WNDS

Absolutely. It's undeniable at this point that Azpilicueta is currently on a poor run of form, but it's ridiculous to see quite a number of Chelsea fans lay into him in this way; the same goes for Willian when he has a bad game (as he did yesterday). When I see fans on various forums and on twitter lay into these two players and immediately begin to question their ability, commitment, and value to the team following poor performances it makes me furious. Along with Zouma, they were the only outfield players to play at something close to their full potential over long stretches of this disaster of a season. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for them to down tools and relax, knowing that their efforts were probably in vain with so many of their team-mates hideously off-form and/or lacking focus, but they didn't; instead they fought on in a losing battle, and are now starting to show the strain. Do they get cut some slack by certain sections of the fanbase? Do they heck. You don't have to look far to find people advocating that Azpilicueta and Willian should now be demoted to squad players/sold simply as 'punishment' for being less consistent than they were earlier in the season. If these people honestly advocate getting rid of them at this moment in time (when we are in desperate need of players with their combination of attitude and ability) just because they are not glamourous/'perfect'/indisputably 'world-class' enough for certain tastes, then I simply despair at the current state of sport fandom. With attitudes such as these, why on earth do these fans expect ANY loyalty from the players who play for their clubs? The 'mercenary' way of life adopted by many modern footballers (and other sports-people) is certainly open to criticism, but we (as fans) are lying to ourselves if we refuse to accept that our own attitudes have contributed to this state of affairs.

It's between him and Fabregas; one of them has to go in the summer, even if we change our standard formation. Having two relatively immobile players occupying starting positions in the centre of the pitch simply doesn't work unless the team is packed full of players with top-tier technique and possession-play (e.g. Guardiola's Barcelona with Xavi and Busquets). Ideally we wouldn't have to sell either of them, but I can't see the player that loses-out being content with a squad role next season. Whoever we keep will need to be paired with a player who possesses a combination of decent pace, physicality, and technique; it could be very difficult for us to acquire such a player in the summer given our current situation, but we must make every effort to do so as CM is the weakest area of our squad (being the primary reason that we find it so difficult to play more proactively).

PSG are possibly the most well-balanced team in this year's competition (although I don't think that they will have enough to cope with Barca's attack should they have to face-off against them), and they're simply better than we are at the moment. Whilst we played well over the time-period between the two PSG goals (Costa, Willian, and Pedro, despite some sloppiness, were all excellent during that stretch of the game), we were undone by a nervy, sloppy opening 15 minutes, and our inability to field a dynamic double-pivot. It was the latter that was the critical issue for us in this game, as Di Maria and Lucas Moura were drifting in-field all game to take advantage of Mikel and Fabregas' lack of mobility, enabling PSG to completely outnumber and overwhelm us in the middle of the pitch. Although we DID try hard until we conceded the killer second goal, we just couldn't cope.

I must say that I don't envy Hiddink his position going into this game; the tie is so finely poised, with almost no margin for error. Speaking from the safety of my 'armchair' (and with no experience whatsoever of actually being in the position that Hiddink currently finds himself in) I think that we should attack PSG from the outset, as this approach possibly allows us the greatest amount of flexibility when it comes to game management. If we score early on, we should press for a second rather than sitting back to defend our slender lead; if we don't score early on, but PSG are struggling to cope with our play, we should also continue to attack (obviously); however, IF we try to attack and PSG show themselves to be more than capable of dealing with our approach (without scoring themselves), we should change to a more pragmatic strategy at around the 20-25 minute mark and try to keep things tight at the back whilst attempting to snatch a goal by way of a set-piece or counter-attack. Whichever way we decide to play, if PSG score first there is no point in adopting any approach other than all-out attack; we'll need two goals, and we won't get them by playing with caution and fear. Even if we fail to get the goals we need, I would much (MUCH) rather that the players go out fighting (for pride if nothing else) than go out in half-arsed fashion like they did last season. So even if we are losing 0-2 or such like, I want to see the players make every effort to win the game itself, if not the tie. This could be our last match in the CL for some time; let's hope that the team can make it one to remember for the right reasons.

Yep; both were almost equally at fault for the goal. Willian is a least somewhat understandable, as he beats his man more often than not in those situations, but Courtois has always displayed a worrying tendency to parry balls/shots back into the danger-zone (even when on top form); it's definitely something he needs to work on. Anyway, it was a shame for them both, because aside from this they were probably two of our better players today. Costly errors are costly errors, though. Matic remains THE huge concern, however (moreso than Hazard); he's just completely lost in this team at the moment.

We MUST NOT play Matic and Mikel together against PSG; it's an awful pairing, particularly if Fabregas is playing in front of them.

Costa, Kenedy, and Ivanovic were our best players overall today; Fabregas was generally good, but sometimes sloppy; Willian was completely anonymous in the first-half, but very good in the second; Hazard was.... alright(ish). Baba had a bit of a nightmare, on the other hand, and I thought that Mikel and Azpilicueta were both fairly poor. Great to finally get two PL wins in a row, great to get our first win from a losing position of the season, and great to do so without even having played brilliantly.

A mostly-good performance that was certainly our best of the three occassions that we have played PSG away. Baba was probably the standout, although Courtois, Azpi, Cahill, Ivanovic (apart from Cavani's goal), Willian, and Pedro all contributed well throughout. Costa and Mikel were fairly up-and-down, despite the assist and the goal respectively; Fabregas was mostly down after a very good past few weeks; Hazard was FAR too quiet, despite some brief flashes of quality. My main take-away from the game was that Hiddink needs to sort out the midfield for the 2nd leg (obvious point is obvious), as the lack of pressing and the deep positions being taken-up by both Fabregas and Mikel (all done to prevent PSG's pacey players from having free runs at our defence, I would presume) meant that Willian and Costa were ridiculously exposed and therefore easy for PSG's defence and three CMs to play around.

I thought that he played very well in the first-half, but reverted back to the worst of his early-season play in the second by taking up positions on the wing far too often, dribbling into opposition players with his head down, ignoring passes to team-mates etc. A shame, because he has been excellent since Hiddink took over. At least he kept his temper completely in check, and didn't cause unnecessary distractions for his team-mates.

Managed to spoil what was an otherwise excellent performance by losing Cavani for their second goal. Having said that, he WAS vastly superior at CB tonight than he usually is at RB this season

He really didn't look out of place playing against opposing players of a calibre far greater than almost all of those currently playing in the PL; he needs more game-time, as simple as that.

He was mostly very good on the ball today, but we will need to change the way our 'number 10' plays when we are out of possession in the return leg; the deep positions taken up by our pivot players meant that Willian found himself in the middle of PSG's central midfield triangle far too often.

Playing the Matic-Mikel pivot with Oscar on the left wing (backed-up by our right-footed left-back) has GOT to stop. Not only does it massively hinder our general possession play and cause us to lack pace and dynamism, but it also ensures that we play the ball up the left-hand side far too regularly due to Matic's ridiculous one-footedness. We all knew this already, but the above really can't be emphasised enough because the progress we HAVE made under Hiddink is being compromised quite massively by this choice of line-up.

Maybe, but it's the only explanation I can see for persisting with a Mikel-Matic pivot and Oscar on the wing.

The only explanation I can see for Hazard being left out of the side AGAIN is that Hiddink wants to take absolutely no risks with him before the match against PSG; it can't be that he wants this line-up to gel together properly before the CL tie, because Matic is banned for the first-leg.

I was absolutely baffled as to why we were so obsessed with attacking down our left-hand side for the majority of the game; Oscar is not a winger, Azpilicueta is not comfortable when attacking from LB, and Willian was having a relatively decent game when in possession on the other flank. We caused additional problems for ourselves by persisting with the malfunctioning Mikel-Matic DM pairing for far too long; one of them should have been subbed out at around the 55-60 min mark.

I'd anticipate that the line-up will be the same as it was for Arsenal, but with Hazard replacing Matic. It's vital that we get the win to continue building positive momentum for the match against PSG on the 16th.

We were pretty dodgy in the second-half, but an excellent win nonetheless. Costa and Fabregas were superb, whilst Zouma, Willian, and Azpilicueta were generally very good. An additional positive was that Matic, Ivanovic, and Hazard all did relatively well considering their form this season, but I'm a little bit concerned about Courtois at the moment.

Really hope that this works out, but that team is so slow....

Almost every big transfer away from the Ukrainian league has been a success over the last few seasons. Mkhitaryan, Fernandinho, Willian, Douglas Costa, and Konoplyanka are all playing well for their current clubs, and yet some people are STILL coming out with posts that question Teixeira's potential for success in one of Europe's bigger leagues. I can't say for certain that he WOULD be a success wherever he ends up going, but he DOES look worth taking a chance on.

I would suspect that the delay was due to our need to have everything relating to his short-term replacement confirmed prior to parting ways with Mourinho himself.

Amidst all this talk about supposed 'player power', Costa is the one that gives me cause for genuine concern on that front; didn't he say that part of the reason his punishment for the strop he threw against Spurs was so mild was because he's so popular with the other players that he's near-untouchable? Even if he wasn't being entirely serious when saying this, it annoyed me when he first came out with it, and does so all the more following today's developments.

This match was yet more evidence in favour of what just about every Chelsea fan already knows to be true: our options at CM are hugely inadequate. Neither Ramires nor Fabregas can handle being pressed, with the former simply not possessing the levels of technique required, and the latter having no mobility or athleticism whatsoever. Mikel is a solid squad option, but not someone who should be starting for us with any regularity if his midfield partner is going to be Matic. We need to find ourselves a CM who is both genuinely dynamic and fairly comfortable with the ball at their feet, and we need to get them this January. It doesn't necessarily need to be someone who is going to cost a fortune, just someone who will do the job required of them and provide our CM with greater balance. This is where our scouts (should) come in....

No, no, you've misunderstood me; I wasn't really defending Willian's performance, as I agree with you that he was poor today. He improved quite a bit in the second-half, but that was after having been one of our worst players in the first-half. My point was simply that it's extremely worrying to see Willian performing to a standard well below what he has generally displayed for much of this season, and yet STILL being one of our primary threats. A player who plays as he did in the first-half really shouldn't be the one that ends up creating most of the openings, even in a team that is struggling as badly as we are this season.

I can't agree that he's a 'clown', as he's one of our most consistent and highly committed players, but he WAS one of our very worst players today.