The Official Chelsea match thread.

ron 'chopper' harris on talksport cant actually £#%&!ing speak properly
there £#%&!ing dissing northerners especially jason cundy

It's obvious why he's playing, he's stronger in the air, stronger in the tackle, better at defending corners and marking.

Evra has been great and pisses all over Gabby going forward but against Chelsea we have a real danger of being out muscled.

Thats why Gabby played at Celtic, to give him a game before today.

el elbow looked well off the pace v celtic

1. Our Bench is woeful.
2. I'd rather Evra than Gabby, although the Renters are so compacted in the midfield Gabby is unlikey to be exposed when he's caught out of position whilst marauding forward with his nose in the air.
3. Despite his indifferent performance against Sellick, I expect he'll do ok today.

gabby needs to play better than he has on his comeback trail, but evra is £#%&! all use in the air. fergie will point to gillespie's goal for his lack of awareness, too. we've got enough attacking players not to have worry about evra's overlapping.

let's just thank god fletch and o'shea are sitting on the bench. and hope we don't line up with rooney on the wing.

we are £#%&!ed if we need some goal-scoring power from the bench, obviously. :0)

Nice one Louis

Ashley Cole is barely hanging on against Ronaldo. Mark my words, he'll break down before it's over.

Vidic is getting battered about in the gob a bit, my what a snide team Chelski are.

2 - zero coming up

Rooney the second

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

concerned about the aerial threat.

A lot depends on Rio and Vidic today - with Drogba,Terry and Ballack they have 3 killers in the air, I am afraid I can see us conceding a header today.

OTOH, I can see our attack skinning their defence - I think the 3 Rs (Rooney, Ronaldo and Redhead Scholes) will rip them apart if we go 4-4-2.

3-1 to us I predict.

Get in there - 50 notes are getting banged on toot sweet with WR as 1st scorer.

£#%&!ing knew we'd concede one in the air today

there's no much we could do about it. I mean apart from the fact that vidic was fouled and saha should have got it over the bar. chelsea were bound to get to a header first at some point.

Drogba gave Rio a two-handed shove right in the back too. Granted it was off the ball and didn't influence the goal, but it's still a foul.

just £#%&!ing shoved vidic into cuddlycini and had the cheek to complain.

fair point but I think the aerial threat was always going to be an issue.

Still think we will sneak it.......

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

fair point but I think the aerial threat was always going to be an issue.

Still think we will sneak it.......

i agree with you entirely.

it's just that it was something to worry about, rather than something we could really counter. even allowing for heinze instead of evra. that was about all we could do.

yup, this is where we are missing a nasty bastard in midfield - somebody who could neutralise the 'Ballack' influence.

Ah well, Hargreaves is coming.......

we faded a bit and chelsea came back strongly, but..... £#%&!ing kicking and pushing.... they just can't help it, can they? no £#%&!ing class.

we still had the best chances to win it in the second half. saha should have swung a boot when terry lay down in front of him. I would have. ;0)

Fairish result i suppose. I think our central midfield faded in the second half. What Jez says is correct in the fact that we still are missing a more combative, physical player in that area

Desparetly need other options in attack, i think everyone is aware of that.

Not a bad all round performance - can do better.

£#%&!ing lovely, as i said during the week, id of taken a draw before we kicked off.

Just hope Saha/Ronaldo are fit for Everton

What the £#%&! happened to us in the 2nd half? We started defending deep and couldn't keep possesion for more then three passes? £#%&!ing joke. Seems to me that Fergie sent the lads out to hold onto what we had and try to get one on the counter attack. United inviting pressure is never a good idea. If we'd carried on as we had in the first half, I think we could of won it. Granted chelsea did improve, but we gave up the midfield and let them play. The equiliser was only a matter of time

With Ronnie and Saha £#%&!ed, our squad will be shown up for what it is. Hopefully, Bolton can do us a favour. I've always thought we've needed a 6+ point gap going into the christmas/new years fixtures, because that is when we'll drop points. Needed a win today. Very unlikely we'll win the title now, but we should give those rent boy @#%&!s a good run.

First half, we were excellent. Our 1st XI is better then theirs, but their stronger squad will see them through. @#%&!s

I think you're right watcher, although I thought we needed all 6 points off them to make us firm favourites.

They will grind out a succession of 1-0 victories that we won't be able to match and even if we beat them at their place I don't think it will make up the difference.

All that said we're very much in it at the moment and a decent midfielder and striker in january might make all the difference.