Chelsea

[John Simkin]

Chelsea are 8-11 to win the title. They were not too impressive in their first two games but they were much better last night. Mainly because they played Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole from the start. It is difficult to see how they are going to be beaten this year. That includes in Europe as well. The new signings means that they have world class replacements for every position. It will take a lot of injuries to really damage this team.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Chelsea are 8-11 to win the title. They were not too impressive in their first two games but they were much better last night. Mainly because they played Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole from the start. It is difficult to see how they are going to be beaten this year. That includes in Europe as well. The new signings means that they have world class replacements for every position. It will take a lot of injuries to really damage this team.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps we could employ the old Goons joke "exploding football boots, its the only way to beat the Hugarians"For the younger members this was at a time when Hungary had a GREAT team, 1950's, Of course I am much to young to remember first hand

[John Simkin]

Liverpool were clearly the better side this evening against Chelsea and were extremely unlucky not to be awarded at least 2 penalties.

Despite a lot of possession however they failed to make many clear cut openings which is rather worrying.

Chelsea were negative throughout and deeply cynical in the challenge (as are most London clubs).  Several of their players were lucky not to have been sent off.

I agree Liverpool was the better side and at least deserved one penalty. Chelsea have not impressed me too much this season. True they have not lost in the league but their performances have been very boring. Last year they were an exciting counter-attacking side. Robben and Duff have been unconvincing (I cannot understand why he does not start occasionally with Wright-Phillips and Cole on the wings). I would also start with Crespo instead of Drogba (I hate they way he constantly moans about being tackled). They need a top class striker, Lampard, a midfielder, is their top scorer.

[John Simkin]

Chelsea’s decision to play for a draw obviously fooled Liverpool into thinking they were a match for the champions. On Sunday they played 4-3-3 instead of 4-5-1. Cole and Duff constantly attacked with Drogba. For the first 30 minutes, every time one of the three attackers got the ball they were surrounded by three of four defenders. They could not keep this up and by the second-half Liverpool were a very tired team.

The best performance against Chelsea this season was by Wigan. Like other teams like West Ham, Wigan have realised that the best form of defence is attack. Far too many teams this season have not really tested Chelsea’s defence. It is good but unless you attack it, you are not going to find out how good it is. For most of the game Liverpool relied on high balls up to Crouch. Most of the time he was surrounded by Chelsea defenders. Even when he managed to get hold of the ball, he rarely had anyone to pass to. It was a surprise that Liverpool even managed to score one goal.

I suspect Manchester United have now learnt there lesson about playing 4-5-1 (they were unluckly to score only 3 on Saturday against Fulham). How long will it take Liverpool to learn this lesson?

[John Simkin]

Chelsea legend Peter Osgood has died after suffering a heart attack while attending his uncle's funeral this morning. He was only 59.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1720938,00.html