HD3D

Chelsea always struggles against these mid table teams. Not gonna be an easy game.

Pellegrini manager of the month my ass.

There you go fuckers. Like I was saying, trust the player. He IS a part of the team whether we like it or not. And for as long as he is, he MUST be treated as such.

Well if the manager didn't want him to be a part of the game, he wouldn't have put him on. Purposely excluding him from the plays is not gonna help the team.

Curiously, I have also noticed some avoidance when it comes to passing the ball to Torres. If this is really happening, while I do understand they lack confidence in him, such attitude is destructive to the player's morale and is completely unacceptable. Even if Torres is useless at times, he's a part of the team.

If they scored from that "handball" decision, the ref deserved a slap.

HAZAAAAARD!!!!

Why are they booing David?

Just came on. How are we doing?

Mourinho has confirmed KDB wants out. He's apparently being rumored with a 10$m transfer to Wolfsburg. EDIT: Actually, the rumored deal is 17m. Sounds good to me.

You better be screaming your eyes out for the team tomorrow.

Not if we throw Torres into the deal with Mata. They will have one of the best midfielders in the world AND a striker who used to be world class when he played for them. If Milan wanted back the biggest flop in the history of football Kaka, I think Atletico would take Torres. It would be foolish for them to decline the deal knowing Diego Costa will certainly be gone this summer (with a buyout clause of 32$m). They would profit a lot from this, specially from a marketing perspective.

Spanish media reporting Messi has been informed Ronaldo will win it and has decided he won't be at the Ballon D'or ceremony. When Cristiano decided not to go last year, he was massively criticized for being a "sore loser". If this is true now, how much do you wanna bet the messi fanboys will be saying it's a perfectly reasonable decision and he had all the right not to go? Cristiano is a winger. His art in football is to cut from the sidelines by dribbling "around them". He does that like no other. When it comes to being a winger, on top of all of his qualities as an athlete is the fact that while being a winger, he somehow outperforms every striker in the world. So when you judge Ronaldo's role as a winger versus Messi's role as a false 9 instead of judging BOTH as false 9s, that makes the debate of Messi vs Ronaldo perfectly reasonable. Yet unfortunately some people automatically assume that Messi is clearly better because of the spectacular dribbling that he does and Ronaldo doesn't. These people don't understand that Cristiano is a winger and as a winger he was not raised to attempt any of that because it's simply not his job to assume the position and role that would allow him to show off such dribbling skills. Granted, if Cristiano played in the middle, you would see much more of him "dribbling at players" but his job is not to be there.

Meltdown at Redcafe with people regretting they didn't get Mourinho instead of Moyes. These arrogant pricks actually think it was just up to them.

Wonderful player and a real legend. But I disagree with all the people now saying he's Portugal's greatest.

€32m? Nooo. Send them Torres, Etoo and Ba inside a box wrapped with present paper. That should bring his price tag down to half.

Well what would you have him do? You said it yourself in Spain the press had zero respect for him and would often launch personal attacks that would go beyond football. And it wasn't just the press. It was also the managers and fans of the small clubs, etc. He comes to England and he feels that people like him and those who don't like him, at least respect him. He's like a little boy who used to be bullied, switches schools and finds plenty of friends and respect lol. Wouldn't you feel thankful? Besides, he hasn't said anything that isn't true. The PL is indeed the best and you can see that by just taking a look at the league's table.

Meanwhile, Rooney continues to raise doubts regarding his contract at Man United. If Chelsea is willing to put Mata in the deal, I have no doubts United would want to talk about it.

I firmly believe Chelsea has the edge over any other club in the world during this transfer window. And it's not even the fact that we have the money, it's the fact we have so many top players that we're apparently willing to sell. KDB, Mata, David Luiz, Torres, Cole, etc. Any of these players could likely be included in a deal. The problem with getting a world class striker, for example, is that most of them already play in a top club and usually top clubs can afford to reject high bids. But bidding using players instead of money, is a whole different thing. I'm 100% sure we could get Falcao out of Monaco if we were willing to throw in Mata, for example. The Spanish media has reported Alonso will renew his contract soon, and Gundogan wants to play for Madrid.

So let's recap: - A new manager is hired with a style and vision that is very different than that of others before him. - One of the best players of the squad, perhaps the best, completely fails to adapt to the new way the team is playing. - Because of his failure to adapt, the player under-preforms every single game and doesn't look half as good as he did before. - Given the fact that the team and club come first, the player is naturally dropped from the starting 11 and is given a chance to regain his place only when the team can afford the risk. I would like you to explain me how exactly is Mata being disrespected, and what, in your opinion, would be giving him "the respect he deserves".

I sincerely hope it's us. If they catch United, it won't even be fun to watch. The result will be a huge embarrassment to the EPL. Whereas if we have a quality striker by then, Barcelona will be facing someone of their own size.

The only realistic scenario that I see to this is Atletico Madrid trading Diego Costa for him. On one hand, Chelsea would get the top striker it desperately needs. On the other hand, Atletico Madrid won't be able to keep its striker much longer with a buyout clause of 37m. And when they do get the 37m, they still won't manage to attract a world class player like Mata. They won't get another chance like this one. It's also a plus for both players. Mata will get the playing time he needs to play the world cup and Diego Costa will be at one of the best European clubs.

Slowly Mourinho is finding his best 11. Willian, Hazard and Oscar should all have a place in it from now on. Perhaps Ramires too. Oscar - This game was a football lesson for him and the manager needs to make sure he doesn't forget it. Dribbled the goalkeeper and instead of making the tap in, went for a ridiculous penalty and got a yellow card. It could have cost us the game too. After that, he actually went for the goal and scored. Had he been given the penalty the first time around, he would not have learned such a valuable lesson. And regarding Mata, it's sad but I think he won't find a place in this new Chelsea team...

Mata has done the n10 role before this season. And it didn't work out well. The team is not playing the way it played last season. Mourinho predicted Mata was not going to fit the new style, which is why there were several rumors even before the season started that he didn't see a future for Mata in the team. And he was right. Mata is still a wonderful player, and perhaps he is still our best player when put in the right conditions. Unfortunately, we can't make the team play in a certain way just because it fits the likes of Mata and turns him into our best player. The team changed the way it plays and if he can't adapt to that, there's really nothing we can do...

Essien on. If we can keep a clean sheet, for me that will be like getting another goal!