Yes it was a great result, but for the millionth time i'm talking about our style of play under Jose. I do not like it!
Ray Houghton is a fair minded person, and he's questioning how long Jose will last playing such boring football? This football could not be further away from what we are led to believe our owner wants to see.
Longterm, it will really damage our club! The overseas market is vital these days, and outside the Chelsea hardcore in the UK, who the hell is going to want to watch much more of this?
Furthermore, will top players want to come here and be wrapped in a straight jacket and sent out to play like robots?

Are you saying that playing to win the PL and possibly CL will damage our overseas markets?

On the contrary, it is how people get to know us.

We cannot beat liverpool at the moment by playing them at their own game. We had to defend as a team and hit them on the break.

We did that perfectly, just as we did against Man City.

Its not as if were got a 0 all draw, we actually won 2 nil and the last goal was absolutely fantastic! My goal of the season.

It's quite significant that our away following increased AFTER Jose left the club.
I don't know the actual stats on this part, but i'd bet good money our overseas following grew rapidly AFTER Jose left.

Do you think people will want to be associated with something that is seen as so dull and boring? Despite winning a title, Real Madrid fans couldn't wait to see the back of Jose. Fans across the world love the likes of Real Madrid, Barca, Man Utd, because they win and win with style! Outside of people of Italian decent, how many fans love watching dull teams like Inter Milan?

Roman has spent shedloads of money on our squad and we have been reduced to parking buses whenever we come up against half decent teams. As Rogers said, anyone can do that! It's chicken football!

I was going to post a long riposte but it's far easier to just quote the following post..

Liverpool were not very flexible in yesterdays game though.

Jose has proved, time after time, at club after club, that he can change team and formations during a game to affect the result.

Compare him with Rafa, whose subs you could set your watch by, game in, game out, whatever the state of the game or the score.

attacking wise yes they have been very dynamic but yesterday was never going to be a day for that. Already Liverpool have concided more goals then anyone who has won the league for the last few seasons. That to me says while they have tried different formations they are all way to same. Dynamic was not going to be the word of the day

Could I see Chelsea scoring? The first real save of the match was a Chelsea attack, combine with the "hand ball" (i agree it would have been harsh but seen given) and the Kalas corner and a few more attacks yes I could see Chelsea scoring without the mistake and it was quite a while before Liverpool had what I would call a decent attack.

I would have gone into that match to frustrate Chelsea as much as Chelsea frustrated Liverpool

To me it seemd Jose used his knowledge of Rogers more then Rogers used his knowledge of Jose,

Yesterday should have been about Liverpool totally ripping up everything they had done this season and doing something out of the box, He had more then enough time to come up with something new, To me it was the same "Liverpool" way with maybe a tiny different approach.


Dont get me wrong Liverpool have been fantastic this season and if they win they deserve it but if they dont win I think Roger's needs to sit down and rethink the way they play at somepoints in the season.

They were like George Foreman against Ali.
Considering they only needed a draw It was a pretty brainless performance by them!
We needed the win, so they should have started to sit back and pass the ball around to try and draw Chelsea out.

Incredible isnt it.

All they really needed was a draw. It was their last match against a rival for the title - they should have set out not to lose. It really is that simple. There is a time and place for going for it and in that scenario it just wasnt it.

They should have ground out the dirtiest, scrappiest nil nil and hope, that during the game, the ball would fall at the feet of suarez and for him to actually score against a top 4 rival rather than the bottom clubs.

Instead they got a dogged chelsea who set out to stop their best players from seeing the ball and a terrible mistake* from gerrard.

* His actual mistake was not his casual control along the back 4, but what he did afterwards in trying to redeem himself by playing hollywood balls and shooting from 40 yards away into row z.

Gerrard could and should cost them the title.

Youth cup final (1st leg) is on ITV4 at 7:30.

Yes, they did get desperate. It usually doesn't help sending on more and more attacking players, we have discovered that ourselves in the past. With a player like Suarez, you can almost guarantee a few bits of magic, but bombarding us with shots from outside the box just played into our hands. Mark Schwarzer is a damned good keeper, in his prime he was one of the best in the world. Being Australian he never really got the recognition he deserved in my opinion, but even at 41 he's unlikely to be troubled by long shots unless they get a deflection.

Great penalty miss by Fulham. Comedy gold!

Ray Houghton is hardly a completely unbiased observer though, is he ? I'm guessing there was a tiny element of sour grapes there after the Liverpool result.
Besides, Chelsea don't ALWAYS play that kind of football. We have scored 3 goals or more on ten occasions this season against PL opponents. Including Man Utd, Southampton, Spurs and of course...Arsenal.

As for attracting top players, the two most important things appear to be the ability to pay top wages and the likelihood of winning major honours. We tick both those boxes.
In terms of glamour we're not quite up there with the likes of Real Madrid or Barcelona, but we are definitely in the group just below them. I don't think footballers sit down and tell their agents to find them a club who plays pretty football, they want to join winners who can pay them shed loads of money.

I caught up on watching the Liverpool game in its entirety today. Really was an excellent result and team performance, made even more impressive by the fact we had quite a few key players missing.

Anyone heard anything on the likelihood of Eto'o and Hazard being available for wednesday?

Also which team do you guys think we'd have a better chance against in the final, if we make it? I didn't see any of the Real vs Bayern game last week, but might give the return game a look tomorrow.

Hazard attended the PFA Awards and said he was fit from what I read.

Aah yes, quoting a bitter ex player of a certain club. Sorry, not interested in his opinion and I expect you're the only Chelsea fan who is.
You are so wrong about damaging the club. What attracts overseas fans is success. They are only interested in winning things. I know. I have spent a lot of time in Asia.
So you think top players are not interested in a team that challengers at the very highest level and pay top dollar ? Fair enough.
I will say it yet again, football is about winning. Winning is what excites supporters.
That result yesterday would of excited 99.9% of Chelsea fans. You honestly are the only Chelsea fan I know, and I live in West London so know many, disappointed with yesterday's game.

Ray Houghton and the words fair minded is just like saying Max Clifford would make a fantastic school governor for your local girls school. The media have a script for this seasons League and Chelsea and Jose continue to muck this "storyline" up. We are the people who let everyone know the latest Game Of Throne spoilers.

Roman has not given any interviews or have any of his inner circle (and that really really annoys them) yet on the other hand they know what he is thinking.

The football team you follow has nothing to do with "liking something" it's not a ice cream flavour or a actor etc, it's a feeling,it's a taste a smell something you can not touch or see, I never liked the way Ken Bates sometimes run the club or the players we bought or sold or managers we sacked or hired but did it matter? Of course bloody not, This season has already had more high points then last (which for me was as low as some of the days during the battle for Stamford Bridge)

"Masterclass" against the top teams, but where was the Masterclass against Palace, Sunderland, A.Villa (who have lost 5 games since then) & dont forget Stoke & Newcastle.

We were really parking the bus when we spanked arsenal 6-0

Some games you shut up shop, like an away game in a CL semi final first leg, others you go for it.

The media, and anti-chelsea fans, seem not to recognize strategy.

I not sure but did not one of our players win "Young Player Of The Year" this year? Is he not a exciting atttacking talent? Winning a award when wearing a straight jacket and playing like a robot thats very impressive

I think Liverpools mistake on Sunday was not being alert to what tactics Chelsea might employ.

indeed.

This thread is being ruined by WUMS unfortunately.

Yes, Mesut Ozil has probably been one of the biggest disappointments in the PL this season, and that was with Wenger's so called "exciting brand of football".
So far, Willian looks better value for money.

Some posters are WUMS and some are not,

I dont think in this case its a case of WUMS but different ideal's about football, Some fans are happy with top 4 (anywhere and no matter how many points from first) and a cup and the media and a bunch random's having a hard on about the team and treating the game like a film or tv show and other see the game as something else and dont care about what the idiots of the press say.

As has been proven over time and time again the people who complain about our style and how much they HATE watching it will be sitting in front of their tablets/tvs/laptops next week, The reason might just be so they can moan about us or laugh when we we lose or just to talk rubbish about the manager but they will still be watching

But I hear Ray Houghton raves about Ozil and so does Jamie Rednapp

Sometimes it's just a matter of luck when you play teams. Newcastle had a good spell early on in the season, that's why they're safe now even after losing six games on the bounce. We played Palace when they were going through a purple patch, and Sunderland when they were beginning to get on a roll.
But I agree, we should have got more out of all those games.