The Official Thread of Chelsea FC

[Norf Tyrone]

Norf

I have no idea why he took Joe Cole of either, best player on the pitch IMHO, great save in the end mind you.

Typical Carlo. Can pull off the greatest saves in the world, but scares the beejeezez out of ye too.

[mackers]

I know all the teams do it but Chelsea remain the market leaders at this carry on of bullying referees. A Cole took it to new levels last night after nearly breaking Hutton's leg he mouthed at the ref for a good two minutes and then stood four or five yards away from him with his back turned...........I wouldn't make a good ref.......I'd have just shown the fcuker the red card!!! The usual suspects were helping him out.....JT and Lamps.

[Norf Tyrone]

I know all the teams do it but Chelsea remain the market leaders at this carry on of bullying referees. A Cole took it to new levels last night after nearly breaking Hutton's leg he mouthed at the ref for a good two minutes and then stood four or five yards away from him with his back turned...........I wouldn't make a good ref.......I'd have just shown the fcuker the red card!!! The usual suspects were helping him out.....JT and Lamps.

Not often I agree, but Cole was bang out or order last night. His tackle was terrible, and then to protest in the juvenille way was embarassing. The ref could've showed him two yellows for the incident by rights.

I think JT and Lamps went in to remonstrate, and then thought better of it. I actually think they may have seen the tackle on a replay over the ref's shoulder, and thought feck that Ash your own on your own (No Cheryl jokes please).

[Norf Tyrone]

http://www.chelseafc.com/page/NewsHomePage/0,,10268~1270200,00.html

An apology from our Ash at least.....

[Doogie Browser]

The bright point of tonight....

....FA Youth semi final Villa 2 Chelsea 3 (3-4 agg).
Watched the first half of this, and Chelsea scored two stunning goals to reach the final for the first time since 1961. I'll post the goals tomorrow, but Gael Kakuta looks a real find. Is Arnesen starting to repay his bill?

Alright Norf, thought we did the hard part drawing the first leg at the bridge, from a Villa point of view our young lads did us proud against essentially Arnesen's fantasy football team pick of World football's youth players, this is a competiton that we have done well in over the years (beat Everton with Rooney in 2002), I was shocked to hear it was Chelsea's first final in over 50 years.  Shows you the emphasis or lack of emphasis Chelsea used to place on youth development, obviously they want that to change now.

Bright spot for us was the form of young Harry Forrestor ex-Watford like Ashley Young though will cost us a lot less.  Things looking good for our young lads too, refreshing to see the quality just hope some of them make the breakthrough. 

[Norf Tyrone]

The two Villa front men appeared to cause Chelsea problems. However the Chelsea back line looked very exposed. I think the fella Mellis that played centre half was normally a midfielder.

I wouldn't exactly say Chelsea have shunned their youth dept over the years. The problem I believe lies in locality. Chelsea's proximity to central London, and the affluent King's road, means that it has less of the council estates, and the boy's clubs that exists in more middle-lower class towns and cities. With the FA ruling that you can't take a player into your youth side that resides more than 20 mile away adding to the restriction. A lot of the 'local' Chelsea fan base lives in suburban West London and the West country. As such a lot of the younger London hopefuls would've went to Arsenal, Spurs etc. and in Beckham's case Manchester Utd as they had the 'draw'.

However the balance is shifting, and with Chelsea's newly opened facilities at Cobham, and the massive increase in their profile, they are now deemed a major attraction for the young lad (And his family) mulling over his future. In addition the increased revenue allows to open up bigger scouting networks.

I have always believed that part of the masterplan was to spend vast amounts on players (Complete), raise the profile of the club (Complete), become an attractive option for the world's finest young players (Ongoing), and therefore reduce the amount of spending required (TBD). This is where these ambitious self sufficency targets come from.

Or maybe I'm chatting s**t.

[Norf Tyrone]

Honestly didn't know. Just know it's ending on Sunday.....

Right up there with the Tony hotel quote! 

Thanks O'Neill...

[ONeill]

Erm, no it's not.

Well done Chelsea - good game - Chelsea defensively better.

[DirtyDozen12]

Mr Grant has written his own obitury.

Norf, has this man come back from the dead??  Great result for Chelsea, Didier back to his best, but they really should try and work him and Anelka into a strike partnership as they would be formidable.

[DirtyDozen12]

Is it just me or was that game very very friendly? Hugs and handshakes and big dopey smiles throughout the match between both teams.

Unlike the hackers at Manchester United, ie Rio and Vidic   

[Norf Tyrone]

Mr Grant has written his own obitury.

Norf, has this man come back from the dead??  Great result for Chelsea, Didier back to his best, but they really should try and work him and Anelka into a strike partnership as they would be formidable.

A long way to go DD12. He got abuse today for his subs, but from my bar stool I stated that my subs would've been Essien off for Belletti, and Maka or Ballack for Anelka. To be fair it was more or less what he did, and it worked.
Belletti pushed on with a bit more maturity than Essien was able to do from his position, and Anelka, although not heavilly involved, gave the Arsenal back four something else to worry about allowing Drogba to excel.

I definately think that a 4-4-2 is the way forward. The midfield 4 could be your flat Kalou-Maka or Mikel- Lampard or Ballack- Joe Cole or a diamond of Maka/Mikel holding, Lampard and Ballack central with Joe Cole at the tip. The diamond would require Ashley Cole and Belletti to push forward as they are capable of.

The game itself was an excellent one. Very intriguing the whole way through, and I thought we (Can I say we on this board?) were well worth our points. As my colleague O'Neill states we were very good defensivelly, with JT and my man of the match Carvalho excellent, & Ashley Cole giving a much more mature performance.

The big lad up front, was awful for the first 20-25 minutes, but sprung into life after getting treatment for a hamstring problem. It may be that the magic spray and the treatment got him through the game, so hopefully there is no hangover from this.

Thought the game was played in a hard, but fair spirirt. My only gripe is the innocuous bookings for Balalck and Cole, coupled with Eboue fouling 3 or 4 times without a yellow. Also thought Kalou had a shout for a first half penalty.

In my heart we are well in the league, but my head tells me we need to win every game, and hope the Goons take the points from Old Trafford, so a very long shot. Ferguson with one hand on the trophy.

[Norf Tyrone]

Hmmm....

People complain of Chelsea fans being paranoid, but I see for the first time that I can ever recall the premier league have fixed a game for a Thursday night Everton v Chelsea. The reason they have brought it forward from the Saturday is due to SKY!

So what?

It means that Chelsea now face Wigan (H) which was also moved for SKY on the Monday, and then Everton (A) on the Thursday. Why do games need to be sqquuuueeeezzed in?

[Norf Tyrone]

1-0 Carvalho.

[Norf Tyrone]

A decent gesture by Chelsea http://www.chelseafc.com/page/NewsHomePage/0,,10268~1280958,00.html for a change.

I'll comment re last night's debacle later.

[Minder]

Nice public relations gesture,nothing more