The Chelsea F.C. Thread IV

Original post by Eloades11

We've struggled at the Stadium of Light over the past few years, and they're always causing upsets. It'll be interesting to see how Mourinho rotates the team. Hopefully Ba starts along with Mikel, both are quality players. Every game up to Christmas will be vital.

No we haven't. We've beaten them there everytime since they got their most recent promotion 6 years ago

Reply 8246

Original post by bammy jastard 27

Hopefully not, may mean lukaku stays there next season.
But it's a weird race tbh. Top 3 already starting to be set though.

City have a tough next 2 months, In December they have West Brom and Southampton away as well as Arsenal and Liverpool at home. In January, they are away to Swansea, Newcastle and Tottenham.

Ours is no blessing either, with a trip to the Emirates as well as a home game against Liverpool (who should be Sturridge-less). By the end of the year, we'll have a better idea of what we;re capable of as everyone has played each other once.

Hopefully, We can get 14/18 in December at least. That will give us 41 points by Christmas. We get a much needed central midfielder or 2 in Christmas and get better form. Not worried about our game at the Etihad, as City will be wary of our counter-attacking threat and we're not as deadbeat as Spurs. Not saying we'll win but I'm sure Mourinho has something planned for the City game

Reply 8247

The Assassin

18

Original post by 9MmBulletz

City have a tough next 2 months, In December they have West Brom and Southampton away as well as Arsenal and Liverpool at home. In January, they are away to Swansea, Newcastle and Tottenham.

Ours is no blessing either, with a trip to the Emirates as well as a home game against Liverpool (who should be Sturridge-less). By the end of the year, we'll have a better idea of what we;re capable of as everyone has played each other once.

Hopefully, We can get 14/18 in December at least. That will give us 41 points by Christmas. We get a much needed central midfielder or 2 in Christmas and get better form. Not worried about our game at the Etihad, as City will be wary of our counter-attacking threat and we're not as deadbeat as Spurs. Not saying we'll win but I'm sure Mourinho has something planned for the City game

City will dispatch of both Arsenal and Liverpool easily I feel -- although the former will stand a better chance. I think, even though we never win there, we could potentially get a draw this time. Won't be annoyed at all if we lost though, as long as we don't get decimated like United or Spurs (as well as the other two fourth place contenders who'll suffer the same fate).

I'm not sure if we're going to go for a midfielder tbh -- at least not two. A DM maybe (although we'll have to sell Mikel in the summer), but I think he favours Ramires too much to get a central one :s-smilie:

Reply 8248

The Assassin

x

Not sure of City dispatching both Arsenal and Liverpool. City have struggled with Arsenal recently. Drew at the Etihad last year against Arsenal in a fairly even game. Won at the Emirates although Arsenal were playing with 10 men for 80 minutes or so. Same with Liverpool at the Etihad too- City didn't look to convincing in either fixture last year.

Arsenal are a team that go toe to toe with anyone. Most of the times they play City, it's a fairly even game possession wise, while Arsenal always create a fair few chances. I think Arsenal are a team whose style suits playing City. Both teams like to attack so they will inevitably leave space for each other.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 8249

bj27

21

Original post by 9MmBulletz

City have a tough next 2 months, In December they have West Brom and Southampton away as well as Arsenal and Liverpool at home. In January, they are away to Swansea, Newcastle and Tottenham.

Ours is no blessing either, with a trip to the Emirates as well as a home game against Liverpool (who should be Sturridge-less). By the end of the year, we'll have a better idea of what we;re capable of as everyone has played each other once.

Hopefully, We can get 14/18 in December at least. That will give us 41 points by Christmas. We get a much needed central midfielder or 2 in Christmas and get better form. Not worried about our game at the Etihad, as City will be wary of our counter-attacking threat and we're not as deadbeat as Spurs. Not saying we'll win but I'm sure Mourinho has something planned for the City game

Good point wrt City, I thought that would be the case. He usually has gameplans when he's facing a stronger team.

I'm not scared of liverpool at home, but I'm hoping we just play for a draw at emirates and nick a result tbh. Play to win if we're in a losing position, but we can't afford to be 7 points behind to them I feel with City also lurking.

It may be premature, but do you think we've gone stronger over the course of this season? I don't think we've played any better than last season, but with added depth unlike last season which was our downfall then, should be able to sustain runs of form.

Reply 8250

Original post by bammy jastard 27

Good point wrt City, I thought that would be the case. He usually has gameplans when he's facing a stronger team.

I'm not scared of liverpool at home, but I'm hoping we just play for a draw at emirates and nick a result tbh. Play to win if we're in a losing position, but we can't afford to be 7 points behind to them I feel with City also lurking.

It may be premature, but do you think we've gone stronger over the course of this season? I don't think we've played any better than last season, but with added depth unlike last season which was our downfall then, should be able to sustain runs of form.

Thing is though by the time we play Arsenal, City have already played them, so we could be 1 point behind. That's assuming we beat Sunderland (which we almost always do), Stoke (50% chance away) and Palace at home. Playing for a draw at the Emirates is cool but we should really hit them on the break as much as possible. I always bite my nails when we play Arsenal because we're on the backfoot alot (especially at the Emirates), but we'll get our moment.

It's too early to say if we're better than last year or not. We've got more cover, but only Christmas will tell. If we're top or within 2 points of top we've got a good chance. I reckon we'll get 80-85 points this year, which probably suggests in my eyes we'll probably end up 2nd but not far from the top if at all

Reply 8251

Original post by billybo_h

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNA7XRvFDjU

Guessing Dave was starting to annoy him...

Never really understood the whole Dave thing, his name is pretty much pronounced how it's spelt :tongue:

Reply 8252

https://twitter.com/LFPnews/status/407616532769161217/photo/1

Courtois named best goalkeeper in La Liga.

Saddens me to say this but I think he needs to return next season and be first choice, hopefully Cech would be okay with a lesser role at the club, but then again it isn't really fair to bench a player of his quality. Courtois won't want to go from playing in the CL and keeping up with Barca/Real in La Liga to playing for a midtable EPL side, and sending him to a top 4/title rival would be a disastrous move so loaning him out again isn't really an option I don't think.

Reply 8253

https://twitter.com/chelseafc/status/407833291492835329

Mourinho also says Samuel Eto'o is back in training and could feature at Sunderland but Oscar is unavailable tomorrow. #CFC

Eto'o is back for tomorrow, but Oscar is out. Hopefully this means we'll see Mata again or maybe KDB.

Reply 8254

little_tom

14

Cech is only 31. He has years ahead of him

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The Assassin

18

Original post by Nickini

https://twitter.com/chelseafc/status/407833291492835329

Eto'o is back for tomorrow, but Oscar is out. Hopefully this means we'll see Mata again or maybe KDB.

Still want to see more Hazard/Mata/KDB. That, if on form, would be out best tbh. Need to see more Schurrle too.

Reply 8256

Zerforax

21

Original post by Nickini

https://twitter.com/LFPnews/status/407616532769161217/photo/1

Courtois named best goalkeeper in La Liga.

Saddens me to say this but I think he needs to return next season and be first choice, hopefully Cech would be okay with a lesser role at the club, but then again it isn't really fair to bench a player of his quality. Courtois won't want to go from playing in the CL and keeping up with Barca/Real in La Liga to playing for a midtable EPL side, and sending him to a top 4/title rival would be a disastrous move so loaning him out again isn't really an option I don't think.

I think you'll have a tough summer where Courtois will come back and say - will I be number 1? And the answer will be no since Cech still is in his prime.

Courtois will then ask to go back to Atletico and I can imagine Chelsea will say no since they won't want him to be too rooted to another club but then is there anyone you could send him to in the premier league where he'd be happier than in Madrid?

Reply 8257

heyimbored

17

Original post by Zerforax

I think you'll have a tough summer where Courtois will come back and say - will I be number 1? And the answer will be no since Cech still is in his prime.

Courtois will then ask to go back to Atletico and I can imagine Chelsea will say no since they won't want him to be too rooted to another club but then is there anyone you could send him to in the premier league where he'd be happier than in Madrid?

I think I'm right in saying that you can't loan a player back to the same club for more than 3 consecutive seasons, so if he goes back to Atletico then he has to go for good. I doubt a title contender would take him on loan because that's 2 games per season, plus any cup clashes, that they won't be able to play their first choice keeper, and it would be a stupid decision. He's too good for a non-contending club. Loan to Barca? :tongue:

A difficult decision will come for you guys/Mourinho at the end of the season; Cech could still have a good 8 or 9 years in him, certainly 5 and I can't imagine he'd be happy sat on the bench for a good few years yet. Courtois could end up providing nearly 20 years of service though...

Reply 8258