ExiledGeordie

He's going to have to come to his senses over a few things over the coming weeks in relation to where to play Ben Arfa, dropping Obertan maybe, bringin Santon in but if you take 3 major players out of any side like yesterday and you're playing one of the top sides you're always going to be up against it. If we'd fielded a team with Tiote, Colo for a full match and Jonas playing we would have been an entirely different challenge for Chelsea.

Best or Shola to partner Ba up front. Need more size to defend corners/free kicks against this lot.

:lol:

Why are people putting Colo in their side, thought he was out?

Clearly this next game is get whatever you can out of it and then return for Swansea hopefully with a much healthier lookings side.

Atleast he wasn't heavily limping or anything. Still think it'll be Swansea before we see him back though.

Surely have to sign a starter and a Ridgewell type utility defensive player in Jan as well as a left/right back/striker. Get your cheque book out fatty

Exactly. It doesn't count because he wasn't controlling the ball and yet he was running onto a through ball with a view to striking it beyond hte keeper? Absolute fucking bollocks

This result today is far from the "new beginning" for Chelsea and AVB. They played well but it still papers over the cracks and lets see how they fair against Valencia, City at home and Spurs away. I have plenty of good mates down here who are Chelsea fans, all proper fans too but I for one will raise a glass in the pub tuesday evening if Valencia put them out.

True but without key players in Colo, Tiote and Jonas it was always going to be difficult. I see no reason why we souldn't play Ben Arfa on the wing.

Big difference between a partial and full rupture. Sounds pretty grim but lets just wait until things are confirmed I guess. 6-8 weeks with Williamson to come back and the Jan transfer window to come wouldn't be a terrible situation. Ofcourse thats the ultra positive viewpoint and I'm expecting the worse.

What a total gutter for the lad and the team.

Terrible today, fuck me

We could do a lot worse than putting him on the wing in place of Obertan next week.

Anyone else ahead of Lovenkrands would be a better option ffs, lol I guess it's a totally "safe" option, just defend on the left wing nowt else. Shite

Lovenkrands

Obertan's pace is crucial in this match.

Scott Brown has signed a new contract at Celtic, puts an end to that topic then.

Agreed, especially as we've shown we can compete without Tiote. I still think the likes of Sammy can unsettle their defence with mazy runs and he'll run all day so should guve Raylor decent cover if he starts. If it's going tits up early on with Sammy he may change things with a safer option but I can't see why it would be that bad. Can see the likes of Best or certainly Ameobi coming on. Ameobi seems to do really well coming on in games likes these as showed in the Spurs match.

The little runt David Craig has just been on hand at their training ground to film O'neill arriving

I think Ben Arfa is the key here, it's all set up for him. Has the skills to cause panic in that Chelsea defence running at them and threading through balls.

If we do look for a replacement in the event Tiote is sold, I still think that replacement will come from abroad as with other signings and probably from France again.

Yeah I think Santon is the best option in place of Jonas.

He'll get them playing with more spirit and will no doubt do well in the short term. He likes to spend the cash though but those signings aren't always the most exciting are they. Generally a fairly drab brand of football.

Awesome at the moment in leading the team from the back.