Champions League: Roma 3 - 1 Chelsea

I didn't mean to be first with this anti Liverpool rant but hey ho here we go.

Around 2.00am UK time John McCain will be going down in the box arms outstretched hoping for a miracle.

Sorry John, your not at Anfield and your not Stevie G.

I'm going to bed depressed. Not because we got spanked but because once again a non-G12 or is it 14 club gets the wrong end of the shitty stick (TG you didn't clean it like I told you!) at Anfield. Its starting to become a joke.

I will be honest. I would take the result if we won that way, but I would expect to get panned on the box and slated in the media and if it was Drogba well you can write the headlines.

But the British media is so craven. ITV said they deserved it for attacking so much (but they failed to score lads). No-one mentioned the blatant diving. I do not want to hear any nonsense about foreigners and diving again.

Will any British media outlet contrast his statements about diving with what he does in real football games? No I though not.

Time they put a stop to this. If it was Italy or Spain we'd all be talking about brown envelopes etc.

I know I should be concentrating on our club but it was a bad day at the office and the same problems that have dogged us all season are still there.

But I think the larger question is why should fans from teams like Athletico Madrid, who have no real political muscle make the journey to Anfield year in year out when the basic dishonesty of the home team and the officials will generally settle it for the 'Poo unless the play so poorly that the visitors go 2 or 3 up. If it is close they will always get a decision.

Its shocking

City of Cu*ture 2008 indeed.

I've now had a little time to calm down from tonight's poor performance whilst watching Obama slowly edge towards the White House.

GOOD:
1. Lamps and Deco - The only 2 players who seemed to know which end of the pitch we were supposed to be attacking. Their performance in the first 30mins was verging on brilliant apart from the lack of goals.
2. Result - Hopefully it's given the whole team including LFS a rocket up their arses.

BAD:
1. Performance - It's gone beyond a coincidence that we've laboured to draws against Spurs, Utd and Cluj, struggled to a 1-0 home victory against Roma and succumbed to defeat against the Scousers and Roma. We simply have no ideas against a well organised team defending deeply and we now need a result away to Bordeaux. Who says that'll be any better?
2. Scolari - I mentioned this after Liverpool, that he himself admits he's more of a motivator than a tactician, and it certainly showed tonight. I'm sorry but his HT reshuffle resulted in a shambles. Drogba touched the ball twice in 45mins and had no effect. Anelka should have been hooked and taking off two, albeit inconsistent yet pacy and tricky wingers, for Belletti and placing Deco on the wings couldn't have been more wrong. Our whole team lacked pace to get round their man and both Deco and Belletti constantly headed infield to a packed Roman midfield. It was a tactical mistake from Phil and a couple more defeats or laboured draws against 'good' sides, remembering that Roma are 16th in Serie A and Spurs were bottom when we played them, will confirm in my mind that Phil simply has no idea how to beat the best sides.
3. Anelka - Went AWOL after his hat-trick and didn't seem to care tonight. Wanted to play in a 4-4-2 and yet i can't remember him doing anything in the second half.
4. Bosingwa - Does he have Gronkjaer syndrome or has he forgotten how to cross?
5. Mikel - I think the £15m contract talk may have gone to his head. A very poor performance which cost us 2 goals.

UGLY:
1. Gerrard - It could only be him, and i couldn't agree more with BlueBayou. His dive tonight was just another in a long line of 'fouls' against him resulting in pens, which we all know are blatent dives. For him to criticise Ricky Carvalho and Cristiano Ronaldo for being divers is frankly hilarious. His hypocricy knows no bounds but what makes it worse is the reaction of the English media. I remembe how a few years ago it was Mickey Owen who everyone blindly defended (anyone remember his dive against the Argies in S. Korea in 2002)But now Gerrard seems to have succeeded him as the new diving angel of the English media. Seeing ITV defend him, Benitez refuse to admit that it wasn't a dive or journos like Henry Winter describe it as a 'dubious' penalty is a disgrace. Why is no-one able to mention the word dive? Whether it's Andy Gray's obsession with calling it 'simulation', MOTD saying 'he made more of that challenge than there was' or ITV blindly refusing to acknowledge any controversial incident, everyone is scared of using the D-word. Until we start using this taboo language players like Gerrard will never stop diving.

It's not as if i'm refusing to acknowledge that we've got 2 brilliant divers in our team - Joe and Didier - but Didier especially isn't able to get away with it like Gerrard. It only adds to my hatred of Liverpool and i can't wait for our rematch at Anfield (if Phil's learnt to beat a big side by then)!

And after a crazy night, normality has returned. It's going to be an Obama landslide!

A lot of old crap will no doubt be spouted about this result, but these are the facts as I see them:

- Even though we started very well and should've made the match a walkover, there was a certain sluggishness and slackness about our play - particularly Bosingwa who seemed to think it was all very routine whenever we got the ball.

- When Roma scored it was completely unexpected because they'd been desperately poor. Why no-one did anything at all when the cross came in will remain a mystery to everyone. We've never done it before in recent years. Not at all.

- Two players were brought on at half-time. I'm not going to say the hooked players had been great, but one change would've been plenty with one of the wide men having a rocket up their arse and ten minutes to sort it out, else they're off too. Two at a time means one adjustment for the opposition. One at a time in rapid succession means two.

- The players got the message from the subs and panicked their way forward, leaving us short in the space between midfield and defense. When turnovers came the defenders (particularly Alex) flapped. Great strike by Vucinic but we were exposed. It was headless chicken attacking. When we went forward the same way against Bordeaux (at 2-0 up) BFS went spare, quite rightly. We could have been hit on the break and it could've become tight at 2-1. This was the same, but this time we were punished.

- Don't believe the crap about this being the worst defeat for 8 years. It was only the same as Monaco away, which is bad enough. It was also down to tactical errors by the manager and panic by the players, the same way. When the 3rd went in against us this time it was Mikel chasing the forward to make up for his mistake. We had two full-backs on at the time - Bosingwa and Belletti - where were they? The nearest players were Lampard and Bridge. Where was the rest of the defence? The players all lost their heads. That was also part of the problem.

That's one of the things i don't like about Alex, apart from his cumbersome nature. He forgets that he's a defender. It may have worked against Villa last season and against Sunderland, but against good teams his random ambles forwards can prove costly. When Ricky does it, he does it on a counter attack, knowing that we've got 3 other defenders and Mikel back to defend for him. However Alex ambles forwards at any time. I remember when we sent JT upfield, Alex ran forward, to no effect, leaving Lamps, Bridge and Mikel in defence. He has to learn when to go forward and when to stay and for that reason i've never considered him being in the same league as Ricky, JT and i even think Ivanovic is a better prospect.

I'm not going to say we haven't got a problem with players at the moment - we have with no Essien or Ballack and still a quarter-fit Drogba. But we went to this game capable of winning, but not needing to win. We've been patient in our play this season and built it up through the 90 minutes. There was no need to panic at all, especially with so many experienced players, but they did. Why is that? I want to ask the players that question.

This is not a question of whether Anelka\Kalou\Malouda\Cole are good enough. They can be if they work together and ratchet up the pressure without losing their heads. We don't have Drogba right now so we can't blast through packed defences so we shouldn't even try. We need to unravel defences by asking repeated questions all round the box. Hitting long balls is no answer, so we shouldn't even try when the players in the area aren't suited to it. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

This is how we've done it when we've played well and we need to persist against the tougher teams. No new player is going to come from the sky. Certainly not by Sunday. Nor by next Wednesday, nor by the following weekend, so any talk of dumping this that or the other player and bringing some other (unavailable) expensive player on the next helicopter is no answer and I don't want to hear it.

im normally very angry and one of those people that is quick to level blame but to be honest it seems unnecessary to freakout. i wouldv expected the players to be fired up coming out of the lockeroom and i guess that excitement just dies when you get scored on 3 min in. im not sure if the spirit wasnt quite there, we certainly looked like we wanted to win in the first half and sometimes the game just gets away from ya. i cant remember the last time we lost two out of four games? kinda weird

i was watching on setanta and the commentator was saying he thought we were "playing too much"...i think he was partly right. against teams defending deep we give these shitty crosses to a lone striker and basically hope the ball falls to lampard to smash in... i hope that gets worked out. we used to be able to just hope all game and have that magic moment for the 1-0 win because our defense would never get scored on...we have been scored on more this year but i guess you sacrifice that when we have a goal differential of what? 26? less than a third of the season in

i decided to focus my annoyance on that little shit gerrard, he not only thought he deserved his penalty but also thought he deserved another. here is the link to the video on sky. just laughable
LINK
i completely agree with everyone before who has bashed him and the media for not getting on him.

anyway i live in america and am now going to watch obama win. soon enough we will have taxes like in britain and ill grab my uk passport and move knowing that over half my income is gone regardless of where i live :p ....and also get that perk of watching chelsea live rather than with awful american commentators

@sid

i found it very bizarre how lampard was always behind like alex and mikel in the second half. he at least has the experience to know that having 8 men in the box is bound to be counterattacked on.

the substitutions we make are also very confusing. first off catering to anelka's "i want to be with drogba" crying is just stupid. we have been fine with a lone striker. if its not broke why fix it? the way lfs tries to integrate so much talent sometimes bewilders me. you have players playing all over the place out of position and such running around trying to score and no defense. the structure just kinda falls apart when we arent in our 4-5-1. anyway its not the end of the world but he quite simply cannot integrate all the talent in the team with a 4-4-2....put lampard or deco on the wing? have no holding midfielder? have alex play forward? the system just doesnt work. any system using lampard, ballack, deco, mikel, essien, or even belletti as a winger is flawed...we have wing subs for malouda and cole (sinclair, di santo (kinda), kalou) but oh well

someone mentioned needing an arjen robben (minus the "injuries"-->laziness) and I could not agree more. having only 2 experienced wingers hurts us when it comes time to sub as malouda and j.cole are almost always the first casualties

@BitC
Thanks for the reply, but I didn't understand a word of it.

Lampard behind Alex and Mikel? When? The question is why Alex is out of defence. Catering to Anelka? What? We brought on drogba because we were a goal down. Deco can be a wing player and will be when Ballack\Essien return. He can play there. So can Belletti, seeing as he's covered there for Cole and Kalou twice this season and has been attacking full-back or a midfielder all his career. di Santo is no wide man, so why suggest it?

And on Robben, does no-one remember his last full season when he was fit (if you can call it that) and played every week until December and he kept screwing up his crosses and passes and shots and kept hitting the woodwork about ten times and only got his 1st goal against Wigan in December, then promptly got injured?

People wish their lives away. We don't have players we don't have any more. We don't have players we haven't got yet. We don't have players who aren't fit. We have who we have and we've got to make a coherent and productive team out of them, without them forgetting what they were doing right the moment the first thing goes against us.

@sid

it just seemed to me that at lampard was actually playing deep as everyone was pushing forward at the end, like alex and mikel were infront of him....and yes that brings up the question of why alex is so far up...perhaps he got carried away after his goal and assist against sunderland

anelka said yesterday that he doesnt agree at all with scolari on playing him anywhere but center forward or with anelka. he goes as far as to say him and scolari are "polite" while everyone else on chelsea sings felipe's praises
article here: LINK
our best football this year has been with one forward. i was frustrated at how we changed to two forwards (perhaps catering to anelka) and tried to play a 4-4-2 for the first time this season...which didnt work

in terms of playing various players in different positions belleti isnt very pacy and i think most people agree that he has done great holding this year and taking the occassional 40 yard wondergoal rip...he doesnt exactly maraud up the wings anymore. deco may also be able to play on the wings but looked his best at the beginning of the season in the center with lampard...at least in my opinion

edit: 2nd paragraph

sorry i meant "anelka said yesterday that he doesnt agree at all with scolari on playing him anywhere but center forward or with DROGBA"

Deco&Fat_Lamp lost the match for us. I understand deco's part, he's not the first player to struggle alongside lamps.

Finally lamps' high ratings in this blog have been explained. Taking SHOTS ALLDAY. WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?

I almost pointed out beforehand that pple should keep an eye on what happens when Obi loses the ball(why?...because he's always surrounded by 3 players, while Lamps&Deco are elsewhere window shopping!). I saw the same thing at least three times vs. Sunderlnd, only they didn't have intelligent players.

three of the four shots lamps took, anelka was onside and 'releasable', the fourth shot drogba did me a favor and said sth to that fat cock.

big phool...i'd love to slide my c**k in his side pocket. we had that good 20 min. spell, and he was standing by the line telling Bridge what to do with everyball....and i was thinking, WHAT A COCK!

this is our best team rightnow: obi,belletti,lamps*;joey,anelka,deco!

and ...All the best Mr. OBAMA!

It is a paradox that we're able to thrash average teams but struggle against better, more organised teams, which does leave a question mark hanging over Big Phil.

For the Premiership this may not be a problem. There are 27 games to play. If we lose the 2 against Arsenal, 1 against Man U and 1 against Liverpool that's 23 remaining. Win all those yields 69 points, added to our existing 26 giving a total of 95, which is a championship winning number.

In a knock-out competition like the Champions League this paradox is more of a handicap.

@Habs
Nice to see you've calmed down a bit, and Tony was spot on with his post on the other blog. It was a mugging alright, but schoolboy defending cost us the first goal, an apparent schoolboy prank with us being locked in, and still in the changing room for the second, and of course the schoolboy error from Obi One for the third.

To be honest, I would stil prefer us to win the PL over the CL as we all know, and we don't have to play the best football or even be the best team to win it, Liverpool have proved that over the years.

So lets take it on the chin, and keep all our venom for Stevie Me and Luckypool for yet another historic night at Anfield.

Can we put it down as 'one of them things' ?? Like McCain, we got whupped.

Mikel takes the blame for two of the goals (his frankly shit attempt at a 2-yad pass to Deco that lead to his first yellow and the subsequent free-kick for the first goal). In the grand scheme of things, it wont stop us winning the group, and we'll be qualified when we beat Bordeaux whenever that game is.

The thing is, to me, I'm not sure we've got as much strength in depth as I / we have been lead to believe. You can take into account the injuries we've got, but that doesn't detract from the fact we're picking 2 wide men from 3 who are inconsistent at best. I had to wonder last night if Kalou trains with blinkers on. Does he realise we play in blue, or that he has team-mates? All he did was get the ball, struggle to control it, try a step-over, nearly fall over it, lose possession, stop and watch as Roma player runs off with the ball. Malouda looked mildly threatening, but does the bloke have any thought process? Shortly after conceding, Mikel released him with an amazing first time ball, he ran onto it and shanked it 10 yards wide from the edge of the box. Surely he should know he's NEVER going to score from there.

We've got 1 striker in Anelka who can't actually 'hit' a ball, and Drogs who was back to his whingeing best last night. TSSO was right in that we dont have a plan B, but at times we struggle to demonstrate a plan A.

And yet we've played worse in games and won them. And we'll play worse than last night and win loads more. Best to write it off as a bad night, get 3 points from the notoriously difficult Ewood and make it count against Bordeaux.

And the less said about Liverpool the better. 94+ minutes and the Kop sniper's at it again. As Habs pointed out, we're more than happy to vilify foreigners for their theatrics, but the English lads seem to get away with it.

Stevie Me truly is a detestable piece of cheating shit.

@Nick

The team was a shambles agreed and no one warrants a 4 yes not even Lampard. He is a great player but will not always come through all the time for us especially when he is to be marked out of the game like Roma and Liverpool did against us. All our play goes through him and we will shine when he does and I think that that is very wrong...We have to devise a plan B that requires playing aroung him and let him drift out and into the game. LFS needs to see this otherwise people like Haberdashers that are not so gifted with insight will rumble away. He has not disappointed yet again...the donkey he is...He is still so in love with Mourinho that if we were to play Inter I would not be surprised if he came out and said we owed Mourinho so we should lose to him.

Inteesting that LFS has not appeared in any of his good sections since he began rumbling on here but will always wait for a loss to "Justifiably" put him in the bad section. Haberdashers="donkey"

i still think the jew was a very smart manager.Am sorry to say we have a very dumb manager currently and it wont supprise me seeing us lose time and again.
its now becoming obvious and clear am watching chelsea transform to a mini current arsenal, am watching chelsea return to the pre mourinho era

Nick has written in his review: "That said, there does seem to be a pattern developing this season: we are struggling to penetrate well organised teams with packed midfields and resolute back fours. Efforts to break down defensive teams often leave us open to counter-attacks on the break."
This sentence sums up very well our performance!

The team was arrogant, lazy and unprepared (which never happened under Mourinho, by the way). I guess banging goals against mediocre teams does that to you. The much talked about plan B seems to be removing wingplay and hoofing long balls into opposition box from midfield in hope that unfit DD, unhappy Anelka or out-of-position-defender somehow performs. Bloody annoying. Hopefully this woke the team up. "The Dying Swan" by Stevie Me capped the evening perfectly.

in all the games we lost this season, we were beaten by the teams that played morinho's football. like chelsea 2004/2005

Wow a very nice insight there Musumba. So you think i'm wrong to put Phil in the bad section despite his second half tactical reshuffle resulting in confusion, the conceding of two more goals and an inability to keep the ball. You even say yourself that we don't have a Plan B, which seems to confirm that Phil hasn't got his tactics quite right yet. And it's also Phil's job to get us playing good football when he's being paid £6m/yr so why should i put him in the good section every week. I praise the style of football and performance whenever we beat teams like Sunderland 5-0 but equally his football can't escape criticism whenever it is so obviously dismantled by Fergie or Benitez. Not even a fool like you could say that his tactics worked last night, could you?

And as for your point about Jose. Well it seems so logical that i would want us to crash out to Jose when we face Inter as i feel we owe him one for winning us 6 trophies. Isn't that what we all want? Oh wait, that's not what i actually think is it. He's still our greatest manager ever and that's the end of it. It's not as if i want us to lose whenever we play Inter and to think that shows you're about as knowledgeable as Sarah Palin.

So why don't you crawl back into your hole where you can continue to worship Avram whilst the rest of us actually make coherent observations about the side. Nice to see you're back to calling me a donkey. Is that as far as your imagination can stretch? It's actually quite sad reading your comments, much like Hnrey's. Hopefully next time you'll come up with something original like calling me a horse, or a goat or perhaps something not related to farm animals. P

Personally i think the best way to deal with you is to now just flatly ignore you, wait for you to get bored then watch as you fade away, never to be heard from again.

Good to see the usual collection of handwringers, one subject morons and doom merchants appear the moment we lose. Not seen the "It's all Kenyon's fault for not buying Robinho" gem as yet though. Give it time...

Bad night, unquestionably; does seem that well organised teams are comfortable to let us pass the ball around (and cross it, to an extent) and we're far more open to the counterattack now which is understandable - we need to squeeze the game better as a team when we don't have the ball for a start. Would be useful to get Ballack back soonish and a fully fit Drogba wouldn't go amiss either.

Mikel showed his lack of experience last night; said it on the other blog but that game was crying out for a spot of Makalele's guile - those crafty little blocks, 'shielding' the ball etc., all followed by the huge innocent "What, me?" grin - we'll miss him in Europe this season (presume Miniero isn't cup tied? He might have been handy.) Vucinic had a stormer too - very impressive for both his goals.

Scolari has changed the way we play quite dramatically and we've adapted very extremely well on the whole; transition for a team (especially at this level) is never simple and I'd have taken our current position in both the key competitions at this point in time when Scolari arrived. We'll be far better against Bordeaux and should win out there - pretty much wraps qualification up.

Anyway, the reason we lost is because it's all Kenyon's fault for not buying Robinho.

Sorry, couldn't resist ;-)

On the upside there may be some heavily discounted hotel rooms in Rome via viagogo

@haberdashers
One thing noted you are a historian and still leaving in the history books. You were the one that kept getting off on name calling and now you want me to leave?

Your failure to see past Mourinho has left you hoping and wishing that Mourinho would come back and that is why Avram did no good even though he reached us to our FIRST CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL, FLS is constantly in your bad section despite improving the brand of football we are playing. For your information DONKEY...FLS has won the World Cup and has enabled and I stress enabled (your beloved) Lampard's game improve.

Please do ignore me...I tried ignoring you but you could not let off so you am going to be in your face all the way...DONKEY!!!

Here we go again people hurling personal abuse at other people because their views don't fit in with theirs.
Give me the quiet life anyday!

Random thoughts part 937

As we all relaxed in the dining car of the Success Express, being Chelsea fans we knew there’d be cows on the line somewhere. What we didn’t realise was that just up ahead, the long and heavy freight train of fate had fatally loosened the last bolts of resistance on the rickety old trestle bridge of complacency and so as we rattled over the canyon of defeat, it all gave way and down we plunged.

There we were, like young lovers alone in their alpine lodge, gazing into each other’s eyes and absentmindedly dipping into the piping hot fondue (that’s bread and hot cheese to the uninitiated), we are suddenly brought back to life by a burning sensation that leaves the blistered roof of your mouth looking like a lunar landscape.

There I was ready to do my player ratings in honour of our Roman hosts through the prism of Italian Neo-Realist Cinema but it all went a bit flat so I’ll save it in case we make it back to Rome later in the season.

@ JKII
A lot of sense and measured comment in what you and Nick say, JD. It is a work in progress and we have to expect a few setbacks. It is a little worrying that we seem short of options and more than once now LFS has made changes that have had little influence on the game and in fact made us worse.

Our defending was poorer last night than for a while, but as long as we learn some lessons then all to the good.

We were debating in the pub before the game started (gathered around the little screen in the corner while the other 97 huge screens and dolby sensaround concentrated on the 'Poo, not surprising as we were in London) whether qualifying too early is such a good thing or is it better to be kept on your mettle, particularly as we are now playing a different style and need to have it tested under pressure before the knockout rounds. Well now we'll see.

Well hey-ho so we finally got caught out big time - I refer you to my comment after the opening day 4-0 win over Portsmouth:

"It was great to see us playing with such an attack-minded formation but can't help feeling we'll get caught out by teams who don't lay down and die so feebly and counter-attack quickly with more purpose".

Glad to see some of the voices of reason spreading the don't panic message eventually above - I'll take our current brand of entertaining play with an occasional scuffed win or stonking defeat any day over Uncle Avram's talk-an- exciting-game-but-grind-it-out approach...

@28 BlueBayou - good to see you willing to risk another bout of "trainspotting" derision while giving vent to your metaphorical flights of fancy ;-)

Hey guys, look, I still think we will win the prem. I also still think we will get close to the CL. the truth is, it is very difficult to have a free flowing Wenger/barca type scoring team with a solid Mourinho/benitez type Defence. let's be honest it is almost impossible. Man-u I believe come closer than anyone to combining but even they are not perfect. Also, liverpool nearly lost and should have last night, Barca only drew 1-1 with Basle at Home! Mourinho's Inter let in 3 comical goals which were basically Xmas presents to Anathorsis and drew 3-3..very, very un-mourinho like! so overall, i would normally have said that we are slowly eroding our defence for attack but still, for some reason I am not panicking just yet. if we win the Cl, fine. The Prem for me is still the top target so it's all still good so far as I believe and hope we will pick up the points against lesser teams and away in the Prem we are awesome so as someone else said, even if we do lose against the top teams we can still win it. so let's wait till January. I know some may not like losing to Liverpool, man-u etc and neither do I but I realise now that we are not the feared Mourinho machine anymore so i have taken a philosphical attitude and hope we get enough points anyway. After all, imagine getting beat by Man-u, Liverpool and still win the league!! now would'nt that be a kick in the teeth for them......

I asked my boss Gavin in the morning what he thought of Obama.
And he was like, "Who is O'bummer?..." ;-]

I asked my boss Gavin in the morning what he thought of Obama.
And he was like, "Who is O'bummer?..." ;-]

Somebody employs you Henry... Bloody Hell!

@clive

why can't we all just get along? ;-D

I like everyone Henry!

"I like everyone Henry!"

Including Jose 'Mzogbia or Musumba whatever they call him'?

He does have some decent qualities.

"He does have some decent qualities. "

are you also religious like our big phil?

are you also religious like our big phil?

Nope.

Credit where credit's due -- "'Mzogbia" is a good one.

I'm not too bothered by this result/performance. The team didn't look like their heads were there at all, and, I confess, nor was mine -- I had other blue victories to worry about yesterday.

I tend not to go with the conspiracy theories about the 'Poo. I think they've just been otrageously lucky all season (except maybe their home draw with Stoke and their game dahn the Bridge where, according to the guy who took my seat, they were just better than us). The luck is supposed to even out over a season, isn't it? -- vide. our CL run last season (ridiculously easy draws in the knockout rounds, Riise's immortal contribution in the semi: all evened out by one slip of JT's foot and being four inches away from winning the trophy). So, after Xmas watch for Torres to be struck by lightning, Mad Rafa to choke on a cake crumb, and Gerrard to be stung by a rare deadly venomous eel during one of his diving expeditions.

Anyone else think Sarah Palin should be the next manager of Spurs? A marriage made in comedic heaven, shurely.

Anyone else think Sarah Palin should be the next manager of Spurs? A marriage made in comedic heaven, shurely.

LTB, I'm loving that one.

"I can see the Emirates from my house..."

It would seem we are not the only ones to huff and puff to little effect with Manure only coming away with a draw and the Arse goaless, not forgetting that the 'Poo only got one because of Stevie's persistent inner ear infection.

Madrid toothless at home with nearly 70% possession, while the Old Lady fishes her dentures out of the glass on the bedside table and bites back twice. Claudio looks like he's through to the next round and half his team still on the treatment table.

@LTB

I don't know how the moose feel but she scares the shit outta me.

Glad to see the back of the neo-con trickle down nonsense for a little while at least.

As the wise man once said:

trickle down?

you can fill a man's beer glass and lie on the floor with your mouth open hoping to catch the overspill.

but when the beer's finished the only thing that's sure to trickle down your throat is his piss.

@ 40. KaiserJonny_II

Do you live in Saudi Arabia or Oman?

ok.. twice this season after 5-0 wins, we've lost games.. wat the heck?? is this some sort of pattern..

Here is one of the best articles i've read to descibe Stevie G's diving:

LINK

The Liverpool skipper and England favourite has been one of the only high-profile players to consistently oppose diving in the media. Most follow the etiquette of not criticising their fellow professionals, but Gerrard went as far as to name Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho and Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United as players who are "ruining football".

This was without question the 28-year-old's most vitriolic and famous condemnation of diving and play-acting, but far from the only one, which makes his own conduct on the pitch that much more cringe-worthy.

Last night presented Steven Gerrard at his desperate best: hurling himself into the air and to the floor in the dying minutes at Anfield to win a penalty, which he duly converted, to scrape his side a draw against Atletico Madrid. But wait - there's more.

In the infamous comeback of the 2005 Champions League final, a tug of the sleeve that would not have caused your nor I to even break stride managed to bring the all-action midfielder to his knees with the consummate ease of a foreigner; and though the resulting penalty was saved, it created a goal from the rebound and set Liverpool on their way to an historic victory.

The list goes on - a Stevie special a couple of seasons ago against Bolton Wanderers that would have sent Cristiano Ronaldo himself into a shame spiral went completely ignored - and what makes it that much more reprehensible in the case of Gerrard is that the only thing he has failed to fall off as yet is his high horse.

The hypocrisy of condemning others for their misconduct while actively engaging in the same pathetic practice leaves England with even less integrity than their continental counterparts.

Hypocrisy, thy name is 'Pool.

I wonder how Phil Thompson will deflect the issue this weekend?

To temper the joy of seeing Gerrard getting humiliated by the foreign press, here's a more sobering outlook on our progree under Phil, according to Vialli:

LINK

Gianluca Vialli believes Chelsea are going backwards this season because they can't beat the top teams.

Vialli said: 'I don't think Chelsea are the same team as they were a few years ago. They don't have the consistency any more.

Vialli feels manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, who has set his sights on winning all four trophies this season, was outthought by Roma counterpart, Luciano Spalletti.
He added: 'Chelsea went to Rome to settle for whatever they could get and, when you do that, you end up losing the game on most occasions. Roma had a great reaction to this, especially after all the problems they have had recently.

'Spalletti changed the system, with [Francesco] Totti behind [Mirko] Vucinic as well as [Matteo] Brighi supporting [Simone] Perrotta on the flanks, and this made life difficult for [Florent] Malouda. Roma showed great football with the ball to feet and it worked.

Captain John Terry blasted the players for showing a lack of fight in the Stadio Olimpico, claiming they 'will get nowhere near the final' if they continue to perform as poorly.

He added: 'We didn't get out of first gear. It was a terrible night. We knew they'd been struggling and the pressure was on them.'

Are we now just flat-track bullies? On the evidence of the results so far, the answer has to be yes.

"We have transfers back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider team issues with Arsenal as Wenger rears his head and comes into the air space of White Hart Lane, where-- where do they go? It's Tottenham. It's just right up the road. It is-- from Tottenham that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful team, Arsenal, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our stadium."

@46. chelseablog - needs an "aw shucks" or "maverick" or stage direction wink added to catch the flavour better - or transfer in Tina Fey to nail it.....

On the Stevie Me diving accident (he's had so many surely the Benz has set in) here is a Looserpoo's view on it from my trips around their blogs....

I applaud Gerrard for taking a Captains decision tonight. He did exactly what Man U would do or Chelsea. JT scored tonight when offside and possible handling in the area! But, lets sit back and watch the Media vultures pick holes in the decision and the morality of the Captain.

Comment by Scouse by blood

It was a bad result. But it was a timely lost to remind the lads not to take things for granted. Despite a horror midweek, we are still top of our league tables. Nothings changed in terms of position. The funny thing is that we still have our destiny in our own hands. So take it as a lesson learnt and dont repeat those sloppy mistakes again. We can still qualify as long as we take our opponents seriously. Im more worried how Arsenal would do against those Manures.

For your viewing pleasure, videos of Gerrard diving: LINK ( via the Guardian LINK )

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich has hit the financial brake at Chelsea, chief scout Frank Arnesen said on Saturday.
"The (worldwide) financial crunch has meant Roman has hit the financial brake and asked us to cut deep," Arnesen told the Guardian newspaper.
"We have cut down significantly on scouts and other activities. However, we are now getting close to the time when the club can carry on without Roman's money," added the Dane who is also Chelsea's director of youth development.
Abramovich has poured in hundreds of millions of pounds since buying the Premier League club in 2003.
Chelsea will attempt to consolidate their position at the top of the Premier League table when they visit Blackburn Rovers on Sunday.

LINK

what does this mean...? trouble?

This is a much bigger story:

LINK

A new £500m stadium would certainly fit with Roman's dream to make us the best club in the world. You don't only need the best players (Ashley Cole, Cech, JT, Lamps, Essien), and the best training ground, you also need the best stadium. One of my favourites isn't the Emirates, as it's a little dull in my mind, just a round doughnut shape, it's Bayern's Allianz Arena. To try and emulate a stadium like that would be great.

The great thing about even talking about a new stadium is the fact that Roman's involved. When we moved from Harlington to Cobham, he ensured we had one of the best (and most expensive) training grounds in the world. So just imagine what kind of stadium he would approve (forget all this credit crunch talk, if Roman wants a new stadium, he'll get a new stadium).

The club has been openly telling the fans since Roman arrived that they've wanted a bigger stadium. It finally looks as if they've exhausted all the options at the Bridge. Even knocking down the hotel and extending some stand would only boost us to 52,000 which isn't wnough to compete with Old Trafford, the Emirates, Nou Camp, San Siro... The problem we've always had is the train line getting in the way and not even Roman's billions can move that. So where to go? We missed out on the Chelsea Barracks and now they're talking about moving to Battersea. To have even got to designing possible plans shows that the club's serious about a new stadium. But would the fans approve the move or revolt. I personally would be all for it. I'm sure diehard fans would say moving from our home is a nightmare proposition. But it's not like we're becoming the new Mk Dons and the only obstacle is the idea of saying Chelsea now lies in Wandsworth instead of Hammersmith and Fulham.

I hope it does happen and i can only imagine at how great a billionaire's stadium would be.

The problem with Battersea is there are no nearby underground stations. Be ok for Roman because he can helicopter straight in.

I'm hoping for Earls Court.

It's a load of old tosh apparently LINK

I'm encouraged by the fact that the spokesdudes keep insisting that their first choice is to redevelop the current site. Seems obvious to me that this would be the best choice if it's possible.

Does anyone know why the current site is said to be limiting? I can see that the East Stand probably can't get much bigger, but there's quite a lot of dead space in the south-west corner, and if all the hotel nonsense was removed there'd be even more room there.

I can't help thinking that the suits are pretty desperate to realise the value of the land the stadium's on. That's still one of the poshest parts of London; developers would be hungry to get their hands on it even in the current climate, I expect.

The nearest public transport stop for Battersea Power Station would (I think) be Queenstown Road, which is a fantastically grimy crapped-out ruin of weeds and rotting wood and rusting iron. A lot of the visiting fans from points north would probably feel right at home. (Yes, we Chelsea fans like to play down to our stereotypes ... I'm off to dip biscuits in my cappuccino now.)

Ah -- club website has just officially denied the story.

So it must be true. I'll start checking bike routes from my house to Battersea

I'd prefer to stay where we are because I enjoy my pre match meal at Del Aziz LINK

Surely Chelsea will take my dietary requirements into consideration!

The main problem with Stamford Bridge is the fact that all the exits lead to the Fulham Road and understandably the local council aren't happy with 60,000 fans being disgorged onto a single road. Even at the current capacity the idea of walking out with young kids after the game is daunting because of the crush. Fulham Broadway is also not a major tube station and who can remember the last home game where there wasn't an announcement on restricted service meaning a 15 min walk to Parsons Green (even smaller than Fulham Broadway) or 25 mins to Earls Court? The Oswald Stoll mansions on the west are listed and the controversy on knocking them down would be beyond what any club could take and of course railway lines at the rear and east side aren't going anywhere. So unless they remove the hotels then space is restricted and so I am led to believe killer Ken was right in the fact that they do provide a lucrative income. Even RA can't be immune to the charms of extra revenue coming in and the kudos of providing top notch hotel facilities. Much as I'd like to stay because of the pre-match dietary needs provided by the American Cafe and the wide range of beers at The White Horse, unless they get permission to provide exits that cross the railway lines to appease the council, which of course the nimbys on the other side don't want then this 'denial' seems a little sudden. I'd have been happy with Earls Court which was big enough, well known enough, with a major tube station and the possibility of exits to several different roads.

To coin a phrase. Methinks the club doth protest too much.

Team news - no Joe Cole! Apparently injured so I must have missed something. Drogba isn't even on the bench.

If this weather keeps up they'll be playing in wellies,definate penalty in the 1st half.We'll either win 3-0 or end up losing 2-0.We're all over them but prone to the counter attack.

Wonderful skill by Malouda, who slalomed past two and then dinked the ball out wide for Bridge. Only problem was Bridge wasn't there. These details are important, Florent.

LOL! guardian.

I enjoyed that game in the rain.

I think that when the lesser teams play each other, and entertainment is likely to be lacking, they should flood the pitch.

Enjoyed that game - a little dody spell at the start of the second half but in the end it could have been more.

What was it I said in my last review about a lucky striker over an unlucky one?

Shevchenko was the epitome of the unlucky striker despite some class, but Anelka seems the oppositie and is banging the goals in.