Money obviously makes a huge difference but it's just not true than anyone could win things with more money. Many have had the money and failed abysmally. To win the PL you need money AND a great manager.
I think there are only two changes worthy of consideration at this point revolving around Taylor and Shelvey. Taylor's performances for us and Wales earlier in the week have not been what we would have liked to see. I expect Chelsea to target Taylor if he is playing. Shelvey .... which Shelvey will show up - the one that is focused, disciplined and capable of great moments, or the one that is unfocused, sloppy, and does stupid ****. This is probably one of Monk's little challenges - what does he do with both of these players with Shelvey probably being the higher priority of the two. Everybody else has played their part and more and worthy of continued selection - Amat included, although many of us are tempted to play Fernandez, Monk may not be yet - TBD. A clash of a team a top team at the top, and a team at the top currently worthy of their position. At 5pm on Saturday, we'll know where we stand on everything. Can't wait to watch.
Personally I wonder if we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit, so I'm expecting a Chelsea win. However I'm hoping we can give them a good game.
We are way behind Chelsea in terms of personel. Their players are of a much higher class/quality than ours (IMO). I just hope we do ourselves justice go there with confidence and give them a game. I can't see anything other than a Chelsea win, but upsets do happen.
Monk will be instilling the importance of not conceding a goal in the first 30 minutes on his Swansea players, because that then puts pressure on the home side, and Chelsea will get edgy for sure, which will be good for us going forward. I'm of the view that we could cause an upset tomorrow, though we don't return back from international breaks very well, that said we are still not firing on all cylinders, both Bony and Gomis have yet to fire up with some style, could Stanford Bridge be the venue? I surely hope so, but I would take a draw tomorrow before a ball is kicked. Any chance Chelski will let us take our ballboys for this game? Chelsea must be favourites for the win, I'm going for a 3-2 win to the Swans, always the optimist me, but I would not be too disappointed if we lost, as long as we get Terry sent off!................
If we lose then we will lose against the champions elect on their own pitch. there will be no shame in that whatsoever. I suppose we will get the usual rubbish that it will be monks fault though
Depends on how we lose, if we lose, it could just be Monk's fault and then it wouldn't be rubbish ... would it.
I don;t think you can argue with his record as a manager but his behaviour at times is classless. I mean eye-gouging someone from behind?!! for me that would be the end of my career, i'd be too embarassed to show my face in public again. But I don;t think he's ever apologised for it or even aknowledged it.
Jose Mourinho: Swansea City haven't surprised me says the Special One as Garry Monk's men prepare for top of the table clash with Chelsea 12 September 2014 04:02 PM By Chris Wathan Jose Mourinho has insisted it's no surprise seeing Swansea City joining his Chelsea at the top of the Premier League, claiming they're a better team than last season. And the Special One admitted their perfect start to the season going into tomorrow's first against second clash at Stamford Bridge means Garry Monk deserved to beat him to August's manager of the month award. Monk beat Mourinho to the gong after both made it three wins from their opening three league games. Both teams put their 100% records on the line in West London on Saturday. And despite the Swans having to fight off predictions of a struggle, Mourinho insisted the Liberty Stadium used their summer wisely to ensure they'd be a stronger force than last term. âSwansea have a good team,â said Mourinho. âThey had a good team (last year).... they've had a good team for a couple of years, since they were promoted in the Premier League. They've always represented themselves in the Premier League with a good team, playing good football for a while. They have good players and I don't think they've lost any good players. If they lost any, they weren't important players. They bought, bought well, and invested seriously buying quality players. âFederico Fernandez is an Argentina player who was on the bench in the World Cup final. Bafetimbi Gomis was a top striker in France. Gylfi Sigurdsson went back and is a very good player too. They did well to keep their good players and bring others in to improve them. They are doing very well and Monk to win the manager of the month is deserved.â Despite that, Mourinho did concede he did not expect Swansea to have spoiled Louis van Gaal's welcome party as Manchester United manager on the first game of the season that set-up Swansea's impressive early run. But he added he always thought they would see off Burnley and West Brom at home to head into Saturday's clash with momentum. He said: âI would expect them to have six or seven points, not nine. But everybody knows that, in the Premier League, any result can happen. They had a surprise result in the opening game of the season at Old Trafford and after that they did what they had to do, winning two home matches against teams with the same kind of ambition. They did well. âThey had one result which was unexpected for almost all of us, but they have nine points, they are top of the league - respect.â Mourinho stressed he wanted to make it four from four but will make a call on the fitness of striker Diego Costa. Costa's four goals from three games saw him beat off competition from Sigurdsson and Nathan Dyer for August's player of the month award, but he's a doubt for the game after suffering a hamstring injury while on international duty with Spain. Mourinho was waiting until the last moment before making a decision but could call on Loic Remy who is available after his late transfer window move from QPR. Mourinho said: âDiego came back injured but that was last Saturday, so we had one week to work hard with the medical department and he has a chance to play. We have a training session now to confirm his condition and make the final decision, but he was the only one who came back from the national team with a problem. Remy is in contention.â
Oh I like Jose, he's a very clever manager. Very good at pushing peoples buttons and winding them up. Hope Garry can do this tomorrow!!
I think the Prem is a better place with Mourinhi in it but he can be arrogant and has said so in a recent interview.
I'm not saying he's not a good manager. Just, for me, he can't be labelled great.... To me a great manager is somebody who builds something and sees the ****er through. I'm thinking; Matt Busby (first builds a team of youngsters, then the plane crash, and then builds another great team who were the first English team to win the European Cup), Bill Shankly and Brian Clough. I'd include Alex Ferguson for what he did at Aberdeen and Man Utd (even though Utd were always a wealthy club while he was there, the team he built which won so much was based around half a dozen or so youngsters he had brought through). IMO, if a club spends much more than it's rivals in recruitment, eventually, they will get there. Take Man City. They were always going to get there. The only thing Mancini and Pellegrini has got over Mark Hughes is better connections on the continent....which has meant they got there a little faster than if Hughes had remained manager. I wouldn't call either a "great manager" though and for me Mourinho falls into the same bracket.
Only one game tomorrow over here on cable....Swansea vs Chelsea ... WOOHOO !.. Valley or swansalona, could you attach my thread to the matchday thread .. cheers.
I see what you mean. I suppose it depends where you draw the line between great and good. Both terms are very subjective. In the PL, maybe teams should be handicapped based on money spent. e.g. spend £100 million on players means you should start on -5 points or similar.
The opening post is now too long so putting the Key battles section here... Diego Costa vs Fernandez (or Amat) Diego Costa is hot **** ( ) at the moment. He's made a blistering start to life in the Prem and is 'Player of the Month' for August. If you haven't seen him play yet the player I would liken him to is Luis Suarez. Although not as skillful he has the same work ethic, the same deceiving strength...he can operate on his own up front, leading the line and holding the ball up for others, and equally he can be the skillful goalscoring partner in a little and large partnership. He is a very competitive individual and whoever is marking him is going to have their hands full for the 90 (might be carrying an injury into this game though so maybe he'll be subbed off, the sooner the better). Despite winning all 3 of our games so far and defending stoutly in each of them we could introduce Federico Fernandez to the starting line up in this game....'twould be a baptism of fire. Amat has been top class so far, would be interesting to see how he would cope against Costa also. From the limited views I've had of Fernandez I would say that he is better in the air than Amat and more comfortable with the ball at his feet also. Amat is tenacious, disciplined and solid in the tackle....a real 'no prisoners' sort of defender. Will be interesting to see how Fernandez compares. Can the fresher Fernandez get on top of a ginger, hampered, Costa? Will he rise to the occasion? Or will Amat continue his remarkable start to the season? Will Costa prove to be just too good? Cahill vs Gomis (or Bony)- I imagine Cahill will take our front man and Terry will sweep up (don't watch them enough to be sure however). I happen to believe Cahill is a very good defender who is just going to get better (....I must confess, I didn't rate him so highly at Bolton, I was wrong there) and will not give our centre forward an easy ride. I suspect Gomis will start for us up front as Bony has played 2 games this International break, getting back on Thursday, whereas Gomis has been in Swansea training the whole time. Gomis has looked very competent so far. In his cameos defenders have seemed very wary of him. He competes well in the air, has good strength, a good touch, is prepared to run at defenders with the ball at his feet (quicker than Bony) and his CV shows that he knows where the net is. He is due a start soon and today would be perfect for him. If I was Terry and Cahill I wouldn't want to see Bony coming off the bench on the hour mark either. Can Gomis out muscle Cahill or Terry? Can he find some space in the box when we inevitably have our good spells? If he can be clinical we will have a chance of a massive upset. Ki vs Fabregas. Fabregas has been instrumental in Chelsea's great start and is a player we know creates and scores goals on a regular basis in the Prem. He is likely to start in the no.10 role and it is crucial that we keep a grip on him. This is usually the Leon role but today the reponsibility will fall on Ki. Ki has made a great start to the season so far. He has displayed his usual elegance on the ball and played some lovely crisp forward passes which Siggy has been thriving off. Crucially, he has also shown willing to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in....he's shown a little more discipline so far also, maintaining his deep position and keeping the shape of the team, as well as tracking his runner. This is a big game for Ki. IMO whether a result is possible for us depends on Ki's shackling of Fabregas. If we can keep possession well and Ki gets on the front foot we will see some good football from us. Gylfi Siggurdsson vs Matic Siggy has been top class and is playing with confidence. He can't stop creating and scoring goals at the moment and is delivering lovely set pieces (can Fernandez get on the end of one of them?). He has been finding a lot of space and both Ki and Shelvey have been finding him. Siggy has also shown a tremendous work ethic so far (one of his failings under Rodgers) winning us back ball we had no right to (Michu-esque). Today though he will find 2 defensive midfielders who will be trying to deny him that space in Ramires and Matic. Matic is the one who impresses me most. He is a big strong unit that is very comfortable at centre-half and a giant in the midfield. On top of his obvious physical attributes Matic can also play. Siggy is probably not going to be met with firmer tackles this season and doesn't stand a chance with balls to his head and chest...Matic will just bulldoze him. He will have Matic or Ramires up his arse all afternoon trying to shut down the space. The key to Siggy getting an edge here is good ball coming into his feet and good quick 1 touch passing in that area. Matic's weakness is his mobility over short distances. We need that ball pinging around him like a pinball in the final 3rd. Schurrle vs Taylor (or Tiendalli) A big worry for me is Schurrle. He is a very, very good player. Strong, direct, quick, good technique and a goalscorer. He is going to be a threat against any team in any game down that Chelsea right-hand side....and it just so happens that our left-back, Neil Taylor has been our weakest performer...so far. He needs a very big game here, and a large slice of luck. Should we go with Tiendalli instead? Or even Jazz?
