Regardless, we should have been more than 1 goal to the good against a poor team, even then should have been able to protect the lead even with ten & the players we have.
Mouro should also have seen that Fab was rubbish & should have been yanked at HT., & as for Cudrado, he was hopeless.

An interesting addition to the weekend da farce:

"Reports on Monday night claimed that Premier League delegate Steve Greaves, who was at Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge to assess Atkinson, agreed with the referee on the four contentious decisions which most angered Mourinho."

So not only did the ref see but not give the four decisions, the fa official at the game assessing the ref also agreed with the ref!

The closed shop, closing ranks makes them look ridiculous. They are ridiculous. They are not fit for purpose, I honestly think, after reading the above, that Jose is correct, surely they cannot be this incompetent and seemingly bias without an agenda?

Anyone seen the Steven Hawking film with Frank Leboeuf?

Did you see the bit he put at the end about the Barnes incident with Matic ?
"it looked worse than it actually was because Matic had his leg planted".
Isn't that the bloody point, with his leg planted the chances of an horrific injury were multiplied ten-fold. How does that mitigate a dangerous challenge that could have finished a player's career ?
Then there was the hand-ball. Saying the ball was hit with force from a short distance. Agreed, it was, but the player was standing with both arms outstretched. That's completely unnatural unless you're attempting to jump for the ball, which he wasn't.

I've never ascribed to the "bias" argument before, but now I'm beginning to wonder. The only other explanation is total incompetence and lack of knowledge of the game, which seems unlikely.
With the Qatar news today, I've never been so sick about the state of the game I've always loved. To be honest, I'm seriously thinking of calling it a day. But I think I'll see the season out and see what develops.

It just keeps getting worse and worse, this is really not on. I don't know what else to say anymore, i'm just fed up with it all now.

We are being completely screwed over and there is nothing we can do about it.

Matic is banned for 2 games, they say 3 is excessive. What a joke.

There is no justice from this at all.

Absolutely ridiculous that the victim of that awful challenge is the only one being punished but we all knew those dimwits wouldn't lift the ban. I'm surprised they've even downscaled it to 2 games to be honest.

Even the reduction is ridiculous, their reasons make no sense whatsoever. The fa are making the rules up as they go along.

OK so Matic's ban has been reduced http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31613184 and it's a farce, but.. moving on and trying to win the games he's not playing in.

Ramires will be there, Mikel won't be and lacks form anyway. That leaves two options, and both are very good players. Cahill in front of the back four where he's not reliant as much on pace (Luiz did it, why not?) or Ake who is a very good Ramires like player.

Many people have commented that we have become over reliant on Matic, and this is an opportunity to bring in some options.

The squad has to move on and focus imo, not let farcical events put them off, win those matches and win a first trophy. It doesn't mean that the club will ever forget what happened against Villa, where it seemed that the fa were condoning criminal thuggery all of a sudden, but come on focus.

We have a new shirt sponsor from next season:

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest...t-partner.html

"The Yokohama Rubber Company Ltd"
Hahaha.

Who saw that coming?

It's looking like Chelsea is the only uk team left in Europe again!

Still have to beat PSG first. Everton will still be in the EL.

Sunday 1st March, 4 p.m.

Chelsea should win. They will have learned a lot from the defeat at White Hart Lane, and there should be few surprises from Tottenham. They will miss Matic, but you have to have cover, and as mentioned, Cahill could do a job in that role or Ake.

Tottenham have just come off a recent defeat mid week, and Chelsea should be the fresher, sharper team.

Up front Chelsea have had problems recently and they look disjointed. That has to improve and they have had plenty of time on the training pitch to remedy the problems.

Chelsea to win 2 or 3 - 1.

Are you a Chelsea supporter Tip top ?

The reason I ask is that although you post on our supporters thread a lot you always refer to the Chels as "they" rather than "we"


Just wondering like

I don't not see many other posts that use 'we'. Are you employed by Chelsea FC? or are you in the squad? Just wondering like.

A few examples. Get yer jewelers glass round these:

'It's looking like Chelsea is the only uk team left in Europe again!'

'Anyone seen the Steven Hawking film with Frank Leboeuf?'

Chill out man! You're not the doorman of this forum, and the Chelsea forum has a lot less posts than other top teams. Now I'm starting to see why.

The Chelsea thread is one big happy family, all are welcome.

Let's hope jt lifts another trophy tomorrow

I can't see it being anything other than Ramires and Fabregas in the deep midfield positions, unless Mikel recovers from his injury in time. I like Ake but I'm not sure starting him in a big game like this when he hasn't played for the first team in ages is a good idea.


Indeed! I'll be at Wembley tomorrow, can't wait!

Matic is virtually irreplaceable, but we've known that all season. I wouldn't take the gamble of using Cahill or Ake. Cahill doesn't look like a defensive midfielder to me (one of his problems in the centre of defence is his reluctance to come out and close a player down, he always backs-off). Ake's time will come, but starting with him would be a risk.
I would go with Fabregas and Ramires, but pull Oscar deeper in more of a 4-3-3. Stop Erikson and Kane and you stop Tottenham, so I'd be tempted to give Oscar the specific job of nullifying Erikson.
Man for man we are still by far the better side, even Spurs fans appear to agree with that. I'm expecting a win, but we know anything can happen on the day.

Ramires hasn't had a good game all season. I know he had injury problems but since he has been back he has been pretty awful. I would start Ake, this could be the game where he can make his breakthrough. It's a risk, but sometimes taking risks is a good thing.

I think Ramires has been ok since his return from injury, not back to his best but he's still the nearest thing we've got to a midfield ball-winner without Matic.
Ake is a fine footballer and I'd be happy to see more of him playing alongside Matic, but is he really the player to replace our powerhouse in DM ? I suppose the bottom line is that anything we do is going to be a gamble.
I see that on another Chelsea site a lot of posters seem keen on switching Azpil to play in DM ? Might work, but it's another risk..as far as I know he has no experience in that position. As a complete gamble, I'd have thought Ivanovich had all the equipment to play in that position. Powerful in the tackle, likes to drive foward with the ball at his feet and reads the game well. But I'm sure Jose will come up with something.

Liverpool do us a favour.

Let's make it a perfect afternoon, come on Chelsea!

Yes, a good win and thoroughly deserved. They outclassed City for most of the game.
We keep our 5 point advantage, and now have a game in hand.

Great day to be a Chelsea fan so far, wish i was at Wembley!

I got a feeling, theres something in the air, i feel this will be Jose's day, i think we will have too much for Spurs! Fingers crossed!