Fair enough. I would agree that the top 2 (so far) seem pretty much 'set in stone' in United and City, but if we keep playing well I don't see why 3rd should be out of our reach. Chelsea have been very average so far this season, and were lucky to get all 3 points against WBA and Norwich. They could easily be sitting on 3-5 points right now.
The right description, and it's both Mereiles' selling point and his shortcoming. He's decent at nearly all aspects of the midfield game, but there's always someone in our squad who is better at each individual aspect of Raul's game. He would be a good squad player this year as he can fit in several positions in the midfield and plays the game in the style you want to watch as a fan, but he's often found wanted in games where it's a real battle. £12mil for a player of his age and who would never be in our first choice 11 is a decent deal. We may sign a replacement in January but providing we don't have an injury crisis i don't expect we'll notice he's gone.
plus with mereiles gone it means jonjo shelvey may get more time on the pitch and i have high hopes for him
In my opinion, he's Mereiles replacement, okay he doesn't have as much experience, but he's effectively the same type of player.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–12_Chelsea_F.C._season#Summer_2 There you go. Only ones that were slightly significant were Zhirkov, Borini and Mancienne.
just wanted to know, the sky sports thing showed they had a bit of a clearout, but it seems to be fringe players. Cheers
Tbh I'm shocked they've spent over £140m since January, yet there's no real improvement in their squad (IMO)
my opinion is the same. They don't seem more of a threat. if anything they seam weaker as lampard, drogba, terry etc. have just grown older
my point exactly. Not having a dig but with so much investment you shouldnt be struggling to put away Stoke(it wasnt even a cold winters night), WBA and Norwich.
Most Liverpool fan's are too blinkered to see how poor Adam really is. Lets wait until his giving the ball away and glory balls start costing us goals
I think we need to wait and see how (if at all) AVB puts his "mark" on Chelsea. Thus far he doesn't seem to have changed the tactics from the ones they used under Ancelotti, which weren't that much different from how they used to play under Mourinho. Could be he's just sticking with what works whilst he builds a new system that will actually use the talents of Mata, Romeu and Lukaku. I'd say let's wait and see how all signings perform in real tests until we judge them. None of the putative top four have really faced a stern test this season - both Spurs and Arsenal were in disarray when taken apart by City, Utd and Liverpool. I think it'll be the end of October, when the more challenging games have been played, before we'll really be able to judge how good the business done by all the clubs really is.
No. He won PFA Fans player of the year When did Meireles last play 90 minutes of club football?? anyone with half a brain will tell you that our midfield has improved and forgive if i'm wrong didn't we beat you (twice) stuff utd, we're unlucky against Arsenal (Reina Blooper) and stuff Man City last season? I've also noticed you have mentioned Barca & Madrid? We may not beat those clubs but we'd give it a better go than any other english team have recently
