CFC888

Willian looking very dangerous. Oh if only he had a finish.....

Cuadrado to score the winner.

We genuinely look like we are going to lose

fucking disgraceful start to the half, just awful

We will most certainly be seeing Cuadrado in the second half, and fuck that excites me.

Within 20 seconds Oscar put in two weak challenges and gave the ball away...

Drogba looking every one of his 36 years old...

Need to keep our heads here...and we are doing just that so far.

Disgraceful decision to yellow card Ramires for that...

Another Chelsea attacking move self-implodes due to a lazy pass. That's all it is, lazy.

Fuck me Cahill has to be careful with the way he blocks with his chest/shoulder...

Drogba and Oscar deserve MASSIVE credit for Hazard's goal!

FUCK YES!

Our players all seem to be wearing shirts that are a size too big for them...

OMG the third kit has been rolled out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agree with this, would be very surprised if we see anything different - especially with Cesc now ruled out.

Not expecting anything drastic for this game. I expect Cuadrado to be eased in as a substitute. Courtois Ivanovic Zouma Terry Azpilicueta Fabregas* Matic Willian* Oscar Hazard Remy Subs: Cech, Cahill, Luis*, Ramires, Mikel*, Cuadrado, Drogba *Subject to fitness. Ramires to start if Cesc is no good. Ake and RLC the back-ups for Luis and Mikel. Think Willian will be ok?

Indeed he does, I think we can all agree on that. I'm not for one minute excusing his performance, I'm just saying that through either fatigue, lack of workrate, an instruction from the manager, or a combination of these, Oscar wasn't playing as far forward as usual against City.

"Meanwhile the Bild website (in German) is reporting the total cost of the Schurrle deal will come in at close to £50m..." http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/30746470

Something to do with Salah's loan has to be sorted out first I believe.

Anti-climatic, Dieter Hecking just saying Andre will not be in the Wolfsburg squad for their game against Frankfurt tomorrow. Doesn't change anything though...

It was interesting to see on the weekend that right from kick off Oscar didn't seem to be anywhere near as far forward as usual. Quite often he would be positioned the deepest in defence out of all of Remy, Hazard, Willian, Ramires and even Matic. As a consequence he was nowhere near as prominent in our attacking moves. Maybe one aspect of this could be the 300 minutes in 8 days that he's played taking its toll, because at times he looked like he simply couldn't muster the energy to run forward and attack. He may have made a conscious decision that it would be better to not be able to run forward and attack than to not be able to run back and defend because we know Jose's philosophy on everyone defending. However, I believe there was a definite instruction from Jose for Oscar to play deeper on Saturday right from the off.

Really? Our pressing with a front two of Costa and Oscar has been immense this season. Yes. I think it's hard to judge Fabregas' true No.10 output when he is only playing it sporadically when Oscar isn't there, which is rarely more than 1 or 2 games in succession. I like the concept of Cesc at No.10, but like Jason has said throughout the last couple of pages, I'm yet to be convinced that it works in a Mourinho team. We just seem to lack a bit of punch when Cesc is there over Oscar.

Relax. All Robguima said was that he thinks they have a similar "style of play". No mention was made of the performance factor until you brought it up. There is no comparison between the two in that regard, and Robguima wasn't making one. I'm sure Oscar aspires to one day be half the player that Lamps has been for Chelsea, but for obvious reasons is nowhere near that yet, and nor is it fair to expect him to be.

Have spoken already in this thread about how I love Kurt's attitude and play. Not sending him on loan was a great move!