UEFA Champions League - Shakhtar Donetsk vs Chelsea

This Tuesday, Chelsea face off against reigning Ukrainian Premier League champions Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. The match will be held Shakhtar's stadium, the Donbass Arena.

Chelsea go into the match off of yet another stunning result and impressive performance in a tough London derby away from home. The team remains unbeaten, having now gone undefeated in their last 11 competitive matches, and currently sit 4 points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Shakhtar, as well, are currently atop their own League table, with a whopping 12 point lead over their closest rivals after just 12 matches.




This face-off ends up being between the first and second placed teams in Champions League Group E, after Chelsea's 4-0 thumping of FC Nordsjælland and Shakhtar's impressive 1-1 draw away to Italian Champions Juventus in Matchday 2 three weeks ago.

This will be a very, very tough match; Shakhtar at home is a notoriously difficult time, and their 1-1 draw away to Juve makes them look even more of a threat. Nevertheless, if the team is focused and committed, there's no reason we can't come away with full points and put ourselves in a very good position to advance from this group.

All pre-match and post-match discussion can be held here, of course, and predictions can be posted here.

Lamps and Studge will both will start this one. Expect a start from Moses and Romeu as well although those are less likely.

Barrettinator wrote:Lamps and Studge will both will start this one. Expect a start from Moses and Romeu as well although those are less likely.

Terry as well almost certainly (depending upon if the club's "internal punishment" includes their own ban, which I doubt), with Luiz and Cahill up against a double-header vs ManWebbster United next week.

will be an interesting match. I will most likely miss it as I have an exam in the morning. We shall see.

hoping for 3 points but it won't be easy.

Kick wrote:will be an interesting match. I will most likely miss it as I have an exam in the morning. We shall see.

hoping for 3 points but it won't be easy.

Exams, weddings. What's wrong with you people?!

Priorities!

Time Zones is what is wrong.

and lack of money to move to England to change it.

Kick wrote:Time Zones is what is wrong.

and lack of money to move to England to change it.

Ik, ik. I'm jk, mate

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Kick wrote:Time Zones is what is wrong.

and lack of money to move to England to change it.

Ik, ik. I'm jk, mate

If I get an early rest I will probably watch it, if not. I will have to watch a replay.

Kick wrote:

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Kick wrote:Time Zones is what is wrong.

and lack of money to move to England to change it.

Ik, ik. I'm jk, mate

If I get an early rest I will probably watch it, if not. I will have to watch a replay.

Well, that's what the free Chelsea TV link is there for, after all

Indeed

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Barrettinator wrote:Lamps and Studge will both will start this one. Expect a start from Moses and Romeu as well although those are less likely.

Terry as well almost certainly (depending upon if the club's "internal punishment" includes their own ban, which I doubt), with Luiz and Cahill up against a double-header vs ManWebbster United next week.

If I were Robbie I'd play JT & Ivanovic and bring in Azpi just to rest Cahill & Luiz for the weekend.

Barrettinator wrote:

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Barrettinator wrote:Lamps and Studge will both will start this one. Expect a start from Moses and Romeu as well although those are less likely.

Terry as well almost certainly (depending upon if the club's "internal punishment" includes their own ban, which I doubt), with Luiz and Cahill up against a double-header vs ManWebbster United next week.

If I were Robbie I'd play JT & Ivanovic and bring in Azpi just to rest Cahill & Luiz for the weekend.

Not a bad shout at all. Would give Azpi some much, much needed minutes.

Don't take them lightly guys. They have a great home run.

it will be an interesting formation though.

The only person I feel absolutely MUST start is Studge.

If he's doesn't, I may well just start sending Robbie death threats

Kick wrote:Don't take them lightly guys. They have a great home run.

it will be an interesting formation though.

Still a strong back four. No matter the opposition, we need to rotate the squad for the run of games we're going to have or we'll run some players out of steam while not giving good playing time to others.

NordsLOLand at home will be a good chance to give some of the non-regulars a chance, like Moses, Marin (if he can be retrieved from the grip of the elusive pirates, of course), Azpi, Romeu, etc. Provided everything goes to plan in the 2 games against Shakhtar, that is.

Good call. Somehow I wish we had a young CB to play. Chalobah would have been obvious but atm I don't think Robbie thinks that highly of any youth CB we have. Makes the rotation between JT-Luiz-Cahill-Ivanovic a bit thin. If a god forbid one or two of them go down with an injury.

undefeated for 33 games

last loss against porto 2-0 November

Barrettinator wrote:Good call. Somehow I wish we had a young CB to play. Chalobah would have been obvious but atm I don't think Robbie thinks that highly of any youth CB we have. Makes the rotation between JT-Luiz-Cahill-Ivanovic a bit thin. If a god forbid one or two of them go down with an injury.

Exactly. Depending on who you ask, some see Ake as someone who could potentially come through. Can't say, myself.

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Barrettinator wrote:Good call. Somehow I wish we had a young CB to play. Chalobah would have been obvious but atm I don't think Robbie thinks that highly of any youth CB we have. Makes the rotation between JT-Luiz-Cahill-Ivanovic a bit thin. If a god forbid one or two of them go down with an injury.

Exactly. Depending on who you ask, some see Ake as someone who could potentially come through. Can't say, myself.

Tbh, I haven't really been following the youth team of recent. My favorite CB besides Chalobah is still Bruma. Dunno if he's ever going to be a regular for Chelsea though.

Barrettinator wrote:

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Barrettinator wrote:Good call. Somehow I wish we had a young CB to play. Chalobah would have been obvious but atm I don't think Robbie thinks that highly of any youth CB we have. Makes the rotation between JT-Luiz-Cahill-Ivanovic a bit thin. If a god forbid one or two of them go down with an injury.

Exactly. Depending on who you ask, some see Ake as someone who could potentially come through. Can't say, myself.

Tbh, I haven't really been following the youth team of recent. My favorite CB besides Chalobah is still Bruma. Dunno if he's ever going to be a regular for Chelsea though.

Same, I'm afraid, The last match I saw in full was the Man City game, which was the first of the season months ago.

Apart from them, though, there's Kalas, who apparently has done very well on loan the past 2 seasons.

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Barrettinator wrote:

ShedEnd1905 wrote:

Barrettinator wrote:Good call. Somehow I wish we had a young CB to play. Chalobah would have been obvious but atm I don't think Robbie thinks that highly of any youth CB we have. Makes the rotation between JT-Luiz-Cahill-Ivanovic a bit thin. If a god forbid one or two of them go down with an injury.

Exactly. Depending on who you ask, some see Ake as someone who could potentially come through. Can't say, myself.

Tbh, I haven't really been following the youth team of recent. My favorite CB besides Chalobah is still Bruma. Dunno if he's ever going to be a regular for Chelsea though.

Same, I'm afraid, The last match I saw in full was the Man City game, which was the first of the season months ago.

Apart from them, though, there's Kalas, who apparently has done very well on loan the past 2 seasons.

Almost forgot Kalas. Can play the Ivanovic role for us the other way round(CB/RB instead of RB/CB).

Yea, there's definitely alot of good youngsters in our ranks. Whether or not they'll be given a proper chance, though, I've learned not to hold my breath for...

I'm of the opinion that Marin should never have been bought. We could have used Piazon(whom I think should be getting more involved this season) for whatever role we were preparing for Marin. Something's gotta give way now.

Barrettinator wrote:I'm of the opinion that Marin should never have been bought. We could have used Piazon(whom I think should be getting more involved this season) for whatever role we were preparing for Marin. Something's gotta give way now.

Exactly. They're buying without any real plan, it seems. I made this point in my thread on here in like June about all these first-teamers being signed and it being bad news for the youngsters, and you all dismissed me

Hahaha, in all seriousness though, no more. Any more creative players brought in (like all these plastic who want Neymar bought ) would surely kill off whatever chance people like Piazon have left of getting into the side.