9/28/02: Matchday VIII: Chelsea v. West Ham [R] Chelsea 4-3-0 13 PTS, 3rd Place (-4 PTS) West Ham 0-2-4 2 PTS, 20th Place (-15 PTS) Kickoff 3PM US ET 10AM No US TV Live on Big Blue Internet Radio CFC Official Web News on Soccernet TEAMtalk-Chelsea BBC-Chelsea Squads Chelsea: From: Cudicini; Babayaro, Desailly, Gallas, Melchiot; Gronkjaer, Lampard, Morris, Stanic; Hasselbaink, Zola, Gudjohnsen, Huth, De Lucas, Zenden, Oliveira West Ham: From: James, Repka, Breen, Minto, Schemmel, Sinclair, Lomas, Cisse, Carrick, Cole, Pearce, Kanoute, Di Canio ,Defoe, Van Der Gouw, Winterburn
Iron Ooofs Maybe CR will go wid dis kinda team... Cudicini Melchiot, Desailly, Gallas, Babayaro, De Lucas Lampard, Morris, Zenden Hasselbaink, Zola, Maybe? Where is Mr.Petit? I'd like to've seen Keenan instead of Babba/Stanic to be honest.
Good news Both Petit and GLS had full training at Harlington today. I would really like to see GLS back for the hammers match, as it is only a matter of time before a real right winger skins him all day long. Sinclair is the hammers right wing nut ain't he? Could be trouble if Stanic is still there. What about Bogarde? He made the bench for the cottagers game. Supposed to be on good talking twerms now with Ranieri and was told that a place in the team had opened up and it was up to him to prove he could earn it.
I think this game will be a big test for us. West Ham are currently propping up the table and therefore it should be a home banker. Just the sort of banana skin that we slipped up on in seasons past. Add to that the fact that West Ham are prob a better team then their position suggests and it is also a London derby and the odds of an upset increase. So have the blues really found a new inner strength, and will we do well? The games at Charlton, Southampton and Fulham have shown we seem to have more fighting spirit in the team, but we still only took 5 out of 9 points. However having seen all three of these games we could so easily have ended up with 0 points. We are still 6 points up on last year, I hope we can maintain this on Saturday. I will be there cheering on the Blues, with maybe just one set of crossed fingers.
tomorrow Can't see any good news this morning: 1) Desailly out of tomorrow's match 2) Petit not fit enough yet to play 3) Keenan with a suspected broken leg in last night's reserve match Looks like it will be the same lineup as Monday except for a possible change on the right wing and up front. Gronk or EDL will be on the RW and two of Jim, Eidur and Franco will be up front. Terry confirmed to be on the bench by CR. Also confirmed on the bench by the CFC site is Alexis Nicolas: Nineteen year old central midfielder Alexis Nicolas has been promoted to the squad and given the Number 27 shirt for tomorrow’s game against West Ham. Nicolas has impressed all season in the reserves and has improved steadily since joining us after leaving Aston Villa while still in their Academy. He comes from the Greek community of North London and is English. Probably going to look like this: ------------------------Carlo-------------- Melchiot--------Gallas----------Huth--------Stanic Gronkjaer-------Lampard-------Morris------Zenden -------------------Zola---------Guddy--------- Bench: De Goey, JFH, De Lucas, Terry, Nicolas We are looking frighteningly shallow right now. 5 defenders, 2 strikers and 2 midfielders out with injuries. On the bright side, Huth, Stanic and Morris have all proved solid substitutes. Stanic has been better than Baba at LB so far and Huth looks just as good as Terry did when he first came up. Good luck to the boys, I'll see most of on here tomorrow.
Dr Intox Enjoy the day out tomorrow - I think you're the only regular poster who lives in London and gets to see the team more than once or twice a year. Lucky bastard.
Christ, what a fukin pounding the Arse just gave Leeds, and at home too. Also did it with Freddie on the bench and Pires and GVB still out. Anyways this is what the radio is saying we will line up with.. -----------------Cudicini------------------- Melchiot---Huth---Gallas---Stanic---------- Gronkjaer--Morris--Lampard---Zenden------ -------JFH------------Gudjohnsen---------- Looks like Ranieri is going all out for a win. Just hope Stanic is up to it as the hammers have a lot of speed on their right side ..course i said the same thing about him against the Toon and he did ok
no Zola, Marcel or GLS so Jimmy is the captain. I think that Lampard or Gallas should have got the captain's armband but hopefully this bit of respect will give Jimmy the push to get some goals today.
Crap Just when I was happy to have Defoe on their bench instead of starting, on he comes only 4 minutes into the match. Gallas must keep his eye on the kid.
Let's face it. We got through 7 fairly tough matches with 13 points in third, but if we can't win home matches v. teams like West Ham.....we have no chace at the title. Obviously injuries are killing us, but really. Its matches like these that scare the hell out of me, and its being justified so far.... Get it together Chelsea... Penalty to Blues. Lucky.
JIMMY! JIMMY! bit of a relief against the run of play perhaps? Seems like the hammers were gettting their tactics right eh?
Totaly against the run of play Monkee. However, perhaps now we will get into it. It's at these stages of the season that wins and losses can build..or tear down...the character that a team will carry with it thru the season.Remember the scouse last season and their 12 game unbeaten run that had started about this stage after 2 defeats in the opening 4 games? They carried that posture all the way to the finish and a second place finish.We need to get all three points here to keep it going.A loss or even a tie here will deflate that good start somewhat. The Hammers have come here to play and Stanic is going to have his hands full all day long. Hasselbaink scores....good, he needs a confidence boost.He would have buried that frigin header from Gornkjaers cross in the net last season and those two "easy" chances at home to Viking would have at least hit the target. Zola can't start for a full season as he just doesn't have the gas anymore.Ranieri knows this and obviously only injury has kept out the JFH/Eidur combo. How about the flipin Arse though...are they a class act (urg....retch...gag) or what. Leeds have now lost 4 out of 8.
Jesper... Seems to be on a blinder so far. Geting on top now, hope we score another and don't have a case of the half coming to soon for us.
Rebirth of Jimmy Defoe - merde! Mst77 - you were right about 'im. We've let em back in again. Ho-hum. Maybe CR got his tactics right making Jimmy the captain. Seems like it was a real battle in the midfield, lost of youngsters in there... Morris-Lampard vs Carrick and Cole Seems like we have it now, Moving Gronks over and Stanic has got a hold of Sinclair. The arse - pleased they beat Leeds - always happy when Leeds lose to be honest - Can't see anyone beating the arse to be honest Clan - When we played them they were without Pires, Ljunberg and Henry - they went down to 10 men, without Viera and we still could only get a draw. That was our best hance to beat them in years. the rest - I thnk at the moment we are the best of the rest - better than Newcastle, Leeds, Man U and the pool (we'll settle that on next week). But Arsenal are off and running and already look uncatchable. We are a few players short of catching them.
The Firms Seems like some of the ICF lot are in the hammers crowd today and a bit of bover is going on in the stands and about the touchline. The Hammers lot always did like to mix it up with the Chels...they took the shed on more than one occasion in the 80's.
uh-oh Trouble. Hammers up and Chelsea need to step it up to that next level now. We need a s'ton or addicks type victory. How many times have we seen this from them though. Will a draw be a good result....NO.