Chelsea 6-2-1, 20 PTS, 3rd Place (-3) Manchester City 4-3-2, 15 PTS, 5th Place (-8) 3:00 PM Local Time 10:00AM AM EST Fox Sports World-2 hour delay 12PM EST Live on Big Blue ChelseaFC.com News on Soccernet TEAMtalk-Chelsea BBC-Chelsea
Chelsea striker Herman Crespo faces a late fitness test on a groin strain, while Juan Sebastian Veron is expected to start after returning against Lazio. Marcel Desailly (back) and Emmanuel Petit (knee) are both back in full training, but are unlikely to play. Paulo Wanchope is pushing for a place in Manchester City's starting line-up to replace Robbie Fowler. Eyal Berkovic has been left out to aid recovery from his ankle injury while Nicky Weaver (knee) is unavailable. Chelsea (from): Cudicini, Johnson, Gallas, Terry, Desailly, Bridge, Babayaro, Makelele, Lampard, Duff, Veron, Geremi, Melchiot, Huth, Cole, Gronkjaer, Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen, Mutu, Crespo, Petit, Stanic, Ambrosio. Man City (from): Seaman, Jihai, Sommeil, Distin, Tarnat, McManaman, Reyna, Barton, Wright-Phillips, Anelka, Fowler, Wanchope, Sibierski, Dunne, Tiatto, Sinclair, Bosveldt.
Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Duff sit this one out in favour of Joe Cole. Hasselbaink and Crespo to get the nod up front. Anelka is on fire lately and it'll be tough to stop City from scoring. Keegan ball has one big disadvantage though-weak defence. Wouldn't be at all surprised if we see 5 or even 6 goals scored in this one. 3-2 or 4-2 the Blues.
Top of the league again Could get used to this... Not a great performance, but, not bad either.Before anyone starts to think we should have done better, let me remind you that Man City are a quite good team.Keegan ball tactics are very tough to handle and the fact that we held them scoreless over the course of the entire game-not just the last 15 mins-says a lot for our team as a whole. Grinding out the results-isn't that the saying? I must say though that we could do with a quality left back and an expierenced one for right full as well. What is it with Wayne Bridge, he refuses to tackle and seems intent on pulling anyone to ground that seems to be geting around him? Anyways, three points in the bag at the end of the day. Decent result no matter what.There are no "easy" games at this level and Man City are a shade above the pack. Cudicini/Terry/Mutu for MOTM.
Kevin Keegan quotes He comes out with some great ones... http://sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/...e26.xml&sSheet=/sport/2003/10/26/ixfooty.html
Not the most impressive, but a win is a win. I thought Gronkjaer had an uncharacteristically bad game, and Melchiot had some dodgy moments at the back and in attack. Bridge was, again, mediocre at best. (Chivu.........Chivu......) On the other hand, I thought Mutu had an outstanding game - for a player his size, he wins a lot of the long balls that we pump downfield. Very nice attribute for Premiership play. I also thought Gallas was excellent at the back, and Cudicini was back to his old self in goal. A good win against a pretty tough side. Another copule of goals would be nice, but I'm perfectly happy the way it ended
More from Ranieri http://www.sportinglife.com/footbal...er/03/10/26/SOCCER_Chelsea.html&TEAMHD=soccer
3 points You can't beat Man City 5-0 every year (apparently). Result over the Manchester City side made even sweeter by the Fulham victory over that other team in Manchester. Chivu? come on. English backbone. English players needed to win an English league The future England and Chelsea back four? Johnson - Terry - Ferdinand - Bridge As Ferguson vows to kick out his problem drug players - Rememebr Stam and his nano's? Lamps to Barca???! Barcelona are interested in Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard with the club hoping that the player's Catalan fiancée will help swing the deal in their favour News of the World). Can't see it meeself, not for a good few year anyways. but nice to see the elite of Euro Football recognising the talent Frank has.
Re: Re: 3 points Ah, give the lad some time. He's a country boy, an hampshire hog, in the big smoke, he's going to need some time to adjust. I just think its cool that we got a player who sounds like Mick Channon in our team. Rio is still a decent player, although I was thinking of him more as back up for Gallas really
Re: Re: Re: 3 points I like your thinking Although I still think Bridge has been mediocre all year. I'd say give him some time, but he's 24, isn't he?
NOT THAT BAD! New team..... new tactics to contend with, as well as new teammates that are in a class of their own, That is what Bridge has been up against since he joined us. Give the lad until December, by then he'd have enough matches to sort out himself. Chivu is history for now, we ain't got no chance next season as he 'd already completed his move to Roma. Let's just stick to Bridge for now shall we?
Re: NOT THAT BAD! Well, i don't think it's a case of having to "stick" with bridge, as that kind of paints the image of us having to make do with something thats not quite up to snuff. He has the talents and was bought, at least i would like to think this anyway, with an eye on bringing his game up to the next level. And therein lies the problem-he has yet to play at that level. He needs some schooling from the masters that be at Stamford Bridge that turned around Frank Lampard from a decent player with West Ham to an International class player with Chels. It took a good two full seasons for us to see the best in lampard-it may take that long with Bridge.It just looks like we're geting nowhere at the moment though. I would agree with Monkee that a back line of domestic players would be the way to go.
Re: Re: NOT THAT BAD! I have to disagree with that. I've watched every minute of every game this season, often more than once, and I think Bridge has done very well. The one thing I like about him is that he sticks to what is supposed to be doing - defending. He does get forward but only when it's necessary. To be honest, with Duff or Joe Cole in front if him, both of whom are likely to go awol from their position during the game it's absolutely vital he sticks to the task. Anyway, it could be worse - we could have Ashley Cole. I've also heard it said that he's not that fast but I've only really seen him once out-paced over a short sprint and that was by Sean Wright-Phillips who I've seen go past most of the EPL's LB's in games at one time or another. Actually, Bridge got back at him again and was able to put him off for the centre. Oh, and his DOB is 5/8/80 or, for the foreigners among us, 8/5/80. He's barely 23.
Re: Re: Re: NOT THAT BAD! Clan, what I meant was that we should be happy with Bridge because he's a talented LB. He just needs time to get into the fray. All the games that he has featured in so far..... he's more than committed, you can see how hard he's trying. I don't think that he lacks any defending skills nor attacking skills as well. It's well to do with balancing both actually. Andy was right on about covering for Duff, if it was Ashley Cole, we would've been done for in every match played so far.
Re: Re: Re: NOT THAT BAD! My apologies, he's younger than I thought. I had thought I read somewhere he was 24. Which can only be a good thing. I'm not suggesting we start jetissoning players left and right when they have an off spell, but in my opinion I just haven't been impressed with him. Its certainly possible I haven't seen as many games as I need to make a thorough evaluation, but its just my opinion. If we get someone better, great. If not, I'm happy to watch him learn for another season. Hopefully he'll improve, and we won't need Chivu, or someone of his ilk. I do think that Bridge gets his lion's share of criticism because he's the default first choice at LB, and Babayaro has played well this year. Geremi and Veron who've been somewhat disappointing as well, can be benched, which is why there is less focus on them. To a certain extent its unfair, but I do think Bridge deserves some of the criticism being leveled at him. Hopefully playing next to Desailly will make him better. Hopefully.