Daniel1980

Busquets's form for Barcelona has been pretty poor lately.

I thought he played pretty well, definitely better than against Villa. He was pushed and fouled a lot, created a couple of chances, though no shots again.

If he scored, he would have had a chance of being pushed up the pecking order, especially since Andre has been so wasteful lately.

Matic was brilliant today. Our midfield as a whole looked good and we didn't get dominated despite the pivot midfielders being constantly under pressure.

Good game by the team. I thought Matic, Oscar, Fabregas, Hazard all played well--both offensively and defensively. Andre's finishing was woeful. Costa and Oscar's finishing wasn't good today. And Salah should have scored after Cesc's through ball.

Hope we don't see too many wasted shots from Andre.

I wanted to see both Luis and Azpi.

That's how Costa works on his chemistry with Fabregas : Sometimes I forget Costa is only 25. When I see him behave like a kid, I always go, "Huh?" before remembering that he's actually younger than Cesc and Willian.

I think Luis will start.

I'd like that, but can't see Ake starting in such an important match. Matic-Fab seems to be our default midfield when Ramires is out. Unless we use Matic-Mikel with Cesc as #10. It is possible I suppose, since Oscar played 2 games last week and will likely play against Arsenal too.

To people saying they'd rather keep Samsung because it's only 7 million pounds difference: I don't disagree, but maybe it's Samsung that want to stop sponsoring us( or maybe they're offering us a worse deal). It's not unlikely, since they actually don't need to sponsor anyone.

Of course they would. Messi doesn't actually escape criticism. If he has a "meh" game, Barcelona fans furiously argue for many pages whether he's past it or not. The bigger the star, the higher the expectations. It's normal. If people are okay with average performances from a player, it means they don't rate him highly enough to begin with. And at Chelsea, Jose would be the first to complain about Messi, because his workrate without the ball is non-existent, and more often than not, he just walks around until he gets the ball.

After Jose's criticism, I expect Hazard to be a MOTM against Sporting. That would be the best response.

Twickenham eh? It would be nice to have a 80,000+ stadium. Tickets would be probably cheaper and more affordable for younger generation.

Hope Jose doesn't start Drogba again. Club legend or not, but he shouldn't be starting important games. And this is an important game. We must win this.

A draw would do. Well done, Spurs. But if only Lamela didn't fuck up...

Why a draw? Spurs aren't title contenders. Want them to win this one. If Arsenal win this, they'll still be only 4 points behind us.

Yeah, there must be something wrong with their methods of injury prevention and recovery. It's just not normal.

Really good performance and finally some end product. Hope he keeps it up.

I totally don't mind that United are topping this table and we're at the bottom.

To be fair to him, Remy played against Bolton without our two main creative midfielders--Cesc and Hazard. They're unselfish team players who like setting up others. We're yet to see how Costa would do without them.

Yeah, Hazard is our most exciting and technically skilled player for sure. I think few would argue that.

Not having a fixed starting position is clearly bringing out our players' competitive side. Oscar and Schurrle arguing over taking a free kick was hilarious.

It probably will. It was a perfect opportunity for him. With Montolivo injured, he had realistic chances to get into XI, but now... MVG will probably recover too late.

It's hard to believe how such a gifted player like Willian can be completely harmless and non-threatening. When Willian has the ball, I don't even expect anything; he practically seems afraid of the final third. Tbh, I think even Salah would prove to be more useful in attack if he's given a chance.