Other Premier League games 11th-12th May

[G]

I wanted Lampard to fall short but now he's done it I feel oddly pleased for him. Fantastic achievement.

It is.Plenty of penalty's to boost his numbers but even then,great return.

[Red_Polo]

Looking at the table i hope Newcastle get relegated

We need them to buy AC though!

[McDermotX]

They added Hazard - a fantastic player - and Oscar to a team that finished 6th. I wouldn't call it incredible at all.

Love watching Hazard play - the way he travels at speed with the ball is a joy to watch.

This.

Progress.

[danperkins]

They added Hazard - a fantastic player - and Oscar to a team that finished 6th. I wouldn't call it incredible at all.

Love watching Hazard play - the way he travels at speed with the ball is a joy to watch.

Hazard,Mata & Oscar really are outstanding talents. Lampard has been superb since end of December when he got a chance, he has dragged them through games. Always thought he was a bit of a douche, but he really is a fantastic player and fair play to him

They lack striking options and are so over loaded with midfield attacking options it has taken the focus off that. In saying that both their strikers combined have scored nearly 40 goals for them this season.. not too shabby for a team lacking striking options. They do need a DM but they have such a solid squad with goals everywhere. Thing is they have underperformed.

Regardless of who is in charge of them, with players like that in your team and solid squad players this late scrape into the champs league is the very minimum, sure people were talking Chelsea up for the title ffs and they could be 26 points behind United by tomorrow.

If they win the Europa League IMO it's good achievement, but sure a lot LFC fans didn't even want to be in the Europa League and that's in our position, never mind the ambitions of a club that won the treble last season!

Chelsea thought they would be challenging for the title, they are Champions League holders and thought they would challenge again this year too.. instead they struggled in the domestic league, got knocked out of the champs league groups stages & are settling for the Europa League.

I'm sure they will be delighted with champs league qualification & winning the Europa ,but at the start of the season they were expecting to be contention for premier league & the champions league.. both they came nowhere near even challenging for.

If Rafa wasn't managing them everyone on here would be saying it has been a poor & underachieving season for that particular Chelsea side.

[Mattshark]

Look at the age of Hazard, Mata and Oscar. You seem to be expecting them to win every game for Chelsea, which they can't do. Through the team in general there are not enough goals and without a good dm they defence is exposed and they probably lack enough quality in that department too. Their depth has been diminished too.

Basically they are not as good as United and City.

[danperkins]

Look at the age of Hazard, Mata and Oscar. You seem to be expecting them to win every game for Chelsea, which they can't do. Through the team in general there are not enough goals and without a good dm they defence is exposed and they probably lack enough quality in that department too. Their depth has been diminished too.

Basically they are not as good as United and City.

Clearly as the league doesn't lie, but they are much better than they have performed this season.

No matter what people say, Chelsea have underachieved this season. The Europa League and Champs League qualification will have to do for them, for us it would be amazing.. for them it should be standard. Was talking to few Chelsea lads about this yesterday, they don't mind Rafa either but said that regardless if they win the Europa League they have underachieved but also said they'd be delighted to get any sort of silverware at this stage.

[Mattshark]

Clearly as the league doesn't lie, but they are much better than they have performed this season.

No matter what people say, Chelsea have underachieved this season. The Europa League and Champs League qualification will have to do for them, for us it would be amazing.. for them it should be standard. Was talking to few Chelsea lads about this yesterday, they don't mind Rafa either but said that regardless if they win the Europa League they have underachieved but also said they'd be delighted to get any sort of silverware at this stage.

I don't think they have underachieved, they had no chance of CL before Rafa took over. They are in probably the accurate position with regards too the quality of their team. Two cup semi finals too. The issue is over rating their team and an unrealistic expectation.

You agreed with all the deficiencies I pointed out in Chelsea, yet you seem think that 4 players, 3 young, 2 in their debut season can change that.

When you need to play midtable quality players like Cahill, Moses and Ba, you are not going to challenge for the title.

[Shaggy]

Clearly as the league doesn't lie, but they are much better than they have performed this season.

No matter what people say, Chelsea have underachieved this season. The Europa League and Champs League qualification will have to do for them, for us it would be amazing.. for them it should be standard. Was talking to few Chelsea lads about this yesterday, they don't mind Rafa either but said that regardless if they win the Europa League they have underachieved but also said they'd be delighted to get any sort of silverware at this stage.

Ha.

No matter how anyone dresses it up it's not "an incredible squad". It's a 6th place squad + Hazard, Oscar and Azpilicueta.

If they've underachieved anywhere it is in the Champions League, which Di Matteo got them knocked out of. Rafa couldn't do anything about that - he had one game and won it 6-1. They should have won the World Club Cup, but in the league they have improved by 3 places, and have made a European final.

The facts are:

• This squad - minus Hazard (22), Oscar (21) and Azpilicueta - came 6th last season
• They also won the CL
• By the time Benitez took over, they were all but out of this year's CL
• His remit was to get them into next season's CL and win a Cup
• They will finish 3rd - an improvement of 3 places
• They are in the Europa League final - so job (almost) done
• If they beat Everton they will total 11 points more than last season
• Scored more goals in the league
• Conceded fewer goals in the league
• 56% win ratio in the league and 56% in all comps

Done a good job, and yet another European trophy for him would be a great way to end a difficult job done well.

[Marina]

Yep, think Rafa has ultimately done a great job at Chelsea. He's still underrated though. Maybe once he leaves there people will really start to recognize his achievements.

Ahh I'm all about Rodgers and think he deserves all our support but I do miss Rafa. There's a piece of my heart with his name on it!

[Shaggy]

Regardless of who is in charge of them, with players like that in your team and solid squad players this late scrape into the champs league is the very minimum, sure people were talking Chelsea up for the title ffs and they could be 26 points behind United by tomorrow.

Your maths is poor too

They're 13 behind them. If the Mancs win tomorrow it'll be 16. Not 26. Still, you made it look really bad!

When he took over they were in 4th place, 6 points behind - and his first game was against the champions. United have pulled further clear obviously (they've extended the gap over Chelsea by a mere 7 points), but they've pulled further clear of every team after a relentless run and Benitez is powerless to do anything about that. As you can see, on the day he took over, City were 2 points behind United with a game in hand. They're now 10 points behind having played the same number of games.

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2012-2013/table/2012-11-24

Rafa's league record there is: P25 W14 D6 L5 Pts48. I think that's 1.92 points per game.

Not spectacular at all but good enough to achieve his objective in the league, all achieved against a backdrop of hatred from his own supporters, dropping Terry most weeks and juggling a **** load of fixtures.

[Phoenix07]

Shaggy, you remind me of Balague.

[danperkins]

Ha.

No matter how anyone dresses it up it's not "an incredible squad". It's a 6th place squad + Hazard, Oscar and Azpilicueta.

If they've underachieved anywhere it is in the Champions League, which Di Matteo got them knocked out of. Rafa couldn't do anything about that - he had one game and won it 6-1. They should have won the World Club Cup, but in the league they have improved by 3 places, and have made a European final.

The facts are:

• This squad - minus Hazard (22), Oscar (21) and Azpilicueta - came 6th last season
• They also won the CL
• By the time Benitez took over, they were all but out of this year's CL
• His remit was to get them into next season's CL and win a Cup
• They will finish 3rd - an improvement of 3 places
• They are in the Europa League final - so job (almost) done
• If they beat Everton they will total 11 points more than last season
• Scored more goals in the league
• Conceded fewer goals in the league
• 56% win ratio in the league and 56% in all comps

Done a good job, and yet another European trophy for him would be a great way to end a difficult job done well.

The facts are, they got knocked out of Champs League (i know not his fault), they got knocked out of all domestic cups & they are currently 13 points behind United.

They spent over 70 million odd euros on those 3 players you've mentioned and Victor Moses. 70 million euros! Now that's adding to the quality that is already there.

No matter what you say Chelsea expected to compete for the Champs League & the Premier Legaue when the season kicked off. I don't care who is in charge, they have under achieved.

I'm impartial about it, i don't care about Chelsea and i'm not swayed that it's Rafa Benitez. Just saying that their achievements at the end of the season (Europa winners or not) are no where near their genuine expectations at the start of the season.

They have under achieved this season. You are only making this argument because it is Rafa, otherwise you wouldn't even bother wasting your time defending Chelsea F.C.

[danperkins]

And my maths is always bad

Still doesn't change the fact that you are defending Chelsea F.C. because Rafa is has been their manager this season. That's a fact mate.

[Shaggy]

I'm not defending Chelsea nor am I arsed about them, I'm defending Benitez's record against the usual misinformation that's out there.

They underachieved in the Champions League, can't argue with that.

Since November 25th, they've at the very least met their objectives. Abramovich gave him an objective of finishing 3rd and deemed anything else a bonus, so by his own boss's definition he has exceeded his objectives.

[Gibbo]

I think he's more defending Rafa than the club.

I think Chelsea as a club have underachieved, but Rafa given the challenge from the beginning has over-achieved.

CL qualification and a trophy, will probably will be the same outcome as City.

Decent season for then all round. If Jose finishes in exactly the same place next season people wont make much of it.