MrExcalibur100

It's funny how a player (Hazard for example vs Swansea) can beat 3-4 players then lay it off to another player (Oscar in the same game) who makes a simple pass that even I can do, to Remy to score and so on, and that's an assist. It's safe to say there are assists and there are ASSISTS in football. They are also dependent on if the recipient can score among many other things i.e attacking/scoring proficiency of the team in question. To me it's one of the most overrated stats in football (and also in other sports like basketball, but that's another story) , it should never be in the same sentence as goals. It should be goals and created chances not goals & assists. That's just me anyway.

Of the 1710 mins of Premier League football this season, Hazard has played 1671 mins. That's far too excessive for my liking. Looking at the list of PL midfielders and forwards on Whoscored.com, http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/4311/Stages/9155/PlayerStatistics/England-Premier-League-2014-2015, no other Champions League team has players in those positions that have accumulated so many minutes. The same is also true for Fabregas. We should have rotated both of them more, especially during the Christmas fixtures. I just hope they don't break down when we need them the most at the business end. It's happened to Hazard twice already.

His starting role is on the left but he plays in a free role and is even more advanced than Benzema most of the time. He's not a real winger. How difficult is that hard to understand?

Ronaldo hasn't been a real winger since 2006/2007. I'm surprised he is still called a winger.

Wow, that's a pretty extensive post for a player we're not even linked with. Is he your brother or something? Seriously, Kurzawa is the fullback that really impresses me in Monaco but he plays on the left. Aurier in the French league as well who is an absolute tank. PSG bought him and barely even play him. Can't understand that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFh0MMqOld8 One of my fav young players playing for my fav La Liga team. He has 10 goals in 13 La liga starts in his first season in Europe and his all round quality is very impressive indeed. Definitely possesses world class talent/potential.

The way Remy's been treated this season is very bizarre. He couldn't even get a sniff during the busy Christmas period.

Sometimes, it's not even about that. I doubt Jose had that at the forefront of his thoughts. He just gave an honest opinion on an unacceptable situation.

With Fabregas playing as well as he does in the number 10 role, we should consider going for another player to partner Matic, maybe a Pogba or someone. He just offers so much more creativity, nimbleness and guile than Oscar in that role, especially away from home. He also loses the ball much less. If we can't get Pogba then maybe a cheaper option.

Jose, bang on about the witch-hunt by the media. The only real dive was the Ivanovic one vs West Ham. Cahill, Willian and Costa didn't dive but were protecting themselves and/or evading an impending challenge. Oscar last season vs Southampton was a clear dive. Not every foul without clear contact is a dive. Most of these fucking hack journalists who've never played football before writing stupid articles about so-called dives should be ashamed. That's why I forever respect Gary Neville's stance on the diving hysteria, someone who has actually PLAYED the game at the highest level and has won everything, not some buffoons who have never kicked a ball. This season alone, we've received I think 5 yellows for dives with the only dive being, in my opinion, the Ivanovic one. What the hell is up with the English game? And you can't even rescind them? Appalling.

It's subjective but IMO it's a wrong one and irrelevant to the context of the game. A video "Eden Hazard vs Southampton" will most likely be posted on Hazard's thread. We'll count the amount of crossed he put into the box today and I hope you apologize once you realize your folly. We'll see that he did in-fact put in ground crosses into the box. I hope you apologize then, but your arrogance might not permit you to do so.As for criticism. Every player deserves to be criticized. Absolutely yes. But Hazard rarely does anything that warrants criticism. The same is true for Courtious, Terry, Matic, Fabregas and Costa more often than not. It's no surprise at all that our worst players are the ones that generally tend to be criticized the most. Hazard did absolutely nothing wrong today and your opinion of "crossing" is obviously a moot one. Maybe you have a problem with the player, as the tone of your comment might suggest but that's your problem.

Nice. Slightly surprising from Burnley but justice done. Has Jose called out the shithouse of a ref yet?

Another virtually anonymous display. His acolytes will come and make excuses for him I'm certain. Very decent bloke on social media but nowhere near good enough for an elite team like Chelsea. He's not even manageably good like a Willian is. Willian might be toothless in attack most times, but his pace and exquisite technique means he's able to synchronize perfectly with the team. Schurrle's awful technique and one-dimensional style of play just can't enable him to do likewise. It's So bad in-fact that his very presence in the team hinders the entire fabric of our play. It's not the first time Andre has been hauled off at half-time after an incredibly dismal performance that has a negative influence on the team, just this season alone I can think of Swansea at home and Maribor away just this season ALONE and other matches last season as well. That's simply unacceptable for a Chelsea footballer, even for a squad player. It means he can't be trusted. Jose won't baby-sit him any longer. It must have donned by now that Andre isn't good enough for Chelsea. He'll be sold in the summer to a lesser side.

This has nothing to do with "Hazard can do no wrong". Your problem is your arrogance, thinking your blatantly wrong opinion cannot be scrutinized on a public forum. I'll spell it out to you. (1) Hazard was the player who put in the most telling ground crosses into the box today. I can count at least 4-5 separate occasions he did that, including one in the last few minutes of regulation time were he beat a defender from the right and crossed it into to Drogba for a tap in but he didn't react quickly enough. (2) The players who provide the inswinging/outswinging crosses at top European clubs generally are the fullbacks. This is how we play as well with those type of crosses coming from Luis and Ivanovic. Most top wingers play ground passes and not inswingers like traditional old school ones used to do. The situation today also didn't call for it with so few players in their box. Notice how those crosses were easily dealt with. (3) Criticizing a player that obviously doesn't deserve to be criticized on the back of his performance and thinking nobody will call you out on it, then responding sarcastically with the "complete player" red herring. Maybe you have a problem with the player in question. Who knows, but expect to get called out by myself or someone else. That's why your opinion is a strange one that is so far away from reality and that's why it gets called out.

You don't know what you're talking about. Top clubs don't lump aimless crosses into the box. That is not how top managers set their teams to play. The fullbacks are the ones who provide the width and the crosses into the box. Your "opinion" is trash and ill-timed so you're getting called out.

Good. I was just about to make that comment. We've already gone to Old Trafford, Etihad, Anfield, Newcastle, Everton, Southampton and soon to WHL. All the potential banana skins away from home. City don't have that luxury. So the 2nd half of the season is entirely in our hands. They all will be coming to Stamford Bridge. So, let's not panic too much. We fully deserved to beat Southmapton but the bastard ref cheated us.

That's one of his faults, Jose. Messing up the starting XI. But in theory, the line-up made some sense today. It's the lack of decisive changes which is unlike Mourinho. Drogba shouldn't be coming on before Remy, he just shouldn't. His close control and passing for one is not up to scratch with the rest of the team. The ball was bouncing off him like crazy. Also Mikel should have been off earlier, as should have been the below par Costa, though I understand why Jose persisted with him. And Oscar should have at least been on the bench (though he's another who has been average recently). Still what can you do when the ref is a fucking slime ball cheating cunt? Not much.

Cross the ball were? Since when does he cross the ball? And since when do our wide players cross? Is it not our fullbacks? And to who? One body (Costa?) in the box? Clueless....

And the whole hysteria about the diving thing is just ridiculous. Half of the so-called dives we get accused of were not even real dives. One of the reasons the ref didn't give the penalty, other than being a cunt of course.

Hazard is the last player you can criticize today. You're clueless

The Arab money must be good.

True, but we needed to win away to Sunderland more. This was always going to be an extremely difficult game. City won 3-0 there, but I watched the match and that scoreline favoured them a lot.

Not just good enough today and should have been subbed much earlier for Remy.

And I hope Jose roasts the BASTARD ref in his interview. I hope he shows no fucking mercy. Scandalous, disgusting "officiating".

And those calling for Schurrle can see the incredibly average player he is. Not good enough to play for an elite team like Chelsea. Costa very poor. Matic looked very tired. Full credit to Fab and Hazard especially. Those two gave everything they could possibly give.