Interesting team selection today. The dropping of Todd for Ooijer wasn't a surprise after the last 15 minutes against Everton, but the dropping of Gray for Neill was a bit of a bolt from the blue. Not before time though imo. Chelsea started quickly and got a shot in early on, but the game soon settled into a hard-fought midfield battle. Chelsea lined up with four central midfielders meaning they lacked width but were incredibly solid, and we ran our socks off to close them down and force them into errors. Both McCarthy and Roberts dropped back at times to help out and, while this obviously restricted our attacking options, it served to stop Chelsea's. I can't remember Friedel really being troubled at all in the first half, although it was a similar story for Cech at the other end. Only a deflected free-kick and a mis-directed header (both by Pedersen) came remotely close to breaking the deadlock in our favour. So, 0-0 at half-time. It may sound dull but it was an absorbing half of football that saw Rovers giving at least as good as they got against the Champions. The second half had hardly started before we saw the turning point of the match. A free-kick around 30 yards out was swung in from the left by Lampard and both Terry and Ooijer fell in a heap at the near post. The ref gave a penalty straight away. I'd no idea why at the time but, after seeing it on tv, Ooijer did have his arms around Terry in an attempt to stop him running, but Terry did throw himself. Still, can't complain really, it was a pen. The most annoying thing about the whole incident though was that Lampard's ball was going to the far post - well away from both Terry and Ooijer. It was just so unnecessary. Lampard made no mistake from the spot and Rovers had a mountain to climb. But climb it we nearly did. For the next 20-25 minutes we took the game to Chelsea, showing tremendous character, and were unlucky not to equalise. Our best chance came shortly after Chelsea's goal. A cross from the right was controlled expertly on the chest by McCarthy on the edge of the six yard box, but his finish was too close to Cech. It was a fantastic chance, the sort you really have to score against the top teams. We should also have had a penalty during this period when Roberts' shirt was almost pulled off by Carvalho but, guess what, we didn't get it. In addition to the above we had a few long-range efforts, a number of corners, and generally bossed the game. Chelsea always looked dangerous on the break though as we committed more men forward and, sure enough, it was from one such break that killed the game off. A long ball (we've seen this before) found Chelsea's sub Drogba alongside Ooijer. The time to make the tackle was straight away, as soon as Drogba received the ball. Ooijer hesitated though, Drogba out-paced and out-muscled him, and scored a cracker from the edge of the area. Great goal by Drogba but poor, poor defending. That was that really. Gallagher made a late impressive cameo on the left (on earlier for Pedersen) but it wasn't enough. Friedel had little to do, had no chance with the goals (although he nearly got to the penalty), and was safe enough. In defence I thought both full-backs were superb. Neill's performance at left-back highlights what a loss he'll be if he does leave - his versatility is priceless. He was excellent, defending well when necessary but still giving us width and penetration further forward. He can play all across the back line it would seem and he may just find himself having an extended run at left-back after today's performance. Of course, it should be said that he didn't have a right winger up against him today, but you can only play against whoever your opponents choose and he played very well. But he wasn't as good as Emerton. It's like signing a new player! He's confident, he beats people, he crosses well, and he can defend. He's certainly not afraid to put his foot in either. This week I may have just seen two of the best right-back performances at Ewood for many a year. If only we could get our centre-halves sorted. I'm loathe to criticise Ooijer too much as it's his first game in a new league - he's bound to need time to adjust. But he's got some adjusting to do because he looked lightweight and slow today. Decent in the air though. Zurab was solid enough alongside him. We scrapped and fought for everything in midfield, but also used the ball well at times. Savage led from the front, running his socks off to close down Chelsea. His booking was a joke. Alongside him Reid wasn't as noticeable, but he did work hard and certainly played better than he did last Wednesday. Doesn't look like the player that finished last season yet though. Out wide I thought Bentley played well, worked hard, and looked classy at times on the ball. If he can repeat this sort of performance consistently then we could have a real player. He linked well with Emerton too and we looked a threat down the right. Unfortunately we didn't have quite the same threat down the left. Pedersen also played better than he did on Wednesday, it wouldn't have been hard, but he still wasted possession too often. His set-pieces seem to have got worse over the summer as well. He worked hard and defended well but is that enough? I don't think so. Gallagher's late cameo appearance may have been good enough to see him replacing MGP at Sheffield United. Hmmm...I'm finding it hard to judge the forwards today. It's got to be remembered that Chelsea have an excellent defence. That said, I'm not sure Roberts and McCarthy did enough today. Terry basically had Roberts in his pocket. On Wednesday Roberts was able to turn Everton's defence almost at will - not today. He lost almost everything in the air and didn't hold the ball up well enough for me. McCarthy showed impressive touch and technique again, but he was also guilty of over-doing things at times and he often ignored a simple pass, trying a flick or a difficult "killer" ball instead. On another day this may come off and we'll score some great goals, today though it was just frustrating to watch. He really should have scored his chance as well (although his control was top class to make it a chance in the first place). 2-0 to Chelsea will sound like a routine win for the Champions to anyone who didn't see the game, but it was far from routine. We matched them up to the penalty, and then were the better team until they scored the second. Ultimately the difference was that they got the key decisions in the game and they had a £20M striker to bring on in the second half. It's a cliche but if we play as well as that throughout the season we'll win a lot more than we lose.

2-1 Chelsea. They're too good and they'll be hungry.

Charlton getting the winner at the Valley with the last kick of the game about a minute after Friedel had scored an equaliser. Never have I been through such a range of emotions in such a short space of time.

I'm pretty sure that PA travel have gone bust. (Apologies if they haven't).

Here's a few photos of the ground: Bullen-Arena

If Reid's carrying an injury he shouldn't be playing. Mokoena or Douglas could have been more effective than Reid was last night. Have you ever considered that maybe he just had a bad game? It happens to the best of them you know.

Love it. Reid has a bad game but it's not his fault, he's not fully fit apparently. Had Neill done the same I'm sure you would have been equally sympathetic. And please, stop trying to make out I've got something against Reid. I've said a thousand times I think he's a good player, just not as good as you think he is. The bottom line is that Reid was poor yesterday and that's all I said. Unfortunately, because he's your favourite, you can't accept that.

It's very strange this. Reid was far poorer than Savage last night yet doesn't receive a hint of criticism on here. However, as soon as Savage misplaces a pass it's open season on him. Last season we played the majority of games with Tugay and Savage as our midfield pairing. This worked well as Tugay supplied the creativity while Savage did all the "ugly" things to stop the opposition. When Reid and Savage play together we lack creativity, especially when Reid is as anonymous as he was last night. What little creativity we did have was supplied by Bentley, but he's a little too inconsistent to replace Tugay at the moment. In an ideal world we'd sign a creative midfielder to challenge Tugay's place and then we'd have Tugay / AN Other competing for one spot in centre midfield and Reid / Savage competing for the other.

Some of the comments on here are amazing. Anyway, we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation but with a slight twist. Bentley, who was nominally playing wide-right in midfield, played very narrow for most of the game allowing Emerton (at right back) to almost play like a wing-back. And we started off well. We did all the pressing in the first 20 minutes or so and could, and maybe should, have had two or three goals. First of all, an excellent through ball by Bentley put Roberts clear down the inside-right channel. Unfortunately his first touch took him too wide and his subsequent shot was straight at Everton's keeper. Secondly, a cross from the right found Pedersen coming in from the left wing. He headed the ball back across goal where McCarthy messed up a half-chance on the volley from a tight angle. Finally, another good ball put Bentley clear of Everton's defence. With the ball bouncing awkwardly and Howard rushing out Bentley tried to dink the ball to Roberts, sadly Yobo cut out the pass with a last-ditch lunge. After that though the game settled into a bit of a scrap. Both teams were very physical, both worked hard to close each other down, and any fluency there might have been in the game was quickly snuffed out by the over-officious ref. 0-0 at half time. The good news was that Everton hadn't had a sniff. The second half continued in the same manner as the first had ended. All endeavour but precious little quality - until McCarthy stepped up about fifteen minutes in. He controlled a bouncing ball, and curled a great shot from the edge of the area just as it looked like he was slipping. Great finish. Unfortunately that was as good as it got for us. Everton stepped up a gear following our goal and our midfield got deeper and deeper, leaving our strikers totally isolated. As a result we just couldn't keep hold of the ball and we invited Everton on to us. First Johnson got through one-on-one with Friedel but the big man made yet another top save. Then Todd tangled with Johnson and was very lucky not to give away a penalty. Finally, a long, hopeful punt from defence caught both Todd and Zurab out at the back. McFadden broke clear and tried to lift the ball over Friedel, but Friedel somehow managed to get a hand to the ball and flick it onto a post (with a hint of a pull-back on McFadden as well maybe). The ball bounced back into the path of Cahill who slotted home well. A really crap goal to concede. You worried that Everton may go on to win it then, but they seemed content with a point and started to sit back. We tried to rally late on but it wasn't to be. A draw was probably a fair result. I thought Hughes got his substitutions wrong last night. First he replaced Bentley with Gally just as I thought bentley was having his best spell in the game. Then he brought off a fading Roberts but put Jeffers on. At that point we desperately needed someone to hold the ball up front, so why didn't Hughes put Kuqi on instead? Kuqi may be limited but he's capable of hold things up and allowing our defence a bit of respite - Jeffers jsut isn't that sort of player. Friedel made one top class save, did just about all he could for the Everton goal, and generally looked as good as ever. Our defence looked like the makeshift unit they were at times. Gray can't defend - it's as simple as that. Todd did well until the last 15 minutes when he should have conceded a penalty and was at fault for their goal. Zurab also did well from a footballing point of view, he's great at turning defence into attack, but I still think he's too lightweight at times. Emerton was a revelation at right-back and was probably my man of the match. We lacked real width and penetration in midfield. Pedersen and Reid were both anonymous for most of the game. Bentley did provide some creativity and I thought he did ok, certainly better than he has done in the past playing in midfield. Those slagging off Savage miss the point. He's not meant to be a creative player. He's a workhorse who's job is to close down the opposition and break up their attacks, something he did well all game. Although it was a tad embarrassing to see him, with two minutes to go, on the half way line in acres of space and not have a clue what to do with the ball. Up front Roberts and McCarthy looked lively, linked well, and it looks like there's plenty of goals in them as long as we can supply them with enough quality. All in all we played well in patches but didn't really do enough to win the game. I didn't go to Portsmouth but it sounds like we were much improved from that display, and I'm sure we'll be even better once we get a couple of our missing players back. Still not sure we're as good as last season though.

3-1 Rovers

I think we all need to keep a little perspective here. We lost our first game last season after playing awfully, but we didn't do too badly in the end. As awful as it sounds like we were, we had a couple of key players out and Neill must be miles behind the others in terms of match fitness. Remember he only started training a couple of weeks ago. Todd should get his card overturned, so we won't have any extra suspensions for Wednesday, and Neill will only miss the Chelsea game - a game we're probably not expecting to win anyway if we're honest. If we switch Reid to centre-midfield and, dare I say it, play Emerton on the right then we should be a bit more solid and have a bit more energy in the middle of the park against Everton. Still feel absolutely gutted though.

Like him or loathe him Emerton is the best right-winger we have. Until we sign someone better then I'm happy he's staying. It would be nice if we signed someone better though.

1. Chelsea 2. Liverpool 3. Manchester United 4. Arsenal 5. Tottenham Hotspur 6. Newcastle United 7. Everton 8. Blackburn Rovers 9. Portsmouth 10. Aston Villa 11. West Ham United 12. Bolton Wanderers 13. Wigan Athletic 14. Reading 15. Fulham 16. Charlton Athletic 17. Watford 18. Middlesbrough 19. Manchester City 20. Sheffield United

Do you have an ideas as to how BRISA could do this? Seriously, I'm not having a pop, I just wouldn't really know where to start personally. In the attendance document we relayed to the club the views of a few posters who didn't think the marketing at Rovers was as good as it should be. It's fair to say that John Williams and Tom Finn were a little shocked and surprised at the criticism, and perhaps a little upset. I think they believe they are doing a decent job marketing wise. How can we show otherwise - other than passing on the views of Rovers fans?

I thought I'd let the children have some fun, bless 'em.

Sorry, thought he said he'd given it up. I'm blaming it on the beer.

I know, but it was one of Theno's to be fair.

I'm sure you're aware of this already but, just in case you're not, this site will be useful to you: Football Governance Research Centre If you look in the Research and Publications section you'll find a few reports regarding competitive imbalance that may help your project.

Er...no.

Stuart Pearce for me.

Tempted to go for a repeat of last years 2-2 as I can't see us keeping a clean sheet but can see us scoring. But hey, I'll let my pre-season optimism get the better of me and go for a 3-2 Rovers win.

I just think you're a cock, cock. That's all.

Oops, you're quite right. I got so confused by his rant about Victoria Beckham that I mistook which Neviller he was talking about. I can only apologise.

Gary Neville's the best right-back in England by a mile and has been picked on merit. All this talk of conspiracy theories regarding his selection is just another product of 4 bogs' increasing madness.

Nice to see he's still as objective as ever. Bet he thought Neill had a stinker as well didn't he?