Starman60

Following some of our previous performances, I'm a little apprehensive about playing Swansea. We never have an easy game there, and they are playing well this season. And with City not playing until Sunday any slip up could be crucial.If we win then happy days, 5 points clear and the pressure is on them. But if we lose!!!!! Well I dont want to contemplate what that will do to the confidence of both teams. So, following my deep and mind-bogglingly obvious observations, the simple answer is.....................DONT FUCKING LOSE

Much and all as I admire Messi and his unbelievable talent, I do not want him at Chelsea. Yes I know, you all think I'm nuts. But if you spend 200 million on a player and pay him 300 thousand a week I think that what you end up with is a ruined club. Messi would be "the star man", who would command a starting place every game no matter who the manager was.Other players would become disillusioned with the set-up as they would always feel second best. What we have now at Chelsea is a "team", with no player any bigger than his team mates. I feel Messi would totally destroy this.Any player who has such a major influence in who the manager is , or should be, or who plays and who doesn't, is to me, a danger to the club. So lets steer clear of this guy. Anyway...........I dont think we need him

Mourinho wont drop Gary Cahill, and I wouldn't want him dropped either. Yes, he was piss poor against Spurs, but do you not think that he knows that himself??? And if he doesn't, would you not think that Jose has brought him in, sat him down, and shown him a video of the game and all the mistakes he made??(and a few of his team mates too) That's what I would do, and then I'd pick him against Newcastle and tell him to go out and show me exactly what he's got and why we bought him. He has hot become a bad defender overnight. So lets stick with him for this game and see how he responds, and if he doesn't produce a positive display then maybe think about dropping him for Zouma, who, it has to be said is progressing very nicely.

Superbly written article that says it all about Mikel. A good(ish) player who does not suit our new style of play.

Very unlucky to come away with only one point today, but Burnley taking a point at City really made my day. Southampton is a tough place to go, and after a below average first half display I thought we played superbly in the second half.........up to the 18 yard box. Beyond that we were a little lacking to say the least, but hey, these things happen, and we are not going to win every match. A win at the Spuds and this game will be a distant memory and maybe even a good point gained come the end of the season. But my gripe about today is that I dont like Mikel in the starting line-up. he's a liability in my book.And if you look you will see he was involved in their goal. Harsh on my behalf? maybe!!! But I think Ramires would have been a better choice for this match. I think we payed them too much respect by playing two defensive midfielders. I guessed correctly that Schurrle would start instead of Willian, but he was poor and failed to justify his selection. And finally, I think we are being harshly judged for previous diving antics, as Fabregas had a"nailed on" penalty turned down and he got booked into the bargain. WTF was the linesman watching? He would have had a perfect view of the incident but failed (miserably) to do the right thing. I wonder will we hear as much this as we did about Ivanovich's dive against West Ham? I dont think so.........

I don't want Mikel starting against the Saints as I think this match will be played at too high a pace for him. I think Schurrle will get the nod ahead of Willian as he looked a little tired against West Ham, and Mourinho will want him at his best for the Spurs match,(If only to show them what they lost out on) Perhaps Ramires in for Oscar??? Though I think I would have a better chance of winning the lottery than trying to second guess Mourinho

Can I have a nutty one please

MUST WIN GAME.............3 POINTS, NO EXCUSES. Lets show them Manc f@ckers we are here for the long haul. Although City have 2 handy games over Christmas, if we win our 2 we will be home and hosed PS Happy Christmas Guys ans Gals.......Lets make it great by staying top for Christmas

you and me have to eat a little humble pie. The f'cker passed more balls forward tonight than in the whole of his career.......and scored a screamer from 1 yard

Absolute screamer from Mikel.... Good all round performance. Shurrle played very well and will seriously challenge Willian for his spot as I think his performances have been falling a bit short lately. And as to who we draw in the knockout stages........Who gives a f@ck,,,,,we'll whack them

I've been married for 30 years and my wife has made more passes at me than Mikel has made in the past month And you can imagine how mant that was !!!!!!!!!!

I admire your loyalty to him Kieran, and yes, he played very well in that game, but so did the other 10 heroes. But you cant live on the memories of one game. I feel he have consistently flattered to deceive and never fulfilled the potential he was supposed to possess.

Mikel is a half decent player.....................But you dont win anything with half decent players. He is long past his peak (whenever that was !!) and he just doesn't instill confidence when I see him play. Yes he made a lot of passes on Saturday, but in what direction. The guy is too slow and too cumbersome for the Premiership and especially for the way Chelsea are playing now. Thanks Mikel, but it's way past time for you to move on. I personally don't think he ever justified the fee we had to pay United.

Have to say I am disappointed with yesterdays result, but relieved to have that "invincibles" tags removed, as it just added extra pressure to the squad. Our performances in the league have been falling a little short lately, and I feel that Willian and Oscar have gone off the boil. Hazard has carried them recently, but he did look a little jaded yesterday. I only saw the highlights, but what was glaringly obvious to me was that without Matic our defence was exposed time after time. Gary Cahill had a "mare" of a game but I will not criticize him on this one match. but I will lay a lot of the blame with Mikel as I don't think he is reaching the standard required as a defensive midfielder. I always feel we will leak goals when he plays and he does not instill a lot of confidence when he plays. I am also slightly worried that Costa too seems to be having a downturn in form. I know that teams are becoming wiser as to how he plays, but he needs to adapt a bit to counteract that. I hope that next week all the players I have mentioned make me eat my words, and I will happily do so as long as we return to winning (in style) ways. But please.............DONT PLAY MIKEL AGAIN !!

FFS !!!!!!! We lose our first game in months, we absolutely batter them for the last 15 mins, and you reckon on this performance that Mourinho should be sacked !! Get a grip man. if we change managers every time we lose a game where would we end up ?? And anyway, it was never going to happen that we could go the season unbeaten and now that's that monkey off our backs. No matter what happens we will still be three points clear at the top, so stop f@cking panicking. Newcastle always give us a tough game and today was no different. It just wasn't our day........ But we will bounce back . Have faith my man, this will be our season

Following Citeh's 0-3 win over Southampton, this game is a "must-win" for us. Sunderland exposed a weakness in our team (inability to break down team buses parked in front of the goals) I dont think that the Spuds can defend as good as them but you never know. They blow hot and cold. Last season it was calamitous defending that gave us the edge over them. A repeat of that would be nice. If we fail to get a result I'm sure the headlines will read that we are a spent force and that the title is now Citeh's. So lets field our strongest team, beat these guys early and then make some astute substitutions, then we can concentrate on Newcastle and the big threat that they will offer us. 6 points out of 6 in these two games would really dishearten the chasing pack

Looking forward to a win today.....But more importantly, I just hope Stevie Gerrard has another great game for us

Seems like the curse of November strikes again. August September and October we are cruising and then fucking November comes and we struggle over QPR and now drop points against a team who have only ever won one game in the Champions League. seriously though our guys need to start getting their shit together from the kick-off. Shurrle looks lazy and disinterested, and Willian just didn't show up for this game.For their goal both of our full backs had tucked in way too much, with Ivanovic allowing way too much time to get the cross in and then Luis is 10 yards off his man when he gets the ball, allowing him time to place it in the top corner. Although we did up the pace in the second half it always seemed like it was just going to be one of those nights. Major improvement needed for Saturdays match against Liverpool. They will have seen tonights game and will realise we are there for the taking if we play like that again. Jose get your hair-dryer out and sort them out now.

This game could have been a banana skin for us, but we came through on a difficult wet night on a poor pitch. But saying that, Salah, Mikel and especially Shurrle were poor to say the least. Salah needs to focus on team play more (like he did for the goal) and not be shooting from impossible angles. Pass the ball, link the play and put in crosses , thats what he should be doing. Shurrle, well he seems to think that since he won the World Cup he is the "finished item" Well you're not. Again he needs to cut out the shooting from impossible angles. I really thought that this game was set up for him, but he failed the test, big time. And Mikel? I always fear for us when he plays because I just dont rate the guy (sorry). too many unforced errors in his game and he just looks lazy.i dont think he brings anything to the game when he plays. The young guys done well, nothing outstanding, just solid safe performances. And finally Drogba............F@cking Legend

Of course he will be able to improve his heading ability..............But unlike Rooney he wont need a hair transplant to assist him

FFS we're only 5 games into the season and you reckon Fabregas is tired already !!!!!! These guys are highly trained athletes who dont get tired after 450 minutes of football in 5 weeks. Maybe after Xmas when the weather gets bad and he has played two games every week for a couple of months, then I'll agree with you. But right now the guy is still getting used to playing with us and is champing at the bit to play every minute he can. Anyway, Villa is not the game to blood Ake. Bring him on, with twenty minutes to go (but only if we are winning 3-0)

I know we were winning 0-1 against ten men and I know Frank scored the equalizer. But overall, we defended superbly and resolutely, perhaps were a bit apprehensive while attacking, but we were playing away against the Champions, and I would have accepted a draw before the start. But thats not my main point, this is............... A huge congratulations to the Chelsea travelling fans. To give big Frank such a huge ovation after he had scored against us and taken two points off us showed CLASS. I dont know of any other team who's supporters who have ever shown such admiration and loyalty to a past player and you really made me proud..........Take a bow Chelsea travelling fans, you deserve it.

This will be our biggest test to date (obviously) and I really hope they play Lampard against us, because our guys know him inside out. Also this is not the Frank we used to have. He is much slower and, in my opinion, a shadow of the great player we used to idolise. City will be smarting after our double over them last season, so if we come away with even a draw I will be happy. Our defence isn't as watertight as last season either and I think we will need to score at least twice to come out of this game with anything.

Barbara how could you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought you loved me???????????????? Seriously though a great article and a class analysis

Fabregas will be a great player for us. Neville can pick all the holes he likes in his performance, but in the overall picture of the season so far he has made something like 6 assists for us. And Costa is reaping the rewards from Cesc's play. Matic was the one to blame for the Swansea goal as he had his pocket picked by Routledge. After Mourinho's half time words of wisdom and a substitution we were a far more balanced side. We are only four games into the season and Mourinho is still fine tuning the team. And you can be sure that when he is finished, he will get he very best out of Fabregas. I think the guy is playing superbly for us and he has filled a major void left by Lampard. For me our defence is a worry, we cannot hope to outgun every team in the league and hope that if they score 3 we will score 4.(although we do look capable of this) Just a note on Frank....."Frank Lampard is a ghost his former self" This was stated by one of the tabloids following his performance against Arsenal. It's a shame as he will only damage his reputation by turning out for City, as he is clearly a spent force in the Premiership.