i did not watch the game, but guys we don’t have so many defensive players injured so if our defensive line was kind of shaky , that would be ok.
2-0 is great, i am happy that SWP played , and i heard that he played very well.

I am watching Liverpool versus Blackburn , it is 0-0 .
as u know we have to play versus Liverpool in quarter-final of carling cup.
this liverpool is not scary but u know they will play better versus chelsea.
I hope this game ends up 1-1 not 0-0 . and blackburn scores first.

woow , if you had chance to watch Blackburn - liverpool, you would check 61 minute , just look at Fridel . he is a great goal keeper.

This is definately a different Chelsea team. A better team, I think its still early days but they’re definately playing a different game to what Jose Mouriniho taught them.

I say Carvaliho making runs towards goal and then Belleti is scores a good goal, from the half way line, and scores a good goal.

What’s going on.

Ten Cate is doing a good job at Stamford Bridge.

The team is pressing other clubs more by playing with freedom and taking on responsibilities, as they play more matches together they can only get better.

I hope Chelsea don’t end trophyless this season.

AcMilan 0-0 Torino .
I think I can guess where mourinho will go at the end of this season.

4 - Michael Mariens
“Ten Cate is doing a good job at Stamford Bridge”
only for you if you still dont know yet the name is G R A N T
AVRAM GRANT
its not ten cata (that looks like a very good dreser and nice person and probebly doing nice job as well)

So once more Mr Michael Mariens
next to the F on your keybord you would see the G
then look up and a bit to the left you will find the R
look all the way left under the Q you must see A
down you go and look right next to the B type N
finel with your lovely fingers type T

there you go -GRANT is doing a good job at Stamford Bridge
was it so hard? even for you

I think that SWP should start ahead of Malouda .. he’s very very slow n today was very poor ..

goal videos pls… I am stuck in USA and cant see any of the Chelsea games.. today i went hunting.. and everywhere people were like..”soccer”?? its College “Football” season now here..

team for shalke

—————Cech————
–Belletti–alex–Carvy-Bridge-
—————Maka—————
———-Essien–Lampard—-
–SWP——————–Cole
————–Drogba———–

First 20 minutes was very good, sure we made a few mistakes but were very lethal in front of goal. I’m sure the team was then starting to think about Schalke away so they dropped down a couple of gears. Spirited performance by Wigan in the second half after a poor first half for them. We didn’t need to play well in the second half, just keep the scoreline as it was and that is exactly what we did. Malouda didn’t get involved in the game very much, not his best performance, so probably see J. Cole replace him for Champions League game. Drogba was definitely not at his best, but like I said, we did enough and that is what is important.

@ Michael Mariens - post 4.

How can you give the credit to Ten Cate? It’s preposterous to give him the credit and not Grant, because we do not know what influence Ten Cate has had yet. The credit should definitely be given to Avram Grant, the manager!

Anyways, it’s very good to see we are up to 3rd and only 3 points behind Man Utd and Arsenal (although Arsenal have a game in hand). We’ve turned our poor September around and are definitely in the race.

@ Shyam : Dude, I am in the U.S.A but I watch most of chelsea games.

saw the match but wasn’t really impressed about it…although the score line was okay..it didn’t potray the details of the match itself…chelsea was really bad today and i wonder what would have happened if we had played arsenal,man u or even lierpool like that…ofcourse we would have been punished well,i do hope the defense line recovers well,i am also glad that bridge is back but i didn’t see him making any run forward today,maybe he was just been over cautious and all,and malouda shouldn’t have played..the dude is out of form…i dont know why sheva wasn’t used….he could have come on instead of kalou….at least we were 2 goals up..what harm could have been done…

well,i am glad we are in the top 3 and if we really keep our head up,we would be a strong contender for the trophy,glad we were drawn with liverpool in the carling cup,love to see chelsea play hard teams,seems to bring out the best in us….sure we would over run them cos they aint shit this season….the arsenal man utd match was really balanced,at least better than the arsenal liverpool match where they out played liverpool….cant wait to play the young gunners…hope they dont outplay us cos i would be crucified here….they got too many fans here in Nigeria….

anyhow,good job avram and cate…..glad we’re untop..where we need to be..

KTBFFH

@ SHYAM,

How i wish i could be stuck in the U.S.A…..hahaha

i read the news:
In His official DVD on sale in France - Drogba admitted that the transfer to Stamford Bridge from Marseille was a huge mistake in his career.

Befor the move, He Wished his own injury too..
“it’s his own revelation that he wished an injury upon himself in order to avoid moving to London that would hurt the Chelsea faithful.”

Drogba’s agent Seyde said: “The night before our flight to London I went down from Paris to Marseille to pick Didier up. At 4am Didier said to me, ‘I don’t want to go, forget it, it’s all off — I’m not going to Chelsea’. “

“I told him that it was too late and that everything was set up. Initially, he still said ‘I don’t care’ but finally I managed to talk him round.”

Man.. Does Marseille mean that much to him? :|

He added: “I said to myself ‘I couldn’t give a damn’ (that Marseille have accepted a bid). Maybe that’s going to shock supporters of Chelsea, but I didn’t want to leave..

Quite a frustrating match to watch after smoe of our last frenetic matches. there was just no drive at all in the team. no body was charging down in the mid field and we need consistency in this area. Essien was particularly no where to be seen for this, Lampard and Mikel did not assert there authourity also. SWP did a lovely job with the assist and back tracking to collect the balls. overall it was an average performance required to win the match and i believe if we needed to raise our game we could have done that.

Thanks to Mourhino, the players have been made up of steel and a blend of JM tutology with AG,HTC and SC new vibes, we can challenge for the trophy. i belieive it is a 3 horse race.

BC, i believe the above league table should read ‘loserpool’ at number 7 and portsmouth 4th on the above league table. the scouser do not deserve an extra position without working for it. Rafa ’s excuse of having no money to spend for poor performance is hunting him after so much poor showing. wish JM was around to tell him.

i think we had a descent game
a little lapses in defence
drogba had some problems but still we played well
i think AG should stabalize the side by playing the same team for many matches and decide whom to play each time as this will help us increse team chemistry

guys whats with drogba….is his continuous rant helping team anyway….how can a team with unsatisfied players win…..better to ship him out in Jan and bring in a new young talented striker like Huntelaar…

‘Shevchenko was on the bench and didn’t play even a minute. That’s unfortunate for him. Having scored a good goal few days back, he’d have expected to show up on the pitch, at least instead of Kalou. Is Avram overdoing the ‘I-want-to-prove-to-you-that-I’m-the-boss’ thing?’

I think it was a good decision not to bring on Sheva for the last ten minutes. He would have been just running around unable to do anything due to lack of any ‘forward play’ from Chelsea, and in my opinion, that would’ve been worse for his confidence… I mean Chelsea weren’t attacking or anything, and playing and being ineffective is kind of worse than not playing. Even Drogba didn’t do much yesterday. Hopefully, Sheva will start against Shalke. *Fingers Crossed*

Quoting cryuff @

He would have been just running around unable to do anything due to lack of any ‘forward play’ from Chelsea, and in my opinion, that would’ve been worse for his confidence

are you conceding that sheva would just be running around? wigan were trying hard in the second half and were a bit tired too. anyone who comes in late should be able to make an impression, esp sheva should take such opportunities instead of losing before stepping on the pitch.

I totally agree with Den’s team.

@Cryuff
No point throwing him in when you know no good is going to come off it. Bringing him on in the first half when Drogba was hobbling around would have been good though. We were playing like champions in the first half.

And something that the commentator said is still stuck in my head. ‘This doesn’t look like a premier league game.’ And I did notice that Chelsea wasn’t so keen on playing end to end… could it be that Chelsea is adopting a more ‘Italian’ or ‘Spanish’ way of playing? Way too early to be sure though…

Oh and btw BC, is Pro Evo 2008 better or Fifa 08? :P

@Cryuff
I forgot one thing… people have unfairly high expectations from Sheva at the moment. Unfair in the sense that if yesterday he had come on, people would have expected him to score a wonder goal or something. But what can a player do if he comes on in the last ten minutes and the team isn’t in the mood to do *anything*?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/7076615.stm

Drogba… sigh.

He may be a decent striker, but I really don’t like this guy.

Nubskeh and israeli:

I will respond to the two of you later.

Grant is doing his job with a minimum of fuss and has clearly got all the players on the same game plan. Grant does not appear to be playing favorites - unlike JM - and that is a successful approach.
Under Grant (and co-coaches) Chelsea have the opportunity to “play” their way to success as opposed to “grind” their way.

Chelsea under Mourinho have never played the way they play now! Never! Therefore, I don’t see any difficulty in giving credit where due… Grant, ten Cate, Clark and not lastly… Abramovich!

Here is the thing though - considering that Grant got the same group of players (that Jose had) to get great results while playing with style (meaning, neutrals, not only fans, would enjoy Chelsea’s games) would lead one to believe that Mourinho is a bit over-rated.

Chelsea played good football during the first half at Wigan. During the second they played thinking about the Schalke game and not wanting to get injured since Wigan players came into the second decided not to get humiliated!

Don’t worry Chav’s…

I’m sure you’ll forget about Drogba’s comments, next time he scores for ya…

In any other team, in the world, if a player said even half the stuff he’s said about their club, he’d be dropped in a heartbeat. But not at Chavski!

It’s official, your club is a laughing stock… no wonder Fat Frank is trying his luck, with that new contract!

@clock end gooner
why you feel the need to abuse Chelsea fans on a fansite is beyond me. If you’d like to know why some of us are drawn to the Blues, I can tell you that one of the reasons is that becoming a bitter, backbiting loser who trolls other teams sites to give them a bit of stick is something I don’t need and I’ll leave to the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and ManU fans. You’ve had it too easy for far too long and I know you don’t like the “new” Chelsea and our fondness for silverware that used to be handed to you but you’ll have to learn to live with it.

For the fans,
how great is it to see a Chelsea team willing to throw it into overdrive? This Wigan game is a poor example but lately I’ve seen some exciting football. If you don’t believe me check out the 18th to 25th minute against Schalke. We owned them. We’ve got some big games coming fast and furious and I think that we were right to slip off with a 2-0 win today but you can ask Sven if you think that this Chelsea team is afraid to put others to the sword.
I like Alex and Beletti. But how are we working out Alex, Terry, Carvalho, Beletti, Bridge, Cole, Ben Haim and Ferrera. Specifically, we have three great center backs and one who shows potential in Ben Haim. I’m starting to worry that Carvalho, Bridge and Ferrera may look for more steady employment in the future. It will be interesting to see if Grant can manage these egos and keep people working together.
Cheers

This blog and especially the commenters who frequent it are going further and further of track every day. I…don’t even know what to say.

the first half was a wonderful one,and i understand the fact that we didnt put up that kinda performance in the second half just cos we were leading,players relax when they are leading by two goals,but SWP doesnt get tired and he even comes back occassionally to assist in the defence,coupled with his outstanding performance upfront…,i dont see why he shouldnt make the squad regularly.Boss Grant should also try non african players now,just to prepare chelsea for the absence of our african players against the african nations cup…,i wonder why he didnt bring in sheva when we were already leading by 2 goals…

I say Drogba needs a good kick at the back , no matter how good a player is the thetrics he is carrying on and off the field r disgusting to say the least , firstly being in the EPL he has still not learned the way to behave on the field , the way he drops dead on every challenge asking for a freekick is ridiculous , moreover most of the time one sees him walking here and there as if he is doing some great favor by being on the field , no desire , no surging runs , no pressing on the defenders , jst walks abt and falls down everytime!!!

Secondly being a pro player , playing for Chelsea for 4 years now , he shld start behaving like a 29 yr old grown man , whining every single day abt some crap or the other , sometimes he ‘wants to leave’ , or ‘disgusted to sign for Chelsea’ , statements that r not only unsettling but crack the unity of the team , its high time he starts acting his age and gets his act togeather , or if he wants to continue like a cry baby , he better find himself a new club , nobody can hold the club on ransom , nobody is bigger than the club , we hav found a replacement for Jose , we can find one for him as well , and somebody who does not deem himself to be an all conquering hero-lord-savior-protector and whatever garbage he is imagining……………….

The bottom line is that Drogba doesn’t respect Chelsea. He can kiss his shirt all he wants, but we all know that he only stayed at Chelsea for such a long time because of Mourinho. Kind of sad, really… this might be the last season we see him in a blue shirt.

It’s all good. Go, Chelsea!
I love the way they play!

i have to disagree with few here, with regards to grogba issue, atleast he had the balls to come out and say what he felt inside his mind, tabloids highlights things they want thier readers to enjoy and gets attracted to them, he said he couldnt belive marseille accpeted the bid from chelsea, he didnt care about the money chelsea were offerering to both him and club, that shows his commitment to marseillie, why dont people see that side of things rather than crucifuying him for what he said, ofcourse i do agree if you are working for a company any job any company, you dont go around publicly and then crucify the company, but come on this is 21st centuary and people have their opinion, what ever he said in public about chelsea, he plays his heart out for the team and he has shown it in the past 18 months. let me ask u guys, 2 of you working in the same company, you work harder than other person but when the salary comes ur paid far less than what the other person gets, will u be happy ? yes am talking about sheva and drogba’s pay here, sheva being payed 130000 pounds a week and drogba on 100000, when he scored 30 odd goals and the team looks like a normal pub team when hes not playing, he has every right to say what he wants. i know sheva reputation comes into it , but i dont agree with it at all, its should be based on performance, and def its not,

hmmm.i droll each time i see the money footballers make…drogba 100,000pounds and sheva 130,000 pounds..per week…damm,,,why didn’t my mama by me a football as a present on my 1st year birthday….lol

abiut Drogba…he’s good and i respect him for his honesty…

Blues_Godson

I think that you’re wrong about footballers salleries.

I think that fooball players get paid way to little, compared to their bosses.