*** City v Chelsea - Official Match Thread ***

[AG7]

8 hours to kick-off, 7 till team announcement ...

C'mon City, let's dish out a footballing lesson tonight ... and show the fucker what 21st century football really looks like.

[AG7]

[tweet]430309720046718976[/tweet]

@PremierLeague: EIGHT HOURS TO GO @MCFC have won their last eight League matches in a row, their best-ever #BPL winning run #MCICHE

[ruralblue]

Bring it on!!!! Dont think the dour bastard will park the bus and that might have been a problem then hitting us on the break. Were in for a cracking night of football and hope to fuck we go out all gun's blazing and go into the break having really set up our stall!

City 4 - chavs 1

[sheblue]

the manager, staff, players, fans everyone, absolutely everyone must be totally gunning for them...it just has to be 100% performance tonight, if we get that there is only one winner.

in the distant and not too distant past the smarmy one has behaved in a appalling manner towards pelligrini. The horrible arrogant little shit, so really want to see him getting it between the eyes tonight.
come on lads do it for the boss.

[Nigels Tackle]

2 things i want to see tonight
an early, nerve settling goal and a clean sheet

come on city!

[london blue 2]

Hart
Zab
Vinnie
Demi
Clichy
Navas
Yaya
Fernadinho
Silva
Negredo
Dzeko

COME ON CITY!

[Risby]

As long as we beat them I will be happy.

BUT, in a perfect world, I would like us to dominate the game and score at least 4 more goals than them.
If Kolorov could some how send a bullet at Maureen, that would make me feel a lot happier as well, especially with all the shitty comments he's been making about our finances.

Team wise, I would like to see Negrado and Jovetic start. Terry and Cahill will prefer two target men rather than one that can drop off and be useful with the ball.

[AG7]

Interesting pre-match chat set up by Guardian's Danny Taylor ...

Here are some interesting questions (posted by Chelsea fans) and his answers:


Hi Daniel. In your opinion, how good is Dzeko? I know that he scores almost everytime he plays, but he's clearly not as talented as Aguero, or indeed Negredo. Do you think, for example, he'd score a lot if he went to a club that didn't produce as many chances? Whenever I watch Dzeko, he seems to miss more than he scores, and he seems to squander opportunities. I'm just wondering if he were in a lower-placed, or less talented, team, say Newcastle or Manchester United, would he still score a few goals a season? Also, I've recently put him into my fantasy team and could use a bit of morale-boosting ahead of tonight. Thanks

Mourinho's reply was interesting when he was asked on Friday about which players at City had impressed him the most.

"The two midfield players have always played well, so [Yaya] Touré and Fernandinho. I think the third striker is very, very good. [Edin] Dzeko, every time he plays, plays very, very well. The wingers are good, the full-backs … they're complete, they have everything."

I wouldn't ordinarily have imagined Dzeko would be named in the top ten and it makes me wonder - and this is a huge leap of logic, I admit - whether he's thought about trying for Dzeko in the summer. Dzeko really dislikes not being a first-choice and, in a season of new harmony post-Mancini, that's been one of the few issues behind the scenes.

A personal opinion is that he's never going to be the player he wants to be at City. Aguero is better, Negredo is better - Dzeko will have purple patches and his scoring ratio is very good, but he can be careless in the extreme and it stands out in a team with this much refinement.


Good morning Daniel,
Although i hate to agree with Moh do you think its unfair how Man City and PSG seem to be bypassing FFP?

They're using every little trick to get past them and it's fairly obvious what's happening. Yet I made the point the other day there's also a lot of hypocrisy going on. The top clubs wanted to pull down the shutters and keep them out because of their own self-serving interests. Yet they just about all got to the top, in some form, because of huge expenditure of their own. In fact, show me a club in England over the last 20 or so years whose success isn't heavily aligned to money spent.

It's probably not fair what City/PSG are doing, but I'm not sure it was fair in the first place trying to exclude them from the party.

Football clubs have always benefited from rich owners, whether we like it or not. It's just a fact of football life, but in this case the top clubs wanted to keep it as a closed shop.


Hi Daniel,
In your opinion do you think Mourinho will park the bus as he did like in his away game at Arsenal or will he attempt to play a more free-flowing game?

I've always thought it gets exaggerated that Mourinho's teams are dour/unimaginative. It's not how I remember his Real Madrid, for example, or the title wins at Chelsea. But yes, obviously there have been two stand-out occasions this season when their motive has been obvious: not to get beaten.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder if tonight they might have to show a bit more adventure.

City's next six games are against Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This isn't a team that is going to drop many points between now and late-March. So this is an opportunity for Chelsea to harm them.

I also think City's one weakness is probably in defence (not a huge weakness, I know, but Demichelis has a mistake in him, for example)


As much as everyone raves about City...I do think that if Kompany and Yaya Toure got injured they'd melt back into the top 4 quickly rather than stroll away with the league...is this unreasonable? I just don't think they're as all-powerful in all positions as is mooted. Arsenal have a better midfield, definitely.

Kompany has picked up a few injuries and it does make a difference. Toure is just a machine. He rarely misses a game.

Pellegrini seems to agree with you, judging by his attempts to sign Fernando and Mangala. But I think it would a proper, full-blown injury crisis, rather than just a couple of important players, to derail them properly. Take out Toure and replace him with a more defence-minded midfielder such as Milner/Garcia/Rodwell . . it's a drop in standard obviously but it just gives Fernandinho the licence to get further forward and there's still all the goals from Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Dzeko etc (if fit). Plus Toure - as Dietmar Hamann pointed out on MOTD - is not excellent at tracking runners in that holding midfield role.

Arsenal's problem is pretty obvious. Wenger has great quality in midfield but Walcott is out for the season and the reliance of Giroud is too much. I'm surprised he didn't ask about Berbatov.

----
Here's the direct link, if someone wants to post question to him or see other questions/answers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... ier-league

[Alioune DVToure]

Interesting pre-match chat set up by Guardian's Danny Taylor ...

Here are some interesting questions (posted by Chelsea fans) and his answers:


Hi Daniel. In your opinion, how good is Dzeko? I know that he scores almost everytime he plays, but he's clearly not as talented as Aguero, or indeed Negredo. Do you think, for example, he'd score a lot if he went to a club that didn't produce as many chances? Whenever I watch Dzeko, he seems to miss more than he scores, and he seems to squander opportunities. I'm just wondering if he were in a lower-placed, or less talented, team, say Newcastle or Manchester United, would he still score a few goals a season? Also, I've recently put him into my fantasy team and could use a bit of morale-boosting ahead of tonight. Thanks

Mourinho's reply was interesting when he was asked on Friday about which players at City had impressed him the most.

"The two midfield players have always played well, so [Yaya] Touré and Fernandinho. I think the third striker is very, very good. [Edin] Dzeko, every time he plays, plays very, very well. The wingers are good, the full-backs … they're complete, they have everything."

I wouldn't ordinarily have imagined Dzeko would be named in the top ten and it makes me wonder - and this is a huge leap of logic, I admit - whether he's thought about trying for Dzeko in the summer. Dzeko really dislikes not being a first-choice and, in a season of new harmony post-Mancini, that's been one of the few issues behind the scenes.

A personal opinion is that he's never going to be the player he wants to be at City. Aguero is better, Negredo is better - Dzeko will have purple patches and his scoring ratio is very good, but he can be careless in the extreme and it stands out in a team with this much refinement.


Good morning Daniel,
Although i hate to agree with Moh do you think its unfair how Man City and PSG seem to be bypassing FFP?

They're using every little trick to get past them and it's fairly obvious what's happening. Yet I made the point the other day there's also a lot of hypocrisy going on. The top clubs wanted to pull down the shutters and keep them out because of their own self-serving interests. Yet they just about all got to the top, in some form, because of huge expenditure of their own. In fact, show me a club in England over the last 20 or so years whose success isn't heavily aligned to money spent.

It's probably not fair what City/PSG are doing, but I'm not sure it was fair in the first place trying to exclude them from the party.

Football clubs have always benefited from rich owners, whether we like it or not. It's just a fact of football life, but in this case the top clubs wanted to keep it as a closed shop.


Hi Daniel,
In your opinion do you think Mourinho will park the bus as he did like in his away game at Arsenal or will he attempt to play a more free-flowing game?

I've always thought it gets exaggerated that Mourinho's teams are dour/unimaginative. It's not how I remember his Real Madrid, for example, or the title wins at Chelsea. But yes, obviously there have been two stand-out occasions this season when their motive has been obvious: not to get beaten.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder if tonight they might have to show a bit more adventure.

City's next six games are against Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This isn't a team that is going to drop many points between now and late-March. So this is an opportunity for Chelsea to harm them.

I also think City's one weakness is probably in defence (not a huge weakness, I know, but Demichelis has a mistake in him, for example)


As much as everyone raves about City...I do think that if Kompany and Yaya Toure got injured they'd melt back into the top 4 quickly rather than stroll away with the league...is this unreasonable? I just don't think they're as all-powerful in all positions as is mooted. Arsenal have a better midfield, definitely.

Kompany has picked up a few injuries and it does make a difference. Toure is just a machine. He rarely misses a game.

Pellegrini seems to agree with you, judging by his attempts to sign Fernando and Mangala. But I think it would a proper, full-blown injury crisis, rather than just a couple of important players, to derail them properly. Take out Toure and replace him with a more defence-minded midfielder such as Milner/Garcia/Rodwell . . it's a drop in standard obviously but it just gives Fernandinho the licence to get further forward and there's still all the goals from Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Dzeko etc (if fit). Plus Toure - as Dietmar Hamann pointed out on MOTD - is not excellent at tracking runners in that holding midfield role.

Arsenal's problem is pretty obvious. Wenger has great quality in midfield but Walcott is out for the season and the reliance of Giroud is too much. I'm surprised he didn't ask about Berbatov.

----
Here's the direct link, if someone wants to post question to him or see other questions/answers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... ier-league

Pretty good that. Cheers.

[Alioune DVToure]

Interesting pre-match chat set up by Guardian's Danny Taylor ...

Here are some interesting questions (posted by Chelsea fans) and his answers:


Hi Daniel. In your opinion, how good is Dzeko? I know that he scores almost everytime he plays, but he's clearly not as talented as Aguero, or indeed Negredo. Do you think, for example, he'd score a lot if he went to a club that didn't produce as many chances? Whenever I watch Dzeko, he seems to miss more than he scores, and he seems to squander opportunities. I'm just wondering if he were in a lower-placed, or less talented, team, say Newcastle or Manchester United, would he still score a few goals a season? Also, I've recently put him into my fantasy team and could use a bit of morale-boosting ahead of tonight. Thanks

Mourinho's reply was interesting when he was asked on Friday about which players at City had impressed him the most.

"The two midfield players have always played well, so [Yaya] Touré and Fernandinho. I think the third striker is very, very good. [Edin] Dzeko, every time he plays, plays very, very well. The wingers are good, the full-backs … they're complete, they have everything."

I wouldn't ordinarily have imagined Dzeko would be named in the top ten and it makes me wonder - and this is a huge leap of logic, I admit - whether he's thought about trying for Dzeko in the summer. Dzeko really dislikes not being a first-choice and, in a season of new harmony post-Mancini, that's been one of the few issues behind the scenes.

A personal opinion is that he's never going to be the player he wants to be at City. Aguero is better, Negredo is better - Dzeko will have purple patches and his scoring ratio is very good, but he can be careless in the extreme and it stands out in a team with this much refinement.


Good morning Daniel,
Although i hate to agree with Moh do you think its unfair how Man City and PSG seem to be bypassing FFP?

They're using every little trick to get past them and it's fairly obvious what's happening. Yet I made the point the other day there's also a lot of hypocrisy going on. The top clubs wanted to pull down the shutters and keep them out because of their own self-serving interests. Yet they just about all got to the top, in some form, because of huge expenditure of their own. In fact, show me a club in England over the last 20 or so years whose success isn't heavily aligned to money spent.

It's probably not fair what City/PSG are doing, but I'm not sure it was fair in the first place trying to exclude them from the party.

Football clubs have always benefited from rich owners, whether we like it or not. It's just a fact of football life, but in this case the top clubs wanted to keep it as a closed shop.


Hi Daniel,
In your opinion do you think Mourinho will park the bus as he did like in his away game at Arsenal or will he attempt to play a more free-flowing game?

I've always thought it gets exaggerated that Mourinho's teams are dour/unimaginative. It's not how I remember his Real Madrid, for example, or the title wins at Chelsea. But yes, obviously there have been two stand-out occasions this season when their motive has been obvious: not to get beaten.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder if tonight they might have to show a bit more adventure.

City's next six games are against Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This isn't a team that is going to drop many points between now and late-March. So this is an opportunity for Chelsea to harm them.

I also think City's one weakness is probably in defence (not a huge weakness, I know, but Demichelis has a mistake in him, for example)


As much as everyone raves about City...I do think that if Kompany and Yaya Toure got injured they'd melt back into the top 4 quickly rather than stroll away with the league...is this unreasonable? I just don't think they're as all-powerful in all positions as is mooted. Arsenal have a better midfield, definitely.

Kompany has picked up a few injuries and it does make a difference. Toure is just a machine. He rarely misses a game.

Pellegrini seems to agree with you, judging by his attempts to sign Fernando and Mangala. But I think it would a proper, full-blown injury crisis, rather than just a couple of important players, to derail them properly. Take out Toure and replace him with a more defence-minded midfielder such as Milner/Garcia/Rodwell . . it's a drop in standard obviously but it just gives Fernandinho the licence to get further forward and there's still all the goals from Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Dzeko etc (if fit). Plus Toure - as Dietmar Hamann pointed out on MOTD - is not excellent at tracking runners in that holding midfield role.

Arsenal's problem is pretty obvious. Wenger has great quality in midfield but Walcott is out for the season and the reliance of Giroud is too much. I'm surprised he didn't ask about Berbatov.

----
Here's the direct link, if someone wants to post question to him or see other questions/answers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... ier-league

Pretty good that. Cheers.

Funnily enough, I've always thought that Dzeko would be a good fit for Mourinho's Chelsea.

[johnny crossan]

SSN edited build up today

[youtube]DEKhGZ7pnvk[/youtube]

[Cit.revenge]

I would be happy with any way to 3 pts. , but oooooooooo how i love win by 2 or 3 0 with total domination only because that Portugese snake. How i fuckin hate hes sneaky talk and mind games. Common City kick there ass.

[Clowncrete]

[Cit.revenge]

Interesting pre-match chat set up by Guardian's Danny Taylor ...

Here are some interesting questions (posted by Chelsea fans) and his answers:


Hi Daniel. In your opinion, how good is Dzeko? I know that he scores almost everytime he plays, but he's clearly not as talented as Aguero, or indeed Negredo. Do you think, for example, he'd score a lot if he went to a club that didn't produce as many chances? Whenever I watch Dzeko, he seems to miss more than he scores, and he seems to squander opportunities. I'm just wondering if he were in a lower-placed, or less talented, team, say Newcastle or Manchester United, would he still score a few goals a season? Also, I've recently put him into my fantasy team and could use a bit of morale-boosting ahead of tonight. Thanks

Mourinho's reply was interesting when he was asked on Friday about which players at City had impressed him the most.

"The two midfield players have always played well, so [Yaya] Touré and Fernandinho. I think the third striker is very, very good. [Edin] Dzeko, every time he plays, plays very, very well. The wingers are good, the full-backs … they're complete, they have everything."

I wouldn't ordinarily have imagined Dzeko would be named in the top ten and it makes me wonder - and this is a huge leap of logic, I admit - whether he's thought about trying for Dzeko in the summer. Dzeko really dislikes not being a first-choice and, in a season of new harmony post-Mancini, that's been one of the few issues behind the scenes.

A personal opinion is that he's never going to be the player he wants to be at City. Aguero is better, Negredo is better - Dzeko will have purple patches and his scoring ratio is very good, but he can be careless in the extreme and it stands out in a team with this much refinement.


Good morning Daniel,
Although i hate to agree with Moh do you think its unfair how Man City and PSG seem to be bypassing FFP?

They're using every little trick to get past them and it's fairly obvious what's happening. Yet I made the point the other day there's also a lot of hypocrisy going on. The top clubs wanted to pull down the shutters and keep them out because of their own self-serving interests. Yet they just about all got to the top, in some form, because of huge expenditure of their own. In fact, show me a club in England over the last 20 or so years whose success isn't heavily aligned to money spent.

It's probably not fair what City/PSG are doing, but I'm not sure it was fair in the first place trying to exclude them from the party.

Football clubs have always benefited from rich owners, whether we like it or not. It's just a fact of football life, but in this case the top clubs wanted to keep it as a closed shop.


Hi Daniel,
In your opinion do you think Mourinho will park the bus as he did like in his away game at Arsenal or will he attempt to play a more free-flowing game?

I've always thought it gets exaggerated that Mourinho's teams are dour/unimaginative. It's not how I remember his Real Madrid, for example, or the title wins at Chelsea. But yes, obviously there have been two stand-out occasions this season when their motive has been obvious: not to get beaten.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder if tonight they might have to show a bit more adventure.

City's next six games are against Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This isn't a team that is going to drop many points between now and late-March. So this is an opportunity for Chelsea to harm them.

I also think City's one weakness is probably in defence (not a huge weakness, I know, but Demichelis has a mistake in him, for example)


As much as everyone raves about City...I do think that if Kompany and Yaya Toure got injured they'd melt back into the top 4 quickly rather than stroll away with the league...is this unreasonable? I just don't think they're as all-powerful in all positions as is mooted. Arsenal have a better midfield, definitely.

Kompany has picked up a few injuries and it does make a difference. Toure is just a machine. He rarely misses a game.

Pellegrini seems to agree with you, judging by his attempts to sign Fernando and Mangala. But I think it would a proper, full-blown injury crisis, rather than just a couple of important players, to derail them properly. Take out Toure and replace him with a more defence-minded midfielder such as Milner/Garcia/Rodwell . . it's a drop in standard obviously but it just gives Fernandinho the licence to get further forward and there's still all the goals from Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Dzeko etc (if fit). Plus Toure - as Dietmar Hamann pointed out on MOTD - is not excellent at tracking runners in that holding midfield role.

Arsenal's problem is pretty obvious. Wenger has great quality in midfield but Walcott is out for the season and the reliance of Giroud is too much. I'm surprised he didn't ask about Berbatov.

----
Here's the direct link, if someone wants to post question to him or see other questions/answers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... ier-league

Pretty good that. Cheers.

Funnily enough, I've always thought that Dzeko would be a good fit for Mourinho's Chelsea.

But for me it's funny to ask if he would score goals in smaller club , , he come from Wolfsburg did he with crazy amount of goals. Yes he fluffed few against Spurs but he score a lot of goals in last 7 8 games i dont know how much and i did not see that he miss a lot more then some other strikers. Sorry i did not Comment for Edin long time but this was just kind a stupid question.

[Alioune DVToure]

Interesting pre-match chat set up by Guardian's Danny Taylor ...

Here are some interesting questions (posted by Chelsea fans) and his answers:


Hi Daniel. In your opinion, how good is Dzeko? I know that he scores almost everytime he plays, but he's clearly not as talented as Aguero, or indeed Negredo. Do you think, for example, he'd score a lot if he went to a club that didn't produce as many chances? Whenever I watch Dzeko, he seems to miss more than he scores, and he seems to squander opportunities. I'm just wondering if he were in a lower-placed, or less talented, team, say Newcastle or Manchester United, would he still score a few goals a season? Also, I've recently put him into my fantasy team and could use a bit of morale-boosting ahead of tonight. Thanks

Mourinho's reply was interesting when he was asked on Friday about which players at City had impressed him the most.

"The two midfield players have always played well, so [Yaya] Touré and Fernandinho. I think the third striker is very, very good. [Edin] Dzeko, every time he plays, plays very, very well. The wingers are good, the full-backs … they're complete, they have everything."

I wouldn't ordinarily have imagined Dzeko would be named in the top ten and it makes me wonder - and this is a huge leap of logic, I admit - whether he's thought about trying for Dzeko in the summer. Dzeko really dislikes not being a first-choice and, in a season of new harmony post-Mancini, that's been one of the few issues behind the scenes.

A personal opinion is that he's never going to be the player he wants to be at City. Aguero is better, Negredo is better - Dzeko will have purple patches and his scoring ratio is very good, but he can be careless in the extreme and it stands out in a team with this much refinement.


Good morning Daniel,
Although i hate to agree with Moh do you think its unfair how Man City and PSG seem to be bypassing FFP?

They're using every little trick to get past them and it's fairly obvious what's happening. Yet I made the point the other day there's also a lot of hypocrisy going on. The top clubs wanted to pull down the shutters and keep them out because of their own self-serving interests. Yet they just about all got to the top, in some form, because of huge expenditure of their own. In fact, show me a club in England over the last 20 or so years whose success isn't heavily aligned to money spent.

It's probably not fair what City/PSG are doing, but I'm not sure it was fair in the first place trying to exclude them from the party.

Football clubs have always benefited from rich owners, whether we like it or not. It's just a fact of football life, but in this case the top clubs wanted to keep it as a closed shop.


Hi Daniel,
In your opinion do you think Mourinho will park the bus as he did like in his away game at Arsenal or will he attempt to play a more free-flowing game?

I've always thought it gets exaggerated that Mourinho's teams are dour/unimaginative. It's not how I remember his Real Madrid, for example, or the title wins at Chelsea. But yes, obviously there have been two stand-out occasions this season when their motive has been obvious: not to get beaten.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder if tonight they might have to show a bit more adventure.

City's next six games are against Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This isn't a team that is going to drop many points between now and late-March. So this is an opportunity for Chelsea to harm them.

I also think City's one weakness is probably in defence (not a huge weakness, I know, but Demichelis has a mistake in him, for example)


As much as everyone raves about City...I do think that if Kompany and Yaya Toure got injured they'd melt back into the top 4 quickly rather than stroll away with the league...is this unreasonable? I just don't think they're as all-powerful in all positions as is mooted. Arsenal have a better midfield, definitely.

Kompany has picked up a few injuries and it does make a difference. Toure is just a machine. He rarely misses a game.

Pellegrini seems to agree with you, judging by his attempts to sign Fernando and Mangala. But I think it would a proper, full-blown injury crisis, rather than just a couple of important players, to derail them properly. Take out Toure and replace him with a more defence-minded midfielder such as Milner/Garcia/Rodwell . . it's a drop in standard obviously but it just gives Fernandinho the licence to get further forward and there's still all the goals from Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Dzeko etc (if fit). Plus Toure - as Dietmar Hamann pointed out on MOTD - is not excellent at tracking runners in that holding midfield role.

Arsenal's problem is pretty obvious. Wenger has great quality in midfield but Walcott is out for the season and the reliance of Giroud is too much. I'm surprised he didn't ask about Berbatov.

----
Here's the direct link, if someone wants to post question to him or see other questions/answers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... ier-league

Pretty good that. Cheers.

Funnily enough, I've always thought that Dzeko would be a good fit for Mourinho's Chelsea.

But for me it's funny to ask if he would score goals in smaller club , , he come from Wolfsburg did he with crazy amount of goals. Yes he fluffed few against Spurs but he score a lot of goals in last 7 8 games i dont know how much and i did not see that he miss a lot more then some other strikers. Sorry i did not Comment for Edin long time but this was just kind a stupid question.

A fair enough point. Don't apologise.

The counter-argument, of course, would be that Wolfsburg were set up to get the best out of him as their star player, whereas at City Dzeko has to adapt his favoured game to our incredibly fluid style.

That doesn't really contradict your point; he'd probably score even more for a team more willing to make him the focal point of their attack.

[Tokyo Blue]

You two both make good points. I hope he stays with us and scores more.

[AG7]

Sky's Monday Night Football twitter account just posted this to start their feed for the evening:

Bfj8Ai7CMAAnonM.jpg

[dikdok]

Thank the Lord the Environmental Health Officer returned my lucky pants!!

[dikdok]

Bit of Old Spice and they're good as new...

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Interesting pre-match chat set up by Guardian's Danny Taylor ...

Here are some interesting questions (posted by Chelsea fans) and his answers:


Hi Daniel. In your opinion, how good is Dzeko? I know that he scores almost everytime he plays, but he's clearly not as talented as Aguero, or indeed Negredo. Do you think, for example, he'd score a lot if he went to a club that didn't produce as many chances? Whenever I watch Dzeko, he seems to miss more than he scores, and he seems to squander opportunities. I'm just wondering if he were in a lower-placed, or less talented, team, say Newcastle or Manchester United, would he still score a few goals a season? Also, I've recently put him into my fantasy team and could use a bit of morale-boosting ahead of tonight. Thanks

Mourinho's reply was interesting when he was asked on Friday about which players at City had impressed him the most.

"The two midfield players have always played well, so [Yaya] Touré and Fernandinho. I think the third striker is very, very good. [Edin] Dzeko, every time he plays, plays very, very well. The wingers are good, the full-backs … they're complete, they have everything."

I wouldn't ordinarily have imagined Dzeko would be named in the top ten and it makes me wonder - and this is a huge leap of logic, I admit - whether he's thought about trying for Dzeko in the summer. Dzeko really dislikes not being a first-choice and, in a season of new harmony post-Mancini, that's been one of the few issues behind the scenes.

A personal opinion is that he's never going to be the player he wants to be at City. Aguero is better, Negredo is better - Dzeko will have purple patches and his scoring ratio is very good, but he can be careless in the extreme and it stands out in a team with this much refinement.


Good morning Daniel,
Although i hate to agree with Moh do you think its unfair how Man City and PSG seem to be bypassing FFP?

They're using every little trick to get past them and it's fairly obvious what's happening. Yet I made the point the other day there's also a lot of hypocrisy going on. The top clubs wanted to pull down the shutters and keep them out because of their own self-serving interests. Yet they just about all got to the top, in some form, because of huge expenditure of their own. In fact, show me a club in England over the last 20 or so years whose success isn't heavily aligned to money spent.

It's probably not fair what City/PSG are doing, but I'm not sure it was fair in the first place trying to exclude them from the party.

Football clubs have always benefited from rich owners, whether we like it or not. It's just a fact of football life, but in this case the top clubs wanted to keep it as a closed shop.


Hi Daniel,
In your opinion do you think Mourinho will park the bus as he did like in his away game at Arsenal or will he attempt to play a more free-flowing game?

I've always thought it gets exaggerated that Mourinho's teams are dour/unimaginative. It's not how I remember his Real Madrid, for example, or the title wins at Chelsea. But yes, obviously there have been two stand-out occasions this season when their motive has been obvious: not to get beaten.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder if tonight they might have to show a bit more adventure.

City's next six games are against Norwich (15th), Sunderland (14th), Stoke (11th), Aston Villa (10th), Hull (13th) and Fulham (20th). This isn't a team that is going to drop many points between now and late-March. So this is an opportunity for Chelsea to harm them.

I also think City's one weakness is probably in defence (not a huge weakness, I know, but Demichelis has a mistake in him, for example)


As much as everyone raves about City...I do think that if Kompany and Yaya Toure got injured they'd melt back into the top 4 quickly rather than stroll away with the league...is this unreasonable? I just don't think they're as all-powerful in all positions as is mooted. Arsenal have a better midfield, definitely.

Kompany has picked up a few injuries and it does make a difference. Toure is just a machine. He rarely misses a game.

Pellegrini seems to agree with you, judging by his attempts to sign Fernando and Mangala. But I think it would a proper, full-blown injury crisis, rather than just a couple of important players, to derail them properly. Take out Toure and replace him with a more defence-minded midfielder such as Milner/Garcia/Rodwell . . it's a drop in standard obviously but it just gives Fernandinho the licence to get further forward and there's still all the goals from Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Dzeko etc (if fit). Plus Toure - as Dietmar Hamann pointed out on MOTD - is not excellent at tracking runners in that holding midfield role.

Arsenal's problem is pretty obvious. Wenger has great quality in midfield but Walcott is out for the season and the reliance of Giroud is too much. I'm surprised he didn't ask about Berbatov.

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Here's the direct link, if someone wants to post question to him or see other questions/answers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... ier-league

Pretty good that. Cheers.

Funnily enough, I've always thought that Dzeko would be a good fit for Mourinho's Chelsea.

But for me it's funny to ask if he would score goals in smaller club , , he come from Wolfsburg did he with crazy amount of goals. Yes he fluffed few against Spurs but he score a lot of goals in last 7 8 games i dont know how much and i did not see that he miss a lot more then some other strikers. Sorry i did not Comment for Edin long time but this was just kind a stupid question.

A fair enough point. Don't apologise.

The counter-argument, of course, would be that Wolfsburg were set up to get the best out of him as their star player, whereas at City Dzeko has to adapt his favoured game to our incredibly fluid style.

That doesn't really contradict your point; he'd probably score even more for a team more willing to make him the focal point of their attack.

I used to really dislike him as a player when he first joined because he just looked clumsy and missed a shit load of chances. He still looks clumsy and misses lots of chances but now I see the value of him, he scores. He scores a shit load of goals. Sure he misses too, but so does Negredo and up until this season Aguero used to miss a lot too. What I've really liked this season with Dzeko is that even when he misses a lot, like against Spurs, he didn't let his head drop and still got himself on the scoresheet.