MrExcalibur100

Not to take anything away from Bale, he's a great player and I'm happy that a UK player is playing at the highest level in a foreign league for a powerhouse club, but he has this thing that (in games I've watched this season) even if he scores, he isn't contributing much else to the team. He can just go anonymous or invisible in games and wait to apply a finish to good build up play from his team-mates. Same thing with Neymar. Neither of those players link the midfield and attack for their team like Hazard does for us, Fabregas was spot on of his analysis of him when he said he's our Messi minus the 50 goals. Almost every goal that we've scored comes from Hazard building it up. I genuinely believe we'll be a worse team if we swapped him for either Bale or Neymar and Real and Barca will be better teams with him. Eden can improve his shooting technique though, there's no doubt Bale is ahead of him in this regard.

Because you don't know how to be critical without sounding like an ass. You and that Nike guy. Both of you over-flood the comments section with some bizarre stuff.

The problem is how you frame the sentence. "It's easy doing it against Eastern European blah, blah" As if he hasn't scored against Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United so far for us. Some great goals in there too.

He can't just help himself, can he?

Are you ever happy with anything or anyone concerning Chelsea? You're always on a whinge. Hazard was the best attacking player on the pitch for both teams today. Fact. His miss wasn't crucial to the outcome of the game as we scored 10 seconds later.

It's not a handicap match, United also have attackers to, you know. Mangala, Fernando and Clichy have been very suspect in defending for them. City will win, most likely comfortably, but I won't be surprised if United nick a draw.

Fabregas was incredibly poor in this game but please let's not take it too far. He's had a big part to play in our impressive season so far, don't turn this into an attack on the player.

City are playing at home, so it's different. We would have swept them aside if this was at Stamford Bridge. And City are nothing special themselves, that's why we're 6 points clear of them.

The positives I can take from the game: (1) We open up the gap between ourselves and Man City to SIX points, which is a pleasant cushion. (2) We had a more positive approach away from home to a big team. We could have had more control of our game and more decisiveness in attack if Fabregas turned up but he didn't. We needed his control from deep lying positions. He also didn't make himself available to either of our centre-backs. (3) Drogba is still the man for the big occasion. He's not the player that he once was but he's still a physical marvel. Held up the ball well and scored a fantastic, trademark Drogba header. (4) Filipe Luis had a brilliant performance and should be our starting left-back from now on, no questions asked. (5) Thibaut is ours to keep for a decade and more.

He was a class or two above Di Maria today. Hopefully that puts to bed that silly debate for now.

We did? Maybe in the first half we lost the midfield battle, but we were cruising and dominating possession when Oscar came off. It's not even that he brought Mikel off, it's the shift in attitude of the team to full defensive mode with 20 MINS to go. Those are tactical orders.

If I'm being honest, I felt like Mourinho had no positive influence on the game. Our reliable players were reliable and our unreliable players were unreliable. We still rely too much on individual brilliance and graft to see us through these big matches than actually playing a cohesive game. Even against Arsenal, it was the same.

Those sides came out to play football.

I'm not ridiculing him, mate. Just making an observation. Jose is still my guy but we shouldn't have retreated into a shell in the last 20 mins against that United side. I also agree that perhaps 1 or 2 players put up unacceptable performances today which is beyond the manager's hands.

It's impossible to make any excuses for Fabregas after that perfomance. It's not only he was anonymous, but he was incredibly poor in possession as well. And the corner to Drogba, after many failed attempts, wasn't anything special. It was Drogba who had a great header. I expect more than just a single decent corner for 90 mins from him. He's 27 and supposed to be one of the more mature players out there.

You can't bemoan not killing off teams when you sit back and defend with a full 20 MINUTES to go. Been disappointed with his tactics in the two trips to Manchester.

Unrecognizable. Really didn't show any balls or quality in the game. A complete passenger for 90 mins.

2 points dropped today. We were underwhelming in the first half with Oscar, Willian and Fabregas especially (he was incredibly awful. just terrible) being poor. In the 2nd half, we completely dominated the game but lost control of it when Mourinho decided to bring on Mikel and we started to defend deep again. Somewhat similar to Man City away and Lampard's goal. I don't know what Jose is thinking of sometimes, trying to close down a team with a good attack and weak defense makes no sense. Still, 6 points clear at the top, we open the gap even further so while I'm slightly disappointed we couldn't see it out, we are in a more dominant position at the top. And if the premier league can't appoint a better ref than Dowd for such a big match, the joke's on their product.

Poor game overall. We deserved to win due to our 2nd half performance. 2 points dropped.

lol

Dowd is a corrupt fact cunt.

50 / 50 what the fuck?

Neville needs to get his cock out of his old side's mouth and be professional. Unlike him.

Cesc fucks up again

WHATTA A FUCKING HEADER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!