I remember reading Dennis Wise's autobiography, he was ****ing pissed after that game!! Oh yeah Casiraghi. I have a vivid memory, of me and my friend Simon, who was a Blackburn Rovers fan, arguing over him, because both Chelsea and Blackburn were in for him that summer and he chose to sign with us (presumably due to the Italian connections, with Zola, Vialli and Di Matteo), and I remember when we signed him, being totally pissed off my head, as a 16 year old, on Mad Dog 20/20, running down Fenny Stratford high street chanting, "We signed Casi-****ing-Raghi...YEEAAHHHH!!"
Well I guess we'll see by the end of the season. My point was that they're not done as a major European force, they can still beat anyone on their day and have an academy that has produced great players consistently. Hazard's hugely overrated. A great player but far too inconsistent and wouldn't trouble the likes of Neymar, Suarez, Ribery, Robben, Bale, James and Ronaldo for a place at their clubs. As for Costa, he's perfectly suited for the Premier League so it's no surprise to see him doing well. Again, he wouldn't trouble Lewandowski, Messi or Aguero for their places and I highly doubt they'd change their style just to fit him in either. It's like how Fabregas didn't fit into the Barcelona set up, or Mata didn't fit into Mourinho's Chelsea side. It's not a question of overall ability but having the right skills to fit into the team.
Can you remind me when Barca last beat Chelsea Evilred?? My memory doesn't go back that far anymore !!
Chelsea won't have too much trouble dealing with Barca. Even at their peak, Chelsea were the team that Barca struggled against most. Chelsea would just kill Barca on the counter these days. Barca faced two big teams (PSG and Real Madrid) this season, and they lost both games. In both, they got caught on the counter. Their midfield can't control games like they used to do, and their defence has never been the same since Puyol retired, also Pique and Alves are a shawdow of their former selfs. The big threat is their front three, but Chelsea have the best defensive manager in the world, so he will find a way to limit their threat, while the Barca coach would not havea clue on how to stop the counters from Chelsea.
Also, I see that Atheltico have not really been mentioned in this thread as a possible threat, but they really should. Despite losing a few key players, they are still a force to be reckoned with. Simeone is one of the best managers around at the moment and he can organise a team that can beat anybody on their day.
United only beat Barca when they were in decline 2008, finishing 17 points behind Real.... Deco and Ronnie on the sniff and Messi emerging but not quite there yet
I think Hazard would do a lot better in Spain consistency wise where he wouldn't be double marked most games and there's a load of weak defensive sides he could bully. Hazard is up there with Ribery and James IMO though the others are probably a level above granted. Hazard would probably get into any team other than Real and Barca but then they've had players like Robben, Ibrahimovic and Sneijder over the years bench warming so that's no slight either.
Look at that list of players and you will see only James and Neymar are around Hazard's age. Rodriguez hasn't really set Madrid alight just yet and in 3 years time Hazard could easily be as good as the upper tier players in that list.
Agree that Project is a level below those stars, but this season he has been incredibly consistent: him and Matic have been superb every match. He will get to Ribery's level and possibly Robben's soon. Don't think Costa is far behind Lewandowski.
To win the big 4 competitions requires the squad to remain largely injury free. I'd be well pleased with the FA Cup and Premier League - am I easily pleased ???????
Man Utd made hard work of the league that season, to many draws against crap teams that season but were easily the best team plus Schmeichal saving a pen is not luck but skill.
Its equal parts really, the keeper has to go the right way and watch the penalty takers movement/feet position etc to decide where he thinks it will go. But also if the penalty taker hits it too low, or too central instead of blasting it into the top corner, which is pretty much unsaveable (see David Luiz's penalty V Bayern in the 2012 CL final).....thats luck on the keepers part.
haha, whenever I went up to watch WH I used to put a couple of quid on whoever we were playing to win so at least if we lost I could buy a few beers, but better hope United don't win it or you'll have 2 reasons, I think you would've been better putting money on Chelsea not winning.to be pissed off.
