Match Day Moments - Southampton (h)

Rafael Benitez is not the only one who has grown exasperated by continued discussion of Frank Lampard’s future, but one point merits repetition. Chelsea’s decision to release him cannot be purely economic, as the club’s contradictory treatment of his team-mate Florent Malouda demonstrates. Like many politicians football clubs often seek to have it both ways, claiming to be acting out of principle when it suits them, yet equally content that their hands have been forced by economic circumstances when it does not. Chelsea’s contrasting approach to Lampard and Malouda represent a case in point. It is not widely known, but after winning the Champions League and before heading to the European Championship last summer Malouda asked to be released from the final year of his contract at Chelsea to pursue the final years of his career elsewhere. The France international stated that he did not want a penny of the money owed to him, thus potentially saving £5million to a club eager to cut their wage-bill, but Chelsea refused. Malouda was told that he would not be permitted to leave for free, and that the club wanted a fee of £10m, which as he pointed out seemed somewhat unrealistic for a 32-year-old in the final year of his contract, particularly given Chelsea had only paid £13.5m for him six years earlier. Intriguingly these negotiations were conducted by Marina Granovskaia, Roman Abramovich’s PA, who is increasingly influential at Stamford Bridge. Malouda responded that in the light of the club’s excessive demands he would happily see out the final year of his contract, since which Chelsea have made little effort to shift him. He is highly unlikely to move on during this month either, not due to greed or a lack of ambition, but because his children are settled in London schools and he is concentrating on getting as fit as possible in the hope of finding a new club in the summer. “A 12-month pre-season, the best of my life,” is how he has described his current activities. Malouda has not been seen since Euro 2012, with Chelsea banishing him to the reserves, hardly a pragmatic response to a delicate contractual stand-off with a player who helped them to win the Champions League, particularly as their squad has been short of midfield players all season. Despite this shortage, which was noted by Rafael Benitez as soon as he took the job in November, there is no way back for Malouda, with the club sticking with the line that he will not be called upon and that no players will be permitted to leave for free. His exile is such, that when asked recently whether the arrival of Benitez could make a difference, Malouda replied that he had not even met the Spaniard. Chelsea have continued to pay him handsomely however, despite coming nowhere near kicking a ball competitively, an approach which jars with club’s supposed economy drive. If Chelsea are willing to pay Malouda £100,000-a-week to do nothing then Lampard’s £150,000-a-week wage demands are something of a bargain.

Pep signs 3 year deal to manage Bayern Munich. Will he ever manage a club that can beat Chelsea?

Thanks so much for this update and info Cobham..i have been saying for some time that something is definetly rotten in the management hierachy at chelsea but some persist with this blind hero worship of Roman and his amigos. Anyway i have now adopted a wait and see approach. In other news it now appears that Peps destination this summer has been decided and it is to bayern munich. I now owe my two Catalan friends an expensive dinner within the next month because they both assured me that Pep is not motivated by money and swore that the only possible big money destination he could end up at would be city. they were rock certain he would never take a job at Chelsea or PSG or Anzhi and they were right. Hopefully this stern rebuke of roman and his amigos will give them something to think about regarding how to and how not to manage a football club..one can only hope they begin to get a clue.

If we can't lure Jose, you all better start warming to Rafa. He may be the only guy left in this world that would actually want to work for Roman.

If that info from Matt Hughes in the Times right, THEN we are seriously in trouble in this club!!!!!!!

I just read the Pep to Bayern....I laughed so hard I fell off my seat...pretty embarrassing in an office environment, but I am still laffing....Pep just earned my utmost respect....his decision clearly shows an ability to think carefully without being confused...for me irrespective of whether he does well or not...Bayern is by far the best club for him....chelsea which way froward now?...and from this point onwards..things get really interesting....m having fun!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. PEPS GONE BAYERN!

Im very glad pep went to bayern, I never wanted him at chelsea. Yhis is good news.

Great news, I never wanted Pep at Chelsea.>>>>If we loose Rafa/Jose we will get someone else, you don't have to be a CL winner to be considered a top coach, don't worry we will get some other decent coach. Maybe he chickened out of EPL cause he knows he can't cut the mustard here.

@rADIOACTIVE, READ cOBHAMbLUE'S first post in this thread on MALOUDA!!!!!

However i cant find the game on sky sports espn or itv or bbc...wtf?

Pep has joined Bayern. This has made my day. Some of the Pep lovers will cry a river now. Stage is set for Mourinho to come back to Bridge. This is good.

WE DON'T NEED MOURINHO !!!! it's too much trouble he may win the treble and then leave we need stability

WOW, so the Pep destination is confirmed and kudos to the man. I have to say I am glad in many respects, but does this help the Roman situation. Pep might have been the only man that RA would hand over full control to. So what now? Tubby stays? please nooooo! Never! A swap of mangers with Real Madrid, now that would be very intriguing, but somehow I don't see Roman employing Jose again. Roman will still be smarting from Pep's slap in the face, will he even entertain the thought of Jose? WOW, this is gonna get interesting.

Any ideas on channel in uk?

next chelsea manager= joachim low! peace

Roman will never hand control to anyone. Not even Pep.

Ba starts!!!!

Cech; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Lampard; Oscar, Mata, Hazard; Ba

@layorh, what is the time of the match? Isn't it starting 8:45pm?..... I hope we win!!! Strongest possible lineup we have now

Do any of you seriously think Low will leave the Germany post preceding a World Cup year? This isn't rocket science.

@Desmond...now there is evry possibility Tubby starts FT9 on sunday with BA starting today.....i hope tubby does not kill our hopes...ft9 should be a perpetual back up...imo

When was the last time Matt Hughes wrote anything good about CFC?? *sighs*

Truth is,Roman needs to take a foot off the pedal a bit. Believe it,there is little to enjoy in result at all cost in a chaotic atmosphere. Even if it means winning just a single trophy in every two years with peace and stability,imo,it will be much more enjoyable. The over-ambition and sheer desperation in Cfc should give way for a more rational approach of handling the club's affairs. There were several laurels and glory other clubs boasted of before that we didnt have in our shelf that we do have now,but the only thing we fall short of when compared to most clubs is just organizational stability. That should be our utmost priority as it guarantees us half of the other things we crave,such as club philosophy,tradition/orientation,youth development,style,and ofcos trophies. We have done it in some ways in the past and have seen the pros and cons,why not we do it differently from now onwards. Shall we? My two cents,as some may say.

I'm not quite sure the article makes any sense. Why does the way we've treated Malouda mean the first factor governing our actions isn't economic? We tried to sell Malouda before letting him go, which surely is just what any club acting for economic reasons would do. When other clubs decide they don't want a player, they sell him, they don't just let him go for nothing - why should we be any different? If clubs just gave players away even when both parties wanted out, no one would ever buy them. Malouda's contract wasn't over, so we had a right to try and sell him; Lampard's is running out, so we have a right not to extend it. While I disagree with this decision in particular, I don't really understand what Matt Hughes is saying when he says these actions represent contradictory or hypocritical behavior.

A strong line up it is as we are about to get on the way. A win 4 me.

Anyways.....Back to game......DEMBA bA WILL Score tonight.....No dreams. Saw it when I was taking a nap in the bathroom during break this afternoon. Only 1 goal was what I saw...

thank god pep has signed for someone else now we can go for frank rijkaard the mastermind behind barcas revival... Any news on the youth team they are playing tonight arent they

S'oton trying to rest Lambert and Ramirez. OK Thanks S'oton, we'll just thrash you again. But you won't get as far as conceding a goal to FT9.

ITS NOT ON IN THE UK. ANYONE OVERSEA'S HAVE A LINK TO VIEW?? PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!

Thought Luke Shaw was ruled out of the game. Oscar is losing touch of his composure. Enough of those benching please.

Our DM is crap with Lampard always running forward and not helping Ramires in any form.

This place is kinda dry

Ramires passing is awful!!!!!! We are so predictable.......

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I told you he was going to SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't imagine, this place is so ******** dry.

Pep should have gone to Arsenal. Instead he took the easy ride at Bayern.

Ah, the joy o seeing a striker who can finish and score goals out o nothing.

Anyone getting live coverage in Mumbai, India ? On YouScod ? Which channel ?

The ref is a cheat!!! I despise this english refs, why is everything so fecked with them?

wat a BA we have

I agree that lampard is misplacing his passes today and gloryhunting, he should pass more often

FFS, Chelsea should Fecking play their game, what is all this unnecessary Soto'n possession for. Chelsea shouldn't strain our defence O!

Eden Magic Hazard. GOLASOOOO

Goal Hazard, 2-0 Chelsea

Hazard and ba are the only spark we have upfront today, oscar's talents is being ruined by playing him on the wing, he must have regretted not going to spurs who don't have a creative 10 by now, and thank God we did not stat our stripper today, if we did we'll be losing by now

where is everyone? Hellooooo, Anyone here?we are 2 goals up! can anyone read this?

GOLAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

dnt know what is wrong with chelsea coaches, when they make sensible decision, tomorrow they stupid decision. hope Rafa dnt make stupid on sunday against Arsenal.

Does anyone know how our U18 are doing? They are currently playing in the fa youth cup fourth round away to charlton. Would just like to know what the score is.

Guys , try this link tho and see http://www.atdhenet.tv/59034/watch-chelsea-vs-southampton

Like I said.. Our formation is only as good as the arrow head we have right at the tip of the formation.. He gives direction to the whole team.. Torres have failed and you all can see how much difference it made with Ba.... Maybe TOress has been the problem from the beginning .

Oscar should move into the pivot with lampard and ramires to the wings for better ball retention and distribution. Marin to come in around 65 mins for ramires.

check 101greatgoals website for goals. both goals are fabulous.

Oh fudge.

No problem man..atleast its something ..

To think rafa will still go with this team against arsenal and he can't change anybody, the players are getting tired and we need fresh legs, lampard and mata out and bring in marin and terry, with luiz going to the pivot since we are leading, and oscar as the no.10, screw the damn ref

I Mata has long term injury, then our season's over.

Has this refree lost his cards or his mind??? That was an absolute stonewall card offence for yoshida

I was expecting that goal, stupid coach.... Very stupid man

WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS TO ME CHELSEA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remove Lampard for God sake he is more concern about his goal scoring rather than doing his primary duty in the pivot role.

Luke shaw is class

Itz getting really ugly....where will the light come from

This is why we're never even in the title race any more. Collapses like this might happen to Man Utd 1-2 times a season total. They happen to use 10-12 times a season

Cant believe this guy! Simply cant! The same thing he did at liverpool. Perform well in tough games and lose to small teams! I wont be too surprised if we lose this game!!!

Erm lads...checked score at halftime and prepared to get an early night...juat as im driftong off thought will have another look. 2-2?!?! Wtf happened lol

wake up people the season is already over...

Must this coach wait till at least 80mins to make his substitutions??? Plain stupid.

Chelsea should win this match....

See how Oscar has played in the pivot just within 10mins, this coach is fecking stupid

chelsea fans are the worst..are we gonna start insulting this guys already.. you all suddenly forgot all you said earlier..stick with your team..

We have so many problems as a club i cant even recognise what they are anymore. Were rotten to the core and its horribly upsetting. Was looking forward to making the trip back home and taking my daughter to see her first blues game...the way things are going ive lost my enthusiasm not even excited about it anymore.

every time Torres touches the ball its wasted lol.... :X

cant believe i wasted my time watching this... ***** off

I know you all will put the blame on Torres. Fickle fans.

can't believe it :( season is over .

I'll shoot any fool that asks rafa to be retained as coach, this fool, tactical nous my ass, he knows zilch, torres the fecking stripper!! And benitez all have the agenda to take chelsea down, just embarassing..

Two jokers out. Tubby and Torres.

Rafa philosophy win against a tough opponent and lose to a weaker team.

Demba should've had a hatrick no but Mr lampard wanted glory for himself again. We should ve been Atleast 4 up by half time if he passed to demba.

Season's been over as far as titles go. Did anyone honestly think we were making up 14 points on Man Utd. with how uneven we've played?

Pls di Matteo is a better manager than rafa period.

Now who will say we don't need mourinho

Just blame the loss on Torres LOLLLLLLL

hmmmmmmm, stupid squad with stupid owner and stupid manager. chelsea is really a women fellowship. why do u always keeping breaking our heart. Barca and Man utd fans are always smiling why us.

I really don't have any comment about the match,i just have a question and i'll appreciate an answer- why was Di Matteo sacked?

we wd hv won wv iva

You all can see that our entire team is decked. Torres is not the problem of Chelsea. Will be interesting to see your reactions when Demba's goals dry up. Nonsense.

Our youth team won tonight in the fa youth cup against charlton

Each bad result and all of you are looking for a scapegoat. The entire unit must perform better. Lamps is right: our standards have fallen. We are mediocre even if we have players capable of so much more than that. We're just in January and this could get ugly.

Cobham78 been banging my head against the wall asking the same question. The losses didnt hurt under di matteo. They were frustrating sure but i never lost my rag. Always was looking toward the big picture....now we dont even have a house to frame the fuicking thing

Its impossible for us to get off the media. Now those looserlists will again comment on us for 3 days.

we are team without a spine ... we doesnt have a midfield any longer ,... we need a midfielder asap .. we sell miereles , let essien go on loan , romeu injured , mikel playing in acon ,.. we need a player to fill that void ...

I felt he should have taken off Lampard for Terry at 2-1 up and Marin for Mata too. A game where we could have actually used mikel for the last 15 minutes, just to keep the ball. Fantastic run from shaw and great finish from puncheon, but we realy need to start winning at home again. sucks.

@Shaka,"Demba should've had a hatrick no but Mr lampard wanted glory for himself again. We should ve been Atleast 4 up by half time if he passed to Demba" No one is mentioning that. Torres came on when the score was already 2-2. Funny how many of the guys here are blaming him.

Oscar can become a world class deeplying playmaker. He is far better in that position than in CAM.

Cahill and Luiz should have done better for the goals, Terry should teach them some sense.

This game is a lost. We had zero playera in the pivot. Frankly ramires should neva play in the pivot again. He was hopeless from start to finish and Lampard had a off game today. Didn't contribute anything meaninful to the team at all. He was more interested in running into the box to score and both he and ramires left gapping hole in the middle. We could not control the game in the midfield and lost. Rafa made some very stupid mistakes in the lineup and subs. David Luiz shld have started in the middle of the park or moved there in the second half and terry brought on to get game time crucial foe hiis fitness against arsenal. It was also obvious that we lack quality depth iin our team to replace oscar, mata and hazard. I did not even expect to see the trio today but inspite of them we lost the game. Surely RDM would hv done better than this

Mentally it seems the players now see playing at SB like playing at away. can't wait for the league to finish.

please i will like to get an answer.Is mikel really the problem of chelsea's pivot,is rafa a good coach,don't you guys think we need mourinho,bcos benitez has a low mentallity of being a champion unlike mourinho who is always a champion.

lampard lost us a game again.he is selfish and no creativity.we need benat capour or mbia.what syhit is that mdfld doing.

Not a clue what Rafa was thinking with this one tonight. Luiz is absolutely wasted at CB and if i'm brutally honest doesn't have that defensive instinct to spot danger when it comes. Lampard had a poor game tonight (and fans still boo when he's taken off) and Ramires hasn't got the ability to play the pivot role. He's not a good enough passer. It should have been Iva-Cahill, Cahill-Terry or Iva-Terry at the back with Luiz helping pulling the strings in the middle. I'm afraid to say its a vicious cycle at Chelsea Football Club at the moment. Its blatantly obvious Benitez isn't wanted at the Bridge but some fans really don't help the team booing all the time creating a hostile atmosphere in the process. I suppose Chelsea have been a successful club the past 10 years whilst chopping and changing their manager but I think what we're seeing at the moment is a result of uncertainty and a lack of continuity at the football club these past 2 years. Moving forward as a club both Benitez and Torres have to go (for the fans sake) and the signing of a deep lying playmaker is essential. The next manager has to be given time to build this team (even if it means getting rid of the stronger characters who were responsible for the sacking of AVB). Stability is key for the club and patience is also needed by fans. Doubt it will happen though (its why Guardiola chose not to manage you guys).

i don't see any body blaming mikel for this horrible point drop.

I tuned in at half time and saw it coming, 2 0 up and just kicking the ball around aimlessly, showing no desire to score again, allowing the opposition to gain confidence with no threat to their goal. SAME OLD S*IT!

Blue1989, yes Capello would have been the much sensible appointment. But I guess he did not accept the role as interim manager.

I am under the impression that Capello was willing to take up the role at the beggining of the season for 1 year. RDM was right to be given a chance, but as soon as he went fabio should have been in.

women fellowship club

The only consolation I have right now is that we are still 3rd but we must beat arsenal on sunday

What has Benitez actually done, the only reason why he's our manager is because he's been told to do what he did in 2005, get Torres scoring goals because we can see he's not actually the same player, fact! He's ruined oscars early fine form, fact! I don't think we've got better defensively at all, fact. Makes subs in the 79th minute, and then they are wrong, fact! The best thing he's done is played luiz in midfield. That's it, how can we improve. Ask the Russian fa for another favour!

I'm tired of this shyt

Very funny how people are now missing Mikel,the guy you all love to hate. Before now if we lose or draw a match it has to be Mikel's fault,now he's not there and the team is still losing. YOU DON'T VALUE WHAT YOU HAVE TILL IT'S GONE

Lol.women fellowship club

We drew, and so what? why are u all behaving like something unheard of has happened... Why some of you feel football is magic is what I don't understand... you all know we are currently struggling at SB, no wins and finding it difficult to get even a goal, do u expect that to just change over night..... we are in a difficult moment, especially at SB and it will take time for the team to regain their home confidence and swagger.... Accept that and just stop all these blame games for ones...... You guys are never tired of blaming, always finding a scapegoat....

I think the fans are the main responsible for the home form. First, all that ***** against Rafa and then the anxiety etc. etc. And what with the booing of Torres when he came on this evening. Although he took part in the build up to our goal, Lampard was really bad today and he deserved to go off even earlier. If it wasn't for his chasing of the goalscoring record, we could've been 4-0 before half time.

@pego sama what do you have to say abt the draw?considering the fact that mikel didnt play

Fickle fans ...smh

Even merlin is *****ed off that he hasnt posted the match report.lol

Stubborn coaches get sacked at CFC.

In all honesty,could RDM have done any worse??? Really??? Could he??? Im sad but secretly happy about whats going on....Roman and his cohorts are learning their lesson in a hard way but hey perhaps they arent....maybe he doesnt even care....who knows? Either way,we the fans get to suffer. Give or take,The club has made a considerable amount of money today from ticket sales and all and they dont really care,do they? We the fans always suffer for it. Even the players arent too bothered at the end of the day....no passion whatsoever,win or lose,they get paid weekly and it all goes to show why our club is currently heading for a fall! The manager has no passion for the club,how do we expect him to instil passion into the players? Torres obviously doesnt care if we win or lose,cant blame the poor guy,i actually feel sorry for him. what do we do now??questions questions....

David Luiz is way better than Lampard in that pivot.beside pass backway and sideway,he did nothing,absolutely nothing.he didn't protect the back four nor create for attacker.skinny Oscar has bigger "balls" than Lampard to hold the ball in midfield.as long as Mata is our best player so far beside Hazard,he should work for his strength seriously.he is to weak,can even got injured by soft Japanese.and Torres is completely finished.he can't get past his marker,and his shooting is even worst than Cech could do.he must go now.i already miss Moses.please sign this kid Luke Shaw.i already impressed by him during the FA Cup encounter.he will be a world class by next year...

hey...it hurts but it is a step in the right direction...at least it was not a defeat

Demba Ba must start against Arsenal. We all know how they suffer against a big and powerful striker.

*Can't wait for the Match Report, hope it speaks the truth about Lamps...LoL

The problem is rafa's favouritism, the weak link yesterday were 3 players starting from the 50th minute he ought to have made his first sub, considering the fact that we have a game coming in the weekend, he keeps using the same thing over and over again like RDM, mata was nonexistent in the game at all, he ought to remove him and use oscar in the middle, the lampard and put in marin with oscar playing 10 and cesar for iva, finishing his subs by the 75th minute and I am sure we would have won, chelseafc just suceeded in ruining oscar's glittering career by experimenting someone so young in almost 3 positions, I'll be suprised if he makes the brazilian national team squad at this rate, thankz to tubby's shortsightedness and lack of innovation. By the way, torres is not worthy to dorn the blue jersey, he is the worst chelsea player I have ever watched, bosingwa, khalid bhoularouz, del horno weren't all that great but they played with zeal, torres keeps falling and keeps playing without any spark, like a fecking zombie

Mata should take a rest after the arsenal game and he should play from the wing on that day, oscar should play the no.10, mata is tired and too weak a player to play the no.10 for now, if u doubt me watch wilshere play as arsenal's no.10 on sunday and u'll see a similarity between him and oscar and the difference between him and mata, point is we need a real presence in the middle, not someone flailing his hands or legs, we need someone who will impose himself in the middle of the park and its oscar not mata, mata needs to beef up and learn how to make tackles to win a ball or retain the ball, which if u are sincere he aint doing

We need MR abra to stop sackin managers like its a joke, its causing the team not grow. If we had a good manager thats here to stay some players will play with their hearts . Some of them dont put in enough work because they know soon the boss will be gone. This will be a different situation when the players know if they dont perform some1 will take their place . Just emagine if you were working for a company that sack managers constantly you will end up not putting in enough work because you know the next 1 i coming soon and another chance is given . With the amount of money RB has sticking to a good manager even if the team is lossing is not bad because most of the time its the players that are not cutting it and if they know come summer the manager is gona replace them they will perform to their best not the other way round . The reason why ferg team win game in game out is because their players play for their positions and they know fergi is there to stay not the other way round. Players are human beings and its our nature not to perform to our best wen they know no mata what happens the manager is the 1 that will loose thir job. onther thing some needs to teach hazard the job role of a winger please.

That'd be stability right??

with all his money am sure he understands why he hires pple to handle his money or even lawyers because they good at what they do .so as managers you hire them cause you have faith in them so let them get on with it . you always gona have a problem when the company sack managers not under performing employies . Rafa should go in summer even if he wins anything and start a new era were managers a not joke.

Please Luiz should not even go close to the DM or pivot role. Its Mikel/Ramirez, Mikel/Oscar, Mikel/Romeo/Ramires/Oscar. Luiz makes stupid risky long passes which gives possession away.

Thats because lampard who is suppose to do that is busy chattin with opposition goalie