You'd prefer a SF place over a European Trophy??

Wow

The Europa Cup is all well and good for teams like Spur's etc but for Chelsea and teams that win and are year in year out going for league titles (although it was a great day out) it was something we could have done without. We had outgrown that cup.

Would I take this season over last? Even now a massive yes, Hugh improvement's all around, The league results are better and we have done much better in Europe.

Before Roman bought Chelsea the Europa cup win would have been massive one of the biggest nights for Chelsea in many a year but after the last 10 years expectations rightly change. The things that made you happy and was important change.

Pulling Dannii Minogue is very nice but not when a few nights ago you pulled Kylie and Kelly Brook at the same time

Some really intellegent football played last night. For all the talk of passion and sprit and unwillingness to give up it was the system and the game plan that won us the game. Its the difference between managers like SAF and Jose and managers like AVB,Rafa, Even when Hazzard went off (he felt something in the warm up so maybe Jose managed to factor that in that might happen) his plan was stuck to by the letter.

If we can play like that week in and week out and get a top class striker then we will really start going places.

For me yesterday was a better performance we have seen in many a Chelsea game (def better then anything last season) and another sign we are heading in the right direction

I think your having a better season than last season so far, I'd agree

But with regards to finishing 3rd and getting to the Semis in the CL, and finishing 3rd and getting European Silverware, I know which Season I'd see as the more successful one

I hear what your saying but Chelsea are all about Silverware, Europa league champions shouldn't be snubbed even for Chelsea standards imo

Your missing the fact we could still win the CL., yes I would gladly give up the "Europa League" that Fulham & Middlesbrough nearly won for a chance in the CL SF, & much bigger money BTW.

I'm not missing that fact at all, I just felt you were snubbing a 3rd place finish along with Being Europa League Champions, that's a good season

My bad if I'm wrong

Only because we have not done as well as we should have done over the last 10 years. Due to a number of reason's we are not quite where we should be by now and have always had a mindset of having to worry about this season instead of doing what SAF did at Utd i.e build a team this season that can win titles next season and next season build a team that can win the title the season after that. I honestly think thats what we are doing now.

We had to be about silverware the first couple of seasons due to speed of change at Chelsea and thats why I think Jose's job this time around is a hundred times harder then it was first time around, by now we should have outgrown that and be looking at a much bigger picture sadly due to many factors we have not and hopefully we are now

Why are you up so early during the half-term holiday's?, Is Mummy taking you to the park today? Hold her hands when crossing the road and remember the Green Cross Code

Oh and don't forget to practise your spelling (I think you need to spend a couple of of hours every day doing it)

You're really not one to mention bitterness and jealousy. That's all that was emanating from your posts from the CL thread last week.

before this thread is spoiled, please allow me to explain the difference.

In a thread dedicated to a football game i expressed an opinion that I felt Bayern should win the game at old trafford by 3 goals. This was not a United supporters forum. It was a reasonable opinion, most people thought bayern would win. On the night, united played a different style and played out a draw.

This was not posting in a supporters thread, i was not trying to deliberately wind people up, saying a club has no history, calling them "Wimbledon" etc

If you cannot see the difference, then there is simply no more for us to discuss.

Now please can we get back to posting about the Chelsea game last night and keeping the comments all positive in here, thank you.

Positive! (Couldn't resist)

But you did make this little dig....

"I half expect an open top bus tour!
Anyway, it is good to see expectations have been managed under the new Moyes regime.

I still look forward to his comments regarding needing a strong ref to prevent diving and cheating."

Indeed.

The biggest hypocrite on this board.

Give me CL football over Europa League any day of the week. You can interpret Mou's comments as a swipe to Benitez but I think the crux of the message was that Mou didn't want our players to feel it was our level. Big clubs want to play in big competitions. Look at Fergie's comments when Man U crashed out, he said the Europa League was their penalty for not qualifying. These managers are winners and they won't accept anything less than the best.

Anyway, last night was brilliant. I was on the edge of my seat all night! In recent weeks our players have been questioned about their lack of desire/heart/commitment but not last night. When it was getting close to the end of the game, our players didn't panic. We didn't concede any stupid fouls or gave the ball away cheaply. We just kept the ball moving and before you know it Ba scored!

We're in the semi's!!!!! Woooooooo!!!

Edit - Forgot to say, I loved the celebration between Azpi and Luiz after Ba scored.

It was a great display of team spirit.

Have we played better without ramires in the team?

I don't think it has made much difference. It wasn't great football last night, we got through by team spirit (as you say) along witn guts, determination, and being better prepared than PSG.
I'm sure Ramires would have delivered on the night, nobody could accuse him of ever giving less than 100% when he pulls on a Chelsea shirt.

I'm a big fan of Ramires, but he's been in bad form for a while now. On a good day, Ramires will help our attack with his runs (look at how he changed the game when he come on for Oscar (?) against Everton at home this season) and he will help out defensively too. But lately he's not doing the basics right; he keeps giving the ball away needlessly and his crosses? I'm not even going to go there since that's one part of his game I've always been annoyed with. But in big matches Ramires always delivers, he's kind of like Luiz in that aspect. They're both prone to stupid fouls but when the team needs them, they step up and they give everything on the pitch and for that I can never question their commitment for the club!

Edit - @RichmondBlue, you know what they say...great minds and all.

Well done to Chelsea last night. PSG just didn't show up for some reason, and they badly missed Ibra.

Thought Cahill played well.

I agree, Ramires has been going through a poor spell. Not for long though, he was turning in solid performances week after week before that. Oscar also had a quiet period, but he's been back to near his best in the last couple of games. Same with Ivanovich, had a few shockers at the beginning of the season, but look at him now.
Azpil has probably been our most consistent player this season, has he had a single poor game ? Probably shouldn't say that, it's tempting fate.

Let us not forget that Azpil is playing on the wrong side too!

There was a moment when i thought he would not get a game, but he had a great first season and im so glad that he is still in the team and playing fantastically!

A contender for our player of the year.

Yes, he's been outstanding..and still only 24. That's why I can't get excited about the possible signing of Luke Shaw, do we reallly need him ?
I suppose Azpil could move back to his natural position at RB, freeing up Ivanovic to cover the CB positions. But we also have Zouma, who (by reports) is considered to be an amazing young central defender. Still, it's all looking good for the future.

I would rather stick and have Azpi than waste a tremendous amount of money on luke shaw.

£30m is the price, but really?

That could be invested so much better, especially as we are trying to commit to the ffp rules (that other teams seem to be ignoring).

I think Eden will get that but I expect him to get Players Player of the year

Yes, I agree with you. On the face of it, Luke Shaw would be a luxury purchase. Great to have him with the club, but not a necessity. Why is it that the prices for English players are always so inflated, is that something to do with the home-grown players rule ?

Yeah Ramires was great at the beginning of the season but like Oscar, he kinda faded around November/December time. Azpi has been unbelievable for us this season. In fact the whole defence has. Cahill has grown into such a mature defender over these last few months. Terry (bar that uncharacteristic mistake from him for the first goal in the first leg) he's been a rock. In yesterday's game Terry looked like he picked up a slight knock and he was limping about, but he still threw his body on the pitch to defend that shot (can't remember exactly who it was). But that just sums up JT, he would die on that pitch if it meant Chelsea got the win.


We do seem to have a good eye of picking excellent defenders.