Are we out of the title race, again? For the goodness of our season, I think we might have to concede that and target champions league with full attention and focus. Don’t know when was the last time we were out of the running for the title in early April. But, we gotta accept the reality. Champions league is all that we’ve got.
Couple of weeks back, I did say that our name is on the cup. The feeling has only got stronger after watching the first leg matches last night. If we are playing Schalke in the semi final, we should consider ourselves lucky. We can surely beat them in a champions league semi final. Real Madrid, despite their lofty scoreline, didn’t look very compact. Against good attacks and top quality players, their defence is surely gonna struggle. If we were to play Real Madrid, I wouldn’t be too concerned.
Shakhtar can spring a surprise. If they can get a draw at Camp Nou tonight, anything can happen at Ukraine. No matter who we want to meet in the semi finals or the finals, we have this little thing called a champions league quarterfinal against Man Utd.
Playing the second leg at Old Trafford could be an advantage for Man Utd but if you’re keen to win the champions league, this shouldn’t even be playing in your mind. Porto, when they became European champions, beat Man Utd at Old Trafford in the second leg. On the other hand, talking of advantages, we have the most decisive advantage over Man Utd – our squad.
While we are one of the least affected by the injuries, Man Utd are the most affected. Chelsea have a near-full squad that can focus just on the champions league and Man Utd have an injury-depleted squad that also needs to finish the business in the premier league. I’m sure this will be the decisive advantage in this tie. We have a bigger and fitter squad. Our bench is much stronger than that of Man Utd. Carlo needs to fully leverage on our bigger and fitter squad.
Like with the ‘big matches’, what will also be a decisive factor is ‘who wants to win this more’. Man Utd, despite winning so much and so often, do manage to keep their hunger and desire for more. Full credit to Sir Alex for always keeping his players on their toes and making them want more and more.
I really hope that we give our best. I hope as I’m not sure. One of the things that went missing from us since our double winning last season was the ‘killer instinct’. We tend to drop our shoulders. We tend to concede the matches without enough fight. We tend not to play until the final whistle. This must change in this tie.
As I’ve always said, winning or losing is about a lot of details, as manager would tell you. You can play better and lose or you can play worse and win. What is in our control, with a fully fit large squad, is to give our bloody best shot. We need to play like these are our last two matches of the season because it could very well be, if we don’t give our best.
This is all that matters. Let’s play like our lives depend on this.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2914/champions-league/2011/04/05/2426996/five-ways-chelsea-can-beat-manchester-united?
There is this guy called Jesus Christ. I think he can help us.
——————Cech————————–
——–Essien —- Bran —- Terry — Cole——
–Ramirez——Lampard—–Mikel——Zhirkov
——————–Kalou—————————
——————–Drogba————————–
Chelsea problem start in midfield,essien not himself anymore,malouda skill don’t deserve to be playing for Chelsea.in attack drogba don’t has skill and power to run a defender and anelka slow the tempo of our game,my line up cech,ivanovic,Terry,cole,bosingwa,mikel lampard,ramires,essien,kalou and Torres,two holding midfielder ll help us and the skill of kalou ll give Torres space to operate and free to score.
Winner of Inter/Schalke vs Winner of Chelsea/Man United
Winner of Real/ Tottenham vs Winner of Barcelona/Shakhtar.
Jesus Christ Helps In Football Matches? In your widest dream. What needs to be done is to play to our maximum strenght, then we could win the match. It will be 0-0 at stamford Brigde and another scored draw at Old Traford. Thats my prediction. We will qualify with that.
BC said: If they can get a draw at Camp Nou tonight, anything can happen at Russia.
Correction: it is Ukraine
But note that our overall midfield is superior to theirs from any possible angle!
Yes We Can
who will be in
ur line up 4 chelsea against man
u ?
I ‘ ll start dogba cos of his
current form (3in2)
torres bcos he ‘ ll likely draw a
red card on vidic
and anelka cos of his ucl form
dt means a 433 formation wt 3 out
and out strikers
so we need 2 defensive midfielder s
to maintain balance
lets hope dt carlo ‘ ll listen
lets hope dt d real
I have a sneaky feeling that Drogba plays. He seems to be finding some form and Carlo hinted he might take advantage of that.
I’m not sure who sits to make room for him. Anelka seems to play well with both of them. Torres is a huge question mark. So far, Ancelotti has been politically correct in playing Torres. But with his career at Chelsea on the line, will he sit his most unproductive striker?
I’m looking forward to — and slightly dreading — the match. So much is riding on it!
Catch the match preview, pre match interviews and build up at Chelsea FC News
http://www.thechelseafc.com/2011/04/chelsea-vs-manchester-united-match.html
PLAY FERREIRA ahead of Bosingwa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The team needs to wake up fast or we’re going out.
Bosingwa utterly hesitant on the goal but who was marking Rooney on his run into the box? Time to get Anelka in.
Very disappointing result. Given United’s home record this season, it’s going to be extremely difficult to overturn this deficit and go through.
It’s tough to admit, but United were the better team. I know they only had a couple of chances, but they took one of them and then defended well the rest of the way. Yeah, Evra’s foul on Ramires warranted a penalty, but on the balance, United kept our attack at bay and always looked the more menacing of the two teams.
As for Chelsea, we just have to give it a go up there next week. We’re underdogs, we’re behind but we’re still in it. If we go up 1-0, the tie’s back on. Remember, we created a few chances today that on another day would’ve gone in, so there’s reason to be optimistic that we’ve got a chance.
NOT HAPPY…..Bosingwa hopelessly out of position to gift manure the first goal……no creativity from the team….drogba one of the best gets pulled off which doesn’t make sense unless it was political to keep roman happy since he paid so much for torres and then the penalty that was but the referee was too gutless to give because he was already fearing red nose would whinge ……which goes to show that red nosees constant whinging of referees pays off regadless of fines or bans…..we have our work cut for the second game but what worries me is the style…yes we were camped in their half for the second period but by then they were just happy to defend and did it quite easily….as to some of the players well the less said the better and again the set up was not right as no one was picking up their main threat rooney who was sitting well back…which was not a new tactic…he should have been man marked with one player given the job of being his shadow and making his life hell….the fact that we made a 37 year old in giggs look good is a worry!
I have been telling that this Chelsea generation would never win the Champions League since 2007 and told this again at the start of this season. Many people laughed out at me. Today I understand that one had to be a football expert to be able to say this beforehand.
Any team with a midfield of Lampard and Essien would end up like this, add to that a striker product of the wrong transfer policy (Torres) and you have a whole bunch of lads destined to misery. Poor Drogba was playing today both for the midfield and the strike-force and yet the manager managed to replace him and leave invisible Torres on the pitch.
The season is over but I think Chelsea’s problems will continue for next couple of years.
Its a bit like boiling a frog in water, do it gradually, they don’t notice the change…as supporters or even team officials this team is changing and maybe no one has noticed those incremental changes which are not for the better but unfortunately for the worse and more srious than we want to admit…..in my view, yes the team is allowed to lose or even have a shocker but what I have been seeing over many games is not a team on the rise or in a one off bad performance but something more serious…which in my view needs to be addressed…it’s not one thing but many and yet it still goes on…anyhow i’m not basing things on one game but again a repeating pattern….yes we can do it in the second game but it needs to be done differently….the absolute point is were manure that good…NO!
Very poor.
Yup, Bosingwa out of position. If Torres isn’t going to score, at least he could help out by covering back. I have yet to see him doing that.
wxwax,
It’s not his nature. We probably spent 50m on a guy based on his name and not his abilities.
The game reminded me a lot of the Liverpool home game this season. We had difficulty breaking a stubborn defense down. That’s been a problem in a lot of games this season.
It’s a problem that needs to be addressed. First, we need an additional creative forward like Alexis Sanchez in the team – someone who has a touch of trickery and can make things happen on his own. Second, we need to press higher up the pitch. It’s funny how the team tends to sit back so much defensively. Why not go after the opposition and win the ball back? Third, we have to stop conceding early goals. This has happened a ridiculous amount this season and means we’re always trying to claw our way back. It also means teams like United (today), Liverpool (in Feb.) and Wolves in (Jan.) can just sit back and soak up the pressure.
Say whatever you want but if you can find enough time, please try and take a look at the difference of emotions between the 02/03 and 03/04 seasons in both Chelsea fans and players. Do it also for the 08/09 season and the 09/10 to 10/11 seasons. We went from humble 4th placers to spoiled champions.
now carlo dnt hear d word two defensive midfielders
so we lost our balance on the pitch
am nt bothered bcos a distressed roman might bring bk mourinho
after d 102 goals last season, we have managed to break all our positive records
Carlo is the problem!!! he sent off DD and later a free Kick!!!! DD its a specilaist but he was out!!!!! come on!!!