I happen to agree with you, I loved the football we played with Mourunho first time around. But I think most people would agree, he did have a "safety first" approach. One goal was usually enough for us, two goals and it was game over. I'm all for that sort of football, we still dominated games without the playing the Tiki-Taka Barcelona style.
What I'm talking about is what Abramovich wants to see, and that appears to be something that no manager has been able to provide up to now. I am puzzled as to why you appear to take the thought of RA leaving so lightly ? I'm no expert on the financial aspects of the club, but we certainly wouldn't be the club we are currently without him.
I've lived through the bleak times as well, but I'm certainly not in a hurry for them to return. I'm rather enjoying having a mega rich benefactor and being liked with some of the world's best players every year. If Roman goes, we'll all have to live with it, but I think it will also be the end of a wonderful dream.

When we won our first 2 titles with Romans money, we should of course won it for 10 years continuously, but let Man U with an inferior squad & less money (All credit to them & SAF) but at least we knew we should have won it more, & if you count cups have won as much as them.
It is a whole new scenario now, as Man C have a better squad & More money, I just wonder that Roman will have had enough.

I don't know about winning the title for the next 10 years, but the squad we had then should have been a rock-solid base to build for the future.
Looking back, and forgetting all the changes in management, the lack of replacements in three key positions stand out to me. We let Carvalho leave too early (and Alex as far as that goes) His partnership with Terry was one of the best I've ever seen. The injuries to Essien left us without a powerful midfield presence, and we've just been fiddling around in that area ever since. Finally there was the replacement for the legend who was Drogba. I don't think you can ever overestimate the effect that the Torres failure has had on the team. We had done it before with Shevchenko, but he was bought to please Abramovich and his limitations were soon obvious. With Torres we just went on and on flogging a dying horse that would occasionallly get to it's feet and perform.

What is the point of having Roman and access to getting the best players in the world if we carry on underachieving? There is only way of measuring how successful we are and that's league titles and from that POV you could argue we have failed. I don't want Roman to go far from it but at the same time we can not carry on as we have been for the last 5 years and continually not learning from our mistakes.

At the moment there is no "wonderful dream" it's just a series of the same mistakes.

Yes Roman has a vision of what football he would like to see but after 10 years and how many managers surely it's common sense to say his strategy for achieving that has failed, I don't believe for a second at least 2 of those managers could not realise that vision if given the right backing from the board.

I don't think we should enter a competition to finish 2nd or 3rd when we have the tools to finish 1st and I don't see any point in having those tools if we don't use them to their full potential.

I can see some truth in the rumours about Ashley Cole retiring after the World Cup. No longer automatic choice for us or for England...doesn't seem like the type to sit on the bench or drop down a level.

More then likely he will go to the U.S.A, The truck load of cash will appeal to him and more importantly the lifestyle.

He would be very silly to turn the cash such a deal could bring him for a couple of seasons work

Well its a massive match today, i actually fancy us tonight. I think Jose will get it spot on and we will win comfortably, i dont think Arsenal are as good as everyone suggests.

Hopefully you are right.

Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta, Mikel, Lampard, Ramires, Willian, Hazard & Torres

Schwarzer, Cole, David Luiz, Schurrle, Mata, Oscar and Eto'o

I wonder if that's a 4-3-3 ? It looks a bit more defensive with Mikel, Lampard and Ramires. No Oscar or Mata (again) so perhaps he's looking for more width ? But I've given up trying to second-guess Jose.

Could be a 433, but possibly Hazard through the middle, Willian and Ramires out wide too. 433 seems more likely to me, as Jose will be looking to nullify Ramsey and Ozil

As long as it's not the same 7-3-0 formation we saw at Old Trafford.....

Merry Christmas fellow blues...

It's definitely 4-3-3 with Lamps in an advanced role.

Good to see sexy football is back on the menu at Chelsea :/

31 minutes for something interesting to happen.

Good first half I thought considering the conditions. Mikel is playing better than I've seen for a long time as well.
They keep going on about the wind and rain, will it make that much difference in the second half I wonder ?

Can't believe some are saying Walcott should have had a pen and Mikel should have had a red.

Walcott was almost on his knees before Willian touched him for a start. People are hypocrites, they call Ramires a diver against West Brom but say nothing about Walcott.

And Mikel wasn't the only one who went into that challenge aggressively, Arteta did the exact same thing but nothing was said.

To be fair I thought the penalty call was a good one. Walcott was looking for contact, but Willian trod on his foot. If that was a Chelsea player I'd have been looking for a pen.
Never a red card though, it was a 50-50 ball and both went in with studs raised.

Yeh, that Mikel incident wasn't as one-sided as some are making out.


Like to see Schurrle come on for Torres.

Jesus, what a chance there. That's twice we've had 4 against 3 and wasted it. Two players were totally unmarked !

Hazard coming off???

Playing for a

Well, that was shit.

Our strikers complete a whole year without an away league goal. On to Swansea and Liverpool at home....

We kept a clean sheet! Not fond of Mou's subs but whatever, at least we got a point.

Really ? I quite enjoyed the game. It was a bit more like watching the old Chelsea under Mourinho.
We were pretty solid, with better finishing it could have been 1-2 or 1-3. There were some good individual performances in midfield and defence. Willian and Hazard were a bit disappointing, I would have liked to have seen them running at the Arsenal defenders more.