How do we overcome Mourinho's Chelsea?

A bit of a twofold question, in actual fact, seeing as we pit our wits against them tomorrow night. Chelsea have been incredibly fortunate in a couple of their recent league games (late defensive mix ups at Norwich and yesterday against Man City have allowed Chelsea to edge ahead and nick all 3 points)

It's a little concerning, because it's these very tight results that allow them to build up a head of steam, allow them to become the pace-setters (they're almost always kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday) and it has stark similarities with how they won the league in 2005, surpassing a very good effort from us.

So, do we think we'll overcome their challenge in the league? Do we think we'll beat them tomorrow, or is tomorrow irrelevant?

Tomorrow is relevant - but not to the League.

Having previously been dismissive of the LC, I do think we need to win a trophy - even if it is only the League Cup. This could help us build up our own head of steam. In the league, I don't see us finishing above Chelsea or Man City. It is touch and go as to whether we finish above Liverpool.

Which makes that match pretty fricken important as well.

I don't think we can read much into whatever the result is tomorrow given both sides will make a lot of changes.

I've always felt like Chelsea have the strongest squad and for that reason I have them as favourites for the league right now. However I don't think this team is as machine like as they were during Mourinho's first spell, they will slip up a lot more.

I think only per and santi will start tomorrow from saturdays lineup.
Fab, jenks, per, verm, nacho, frimpong, rosicky, cazorla, gnarby, bentdner, park/akpom.

Cant see it differ too much from that 11.

In bad need of ox, podolski and theo back to take the burden of the guys who seem to play every game. Next weeks game v liverpool is a muat not lose. Wouldn't be too despondent with a draw as they are on fire..

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Originally Posted by Steve French

It is touch and go as to whether we finish above Liverpool.

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http://wakingupnow.com/blog/wp-conte...ptical-dog.jpg

Hmm.

It's quite worrying.

They've got a better squad than us. I mean Lukaku who's scoring for fun can't get into it which tells you all you need to know about their strength in depth thanks to Roman's billions. And finally they have a world class manager who should unfortunately be able to get the best out of that. Yup, they are rightfully favourites for the title.

Only thing we can keep doing in picking up three points and hope they drop points somewhere. Torres is due a dip in form and with David Luiz and Terry on his last legs their defence is a lot more vulnerable than it was in the past.

Gah, it's just so annoying that once we look to have finally look to have a title winning team and no Ferguson to stop us we have to have a reinvigorated Chelsea side under Mourinho. It's just not fair. :(

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Originally Posted by Steve French

It is touch and go as to whether we finish above Liverpool.

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Oh we'll definitely finish above them. We're a lot better than they are and play much better football. Suarez is world class no doubt but there were times last season when he was demolishing mid table teams on his own before having a stinker in the next game. Problem is that they don't have the range of class players like we do to take the burden off him.

They're also able to play a fresh first XI every week due to no European football and that's really shown itself so far. They're players are a lot more fresh compared to ours who have look exhausted at times.

Chelsea's second string and the team they field tomorrow might look something like this:

----------------Schwarzer-----------------

Azpilicueta-----Cahill----Luiz------Bertrand

------------Mikel-----Ramires-------------

Willian------------Mata----------De Bruyne

------------------Eto'o--------------------


We've looked dead out there on the field recently and a lot of players could do with this game off. We'll still field a strong side but we could do with resting a few players who need to recover for the Liverpool game. Giroud looked absolutely shattered in the last half hour of the Palace game. Our priority should be to keep our players fit for the league and CL games. A League Cup run would be nice for the fans but I don't think it'll be relevant to league form because, as Moe says, pretty much all premier league teams play weakened line-ups for it.

It's quite clear to me that our league form in the second half of last year was linked to only playing one game a week. And it wouldn't be a surprise to see us slipping away a bit with trying to keep up with 2 games a week with a fairly thin squad. Too early for me to even guess whether we can challenge for the league but for us to have a chance we need to keep the energy levels that we showed in the last couple of months. The next couple of league games will be six-pointers. If we beat Liverpool and win at Old Trafford the belief and momentum we get from that will be like when we competed away at Bayern last season. It will surpass confidence the players can get from winning the league cup.

I'd play:

Jenks--Mert---Verm---lil Crouchy-

Rosicky---Jack----Frimpong

Gnabry---Bendtner---Cazorla

lets be honest, Chelsea will play a world class eleven anyway so whats the point in us playing the kids? this is an important game as it gives us the chance to test ourselves against probably the best team in the league + keep momentum.

In answer to the original question I really don't think we can.
Our first 11 is good enough to seriously challenge but our squad depth isn't anywhere near good enough. A few injuries, especially to a key players, and we don't have replacements who can step in and keep us at the same level.

The result tomorrow is hard to call but I don't think it'll have any bearing on the league.

Difficult to overcome Mourinho's teams, as we're seeing from Torres he seems to get an extra 15-20% out of players and they seem to work harder for him, I guess it's because he makes them feel like he's one of them (his celebration yesterday kinda shows he's like any other fan/player).

Wenger has never beaten a Mourinho team, they are always organised and good at exposing a teams weaknesses something teams we've played so far have largely failed to do.

Chelsea also have a bigger squad and thus should have a much stronger team out there, the only thing going for us is the fact we're at home but I'm not overly confident we'll beat them. As for the league, they'll be tough to beat, they'll win those tight 50/50 games and that's why I reckon they're favourites for the title.

Our squad (particularly up front) is just too lightweight, we need an extra striker, a quality one to cover for injuries and a couple other players I reckon to give us more depth.