Some of these posts are looking for a defensive park the bus approach in the hope that we can stop them scoring in the first half.
Roy can play and 5-4-1 with all his old troops, even wheeling on Tomkins on to play alongside Hughes and Schlupp. Ayew could drop to play a fully defensive role.
The footballing equivalent of Dads Army, standing on the Polish border in 1939 watching the German tanks approaching.
On the other hand he could go for broke and in a Churchillian pre match speech tell them that it is s*** or bust and that if they are going to go down, then they will go down fighting and he will recite Shakespeare and say
"That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

Following Palace since 25 Feb 1978

I shall be distributing white handkerchiefs outside the main entrance to be waved in unison with some gusto in order to protest against the current state of affairs, as they do in Spain !!

On a serious note let's hope that we surprise all and sundry with applause thundering down like monsoon rain on a tin roof.

If a motivated Chelsea team turn up (and I fully expect that to be the case) then line up and tactics are really unimportant! If we play the same suspects then we will suffer a painful 0-3 defeat! If we throw our unprepared (Roys fault) youngsters into the lions den then 0-3 or worse but we might unearth one or two gems to compliment our returning stars towards the end of the season!

Either way result is dependent on Chelsea’s performance!

Will gift the opposition an early goal (again). Then try and chase the match for the next 80 minutes. nil points.

Oh God - no another early gift of a goal to the opposition.

I would be happy with a good performance and would be very happy with a 1-1 and am not giving up just being realistic.

Johnstone

Munoz Andersen Richards Mitchell

Wharton Lerma Hughes

Ayew Mateta França

Hope it goes well especially as it is going to be cold and I will be there

Edited by crystal-purley (12 Feb 2024 3.26pm)

Enjoying getting up later and not having someone who knows better than me (apart from the missus of course).