Chelsea 3rd, Premireship Scarborough 15th, Nationwide Conference 12:30 PM Local Time 7:30 AM EST Live on FSW Live on Big Blue ChelseaFC.com News on Soccernet TEAMtalk-Chelsea BBC-Chelsea
Makelele is a doubt because of toothache, and Adrian Mutu and William Gallas are both doubtful. Crespo and Veron are out naturally. Is Petit fit?
UP SCARBOROUGH! All I gotta say is... I'm drunk in on DP - I'm stayin up to watch this one at 430 pacific. This is gonna be epic. I hope. -DP
How ‘bout then? John Terry could’ve had two and then who knows maybe even an hat-trick. Nice run from the big lad. Our strikers have been fluffing them so far today. This is going to be a tough one on that muddy little pitch. The FA cup. Scarborough. Always a danger. This is what its all about. Nicolas started the half well and then faded a bit. Conga-rats to him on making his debut. Not a big lad, but he puts himself about.
Who ate all the pies? Scarborough keeper Walker maybe? But what a wonderful save the tubby Walker lad had against Gallas eh? And Gallas, was it a penalty? I’d rather not say to be honest. Scarborough gave a real good account of themselves. This was good FA Cup football. Chelsea should have put away more of their chances; should have, but they didn’t. Happy to be going into the next round
On the positive side it is good to see Petit back and errr well that's about it really. Our attack just carried on from Birmingham, too sloppy too casual, try and walk it in.
Not a great performance and I thought the back line was just as sloppy at times as the front two were. Melchiot and Bridge put in poor performances, Terry could have been sent off for a few bad tackles, and Gallas got away with one. The lone bright spot I thought was the return to action of Petit and the debut of Nicolas. Nicolas didn't look like superstar material I am afraid to say, he will be out of his depth against EPL competition not to mention CL teams. But it's still good to see a youngster get a chance to play with our superstars and who knows, maybe he will develop enough to be a useful squad player. Petit on the other hand could be crucial to our title hopes if he can spell Makelele in the second half of the season. He looked decent today but probably will have trouble playing the full 90 for a few matches. Was he actually injured all this time or just waiting for all his hair to grow back? I think we need the midfield to start chipping in with the goals again, the other teams are having too easy of a time double teaming our strikers and not allowing them any space. That and our finishing was bloody atrocious today. Roll on January. When's the draw for the next round?
How do you guys feel about the hand ball by Gallas that should have been a penalty. Chelsea deserved the result, but it was a penalty.
That was definitely a penalty. There was also a free kick at the edge of the area that didn't get called. Chelsea probably deserved to win, even with the horrendous finishing, but who knows what might have happened after a penalty? It would have been interesting to see. p.s. Melchiot sucks. -DP
Some thoughts on the game Never looked like losing this one at all.Nice to be able to say that, and taken at face value thats great - however, we were playing non league lads out there today.Fair enough, they played well, so well in fact that they probably had their best performance of the season, but c'mon for christs sake, we should have been taking lads off at the half to give them a rest because the game ws well and truly over as a contest. No, instead we seem to have lost the plot all over the field.Players thinking they should just have to show up to win?Yes, i can see that from the foreign lot, but the domestic lads should know better, being the Fa Cup 'n all. We don't have a settled side and we're not playing good football.We are to easily stifled when the midfield is crowded, we haven't got a look in when it comes to creating anything from there and friggin Lumpy is getting carried away with all this 35 yard belter nonsence. Gronkjaer? FFS...i'm tired of waiting and saying he'll come good.Odd flash game here and there doesn't cut it anymore. Penalty? If that were in the other half i'd have been hoarse screaming for one. Then again, it did look like he was barged a bit and to be honest those are solely at the discretion of the ref to decide whether or not it was ball to hand or a penalty.Some are given and some are not.We lucked out. Whats the problem anymore? Last season in the FA Cup a supposedly weaker Chels went to Shrewsbury and thumped them.This supposedly stronger Chels went to an even worse team and somehow managed to put in a worse performance. Then again we have played some breathtaking stuff this season.Teams don't come to play Chelsea anymore, they come to do a "Liverpool"...pack the back and middle and hope for something at some stage of the game.Destroying tactics rather than footballing.Problem is it's starting to become effective - which leads me to J Cole.Somebody needs (Ranieri, hello?) to tell him he isn't quite the player he thinks he is and keep it a little bit simpler. Good to see Petit back as he'll be needed. Its £110 million later and i find myself saying the same thing now as i did at the end of last season - good team, but we need a first class finisher, a quality right sided midfielder and a better than average player for the right full position. Ah well - lets see who we get in the draw on Monday.
Re: Some thoughts on the game Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. I am begining to think there is something endemic in Chelsea, we just can't put it together for more than the odd game. Re the Penalty, one you raise your hands you are asking for trouble, and I would not have complained if a pen had been given. But I do not think it was deliberate handball.
was away for the weekend and only saw Match of the Day... what was that?!?! half of the team looked so casual and the other half were overly aggressive. i dont mind aggressiveness but for crying out loud, we shouldnt need to be elbowing and hand balling to win a game against scarborough! was it really like that throughout the game or was it just a case of selective highlighting by the beeb?
Well, i haven't seen MOTD in many a year, so i can't compare as to the highlights you got to see. I did think however that we could have had a red card or two, was surprised that some handbags wern't breaking out and in general would have loved to have been on the sideline to kick our players in the arse and tell them to play like they did in the opening 10 mins.After we scored that was it.Total lack of interest. Thats not the first time lately it's been like that either.It's not really all Ranieris fault as he can only pick them, not make them play, but he'll be the scapegoat at the end of the season. Utterly dire performance on the whole that promised to be so much better considering the opening 10-15 mins.
i thought JT had a great run into the box but with most of the shots, it just seemed like the players were trying too many distant curlers and not enough penetrating runs and shots from near the goal. saying that, the lampard shot wouldve been a classic had it gone in what was with hasslebank tho? was he too hyped up or was that just frustration? delighted to see petit's flowing, blond hair though
Petit looked good as defensive mid. And I felt he was more of an attacking threat than Gronkjaer, as he was distributing the ball well when he won it. I also thought JFH was letting things get under his skin, but at the same time, you know you have to battle in any cup tie. Good to see he was battling. Joe Cole goes around people where it is generally pointless to go around them. Then doesn't near the box, choosing to send in ineffective crosses or weak shots. Yes, looks like Lampard has been reading too many of his own press clippings. He (and Cole and Duff) should be breaking down defenses and working with the forwards, and forget the 35 yard curlers. Eidur looks like he is trying too hard at hitting the sidenetting. How many shots has he put less than a yard wide, either side this season. Hammer one at the goalkeeper! The defense was solid as usual. Melchiot is always going to make one or two bad touches in a game. Did he fall asleep on Cryan's header? Maybe, but Scarborough had only that one chance: by then it should have been 3-0, or 4-0. It was good to see that he recognized how much space Scarborough were giving him, and began to attack more forcefully after about the 70th minute. In general: we play the ball well through our own defense and midfield, playing the ball on the ground, then for some reason we seem to think we can only lump the ball into the box and pray. Duff, Cole, Lampard, Gronkjaer, Mutu are all players who can take defenders on and beat them, but they are choosing not to do that near the box. Conversely, I think Eidur and JFH are attempting to do too much individually. As strong as he is, Jimmy should be able to play with his back to goal, shield the ball and check it back to Lampard, Mutu and Eidur for shots. When the defence is expecting that, then space will open up for give and goes and for him to turn and shoot. I suppose if it was all that simple, they'd have done it by now.