Chelsea Thread 2013/14

[Jumanji]

Is Eto'o still super pacy? I'm sure he's still clinical, you don't lose that, but his game was built around his ability to get in behind and leave defenders for dead.

 

[Castiel]

Saw him in the Europa League last season. Wasn't great but then Anzhi under-performed massively

If Eto'o has still got it, then this will improve them significantly. Drogba and Anelka have left holes that have never been filled......until now?

It will be very interesting to see how he does

From what I gather he was also used deeper for Anzhi as a second striker. For us he'll no doubt be an out and out centre forward with Mata or Oscar behind him. I look forward to seeing what he can bring to the table as well.

 

[Marvin]

Saw him in the Europa League last season. Wasn't great but then Anzhi under-performed massively

If Eto'o has still got it, then this will improve them significantly. Drogba and Anelka have left holes that have never been filled......until now?

It will be very interesting to see how he does

From what I gather he was also used deeper for Anzhi as a second striker. For us he'll no doubt be an out and out centre forward with Mata or Oscar behind him. I look forward to seeing what he can bring to the table as well.

Yes, I think I saw him play against Liverpool last season and he dropped deep in that game.

 

[Mancity1980]

Castiel, so hand on heart do you think the EPL is yours to lose? Personally until a couple of weeks ago I was pretty confident but now like us you have added class players to an already good team. The bookies have us both at 2-1 and the Rags at 3-1,but I can't help feel that you have the edge now - it should be a good battle!

 

[Castiel]

Castiel, so hand on heart do you think the EPL is yours to lose? Personally until a couple of weeks ago I was pretty confident but now like us you have added class players to an already good team. The bookies have us both at 2-1 and the Rags at 3-1,but I can't help feel that you have the edge now - it should be a good battle!

All three of us have an equal shot IMO. United can still run in Fergie mode much like our team ran in Mourinho mode even with Grant in charge. City still have the strongest squad on paper for me. The Cardiff loss was mainly because your two first choice CB's were missing and I suspect the depth issue will be addressed shortly.

Could be anyone's. I can see how it could all go wrong for any one of us, but I can also imagine any one of us going on a ridiculous run and pulling away. Hopefully all three of us perform well and we have the first genuine 3 way fight in years.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

Pep up your performance! Mourinho must outwit Guardiola to improve dismal record against his nemesis
By MARTIN SAMUEL

Whatever his speciality truly is, we can rule out maths. Jose Mourinho launched a robust defence of his record against Pep Guardiola — but it just didn’t add up.
On the eve of the UEFA Super Cup final against Guardiola’s Bayern Munich here, Mourinho seemed less than amused to be confronted with a set of statistics suggesting his nemesis had the upper hand in their meetings over the space of three seasons.
‘You have played Guardiola’s teams 15 times and only won three times,’ said a voice from the back of the room. ‘Why is it so difficult to beat his teams?’

Mourinho bristled. He set his jaw in contemptuous opposition. ‘Your statistics are wrong,’ he said.
‘Very wrong. Very wrong, because — but I don’t want to discuss that because it’s not important. I’ll just say it’s wrong. Go there and see what happened with Inter in the Champions League semi-final. The league records in Spain. The Copa del Rey in Spain. The Super Cup in Spain. You are very, very wrong. But it’s not important.’
Having established how unimportant it was, he continued.
‘This is not me against him, it’s club against club,’ he said. ‘That’s not important. I just know that I won the Champions League semi-final with Inter Milan. I won the Spanish Cup final in Valencia. I won the Super Cup in Spain. I was champion in Spain. I won the match of the title in Barcelona with Real Madrid. Maybe you are right and I am wrong, but I don’t care. It’s not important for me.’
And didn’t it just sound that way? So, similarly, it is utterly unimportant to point out that the original assertion, from statistics compiled by UEFA, was right. Guardiola and Mourinho have played on 15 occasions, Guardiola winning seven times, with five draws and three victories for Mourinho.
Guardiola’s teams have scored 26 goals, Mourinho’s 16. In only two of those matches did Mourinho’s club keep a clean sheet. And he did not beat Guardiola in Spain’s Super Cup. He beat his successor at Barcelona, Tito Vilanova.


Mourinho’s three victories came in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final in 2010, the final of the Copa Del Rey in 2011 and their last La Liga meeting in 2012. A meagre return for such a great rivalry. But, as Mourinho continued to point out, it really didn’t matter.
‘It isn’t about me and Pep,’ he said. ‘It’s about a cup where the European champions play the Europa League champions. Pep is not European champion and I’m not Europa League champion. We’re just coaching these teams now. So it’s not about us.’
Yet, to most observers, it is. The UEFA Super Cup has always struggled for credibility within the European calendar and the venue for successive finals offers the clue. Since 1998 it has been played at the soulless Stade Louis II stadium in Monaco to scant interest.
The last time the fixture attracted a crowd above 18,500 was in 1997 when it was still being played over two legs at the homes of the finalists. It is on tour now, the Monte Carlo experiment thankfully abandoned, but this is no stellar show.
The plan is to take the match to good football cities rarely blessed with Champions League football. Prague’s Eden Stadion hosts this year — capacity 21,000 — followed by the Cardiff City Stadium in 12 months and Tbilisi in Georgia in 2015. Last year, Chelsea lost 4-1 to Atletico Madrid, Falcao’s brilliance matching the European champions’ perceived half-heartedness.
Is it any wonder that attention is falling on the two managers?
Guardiola was also attempting to play down the personal rivalry although, by failing to reel off a series of results and conquests with a curled lip, his protests carried slightly more conviction. ‘The record is done,’ he said, asked about his mastery over Mourinho.
‘It’s just for the books. Football is the moment. Tomorrow is a challenge. I have won games and lost games. My past is my past, part of my life, in my brain and heart. Records are for me to remember when I’m a grandfather.
‘I know what it is like to play against Mourinho. When you are in good position and lose the ball, you are done. When you lose the ball, his quick counter-attacks make him a master in these actions. He’s an excellent trainer.’


And looking to lay down a marker as Chelsea manager, too, even without thoughts of revenge. Mourinho still lists his Community Shield win in 2005 among his Chelsea trophies, so will have no qualms about claiming a trophy as unloved as the UEFA Super Cup, too.
Talk of an experimental line-up is fanciful. Mourinho may find room for the out-of-favour Juan Mata, or even Fernando Torres, in his starting XI but don’t expect too many gambles. He will know the worth of returning a trophy to Stamford Bridge within the first month of the season. He knows to beat treble winners Bayern Munich will be a statement of intent announced throughout Europe, too, no matter the occasion.
‘It is always difficult to play against Bayern,’ said Mourinho. ‘I’ve done so many times, in the last years, going back to 2004 with Chelsea. It doesn’t matter the system or the players, it is a powerful team, a big club. Tactics don’t matter. Bayern’s strength is the team.


‘It is a team of players in the best moment of their careers. I guess the average age is 27 or 28 — Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Franck Ribery, Mario Mandzukic, all in the best competitions year after year, not just with the club but their national teams.
‘They come from a season last year when they showed they were perfect, because only perfect teams can win the treble. So that’s their best quality: this incredible power and personality that they have.’
One might say the same of Mourinho. He will need something more to outwit Guardiola, however. This is one numbers game he cannot afford to keep losing.

Nice one martin..

 

[Dr Jacoby]

Their defence - like ours - still lacks strength in depth.

 

[Castiel]

Great journalist Martin Samuel. No doubt Guardiola is his nemesis and no doubt that he had the better of him more often than not. But that Barcelona side had the better of everyone. Mourinho may be at a deficit against him, but Chelsea is also his bogey team.

Their defence - like ours - still lacks strength in depth.

I don't think so. Our defence has been fantastic so far and our best defender from last season hasn't come back into the side yet. Ivanovic is being used as a right back at the moment but he's just as capable in CB. Eventually we're going to have to replace Terry but for this season I'm happy with the depth we've got there. Mourinho has listed one of our youth players (Kalas) returning from loan in Holland in the squad, so it suggests he's going to be giving him an opportunity to break into the side this season.

 

[Scouse_Jimi]

This amused me from Eto'o

<a class="postlink" href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/chelsea-fans-eto-o-benitez-treatment-rant-104936766.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/ear ... 36766.html</a>

 

[Castiel]

This amused me from Eto'o

<a class="postlink" href="http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/chelsea-fans-eto-o-benitez-treatment-rant-104936766.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/ear ... 36766.html</a>

He since retracted those statements and claimed that the media twisted what he actually said, in 2007 way before he might have been obligated to pay us lip service. He hit out personally at Mourinho after that game and now he's one of his greatest supporters (and one of his biggest assets at Inter). If Rafa had apologised or tried to explain himself his time here wouldn't have been so bad.