OTF

Stoke's defensive record is very good when they're at home.

Shola could have a role in the Stoke match. We need someone big and strong up front to pull the defenders away from Owen/Martins. For everything that Shola is not, he is certainly big, and certainly strong. Agree, Martins has been poor this season. Jonas doesn't look unfit when he's running up and down the pitch whilst Nicky Butt and Kevin Nolan are walking in circles around the centre of the pitch.

Hopefully that doesn't mean that Martins and Owen will play up top on their own again. For mine I'd have: Harper H. Beye - S. Taylor - Bassong - Enrique Guthrie ----- Nolan ----- Jonas Owen Carroll --- Martins That's Nolan / Butt. Nicky will do doubt get the nod.

Not funny, not entertaining, not intelligent, not educational. It's ridiculous that the account has not been banned. I'm sick of the drivel. One of the mods please do what has long been overdue.

Lee Ryder: Jonas has just scored twice in a minute, he can certainly finish in training. ..... Does the fact that he is playing against Newcastle United defenders have anything to do with it?

The problem with Smith is that he doesn't create anything in terms of our attack. Lets face it, we'll be lucky not to concede a goal, so suddenly we need to score at least 2 in order to win. Can say the same for Butt as well. Nolan when he first arrived seemed to be bombing into the box at the right time, but has fallen off since.

Anyone know the extent of Guthrie's injury? I think we'll see Carroll in the starting 11 against Stoke. We need a big physical body up front in a match where they'll try to beat us down with force, so it's good that Carroll is in some scoring form. Someone braid his hair for the next match please. Martins and Carroll for mine, with Owen possibly playing in a midfield role behind them, and alongside Butt.

Fat load of good the blame game is going to be. Last thing we need right now is more pointing fingers. We've got Steven Taylor for that.

Taylor and Coloccini both struggle to mark opposing players. Though Taylor is more physical and puts his body on the line. Taylor is also quicker - not because he is anything even approaching fast, but because Coloccini is just so slow (he looks like he's jogging most of the time while opposing players glide by easily).

It's easy to see why he never ever gets injured. Never ever puts his body on the line, and goes to ground under the slightest touch, plus he's too slow to catch most strikers so there's no chance of any impact.

When it all comes down to it Chelsea's midfield are/were about 1000 times better than ours. Add to that that we have one more Coloccini than them and we're pushing shit uphill.

Disappointing that they royally fucked up on what should have been a goal for us. Would have set up a grandstand finish where the crowd could have really played a part. Realistically though, that was always the likely result. I'm not sure I like Owen and Martins as a pairing up front, nor Butt and Nolan as a pairing in the middle.

Damn straight it wouldn't. But would be the end of Chelsea's chance at the title.

Ryan Taylor's set pieces have been a real let down. Joans started poorly, but has been getting better, and is clearly troubling Chelsea. Shame that lovenkrands got injured. Though maybe Duff will make the most of this chance. Tense stuff. They've looked dangerous down the left on a few occassions. It's a mircale that Nicky Butt doesn't have a yellow. He's flung himsefl into so many slide tackles it's not funny. Some he has timed well and made good tackles, the others well the less said about them the better. We're lacking size up front, with Terry and Alex using their sizeable frames to every advantage. I think the key for us is to get behind their right back, who is neither quick or good.

Unbelievable. Noone defending Ooijer on a corner. Brilliant. Fucking shite spurs, fucking shite. 90 minutes in a football game. Credit to the blackburn players though, when they actually started playing football they looked pretty dangerous. Of course it helped that spurs went down to 10.

CFC: Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, John Mikel Obi, Florent Malouda, Salomon Kalou, John Terry ©, Alex, Nicolas Anelka Subs: Henrique Hilario, Ricardo Carvalho, Franco Di Santo, Michael Ballack, Deco, Juliano Belletti, Michael Mancienne Sounds like they'll be playing a 4 5 1 with Anelka up front and Kalou and Malouda working off him down the flanks. Obi Mikel, Essien and Lampard in central midfield against Nolan and Butt. I would have liked to have seen Guthrie out there.

Spurs are dominating as well. Fat Sam is begging from the sidelines for the hopeful long balls to be sent upfield. No wonder Tottenham have like 60% of the ball. Fuck I'm glad we don't have Allardyce as our manager in a relegation battle. Not every team has a Kevin Davies.

No shit you fat fucking idiot.

Can you bring your manager on to take penalties?

He'll watch that match from the stands, no doubt. They're not stupid enough to stick him out there for his first match against Chelsea (are they?).

Taylor struggles to mark, so has been doing alright at right back. He's good at blocking shots and committing himself, but when it comes time to do some marking off the ball he's all arms pointing and gesturing left right and centre.

Of all the places in the world where he could have set up shop, I'd say it speaks a fair but of where his heart is that he chose to do so in Newcastle. At any length this is a canny way to drum up business.

Taylor's blocks have been great. In particular the second one. Shows just how dangerous Arsenal can be that we've had all the possession in their half, yet they have still managed to have 3 gilt-edged chances. Great instinctive save from Harper. Duff has played pretty well IMO. Shame that he's up against Sagna who has him covered for pace, but even still he's doing better than I had expected. Nicky Butt is completely anonymous out there. Even the commentators gave him a blast saying that he looked tired. The fact that he can look tired without having appeared to do anything much is worrying. If we make any tactical changes I would replace Butt with Owen and have Owen sit in behind the pace of Martins and Lovenkrands.

Really? You'd never have thought it if you had read any of my posts.