kmk108

"good teams" So they won't play well against us then?

I read it as "he's the one that won the league and COC cup last season"

We're still in all competitions. I'd rather my manager believe we'll win everything possible until it's not mathematically possible than concede defeat 2 months into the season.

I'm not arguing that Fabregas isn't shit. He deserves to be playing with the reserves, but looking at the statistics, he's done more defensively than Hazard. That's mostly because he's got more of a defensive duty than Hazard, but he is doing more. Someone else said it, but we don't know how these players are responding to the aggressive comments by Mourinho. It may not have worked elsewhere but every team is different. Time will tell, but Hazard has responded well to it before, so I'm inclined to believe it'll work again. And while I don't think Fabregas and Ivanovic deserve to be playing, him not calling them out like Hazard and Matic may be purely down to personality types. Fabregas and Ivanovic may be players that wilt under scrutiny, while Hazard may be a player with a big enough ego to positively respond to it.

There's no facts that say he's even waging in personal battles. That's all created. Has any player come out and say they disagree with what Mourinho has said about them? Did we see Hazard throwing a fit? Did we see Baba crying because Jose has no confidence in him? Do we see Loftus-Cheek say he's being treated unfairly? Maybe, just maybe, Hazard will work harder to prove to Mourinho that he's better. Maybe we'll see Baba working harder to be a more solid defender. Maybe we'll see Loftus-Cheek track back more. It's just another article making Mourinho out to be a ruthless dressing room tyrant and the players poor little victims.

On the team, Hazard is the weakest defender IMO. Yes, Mourinho asks more from his attackers in terms of defense, but that's who he is. If you're not putting in defensive effort, you're not going to play. Hazard wasn't doing enough offensively to justify having him in the squad. Personally, Hazard being Hazard, he's one of the first on the team sheet, but I'm not going to argue that a sit for a game against Villa isn't deserved. Are there others that deserve it as well? Yes, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Hazard has been off all season, and he needs to wake up. He's one of the best in the world, but he's not playing like it at the moment. We don't know what Mourinho has done with him behind the scenes, so we can't make judgements on it. We just know that he's done this before and Hazard has responded well.

Why would you want to drop Hazard for a game against Barcelona, when we can do without him against Villa. That was the point of Mourinho dropping him for this match. We did fine against Villa without him, and he's rested and fresh for the game against Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday. You won't get any argument from me that Fabregas deserves the bench more than Hazard, but Mourinho dropped Hazard to send a message to him that he needs to earn a spot in the team. He knows he can do this with Hazard, because he'll respond to it and work harder.

The stats show he doesn't defend. You can't argue that he does. Whether or not he needs to is a completely different issue altogether. If our defense was doing fine, I wouldn't have a problem with his workrate on defense (like in past seasons), but when we're struggling at the back as much as we have been this season, it's not absurd to ask him to do more to help out the team.

How is it absurd to say he doesn't defend enough? The players compared aren't really comparable, but look at the numbers. He doesn't put any effort into defending, and we know Mourinho values that over everything else.

For the last few weeks, I saw a handful of people clamoring that Hazard needed to be benched due to his performances. Now that he's been benched for ONE match before a mid-week Champions League game that's very important, people are raising hell about it. Mourinho could give birth to the baby Jesus himself and he'd still be chastised.

Would the FA have to do something about it if Fulham aren't in the Premier League? But right. I didn't know it was all on the Premier League for the fixtures.

Wow, after not being able to get into the Villa first team, he's joined Coventry City on loan.

F the Man, man

I wouldn't call his comments about the FA "rambling like an idiot."

Doesn't matter if they're buddies or not. At least someone outside of the club is publicly defending Mourinho.

Either way, small price to pay for that new home of ours.

That's why it's not viable. If it even had a capacity of 10,000 more, I'd say it's worth it, but that's purely from a location and atmosphere standpoint. Wembley is so far away from Stamford Bridge, I can see it being a pain to get to, and it just feels awkward to use Wembley as our home for so many games. If people aren't happy with the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, I can see it being a library at Wembley just due to the sheer size of it. I hope I'm wrong.

Ugh, four years... I wish Craven Cottage was more viable. Just schedule away games when they're at home, though I imagine that's too hard for the buffoons at the FA to do.

We have two losses and three draws to Villa at home in this millenium.

What discipline has Wenger received for his comments and his actions? Shoving Mourinho? That's Okay. Calling the referee a liar? You'll just get a fine and a warning. You threaten people? We'll take away your ban and "reprimand" you for it. If you kick a water bottle and you're Wenger, you'll get sent off and then get an apology from the referees. Mourinho? You'll probably be publicly beheaded. The only other manager I've seen disciplined so much is Ferguson, and he was admired for it. I know, Mourinho shouldn't have said what he said, because it made no sense. But the FA needs to pull its head out of its ass and figure out what deserves what. You can't go around giving managers bans for making comments about a refereeing decision, and not even discipline a shove of an opponent.

It is a disgrace

I know that. I was making the remark that he'll complain about something against Villa and they'll ban him as soon as they can.

So he'll be banned next week?

Roman and the board are different these days, and have not only talked it, but shown it. I, for one, am just looking forward to getting back to Premier League action. A shit Chelsea match is still better than great international matches. Drink up and enjoy the match with your mates, because that's what following the league is all about.