This Game is all About Zola

Prediction for this game (Chelsea (h)), for the smart arses, consensus of those says we are going to get slaughtered and what a revelation that is eh? Read the papers look at our form & position in the table, read all the negative stuff about Zola and the inevitable follows, we’re going to get tonked. Great bit of deduction Watson no matter how elaborately you say it – The Alan Shearer’s school of punditry, state the obvious and you can’t go wrong.
Would be much harder to predict Zola’s team and tactics, especially as he says he is not going to abandon his principles for this one, even if we do languish at bottom of the pile – well any defeat puts us bottom because we are currently on -9 goals with Pompey, both on 14 points.

Is it possible we can take any heart from what 'our' three plus Murphy did to Manure yesterday or what a spirited Pompey did to the Pool, albeit the scousers know their season is over, despite what the pundits thought back in August?

I believe Zola has to get real and take this game on merit, they are top of the heap and could be rampant against us today if he try’s to play the beautiful game in and around our own defensive third or mid-field where we continue to lose or give the ball away cheaply.

Set up a true 4-5-1 and defend for our lives a 5-4-1 even and defend like we did when we beat Arsenal at the Emirates. Tell each and every player that he demands they give blood for this game. We should be very physical, not let them settle anywhere on the park; continually hassle them from start to finish. Let Lampard and Drogba know we are there very early on with some crunching tackles (enter Mark Noble).

It will do Zola no good if he has one eye on the Boxing day game 'gainst Pompey - we need to field our best fit XI so important are these points. The world and his ladder expects us to get beat so it's time to stick pride in the back pocket and play with intent - if this rabble can do that

I don’t know if ‘this team’ understands the dislike that the West Ham fans have for Chelsea; in the past that aversion has raised the atmosphere at the Boleyn and thereby lifted the players to put in a performance. If they can do that today we might just have a chance or at the very least be able to keep it down to, say, two nil.

I get the feeling this game is ALL about the manager- he looks a beaten man lately who is out of his depth without a clue what to do or where to go from here. If it don't work fix it