The Official Thread of Chelsea FC

[new devil]

Think hes trying to say essien is one of the best man markers about...and would have to agree with that

[The GAA]

The back 4 were horrible in possession last night. how many times were they caught on the ball or simply row Zd it?

Gerarrd hasn't been man marked too often but it obviously can, and now will, be done. however, the key element of chelsea's gaem plan, which i have not seen done effectivey thins season, was lampard and the german pressing alonso and to a lesser extent lucas to force the back 4 to start moves.

[Declan]

That was as good a performance from Chelsea last night as I've seen from any team. Excellent stuff all round and completely outplayed Liverpool. If they continue to play like that they'll be hard to beat even by Barca

[corn02]

The back 4 were horrible in possession last night. how many times were they caught on the ball or simply row Zd it?

Gerarrd hasn't been man marked too often but it obviously can, and now will, be done. however, the key element of chelsea's gaem plan, which i have not seen done effectivey thins season, was lampard and the german pressing alonso and to a lesser extent lucas to force the back 4 to start moves.

No arguments that they were terrible, but as I say they ha d bad night and have proven themselves as great ball carriers throughout the season.

Mascherano was a big loss no doubt.

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Hats off to chelsea - fantastic performance. i'd disagree abot the reference to JM's halcion days - i don't believe mourinho's teams ever played like that, full throttle for 90 minutes. the pressure chelsea pressed onto the liverpool defensive midfielders was the key. they weren't allowed set anything up and two key things followed from there: 1) gerarrd never got a pass in a decent position the whole night, and 2) the back 4 had to play too much football and proved they weren't capable. The blueprint is simple to knock liverpool out of their stride.

In Mourinho's first year in charge we played some great stuff.  But I will agree from then on it was downhill.  Managed to win a second league paying some mediocre stuff.

Second point I will agree.  Expect to see Sam Allardyce learn something for Saturday!  Nullify Gerrard and Torres and Liverpool are a mid table side.

The best part for me was hearing the voices of all the Chelsea hating, Liverpool supporting 5Live commentators!!  This morning Mike Ingham sounded like the world was about to end.

Is this a new phenomenom, the importance of Torres and Gerrard? It is one thing knowing that you have to stop a player and actually doing it. As for Torres they won plenty of games this year when he was injured. i remember beating United without either of them.

Take the two best players out of any team in the world and there would be a huge difference..look at united last sunday...missing rooney and vidic and they were horrible

Chelsea were without Carvalho and Anelka (top scorer in the Prem)...

[Billys Boots]

Chelsea, with Essien playing well, are a formidable outfit - they really, really missed him for most of this season.

[Dinny Breen]

Chelsea, with Essien playing well, are a formidable outfit - they really, really missed him for most of this season.

Agree with that, I know a few of us rate him highly here but outside Chelsea he doesn't seem to get the plaudits he deserves, one of the 1st names in my Premeirship XI..

[corn02]

Chelsea, with Essien playing well, are a formidable outfit - they really, really missed him for most of this season.

Agree with that, I know a few of us rate him highly here but outside Chelsea he doesn't seem to get the plaudits he deserves, one of the 1st names in my Premeirship XI..

I know most Liverpool fans I ever talk to rate him as high as you would.

An absolute class act.

[Dinny Breen]

Sorry should have qualified that, the English media don't seem to rate him or maybe that's my perception but Chelsea would have been closer to the top if had been available all season.

[magpie seanie]

Essien is a proper all round midfielder. I would say the best in the world in that position. They don't make them like that any more.

Thought JT was very unlucky to be booked but as it happens the second leg might be not the worst game to miss.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

As I said after the game last night

There's a reason why Chelsea aren't top of the table by a mile

that reason - the fella in the blue shirt wearing #5 being injured all season

[GalwayBayBoy]

The back 4 were horrible in possession last night. how many times were they caught on the ball or simply row Zd it?

Gerarrd hasn't been man marked too often but it obviously can, and now will, be done.

Not everyone has Essien though to do that. He has the combination of power and pace to keep up with Gerrard. I don't see too many others in the Premier League who could do it.

[corn02]

Is Norf still too hungover? I thought he would have appeared by now.

[charlie stubbs]

Hats off to chelsea - fantastic performance. i'd disagree abot the reference to JM's halcion days - i don't believe mourinho's teams ever played like that, full throttle for 90 minutes. the pressure chelsea pressed onto the liverpool defensive midfielders was the key. they weren't allowed set anything up and two key things followed from there: 1) gerarrd never got a pass in a decent position the whole night, and 2) the back 4 had to play too much football and proved they weren't capable. The blueprint is simple to knock liverpool out of their stride.

In Mourinho's first year in charge we played some great stuff.  But I will agree from then on it was downhill.  Managed to win a second league paying some mediocre stuff.

Second point I will agree.  Expect to see Sam Allardyce learn something for Saturday!  Nullify Gerrard and Torres and Liverpool are a mid table side.

The best part for me was hearing the voices of all the Chelsea hating, Liverpool supporting 5Live commentators!!  This morning Mike Ingham sounded like the world was about to end.

Is this a new phenomenom, the importance of Torres and Gerrard? It is one thing knowing that you have to stop a player and actually doing it. As for Torres they won plenty of games this year when he was injured. i remember beating United without either of them.

Take the two best players out of any team in the world and there would be a huge difference..look at united last sunday...missing rooney and vidic and they were horrible

Chelsea were without Carvalho and Anelka (top scorer in the Prem)...

[/b]

hats off to chelsea great performance tie appears be dead but hears hoping.  cant take this point seriously it was hiddinks choice not to play anelka and possibly carvalho think he on bech but could be wrong

[Norf Tyrone]

Not a bad night. 

An absoloutely power house of a performance from Chelsea, and definately the high point of the season. When I seen the starting XI, I was concerned about the apparent lack of a holding midfielder. I knew that Essien could do a job on Gerrard, but was worried that Kuyt, Torres or someone else would drop a little and find a hole between Chelsea's defence and midfield. Indeed when Torres was left to his own devices so early on, I worried.

However it was the best thing that happened Chelsea and they came back at Liverpool with a vengance. When Drogba missed those two chances I was not overly worried, as I thought that Liverpool loked ropey and the space afforded to the Ivorian suggested a degree of fear. Great to see big Ivanfield getting his reward for being very patient this season with two thumping headers.

There were very few under par performances in the Chelsea side. The back four were solid, with Ashley Cole in particular catching the eye. Essien's negating of Gerard has been praised to death on here, and I can only echo that praise. Lampard also sat on Alonso's heels and did not allow him to dictate. The amount of time the Liverpool defenders had to lump the ball to no one in particular, as the had not got the outlet of Alonso to pass to, ran into double figures.

Drogba also worked his socks off, not before time, but special praise for Florent Malouda. Worked hard, tracked back and worked the space. Capped it all with a great cross for the third.

I am not totally sold on the 'we are through' argument, but one giant leap to the semi final was made on Wednesday evening as another bit of 'eesttoree' was made by the boys in blue. If that's the case thanks to Reina, Gerard and co for getting JT's booking out of the way.

And another thing.... the 'famous atmosphere' was missing on Wednesday too strangely despite Liverpool's recent good form.


KTBFFH