OhForAGreavsie

After all? Nobody liked hearing what Nasri said but surely only those with their head buried in the sand ever doubted that he was right.

We do have a habit of doing that of course.

Some people like to blame Jose for our continuing struggles going forward. I don't. My point of view is that Hazard apart, our AMs are not good enough* for the level we aim to reach. Further, fluent attacking play is best served when the central striker possess high technical ability. Unfortunately that is not Diego Costa's greatest attribute. Size and physicality are useful but are not enough without the ability to retain possession under pressure. That requires great touch, quick feet, dribbling and good passing. As I've been saying for years, we lack such a striker. If Zlatan had been playing for us last night, we'd have won even with the other shortcomings we had on show. Now, if you want to say that it's Jose's fault we don't have the squad to match our ambitions, then that is at least arguable. Personally, I think he's made progress but when he came back we were a long, long, way short. The journey to take us where we want to go has started but we aren't there yet. *Don't know about Cuadrado but early looks are not encouraging.

I don't watch Serie A so I have to say I had never heard of this lad until the Palermo president's comments were reported last week. I did though seek out a few vids after reading of our supposed interest. It's impossible, I think, to tell from those highlights whether this lad is a potential Chelsea player but he definitely has something I like very much. What's more it's something I believe we could do with, something I've been saying for a long time that we should acquire. Those videos reveal that Dybala has outstanding technical ability. We don't have that among our strikers and, in my opinion, we need to add it. Such a player would provide Jose with the ability to pose defences a different problem as well as a complimentary presence to pair with Costa if TSO should want to go with two up top. It's one thing to have the ability, but if Dybala can actually play as well then I can see why we're reportedly interested, and I'd be excited to have him here. This is a Scout Nation video so you won't see any action in the first 80 seconds or so.

Well some tools are there and some talent also, but a large slice of what it takes to make you first choice at a top club is missing. Permanently so. Inadequate tools might be honed but you either have talent or you don't. If you're Joey Barton, you are never going to be Lionel Messi; and if you're Romelu Lukaku, you are never going to be Marco Van Baston.

Exclude me from that particular us please. I was saying within the first 20 minutes of Lukaku's Chelsea debut that he would never be first choice here because his touch simply was not good enough and that it would never improve. I was called foolish for offering that opinion. Well, I certainly am a fool, but probably not on that subject.

I agree, we shouldn't get upset by this. Nasri is saying that we're not all that special. Judging by comments posted all over this site, many of us agree with him. I certainly do. Nasri is saying they were the better side in the two meetings this season. They were. Nasri is not attempting to be arithmetically accurate. Footballers talk about 90 points as the theoretical title winning figure in the same way they talk about 40 points as the theoretical target to avoid relegation. His 90 points statement was just an embellishment on his view that, "Chelsea will make mistakes", by which he means we will drop points, therefore, "If we [City] win all our games it will put pressure on Chelsea." He's right, if they win all of their games they will 'reach' 90 points, and that would put pressure on us. I say ignore him, collect 33 more points (at time of writing) and leave him to enjoy our trophy parade from the comfort of his Dubai hotel, or wherever else he chooses to sun himself in the summer.

Sadly I think that reality was established a long time ago.

That video is pathetic and demeans the channel. I wish it was made by Liverpool Fan TV so I could belittle it in the way it deserves.

No. Available and in the squad. There are two parts to the regulations regarding cup tied players: - A player is automatically cup tied if he has already played for another club in the same competition during the same season. For example, Matic played for Benfica in last season's Champions' League group stage so was not available to be selected for us in that competition after joining in January. Every club is allowed to field a maximum of one player who has already played for another team in a different UEFA club competition. Cuadrado played in the Europa League for Fiorentina but since were are allowed to use one EL player in our CL squad, he's in.

Gentlemen, You are both right of course, I can't argue with what either of you say. I do though remember Hazard being accused of something similar when he was planning to leave Lille. Unlike Romelu, Eden had given good service to his old club and has since proved that he can walk the walk in the big league. I accept that this makes his situation different to Lukaku's, but when Eden had a reason to talk about making progress in his career, it seems that is exactly what he did.

To be fair, Hazard is at a top club so does not have quite the same motivation to talk about moving on. Only Real, Barca and maybe Bayern could even be claimed as an upward move for our number 10. Eden also has no need to tell people what a good player he is because people are constantly telling him that. Lukaku doesn't have the same luxury.

I would say that Lukaku has proved something at Everton. He has proved how right we were to sell him.

I agree, forget all those. Instead just focus on... Indeed he is so... that'll do for me thank you. I'm not saying that an appeal to authority is ever the way to conclude a discussion. I strongly respect the argument that goes, just because Jose, or anyone else for that matter, thinks something don't necessarily make it so. Thing is, I'm almost ashamed to admit, because Jose says, does work for me. So, for me, that closes the case.

A neat piece of wit which often does the rounds in chess playing circles and which even made it into Darren Brown's act but of course you did say, "I can play chess against..." which is not really true now is it? Maybe saying with instead of against would work and still raise a smile. If everyone will forgive a little bit of pedantry the joke doesn't really work anyway since the best player, human or computer, will sometimes win as well as sometimes losing against the second best so at least a draw would not always follow. P.S. I'm not even county standard. Middling to weak club standard at best and I'm no better at bridge. Mind you, I play a lot more bridge than I do chess these days.

Either I've misunderstood your point ZY or you're a heck of a chess player.

This approach, believing that Oscar might improve and allowing him time to prove it, only works while he remains the best player we have in his position. We can't afford to give a player serious minutes simply to develop his game. A few dead minutes here or there is what such players get from Jose. In the current squad Oscar is often going to be, perhaps even always going to be, Jose's best option. He will therefore continue to be a regular selection for the rest of the season. The acid test will come in summer. If those of us calling for Oscar to be replaced are right then Jose will already be thinking about it. If so he will surely make big efforts to recruit an upgrade during the next window. If, at the end of this season, there are no moves to find an alternative to Oscar, or to promote one from within, then I, and others who share my opinion, will have to admit that Jose does not agree with us. That of course would be a big thing.

Well, I have to say that's the impression I get from watching his YouTube videos but it's obviously a bit foolish to base too much on those so I can't be definitive about my opinion.

I used to watch Serie A when it was the world's top league in the 90s and I watched Sanchez a few times when he was linked with us before moving to Spain. Other than that I've never watched Italian football so all I know about Pogba is what I've seen on YouTube. I therefore like to read the views of people like you and @LAM09 who have obviously seen proper coverage of this bloke. LAM09 has told us a bit about why he thinks Pogba should be on our shopping list but it would be interesting to know more about why you say the Juve midfielder is overrated.

Deleted. (Posted in the wrong thread.)

Can't agree with this at all. Maybe we can try to find a silver lining in there somewhere, but being out of The Cup is a huge, nasty cloud of the most depressing grey colour. Bad, bad, bad, bad.

Eto'o did a good job for us and most importantly he wasn't Torres which was always going to aid his popularity. Shame that his reported disruptive behaviour cut short his time with you. At least I think it's a shame. I find it interesting to visit other club's forums and I'm always pleased when non-Chelsea fans pay return visits here. For what my opinion is worth, I'm glad to read views given from a different perspective. Of course I don't own the site so my opinion can't be worth as much as other people's.

Love David Mitchell.

What do speakers of American English mean when they say, "I could care less"? Do they mean it is possible for them to care less about something but they don't, as in they really care quite a lot? Actually I know what they mean. They mean what the rest of us do when we say, "I couldn't care less." In other words we care so little that it's not possible for us to care any less. This means we don't really care at all. Since that is in fact the feeling users of American English are trying to express, why don't they just say it instead of a phrase which means almost the exact opposite? I know we Brits have more than enough strange expressions of our own but this American one always strikes me as odd.

Good luck with everything.