off on a stretcher, was not enough for all three points as Liverpool came from behind thanks to a close-range Luiz Suarez header at Stamford Bridge.”
Goals
Some of our passages of play were breathtaking, and I don’t recall seeing that sort of thing since Jose’s first 2 seasons when we would counter attack at such speed. But you’re right, as is RDM. We’re just a bit too Arsenal….its very pretty but it just isn’t clinical enough. I don’t think that Mata’s miss was from a bobble (MOTD2 was inconclusive) but more to the fact that he lashed at it when he could have taken one more touch and then maybe slotted past Jones. Jones also produced a very good blind save from Torres in the first half. And then we have Oscar’s glaring miss in the first half as well. We could and should have been 3 up at least and home and hosed. Once they equalised we had the wind taken from our sails and were frankly a bit shit for the last 10 or so minutes, and taking Oscar and Torres off did not help that. Both substituions seemed unnecessary to me, but if anyone was to be sacrificed then maybe Mikel could have gone and Sutrridge or Moses bought on to put 2 at the front and take a chance on Ramires being able to cover tghe Mikel gap. This isn’t in anyway a criticism of Mikel who has been excellent lately, but it seemed to me we retreated into taking the draw rather than unlocking a very average Liverpool.
Talking of Liverpool….some observations. Enrique is a man mountain. I would NOT spill his pint! Sterling is a good prospect but much like Ramires in his first season a bit lightweight. Gerrard to me looked out of sorts, as if the new style doesn’t suit him and aside from that he looked as if he’d had a few too many pies recently.
And then we come to the ventrilquist dummy lookalike, Suarez.
Lets be honest, he’s a cheat. He’s a diver. He’s greedy. He’s a nasty piece of work. He’s also rather brilliant and much like Defoe and others he has one thing on his mind and that’s scoring goals. And he’s pretty darn good at that. Yes, he clearly pushed Ramires for the goal to gainj the advantage. Yes, that’s a foul in anyones book . Did he give a toss? No, he did what any hungry striker would do, and took the chance he wouldn’t be spotted. And much like Hernandez he scored, no doubt like Hernandez worrying about the refs whistle, the lino flag etc……but you can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket. And for me that’s where we are missing something. When Sturridge does this, of course, we have a whole group of pious, holier than thou pompous fans saying he’s greedy. They did the same with Anelka for a while, And Drogba. Why this should be I don’t know. Strikers by nature should be greedy, like boxers should be able to punch primarily rather than dodge, dance and weave. And before everyone jumps on the unfairness of the Ramires push…..just remember a certain Percy Carvalho doing similar to Barcelona allowing JT to score a match winning goal (the famous 4-2 at SB game under Jose). If one of our team had done that yesterday and scored we’d be over the moon and instantly all rather conscience free.
I like Torres, he played pretty well yesterday and for me was unlucky to be subbed. But he”s the new Anelka. He holds the ball, he creates, he lays off, but he scores less and doesn’t terrify fans and defenders any more. I’ll say it again…if not Falcao (and I heard a very juicy rumour yesterday from a source very close to RDM), then go and dangle some money in front of Defoe or Bent. Both score goals. Bent has a huge point to prove. Defoe is a lethal goalscoring loathsome mercenary who’ll kiss any badge with a huge wedge of cash riding on it.
In that sense he’s bloody perfect for us.
Oh, and if yesterday showed anything it showed that both terams are very much ‘work in progress’, but we’re substantially further along the line than Liverpool.
Two other observations………still we had a bunch of moron Chelsea fans singing the Murderers chants. if you read this and you sung that then please fuck off and leave our club alone you utter cunts.
And finally to Chelsea (and to be fair, other PL sides) for another well handled Remembrance tribute, as well as BOTH sets of fans who for the most part honoured the silence admirably. Apart from one idiot a few rows back from me who was soon put back in his place.
That is all. For now you’ll no doubt be relieved to hear.
A good read, Ryan.
Started the day thinking we’d probably be lucky to get a draw and lo, that’s what we got. Probably the most average Liverpool side we’ve seen at the Bridge for a long time, but if you don’t put your chances away even the poorest sides will punish you with a half-decent striker up front. And there is the difference between us and them, I’m afraid. Not really a coincidence that the two clubs above us have the combined talents of van Persie, Rooney, Hernandez, Welbeck, Aguero, Tevez, Balotelli and Dzeko between them to stick up front. Some erratic, some perhaps not the best but they have options. I’d give Moses a go for us – he really can’t do any worse than the current pair we have on the books.
Plenty of plus points, though; some good football, Azpilicueta was decent, Ramires very good. Creative Herberts were a bit muted, but still being sufficiently creative. Losing JT is big blow – having seen the picture doing the rounds of the moment Suarez lands on his leg, it isn’t pretty at all.
A thought on Robbie; substitutions just a little too predictable? Moses for Oscar, Torres for Sturridge and never before what, 75 minutes? Not really game-changing stuff.
Tony – selfishness in a striker is fine, but an utter pig-headed refusal to even consider passing to anyone when the options offer you very little else is not. Not sure how many times Studge got the ball in the 12-13 minutes he was on for yesterday, but what I do know is that he didn’t attempt to pass it to a team mate once. Not once. Actually quite like the guy but he’s got all the guile and awareness of whoever the Director General of the BBC is today.
A tricky month ahead; West Brom, Juventus, City, West Ham with Japan and Leeds looming thereafter. I don’t think we’re headed for a meltdown, but our early season form was maybe a little unrepresentative of where we really are as a team right now.
Studge did nowt yesterday in his 10 minutes agreed, but I’m talking more about the two of them together. Sturridge has the makings of a greedy but decent striker and has time on his side. Its way too early to be jettisoning him. RDM should sit Torres down and put the Anelka role to him as an option, lets face it we all liked Anelka a lot but his goal tally in the last couple of years was hardly golden boot material. I just think Torres might have appreciated having a foil to distract the defence from crowding him out.
From what I’ve seen of Suarez recently he’s hardly been the bearer of slide rule passes to his team mates either…..maybe that’s why so few of them went to celebrate with him. For me Suarez without any doubt is Liverpool’s Drogba. Hated, accused, misunderstood, idiotic, sulky (yes he has his moments), but only too happy to hammer the nails into the coffins of other teams.
On the subs aspect, I tend to agree, the changes he made didn’t really offer us anything, and if truth be told they weakened the team. Yes, the goal rattled us but as we’ve shown before the group on the field do seem to have the knack of absorbing the blow and then getting back into it. Personally I think had we upped the ante with Studge on for Mikel or even at a push Ramires then I think Liverpool were vulnerable and we could have regained the momentum. But, like I freely admit, what the fuck do I know about football?
Has something happened at the BBC I should know about?
I hear Danny Baker is free Monday to Friday these days……it wouldn’t last very long but it’d be fun.
Issue with Sturridge is that he thinks he’s a first choice, 20 plus goals a season number 9 front man and the club / Robbie evidently don’t. While stranger things have happened and he might become the player he thinks he is, he simply doesn’t look the part and is unlikely to get the chance with us. It’s Joe Cole syndrome – you can have all the self-confidence and technical ability with a football, but if the nous isn’t there then it probably never will be. I’m sure he’d be a big hit at Villa / Sunderland / West Ham but, rightly or wrongly he’s probably never going to get a shout here (unless one of Torres’s legs falls off tomorrow).
Re Sutton – he failed with us for no other reason than the fact we were not playing his game at the time. He had a few great seasons with Celtic (was SPFA player of the year at one point) after he left and the eye complaint didn’t crop up until a good 4-5 years later. Nothing to do with injury / fading ability; lack of wingers pinging crosses into the box / an obvious foil was the issue for him down at the Bridge. Moving up to date, the fact we signed Torres after he had openly said that he wasn’t sure whether he could deal with the physicality of the PL in the long term baffled me then and does even more so now.
Let’s face it, our luck with big hame strikers has generally been pretty appalling; with both Shevchenko and Torres it has been all about Roman’s vanity and bagging the big money dream signing – world class, goal machine number 9 but we’ve made the wrong decision almost every time in recent years. He seems to want to collect them like he does pieces of art. Whether or not we a) get Falcao or b) he proves to be a PL success is anyone’s guess but the thought of shelling out another £50m odd on the latest hot-shot striker just leaves me cold (which is appreciably an odd thing for any football fan to say).
Would agree with the man VermHat (welcome, and thanks for the comments); take a punt on Huntelaar. Who knows if he’s the next Kezman, van Nistelrooy or somewhere in between – it’s pin money for Roman.
Not convinced with Huntelaar, he didn’t last long at Madrid, and the premier league seems to be a bit of a graveyard for dutch strikers apart from the two Vans.
I think a certain Mr Hasselbaink might beg to differ…
Ah yes how could I forget the great man!
He seems to have done well in northern Europe (Netherlands and Germany) and less so in the south (Spain and Italy); not sure what there is to be read into that, but at £5/6m it’s got to be worth a punt.
Scouser here.
Fair analysis in the article and in the comments below. I think the draw flattered Liverpool and Chelsea should have had the game in bag at half-time.
That said, I didn’t think Chelsea were up to much yesterday. Some decent play but not a great deal of penetration. Chelsea’s best moments came from our defenders having almighty brain farts. Part of your inability to put together sustained pressure (you’ve got to remember that this is arguably the poorest Liverpool side for 50-odd years) was due to Rodgers picking up were Juve left off with the 3-5-2 (which we have played a few times over the years under Rafa and Kenny, to good effect) which was good from a containment perspective but poor when it came to building our own attacks.
If Chelsea had Suarez, you’d be the best side in the league (certainly on paper), though I have my doubts about RDM’s tactical acumen (and as you yourselves have said here his tactical agility). I really like Oscar. Spectacular goals aside, his tactical discipline is impressive for one so young and one so skillful. You often find no.10s of his talent don’t take a great responsibility off the ball (which isn’t to say they have to run round like a headless chicken, in the inimitable English style) but it seems he has a natural aptitude in this regard. I noticed it in the Olympics and against Juve, how he will occupy the same space as the other team’s pivot (or regista in Pirlo’s case) and stop attacks from being built.
I think the idea raised by Der_Kaiser of putting Moses up front sounds promising. He might be a little rough around the edges (though when you are comparing him to the imposter who masquerades as Torres and Sturridge, he’s like cashmere) but I think it would promote more movement with that front four and he is less predictable than his counterparts. Chelsea could do worse than to try and unsettle Hernandez or Dzeko, neither of whom are getting the playing time they deserve. I can’t see you getting Falcao, though I made the same mistake with Hazard. Huntelaar is also available and I think he is often unfairly looked down upon by big clubs. May not be quick but has fabulous movement and good technique (he is Dutch after all!).
There are rumours of Liverpool going for Sturridge. Considering the inevitably extortionate price we’d have to pay, I sincerely hope these rumours are wide of the mark. I think he is a good player but not an elite one, though admittedly, Liverpool aren’t an elite team, for the time being at least.
Good luck to Terry on his injury. It looked a bad one at first. It seems he might be okay now.
For what it is worth, I don’t think Chelsea will have a winter meltdown, but rather the accumulation of points will gently slow down to a level that represents a side in progress.
Good luck for the season.
You see folks……..there are some nice Scousers 😉
Seriously, welcome to the blog, and it’s always a pleasure to see opposition fans come here and debate things in a decent and civilised manner. One of the things we pride ourselves on here is a sense of even-handedness to the opposing teams (Spurs excepted………..JOKE).
When I was naming Defoe and Bent as possibles I did consider putting Dzeko and Hernandez in there….but I can’t see Man Utd selling anyone to us….still lots of bad blood following the Mikel affair and unlikely to go until old Purplenose quits or shuffles off this mortal coil. Dzeko is interesting. On arrival at Citeh I was quite jealous based on his reputation, but in his first season he looked to have the turn of speed of John Prescott after a 5 course meal washed down with a cigar nad half a bottle of single malt. But last season he looked to have adapted to the pace of the PL and given his record I doubt he’s happy with being the ‘supersub’…. I seem to recall he may have said this in a TV post match interview (I may be mistaken). As for Falcao….well he’s on fire now but I can’t help thinking he might follow some of our other highly prized forwards into the strikers graveyard of Stamford Bridge. Even Drogba looked to be going there but pulled himself out on the brink by sheer stubborness.
Fleck? Sutton? Weah? Pizzaro? Kezman? Shevchenko? And standing in the wings Sturridge (maybe) and Torres?
Thanks for the perspective from the away end. It’s always nice to hear rational comment from the oppo fans. Hope you’ll keep coming back as Brendan Rogers is after all one of ours and we’re all quite interested in his “project” (as AVB would have put it).
I’m glad the feebleness of the Liverpool team wasn’t just in my eyes. Astonishing to see Gerrard play so poorly — he’s turned in quite a few good performances at the bridge over the years. Yes, Oscar’s a wonderful player, and surprisingly diligent and effective in the tackle for a weedy Brazilian kid. He’s had (much) better games for us recently, too: neither he nor Mata were near their best form on Sunday.
I’m about equally certain that Abramovich is about to chuck more money in the direction of the latest celebrity striker as I am that the result will be a disaster. It’s so obviously the weak point in the team, and Studge I’m afraid just doesn’t have the nous to take over in that position; but I’d still rather see us persist with Nando and then see if Lukaku’s ready next year. Someone on the train on the way home was muttering about promoting Piazon but he’s a Mata-type player rather than a front man.
I’m not worried about the blip per se — we’ve been overperforming and ought to expect to be around third or fourth at best. But if we go a few more games without a win the mutters about Robbie will start.
Let’s be honest, the second Mata missed we all knew this was ending 1-1.
We said that where we were sitting. Back at the car ChelseaBob said the same. Came into work and mate who was also there said the same. We’re getting good at this soothsayer malarkey…..
How true! After this miss I said to my mate that is it we are going to draw it at a best.
Cheers, Ryan.
Agree with Mark about Mata’s miss 100%. Kind of got the futile feeling when Oscar missed what was also not the hardest chance.
In other VERY good news:
MRI Scans reveal no significant damage to John Terry’s cruciate ligaments. He will be out weeks rather than months. – official statement from the club.
Excellent and knowledgable comment from our scouse brethren. I’m not sold on the “if we try to buy a decent striker they’ll turn to shit” theory. Most people would’ve told you Torres was no longer Torres when we bought him. Same goes for Sutton, Weah and Sheva. From what I’ve seen of Falcao he just can’t help but make things happen. Much like Suarez he has the happy knack of getting on the end of goalscoring opportunities or making them out of thin air. I’m also a big fan of Lewandowski which I may have mentioned several hundred times previously.
Sorry Ryan I disagree. The season we bought Sutton he’d had a fantastic game against us and was at his peak…no-one I knew foresaw such a rapid decline (now being linked to a degenerative eye disease sadly). As for Sheva, well he was pretty damned unlucky but again when we bought him I doubt anyone seriously knew how fucked he was. Weah….was of course a dead loss and way past his sell by date. Kezman and Pizzaro both had very good records prior to landing in SW6, and as I recall Kezman had a phenomenal record.
I hope you’re right and that if we do get Falcao he does the business, but then who backs him up? Do we keep Torres and Studge? Hence why I like the idea of Bent or Defoe. They know the PL so experience is not an issue, nor is adapting to the pace and physical nature.
Hmm maybe. Kezman/Pizarro seemed like budget buys to me to be thrown in with Sidwell and Ben Haim. Didn’t mention them as don’t think they had that ‘saviour’ tag on arrival.
Sheva was past his best. That’s why Milan sold him to us. They had/have one of the most sophisticated medical departments in world football. They saw he was coming to the end and we’d been desperate to buy him for a while so they cashed in. Not saying he was useless just that we overpaid in our desperation for a player past his peak. Bit like Torres. I remember John Aldridge suggesting when we bought Torres that we probably hadn’t bought the Torres that we wanted two years before. At the time I thought “sour grapes”. He was right. Torres had a great game against us too the year he came (iirc). You might be right about Sutton but maybe he was Rebrov to Shearer’s Sheva (if you know what I mean). Anyway I don’t disagree per se on Bent/Defoe just not sure they fit in with the new age profile. Wilfrid Bony might be the answer.
Since JT’s injury isn’t that serious I’m a bit worried he squeeled so loudly. I thought he was hard?
@GrocerJack:disqus :
I’ve never been much of a fan of Defoe or Bent myself. Defoe can look a world beater at times but I think that he lacks a proper appreciation of his teammates positions around him and the game intelligence to bring them into the game. He is also very patchy. He can score 3 braces in 5 games and then go 10 games without scoring. Considering Chelsea’s lack of alternatives (I think Torres off the bench would be even worse than Torres in the starting line-up, Camp Nou goal notwithstanding) and propensity for a breakdown sooner or later in a season I don’t think someone who blows hot and cold, alternately, is the right man for the job. Bent suffers from the same drawbacks, even moreso with regard to the inability to influence buildup play or otherwise lack of interest in contributing to feeding his teammates. You’ve also got to bear in mind the ridiculous premium that applies to English players (even more severe with Defoe being at a rival) and their advancing years. Doesn’t really make business sense. I think after Roman has invested a load of cash in refreshing the Chelsea side and bringing down the average age, if not Roman himself whoever takes the lead on the transfers would be reluctant to buy people near their 30s at a premium fee. You’ve finally entered profit too! That said, my own suggestion of Huntelaar wouldn’t help much in that regard, but he would be cheaper. I agree that Hernandez would be a tough transfer since Taggart would cut off his own whiskey nose to spite his face. Also, brilliant bastard that he is, he tends to inspire great loyalty from his players.
As for the ‘Chelsea Curse’ whereby Stamford Bridge appears to act as some sort of kryptonite for goalscorers, I’d just echo Ryan_shot’s comments and say that most of the time, you can explain why people have failed rationally. I still think that there is a decent player in Torres but it might take a move elsewhere for him to emerge. I never think he’ll be the player he was at Liverpool though.
I think Lewandowski would be a good signing and you can see from the goals that Reus has scored, and Kagawa before him, that he can score himself but also bring his comrades into the fold. If you can’t get Falcao, Jackson Martinez has already broken some of his records at Porto in his short time there. If you really wanted to commit to the Barca way, you’d do well to bring in Muller and play him as a false 9. There are a lot of options, too many to make this listing a worthy excercise. The key thing is that Abramovic seems interested again and that means it is more a question of who Chelsea can’t buy.
@limetreebower:disqus :
Gerrard wasn’t up to much yesterday, nor has he been for most of the season (he was MOTM against United though). I think the years of playing every game, injured or no, has caught up with him and since Rafa’s last season he has really struggled to hit his own very high heights. He has misplaced more passes in the opposition half than anyone else this season. The team’s problems and the relative obscurity of his team-mates has brought out the excessive elements of his game that Rafa had ironed out. He also lacks the mobility and ability to surge he had in his heyday. I feel we’ll spend the next few years perservering with him when we shouldn’t.
As for our team’s ‘feebleness’, we aren’t up to much at the moment but we’ve got some good players, good ideas but are a bit doughy. We’ve got a small squad and we haven’t even been able to pick all our first team players from that small pool. Lucas would definitely start (and was in the form of his career when he got injured against you last year, looking like he was destined to win back to back player of the year awards) and so probably would Kelly and Borini. We’ll get better, but without new faces, or a change in luck, not by a significant margin. I don’t think Rodgers has done a particularly good job so far but he has had a number of extenuating circumstances and I’m willing to give him time. I have long-term faith in his and vision for the club is exciting and appropriate.
I too wonder how many points will be dropped before RDM is under intense pressure. Elimination from the CL at any stage before the QFs would likely be a death knell. I don’t think Guardiola’s admission that he wants to return to the fold is going to do him any favours, though I suspect that Pep knows what he is doing.
Re: Lukaku- I know he is young, but he doesn’t look like an elite player in the making to me. I think he is an unsophisticated Drogba-lite. I think he could be a stunningly effectively player a la Carroll but a player of real quality? Not for me. I must confess I have only watched him in full games 4 times this season. Drogba himself took a long time to reach his peak, as tends to be the way with taller ‘big man’ strikers, so maybe it is too early to judge him. I just feel Chelsea, in paying so much for him so young, have bought into the Drogba mk.II hysteria that has been propagated by his agent, Anderlecht and willing media puppets.
With regard Torres, I think he’s trying too hard again just like he did when he arrived at the club. He’s started to drop deeper to get the ball and trying to force the play, he hasn’t got the pace he had before perhaps that’s one of the reasons he’s dropping deeper.
Whatever Chelsea and RA do come January in the transfer window, I just hope it isn’t a knee jerk panic buy to get whoever seems to fit the bill up front.
Robbie did frustrate me yesterday with his like for like substitutions instead of trying something a little different, we bossed midfield and as mentioned taking off one of our holding midfielders for a forward might have just got us the three points from a very ordinary Liverpool side.
Interesting discussion, chaps, and what a woeful catalogue of failed strikers we’ve got through – without even mentioning the slightly different disaster that was Mutu. Are we still pursuing him for the transfer fee we were denied?
An irritating day all round, starting with the proverbial football tourists in the row in front of me who spent the whole game taking photos of each other, themselves, the stadium and occasionally random bits of the game. Mind you perhaps they were scouts from that obscure Chinese team in for Lamps who didn’t realise he wouldn’t be playing.
Like others, it became ever more obvious to me as we constantly failed to get a second goal that despite our domination of a poor Liverpool side that the scrote, Suarez, would pinch an equaliser eventually.
TG, while I agree opinions on Suarez would reverse instantly if we bought him, should Jamie Redknapp really just laugh off his sneaky push on Ramires for his goal when the TV pundits all castigate diving as unconscienable cheating. Given its more disguised nature isn’t that a worse form of cheating?
Mark, I too was shocked by JT’s girlie squealing. When I banged my knee against the edge of a heavy wooden coffee table on Saturday I just issued a few unparliamentary expletives and limped on bravely. While I don’t have the benefit of an action replay to show if my leg bent backwards at an alarmingly gruesome angle I’m sure it can’t have been that much more painful, surely 😉
Seriously, good to hear it is not too serious, but did you notice the sports hacks on Monday morning couldn’t even agree if our medical staff thought it wasn’t as bad as it first looked or would be season ending, with both versions appearing in different rags.
Think we only signed Sutton when the Delvechio deal fell through late on. It was a bit of a desperate signing.
For me, it’s perfectly clear: when Chelsea break the transfer record for a white No 9, it’s a disaster – Fleck, Sutton, Casiraghi, Torres.
However, when they do it for a black No 9, it’s a success – Furlong (ahem, he did fine), Hasselbaink, Drogba.
So that’s that.
So a higher percentage of black forwards have succeeded at Chelsea than white ones?
I’ll bet Ollie Holt won’t report that.
To be fair Casiraghi’s career was cut short with the knee/leg injury, so it’s a little unfair to call him a disaster.
And Vialli wasn’t a bad white No. 9 😉
Vialli wasn’t a record signing. Also, he as a bit of a disappointment really – spent most of the time on the bench smoking cigs.
I loved Casiraghi, but one goal in 14 and then an end-of-career injury is hardly the stuff of dreams…
For the record, that doesn’t mean I think we should spent £5m on Defoe, let alone £55m.
I don’t think Sturridge is great, but I’d play him ahead of Torres. Rather a selfish striker than a cowardly one. Moses is a Kalou, a good player but not one we can rely on (and also a future target of boo boys, I warrant).
Lukaku isn’t amazing, but he’s probably the best we have for the system we’ve got. Extraordinary, how weak we are in this position.
Over Monday and Tuesday i have not stopped thinking about this ridiculous result Liverpool achieved on the weekend.
As Chelsea SHOULD of learnt through the years that we thave to be
putting away the chances against Liverpool. We shown that we are the
better side against united and Liverpool but this result could prove to
be fatal.
Tactial we were great although we seem to drop off through part of the game. But the substitutions were off.
RDM……Who doesn’t t love him but Sunday he brought on the wrong people.
Torres shouldn’t of come off….football is made of moments and who knows
what would of happened…people say he wouldn’t of scored but it seemed to
be set up for him to do so.. some may not agree but this may prove
chelsea are fed up with the non scoring antics but yet he is only 4 away
from the top scorers. Dont get me wrong we do need another striker but
it will take torres one game or moment to prove he is up to it.
Oscar…What a signing…the unknown turns into the most known, vital to
chelsea. gives chelsea that tick but surley if studridge is going to
come he better on the wing although he thinks he not, he proved last
season he was up for it but this season it seems like he cant connect to
way chelsea going aka Oscar mata hazzard torres link play well. I’m
just not sure if he is up to it.
Moses-Marin these players
need to show them selves and moses has done so…(Great replacement for
kalou) Marin, the man is a unknown player but was meant to be a bargain
when we brought him…
Im sure people might get my gist but there is a long way to go and i
think man city can not be forgotten about as they have not lost a
game!!!!
Im Aware of the process we going through but the squad needs to be expanded,
Profits risen but roman step up again my friend cause we want this chelsea to team to be the greatest of all time!
Will it be ok to sign a white centre forward and black him up a bit? It seemed to work well for the black and white minstrels.
(I’ll now wait for an email from the Society of Black Lawyers)
I have suggested this previously. It fell a little flat.
Must be the way you tell ’em because I got a very warm response.
Maybe there is black man inside Torres struggling to get out?
I shall leave the group to develop this idea in its own inimitable style.
Ohh matron!
Not sure if that’s what’s meant by ‘the White Man’s Burden’, but it could just explain a certain lack of goalscoring form…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7e/TheWhiteNegro.jpg/220px-TheWhiteNegro.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o638s6wifhad6mp/lester-bangs.jpg
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[…] Premier League: Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool – They Know What They Were… […]
Nick,
Hope you got my email, and don’t forget to remind us to use the Amazon link for our Christmas shopping!
[…] was not the best goal ever.Back in the Midlands of England, Chelsea were perhaps reflecting on the points dropped against Liverpool with an even greater rueful lament as an away battle with a home-strong 5th placed side beckoned […]
[…] in the Midlands of England, Chelsea were perhaps reflecting on the points dropped against Liverpool with an even greater rueful lament as an away battle with a home-strong 5th placed side beckoned […]
[…] in the Midlands of England, Chelsea were perhaps reflecting on the points dropped against Liverpool with an even greater rueful lament as an away battle with a home-strong 5th placed side beckoned […]