TRon

I'm already used to it, people can try and drag us into it, but SA are never going to be in a military stand off with the UK. I do imagine many of the glory hunter supporters who latched onto Chelsea over the glory years will start to drop off, so that will be interesting. Too bad, but they've done alright for the last couple of decades.

Sky Sports mentioning that some Amensty spokesman has named us as one of the clubs linked with evil regimes and urging the govt to intervene in other clubs as well as Chelsea . I don't think that's happening like since Saudi Arabia have been approached to ramp up the supply of oil to offset the shortage from Russia.

He's only started getting credit for it recently, but it's well deserved. I don't think anybody else in our squad could close down the defenders as effectively with the exception of Joelinton maybe.

Can't fault him really, he's played well in that role as much as he's physically capable, might even have earned himself a contract extension as a squad player. I still think he's fighting Bruno for that spot in midfield though, and I don't think he'll win that fight beyond this season.

For all Bruno and Shelvey's technical superiority on the ball, they can't match him for physicality and running power. I agree, the Everton game is more important, but Joelinton seems to have had this problem for a while and he plays through it. I think he was probably just rested yesterday to give him some recovery time. He could probably play on Sunday if we really felt it necessary.

I was going to say this game is a free hit for us, in as much as we have done so well in the last couple of months, any result is ok really, even a loss. We have to lose somewhere, and the games against CL clubs are where you would say fair enough. But actually, I think that's doing Howe's team a disservice. We are very much capable of getting a point there. Our defence has been fantastic, it won't be easy for them to break us down. I reckon a draw is a fair call.

Never forget.

More than that. You can walk into any city again and be proud to say you are Newcastle fan again. Not just in England either.

Fair enough, his job at that point would be to protect the lead, so he would mostly be just looking to close any gaps.

Interesting to read the various reports on his performance yesterday. I didn't see the game myself, but fans seemed to be split on here on the posts which I read in the match thread, but according to the Times reporter he was our best player.

How did he do after he came on? I have a feeling Howe still sees a player in there and might get him looking half decent again, assuming he can find a way to get in the team.

Hope he just went off for cramp or something and there isn't any injury worry.

I think he'll look back on his time here as being part of something special. The Kilcline comparisons are very apt.

In December they were saying no team had ever recovered from such a bad start to a season.

Relegation has been bent over and rogered to oblivion.

relegation......

Wtf was that? A backheel volley?

Two goals from two January signings. Oh Ralfy......

Leeds, Watford and Norwich are losing, 1-1 seems decent in context. Especially with so many players missing.

I reckon this will help them sell it a lot cheaper, thus leaving loads of money for some future owner to plough in. It could work out to be the best alternative to actually having state backing. The country as a whole will be devastated at the downgrading of Chelsea so I'm sure there'll be plenty of support to help them stay at the top.

I don't know much about how this works, but it might be similar to how Liverpool got the courts to help them wipe out their debts to the previous owners. If you can get shot of Abramovich for peanuts, then it will be him who loses the money, new owners at some point can start with a clean slate?

This. He's done a job, and at the end of the day if we thought spending £25m on him would keep us up, we'd all have took it in a heartbeat. But that still doesn't make him good enough for where we hope to be next season, he'll become a squad player, and we'll bring in a top quality striker who has everything a club with CL ambitions needs.

That was the first sign I've seen of a player who can offer more than just goals. He actually showed glimpses of mobility as well. He does offer presence up front even when he's not playing well.