Viper22

Hmm I guess. But the guy's over-riding feelings (it seemed to me from reading it) were that Arsenal and Wenger had done nothing wrong and that the shove (which is classed as assault in a court of law btw), the smoke bombs and flares being let off and Welbeck's challenge were all blown out of proportion and there was nothing wrong with any of them and Chelsea fans were exaggerating them all.

T-Bone will be back. He's going to play during the international break so barring another injury he'll be fine. EDIT: Agree with the rest of the squad though.

Costa could celebrate by punching by grandma in the face and frankly I wouldn't care, as long as he's scoring.

Jimmy Carr there scouting for his next tour methinks. I guess it was a successful trip, there were 11 jokes on the field in red and 1 on the touchline yesterday.

Exactly. She has a degree in medicine and a masters in sports medicine. I doubt very much she would have let him continue if she didn't know for sure he was ok. The fact that he obviously deteriorated soon after the incident is something she couldn't have predicted and criticising her is frankly asinine.

Agree. When Wenger came for seconds I was 100% sure I was going to see a thumb to the eye. Credit to Jose for not doing that. He's a bigger man than me, I couldn't be that calm being touched by a disgusting French voyeur.

I know, I just wanted to enthuse about him and let you know that I at least (others may have too) have rated him very highly for a while. I agree he can get a fair bit better though. Ball retention and his passing mainly. (but then he has Cesc beside him for passing doesn't he? ). His heading and positional play are good enough IMO, he's very rarely caught out of position and he wins most of the headers he competes for. Well Fernandinho is the only one in the same league as Matic.

I predicted a 1-1 draw, that make you feel better at all? Even put money on it.

I find myself consistently shouting this at the TV. I'm actually starting to threaten Willian and Schurrle with physical harm if they get in the way of Cesc many more times.

I've said numerous times before that I think he is our most important player too, when he plays well, we as a team play well, with the rest of the team able to express themselves. When he plays average or badly, we always seem to drop points. I don't think that's a coincidence. He was absolutely immense last night. Back to his marauding best. Goals for him are largely irrelevant because it's not his job, but it's lovely to see him winning us points directly rather than indirectly with a glorious header like last nights one. I've been going on and on about Matic since before we signed him . I truly believe that he is the best true CDM in the Premier League by a distance and is probably 4th best in the world behind Schweinsteiger, Pirlo, and De Rossi. And I reckon you could make an argument that he could be better than Pirlo and De Rosi before long, if not now.

I rate Schurrle over Willian. I'm resting him for Arsenal. Willian has the pace we need for sporting, but Schurrle has the aggressive running that'll make the arsenal defence collectively shit themselves.

----------------Courtois---------------- -Azpi------Ivan---------JT------Luis- --------Mikel--------Fabregas------- Willian--------Oscar---------Hazard ------------------Remy----------------- Subs - Cech, Zouma, Ake, Ramires, Salah, Schurrle, Costa. That's what i'd do personally, strong team (as this is a must win after our draw in the first game) with even stronger on the bench. Matic and Cahill need a rest in my mind.

I imagine that means Remy is starting, with Costa ready to come off of the bench if needed.

I respect your opinion on the 2 of them. But dear christ I could not disagree more. Ramires is capable of brilliance. That kinda suggests that Khedira isn't? Tell me you're not suggesting that. If you are, rewatch the Germany vs Brazil game from the world cup. Ramires does have a better workrate but that's it. Tbh i'm sorry but i'm not sure I can take your argument seriously if you're saying that Khedira isn't a great passer when comparing him to Ramires who is arguably the worst passer in our team. He doesn't have a creative bone in his body and has no passing ability to speak of whatsoever. I'd rather see Mikel passing the ball than Ramires. 99% of Chelsea fans will agree with me there too (maybe not on the Mikl thing, he ain't popular). You've mentioned his flashes of brilliances against Everton and Barca too, and yes, you're right, he had some great moments in those games. But that's the point; it's incredibly rare that he has those flashes of brilliance, Khedira would provide them far more frequently. And I won't even begin to compare Khedira's reliability over Ramires. Rambo gets booked in like 90% of the games he completes 90mins in, and gets sent off at least twice a season.

Decent enough arguments, and good point about Garcia. I got a bit carried away with my list I think. Capello has just done too much not to be up there for me, I'm taking the last 10 or so years into account here, as well as right now. It's kinda hard to qualify so people will always think differently. I personally rate Trapa and Lippi very highly because they both won a lot each back when Serie A was actually... you know... good. And i've always loved Louw. Feel like he's a big part of the rejuvenation of German football after their rethink about 10 years ago. Big fan of the way the Germans play football so maybe that makes me slightly biased but still, i'll stick with my opinion on him .

Ramires is kinda injured right now mate... And he's done his knee ligaments before too. It's not like Ramires doesn't get injured. Also, getting injured less doesn't make you a better player anyway. I'd rather have Khedira for 75% of the season rather than Ramires for 100% of it.

This is the bit I was focussing on getting annoyed about. Boo hoo player might have to only earn 290k a week rather than 300k a week. They'll be on the dole next. And you're right about the number of transfers, but I think it will go the other way, smaller transfer fees will increase the number of transfers I reckon. And no it does not stop ambitious owners developing their clubs. Youth set ups, training facilities etc. are outside of the FFP remit, so don't come under consideration. Would just mean clubs could no longer buy ALL ready made stars any more, they'd either have to promote from within or sign young and cheap.

Well I disagree entirely there, he usually plays at CAM for Schalke. Meyer or Boateng are often shifted out there. Play your best player in their best position and all that... I agree he would be a good LW though, and also agree about his versatility. But unfortunately we have a little guy called Eden Hazard at LW, and no offence to Draxler but he's nowhere near Hazard in ability OR potential.

You're both either massively overrating Ramires or you haven't seen Khedira play very much. He was immense at the world cup before he got injured, go back and watch the Germany vs Brazil game, he was like a man possessed. He controls games from central midfield while being a B2B type player. I have NEVER seen Ramires control a game, and nor will he ever. Ramires better than Khedira....

I must've misread that. For a second there I thought you suggested that Ramires is better than Khedira.

But Isco is creative more than anything else? His passing is excellent. As long as he goes nowhere near high balls and doesn't try to cross (his main weaknesses) then he'll be fine.

You could always just have people posting their ratings and someone could average each of them out 24 hours after the game or so?

Mourinho loved Lamps and Ash too, he let them go didn't he? And he dropped Cech. Mou will always do what is best for the team.

True, Khedira would be more of a back up for Matic, but I suggested MVG as the back up B2B, but if his injuries get the better of him or he looks poor at AC then yeah Ramires as back up would be fine.