FA Cup Semifinal - April 18, 2009 - Arsenal v. Chelsea FC [R]

[GPK]

http://soccerlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/arsenal150px.jpg http://www.foerstl.net/Chelsea-Logo.jpg

5:15 PM GMT
12:15 PM EST

US TV: Live Setanta
UK TV: Live Setanta
CN TV: Live Setanta

Table Position

Chelsea - 3rd Place - Premiership
Arsenal - 4th Place - Premiership

Live on Big Blue (http://tv.chelseafc.com/)

Official Chelsea FC Website (http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Home/0,,10268,00.html)

News on Soccernet (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=363&cc=5901)

Team Talk Chelsea (http://www.teamtalk.com/football/news/0,16370,1773,00.html)

BBC-Chelsea (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/default.stm)

Latest Chelsea News From Google (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=UTF-8&q=Chelsea+)

Other Fixtures (EST) US TV

11:00 ET Manchester United v Everton Live FSC

[yasik19]

I wonder how the lads will get up for this game after such an emotional game yesterday.

[Blue Celery]

Seriously. Maybe for us too. Incredibly drained.

Come Saturday though we'll be up for it.

[bluemen groupee]

I think one of the lads put it perfectly:

"Every match from now on is a cup final."

6 league matches
3 champions league matches
2 FA cup matches

11 wins to glory!

[Ben7021]

Sounds like they lost Gibbs today, and both him and Clichy could be out for our game. Not sure who will play LB, as Silvestre is playing in the center I think. Their defense has been decimated by injuries.

[L.G.S]

I don't think this game will be with the players such as the Liverpool game.

Beating the Mersey scum seems bigger these days than any London derby.

[Kazuma]

Ugh, Setanta. :(

Drogba must start.

[lobomojo]

Ugh, Setanta. :(

Drogba must start.

Lampard may be worth considering;)

I do really want to see Mikel as well, now he has had too much rest, and I think he will be essential against Barca, though Guus may beg to differ :confused: and as long as results go his way why argue

I'd like to see Stoch, if his suspension is over, or perhaps Q go up against their 3rd string lb, don't expect that though

[Kazuma]

Lobo you know Lampard is an automatic lock, until Dzagoev comes anyway. :D :p

I want to see this:
--------Cech--------
Ivan-Carvs/Alex--Terry-A.Cole
Essien--Mikel--Lampard
Stoch/Q--Drog---Malouda

No Ballack in there at all, this is a midfield that should be scaring the pants off of everybody.

[leftwing]

I'll get the details up later - on Setanta Live in the US, Canada & UK.

5:15 GMT
12:15 EST

More fun on Saturday let's hope...

I don't know how much more fun I can handle. Yesterday damn near did me in.

[Macksam]

Lobo you know Lampard is an automatic lock, until Dzagoev comes anyway. :D :p

I want to see this:
--------Cech--------
Ivan-Carvs/Alex--Terry-A.Cole
Essien--Mikel--Lampard
Stoch/Q--Drog---Malouda

No Ballack in there at all, this is a midfield that should be scaring the pants off of everybody.
I like your thinking. Rest Ballack for the more important games up a head.

[The_ChelseaSupporter]

I like you thinking. Rest Ballack for the more important games up a head.

Dude we get it. You rate Ballack well more than all of us do. Cool. You don't need to enforce your beliefs on us in such an obnoxious way.

[GPK]

I like you thinking. Rest Ballack for the more important games up a head.

I like you thinking as well. To bad you didn't on this post. Since when is the FA Cup Semifinal not an important game?

Nice kid, kinda dumb.

Wembley on my Birthday, I'm holding onto that dream.

[Macksam]

Dude we get it. You rate Ballack well more than all of us do. Cool. You don't need to enforce your beliefs on us in such an obnoxious way.
I'm just messing around TCS. I'm just busting his balls.

[Macksam]

I like you thinking as well. To bad you didn't on this post. Since when is the FA Cup Semifinal not an important game?

Nice kid, kinda dumb.

Wembley on my Birthday, I'm holding onto that dream.
I'm kidding.

Instead of going Mikel would be good for the FA cup tie which we should win, I made a Macksam-esque comment regarding Ballack's absence.

[GPK]

I'm kidding as well. See this is what happens when you start a match thread too early...remember Yaroni's famous words for the Wigan game in August...

"a little too early for a match thread no??"

[StamfordBridgeView]

Well I was feeling not so good about the Liverpool game, I am quite confident in this one

We should see a pretty full squad, and I think the high of Tuesdays game will push us on. We just hope Guus can push to this backline plus Cech that we gave up all those goals, and we still came out on top the past two games, and that the crappy play is behind them and Cech. Yes Arsenal are paying better, but its hasnt been against anybody that great (I guess you could say same for us though).

Remember for all that we went thru tuesday, they played 90 today, one less day of rest for them.

Drogba on form+Drogba vs Arsenal=could be very scary

[KumarsS]

I'd really like to see Quaresma start this one. Given the quality he's shown in his brief cameos I believe he deserves to start regularly in the EPL. It's not like we can use him in the CL, anyway.

[Kazuma]

Cech deserves to start, yes he had two bad games but Casillas has been bad, Buffon's been injured, and Cech's still played well this season. Anyone who wants Hilario to start needs to think long and hard, I hate doing this but I hate that sort of thing. I can understand kneejerk but Cech?! Seriously? Yet some people continue to stick up for Ballack and Deco.

By the way, this happened this season for Casillas.

YouTube - Otro fallo garrafal de Casillas

[Ben7021]

Agreed. Cech's problem right now is confidence. Dropping him for Hilario in a semi-final game is not going to help that. At all. Hope he gets his head on straight though. Not a good time for this to be happening.