Chelsea 1-2-0 5 PTS, 5th Place (-2) Arsenal 2-1-0 7 PTS, 1st Place Sunday, September 1st 4:05 PM Kickoff 11:05 PM ET Live on FSW PPV Live on Big Blue Internet Radio CFC Official Web News on Soccernet TEAMtalk-Chelsea BBC-Chelsea
Same Ol' Chels, Same Ol' problems Worried about us losing the battle in the MIDFIELD 8 Frank Lampard - a star, a diamond 11 Boudewijn Zenden - starting to shine 12 Mario Stanic - unreliable, and he's NOT getting any better 17 Emmanuel Petit - dissapointing and NEVER really seems to be match fit 20 Jody Morris - a problem waiting to happen, and the jury is still out on wether he actually is good enough as a player 21 Enrique De Lucas - promising on the right, not suitable for the middle of the park as he lacks the neccessary experience 30 Jesper Gronkjaer - dissapointing 36 Joe Keenan - a younster, always destined to be a fringe squad player this season, hope he gets some games Only happy with 3 of our mids - Lamps, Zenden, De Lucas. we NEED at least 6 quality mids, all fit and all UP FOR IT, if we want to seriously challenge for the title btw- I'll be out of town, so I'll miss posting on here. Also, for the saints game I couldnt get on here anyways, need to sort it out boys, OR I'll be forced to go back to dark place (Soccer net).
Um.... Never had a problem loging in Monkee,But ..you could sign up for the premium member services and that would eliminate that. It's 30 bucks for the year and gives all kinds of neat perks. Well worth it in my opinion if you are going to post here on a regular basis. Check out the lower forums...there's a thread on it there. Look for reasons to upgrade to to premiun services.....hold on i'll get a link for you.... Here you go
Fanks Clan Much appreciated don't know why I couldnae get in, I have a fast connection and that - might be my anti-pop-up software - hopefully it wont be a problem once I'm a Premium monkee.
Looking forward to this one. I only wish I could WATCH the match rather than listen. But I'm doing a lot of work in my house right now and so the cable's disconnected and there aren't any pubs in Baltimore showing EPL matches, so it's internet radio Big Blue for me. I think it will be another exciting match between the clubs.
Lowecifer, I'm sure you're aware of the many options in DC...But you might want to look closer in Baltimore becuase of the new bar pricing from DirecTV this year more pubs are carrying EPL....
Yeah. I know all about DC, and I have enjoyed a match or two at Lucky Bar and Capitol Lounge, but I'm heading down for the United match that evening, and I have other things to do in between matches. Thanks for the tip though, I'll have to check around town...
Le Saux is fit...now what do we do? So i would have to say that it is reasonable to expect him to start. And no, it's not because of any shortcomings that baba has shown in our opening games. Remember, Le Saux is our starting left back and baba only gets the nod there when GLS is not available.Unfortunately for us that has been the case more often than not in the past three seasons. Now, that sorted then, what to do with baba and ultimately Zenden. Baba playes quite well when used as the left sided midfielder and especially so when playing in front of le saux. Now, this wasn't a problem last season when we had the luxury of both being fit and available at the same time, as bolo was either injured or suffering a severe lack of form.This time around Zenden is perhaps the most inform player on the team after lampard. All of which brings us to Sundays lineup. In mu opinion we simply go with form and play Le Saux at the back and leave Zenden alone. This of course means that Baba is on the bench.However not as a direct result of a run of bad games. Simply because the starting left back is now match fit and Zenden is in better form. And, after that dreadfull looking bench we took to St Marys, baba will at least make both of 'em look over their shoulder if not playing up to par.
Bergkamp stirs it up What a git.. Bergkamp says Chelsea are write offs. By MARK IRWIN DENNIS BERGKAMP has written off Chelsea's title ambitions ahead of Sunday's Battle of the Bridge against Arsenal. The straight-talking Dutchman reckons the Blues destroyed their Championship chances when they allowed themselves to plunge deep into debt. And striker Bergkamp, 33, predicts further misery for the club which not so long ago talked of becoming the 'Manchester United of the south'. He said: "It will be difficult for Chelsea to become a top- three club this season "To do that, they'll have to be better than us, Liverpool or Manchester United over the whole season and I don't think they are capable of that. "There's no doubt they could outdo one of us for a short period of time. But they need to find much more consistency if they want to beat us over an entire season." Arsenal and Chelsea have been at each other's throats for the past five years and Bergkamp's comments ahead of Sunday's Premiership grudge match will fan the flames. He added: "The top three clubs all have the experience and strength in depth which Chelsea lack. "Financially we are in a very strong position which will maintain our superiority in these tough times."
Vieira faces late fitness test. Parlour expected to be fit after treatment to a leg injury. Sky Sports BBC Match Preview
Ranieri::We must be consistant From The Sunday People CHELSEA tackle London rivals Arsenal today with boss Claudio Ranieri wondering if they'll ever be equals with the Double winners. The Gunners left the Blues floundering far behind in their slip-stream last season and realist Ranieri admitted: "They had been winning for a long time - they have everything. "They are strong, physically, mentally and have good quality players... and are consistent too. "Even when Arsenal are suffering, they come back strong straight away. "If they're behind they continue playing - thinking they are going to score sooner or later. "I don't think I'm offending my players if I say that teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Leeds are better than Chelsea. That's reality, look at the table. "I want to close this gap quickly. I don't know how long it will take, but I want to because I am ambitious, I have passion and I have heart. "But it's not easy to convince our players' minds - and I don't know if that gap will be closed in the future because I am not a wizard. "When we played Manchester United last week and last season I didn't see too much of a gap. "But at the end of the season there were 20-odd points between the champions and Chelsea. We must be consistent." Veteran Italian ace Gianfranco Zola is expected to retain his place in Ranieri's attack alongside Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink... at the expense of Eidur Gudjonsson. Emmanuel Petit must undergo a late check on a bruised instep, but centre back John Terry (knee injury) is still some weeks away from first team action
Team sheet Today's team (from chelseafc.com) -------------------- 13 Carlo Cudicini 2 Albert Ferrer 5 William Gallas 6 Marcel Desailly (c) 14 Graeme Le Saux 30 Jesper Gronkjaer 7 Enrique De Lucas 8 Frank Lampard 11 Boudewijn Zenden 22 Eidur Gudjohnsen 10 Gianfranco Zola -----------------------
Lineup --------------------Cudicini--------------------- Ferrer-------Gallas------Desailly------Le Saux---- Gronkjaer---De Lucas-----Lampard-----Zenden--- -----Zola-----------------------Gudjohnsen
One thing about american PPV TV They never show any pregame. I'm staring at the Direct TV picture card waiting for the game to start....Ho Hum.
I think it's just you and me for now Low. Monkee said he would be away for the game. MST may be around..although when we're on the telly he usually goes to the pub to watch. Priest may be on though. I'm off to the telly in a bit.
Goooooooooooooooooooooal!!!! Zola bounces a 35 yard freekick into the net. Guddy made a run to distract Seaman. 1-0 to the blues