The Chels

Well Mourinho did that by bottling the league even earlier than Ancelotti. I don't rate Carlo but you can't put the entire blame on him when Real lose points against the smaller sides. They are a lot better than you give them credit for. Do you think we'd find it easy against the likes of Malaga, Bilbao, Sevilla and Valencia? We have struggled a lot against teams who press us well (e.g. West Ham, Tottenham, Liverpool) and those Spanish sides are a hell of a lot better at it than their English counterparts. I don't think you can just put Atletico's title victory down to Barca/Real being poor. If Real and Barca both beat Atletico twice (which they would probably have done if it weren't for Simeone) then both those teams would have had more than 90 points and Atleti wouldn't have won the league. They had to win it themselves and not just by defeat, which you could argue was the case for City last year. They lost 3 out of the 4 games against 2nd and 3rd place so they were quite lucky to win it in the end.

Yeah that was pretty horrific. In theory Real and Barca should be winning almost every game but football isn't played on paper. La Liga teams do regularly get whipped by Real/Barca but there are plenty of teams who play very well against the big sides, especially at home. Good youth academies, atmosphere and tactics certainly help in reducing the gap. For example Real Sociedad have beaten Barca, Real and Atleti at home this season, and Malaga played a tactically perfect game at the Nou Camp the other week. You rate Bilbao higher than the likes of Valencia and Sevilla? Those two teams would and do give anyone a game, particularly at home. Valencia are only one point off Atleti right now and it would be very interesting to see how we'd fare against them.

If Madrid don't win the league or CL then Caro is probably gone. Who can they replace him with though?

100 points has only happened twice. I think it says more about how incredible those teams were and less about the league. It is pretty normal for big teams to lose points against smaller ones and La Liga is nowhere near as bad as people make out. Mourinho got 85 points in his last season at Real while we got 82 last year without a consistent striker. The Spanish league would be even better if the TV rights money were shared more equally as was planned (although I'm not sure what's happening on that front now). Ancelotti's league record is awful but his reputation seems to be defined by his 3 CL victories. I wouldn't mind City getting him because he is no threat.

Real Madrid have just suffered their 5th league defeat of the season. Atleti have also lost 5 and Barca have lost 4. In contrast we have lost only 2 league games. The idea that La Liga is a poor league where the smaller teams always roll over for the bigger teams (an idea that Mourinho himself perpetuates) really is nonsense.

The players have been given a couple of days off and since he's in Madrid I guess he just decided to catch up with his ex-teammates. It's a bit strange seeing that though.

Willian had the better angle and the GK was out of position, which makes it an easier chance than Hazard's. Costa completely screwed his chance up though so the two situations aren't really comparable.

I think we should have overloaded that side since that's where most of the danger was stemming from. Azpi is better equipped to defend 1v1 but Jose probably thinks both defenders are equally capable of defending for themselves (which I disagree with). It was clear that West Ham had the complete beating of Ivanovic and it made for rather frustrating viewing: Downing skips past Ivanovic, crosses ball into the box, mayhem ensues, Chelsea somehow survive. Repeat.

It's been a problem for a while. I think a big cause is that our midfielders tend to be rather weak in 50-50 challenges. We seem to lose a lot more of them than you'd expect and winning/losing them is the difference between having to defend a (counter) attack and initiating a counter yourself. I think it helps that both keepers know their fate at the end of the season. Cech will almost certainly leave and Courtois will be made the undisputed number one GK.

Completely agree. It was Messi-esque. Hazard was hugely unlucky not to get an assist tonight.

Great performance. The run for the chance where Ramires hit the post was sensational, as was most of his play to be honest. The probability of Willian scoring from that position in front of an open net was (in theory at least) too high for Hazard not to pass. It was the right decision IMO.

We just cannot cope defensively against teams that press us. I lost count of the number of crosses and chances they created from our right side. We got the 3 points though and that's all that matters. And how did Willian not score?

The most pleasing difference was that we went for the second goal. It duly arrived, we had good counter attacking opportunities and we limited Spurs to very few chances. Bravo, Jose!

Very similar to most of our big game performances this season - playing poorly but take the lead. Please don't let another 1-0 lead slip.

Not a fan of the line-up but we'll see how it goes. Expecting the worst, hoping for the best.

There are more reliable sources too: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/28/jose-mourinho-tottenham-chelsea-approach-2007 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/managers/jose-mourinho/11442473/Chelsea-manager-Jose-Mourinho-reveals-Tottenham-tried-to-hire-him.html Personally I don't think he'll ever go to Arsenal. Wenger will still have some influence there after he leaves and won't let it happen. I can see him going to United though.

Spurs' twitter posted about it while ours is too busy letting everyone know how many plastic flags we've got prepared.

The match against Derby was the only time Ivanovic (officially) played at CB this season and he just so happened to be responsible for the goal conceded. He seems to be a mistake waiting to happen wherever he plays but I guess at RB he is more likely to make up for that with some output at the attacking end. He actually also drops very deep into the box quite often to the point where he is at CB but that doesn't see him defend particularly well (e.g. Lukaku sitter and countless other occasions). Ivanovic clearly does bring certain qualities to the team. For example the opposition would likely never see him as an aerial weakness at the back post the way Atletico and PSG did against Azpi, he is our outball from goalkicks and he provides a threat from set pieces. But that doesn't mean complaints about his defending should be completely dismissed. The biggest qualms with Ivanovic tend to be that he defends nonchalantly and amateurishly when 1v1, and that he suffers from regular, costly lapses in concentration (or intelligence as we saw with the Moreno chance at Stamford Bridge). I think these are valid concerns that can't simply be justified by the argument that he is instructed to attack a lot.

Tomorrow looks like being a pretty damn good day of football viewing though. 11:00 - Valencia v Real Sociedad 12:00 - Liverpool v City 14:05 - Arsenal v Everton 16:00 - Chelsea v Tottenham 18:00 - Sevilla v Atletico 20:00 - Real Madrid v Villareal (or Monaco v PSG)

Hmm an interesting point. Putting any tactical complaints to one side the number of times we have lost 1-0 leads this season and considering how we bottled the PL and CL at the end of last season, it does suggest we have a set of mentally weak players. Right now we seem to be very far from Jose's first side in terms of mental strength but I do hope we can improve on it. Winning this final would be a good start.

Wow. The management of the club these past few years has been unbelievable.

That's a really good point. If Spurs do try to press us then given the size of the pitch and the fact they're playing today they will likely leave huge spaces for us to exploit. Our counter-attacking has been poor this season but it's a final so hopefully we'll up our game.

I wouldn't be that surprised to see Mikel start even if he hasn't fully recovered.

Speaking of which...