Land of Hope… and Expectation.

So we’ve had a few weeks to find our feet, get used to Antonio Conte’s passion and now it looks like the squad has settled into his approach to the game and at least one formation, something we haven’t really seen in Blue at the Bridge since the days of Glenn Hoddle and Ruud Gullit. That’s right, the 3-5-2 is back at Chelsea. Let’s see how Conte’s 3-5-2 compares to Chelsea of the Hoddle era in the wake of our demolition of Jose Mourinho’s  Manchester United.

Days of hope

Defence:

Dimitri Kharine

Courtois seems to have come out of a bit of a slump with a commanding display, showing the promise of his previously shown ability.

Dimitri Kharine is a good comparison, even though Kevin Hitchcock is my favourite Chelsea goal keeper. Kharine was one of the first continental goalies in the Premiership. He was tall, lean and brought a new style of goal keeping that we commonly see in the Premiership today.

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Antonio Conte has NO IDEA what he’s doing

The new Chelsea manager is in way over his head, and his own stubbornness is his worst enemy. And ours. Abramovich should give him one week to demonstrate that he’s willing to adapt.

Pigheadedness is a bad quality in a manager. And new Chelsea man-in-charge Antonio Conte is so pigheaded he makes Jose Mourinho look like a new age couples counselor by comparison.

At Chelsea, the reality of life without a striker begins to set in

Third place was always the smart bet for a team in transition; Torres and Eto’o are well past the point where they can contribute to an elite side

ALERT: If you’re a big Fernando Torres fan, you probably shouldn’t read any further.

For Chelsea Nation, today was disappointing.

[sigh]

The thing is, while I have enjoyed how well the Blues have played this year, not for a second have I thought they were likely to win the Prem (unless the other top sides simply handed it to them). I said before the year that the Blues were probably a third place team, and right now, with six games left, that prediction is probably the smart bet.

Premier League and the Great Sacking Blast-o-rama

What the hell is going on? No. Seriously. What the hell is going on?

RMB Select Predictions!

So I got with a few of our lads and we decided to make our predictions for the season! I have to apologise to everyone for not getting these up sooner, but they are here at last!

Please join in with us and post your predictions for the season – I’ll give you guys a week or so to get them in but you’ll have an advantage over us as we did these before the season started and the transfer window closed.

The Rooney Post

Julian, aka: The Application, thought it would be a great idea to get together and combine our oft disagreeing brains to look at Chelsea target Wayne Rooney. Let’s see how our thoughts compare on the interesting topic of Manchester United selling one of its biggest names to major rival Chelsea…

Out with New, in with the Old (season review part 2)

So, let’s pick up where we left off in part 1.

We’ll start with taking a look at my…

Predictions:

Said we’d beat Spurs 2-1 and that was the score at half time, but we couldn’t hang on to it and drew 2-2. You idiot, Higgins, but we did score from a corner and it was an assist from Cahill, so I was almost right in a tenuous manner.

Halcyon Days for a Vision of the Future?

I don’t think the world of football will ever see players like Chelsea great Ray Wilkins, or Arsenal’s Alan Smith again, but does it mean that the sport is doomed to future with only controversy and media frenzies?

We often reminisce about the old days and how much better things were back then. It could be the heyday of our ’70s team that brought home the FA Cup and Cup Winner’s Cup. It could be the promotion winning sides of the ’80s where both sets of squads played hard, but fair.

It could be as recent as Jose Mourinho’s reign in the hottest, most uncomfortable seat in today’s game. Whichever era it is that you harken back to the answer is the same. Today, the Rocky Mountain Blues’ own Mike LeClare asked a very relevant question:

Two steps that are guaranteed to eliminate diving in football

ESPN FC blogger Roger Bennett today asks an important question: Is diving ruining the game of football? It’s impossible to deny that flopping is rampant, in England and elsewhere, and it’s equally difficult to argue that it’s having no damaging impact on the game. Outcomes are routinely altered because a skilled diver hoodwinks a referee at a crucial moment, and worse, when the refs get cynical enough about all the “simulation” going on that they disregard an actual foul that should have been a penalty.

JT: Retirement and the Kangaroo Court

International retirement is a preemptive FU to the FA

Today John Terry retired from International football. I don’t know what I think about it just yet in regards to whether it is a good or a bad decision on his part, but I don’t think that anyone can really be too shocked by his choice.

The Chelsea captain earned 78 caps and captained the side 32 times. One way or another you can only imagine that John’s international career would have been done and dusted.

Here’s his statement: