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tough tough game. Defoe and Benjani could make a good partnership. Wouldn't be surprised if we draw or even worse.
Well, we don't have to worry about that. I wonder if Defoe will be in great form. I know he'll be trying to prove himself, (to Pompey and Tottenham), but with a lack of significant minutes lately, he could be a bit rusty.
Does Chelsea have Alex and Carvalho for this game? A defense partnership of Ben Haim and Ivanovic (although we haven't really seen him play yet) just begs Defoe and Benjani to score.
He's not match fit and he has yet to play. I was hoping we could ease him in but unfortunatley he's being dropped into this all of a sudden.
hmmmm, if Benjani is still there. i know there is trouble with the transfer, but technically, after review, it could still go through. i have to say, i've been impressed with pompey at times, and i'm worried about this match. Diarra has scored, i think he's feeling pretty confident, you know know both him and defoe will be up for it. glenn johnson has apparently impressed enough to get a call up for england, david james is a great shot stopper. they're honestly looking ver solid. while i hope it doesn't happen at our expense, maybe we're getting them before they can get into a grove, but i beleive they can really challenge for europe now. who knows, they're are a few teams i think and hope will be finishing above liverpool.
Anybody else think we might see Paulo in the middle with Ben Haim, instead of Ivanovic? Grant just seems to have an aversion to playing new players. Even Anelka would have been left out of his first game if Pizarro hadn't gotten hurt.
Best I can tell we were wrong in listening to the FA Cup tv muppets, and Alex is only on 4 yellow cards, which is very good; as Ivanovic was left out of the CL roster in favor of Ben Haim I imagine we will see the same, though cb is not Paulo's best spot with Alex for the air I think I'd take Paulo's pace over Ben Haim's inconsistencey especially with Benjani and Defoe, but Ben Haim had plenty of good performences for Bolton I try to console myself with...
I thought I heard the commentator say something during the Reading game to the effect that Alex was one booking short of a suspension. If true, this would be very good news.
It has been reported as 4 in BBC, SKY and the rest so phewwwwwwwwwwwww He does need to stay card free though as there is over 7 days to the scousers so a mini-game will be watching the ref after every Alex contact I hope we don't get Riley
i think ben haim will fill rickys place, we should be good in the back especically if maka is infront of the four defoe will coming at us hard, same with diarra no doubt i think defensivly we can ride it out its just our offense, cole SWP and anelka are forming something special, every game theyre just getting better prediction 2-1 SWP, anelka, diarra
Webb's usually OK... but now I've said that he'll probably have a nightmare and give 3 PK's against us.
watch Diarra get booked this game. Also, don't think Defoe will be all that much more motivated than he has been with Spurs when he tried to prove to Ramos how much he wants to stay. However, with Alex and Tal at the back, speed is definitely our weakness. Maka will really have to be on top of his game. Damn, I just don't have a good feeling about this game.
maybe Benjani will go to City after all. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2008020...citybenjani;_ylt=AgH4Tzdjzvv1yxzmz6IW0292yLQF
I saw Paul Jewel on Sky Sports complaining about the fact he wasn't allowed to end the loan deal for Mills coz he was injured. Apparently he was told 'It's the same rules for all the clubs... nobody's treated any different.' As he pointed out, apparently some teams are treated different if they're a big club or everyone likes them for some undefinable reason. TBH I think he's got a point. Citeh didn't get the paperwork in in time as I understand it so why should they get special dispensation? It all rather smacks of the way we're treated and the way ManU, Liverpool, Barca, et al, are treated.
Go figure with Grant. Our best LB plays an absolutely fantastic game in midweek, and it gets him dropped. We sign a new defender to make up for an incompetent one, and he doesn't even get to play. Grant is a bonehead, regardless of the results he's been getting. We're playing this well despite him, not because of him.
Lovely, again we get Sidwell and Pizarro on the bench over Sinclair, or even Ivanovic. We can't afford to go behind with such a lack of quality players on the bench.
I'd always take Bridge over Cole, but the two are basically the same so we're not losing too much on that front (except maybe some good crosses). As for Ivanovic I think he's still not fit