The 2007/08 Chelsea Thread

[gonch19]

Originally posted by Philip Rolfe:

If you want well balanced from me then you'll have to wait until tomorrow. In very short, no he's not. If anything I think he's become underrated through mass hatred.

cool i look forward to it. chelsea fans obviously a good source to ask, if i can get a reasoned response. personally i thought he offered nothing (again) today, but i suppose the same could be said for a few of your players.

is ballack the better player? or just more in form?

[Ratinho]

Originally posted by deez0r:

Can see your point, however when he had the ball, wasnt using his pace, running at players, nothing at all, just stopped and passed it slowly like the rest of the team. Was anonymous, even when moving up front.

True, but he looked lost there. He's always played his best in a very specific way from what i've seen. And it's always been centrally. He did a job at times for Bolton, I doubt he igned for your mob just to 'do a job'.

Lampard is a quality player for all our hating on him. Ballack is simply better.

[Didier]

Ballack, Joey, Didier and JT the only ones to come out of that with any credit, we were abysmal. Grant's record in the big games is starting to look like a worrying trend, but still quite hopeful for the rest of the season. Next five games absolutely massive:

West Ham (a)

Olympiakos (h)

Barnsley (a)

Derby (h)

Sunderland (a)

If we win those five, and maybe United/Arsenal drop some points, then there's every chance we could be in a brilliant position on all three fronts.

[Poyplemonkeys]

Thought we had Arsenal coming up very shortly?

I hate this whole Lampard/Ballack debate. I generally disagree with almost everyone no it. Ballack is better. He's more rounded, and can offer more to our team. However Lampard can offer us 20 goals and as many assists a season, pretty much guaranteed if he stays fit. I just love Ballack, think he's totally immense. His passing range is great, and he sees things others wouldn't.

We should just be sticking every corner on his head as he runs in at the near post. That will show everyone that it's not a bug, because he'll score **** loads. As long as we let Belletti take the corners.

My mates know how much I like Ballack and think he's vastly over rated, so I scored 7 with him against one of them in Pro Evo

[Didier]

No, Tottenham (away) after Sunderland, then Arsenal (at home, obviously).

[Didier]

Originally posted by poyplemonkeys:

I hate this whole Lampard/Ballack debate. I generally disagree with almost everyone no it. Ballack is better. He's more rounded, and can offer more to our team. However Lampard can offer us 20 goals and as many assists a season, pretty much guaranteed if he stays fit. I just love Ballack, think he's totally immense. His passing range is great, and he sees things others wouldn't.

Pretty much what he said. Also like to add - Lampard undoubtedly one of the best players in the league since 04/05.

[Poyplemonkeys]

What the hell was Ratinho talking about Cesc being banned for our match if he gets booked last week then ? Has it been postponed?

[Didier]

Very confused now, that's from the BBC website. Could be wrong?

[kingcav]

Originally posted by gonch19:

is lampard massively overrated? i want a well balanced response if possible. im not trying to bait but whenever i watch him play i never see him take a game by the scruff of the neck and dominate things.

I would say no.

If I may go all stat-attack on you? last season he scored 21 goals (11 EPL, 1 CL, 6 FAC, 3 CC) and had 18 assists (10 EPL, 3 CL, 3 FAC, 1 CC, 1 CS) in 58 games (plus 4 sub appearances). oh and only one goal was deflected. he was the official motm 7 times and the chelsea thread's motm 7 times (although not necessarily the same matches).

I agree with poyples that ballack is the better, more rounded player, but being involved (directly or indirectly) in nearly 40 goals last season isn't something that you can just dismiss.

personally I think that we have to stick 4-3-3 with a midfield of essien, ballack and lampard which means that it's either drogba OR anelka up front. unfortunately

[neonexile]

Lampard's talent is basically ignored by the cacophony of mongery that follows everything he does. He's clearly an excellent player filling a key role in one of the strongest Premiership sides of this decade. He's statistically both a provider and a phenomenal goalscorer from midfield. All of this is fact whether he's 'better' than Ballack or not.

To some people, though, he'll always be Fat Frank. Ignoring everything these people say will usually see you right in matters of football.

[Philip Rolfe]

Hmm. I'll not go stat mad, because everyone knows Lampard gets you 20 goals and 15 assists a season. I think over the last 12/18 months he's missed Makelele's ability incredibly, over that spell Mikel's essentially replaced him and Lampard has had an added responsibility to be 'safe' and help Mikel out where necessary, a lot of the time sitting deeper than Essien and playing from there.

I can't really fathom how he's become such a target of hatred, he's a) not fat, b) not an arsehole, c) not overrated (and that's a ******** reason to hate someone), and d) any less responsible for England's lack of results in the last 5 years than anyone else. It's absolutely pathetic and it affects him when he plays for England. Part of the reason for his consistency for Chelsea is he knows he has the trust and adoration of a large majority of the fan base and uses that confidence. And, he has a disciplined defensive midfielder behind him, allowing him to use his attacking game (every AMC needs this ffs). For England, Gerrard absolutely lacks defensive discipline despite being the more naturally defensive of the two.

Yesterday, he was poor, but so was everyone. Grant's tactics in the second half didn't help, it was Ess/Mikel/Lamps vs Hudd/Zokora/Jenas/Tainio in the crucial spells, and 3 vs 4 doesn't work. As far as Ballack goes, he's an incredible player who MUST be in our strongest team. He's a better passer. He's a better headerer. Probably a better player but isn't as productive and doesn't mean as much to Chelsea as Frank, understandably. They can work together and have worked together. Together yesterday and I'm convinced we win.

I will just use stats to sum this up though, 100 goals and probably 100 assists in his Chelsea career, the large majority of which have come in the last 3.5 seasons, are the hallmark of a world class player, I can't think of another central attacking midfielder in football who would come close to matching those stats. Yet he's derided, mocked, and abused beyond belief. I hate this country.

[Ratinho]

Originally posted by poyplemonkeys:

What the hell was Ratinho talking about Cesc being banned for our match if he gets booked last week then ? Has it been postponed?

eh? I was asking what games Cesc could miss and could it be Chelsea. Turns out he was only on 8 yellows anyway.

[Poyplemonkeys]

Yeah if he got booked in that game he could be banned for Chelsea game you thought. According to that fixture list there's another 7 games before we play you though

[Herman Bloom]

Lampard >>>>>> Mikel in fairness.

I thought Lampard looked unfit and was very poor yesterday though. Yes that could be said of a lot of your team, but the decision to swap him and Ballack ludicrous really, given the relative form Ballack has been showing.

I really don't think it's a good thing for a team to have players that walk back into the team regardless of form. Been a major bugbear of mine for England.

[Philip Rolfe]

Question. Do you believe we are playing more defensively and less attractively under Grant than we were under Mourinho?

I think I do. In terms of general style, there's been far less long ball, and a greater emphasis on passing from the back out. I'm in no doubt it's an exaggerated effect because of a lack of JT and Drogba most of the season, but the change is apparent. The problem is from midfield onwards. We have NOBODY who wants to beat a man, or has the confidence in their own ability to, and we potter around before inevitably moving backwards and trying again. All well and good, but we're not scoring goals and we're dropping silly mistakes.

I would like to point out before I'm jumped on that I didn't have a problem with playing 'negatively' under JM and I don't under Grant. I have a problem with the end result. JM won more times than not, and when he didn't and it was a fault of his I was critical. I'll be the same about Grant. In our last ten games we've scored more than 1 goal only 3 times, against Spurs, Wigan, and Huddersfield. That includes a most recent spell where he's had more players available to him than at any other time. The other point is, at no point during JM's spell was I ever bored watching us play. The end result and the tactical thought behind it intrigued me. Possibly a Mourinho bias, but I sincerely doubt Grant has anywhere near the tactical approach JM had and doesn't have the flair up front JM had in Robben and Duff to add excitement to the defense-first mindset.

Tell me if I'm overreacting or having double standards when comparing the two but right now I'm really, I dunno, not unhappy or bored, just....meh I think, about how we play and ultimately what we're ending up with. Scraping past teams, or going away from home in Europe to the weakest team left and shutting up shop, or losing Cup finals to hated rivals.

[iron-bullet]

Anyone going on Saturday?

In recent years you have always beaten us, despite us having a decent record against the top sides.

I think it could be a very dull game as were set up to be very defensive and are generally very tight. Drogba has caused us lots or problems every time he played, so fancy you to win

[Philip Rolfe]

Yeah I am, not confident though.

[deez0r]

I would agree with you Juni in some ways. The main problem I am having with Grant however is his tactictal weakness. He has done absolutely nothing different to JM reign bar pushing up the full backs a bit more, however in turn this has seemed to stop one of the midfielders from pushing forward when the full back does overlap in my opinion.

His tactical weakness was so obvious at the weekend, Ramos played a certain way and it was so obvious that they were dominating but Grant just sat there and didnt try and change anything to counter act it, instead our only attack of the half went in and we did our usual of sitting back and just passing it constantly sideways or back, no pace to our play what so ever, even when one of the attacking players (SWP, Didier, Anelka, Lamps) were on the ball, seemed that they had been told to play in their comfort zones. Now thats a very dangerous game to play as we saw at the weekend, one decision, one deflection or mistake and thats silly points (or in Sundays case a cup) thrown away.

I want to see Chelsea pressurise teams more, kill a team off by going at them when they are vulnerable rather than just accepting that when we go 1-0 up we are going to win. We have the players to do this but it seems the manager doesnt want to do it. The thing that annoyed me the most at the weekend was when extra time hit, Steve Clarke did the team talk first half, JT the team talk 2nd half, Grant just stood there and didnt have a clue how to motivate the players or make them play in a way that could get them back into the game.

I am not denying Grant has done well, but it seems he has changed very very little from what JM used to do and I believe that is the basis of his success, simply because he hasnt done much. When we played Arsenal, Man Utd & Spurs when he came up against top quality coaches he just seems so average compared to them.

I think we all would agree that Avram Grant was not the right manager for Chelsea, no matter how he has done, as he just doesnt seem to have any tactical awareness at all. Reading that Steve Clarke takes most of the training sessions and that Avram doesnt prepare for matches too far in advance which is clearly going to hinder a performance. Now I am not expecting him to do the whole JM watch a DVD, booklet on each player preparation, but he needs to do something as hes getting found out in the bigger games.

[neonexile]

Originally posted by Philip Rolfe:

Question. Do you believe we are playing more defensively and less attractively under Grant than we were under Mourinho?

I think I do. In terms of general style, there's been far less long ball, and a greater emphasis on passing from the back out. I'm in no doubt it's an exaggerated effect because of a lack of JT and Drogba most of the season, but the change is apparent. The problem is from midfield onwards. We have NOBODY who wants to beat a man, or has the confidence in their own ability to, and we potter around before inevitably moving backwards and trying again. All well and good, but we're not scoring goals and we're dropping silly mistakes.

I would like to point out before I'm jumped on that I didn't have a problem with playing 'negatively' under JM and I don't under Grant. I have a problem with the end result. JM won more times than not, and when he didn't and it was a fault of his I was critical. I'll be the same about Grant. In our last ten games we've scored more than 1 goal only 3 times, against Spurs, Wigan, and Huddersfield. That includes a most recent spell where he's had more players available to him than at any other time. The other point is, at no point during JM's spell was I ever bored watching us play. The end result and the tactical thought behind it intrigued me. Possibly a Mourinho bias, but I sincerely doubt Grant has anywhere near the tactical approach JM had and doesn't have the flair up front JM had in Robben and Duff to add excitement to the defense-first mindset.

Tell me if I'm overreacting or having double standards when comparing the two but right now I'm really, I dunno, not unhappy or bored, just....meh I think, about how we play and ultimately what we're ending up with. Scraping past teams, or going away from home in Europe to the weakest team left and shutting up shop, or losing Cup finals to hated rivals.

I'd agree with you, and tbf, I've been worried about the way we've been playing ever since Grant took over. This thread is evidence enough of that. It isn't so much that we don't go forward, it's that we don't go forward when we should. I've seen too many games Jose would have looked to kill off that Grant just doesn't. Possession does not win football games when you're not in the lead. I'm getting pretty tired of watching us tread water against sides we could and should massacre.

[Razzler]

Rijkaard throws his hat in the ring .... according to this from the Guardian

Avram Grant's prospects of remaining Chelsea's manager beyond the end of the current campaign have been damaged further after it emerged that Frank Rijkaard, one of the leading candidates to replace him at Stamford Bridge, expects to leave Barcelona in the summer despite having a further year on his contract and would consider a move to the Premier League club.

"Frank is leaving Barcelona at the end of the season," said a source close to Rijkaard, whose side have recovered in La Liga in recent weeks and trail Real Madrid by two points. "I guess he could be persuaded to change his mind if [barcelona] win the Champions League or the title this season. If that was the case then there would be a decision to be made.

"He has got one more year left at Barcelona after this. In the past he has said that Chelsea is a big club so, of course, he would be interested if the job became available."

Chelsea's uncharacteristically downbeat display against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup final has served to undermine Grant's credentials despite his impressive record since succeeding Jose Mourinho in September.

Concern has been expressed privately within the club's hierarchy, and among senior players, at the Israeli's apparent inability to stamp his authority on his side, or inspire from the bench, during key contests such as Sunday's defeat at Wembley and the league defeats to Arsenal and Manchester United.

The manager retains the backing of the owner, Roman Abramovich, but there is an acceptance within the club that the Israeli must glean silverware this season in order to justify his appointment. Rijkaard's potential availability - with Mourinho a strong favourite to succeed him at Camp Nou - will be unnerving for Grant given that the Dutch coach, a Champions League winner two years ago, is highly regarded at Stamford Bridge for the attacking style Barça have played under his stewardship.

The 45-year-old Dutchman, whose team drew 1-1 at home to Valencia in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final last night, has not spent time out of football since a brief hiatus in his career between leaving Sparta Rotterdam and joining Barça in 2003, and the stresses and strains of his current role have taken their toll in the years since then.

Although Rijkaard remains acutely aware that there is currently no position at Chelsea to discuss - Grant signed a four-year contract in December - he could be persuaded to shelve his plans to take a break should the Chelsea managerial role become available. Indeed, he worked closely with Henk ten Cate, currently coaching at the Premier League club, at Barcelona and would welcome the opportunity to team up with his compatriot again. Such manoeuvrings will be disconcerting for Grant, whose record of three defeats in 35 games is, on the face of it, impressive.

John Terry took the Chelsea squad and backroom staff paintballing yesterday as part of a pre-arranged bonding exercise as they attempt to shake themselves out of the malaise caused by the defeat to Spurs but, as usual, the coaching staff did not attend. Instead Grant, the assistant manager, Steve Clarke, and Ten Cate - who clashed with Terry after training on the day before the Carling Cup final - were left to contemplate Saturday's crucial visit to West Ham.

The manager accepts he made mistakes in his tactics and team selection for the final and will have to work on improving relations with the likes of Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and Ashley Cole, who were omitted from his squad. Joe Cole would not have been happy to be on the bench for so long either.

Abramovich has been a regular at the club's training base in recent days, mixing with the players in a public show of support for the manager he appointed in the autumn. The Russian has been patient in the past, most notably in allowing Claudio Ranieri a season to prove his credentials, but he will be far from happy if this campaign ends trophy-less.

As it is, Grant retains realistic hopes of achieving success in the Champions League, FA Cup and even the Premier League this term and expects to be given time to shape the squad into something more of his own in the summer.

[Poyplemonkeys]

I'm still pretty much undecided about Grant to be honest. His record looks great at face value, but when you look into it we've lost to Man United, Arsenal, drawn at home to Liverpool. Lost in a cup final to Spurs. Anytime the occasion gets slightly bigger, when we might not necessarily be big favourites to win the games like we are for the majority of the Premiership, he seems to be up against it. The Man Utd game is a little more excusable thanks to the awful decision to send Mikel off very early on, but still in that game we just sat there and looked to limit the damage, rather than going out and having a go at United.

There's a real lack of a complete winger at the moment I think. All of our wingers have got one outstanding attribute. Malouda is an excellent crosser of the ball, Joey Cole has all the flair and all the tricks you need, and Sweep has pace to burn. The problem is, as Juni said, beating a man. We haven't had someone willing to consistently run at and past a man every time they get the ball since Arjen Robben. Letting him get unhappy, no matter how injury prone he was, was the biggest mistake made by the club. Sweep attempts to beat his man, but until recently had a virtually 0% success rate, and even now it's not close to what it should be.

I'm really wasn't at all bothered by it in the days of Jose Mourinho because he looked to make a game secure at 2-0 and then made the changes needed to secure that win. It seems with Avram at the moment he's just taking the lead at 1-0, then making no changes and just telling the same players in the same formation to defend more. There is absolutely no justification for the time he made his substitutions in the Carling Cup Final. Joe Cole and Ballack should've both been on the pitch by the hour at the very latest. I'd be infinitely more confident at holding a 1-0 win over any team in the world with Jose in charge, than I am with Avram Grant in charge.

It seems to me that Avram Grant has just been resting on the foundation that Mourinho created so far. A 4-3-3 with exactly the same personnel in the same positions as when Jose was here. Now he has 2 top class strikers available, it's going to test his tactical abilities to the limit to get a 4-4-2 to fit all of our best players in, because once again, resting on what Mourinho did and shoehorning Anelka out wide on the left was just ineptitude at it's worst. When Grant pulls something different out from up his sleeve is when I'll start to believe he has the ability to compete with us at the top levels of club football.

Oh and Rijkaard can gtf. Grade A twat imo.

[bridgekings]

Just booked my Barnsley ticket, free trains \0/.

[McMaster#28]

Notice how nobody complains when wenger signs a young player?

Not really sure I agree with that. Blatter has said on numerous occasions that Arsenal (and by assoication Wenger) is ruining football by singing young foreigners.

[McMaster#28]

oh and you lot beat Arsenal reserves/U18s a few days ago 6-0 in a behind closed doors friendly.

[Poyplemonkeys]

Our reserves/U18s did?

[Philip Rolfe]

tbf the team that won 6-0 had Carlo, Sheva, Ash and some other players who've not featured a whole lot recently, against Arsenal's kids.

Ours kids into the FAYC Semis to play Villa, beat Port Vale 5-2 on Tuesday, Kakuta x3, Nielsen, Stoch.

[Razzler]

I think it was Platini that singled Arsenal out regarding buying youths from all over the world, as I said before, they moan when you dont give youth a chance and then complain when the wrong kind of youth are given a chance. What can you do ?

[Asmodeus]

Yeah nobody ever mentions the nationality of our players, young or otherwise

[Poyplemonkeys]

I love Kakuta on FM08. Not sure why as I'd not really heard of him but I just took an instant liking to him. Hope he makes it.

That Italian youth player we've agreed a contract with we're getting in a bit of trouble about it. Chairman of their club threatening to go to FIFA and so on. Probably just looking for a quick buck a la Ken Bates with Woods and Taiwo tbf.

I really don't get what the big taboo is with young players. Unless they genuinely have downs syndrome and parents that don't give a **** about what they do, then they are capable of making decisions. What exactly made him unavailable for approach anyway? He had no professional contract at his club, I don't quite understand the ruling.

[McMaster#28]

That Italian youth player we've agreed a contract with we're getting in a bit of trouble about it. Chairman of their club threatening to go to FIFA and so on.

In what can be described as a SAS style mission (artistic licence ftw) you flew a helicopter into their training ground, landed on a pitch, got the youngster into the helicopter, and flew back to london with him.

Yeah I'd be a bit miffed if I was their chairman too tbf

[McMaster#28]

^

And that story was also told to me by your leader, Phil, so no saying I made it up!

[Poyplemonkeys]

gahaha Shut up. That cannot have happened?

[Poyplemonkeys]

That's actually pretty fantastic to be honest. As long as we didn't make him sign the contract at gun point it was still his choice.

[bridgekings]

Originally posted by Francis Cole:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">That Italian youth player we've agreed a contract with we're getting in a bit of trouble about it. Chairman of their club threatening to go to FIFA and so on.

In what can be described as a SAS style mission (artistic licence ftw) you flew a helicopter into their training ground, landed on a pitch, got the youngster into the helicopter, and flew back to london with him.

Yeah I'd be a bit miffed if I was their chairman too tbf </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Les Ferdinand was flying it as well. Mad stuff!

[kingcav]

please let that be true.

[Helarxe]

Fabulous Russian mafia style hiring.

[deez0r]

Right so West Ham on Saturday, always a tough game at Upton Park. Not overly confident to be honest, if we play the way we can play we can win fairly comfortably. However I can see the same boring old tactics and a 1-1 draw.

Thoughts on the game anyone?

Prefered team for me:

Cech

Paulo

JT

Ricky

Cole

Maka

Lamps

Ballack

Joey

Didier

Nico

A 4-4-2 with Joey floating around the midfield a-la SWP was doing fairly recently. Not going to happen but I wish.

[shanyi]

Super Scott has joined Charlton until the end of the year on loan. I'm a little surprised, I would have thought that he'd be ready for a low-level Premiership club by now, although I suppose it's more healthy that he experiences some success with a decent Championship side than constant failure if he joined Derby, for instance. I hope he gets more of a chance next year, but from what I've read Abramovich is planning more big spending so chances are he'll only find more competition in his path.

[bigredevil]

Charlton fan here.

Is Sinclair's final ball good? We have a lot of wingers already just they don't have any end product most of the time.

[Philip Rolfe]

It's improving but it's not really that good. As you might expect from a converted striker.

[kingcav]

4-3-3 for me plz.

[Abramovic]

4312 for me

cech

belletti

terry

ricky

a.cole

ballack

essien

lampard

j.cole

drogba

anelka

[Herman Bloom]

Originally posted by shanyi:

Super Scott has joined Charlton until the end of the year on loan. I'm a little surprised, I would have thought that he'd be ready for a low-level Premiership club by now,

Couldn't see him being a starter for anyone but maybe Derby currently. Was ok to good for us (QPR) but I think even we had him on the bench once. Charlton a much better option in terms of gaining first team football than going to a prem club.

[Scoham]

So is Sinclair better as a winger or a striker? He seems to be called a left winger now, though in FM striker is still his natural position.

[shanyi]

Originally posted by Scoham:

So is Sinclair better as a winger or a striker? He seems to be called a left winger now, though in FM striker is still his natural position.

Every time he's played in our first team he's been put wide left, so I'd imagine that would now be considered his 'natural' position.

[deez0r]

Avram Grant is reportedly preparing to finally stamp a vestige of his authority on Chelski by deploying his team in a new formation.

Since replacing the deposed Jose Mourinho in September, Grant has opted to retain the 4-3-3 system introduced by the Special One upon his own arrival at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2004. Grant's conservatism backfired spectacularly on Sunday in the Carling Cup final when, with the formation only having a vacancy for a single central striker, Nicolas Anelka began the match as a left-winger with predictably dismal results.

Mindful of the criticism he has endured in the wake of the Wembley defeat, Grant is understood to have tested several formations in training this week but is expected to switch to a 4-1-3-2 at West Ham on Sunday - a system that would enable Anelka to partner Didier Drogba and accommodate both Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard.

According to The Times, 'The Israeli is coming round to the view that 4-1-3-2 is the best way of utilising the strength of his squad, particularly in the Champions League, with Claude Makelele or John Obi Mikel in the holding role behind Lampard, Ballack and Michael Essien.'

The obvious flaw in the plan is the lack of width such a team would possess. While Anelka and Drogba will be able to form a true partnership, the lack of service from the wings is bound to hinder their effectiveness.

So seems Grant is going to change things about for tommorrows game. Hopefully it doesnt end up being like the narrow 4-4-2 that JM tried to employ which ended up being dire. Would rather see Joey in the 3 in middle with Ballack & Lamps with Maka or Essien in behind them.

[McMaster#28]

Juni:

Just adding to my FM DB.

Anyone apart from Aliu Djalo, and possibly Lalkovic

set to not-extracted?

So far got:

Aliu Djalo (Kaba) - Guinea Bissau/Portugal - 05/02/1992 - CM.

Vincenzo Camilleri - Italian - 1992 - CD

Milan Lalkovic - Slovakian - 1992/1993? - Winger/Striker

Of course already got Ince/Hayden/Mills et al.

Anyone missing?

[Philip Rolfe]

Get me on MSN later when I get home, I'll send you my u16s/15s/14s doc with stuff in (DoBs and stuff too)

[McMaster#28]

(L)

[Philip Rolfe]

Oh man what a sensational result. Smile well and truly back on my face. That's a response, I'd say more from the players but after the slagging off I've given Grant this week he deserves some credit for today. The players really turned up though. Frank was great until he got sent off, Joey was absolutely inspired, Maka and Ballack SUPERB, and Terry was just sensational, probably shades MotM ahead of anyone. Delighted for Ash to get his first goal, he was ecstatic.

Awesome atmosphere in our end, West Ham fans buggered off well early, their ground at the end was hilariously empty, couldn't quite believe it.