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Well done Chelsea, first side to win at Goodison this year, but Chelsea were very lucky Jelavic didn't bother playing and that Fellaini, Gibson and Mirallas weren't on.

I don't want to take anything away from Chelsea, but we dominated and didn't take our chances. If our 3 shots that hit the woodwork went in, it would've been a different ending.

One final note, Alan Smith is THE worst pundit I've listened to ever.

Southampton were more than a match for Arsenal tonight. A deflected own goal was the only real chance we gave them.

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I remember when this website was all fields.

I was impressed by them. The disallowed goal, was it because of offside or a push? Because if it was because of offside it was a terrible decision.

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Push. I don't think it was even that, the defender was backing in towards Ramirez and he stood his ground with his arms in front of him. Le Tiss was right with his analysis, if that had been the other way around the ref would never in a million years have given Saints a penalty for it.

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I remember when this website was all fields.

So what? He was given yellow card, so he did it wrong.

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Any old sap can pull teeth from a dead crocodile.
It takes a man to pull teeth from a live one.

I'm surprised Sir Alex risked playing RVP on Wigan's damp pitch today. The guy could have drowned FFS.

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I remember when this website was all fields.

Push on Koscielny. Very soft decision, and so was the penalty that Southampton didn't get. How we didn't lose 3-0 is some kind of miracle. And they wouldn't have even had to work for it either.
One shot on goal, in the 70 something minute against a newly promoted side is not good enough. It's worrying as well that Wenger makes the same tactical changes every single game and hopes for the best if we are struggling: Ramsey/Gervinho on for Podolski who can't run for 90 minutes apparently, Walcott out side, and Giroud down the middle for people to randomly cross in the general direction of. Still, at least Walcott's not going to get his 100k a week, Sagna will be off in the summer as well, so Miyaichi and Jenkinson will get game time next season.

I'm a little sad that Wenger's reign has ended up quite as shocking as it is now, and his management is a shadow of the man who got a team to the CL final without a recognised left back, and went 49 games unbeaten in the top flight. These days, going 4 games unbeaten is somewhat of an achievement with the squad he's assembled.
And it's not even like he hasn't spent like people like to say. Andrei Arshavin, £15m, £80k a week, can't even get into our Carling Cup squad. Sebastien Squillaci, £4m, £50k a week, has played a handful of games in 18 months. Gervinho, £11m. Nicklas Bendtner, on 52k a week, on loan at Juventus' reserve side. Park Ju Young, £1.5m, played one game in the PL, now on loan at Celta Vigo. Marouane Chamakh, on 60k+ a week. Has scored in two games since December 2010. Denilson. We even spent £4m on Carlos Vela not too long ago. Might as well just used all that money to power the under pitch heating at the Emirates for all the good it's done us.
There's been some downright stupid things happened with players' contracts and getting them to stay as well. Walcott and Sagna are both going to leave for nothing. We sold RVP to a rival club for an extra £9m, sold Fabregas for a good 20m under market value because he had a bit of a sulk and refused to play for the club. Sold Diarra 3 months after buying him in 2008, and let Gilberto Silva go, because Flamini was in such great form, and then tried to play hardball with Flamini and lost him on a free in January anyway.
And after every shocking performance, Wenger will mention something about handbrakes, or being jaded, or lacking a bit physically. Every sodding time.

Van Persie is just so good. Best player in the league imo

RVP is on a roll ATM, rather comical to see Mancini bleating on about How good they'd be if he'd signed for them.... Tough luck Mancini... He signed for us instead

Hernandez is playing some brilliant footie as well, hope he gets the chance to use Rooney's injury period to convince SAF to let him play more.

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the loon previously known as dr lee

Javi Hernandez is turning into a Mexican Solskjaer. Would walk into any other team in the league, but appears to be ok with just being a sub at Manchester United.

like i said before RVP is the best striker in the world,and he is showing it again this season like he did last season,he is so underrated because of his past history of being injury prone but when he is fit,he is a scoring machine,i rate him much higher than Messi.

Yes he is a machine but I would put Ibra and Falcao up there as well. And Much higher than Messi? Really?

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Good joke Nike.

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Woah woah woah there. Better than 90 odd goals in a calender year Messi? Better than least games to score 100 goals for Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo? Better than European competition goalscoring record in a season Radamel Falcao? Go back a few seasons and you could add Diegos Milito and Forlan, Sergio Aguero and Samuel Eto'o to the list as well.

So we sell Sturridge to Liverpool for a reported £13 mill. And are very close to Demba Ba at the reported price £7 mill.. Good deal if you ask me.

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I thought the Ba move had fallen through shortly after Sky started reporting it?

The form RVP is in ATM, I'd definitely put him up with people like Messi and the like... But I'd be cautious about saying he was way better.

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the loon previously known as dr lee

Yeah first it was on according to Sky, then off, but now Ba has been allowed to talk to Chelsea according to Newcastle official site.
He is not involved in their squad tonight.

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He's not? That'll mess with my fantasy football team then

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the loon previously known as dr lee

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20901006

I can't wait to hear what's happened, makes you wonder whether City are too lenient on super Mario...

Not surprised by that...

Have you guys seen the big incident with AC Milan? They were playing a friendly yesterday or NYD when one of their players reacted to monkey chants by booting the ball at the fans. He was rightly sent off for the reaction, but the rest of the team walked off with him and the game was abandoned. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, UEFA does

http://youtu.be/PyQcLJ0KoCg (just to add a warning, the usual YouTube language is rather prevalent in the comments to the video)

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the loon previously known as dr lee

They'll do something, I'm sure, but I agree with AC Milan's players. It's a good message to send, even if they had virtually nothing to lose by walking off, anyway.

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I'm not a big football fan, but saw this on the BBC. I must say, I fully endorse ther behaviour of the teams. Hopefully, this leads to self policing of the fans, and so the bad apples will not want to be doing stuff like this surrounded by 20 thousand people who just want to see a football match.

Of course, it does lead to the fear of reprisals within the crowd or (and I'm probably going OTT here) fear that you'll get rival fans going to big games and doing this to disrupt a team they don't like (for instance, AC Milan fans going to an Inter vs Samporia game to be racist just to disturb the game and maybe get it called off). I doubt it would really happen, but I do wonder.

Anyway, more power to Ac milan and Pro Patria for not taking this and showing they won't but sad for the fans who just wanted to watch some football.

Demba Ba officially a Chelsea player!

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The whole Milan thing is a massive can of worms. Full respect to the players for walking off, they shouldn't have to deal with any racist abuse when playing. It does however create it's own set of issues. For instance where do you draw the line. If 90,000 people turn up to the FA Cup final at Wembley, would you call the game off because of one muppet making monkey noises at Evra or Balotelli?

We find ourselves in the akward possition of how much racism is tollerable (I say tollerable, not acceptable). A certain amount should be dealt with by the Police and stewards, possibly using CCTV and microphones from the ground after the game, rather than having both teams walk off and the game abandoned. Where you set that bench mark for walking off the pitch is impossible to say. Some players will be upset by a few mindless idiots making monkey noises, others will be able to ignore 5,000 people making Nazi salutes.

Having rival fans 'under cover' trying to get a club in trouble shouldn't be an issue. If those individuals concerned are arrested on the spot I'd have thought it will become obvious fairly quickly who they really are when the Police investigate.

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I remember when this website was all fields.

A game doesn't have to be abandoned just because the teams walk off...

It's up to the ref to choose whether to abandon it, so if it's a minority in the crowd causing an issue, then while the teams are off, the stewards and police can remove any offenders and then the teams can come back out to continue the game.

In fact, if anything if the teams walk off, it highlights there is a problem and forces them to deal with it rather than just turn off any mics so the cameras don't pick it up...


If it continues after the teams come back out - them rinse and repeat until either all troublemakers have been forced to leave, or the referee deems it to be too much of a problem and then does choose to abandon the game (at which point the FA can deem what action needs to be taken)

I don't really understand this one. Yes £7m is a good price for a player of his quality but given that Falcao seems to be available at a price then surely they should have been pursuing him? And I see no point in signing both

atletico won't sell falcao until the end of the season (he's their major goal scorer with 17 in the league alone, and they are looking to challenge for the league and to beat Real this season)

Ba for 7M is a good temporary buy, also provides an alternative to Torres and a replacement for Sturridge (5/6 mill profit not bad)

Quite. Plus Falcao is technically available, but will cost upwards of 80M in this window. Atletico don't want to sell, don't have to sell, and like they did with Aguero and Torres before, will want a ready made replacement to slide right in. Also with them in talks to sell Arda Turan and Adrian Lopez in this window as well, they'd want funds to be able to replace them as well if needed.

Personally I think Ba is the only correct action my beloved club has made in a long time. And about the only thing concerning the club that makes me smile atm. With RDM out, no CL, Rafa in, Lamps probably thrown out and a Torres that will probably play nearly every game even if he wouldn't score in The Conference.
No one and nothing is bigger then the club, but that goes for Roman as well.

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I think Roman Abramovich has earned the right to be bigger than Chelsea. You were about to sell John Terry to help balance the books before you went the way of Leeds and he stepped in, wrote off your debt, and financed all of your spending on big name players.

I am fully aware of what Mr Abramovich has done for Chelsea and I will always be thankful for that. He saved the club when it needed to be saved.
Having said that, if you save the life of a kitten it doesn't mean you have the right to abuse it for the rest of it's life.
And no, Mr A is not nor will he ever be bigger than Chelsea FC.
However, I am not blaming Mr A for every bad decision made by the club.. There are a few other names in there I would like to see leave rather than him.

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i guess you want a kind of Man city scenario

owners pump un real sums of money and tend to not interfere too much (sacked a few managers, but in the end payed off)

See, I don't agree with that. Chelsea were not a big side when he took over. They were in the same position as Tottenham and Arsenal are now. Not really crap, but not all that great either. One league title in your history pre 2003, which came in the 1950s, 3 since 2005. Two European Cup finals, one lost on penalties, and one win, and the club has equaled it's FA Cup and League Cup wins since 2003.
Everything good that the club has done in the last 10 years is a direct result of what he did. The measure of his success is now that he's raised the bar over what the club and its fans expect, there is discontent because it might not be living up to the lofty standards he put in place.
If he hadn't stepped in, Chelsea would have been Leeds/Portsmouth, or if they managed to raise the funds to clear their debt, would have been an Everton level club. Yeah, he's got a bit of a thing about signing names, like Shevchenko, and wants to pick the team sometimes, but your worst league finish since 2004 is 6th last season, but you won the CL to compensate for that.
You could have ended up with Alex Gaydamak, who screwed Portsmouth over, or 'Silent Stan Kroenke, who hasn't put a penny into Arsenal since he became majority shareholder.

See, I don't agree with that. Chelsea were not a big side when he took over. They were in the same position as Tottenham and Arsenal are now. Not really crap, but not all that great either. One league title in your history pre 2003, which came in the 1950s, 3 since 2005. Two European Cup finals, one lost on penalties, and one win, and the club has equaled it's FA Cup and League Cup wins since 2003.
Everything good that the club has done in the last 10 years is a direct result of what he did. The measure of his success is now that he's raised the bar over what the club and its fans expect, there is discontent because it might not be living up to the lofty standards he put in place.
If he hadn't stepped in, Chelsea would have been Leeds/Portsmouth, or if they managed to raise the funds to clear their debt, would have been an Everton level club. Yeah, he's got a bit of a thing about signing names, like Shevchenko, and wants to pick the team sometimes, but your worst league finish since 2004 is 6th last season, but you won the CL to compensate for that.
You could have ended up with Alex Gaydamak, who screwed Portsmouth over, or 'Silent Stan Kroenke, who hasn't put a penny into Arsenal since he became majority shareholder.

Well the difference between kitten and Chelsea is that A actually owns Chelsea. In fact mr A is Chelsea. If you save a kitten, you don't own it.

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Any old sap can pull teeth from a dead crocodile.
It takes a man to pull teeth from a live one.

Lampard is a God.

God would have let Ba get a debut hattrick as the penalty was hardly a decisive moment in the game.

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Oh and Bernie, National flags should be raised not flipped. Sort it!

Great debut for Ba then.

Saints looked the better side for about half an hour, then Chelsea just turned on the style. Unfortunately we rested a few key players and were without Lambert, Lallana, Ramirez, Clyne and Fonte got injured. Chelsea played a full strenght side and that's what happened.

I'm even more cheesed off because of the none-performance Chelsea put in against our relegation rivals QPR.

Shouldn't have been a penalty anyway, the ball hit Davis in the chest and rolled off side. DELIBERATE handball? My arse.

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I remember when this website was all fields.

It could have been God's last game for the club for all he knows.

If it wasn't the goal to level him with Kerry Dixon on 193 goals then I'm sure he probably would have.

And the mighty Shots go marching on into the 4th round!!

Can't wait for the draw. Any of United, City, Chelsea or Arsenal would go down nicely. Or even Luton as that would give us a decent chance of making the 5th round which is unthinkable given that our league season has been a disaster of HRT proportions.