The Official Thread of Chelsea FC

[longball]

Salomon Kalou to the Gooners- if you can believe the papers 

[Norf Tyrone]

A bad day for the drug takers, a good day for football. That's a few pound in the kitty.

http://www.tas-cas.org/d2wfiles/document/3433/5048/0/Press%20release%202009.07.31.pdf

[Norf Tyrone]

Chelsea just starting against Reading. Not all sure about Carlo's favoured diamond...

                                     Cech

Ivanovic                  JT                Carvalho                          Ashley


                                    Mikel

                     Lamps                  Essien

                                    Deco


                               Nic      Drogs

[Archie Mitchell]

2-0 down at the minute.

[gawa316]

2-0 down at the minute.

Finished 2 all

[Norf Tyrone]

Very poor. Dominated but the lack of imagination, and flair harked back to last season. We need wide players on the field and in position Carlo!

Chelsea's goals were in the 89th and 91st minute. Kalooouuu and an og!

[Eastern_Pride]

Terry tells the Arabs where to go. Legend.

Only after he squeezed "the club he loves" for every last penny he could.

Well if he was only interested in money he would have went to City where he would have doubled his wages.

Well said.com And won nothing after the Arabs go bankrupt in 3 years with a 15 million a week wage bill...

[GalwayBayBoy]

Terry tells the Arabs where to go. Legend.

Only after he squeezed "the club he loves" for every last penny he could.

Source?

The Guardian's take on Mr Chelsea is good for a giggle.

Let's take John Terry's word for it. Let's assume he was telling the truth when he said that "I am totally committed to Chelsea and always have been". When all's said and done, only the archest of cynics would doubt the sincerity of a top-flight professional footballer issuing the written equivalent of a crest-kiss-with-clenched-fist, because anyone with a passing interest in the game knows it is not populated by players, or indeed managers, with form in the field of dishonest declarations of loyalty.

Some have questioned the bona fides of Terry's oath of allegiance on the grounds that it was pledged after five weeks of complete radio silence, a period long enough to prompt acerbic suggestions that "Mr Chelsea" was displaying a certain amount of contempt for his club and those who support it. If he knew Chelsea's supporters were on tenterhooks waiting to hear his plans and knew there was no question of him leaving Stamford Bridge, why did he wait for more than a month to offer any kind of reassurance?

While it's possible he was suffering from a particularly nasty throat infection that had rendered him speechless, it seems obvious that Terry is so committed to Chelsea that he was prepared to waste the best part of his summer holidays with spiral notebook in hand, sitting in an armchair surrounded by scrunched-up balls of paper, sucking furiously on his pencil as he struggled to find the exact words required to describe the selfless loyalty we now know he feels towards his club and its fans.

These same fans should be wary, however, as Terry's statement reveals him to be a man so lacking in ambition that he was unprepared to even consider the prospect of signing for a club whose financial clout and relentless, if ultimately unsuccessful, pursuit of the world's best players and John Terry has been well documented. Let's face it, a player so reluctant to even think about leaving his comfort zone is unlikely to stray out of position to cover for Jose Bosingwa or Ashley Cole the next time either full-back is left horribly exposed.

Chelsea supporters could also be forgiven for questioning the smarts of a player whose steadfast refusal to use the interest of a club reportedly prepared to double his wages as leverage with which to secure a new, improved contract from his current employers suggests he may well be several sandwiches short of a picnic. Equally incomprehensible lapses of judgment on the field of play during the coming months would almost certainly scupper his team's chances of bagging a major trophy.

These are interesting times for Chelsea fans, who will be preparing for the season ahead with some trepidation now that their club's captain, whose carefully considered utterances have revealed him to be something of an ambition-free dolt. The scarcely plausible alternative, that he's yet another calculating mercenary who held his club to ransom before fobbing off its fans with a transparent and misleading sop, is unlikely to reassure them.

[Norf Tyrone]

Shock. Horror. Chelsea win a penalty shoot out!!

Nice to get a second bit of silverware in the pocket early in the season. Would it be ok to start talking about winning six, like we had to endure last season? Thought not.

Decent enough game today, with both teams probably operating at 80% pace. United controlled most of the first half, with Chelsea's diamond badly exposed. I felt that United exploited the lack of protection in front of Cole, and especially Ivanovic. It was no coincidence that Bosingwa's introduction saw Chelsea improve.
The other main weakness in the diamond, as well as lack of width, is the congestion in midfield. The net result was Lampard being given no room whatsoever at the tip of the diamond. Indeed he may be better suited in the middle two, and arriving from deeper.
Someone said Cech was poor on the United thread. I thought, bar Nani's goal, he was excellent. A couple of decent stops, and controlled his box.

As for the United. Foster, who I'd have rated, looked awful. His kicking was poor, he looked nervous, and his handling questionable.

The controversy. There is no doubt that Ballack fouled Evra, and should've been at least booked. However Rooney was given a good advantage, and the ref could not pull it back, nor stop play when the move had broke down.
In addition Rooney's late leveller was marginally offside too. However ref's are instructed to give benefit of doubt to the attacker, and this is what he did. Hopefully we will see this consistantly applied this season. Won't we?


The shadow boxing's over...

[DennistheMenace]

Wasn't impressed with this diamond formation but a decent game alright.

Never rated Foster myself.

Meaningless game in the grand scale of things.

[Eastern_Pride]

Shock. Horror. Chelsea win a penalty shoot out!!

Nice to get a second bit of silverware in the pocket early in the season. Would it be ok to start talking about winning six, like we had to endure last season? Thought not.

Decent enough game today, with both teams probably operating at 80% pace. United controlled most of the first half, with Chelsea's diamond badly exposed. I felt that United exploited the lack of protection in front of Cole, and especially Ivanovic. It was no coincidence that Bosingwa's introduction saw Chelsea improve.
The other main weakness in the diamond, as well as lack of width, is the congestion in midfield. The net result was Lampard being given no room whatsoever at the tip of the diamond. Indeed he may be better suited in the middle two, and arriving from deeper.
Someone said Cech was poor on the United thread. I thought, bar Nani's goal, he was excellent. A couple of decent stops, and controlled his box.

As for the United. Foster, who I'd have rated, looked awful. His kicking was poor, he looked nervous, and his handling questionable.

The controversy. There is no doubt that Ballack fouled Evra, and should've been at least booked. However Rooney was given a good advantage, and the ref could not pull it back, nor stop play when the move had broke down.
In addition Rooney's late leveller was marginally offside too. However ref's are instructed to give benefit of doubt to the attacker, and this is what he did. Hopefully we will see this consistantly applied this season. Won't we?


The shadow boxing's over...

Despite all that happened, all the controversyand the game today the fact of the matter is we were simply better today. I was surprised when i saw carvalho's name on the team sheet but he played well, however i still think alex is overall a better player. Drogba was quietly the best player on the pitch but it was clear lampards position was unfamiliar and mikel looked out of place. Saying that its advantage chelsea, as they were clearly better and, once ancelloti sorts out this diamond, we have aa double (treble!) winning team.
United, on the other hand looked sluggish after their initial spell of dominance until their hero for so many years, ryan giggs came along. Valencia was awful looked like he didn't want to be there and Nani wants to be Ronaldo, but has progressed as much as sir alex had planned, for him to be an insurance policy.
Overall this is a clear indication that chelsea are starting again what mourinho left behind. 

Chelsea for the premiership!

[DennistheMenace]

Yeah advantage Chelsea after winning the Charity Shield 

[Eastern_Pride]

Yeah advantage Chelsea after winning the Charity Shield 

Advantage chelsea by outplaying united you twat

[A Quinn Martin Production]

It was a foul by Ballack...he didn't "elbow" him...yellow card at max...since Utd were in possession the ref played an advantage (Utd didn't put the ball out)...after Utd lost possession as they say in rugby "advantage over"...perfectly good goal.

Entertaining enough game without the full intensity of a "competitive" match

Chelsea's new shirt looks good Utd's is awful

Has anyone seen a worse penalty than Evra's?

How long will VdSar be outfor?...Foster is a liability

[DennistheMenace]

Yeah advantage Chelsea after winning the Charity Shield 

Advantage chelsea by outplaying united you t**t

Anyone with the slightest bit of knowledge of football knows this in the grand scale of things that game means fck all, obviously you don't fall into that category.