Is a Change in the Wind?

the situation is pretty complex...Rafa has not convinced me that we'll make top 4 with him at the helms...yesterday's was good...we had clear chances which we dint convert and I tot Foster was fantastic...but the nervy end that has come to characterize our play since tubby has been in charge causing us to drop vital points against small teams still persists...we have cech to thank yesterday cos the result could have been different...and tubby subs were all wrongly timed and does make me question tubby's overall philosophy and understanding of this team...clearly I dont think our dropping points is only as a result of fatigue and loss of concetration by players alone, it has a lot more to do with tubby's selections, how tubby sets up the team and the timing and quality of the substitutions he makes...if cech had not made that reflex save yesterday, we would have said the players should take a look at themselves as they are professionals and cant hold on to a one goal lead against brom..forgetting that prior to that time..the timing of tubby substitutions as well as personnel changes were mostly wrong...our next four matches are crucial for me...Fulham, Westhamm, Soton and Sunderland...up until 6th april...we should take maximum 12 points from those not even 10 points will be acceptable...if the board thinks tubby cant achieve this and capello can...the sack will be good...and if they wanta give him time hoping somehow his head will function properly and he will get things right for the remaining matches, then they might wanta keep him in charge...whatever happens, the jury will always be out on Rafa benitez...he needs to get his s.hit straight for the sake of his career and our top 4 finish ambitions..'ll look on with hope.

Capello???....Dat wud be a very big mistake...He's a gud coach and all but to take over Chelsea with about 20 games to go(+ FA cup and Uefa Europa) isnt acceptable at all...whats d worst dat can hapun???...We lose both cups and dont qualify for the UCL next season?...I'm sure we'll win a cup and qualify as 3rd

Absolutely! I would take him over Rafa any day. A man of discipline and fairly respected by the English lads including our own captain. A little bit of harmony is what we need right now. We know how the media tend to feed on baseless rumours,but I hope there are little crumbs of truth in this one.

Talented coach. We need proper experience to knock some sense into the board. The best thing about older coaches is that they have been their and done it.

Lampard controlled himself and did not venture forward on every single occasion against West Brom and that is why they was not a single counter attack by West Brom, hope he does that more often, his tackling was goo too as I slate him normally.---------------We need players in the pivot who can pass the ball first time Forward not side ways or backwards, can put thru/defence splitting balls to Ba, who can win 2nd balls---------------- We need a winger who can put first time crosses in, that can atleast beat the first defender, whose final balls are top quality---------------Biggest thing for me is: We need to play One touch footy close/in the opposition's 18 yard box, we take 2,3,4 touches, all of the players do that, If we play one touch footy close to the box or in the box it will give opposition defenders less time to move and they WILL make mistakes, this is why our play looks DISJOINTED, players are not sure where the other person is, there is a lack of understanding, Rafa needs to work on this in the training, that is if he is still there by the end of next week-------------Moses needs to work on his final balls, Azpi was lucky not to score an own goal and did not venture forward that much.

@Layorh, you aptly echoed my thoughts on this,even with extra.

There is no way we'll play man utd, spurs, liverpool and get anything from those games with the way we have been playing since the beginning of the year.

Yeah.Terry and he are great pals.He will have everyone's support.Get him please.I want RAfa to get sacked.That can only happen if we lose games.But at this stage,we cannot afford to lose.@Desmond,I think we'll win at Old Trafford in the League.It is on 5th May.League will be wrapped by then.Fergie will play the youngsters.

The chances of capello coming to chelsea for a 2months reign is less than 10%. This rumour is just the handiwork of lazy journos. Keeping chelsea in the news sells for them. Hindink came then cos roman was the one that brought him to russia and was paying his wages with the hope that he would help then qualify for world cup 2010. That isnt the case with capello's appointment. Sack rafa and put holland in charge, he wont be any worst than the s.hit rafa is dishing out for us. The unity rafa's sack would bring to the dressing room and the 100% support and backing from the SB faithfuls would see us through to top 4. But should rafa remain in charge, i am sorry but the odds is that we wont make it. We would just chock when it matters most, cos our last 5 fixtures involves playing spurs, liverpool, man utd and everton.

Its a real problem....On one hand, for Capello to come in would be another major PR issue with the Chelsea hating press going crazy...Also how would another managerial change affect the younger players???? On the other hand...I have no confidence in Rafa...none...his player selections and substitutions are just crazy...He continues to play a combination of Mikel/Ramires/Lampard in the pivot which is an acknowledged disaster IF the other team presses our midfield. Ramires can't pass and Lampard can't defend..Furthermore, Lampard is never is position to defend as he is always caught up out of position. This allows the opposition to easily counter attack....I believe Capello would instantly command respect and would be able to motivate the team..However, it would also mean the end to Torres as he has been sheltered by Rafa....My gut says we would have a better chance to finish in the top 4 with Capello...I see continued risks with Rafa..too many issues with Rafa...Terry/Rafa...Fans/Rafa...Roman would have to accept the PR disaster to sack Rafa...You know the english press would go crazy about not giving Rafa enough time to finish the job...Then, if by chance Capello doesn't deliver a top 4 finish the press will forever bash Chelsea...The Chelsea hating press would have a field day...So...it is a big risk to Roman...I would prefer to go with Capello but it will be a PR disaster.

Who cares what the press thinks? CFC is a hated club and sacking an unpopular, supremely dismal manager for doing a poor job isn't going to make public perception any better or worse. Frankly, I'm amazed Benitez is still in the job, and I can only attribute it to a lack of options. My concern isn't with what anyone thinks; I do worry about how another change would impact the players. I don't know how they'd react, and I believe it's worth considering that a change may backfire and destabilize the players' confidence. Or it may not. I want Tubby out, but not if the squad suffers. It is crucial we make the top four.

But we are* and @radio, I share the same views, sack the fatso bear the consequences, the press will have a field day of calling our players mediocre players if we don't make top 4

Cant you guys see past the Rafa issue??? Get over it and support him and the team for the rest of the season...Come what may , he is gone! It may just make the difference between making a top 4 position or not! Next season we can start afresh with either Capello or Mourinho with some confidence from our current squad and our potential new players. We need to put stability abover any other issue. If you want to bare your teeth and keep your grip on the bone (Rafa) ... fine , but expect to drop out of the top 4.

Spuds 2 Arsenal 0

If only arsenal can get a draw!

Just back from the game,it was terrific to see Rafa quieten the boo boys. If we took our chances it could have been six.

@desmond i cant giving up that 3rd spot. I think they will finish 3rd cos their run-in games are less difficult than ours. They are defensively far better than they were earlier in the season. So even with a 5points advantage over arsenal, we would still a big degree of consistency to beat then to 4th.

@akamz, we could have avoided this cats and dog fight if rafa haven't been a complete idiot, but that is for another day, if we beat spurs we'll be topping them with a point and we'll see what they'll play against city and pool, that spurs midfielders are combative and I don't see know how we'll accomodate mata in the team, moses can deal with walker (who is their weakest link), while hazard's trickery can deal with assou ekoto, now I don't know who we will use in the middle, but we should not make the mistake of playing lamps in that game, spurs are way too fast, very fast when u give lennon and mickey mouse too much pace, if we are on form, we'll beat them comfy. But if rafa is still our gaffer then, we'll find it hard, very hard to beat them

fulham,west ham,southampton,sunderland win all these then we have spurs at home. If we dare dream and win all of these which lets be reasonable it should be totally doable then 3rd would be ours as spurs have a harder run and so does arsenal! the only thing to worry about is rafa benitez and his ability to get this team to win 5 games in a row,well 6 if you count WBA! capello i would take tomorrow if it could happen. the thing is if it is to happen it has to happen now,not in 2/3 weeks once we are struggling even more and looking like we are falling away. another thing that would come from having capello is that JT loves him and capello stuck up for terry over england and basically lost that job over it! so we would know JT would give this manager his full backing and i guess that would then bounce around the whole squad and we might just see the team pushing that little bit harder. but with all that said i still think rafa will be with us till seasons end,unless we do go into free fall.

A three man Oscar, Ramires and Luiz midfield would sort out Spurs. A front three of Hazard, Ba and Mata would good enough to beat them.

Spurs are clearly not kidding around..these guys mean business. I dont like our chances against them at Stamford Bridge because let us not forget when we beat them earlier this season, Bale and Dembele were not in that squad and they are on a high while we are floundering. For our sakes we better be ahead of them with a significant points margin because if not, by the time we face them i have no faith in us defeating them if we need to to ensure a 3rd BPL position. As regards Capello...i doubt if he will come..i remember after AVB was fired he was contacted to serve as interim manager till summer and he famously told Roman that "Capello does not do interim" It will have to take something special to convince him to spend 2 mths of his valuable time to bail us out but if we are going to do this we need to do this asap..we are running out of games and once the Gunners get kicked out of the champions league by Bayern this coming week they will suddenly have no other schedule pressures other than the BPL and trust me it will have an impact..they will get better.

If we put on our scorin boots on the day then we would beat spuds

Hi Guys, I don't wish to gloat at your predicament and would never do so, although I do think it's self inflicted. I have to chuckle at the confidence shown here, (confidence or wishful thinking?) with comments similar to "we can beat spuds comfortably". Spuds are not 3rd in PL for no reason, they must be doing something right. Anyway, good luck for the run in. (except against spurs. :-) )

"If this happen then I'll think someone at chelsea is taking a peek at some comments on VC, I believe I wrote a comment in the same line about a coupla weeks ago..." <--- yes, Roman read your comment and now he wants Capello for the job... :)

@lamarochs i disagree to an extend. did u see hw many times spurs lost the ball in their midfield. because arsenal was pressing continuously since arsenal dont have a striker like RVP they couldn't convert the chances. first half typical arsenal having all the possession and chances but no goals but conceded 2. even though spurs and AVB should be credited in this position but if rafa had good tactical vision we could have won some easy games which he bottled which allowed spurs to catch. Spurs is not that special. if we can press like what we did against arsenal and west brom we can get 3 points.

@arun, I noticed the same thing, their team is not as strong as I thought, their pivot of dembele and scot parker is very tight, but we can break them down if we have quality passers in the midfield, clive walker is one of their weak links, he is mostly brawn than brains, a strong skillful player like moses can take care of him if he hits a fine form "easily", assou ekoto is more difficult to beat, but a player like hazard would do the business, where I am worried about is the band of three in the middle, I believe as someone said a 3 of rammy/mikel,luiz and oscar will get the job done....

Or when we go 5th in the table.

....a strong skillful player like moses can take care of him if he hits a fine form "easily"...Joke of the day LoL Moses "strong skillful"?? Maybe for the Afcon LoL

well said SAMEX and I'm confident we'll beat Spurs @ the bridge especially if we play the manner we played vs Arsenal and most recent West Brom (ironically under Rafa) we need to press higher up the pitch, although Mata, Hazard, Oscar can't defend effectively they should pressure the opposition into making mistakes

After Saturday's match it got me thinking: why revert to 4-3-2-1 formation, when defending, in the following order from left to right: Cashley, Cahill, Iva, Azpi at defense, Luiz, Mikel, Ramires being the "CM" 3, Hazard and Mata playing behind Ba. When attacking, Hazard moves wide (LW) and Ramires moves to CAM (he can't cross so it's unwise playing him out side imo) and Mata moves towards the RW (he can cross better than most, and is good on the counter). That way, we'll still benefit from Ramires' box to box abilities but still retain a "healthy" pivot of Luiz and Mikel, players who don't venture as forward often.

@MQ I dont also care, Capello or Rafa, its the players that matter, they should fight for top 4, even If the likes of Marin, Paulo, Ake, Yossi, Turnbull start against ManU @Old trafford, they should fight to win, defend together, keep the shape and attack together. Players dont become crap overnight, when you look @our games against Sunderland, Arsenal, and Westbrom, it was all down to the players. They played with so much passion & hunger, they played like they wanted the 3 points. Thats all that matters. I dont care who plays in the #10 role, we can win without Mata If we play our hearts out.

Personally, I am glad there is some daylight between 4th and 5th position. Let Arsenal fade into mediocrity.

@ForeverChels i am also glad that spuds won yesterday. With our shaky form and rafas tinkering problems i dont care whether its a 3rd or 4 th place. We must put some serious divide between us and the 5th place before our tough run of fixtures after the sunderland game.

I dont know if im barking up the wrong tree here but has jose changed his ideas on playing youth players- hes put a lot of faith in Varane and morata over this season when he could have easily stuck to the tried and trusted. if we did get him back would he do the same with Lukaku, de bruyne, piazon, ake, josh, chalobah, courtois- he's exceptional at man management so he could keep them happy. if so id love him back. But of course its not up to me, and if truth be told he will be off after 3 years and of course roman wil ahve to want him back. Looking at the papers in france it seems his agent has met with roman on several occasions and would prefer a return to us. Im not saying this will happen, but i know weve all said that Jose isnt the best at playing and developing youth players, but i look at the Varane and morata example and think maybe hes change his tune.

It is not just about the players setting their hearts out. Watch Rafa set us up for counter-attacking against Spurs at the Bridge......

Like ForeverChels I'm happy that there is a bit of daylight between 4th and 5th. No offence to the gooners but they with their 60 thousand plus stadium and expensive ticket prices can afford to finish outside the top 4. We simply can't and between them and the Spuds I'd say they are a bigger threat. So sorry gooners but I say better you than me.

No use of sackiing Rafa...If We drop to 5th, it is always better to take a year off Champions league, atleast we will understand our shortcoming and rectify it....If we end up playing CL next year without sorting our deficiency in team, we will have another bad season...why go for short term fix...atleast from now, lets not rush onto decisions...Wait till summer, evaluate ur team and its position, decide on the future course, appoint the right manager, give him plenty of time....

I dont want Capello now at chelsea...Infact anyother manager at chelsea...I wish we finish 5th, out of CL...Financially, we wont get much affected, as next year we are getting the new PL money much more than CL money...but if we finish on 5th, we can concentrate playing good football in PL with first team members, COC, FACup, EL with youngsters....but we need a good manager with clear thoughts.

@Blue1989 Very good examination. He is incredible at motivating and bringing players confidence out. Drogba thanked mourinho for this stating mourinho once said ''with you i could win any battle'' hopefully he can make LUKAKU a superstar too

I reiterate that the spuds team are spankable, if and only if we get it right

@desmond the formation will be 4-2-3-1 since tubby being tubby he wont change that. but what he has to change will the pivot players. Lampard is big no for me. what chelsea has to do to counter attack. as both of their(spurs) full backs will always be other half and we have acres of space to exploit and if we have BA then it will not be easy for their CB to handle. i would use MAZACAR but since bale is super form i would deploy moses who has the pace and tracks back well. so my dilemma would be whether to include mata in line up because the way oscar work for the team i have to make a sacrifice but the way mata is scoring goals esp in london derby i dont what to do. what is ur opinion @des ?????

Or Cech Paulo-Terry-Cahill-Ryan Mikel-Lamps Hazard-Oscar-Marin T9

SameX - Your argument is ridiculous. You say spurs are 3rd because Chelsea didn't do this and that. Well by the same token I could say that if spurs had won all their draws and losses they would be top of the table, lol. If's and but's are irrelevant. The real reason spurs are third is because they scored more points than Chelsea - simple. Further, you talk of strikers, spurs are also short of a good striker. Too dependant on Bale, and "if" he gets injured? Not true, he was out injured for a period but it didn't affect results. Your arguments are all "If's", and if's don't score points on the pitch.

well said hot spurs. no ifs or buts. the table don't tell lies. spurs we better than us this season and we can only have ourselves to blame for this. If the board had persisted with RDM we would not have been having this issues now. Even the AVB we discarded as not good enough is showing he can cut it at the highest level and it might be karma that his team is now 3rd on the table and doing well. Kudos to tottenham and their players for imbibing his philosophy and going all out to support there coach even thru difficulties. can't say the same for our players and board.

Good to see some sense coming from a Sp*rs fan, thanks Hot_Spur for a sensible opposition perspective on our site. My personal opinion is that I can't see Chelsea beating any half decent side right now. That's not to say we won't beat ManYoo or Sp*rs, you never know in football but I don't have any of the optimism I have had going into big games in recent years. We are struggling enough with the lesser sides so I just don't see where any optimism is coming from, under Rafa I find it hard to see anything other than a defeat to Sp*rs. Much as it pains me to say it, I'd take 4th behind Sp*rs right now like a shot if offered! What I would say, however, is that Sp*rs are only just ahead of us and have been doing very well, pretty much playing to their maximum potential. They are also heavily reliant on one, albeit exceptional, player in Bale. Chelsea on the other hand, are just behind whilst playing well below their capability and less reliant on any one individual (though I shudder to think where we'd be without Mata to be fair!). Sp*rs are third on merit right now, no question but put someone in charge at Chelsea who actually knows what they are doing and I still think we are some way ahead of Sp*rs. No point talking in those terms though, fact is they are 3rd and we are 4th and we are looking over our shoulders rather than up the table as it should be. We were 5 points behind ManYoo when this idiot took charge. Gosh, you're right Rafa, we really are so lucky to have you, I didn't want to challenge for trophies anyway!

Change or no change...Just we make top4 is priority, who "leads" us there is trivial really

The big problem with Chelsea right now is the ball movement - we ove the ball far too slow. As brilliant Mata is he sometimes kills other players because his ball movement is focused on himself. He should not e played on the right or as a winger as he is not a winger. He is always cutting inside and ends up passing backwards. To be honest there are games when the coach subs Hazard instead of Mata. Compare Mata to Lennon - they play pretty mch same position but Lennon does a better job. The key to beating Spurs is not playing Torres. I think at the moment Oscar is our best player!!!!

BlueFortune I think the key to beating ANY team is to not play Torres. I find it baffling how a guy who was once probably the best striker in the world, can become so ineffective.