Chelsea 3-1-0, 10 PTS, 4th Place (-3) Wolverhampton 0-1-4, 1 PT, 20th Place (-12) 12:30 PM Local Time 7:30 AM EST Live on Fox Sports World Replay at 2PM EST Live on Sky Sports in the UK ChelseaFC.com Live on Big Blue News on Soccernet TEAMtalk-Chelsea BBC-Chelsea
Remember this lad? Andy Gray. I remember him when i was a teen.He was one of my non Chelsea favs.Brill with his head. Any of you older lot remember that time he knocked himself out and they though he had a brocken neck?They said at the time that if it wasn't for the superior strength he had in his neck muscles, from his heading practice, he would have suffered a broken neck and quite probable died. Was a lonnnnnggggg time ago. Think it was around the end of the 70's. Anyways--he is obviously suffering some sort of mental problems now-a-days as he tips Wolves to beat us. http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_42286.shtml Barking i tell ya!
Yes I remember Andy, a good old fashioned centre forward. He is the regular expert on sky sports and is normally quite astute. However I think this piece was very much aimed at the home town audience. A former player talking to the local newspaper. Mind you, as I said in the Prague thread this will be a big test for us. Last year we made a big improvement in our performance against the lower placed sides. However last year we had a settled side and I suspect there will be quite a few changes for Saturday's game.
Last year if I recall correctly, we took all 18 points from the promoted sides (WBA, BHam, ManCity) last year...so far we are 3 out of 3 with the Leicester win, hopefully we can keep it up.
You can see right away the difference in talent level. If the Wolves can keep it below 3 goals...consider it a moral victory haha.
disappointing attendence on these boards for you chelsea lot ya? wow.. 10 posts (by nearly the same guy)..
Oh My Word!!! I'm falling on my knees at the alter of Chelsea fans around the world...I submit! Chelsea was absolutely brilliant. I was sitting there drooling at the beautiful football being played by Chelsea. This whole crap about not gelling fast enough and taking a few years...is utter nonsense...I have already entered drug rehab for ever thinking that too much talent is bad thing. Lampard is tough. Duffer (huge Duff fan...he's Irish) provided great crosses. Judhonnsen(sp?) had 4 assists! Crespo (I first thought when he stepped on the pitch...this guy is expensive, never heard of him, he better be good) Crespo is a SCORING GOD!!! I was sportin wood by the end of the match. I know that Wolves finished 5th in the Nationwide Div 1, but DAMN Chelsea is my favorite to win the league and maybe the Double!!! I'm one of the few people, I think, who LOVES Chelsea's Away kits...very different and classy. Chelsea has been a good club over its long history and very good last 5 yrs, BUT now the titles will start rolling in...in a way I'm glad someone besides Manure and Arsenal will win the Premiership. I don't want the Prem to become like every other league...2 horse race every blessed year!!!
Late nights-early mornings don't mix... Thank god for VCRs huh? I must say, that in 30+ years of following Chelsea-18 of them actually attending the matches-i can honestly say i don't think i can remember a more clinical, professional, classy performance by a Chels team on anybody, anywhere. The home win over Barca was excellent, but i think even that takes second place to what i saw today. What a feeling those traveling fans must have had. I was only ever at Molineux once, and, we were in the massive North bank terrace.It was divided up between home and away fans and the aggro and abuse was intense.Our lot came with a reputation and the Wolves lot were out to prove they were up to it.I came home with a few lumps that day-but, being a teen i healed quickly I had to look it up, but i found it, the last time we played in the champs league and played away in the league on the following Saturday to a so called "lesser" team, we got stuffed at Watford as we gave a pathetic performance. Today, not only was the gulf in class quite evident, but, one could see the absolute desire to get, not only a "result", but a win.We went there with attitude and dominated. I have to go back to the '83/'84 season to remember when we last took the pitch with attitude like that. I am absolutely loathe to mention anything amiss about a class performance like that---however, Gudjohnson was, yet again, one on one with the keeper and fucked it up.That makes, what, 3? or is it 4? now this season? His touch is just not there and he will remain the 4th striker for the remainder of the year, looking at the return of Forssell with trepidation. He did have some nice touches though and he held up and passed the ball well.However, he's a striker and as such is there to score from those one on ones. Babayaro had a sublime game.He put in crosses that were a joy to watch and Bridge must feel that he may not be an auto choice right now. The way some of the players have turned up their performances since the arrival of the talent is fantastic. Hasselbaink and Babayaro being at the head of the list. We have now played 8 games in all competitions this season winning 7 with the other a draw. That is flipin something i tell ya, and to think there are some that say Ranieri is a clown and want him replaced. His team selections and tactics have been faultless so far. Most seem to forget that we finished 4th last season under him with no additional help--anyone that suggests that De Useless was a help will get a slap in the mush! I though that Makelele was the class that the action came and went from.His performance was huge simply by the fact that Wolves were limited to next to nothing.I don't think he gave the ball away once or made a bad pass anywhere, his vision is better than Verons and he certainly allowed the wingers to get up more.It's no wonder Real Madrid were so potent in offence with him in the team.What a gain he will prove to be.How silly of them to ever get into an argument in the first place with him. The only worry i have now is that Ranieri will try to put other players into the middle simply because of who they are and not have the gumption to leave the likes of Veron or even-gasp!, yes, lampard on the bench when needed. His omissions for the Cl game were easy to justify because of the internationals. Makelele should be the first player on the team sheet for the middle, filling it out from there. Top of the table.... BTW...have we gelled yet.....mwaahahahahahahahaha
ClanBlue.... Thanks for sharing a bit of your life with us. I love hearing fans that have actually been to matches in these holy cathedrals. It makes following the Prem all that more special and meaningful. I love the West End (beautiful parks, great sites, fun people, delicious food, neat shops) and am kicking myself that my wife and I didn't attend a match on our honeymoon, but alas, I had not discovered football yet. Our hotel and where we walked around was constantly near Stamford Bridge...no wonder I saw blue kits every where..didn't know what it meant. If I could live anywhere in the world it would be London's West End.
On one hand, this was expected. But it was so nice to see anyway! I think Makelele tired a bit at the end, but for the first 75 minutes he was phenomenal. Barely anything got to our defense until we eased the foot off the gas. I could have played in place of Cudicini and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Real will be sorry they let Makelele go when they crash out of Europe. Hopefully this will also give Crespo some confidence - he didn't look good against Sparta, but he should get in stride now. I agree with you Clan - Babayaro played a great game. Johnson was good too - the Wolves got absolutely nothing down the flanks. Great win. And because of it we're at the top of the table. Good way to start the weekend, especially since my alma mater survived yet ANOTHER close game. (Go bucks!)
Well I posed the question and got am emphatic reply. A great performance. Some excellent points in you post Clan, I too would put Babayaro ahead of Bridge on present form. What I thought was interesting is that the nucleus of the starting 11 were from last years team, only Duff , Makelele and Johnson of the new boys started. In relation to this I think these new boys played in the 3 positions most of us though were weak points in last years team. I think this side is close to what I think would be one of our strongest just replacing Euider with Mutu. This will give us a good starting core, the only real hard choices being Jimmy /Crespo and Galas/Dessa to start. (I would take Crespo and Dessa for now) I would leave Veron on the bench for now. Looking forward to getting along to the Bridge again next week.
Re: Late nights-early mornings don't mix... Well, I can think of a couple. The 5-0 drubbing of Man U at Stamford Bridge, and the 3-0 drubbing at Old Trafford. The Chelsea of recent past wasn't a lack of spectacular performances against the power houses, but the inconsistency against the minnows. It could easily have followed a great win in Europe with a loss to a bottom team. Hopefully this kind of attitude lapses would go away for good. The greatness of Man U and Arse is that they feast on the little teams week in week out. Well, Man U and Arse just finished a goalless draw, with the help of a RVN penalty miss, an excellent result for the blues.
Re: Re: Late nights-early mornings don't mix... Ah, good wins those game, yes indeed. There have been many good wins for us over the years, but i think the team yesterday just looked a class act. Obviously the 0-3 at Old Trafford was a much harder win than the one at Molineux--for that matter the 0-5 in Turkey was probably harder yet--but in none of those matches did we look the class outfit we did yesterday......but, thats just my opinion.
I was very happy to see that Fox Sports Espanol carried this one, so I could watch it. It was an unbelievable display of dominating football against a Wolves team that had shown well of late. In fact, I don't think Wolves looked all that bad at times, they just didn't have the talent to keep up. Crespo was absolutely lethal. He could be an amazing pickup if he continues to knock them in with such power and accuracy.
how do lads? Just catching up after a long weekend away, although I was able to catch the match live Sat morning. Few thoughts/opinoins. I will have to watch the match again because I thought the one area we looked weak was on the flanks. Baba and Johson were both caught in possession in our defensive third and they both made some silly passes. Baba also made a silly tackle from behind when he had two covering defenders, although they both did a tremendous amount of running down both flanks. But as with football, everyone sees something different. Cudi- not much to do, got some help from the crossbar. Baba- see above. Thought he played fair. Terry- solid, goal should have counted. Still makes an occasional clumsly challenge. Gallas- solid as well. Did well and never looked like getting beat. Johnson- looked a little out of it, probably not his best performance. But the lad is still young. Duff- scares the shyte out of opposing defences. Great second half, his last minute crossing provided several chances, scared Wolves every time he ran at them. Lamps- tonnes of running and good passing, great goal. We are getting used to these types of performances. Makele- very solid in the middle. Glad to see the club has FINALLY got a holding midfielder. When he lost possession he immediately fought to get it back, and showed Ince how to tackle and win the ball. Gronks- played well, stretched Wolves and provided some quality. JFH- who is this player? Runs, tracks back, tackles, passes, moans less, actually smiles, finishes good chances, etc. Competition might have been what Jimmy needed. Guddy- linked well with JFH, but missed several good chances. Still does not look as fit as two seasons ago. Cole- not much to write about Huth- one for the future Crespo- wow
Re: how do lads? I might have mentioned this previously, but in an old FourFourTwo interview, JFH said he feeds off of pressure so I think he will do very well in this team. Also, I thought Ranieri has been handling the job speculation extremely well.One thing Chelsea fans need to adjust to, is the endless press speculation surrounding the team, obviously a new feature of the Abramovich era. For example, no one except the press seems to be linking SGE to Chelsea and Ranieri at least seems to realize that. Also, we are getting those half-cut quotes from players - like "Duff Disappointed with Lack of Playing Time". When Duff was just saying what any normal person would say.