MotM Poll: Chelsea 3-1 Birmingham City

i live in america and i went with drogba even and i agree zach he wasnt that good in front of goal

i went with drogba even though he was maybe a little wasteful in front of goal. his physical presence and ability to make something out of nothing was amazing!

Sublime cross by brtrand for the 3rd goal..!! He never looked out of place at all.. I think he'll start a match sooner.. A submile assist within 5 min of your debut!! Wonderful.. Anyway Droggi is the MOTM by far.. No second thoughts on that!! The monster is back!! Keep going for few seasons mate!!

Didier Drogba, lalalalala.

Malouda was inspired today. The left side looked like it did early last year, with Ashley and Flo dominating. Even Bertrand contributed well. This will make for an interesting end to the season.

Drog/Kalou were my MOTM & an honorable mention goes to Bertrand. I need him to start breathing down Coley's neck!

Forza Chelsea!

Torres needs to take the rest of the season off to go back to Spain and get his shit together. What a laughable player he is right now. He can't get a goal from anyone at Chelsea, or anyone in the Spanish National Team. Torres is looking more and more like a Michael Owen/Sheva by the day.

So can anybody explain why the midfielders are playing with more fluidity now that a certain Obiwon got the starting spot back due to ramires' injury? Or it may be the 4-3-3 formation perhaps?

Maybe perhaps Lamps knows he can enjoy creating chances and making those late runs in the box while the bison enjoys knocking oponents over knowing well enough a certain Obiowon will always stay back to do the dirty work while they're away

It's Lampard who is returning to form, after a long time out. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was reading about how Torres' lack of goals is attributed to the structure of the team. People were saying that the team should be built around him and in Chelsea, he's just another player. I was thinking about that a bit. Who is Chelsea built around?

It's Lampard. He's not the captain, nor the top-scorer, nor the most expensive player, nor the best, but the team is built around him. Think about it.

I don't agree with that one bit. You really do have a problem with Mikel.

Lampard's return to some semblance of form is directly linked to Mikel's involvement - and the return to the 4-3-3. It's no secret that there's more freedom for the two other midfielders when a proper anchor is fielded. More balance, more space - it comes from Mikel's willingness to remain the deep fulcrum and his ability to recycle possession, no question.

And, as much as I love Lampard, this team is built around Drogba's attributes.

Oh, it has little to do with my problem with Mikel (which I do have) Our abysmal run coincided with Lampard's injury, we got slightly better when he returned but was not playing well, and now we're playing better as he got better.

Teddcfc attributes it to the Mikel-Lampard-Essien midfield, but this is the very same midfield that got overrun and massacred at Arsenal. The lineup then was almost the same as this game -
Cech,
Ferreira, Bane, Terry, Cole.
Essien, Mikel, Lampard.
Kalou, Drogba, Malouda.

The Essien-Mikel-Lampard lineup also lost at Liverpool, with Drogba playing.

Lampard was a shadow of his former self when he came back, but has now significantly improved, and so have our performances.

One could believe that the team is built around Drogba, but that doesn't explain how we cruise through the CL group stages year after year without him, or how we can win so many games without him scoring.

You yourself said once said: "Looking at our current structure, it has basically been built around Lampard’s (and Drogba’s) strengths. Really, Lampard is the one figure in our team that seems to dictate our style of play."

That was back in Gene Hackman's days, during that season, we won league 25 games, 21 of which were without Drogba scoring.

Replacing Drogba will be difficult, since on his day, he is the best striker in the world, but replacing Lampard will be Chelsea's real challenge.

Just my humble opinion.

Are you really digging in the crates to find quotes from me? Wow, I'm flattered.

And, yeah, us losing to Arsenal at The Emirates and a Liverpool team fielding five defenders completely shuns the idea of Mikel having any influence in our improved performances of late. Sorry, but I find that ridiculous.

To each is his own, I guess.

haha, hardly. I googled "built around Lampard" and this blog came among the top results.
I was surprised to see that the author of the post was "Jack."

There were other results about building the England team around Lamps or Gerrard, but it's a common theme to see teams as built around influential midfielders as opposed to strikers, who can go on droughts or just become petulant.

Random quote from the Liverpool offside: "Every aspect of pass and move football is built around a solid foundation in midfield"

Another old one from Lampsie's uncle, "Modric is also a fantastic footballer and I have to build a team around him to play with him."

There's more about Cesc and Arsenal being built around him.

From what I've found, most teams are built around one midfielder or the midfield itself. There is the idea that Mourinho builds from the back and the foundations of his victories are strong defenses. But no one could say that the team was built around Terry and Carvalho.

I never denied Mikel's influence, but saying that Chelsea's season turned around due to Mikel's return would be a stretch.

We lost six times with Lamps playing this season, even though he's not fully fit. We lost 8 games with Mikel. It's not Mikel's fault that we lose, but he's not the reason we're better either. He plays his part, shoulders 9.09% of the responsibility, just like the ten others in the team. If we can't score, it's not his fault, and if we can't defend, it's not his fault either. But we need a fit Lampard all the time, because no one in the team can fill that position yet.

The new Chelsea will supposedly be built around McEachran, just as the new Arsenal will be built around Wilshere. And then it'll start a whole Gerrard-vs-Lampard thing for England once again. And the world keeps turning.