With ticket deadlines missed by most of the CFCnet crew, our troupe were dispersed far and wide in the Matthew Harding Lower stand for the Cardiff City game. It was still a surprise though to receive a text from one of our number, a certain Mr Wheeler, who enquired, 'I thought it was a 3pm kick-off. Why didn't any of you lot tell me to read my ticket?' Before adding, 'I'm in Tring.' Such are the perils of football kick-off times.

CFCnet was certainly 'up' for the game against Cardiff. We have to admit a muted kinship with the team from Wales simply because there is a Welsh streak coursing through the veins of some of our number. More than one of the CFCnet posse has dark memories of the Aberystwyth Chelsea Supporters Coach which used to leave the train station at 6am and return at 1am the next morning. 12 hours in a bus for each and every Chelsea home game - a good craic unless it's a 0-0 draw against Bolton.

The Cardiff game was a microcosm of Chelsea's 2009/2010 season. In the first half we played 4-3-2-1 using Drogba alone upfront with Joe Cole and Daniel Sturridge sitting behind. It didn't work. With this formation you need quick counterattacks and slick interchange between the front three. Drogba's goal aside, our first half attack didn't do this. Joe Cole in particular had a nightmare half with his control below-par, movement clunky and his passing continually going astray.

Joe Cole's performance was the big talking point at half time. For the first time ever we heard a few groans and mumblings from the Matthew Harding Lower and there's no doubt that if he wasn't 'one of us' the crowd would have been far harder on him.

We say 'one of us' because Joe was a Chelsea fan when he was a kid. There was once an iconic photo in the Chelsea programme of a young 12 year old Joe wearing the Chelsea white away team strip from 1990. Not only is he a true Chelsea fan but he always gives 100% on the field each and every match and as a fan that's all you can ask for. To top it off Joe is one of the politest and nicest guys you'd ever wish to meet.

For these reasons, the hauling off of Joe at half time was a bitter blow to both us and him. Whilst it didn't surprise us, it left us pondering on Joe's long term Chelsea future. The headline in the Sunday Mirror stating 'that's your Lotti' summed up our fears. The article suggested that with Joe out of contract in the summer, clubs from AC Milan, Tottenham to Villa are all now keeping tabs on him.

CFCnet is watching closely too because we've been planning for some time to make a banner proclaiming 'Joe Cole-one of us' which is to be hoisted alongside the banners for JT and Frank. We've put that on the back-burner simply because until he's signed a new contract, we're not forking out for a new banner!

We feel desperately sorry for Joe because his best position is sitting on his own in the hole behind one or two strikers. At Chelsea he's rarely fulfilled this role and instead has been parked on the wings. Not the speediest of players, yesterday he looked lost on the right wing and the clumpy pitch made his world-class technique look ordinary. Joe has also recently come back from a serious knee injury and with all these factors combined, he's not yet returned to anything like the sort of consistent form that made him our player of the year in 2008.

Our fears for Joe took a dramatic turn for the worse when Ancelotti replaced him with Kalou and reverted to a 4-3-3 system at half time. The change, however, transformed our team and made our poor first-half performance seem a distant memory. Ballack and Lampard were outstanding in midfield and their incisive passes to our front three runners tore Cardiff apart. They simply couldn't live with us.

We hope that Saturday's Jekyll & Hyde performance underlines to Ancelotti that we're at our best when taking the game to the opposition with fluid attacks and slick interchanges. This requires a bold approach yet with tough away assignments to Inter Milan, Liverpool, Tottenham and United all to be navigated in the coming months, we'd prefer to go down fighting with a courageous 4-3-3 formation than fade out with a 4-3-2-1 whimper.

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