Premier League: Chelsea 0 - 1 Liverpool

A fair enough summing up Tony, but I will disagree with and think that a draw would have been a fairer result. Liverpool were extremely well organised and as I previously mentioned Carragher did marshall their defence admirably, they came for a draw and sneaked a win.

I don't think either team were a particulary dangerous attacking side today, Cech made one save from range which was at him from Gerrard, and of course they hit the post from a free kick. There's no doubting that their goal was fortunate, and they do appear to be having all their luck at the start of the season, with own goals, deflected and miss hit shots, but it could well be a sign that they could be contenders and possibly win the league.

Well 9 games in and we're 3 points off the leaders, not too shabby really, but the game on Wednesday has a whole new dynamic to it now. Not because we lost today and feel wounded, but because Hull are at home full of confidence and third in the table on merit, they must really fancy their chances.

I think it's going to be an interesting 90 mins!

as a red a very honest opinion.

I don't know how to feel about this loss. I think it could be a turning point in the season, they could come back stronger from it as you seem to hope they will. I am not sure about their attacking options though. Drogba seems to be getting injured more and more and I think getting a big striker in the january transfer window would be a great move. I don't think they need another world class striker, just a big guy for the box to cover when drogba is out. It seems to me anelka should be playing the malouda role in Scolari's formation as he drops back a lot and often wanders to one side or the other. That would make the attacking three anelka cole and drogba which would compete with most striking partnerships in the world.

a accurate assessment, i'm glad you pointed out deco's shitty play today...as you said i dont think he is as diehard as lampard, essien and ballack who simply cannot stand to lose...i guess he contented himself with being second best playing at barcelona for the past few years...anyway i don't mean to completely turn on him but ballack would have been a much better pairing.

terry was magnificent, his form is truly back after a few less than assured performances at the beginning of the season

my only disagreement is with "Nicolas Anelka: Enigmatic presence as usual, but seems to prefer the Sparky role alongside another striker. I think him and Drogs or another real striker would be awesome but as a lone striker he just doesn’t have the power - 7/10."
--he is the most worthless striker. he may have 3 goals or whatever but none were important, at least kalou's goals matter (manu, wigan last year) but anelka simply cannot score unless hes 1v1 with the keeper and even then he manages to miss a few....do you remember the television camera panning to his face after he missed the penalty in moscow...he didnt give a fuck. even paired with drogba, eto'o, robinho, benzema, klose, toni, huntelaar, any world class striker he is still absolutely fucking shit. i mean i thought lampard was rather quiet but i forgot anelka was on the field for the entire game. let franco di santo and kalou run circles up front. kalou is clueless and di santo is about 14 but at least they move and get on the ball and create. id rather have wayne bridge or john terry at center forward then anelka
...sorry ahd to get that off my chest

A watershed moment as you described it and it will prove to be a defining point of our season when we look back from May, for better or for worse. The reaction against Hull will tell us everything about the side's determination to win back the title. If we go into our shells for the next month then we can kiss goodbye to the title. We need to go out and show the league that our side can function after such an important loss in terms of the record and the title race.

GOOD:
1. Liverpool's tactics - Their gameplan was perfect. They saw how Utd and Roma shut down all our invention and creativity by defending deep and having hard working wingers tracking back. They came to frustrate us and hit us on the break and compared to 1 Ashely Cole swipe, they looked more dangerous than us. Whether it was from set pieces, long shots or counter attacks, the Scousers were simply more effective. And all this without Torres! 6 out of 6 away to Chelsea and at home to Utd is a great record. The less said about our 1 pt from 6 the better.
2. Mikel (1st half) - After going behind he assumed greater responsibility and suddenly turned into Vieira. He strode forward with elegance, skill and power to try and get the ball back. He outshone his more experienced blue colleagues until half time. After that he seemed restriced as if Phil told him not to stride forward anymore. A future Chelsea captain? He is a youngster after all.
3. Carragher - He is a twat but his defending can be inspirational (always against us for some reason). A worthy MOTM.
4. JT - A towering performance and i was praying that he could continue his goal scoring form. But if it wasn't for him covering a half fit Cole and Ricky, we would have lost by more.
5. Home record - It's finally gone. 86 games will never be surpassed until we beat it again in 2013. An awesome achievement that turned from a dream into a nightmare. It used to beat opponents before they stepped on to the pitch but lately it hindered us more...

same as Jon

BAD:
1. Performance - A shocker. After the Roma snooze-fest i was hoping that we'd worked out how to break down 10 men defending deep against us, but frankly we got worse. As Gullit said "Chelsea had no ideas whatsoever." No invention creativity or pace and the fact we resorted to pumping long balls after 55 mins to Anelka who seems to hate heading showed up all our problems in attack.
2. Cech - I don't know what it is but he is definitely not invincible anymore. He should have reacted better to the slight deflection but it was his guesswork for Alonso's free-kcik that was worrying. His form seems to have dipped since the arrival of Chirstophe Lollichon.
3. Midfield - I was thinking this after the Roma game and it was confirmed today. Against good sides, Lamps and Deco can't work. Ever since Deco returned, we've played everything through him and as a consequence we haven't seen Lamps at all. Lamps' dominance of games has gone, simply because we don't give him the ball enough. Deco today looked slow and frankly unfit. His genius was nowhere to be seen and Liverpool's midfield 3 of Mascherano, Alonso and Gerrard overwhelmed us.
4. Front 3 - Awful. If it wasn't for injuries, all 3 should have been subbed after half an hour. Malouda has gone back to last season, Anelka is still anonymous in every big game and Kalou was an embarrassment. Every time he had a sight of goal he panicked and passed it to Reina. He still looks like a kid but he'll have to learn fast because his inconsistency will not suffice much longer.
5. Big Phil - He was simply outsmarted by Rafa. He admits that he's not much of a tactician and it showed today. His half-time team talk seemed to subdue the team after 30mins constant pressure in the first half. It was also wrong of him to wait until the 91st min until he sent up JT. What was he waiting for? I'm looking for a reaction from him on Wednesday.
6. Bench - No options when we most needed them. How i wish we got Robinho or another attacker.

So looking back on it, the initial shock and numbness i felt at losing the record has passed. As another Blue told me, if we win the league who cares? But as Felipao told us we're 3 points behind to a resurgent Liverpool side. The worrying thing is that Phil still hasn't worked out how to beat top quality sides like Utd and Liverpool or even sides who come to park the bus like Spurs. His pretty football is nice on the eye and he may think it's what Roman wants, but if it doesn't bring us the success we crave then it'll prove pointless.

All the talk has been of how Chelsea have reinvented themselves with pretty football and attacking full-backs, but that was only against dire Villa and Middlesbrough sides. We need to have a Plan B. As Arsenal found out for the past 3 seasons, pretty football with no Plan B gets you nowhere. Didier is of course a big miss, but Liverpool have worked out a way of beating us and Utd without Torres so we have to realise how to play without Drogba. It seems clear that we need at least 1 new attacking player in January. Someone who gives us something different. Not the pace of Anelka or the strength of Didier, just somebody different who can win tight games like these. One day (i think this summer), Didier will go and we'll have to learn to play with a new striker or front two, so why not start that process in January?

The Hull game is looking a lot more important than when we saw the fixture list in the summer. It is a must win to stay 3 points from Liverpool, but more than that it's a chance for the players to bounce back. In normal circumstances Kalou, Malouda and Anelka would be dropped but can you see Phil bringing in Di Santo, Sinclair and/or Stoch? Whatever happens, there must be an improvment on the past week's performances.

KTBFFH

@ Habs - I disagree with Popeye being in the The Bad - his after match comments were full of good grace, dignity and charm and on the basis of 1 match in his first season it seems harsh to say Rafa outsmarted him today. The players must take some of the blame as well. He is a great coach and has got us IN THE MAIN playing much more attractive winning football, but as any fule know, that wins you fuck all in the end and you have to be able to grind out results as well. That was something we lost today but I'm sure he's learnt more from losing than he would have done from winning.

@ Clive, lets agree to disagree. They had a few more chances to go further ahead against what amounted to virtually nothing of note from us and their goal, lucky as it may have been was used as a platform to build their control over the game. yes the stats indicate greater possession but territorially mostly in our own half. Playing pretty cross field passing is an Arsenal trait that has left them trophyless for 3 or 4 years. I think we know better than most that they played a very Mourinho-esque game today, a tribute to Tubby's plagiarism skills.

@ Everyone - I made an error - the Matthew Harding Upper seats are £140 DEARER than the Lower rather than what I wrote. I'm off to self-flagellate as punishment.

I'm a liverpool fan, and I came on here expecting the same old hate filled tripe that fans usually come up with, but I was pleasantly surprised. Good analysis, fair and not afraid to give credit where due. But before this game I had decided that if Liverpool had lost, then it wasn't the end of the season for us. Just because we won doesn't change my mind. it's one game, three points - thats it. So with 29 games to go - its going to be a long season.

@ Tom, Adam and Jon - this site has never had an issue with other fans coming on with sensible comments. We like to think that our lack of 'flaming' is what sets us apart, so feel free free to visit anytime. I have to say its usually opposing fans that come on here with hate filled tripe. Well done on today but be warned, we'll be coming after you at Anfield (at least I hope we will!)

The side showed very little invention today, and Malouda, Anelka and Kalou were appalling. My opinion of Anelka hasn't changed and he would have been better off filling the Malouda role, and starting with Di Santo, who at least showed an aptitude for getting his head to the ball and holding play up.

Totally agree with your thoughts regarding Deco...... He is a luxury who will turn it on against the Wigan's and Stoke's of this world, but I can't see him having the bottle to get stuck in when it is required, and we really miss Ballack's influence.

Interesting to see your comments regarding the fans, Tony..... It certainly sounded on the television here in Oz, as if they were far more vocal.

So the monkey is finally gone, and whilst I would rather the record had gone to anyone other than the 'Dippers', the loss in long overdue. Our home form has been rubbish since mid last year and now perhaps we can start playing a little more freely at home, and other sides won't come to park the bus.

Credit to Liverpool... They came with a plan, executed it perfectly, and probably deserved the win..... Has anyone mentioned that ' It could be their year!'

Pool fans like myself will be coming here because of an article here:
LINK

I've also seen a lot of aggression on other Chelsea sites, and it surprises me. You don't seem to get that much of it between Man Utd and Chelsea. I guess it's the amount we've played each other over the years.
I think Chelsea's problems are going to be because Roman wants more attacking football, and that is going to lead to less emphasis on defending, which Chelsea have been awsome at in recent years. If you look at Man UTD, the difference for them is they in very recent years have stopped attacking so relentlessly, and have shown just a little more composure and patience, and it's paid off, mainly in Europe. I think Chelsea need to learn more of this in order to get above the very best around and win more titles. Attacking football while being patient doesn't work well so I think it's going to be an unpredictable time.
For me I see Arsenal as the greatest threat for the title, or they would be if they weren't such bottlers. I enjoy the way they play, but get at them and they fold. I do think they're on for a big title challenge.
I think this years LFC will be up there for most of the season, and I think it's possible we'll win, but no matter what it's going to be very close between the top four, and whoever wins may well be down to luck, as much as anything.
As in most title winning seasons for new sides to win it, we'll probably have a few close to winning years before actually getting there, and if Rafa stays I think we'll win it quite often. I also do think we'll win the CL again, I'm certain of that.
I think Chelsea will also win the Champions League under Big Phil, because he's smart enough and experienced enough on the biggest stage to ensure Chelsea do the right things necessary to get there. I also think Drogba will leave, I'm sure of that and that you're going to need strikers sooner rather than later.

J.

Don't know what's happening with my comment?

If Tubby does win it this year, then there could be two crumbs of comfort for us. He decides to ride into the sunset and take up his dream post as Real Madrid manager (he played for them and is a Madrid fan) or he takes his eye off the ball and we can sneak quietly through to pick up the CL trophy? But as yet, we're still the favourites in every tournament.

@ChelseaTony

I hated having to put Phil in the bad section but i did it for 3 reasons:
1. His tactics were totally nullified by Rafa and Phil had no response. All we could muster was some long balls to Di Santo. I had hoped for something new after coming up against a Roman brick wall on Wednesday, but his 3 days on the training pitch amounted to an even worse display.
2. Waiting until the 91st min to send JT up front and play 3 at the back was worthy of Avram cautiousness. What's the difference in losing 1 or 2-0? That was always Jose's ethos as seen against Liverpool in the Carling Cup Final, Spurs at home in the FA Cup when losing 3-1 or when losing 2-1 to Barca at the Nou Camp. I was waiting for Phil to do something radical and he didn't.
3. His talk of winning the quad before the Utd game and of going the season unbeaten as the new 'invincibles' was a foolish mistake. We all remember the reaction of Didier when riled by Rafa last season and one of my favourite games ever, our 4-1 victory at Anfield was driven by a hatred of Carragher and his comments that we were scared of playing Liverpool. It was wrong to say anything to motivate Liverpool any further and it must have played some part in our downfall.

Also agree that Didier will leave and we'll need a new style of play, sooner rather than later.

Yes, Habs??? LOLOL

The only consolation I can draw from this game is this .......... I remember 4 years ago, in October, we lost a game oooop North 1-0 to a team, Manchester City. The only game we lost all season. I am hoping this loss leads to another season like that one.
It sticks in my throat that we have finally lost our record, to the Bindippers no less, but we never deserved to win so it is a case of swallow my pride and let's wait for the next game now.
Just an aside ............ why does that bastard Carragher always turn it on against us?? Does he hate us that much?? lol Definite MOTM today for me, closely followed by JT and Mikel.

@ TONY

To be honest, with the amount of blogs, articles and webpages dedicated to football coverage, it's quite sad to how much crap is written (including Liverpool ones too), and I (dunno about you) quite like reading what other people fans think, but more often than not it is the 'hate filled tripe' or biased crap the majority tend to bless us with. So after reading this it was quite a refreshing change, and interesting to see a real/normal/true opinion from the opposing side. So I probably will pass by again, although maybe not if our opposing fixture at Anfield isn't so fulfilling as today ;)

Also, from my view, as much potential as Mikel has, Makelele was a beast, and you sorely miss him, as much as I rate him, I only hope Mascherano can reach his standards.

I find it funny you hate Carragher so much. HAHA Why?

All good things come to an end. We should have done better but what can you do?
It was going to happen sooner or later. Like everyone im just hoping that the lads come back strongers and more determined from this experience. I think the game showed that we NEED our top players fit and on form to beat the likes of Liverpool and United. Ballack, Drogba, Joe Cole were all immense for us last season. Credit to Liverpool, They deserved to win and I can see them and United being our biggest rivals this year. Hopefully we will bounce back and do a Boro against Hull.

HABS, Get rid of Didier? Are you insane? He was the missing link today. He is our best goalscoring threat and if we did foolishly push him out the door then who would you advise we brought it? Let me guess. Aguero, Messi and David Villa all in January? Get real.

Another great review!!!
Thanks for keeping it fair and balance.
Loved it as always.

I didn't say that we push Didier out the door, it's just that you can't build your side around an injury prone striker on the wrong side of 30 who's missed pre-season and has only had 1 successful season at Chelsea. One day Didier won't be at the club, so one day we'll be forced to play differently. You can't say that we'll continue to have Didier as our main striker in a 4-3-3 for the next 4 or 5 years. If Liverpool can win without Torres against the best sides, then we must learn to win without Didier.

Habs.....

To say Drogba has only had one successful season for us is incredibly harsh on him...... Drogba and Lampard have between them dragged us out of the proverbial time and again in the last 3 years and I think he deserves a bit more respect.

I do agree though that as much as we miss him, we need a plan B, because frankly Anelka is not upto the job of leading the line. A second A-Grade striker is now very much top of the list for the January window. Having said that, I thought Di Santo showed promise yesterday and if we are ever going to make something of him, he needs to be given a proper chance between now and January.

I would also just like to say, I didn't realise there were so many sane and reasonable Scousers in the world.... We must have had at least 5 pass by the message board today.... Perhaps there is one for each of those Big Eared Cups they like to bait us with! Welcome to the site lads, and well done for yesterday...(he says through gritted teeth!)

As much as I admire Big Phil for not making excuses about the injuries we did miss players like Ballack, Essien, Drogs & Joey Cole today. We need to learn quickly how we are gonna break down teams who come to the Bridge and stop our full backs and stop our pass and move game. Overall, not a disaster, hopefully a good game against Hull.

Pin point on summing up.....

We didnt deserve anything from the game....same game as like wigan away, TH home and few others where we werent able to take a shot on goal....
and luck helped them in their goal....

You need experience,strong and passionate players to win games like this.Guess we miss the likes of Drogba,Essien and Ballack(i dont think we miss Joey:he is more inconsistent than Kalou).I ve always felt our injury woes will haunt us one day and it did yestaday.But such is football.We need to change our tactics in some games if not other managers will capitalize on our formation and hit us where we dont expect.ManU tried it and it almost worked for them.Roma tried it but we were lucky to escape unhurt.Liverpool tried it and they were able to steal the 3pts.Becos we lost against dem doesnt change the fact that we are a very good side,even better than pool.Cheers my brothers its not the end of the season.After all there are only three options in football:win,lose or draw.And any of three can be the lot of even the best team in the world.Peace my brothers

@13 Jacob
Your point that Roman wants more attacking football, which will make us less defensive is something that the press used to beat us with over the years. We really don't know what Roman wants as he never says anything, it could be atractive free flowing football, or countless trophies and world domination, or both.

But if you look at our defensive record it's currently best in the league and we've scored most as well, so we seem to be doing both quite well at the moment.
Yes we have a long way to go, so nine games in is not going to define anyone's season, but it certainly will give Liverpool confidence to go on and believe they can get the monkey off their backs and win the title for the first time in 18 years. As far as Arsenal as you see it, I think the squad they have which appears a bit thin on experience and quality will come back to bite them hard, I see Utd as the main protaganists yet again, and Sir Rednose will certainly get them on a run, and up there by Xmas.

As far as Liverpool and their current position, you certainly seem to have character and determination at present, but it wll be interesting to see how your team copes with a defeat, I honestly think that will tell you far more about your title credentials. It is refreshing to see Liverpool fans come on here and not flame or gloat too much in your victory yesterday, unlike the Spuds fans who took great pleasure in their draw, and the tripe they wrote.

@Tony
Fair points and I don't often disagree with you, but I'll stick to my wiew that a draw would have been a fairer result, but your views and reports are always on the money, and you call it as you see it, I don't think any of us would want it any other way.

Right now we have three main problems:(a)God,(b)The Lamb, (c)4-3-3(N.B not in that order!)

1. God...I just wish somebody could tell Big Phool that God has a life. He's got more interesting things to do than help us control a game of BALLS.

2. 4-3-3. 3+3=6 players, only ONE of which is a ball winner. One ball winner serving 5 customers. He doesn't even know who SUPERMAN is! That means you get 5 players chasing the ball all day, arriving second to every loose ball. For some religious reason they score a rating of 8 for running around.

Solution: 4231. Put Obi and another Ball winner(Belleti or Mineiro or Alex), leave Deco on the wing with Joey or Kalouda. Its better to do away with Ballack and let Frank and Deco see more of the ball(without having to track back ....), than have all 3 jogging around emptyhanded.

3. The Lamp. Somebody? Peterw? Clive? Lolli? Why is Frank taking freekicks ahead of Deco? ;-\ ?????

Quod 'ad infinitum'?
Audite! Ego te non stultiter!

Amen!

@ Chelseatony.......

It seems mate, that you are now officially the 'Voice of Reason' and being the most sensible man we all know (except Hnrey of course), isn't it about time you turned your attention to more important matters like.....World Peace....Israel / Palestine..... Current Financial Crisis.

Whilst it's nice to make friends with Scousers, I'd still rather we beat them with last minute headed own goals!

Aren't we all missing the blindingly obvious?

It's because Liverpool won the toss and made us attack the wrong end in the first half. Similarly we dropped points against Spurs and Man U who did the same thing to us. Clearly we need to spend a week at the Bridge for match practice attacking the Shed end.

On one hand I want to be super critical of our front three yesterday. On the other hand (as a team) we are currently the league's top scorers, even ahead of dazzling Harlem Globe Gunners.

Personally I've decided to put this result out of my mind and not read too much into it, avoid the newspapers and listen to Magic instead of TalkSport.

@Mark
That's an interesting observation, so it looks like our results will know depend on a toss of a coin just like cricket, on who gets to bat first with a deteriorating fourth innings wicket. :-)

Really think scolari got a few things wrong and was also exposed of his little weakness, he is not as daring as Jose M. Liverpool came with a game plan which was obvious from the begining, squeeze mikel at the centre which is the source of our atttacks, it worked in the first half although Mikel was able to wrigle away sometimes. In the second half I thought we would change the plan of trying to pass the ball around them and use their tactics against them. They are strong in the middle and they were going for mikel, I would have told mikel at half time - hold the ball so you can draw them to yourself which will create spaces wide as well as middle for lamps and deco to exploit. Why Mikel is because over the last to matches he has shown he has the ability to take on opponents unlike the others, as well as the introduction of di santo was delayed too late.

@ Mark - I nearly put that in The Bad - that decision was probably the most animated our crowd got all afternoon! And Magic instead of Talksport is one way of getting some more reasoned comment on the game!

@ Greenlight - world peace, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the current financial global meltdown? Easy. World peace and Israel/Palestine can be kick started with liberal amounts of whatever HNREY is smoking. Financial crisis could be sorted by shooting the idiots and spineless tossers who get paid millions for gambling and guessing with our money and letting the markets be run by Zen Buddhists.

Working women out. Now that's impossible.

We need to sign a new top class attacking player ASAP be it a winger or a striker.

Good review Tony, passionate and honest and with a good dollop of proportion. Still not sure whether Liverpool have what it takes to go all the way (especially if they take the CL seriously as well), but they've passed every test thrown at them so far and this result will give them massive confidence.

Shame our support was so poor after the CL semi, where we were awesome. The 1.30 kick off really doesn't help home games, but complacency set in a long time ago.

Henry - entirely agree that Deco should be taking the free kicks.

Also a shame that this result has got in the way of laughing at Rio's performance at Goodison, possibly the worst display by an English centre-back since Sol lost his marbles at Highbury a few years ago.

Scousers: we hate Carragher for the same reason you hate Gary Neville and everybody hates John Terry. He's an unreconstructed, solid, occasionally inspired defender who bleeds LFC and isn't frightened to show it. (He's also the Scousest man in Britain). What is there to like? Plus, he ALWAYS plays out of his skin against us.

Tony, agree with much of what you wrote. I have to disagree with you on Anelka though. He does have a nice touch with the ball but seems to lack one important thing which is quite important for a main striker - he never actually looks like scoring and Carragher and Agger were given a very easy ride by him.

I'm not sure that the unbeaten record was a monkey on our back at all. Maybe when we were approaching the old record, but not since then. Almost all the draws we have had have been as a result of late equalisers rather than us just trying to defend for a draw. In fact on the very few occasions when we have been behind in the last quarter I would say it inspired us - think Arsenal last year and the year before.

Just to praise a very fair review, nice to see. Mentioned in our paper review at thisisanfield.com.

@haberdashers

You are a stupid cow to even think of putting LFS in the bad section.

Nice one Tony; pretty fair representation of the game all round really.

Interesting game. Quite how much you read into it is open to interpretation - I'm curious to see if Liverpool can keep it up; the point that stood out for me is that it wasn't, despite appearances, a Mourinho-esque performance by Liverpool. The difference was possession; we were very adept at keeping the ball in the title winning seasons, even away from home - resting with the ball, I think Jose termed it - but Liverpool were happy to let us have it in certain areas and to restrict what we were able to do with it. Decent tactic if you can make it work (especially away from home), but in terms of physical effort, surely far more difficult to keep up on various fronts over the course of a season?

Rio Ferdinand, England captain material. Now that IS funny.

Oh dear lord, no...

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

Oh dear lord, no...

I take it that comment is in response to post No.36 JD

Incidentally, we should have a list of the results since the run started inscribed on the Shed wall so we can all go and pay our respects.

I'll even chip in and buy a little candle.

It feels like being tapped on the shoulder by someone you thought you'd buried.

@ PeteW - I'll lay a small but dignified wreath below the candle.

@ JD - We got there a bit late mate so couldn't indulge in the pre-match pint. Hopefully the Sunderland game will be different although a visit to the Megastore also beckons at some point. My 'Mourino-esque' point was more to do with grit, harassment and keeping calm than the possession and 'resting on the ball' (That is what he called it) - so Tubby isn't guilty of plagiarism but , God help me for saying this, innovation. A variation on a theme proven to be successful for us in the past might be a more apt way of putting it.

I've been very calm about it today despite reading some vile bollocks on the Worlds Worst Football Site (tm) over at Fuckwit365, claiming Popeye as arrogant. Its done now and it feels to me kind of a relief. Doing the review was cathartic as well. I hope the team feel the same and will respond in kind against high-flying Hull, but more-so by by destroying Sunderland on Saturday.

Morning TG

No worries - we'll be there, probably drinking an extra pint to calm the additional nerves likely to be present now that Fortress Stamford Bridge has been ransacked... Re the Megastore - shop online; increases drinking time... :-)

Similarities between our title winning sides and Liverpool yesterday definitely there; all the more worrying.

Hull - it's a 6 pointer, and no mistake!

Had to miss the game, so thanks Tony for a terrific write-up. I felt just like I was there. (i.e. depressed)

The good:

1) After four years plus, I can finally retire my lucky home pants. I think they were wearing off anyway (Heskey? Wigan? 90th minute?) As Tony said of the monkey -- it's for their own good.

2) Being reminded why I don't mind seeing 'Poo competing at the top. Good to see 'Poo fans entering the spirit of the blog, unlike those twerps from Bottenham.

3) People here not freaking out. It's October. We're three points back. Relax.

The bad:

1) Welcome back, Jose Musumba.

I agree with everybody who says that Roma game was the game that showed how to beat us. The most frustrating part for me, though, is that Liverpool played the game exactly like we used to play under TSO. We have got beaten by team that adopted our old approach. Watertight defence, compact display, deflected goal, so many of those we scored some years ago, and 1:0 result. All these things were attributes of Chelsea, when we were winning titles some years ago.

Well we discussed several times how we wanted the record to go - I just didn't think of it being on a day when my "man flu" wracked body couldn't summon the energy to get to The Bridge and I missed my first home league game in over 30 years when I was in London on match day -settling for watching live on Sky through watery eyes and intermittent fits of coughing and sneezing. My addled brain wasn't up to much deep analysis - but 1 serious effort on goal in 90 minutes isn't good - and in a game we seemed to get poorer and less likely to score as it progressed. Time for His Bigness to put his serious thinking cap on that mythical tactical Plan B possibly?

As for entry 36 above - worry not chaps, methinks we have an imposter on a wind up - doesn't read like Musumba's style at all....

God, that game was bad. I woke up for the 9:30am EST start time hung over as all hell, and the lack of good play by us just made it worse. It's official: We don't have one decent striking option when we're a goal down. Kalou was the most worthless shell of a player I've ever seen. I was shocked that the halftime sub was for Malouda, not Kalou. And I'm sorry, Anelka does not deserve a 7/10. He requires excellent service to carve out chances, and his goals this year have not been more than some tap ins when we're already 3 goals up. Without DDA, we are toothless in attack. If you can imagine DDA posting up on Carragher instead of Anelka, it could have been a different game. LGP is calling for 2 players in the January window, but Kenyon doesn't want to sign anybody..surely he's bluffing and we'll end up with a striker.

Deco was disappointing, and Ze German is sorely missed. Our defending in the second half was also a little suspect, with a couple of half chances that could have been capitalized on by liverpewl.

I don't think Liverpool played all that well, we just played much, much worse. However, a bad win defines a team better than a good win, and I think it will be the same 2 teams battling for the top spot in April and May. Lets steal one from them at Anfield and all will be forgiven.

KTBFFH!

I watched the game in a pub in Cornwall.

The last time I was in said pub was October 2002 to watch the Liverpool versus Chelsea game from Anfield. Lots of Cornish "Scousers" in the bar that day. Michael Owen scored the only goal of the game in the 90th minute and completely ruined my weekend. It was quite unbearable.

Yesterday I went to the same pub. It was the first time I'd been back there for six years.

And wouldn't you believe it, the same result.

If a future trip to Cornwall coincides with a Chelsea/Liverpool game, rest assured that I will go to a different pub.

As for entry 36 above - worry not chaps, methinks we have an imposter on a wind up - doesn't read like Musumba's style at all....

@BBD
You may be right, but he does start his post with name calling and insults, sounds very much like his style.

Big Phil is the best thing since sliced bread.

Seriously, though, did anybody else see Rio on Saturday? I had a row with some United bloggers last week about Rio v Terry and they span the line that not only is Rio a far better player than the limited, thuggish Terry, he also has a much better character and never gets involved in disreputable incidents (this despite his performance at the Bridge just a few weeks ago).

Which made his second-half display at Goodison all the more enjoyable. Just imagine if JT had played that badly while behaving that poorly... I might go and see if the Mancs want to talk about it some more.

@ PeteW

I didn't see the match or the highlights but one or two Manc colleagues have commented on it and wondered if the Manure captaincy has got to him. JT might be more physical but that makes him even more the better choice as England Captain, very much in the Butcher/Adams mould.

JT was magnificent yesterday, right back to his best. I can't see Capello changing his view on JT when everyone in the game , including Fergie and Tubby would have him as their captains ahead of the incumbents.

As we're mourning the loss of our said monkey, I think it would be fitting if we gave our primate companion of 86 a name. A blog should be dedicated to him/her for the companianship and love it shared with all of us during it's long life.

I doubt other teams monkeys will be as loyal and as faithful as ours, and for that alone he/she should be immortalised in our club history, with perhaps even a song.

Now I'm sure the more articulate amongst us can think of something inspirational and funny to write that will help us celebrate his/her record breaking achievements.

Over to you JD Tony Mark Nick BB LTB BBD or anyone else for that matter :-)

Tony,
Rio went into total meltdown. Probably the worst performance I've seen from an England CB since Sol Campbell went loco at the Emirates a few years back. I think the 'he's matured so much' line we've been hearing recently is going to get quietly shelved.

Re United; Rooney running a bit too close to his old self on Saturday, various reports suggested that Ronaldo's general demeanour and body language is one of a man who isn't entirely happy with his lot. Fergie will sort them out, no question, but those moments of lost focus when playing at such a high level can cost dearly. They were clearly 'in the zone' (for want of a better phrase) last season and it isn't easy to keep that level of concentration and performance for too long without going a bit awry on occasion. Fergie has said their reaction to the World Club Championship trip in December will be key to their season; they've given some potentially interesting pointers to where their heads are at this early on - don't think for one minute there will be a meltdown, but a couple of slips could cost them dearly.

Oh, for the edit facility...

Re: United - they won 2 back to back (to add to the previous 8) and not many will do 3 on the spin. Arsenal still seem too lightweight in depth of squad and it would appear that Liverpool seem to have found some grit. But I'm not ruling United out, but it does seem that their spark has gone out. I do think Rooney might be seeing his 'anger management' issues rise again, if not the childish streak after all kissing the United badge in front of Everton fans will probably make him a marked man on the Blue half of Liverpool.

Smug arrogant Ronaldo is different. His muted celebration when he scored against WBA was interesting and I sense he is in Thierry Henry mode, wondering what might have been. The news that Calderon has publicly announced real's loss of interest has undoubtedly dented his morale. What with Berbatov's mood issues, Rooney and Rio's anger management issues and 10-year old kid mentality, Tevez's anonymity thus far and Ronaldo's visible apathy and piss poor body language it makes me wonder if some sort of mini-meltdown might be on the United horizon. And maybe, as history has repeatedly demonstrated, like any dictator holding absolute power, Fergies influence and iron-fist rule is starting to wane.

am so surprised that you could rate Anelka a whooping 7\10. what did he do as a Top striker. for 93 minutes he did not send even a backpass to reina. he played more as a liverpool defender in the game than a chelsea striker. in my own opinion, Anelka, malouda,kalou should be donated to other clubs while we make new signings by january. if we fail in doing this, we should just kiss all trophies bye and prepare our minds for an empty cabinet for the second season running.

First of all, I have no idea what you see in Anelka which makes you give him 7 or 8 out of 10 every week. It's ridicilous. The guy is an absolute waste of time. Maybe criticising him means that we have to discuss about Drogs - and (probably) you, along with many Chelsea fans, have a love-hate relationship with him.

The fact is he is, according to my opinion, the best striker in the world - and what can be without a shadow of a doubt, the best striker for matches like Sunday's. The amount of goals he has scored against Liverpool and other defensive-minded resilient teams is simply incredible. He was the only reason why he defeated and/or did not get beaten by Liverpool most of the times in the last 4 years. We miss him greatly, along with Essien in midfield in these matches. Deco - and most Brazilians and European footballers - are useless in these matches. They always look for the perfect pass and cannot cope with teams such as Liverpool, Inter Milan (and most Serie A teams) etc.

One for thing: I was at the Shed L and the Murderers chating was simply outrageous. Also, stand up if you hate Tottenham chant was ridicilous. Some of the fans are simply obsessed by Spurs, quite frankly. They are not even in our league and it will most likely literally be the case next season - so get over it!

Another top-of-the-table clash in midweek then! Bring on the Hull! Keep the Blue Flag Flyin High.

ahh..watch us go do another 4-1 whooping at Anfield again.

Oh no i feel so hurt at being labelled a cow!

I personally can't even remember what Musumba stood for. Was it he who was in love with Avram and thought it was so unfair to criticise him? I thought Musmuba had joined Avram in some cult as we haven't heard from any of them since. It's nice to see that he's back though. All we've had to put up with is Henry's ramblings about Lamps and how crap he is (was it also Musumba who hated Lamps?).

I bet it's an imposter like Henry. There must be a way of testing Musumba to see if it's really him. Let's ask him who's a better manager, Jose Mourinho or Avram? That ought to bring out the real Musumba.

And in response to whoever it was that said it was wrong of me to put LFS in the bad section. Well in my opinion he didn't do much right on the day. After seeing his flowing football tactic comprehensively fail against Roma, i thought he would have come up with something different, as it was plainly obvious that the Scousers would have watched that video and repeated Roma's gameplan. I was also annoyed at how he kept his back 5 of Bosingwa (later Belletti), Ricky, JT, Cole and Mikel in place until the 91st min when he sent JT forward. There is nothing good to take from defending a 1-0 defeat and i would have liked to see him take more risks a lot earlier than added on time. And finally i'm worried that in the 3 biggest test he's had this season (UTd, Roma and Liverpool) he hasn't worked out a way of successfully breaking them down and beating a big side. It's nothing to go overboard about. He was simply outsmarted by Rafa and will have learnt something for the return fixtures at Old Trafford and Anfield.

"And finally i'm worried that in the 3 biggest test he's had this season (UTd, Roma and Liverpool) he hasn't worked out a way of successfully breaking them down and beating a big side. It's nothing to go overboard about. He was simply outsmarted by Rafa and will have learnt something for the return fixtures at Old Trafford and Anfield."

Habs mate, We beat Roma, lest you forget. And drew with United.

@ TB - I watched Anelka carefully and despite the odd frustrating misplaced pass, which most of the team suffered from, he won a lot of headers and held the ball up. He may not be an out an out striker in Drogba's mould, but twinned with someone like that and he'll be devastating. His balls skills are superb. Just because he isn't shouting and bellowing doesn't mean he doesn't care. Some people are just quiet. Drogba didn't play hence no comment's on him EXCEPT for my point about missing 4 players so crucial to our CL win earlier this year. Drogba has been missing more than he's been available for a year now so whilst I agree that Anelka can't play the lone striker (again I refer you to the review)I don't think we should be depending on the return of man who's body might just be reaching the limits of how much stress it can take in the PL. We do need a new striker, but again, look back at past comments from the contributors and you'll see them almost howling for the kids to get a go. If owen can get fit then maybe he's the answer until Di Santo et al reach maturity.

As said in my Friday post, and as Haberdashers and others have pointed out, Scholari has already failed in the big tests so far and yesterday was another. too early yet to draw solid conclusions which will become clearer over Christmas. With a large squad we will be challenging no doubt. Will we win the prem? The fact is after the match and during sections of it, my usual fervour waned. It was as if i realised that we are no longer the feared machine we were and basically, winning anything now is 70/80% due to squad size not 90% plus as before. I know many seem to me at least to be happy with oh well, Liverpool played well, the media lke us, were scoring goals, pretty footie etc. But is that a winning mentality? Sounds like Wenger... losing at Home to a competitor when callenging for the league...is that okay regardless of the other teams tactics? especially against Liverpool! Hull I would have preffered.. but not the main enemy of CFC over the last few years. All this nicey stuff with Scholari and Benitez....this is why, I say it now..I will not be surprised if we lose at Hull or only draw...what happened to the fear of old? it all seems a long lost dream...from a young gladiator to a pensioner's happy smile, please everyone and hug all the foes...what for? I want passion for a win, let them hate us.. all of them, fans, media et all..it's because they feared us they hate us..but now, it just seems lost. Some say how great Scholari is but here is a man that was in the Euro final on home turf and lost to a gritty but totally uninspired greek team...does anybody think Mourinho, Rafa, Wenger or Fergie would have let that happen in their own country..sorry..in Europe and especially in the prem..there is no place for friends..it is a constant battle of football, politics, psychology, power and for me all the arm waving our lovely, dear old coach does shows he does,nt have the tactics for the fight..slippers and pipe anyone...

Re:Striker. Well maybe we have been looking in the wrong place. We do need a striker, however, we must also look at new formations. I'm not sure who said it, but. Maybe 4-3-3 is no longer working and maybe we need to try 4-4-2 or something else in order to keep things fresh.

@ChelseaTony

I know we beat Roma but we can't win titles based around set-pieces. Apart from JT's header i struggle to think of a decent chance we made against Roma or Liverpool from open play. And not beating Utd confirms how as yet Scolari is not in Mourinho's class. Mourinho knew that titles are won on your record against the other members of the Big 4 and his record was great. I again repeat that i'm not in a panic about it, but if Scolari doesn't manage a win against Arsenal, then i'll start questioning whether he's able to win the title for us.

@Dio

Totally agree with you. I don't care that everyone likes us and i don't care that we're not headline makers anymore. Nice guys finish last and as all the journalists told us in Phil's first press conference, Scolari has cahnged since he won the World Cup. He won the World Cup and the S. American CL when all he cared about was winning. He said "beautiful football was dead" and he only concentrated on winning. Now this older, more mellow Scolari seems to have changed his focus onto attractive football and making friends. I hate the fact that some are comparing us to Arsenal as i for one hate the praise Arsenal get. They may play great football but they haven't won anything in ages and if wasn't for Wenger's youth policy, he would have been fired long ago. We need to return to the ruthless machine we were 3 or 4 years ago and just concentrate on winning games.

Your point about Phil's final record is also spot. This 'new Scolari', the more mellow version, in my eyes has failed in recent years. He should have beaten Greece on home soil in the Euros, he should have got further in the World Cup and he should definitely have gone further in this past Euros. He does have an amazing CV, but that was the old Scolari, since then he's accomplished nothing. And i hate to say it, but he just isn't as good as Jose. Jose has NEVER lost a final in his career and in my eyes he's always be the King of Stamford Bridge.

That should be he'll

FFS we lose a game by the odd goal and all of a sudden we get remarks like, our manager is no good, he's tactically inept etc etc... talk about throwing the toys out of the pram.

We lost 1-0 to a team that was joint top, we're 9 games in not 36, nobody has won anything yet. If Liverpool came to the bridge and beat us 4-1 like we did them a few years ago at Anfield I could understand some shock and alarm setting in, but they didn't.
All they did was stick to a game plan that Rafa set out and their players adhered to it, unlike our lads who didn't listen to Scolari and he said as much.

We may need another experienced and proven striker come January, but getting one that isn't cup tied for the CL might be difficult but not impossible. We do have players to come back in from injuries which are going to give us different options, and I don't want to use our injury list as an excuse, but our bench by our high standards looked somewhat threadbare yesterday.

We haven't become a crap team overnight, so lets just wait and see how thing go up until Xmas, when we will have a better idea as to who the main protagonists are going to be, probably the same suspects as from previous years.

@ Habs (61).

I share your concerns with how Chelsea play against the big boys. Roma's anti-football at midweek was effective in shutting down the wing play and liverpool smartly followed their lead. bosingwa played well, but his crosses were either being blocked or easily defended by the bus parked in the liverpool penalty area. is it only a matter of time before the mid to lower table teams pick up on this style of defense?

And with the striker situation, I don't believe DDA will be the savior of our team. With him on the field under TSO, Chelsea turned into a long ball team, which is where Drogba thrived. Will he be able to do the same under LGP, perhaps without the direct service he is accustomed to?

Look, one loss at home is not reason enough to predict doomsday, as some of the posters on here seem to believe. Perhaps it is a slight dip in form, but I think Chelsea is still better than 'pool. You could say that our performances against the big teams has been bad, but then what do you make of liverpool? Going into the final 5 minutes of a game looking for a game winner isn't going to work week in, week out, and I see a clear possiblity of them dropping points to pompey wednesday.

Finally, i watched the man u game on mute, and had no idea what was goin on with rooney until it was explained on this board. A classy bunch, those red devils.

It's not any throwing of toys out of the pram and an overreaction to a single defeat. It's simply true that Scolari has changed significantly since winning the World Cup in 2002 and in the past 6 years he hasn't done much. Everyone has said that this is a different Scolari to the one in Brazil and whether that works out for the better or for the worse, we'll only know in May. It's also true that when it comes to the big games and especially finals, i'd choose Jose's pragmatic methodical approach every single time over Phil's Joga Bonito. I know that we haven't become a crap team overnight but all the hype around our new beautiful football and friendly image is worryingly similar to the reactions Arsenal get, and we all know how successful they've been recently. If Scolari wins us the title then obviously his new methods will be justified, but as yet, i'm not so sure that beautiful football will win Chelsea the league.

The more I think about it the more I feel Benitez didn't outsmart Phil as much as he took advantage of our lack of big players. Drogba and Ballack make up most of our scoring threat in the air and with both of them out, fatty played his back four tighter than usual to funnel the play out to the wings. This effectively forced Chelsea to send balls in the box from crosses and lose the game. There are a couple reasons why I don't think this will be an issue in the future. 1st only 2 defenses in the league (i think) have the ability to do this effectively and we have played both-Liverpool and Manu. Second, once we have one or more of those players back, allowing Bosingwa's crosses will become much more dangerous and the back for of a team will need to spread out. and 3, we usually don't give up goals, so it will be hard for a team to allow Chelsea something like 65% of possession.
Finally, to everyone making the comparisons between Jose and Big Phil, I think it is too early to tell. Give the man a half-season before you decide on who the better manager is. I know everyone will have me for this but I think if Grant had the backing of the fans (or even just the neutrality) we would have won something. The standards currently set are too high for anyone and to get too critical at this stage could harm Phil's effectiveness. Also, I think everyone felt the record would go against Phil and having it happen by a team that sneaked a goal in the 10th and then defended like their lives depended on it isn't the worst way to go (even if it was liverpool).

Ok, mentioning Avram's name in the same sentence as 'won something' i sjust plaing wrong. He is the definition of a loser. He was a loser at Pompey, a loser when he became director of football, a loser in his first press conference and a loser in the CL final. He'll never win anything of merit in his life and i'm so glad that he's still unemployed.

Overall I am behind scholari as i think he has bought positives and they have generally been good. Winning wise against in the must do matches is a must though and he has to understand this and quickly. after all if we are honest as CFC fans, Romans investment means we should expect to challenge every year now. these are'nt the previous 30 or even fifty years!. i am sure he has already had a little word in his ear by some. So let's just say okay, he's finding his feet, very different league and lets give him a big push to see us over the Christmas period and see where we are in January. But now we expect to win, as we should given the money the owner has spent. I feel he is a genuinly nice guy but also a good manager unlike a pretender that was Grant and for that, he'll get his chance fromm the fans but please...no more losses of this kind..it just will not be good enough..

Scolari had no options at the weekend.... Malouda, Kalou and Anelka were all very poor, and the bench didn't really give Scolari the options he needed to pull the strings.

That having been said, we really do need to come up with a plan to break down sides that nullify the full backs and park the bus. Spurs, Utd and Liverpool have all done exactly the same thing this season and we have looked clueless to break them down.

Quality report TG. Seemingly well balanced, tolerant, an introduction to the New Man Blog style of blogging. The blog that says ‘Yes I support my team but I am not blind to the qualities of others.’ The kind of blog that can be a house husband, is comfortable in its sexuality, doesn’t need the old style violence and confrontation but understands how relationships are built on listening, empathy and understanding. The kind of blog that has tried cross dressing and is open about it, is confident enough to forgo the temptation of genital enhancement, yes the sort of blog that might take up ball room dancing.

And yet I say seeming, because even now my team of code breaking experts tell me that they are close to completing the complex Algorithm that will enable us read the encrypted message that is contained within the report. Yes here it is……….
You lucky scouser b******s, you are sh*te, you didn’t deserve it you never got a kick, I can’t believe you call yourselves a football team you bunch of workmanlike cloggers………..

There’s pages of the stuff. Well done TG they’re linking that report all over Liverpool websites, holding it up as an example of decent and balanced reportage, little guessing what lies within the Trojan Horse. A masterstroke sir! You are to be applauded.

A couple of thoughts

Rafa has been honing this team and this style of smother defence for several seasons now. Some seem to have forgotten that Benitez was possibly the one coach that JM never fully mastered and we fell foul of the early goal and failure to score on several occasions.

LFS has had 9 league games and 3 CL (ooh and a Fizzy Cup game)ties to impose his style of play. He inherited a mentally strong disciplined squad whose one weakness over several seasons has been on occasion, the inability to break down a well organised and committed defence particularly at home (even with DD up front). Yesterday was not the first time we ran out of ideas and I think we have to give him some time to impose his ideas on how to approach the problem.

I had concerns that on their day given their personnel, particularly in midfield that they would match up and strangle us. With Alonso and Mascherano in the centre, Gerrard dropping back and the two wide men either helping the full backs or shuffling in to clog the middle as required it takes something to break them down. I believe that in such a situation 1 or more individuals in the team have to be able to take on and beat a player thus pulling the defence out of shape. The 2 wide men and 1 of the central players has to do this. Malouda, Kalou and Deco didn’t do this to any great effect and it left Liverpool in the comfort zone for much of the game. It didn’t help that the lack of Ballack and Cole meant he played Deco when he is only just getting back from injury and hasn’t had time to build up and understanding with the rest.

LSF would have wanted them to keep faith in their passing and movement but I sensed that they got knocked out of their rhythm and lost a bit of confidence. In the long run its probably no bad thing to face this and work on how to overcome it. Time will tell whether LSF can get them right on this.

These tight games are where we miss one of my favourite 'Roman's Chelsea' players: Arjen Robben. We have never replaced him and when in form, there is no better winger in Europe. I do think that our team lacks pace and as some ahve mentioned, a traditional 4-3-3 like ours doesn't really work if your wingers don't have pace. In pre-season when everyone was fit, for 1 game Scolari played in a diamond:

Cech
Bosingwa Ricky JT Cole
Mikel
Essien Lamps Deco
Cole
Anelka

Maybe after losing the home record, it could be time for a change. If you replace Essien for Belletti, then maybe we could see the diamond formation for the next few games. I remember that Jose reverted to the diamond to win us the league at Bolton and at the end of the second title winning season. Or we could always revert to the Liverpool 4-2-3-1, or an Arsenal 4-4-2 in which we could see Di Santo given a run.

you are great on this I'm reading it and love how your observation... I just thought Liverpool wins and without knowing for it's cause and effect.

well i really want liverpool to win this one... and it happens

To develop some of the comments above.... The loss of Ballack, Drogba and Essien removes much of the physical attacking threat. There's no one to push defences around. Without that we couldn't disturb Liverpool's centre (Carragher, Agger, Mascherano, Alonso). Even a novice like Di Santo was able to cause Liverpool's central defence some problems when he came on. Also, if you are a Liverpool supporter, the names you don't want to see on our teamsheet are Drogba, Joe Cole and Ballack, all of whom have ben immense against them in the past, particularly the first two - thinks of the goals. I agree with Tony about Anelka, I thought it was one of the best games he has had for us in terms of effort and intelligence. He didn't have any support though. Where I would have a serious disagreement is over Bosingwa. Yes he's great bombing forward most of the time but, like the last umpteen right backs, he can't defend properly - suspect positioning and tackling. The big question is whether Drogba will ever be fully fit again; I surely hope so but have a suspicion that the reason that he didn't pursue a move in the summer was that he wouldn't have passed a medical. I have to say that I've no grounds to think this other looking at his track record. If he's not going to be fit, then yes, we need to buy.

We're not only one of the top teams that have problems in breaking down defensive minded and organised teams. Arse, Utd and Liverpool have had said problems this season in doing it. Stephen makes a good point with regard our physical size in our attacking threat, we had no height to trouble them with the crosses Boswinga was putting in.
We all know the Liverpool defence along with Arsenal don't like to play against Drogs, he causes them so much trouble, if he stays fit and on his feet there is no better striker anywhere at the job he does.

Anyway I think we should call our deceased monkey Lolli, as we're all very fond of her. ;-)

To be fair once Liverpool scored all of us knwe Benitez would just sit back and defend in numbers. The announcers kept going on about how this is Liverpool's year and that pretty much Chelsea is over. Liverpool will lose focus in the end and Benitez as always will rotate for important Champions league matches. Trust me, Liverpool will just barely make the top 4.

Chelsea FC I think that maybe, just maybe, Liverpool might be serious challengers this season. They proved they can win without Torres, whereas us and Arsenal, without Didier and Fabregas, struggle. Man united seem to be off the pace but that won 't continue for long. On the whole formation thing, I think we need to try a 4-4-2 or a diamond. . Cech Bosingwa-Terry-Carvalho-Cole Joe Cole-Lampard-Mikel-Deco Anelka- Di Santo

Well hello.

Back from an impromptu week off last week (thanks to a daily red top and their holidays for under a tenner - worth every penny of the £9.50. And not one more.) and a day off yesterday recovering from a trip to the big smoke on Sunday to watch football of the American variety.

We arrived in Lahn-dahn with an hour of the Liverpool match gone. Got parked up at Wembley and found a lovely public house by the name of the Greyhound. Completely, 100% inhabited by the ABC brigade. Admittedly the guys I was with were 'Pool fans, but the utter hatred for Chelsea amused me. In particular, one shameless invertebrate who had no idea what he was doing, but wanted to look good so joined in all the boos and jeers a split-second after everyone else. Trying to look good, he just looked stupid. My second dalliance with a spineless being was to witness Deco flopping around the Stamford Bridge pitch, frantically searching for his backbone.

In games against the 'top four', I'd take Ballack over him every time, he just seems to have no fight in him.

From what I saw, it was all a bit frantic in the last 20 as we tried to create chances, but it just wasn't happening. I'd give Di Santo a start in one of the next two games - for a 'big man' he's got a great touch, bit of pace and is raw enough to give us that bit of unpredictability. Sinclair needs longer than 3 minutes too.

I think the criticism of Anelka's a bit harsh. He does a lot of running out wide - mainly to compensate for the utter imcompetence of our wide men. If he didn't, people would moan and as he does, people still moan. What exactly do you want from him.

It's a very small relief the record is over, I agree with previous posters that it looked as though it was affecting the players and so we can start afresh now. It's only one defeat, under JM we lost away at Middlesbrough and won the league so it's a bit naive to write off our chances yet, and to dismiss TSSO's methods and ideas.

Cont'd....

A very accurate assessment, but I think you were too harsh on Deco. Sure, he had a stinker, but that can happen once in a while,and i do think Ballack is a better partner in midfield for Lampard.
To be fair to Liverpool ,they had a gameplan and executed it perfectly.
Anelka is a French piece of shi* and we need to get rid of him in January. Di Santo played a lot better than him in the dying moments of the game.
Also, Kalou was pathetic. I don't remember a Chelsea player have a worse game in the past 3-4 seasons. His touch,conrol & passing were absolute rubbish. His under performance has been quite consistent now. I don't know why the f**k Mourinho bought but he is a fu**ing piece of shit. Needs to be dropped to the reserve side,he might not even make it to the subs there.

....cont'd

He's still missing Ballack, Essien and Drogs - names that any opposition in Europe would fear. Add to that Joe Cole and I think things are o.k.

ManUSA are doing their best to not be in the hunt already. Arsenal will fade away and I'm afraid Liverpool simply wont have the legs to challenge us all the way.

Come May, there'll be blue ribbons on the Premiership trophy, mark my words.

Oh, and Wembley's pretty impressive as well. Just wish one of the quarter-backs had laucnhed the ball at Joss Stone. Dont try and Americanise 'God Save the Queen' - it's fine as it is with drunken Brits singing along out of key.

Give me Joss Stone over American football anyday!

Give me Ann Widdecombe over that-fat-lard-boy anyday!

Each to their own, I suppose.

There are far too many women I would put in front of American football to mention here - eg Alex Kingston as she appears in Essex Boys! Hell, just walking up the Fulham Road I've been distracted enough to consider giving the match a miss!

But only for a second or two. I always covertly walk on by, after all it only seems fair that the women get a chance.

Well then gents may I suggest something that will keep everyone happy! LINK

Can I just say, given the slating my trip to Wembley has received, I went merely for the fact it was a one off trip, and not because I'm some sort of NFL nut.

I reasoned that spending £50 watching them was money spent much better than watching Fabio's cloggers struggle to break down the rear-guard of Kazakhstan.

And I had a bloody good time, so I dont care anyway.

In addition, I'd like to add how amazingly attractive the US women fans were that made the trip. And the cheerleaders.

"And the cheerleaders"

You see had you mentioned that up front then I'm sure none of us would have had an issue. I'm all in favour of Cheerleaders. Female Cheerleaders. Fit Cheerleaders. Scantily dressed Cheerleaders. In fact lets be honest, the bar is pretty much set for me at pulse and postcode.

Nah, drop the postcode criteria.

"el Chelsea no es bueno cuando no tiene la posesión"...Riera

I've said the same thing b4, everybody knows we're rubbish WITHOUT THE BALL. Big Phil doesn't get it, Obi alone wont do!

The Liverpool perfo. was just a repeat of (vs. Ports, Wigan, ManUre,Cluj,Roma)

Me thinks...we need a balanced equa. btwn attacking players and defensive.
Somebody?????

Riera LINK

Leaving aside Henry's ramblings, tomorrow should be an away banker, in my eyes anyway:

1. Reaction - The team will be looking to send out a signal that one home defeat hasn't affected them. They'll want to send out a message to Rafa and Caragher saying that this will be Liverpool's year and show them that Chelsea are still favourites in all 4 competitions for a reason.
2. It's away from home - we've got a 100% away record in the league and this team does seem perfect for away games. At home teams come for a draw, defend deep and man mark the full backs. Away from home, their crowd demands that they attack at least a couple fo times in the 90 mins, leaving us the room to counter attack and use Anelka's pace. The fact that Hull are also 3rd in the league means their home fans will demand that they attack us.
3. They're only Hull - Forget the fact that they're doing a Wigan and taking everyone by surprise, they're still a Championship team full of rejects. We should beat them 10 times out of 10 if we're concentrating and don't turn up in the arrogant way we've seen us do in the past. Our team may have problems but every single of our 24 man squad would get into their side and if we don't beat them, then something will be seriously wrong.

I'll go for a 4-0. A Chelsea backlash is on the cards. If we draw, or even lose, then the fans will not be happy and the title will slowly be slipping away. A six point gap even at this stage is a big margin and we can't let the Scousers stretch their lead at the top.

Henry, it's almost like we're missing that Ghanaian chap. You know, the one that you said 'can't run, can't pass, can't tackle and can't shoot'.

I've sussed it. In a former life, Henry was the RKO Pictures exec who screen-tested Fred Astaire; "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little."
Similarities are clearly there.

TG - I engaged Alex Kingston in conversation in a bar in New York about 10 years ago; I didn't recognise her at all and she was quite friendly until I asked her what she did for a living, when she became a bit sniffy. Then someone told me...

I'm very close to giving up completely. I don't get it. Why did God give me a brain, give you lot pumpkins and then bring us all together like this?

Wait a min.! Could it be the other way round?

Wouldn't be surprised if the average IQ round here is on par with the average shoe size.

"Are we missing Essien"?, "4-0, they're only Hull" ....There are no miracles in football
I'm off to the mall, my mates are waiting

> I'm very close to giving up completely.

Don't let us stop you...

Why did God give me a brain

Did he?? I'd send it back and ask for a refund!

@ 96 - JD, that sounds like a huge 'Doh!' moment to me.

Are we being unfair to Hnrey - perhaps he writes incisive, witty contributions in Spanish but then lets "Google Translate" mangle them into the garbage we get to read.....

@84. Fiftee - "Come May, there'll be blue ribbons on the Premiership trophy, mark my words" - hope this isn't a sneaky way of covering yourself for Abu Dhabi FC hitting the jackpot after a successful January transfer window or indeed a Tony Adams inspired Portsmouth causing a sensation - and why did they not turn to Uncle Avram in their moment of need ;-)

This may be a little crass but the message is so correct in many ways, it's just the view of the owner of a Chelsea fan site I frequent from time to time....

It was sickening to witness so-called Chelsea fans crying their eyes out after the game against Liverpool on Sunday, when Chelsea's eighty-six game, four and a half year unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge came to an end. They should have been celebrating with the team and paying tribute to them for a feat that will likely never be equalled, the fuckwits. Instead they gave the few feral scousers who had made it to the ground exactly what they were hoping for. Fucking shameful, by any standards.

The characterless morons who cried are no better than the scousers, who as everyone knows (but most are afraid to say it) love nothing better than to wallow in self-pity. The run had to end sometime, and in terms of the league title it means nothing. Anyone who knows anything at all about football (i.e. not Rafa) will tell you that one game, a lucky deflected goal and negative, spoiling tactics doesn't win the title. Berk Benitez would beg to differ, thus proving beyond doubt that he is a fully signed-up, first class fucktard.

The Iberian idiot appears convinced that Liverpool are going to win the title, although how he arrives at that conclusion after this win and with only a quarter of the season gone is a mystery that rivals the whereabouts of Lord Lucan, and is just as unlikely to be solved. Clearly dimwit Rafa needs a big dose of reality on his cornflakes; Winning six games out of twenty-one against Chelsea is not exactly a shining record, and the reality is that Sunday's good fortune doesn't make Liverpool any more likely to win the title than before. We will see who is crying into their looted beer come the end of the season, won't we?

'Wouldn't be surprised if the average IQ round here is on par with the average shoe size.'


LINK

@Petew
Does LOLi know you've huge feet?

"Why did God give me a brain, give you lot pumpkins and then bring us all together like this?"

Because it's Halloween and he's got a sense of humour Hnery. I'm having mine transplanted for a big snowball in a month's time, ready for Xmas.

@PeteW LINK

@ All
I am touched with the welcome back. Not pulling any punches are we... Can not say I missed you all but hey it is good to be back now that the unbeaten monkey is off our backs...

@Haberdashers
The question should be between Mourinho and FLS... I still think you are a cow by the way. You are the reason I am back. You calling me and Henry names...Hope you do not mind if I call you a few myself...

Back to the football...shit we lost but hey finally the last Mourinho strand has been broken hoping that we can now get back to just being Chelsea...

We will win this league with FLS this season no fears on this.

Oh by the way for the blocks running the site impressive...will be back when time allows.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!

We're going to need a bigger boat!

I would not do that if I were you...clive

I feel so proud that i'm the reason you're back. Has it taken you this long to get over Avram's passing or is it that you just can't except that we were all right in calling you an idiot?

And Clive, don't worry that you've now got Musumba as an enemy, it's just like having a pet parrot. It keeps jabbering on about the same topic, all it can say is one line, but in the end you know that it'll always be an idiotic source of background noise which you just can't shut up.

Tony, I liked your blog and enjoyed your comments, but to give Bosingwa any credit, and more worringly give him MOTM, is a joke. Riera ran circles around him. I suppose it's a Chelsea blog so you're allowed to create your own fantasy and make things up as you go along.

But what game were you lot watching? I've watched the game for a 2nd time and a draw would be a very unfair result. Liverpool simply played Chelski off the park. Trust me if your want to start getting back to winning ways then the team have to forget about the result, and learn from how easy it is to nullify one-dimensional tactics.

I'm sure I'll get some stick but my commnets are fair so I expect a fair response.

any injured players back for tomorrows game

Only Joey's back. Maybe we can try out that 4-4-2 diamond with Joe in behind Di Santo and Anelka.

This is the perfect motivator for tomorrow:

LINK

Geovanni: "Chelsea will be next after Arsenal. Scolari is a top coach but I feel sorry for him because we are going to beat his team.”

Liverpool top of the League.....

Spurs winning......

Hnrey and Jose Musumba out in full force.....

The lunatics are taking over the asylum!

@ Craig 111

Alas, I can't answer your question ("what game were you lot watching?") because I couldn't watch it.

However, since you gamely volunteered to get some stick, I'll do the decent thing. (I always ignore the morons, but you seem to be able to string a few concepts together, and as you say your commnets are fair -- I haven't even installed commnets yet myself, I thought they were only in sci-fi novels, but hey.)

So, Chelsea bloggers are allowed to be fantasists? Then we should keep an eye out for a blogger called "SteveG9Scouser", since your captain's been one of football's most reliable pipe-dreamers for the past few seasons. Every August he weighs in with his "this year we're going to be up there competing for the title" thing, doesn't he?

"If we want to start getting back to winning ways?" Hmmm, that would be one loss in eighty-seven home games, and our first defeat this season: isn't that winning enough for you?

So our tactics are easy to nullify, are they? Couldn't be anything to do with the fact that we were playing without our two toughest midfielders and our battering-ram striker, could it? Oh but wait, when we played Drogba alone up front we were boring and one-dimensional, I forgot. Except we seemed to win rather often then, too: rather more often than Mr Tactical Flexibility Benitez did, as a matter of fact. Will anyone argue that 'Poo's two trophies in recent years were anything to do with tactics? Is it strategic to go three goals down at half-time, or to rely on a last-minute shot from distance from a midfielder who can barely walk? And if it was so easy to nullify our "one-dimensional" tactics under Mourinho, then, er, why did we win the league twice?

We have a new manager, who's made major adjustments to the whole style of the team. By all accounts we had a fairly bad game, and 'Poo had a good one: all credit to them for that. But I think it's perhaps just a tad early to say that Chelsea have now been "found out".

Fair?

@ Craig Wagner - Riera never got anything from Boswingwa and Bosingwa terrorised your left side always in acres of space and gliding past whoever was attempting to be left back. What Bosingwa didn't do was play an intelligent ball in which I've already alluded to in the review. And he was the Chelsea MotM which is what our award is for. rarelt do any opposition players get a mention unless they've been by far and away the best on the pitch - we're that unaccustomed to losing you see. In this case Liverpool had Carragher who was outstanding - a far cry from the dismal hapless Stevie Me.

And you played us off the park? You must have very different outlook on football to us then, perhaps a result of having such a large chip on the Scouse shoulder from not winning the top division for 19 years. Tell me this - why resent others success? Do you really believe that a history of winning in the 60's and 70's gives you a divine right to be the best? Does that really exclude any other club from creating a new history. If that is the case then you're probably still hankering after a British Empire and wondering why these bloody colonials have independence and 'tiger' economies while the former Motherland flounders on the rocks of financial ruin.

We didn't, in my view, deserve the draw and very few here have said as much, but what you did do, and we have acknowledged is you thwarted our game plan and we didn't have any Plan B. Yes, you might have scored another goal had the free kick been 2 inches to the left, but if Ashley wasn't a full back then he probably would have equalised, and lest you forget Kalou did actually get a goal ruled out by a marginal offisde call against Anelka - more obvious ones have been given. These games invariably rarely entertain and this was only marginally better than the same fixture last year. You won, you deserved it overall. Well done. But beware, write us off at your peril. We're a long way from being beaten to the title yet.

Well said Tony

@Craig Warner
It was myself that stated that a draw would have been a fair result not Tony, that was my only disagreement with his report. You say we were outplayed, well people's views tend to be subjective on most things, so I will stick to mine and repeat that a draw would have been a fairer result.
If you want to see what I call outplayed watch our match against Villa or even watch Utd in the first 30 mins against us at the Bridge when they came flying out of the blocks, that's what I call outplayed.

If your view of Liverpool outplaying anyone is to close down, frustrate, and be very organised defensively against teams then your expectations on how Benitez sets out his team, then you won't be let down.
The match itself was marginally better than the borefest we had last year, you came for a draw to say otherwise would be disingenuous, and you sneaked a win.

If you're approach for the remainder of the season is to close down and frustrate the top teams, then your players are in for one long and hard season, but if you succeed then hats off to you.
But something tells me that will take it's toll, along with the amazing tactics of going one or two goals down and hoping that the last 10 mins against teams will yield equalisers and winners.

I don't need to state the obvious but there's on hell of a long way to go, enjoy your win and the bragging rights it's given you, but to write us, or anyone else off is a dangerous thing to do.

"Joe Cole returns to the Chelsea squad for Wednesday night's Barclays Premier League trip to Hull after three weeks sidelined with a foot injury.

Didier Drogba is back in training after suffering a knee injury but will not be ready to be involved at the KC Stadium."

The news is getting better. Joe back tonight, DD's back in training - maybe an appearance off the bench against Roma? Ballack can't be far off, and that only leaves Essien who TSSO mentioned could be ready by February.

I'm predicting a scrappy, dull, 2 - 1 win tonight. We'll probably go 1 down through a Geovani wonder-strike, then Lamps will put us on top.

6 pointer tonight, come on lads !!!

love how that scouser came on here and got completely put in his place with some well formed arguments. well done lads. one thing im worried about. has anyone else noticed that lamps is MUCH more effective without deco in the side

sorry about the lack of a question mark at the end, my keyboard is buggered.

Now since we're going to H(e|u)ll tonight i thought i could do a Ratings Preview.
Compare this to the actual Ratings tomorrow, if I get one wrong, (even by an underbrush) I suggest somebody should rips off my clothes, emusculate me ,then tie me to big fat rooster.

just like Gareth Cock's Team of the Week, all you need to do is pick Gerard , add first 9 goal scorers, a gk.
Life is dull if you think about it!

###Ratings Preview

#Cheque:he hardly had anything to do. - 7/10.
# Jose Bosingwa:excellent going forward - 8/10.
# Calvalho: Untroubled. - 7.5/10.
# John Terry: - 7.5/10.
#Cashley: 7.5/10.
# John Obi Mikel: The fulcrum around which the style revolves - 8/10.
# Frank Lampard: Another great performance. - 8.5/10.
#Deco: Outstanding alongside Lampard in midfield. - 8.5/10.
# Salomon Kalou: - 8/10.
# Florent Malouda: - 7.5/10.
# Nicolas Anelka: Pretty good without being spectacular - 7.5/10.

I'm beginning to dig Henry's sense of humour.

I mean, that picture of a big cock upthread - what's not to like?

Incidentally, are these your predictions for what will unfold, or your predictions for what Tony/Nick/Jonny/Mark will say has unfolded?

Careful Petew, you start by praising Hnrey's sense of humour and before you know it you've crossed to the dark side and said that you agree with everything Musumba says. It's a slippery slope you've stepped onto now.

... rip off ...

@Henry - I might have to use your surprisingly well written player ratings because there's little chance of me seeing the game live. It is good to see such a high rating for Frank. :)

A top of the table clash and there's no live coverage on Sky or Setanta?! Well, I ask you.

Incidentally, I think it was Ravenous who suggested that those of us who want to watch games on the Net add any working links to live streams to the most recent post's comments just before kick-off. A great idea. It won't help me tonight because my current Net connection's not fast enough. I might be forced to take a walk to a nearby pub and watch Arsenal beat Spurs.

"...your surprisingly well written player ratings"

Almost well written, Nick, other than the frankly ludicrous 8 for Kalou.

He'll be his usual inconsistent self. Not that we'll be able to tell that from MOTD, who will undoubtedly focus everything on 'little' Hull City.

Nick be careful not to get carried away and make too much noise LINK

@CB here is the link with the streams:

LINK

nice to see musumba back. :)

here's more: LINK

There's a LINK here once you navigate to England on the main menu - never tried it so don't know how reliable it is.

There I was, watching the game (and admiring Liverpool's midfield efforts, to my surprise, I might add), when the camera panned across the Chelsea bench. Bloody hell, what was Fester Addams doing there? Closer scrutiny revealed it was Ray Wilkins. I know we're all getting on, but what happened to him?

And today he's quoted as saying the dressing room was like a morgue after the game. I'd be alarmed if I were you.

Oh, and well done on the compliments from the LFC supporters on this blog. Well deserved.

crap.. im at work here in the US when the hull take on the chels..
stuupid time difference...

i was so used to weekend fixtures.. where did this midweek fixture come out from? its been a while since i last saw a chelsea mid-week epl game!

I shall be watching the game in the pub and then writing the report at some point, depending on how much I drink. Then again I may not bother and simply copy and paste #123. hnrey

Then again trying to incorporate "#Cheque:he hardly had anything to do. - 7/10." might be tricky.

Maybe if our keeper collides with the woodwork I could state "Cheque's in the post" or if takes a nasty fall but gets straight up again "Cheque bounces". Or if he doesn't get onto the pitch till Thursday it'll be "Cheque post dated".

Or if he doesn't get an OBE "Cheque not honoured".

I'm surprised how entertaining I'm finding this!

Good grief Mark. I suppose if he doesn't platy at all then it'll be Cheque Cancelled

Fucking bring back the edit!

Platy = Play.

Alternatively I could just try and finish this Mavis Beacon course.

I cant help thinking westham are gonna get murdered tonight!

Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Deco, Mikel, Lampard, Joe Cole, Anelka, Malouda.

Subs: Cudicini, Ivanovic, Di Santo, Bridge, Kalou, Alex, Belletti.

So no Di Santo, but Joe's back. Let's see if the team continue to play everything through Deco, thus ignoring Lamps, as has been happening since Deco's return against Roma.

This is one of the worst refs of the season. A complete homer who turns his head away from any blatent foul against a Chelsea player, whilst happily giving anything to little old Hull. A good start for us though.

Nice to see Spurs winning as well.

A wonder goal from Lamps is the difference between the sides. A great left-footed chip which on most days would grab the headlines, but Bentley's 40yrd volley has stolen most people's attentions.

An improved performance from the side and if Malouda had put his shooting boots on he would have a hat-trick and this game would be over.

I think Belleti's claim for Goal of the Month against 'Boro has just flown out of the window. A truly wonderful goal from Bentley against the Arse.

A great win tonight and i was nearly right with my 4-0 prediction. Where's Musmuba now, ridiculing me for saying that it's only Hull? Watching the 90mins reminded me a lot of watching the Boro game and if we took more of our 30 or so attempts on goal then it could easily have been 10.

this is what happens when a team actually comes out to play football against us. well done.

... we will beat liverpool away :)

Hey Musumba,
Welcome back mate :-)
@Biggs
We have to win those who do not play football as well :-) otherwise we shall become Arse-Anal.

COME ON SPURS! When did i think i'd ever say that. But 2 goals in the last few minutes and a 4-4 away at the Arse! That's impressive. They seem to enjoy playing for a 4-4 in order to ruin a Big 4's title credentials.

I now feel ashamed at cheering on Spurs. But i hate Wenger and his side anyway.

andre marriner is a useless referee. just thought id say that cos usually when you win you forget the ref but if we had drawn everyone would have been on at him. great performance again, why cant we play like that at home. malouda could get a hat trick a game if he knew how to finish. oh and the bloody injury curse is in full swing, joey and ricky today. bugger.

Great performence. I dont understand why we arent like that at home either. This season the bridge hasnt had that "fortress" feeling to it. Lamps goal was just top class. As usual the MOTD guys didnt bother talking about it. It would have been different if it was scored by Fabregas or Stevie Me. Deco and Malouda are both playing well except for the formers poor finishing. Hull looked like they just gave up in the 2nd half.