The Chels

The Stoke fans will be right up for this match and even more so given the mutual hatred between them and Cesc (Arsenal), who I suspect will get jeered quite heavily. It is imperative that we score an early goal or the game will likely pan out the way the Sunderland/Newcastle games did.

Strong team but I take it Drogba is officially 2nd choice striker now which is harsh on Remy.

One of the problems imo is that the AMs often appear reluctant to make tactical fouls when the opposition are countering us. I've seen Hazard and Willian make weak challenges or pull out completely quite a few times this season even when we're clearly defensively vulnerable. So instead of bookings being spread around the team, Cesc and Matic are forced to make a much higher proportion of fouls and they're picking up cards a lot faster.

Just been reading the PSG forums/papers and I see there's been a meltdown after their defeat yesterday lol. Lots want Blanc to be sacked and Thiago Silva said after the match that Blanc is too soft on the players. Would love to play them while they're 'in crisis' but they'll likely pick up form by the time February comes.

Meh hate repetitive ties. PSG v Chelsea, City v Barca, and lucky Real Madrid get Schalke again!

I'm not too bothered about United since if they do catch up with us it'll mean we've dropped so many points that City will be ahead of us anyway. Indeed Lampard-led City are breathing right down our necks.

Love JT but I really want to see us playing with a higher defensive block (not suicidally high, i.e. AVB) so we can press from the front without having huge gaps in the midfield. He's still our best CB but doesn't have the pace to play a higher line so it's a conundrum.

I don't think Ivanovic would go forward as much if we had a RW who actually offered us something in attack.

Kompany's been injured recently and Silva's been out for ages. They played Everton without Aguero, Kompany and Silva, while Dzeko could only play half an hour. Today they were without Aguero and Dzeko, and Kompany got injured towards the end. They might not have a lot of injuries in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality - it's pretty much all their best players that have been injured recently but they've been coping very well. Could you imagine how we'd cope if Matic, Terry, Cesc or Hazard were out injured for a while, let alone at the same time!

Uh oh.

What, bad decision-making and sloppy passes? That happens every game with him.

Mourinho was only here for just over 3 years though, a relatively short spell in his career. If he'd have joined United it would have been disappointing but the Lampard situation's completely different. Frank was here for 13 years - the vast majority of his career - and he was supposed to be proper Chels, one of us. Clearly not.

So Newcastle and Sunderland both had the game of their lives against us and then proceded to play like League 2 sides in the subsequent game. Or we played too narrow and into their hands, and the teams they faced next stretched them much better. Now which sounds more reasonable?

They have a lot of injuries and are still winning which is annoying. We were without Matic for one game and lost. No Cesc today and we were very bad.

Haha well that was fast. It's only a matter of time.

Leagues aren't won because you get maximum points. You also depend on your rivals slipping up and not doing as well (City know that as well as anyone with their 2 title wins) and Lampard is making that a hell of a lot more difficult.

Ok I'll come back to you when Lampard extends his loan.

Hence 6-10. In our game he took 2 off us and earned them 1 which is a net of 3 for City (relative to us, their only competitors) and he won 3 today. That's a minimum of 6 but you could argue he won them more with his goals against Southampton and Hull because both teams were right in the game before he scored.

NYC's preseason begins in late January and the MLS season starts in early March. Lampard will be there for neither because clearly denying us the league means more to him.

I wouldn't say it was booing but there was a lot of groaning. Mikel made a back pass in the first half which was groaned at.

You're in denial. How will you explain it when Lampard decides to stay at City for the rest of the season?

you STILL believe that?

His 4 goals (and counting) have got them a lot of points though. Took 2 off us and earned them 1 with the draw (net 3), scored against Southampton when they were just getting back into the game, scored against Hull to kill them off and won the game for them today. That's probably 6-10 points which is very significant.

Mourinho was here for just over 3 years and had his whole career ahead of him. When he left he joined an Italian club. Compare that to Lampard who was here for 13 years, became Chelsea's highest ever goalscorer and in many people's opinion our best ever player. Right at the end of his career decided to join our biggest title rivals for the money. You can't see the distinction?

Not sure why people are pissed off at Foy. The handball call was arguable but Cahill's second yellow for diving was not. We got very lucky that he bottled that one.