DYC.

That was a brilliant header really. A dipping cross and from such range, simply perfect. His heading has been the only consistent trait in his time here, unlucky not to score more due to some brilliant saves (offside at the CWC).

I don't think the people currently in charge at Bayern will ever want a controversial manager again after Van Gaal haha.Think Spalletti did a excellent job at Roma. He built a good team with limited funds. Also played good and attractive football with his Roma team. I remember us having a very hard time against him back in 08/09 I think. We even lost in the away match. He also showed he's innovative as he was the first to play a real '4-6-0' formation. Can't say I'm convinced he'd do a good job here but it would be a risk worth taking imo. Don't see it happening though.

How anyone could say Lamps is/was inferior to Gerrard.. Even now Frank keeps proving them wrong.

Ohh Frank.. I love you you super studly super stud!

Going to PSG next would be a good move for him. I personally hope Chelsea are looking at other managers.

Don't you hear that all the time though? First it was Van Nistelrooy, then Cristiano Ronaldo, then Rooney, now Van Persie.Utd are a unit but they build their team around a player who will as a result excel/catch the headlights. Besides, it's both Rooney and Van Persie carrying the team currently. In terms of scoring goals and creating chances that is. They said the same about us and Drogba but we mostly managed whenever he wasn't available or out of form in his time here.

So I'm the only one actually expecting Utd to knock Real out? Well expecting, I think they'll win.

Add Porto - Malaga to that list. I'm gonna enjoy being a neutral.

You're just repeating what I already said though haha. I never said you can't be skilled or good at moving the ball, I was purely referring to the style of defenders of Davids's ilk. If Pique pushes up and Barca concedes a goal from a counter for example, they don't blame Pique for the goal. Most will wonder why no one covered him. I only mentioned British but I didn't they say they're the only ones. Germans and Italians in general too like you said but they also produced attacking CBs, think Beckenbauer and Baresi (and they are know as the best they've had, go figure). But the game is quicker now so you get punished more. You should see Kompany play for Belgium btw, different player. Dribbling from the back, pushing up and joining attacks, applying early pressure. At City he goes into English CB mode.

He won the corner that led to the 2-1. Good cameo overall.

With British mentality I was referring to them preferring their CBs to stay at the back, keep everything very simple and just focus on defending. While the Dutch, Spanish & Brazilian for example are used to defenders pushing up, keeping the ball after winning it at the back instead kicking the ball out of play (unless there's no other option) etc.

Those dipping long range shots today were trademark Lamps. Haven't seen him that trigger happy in a long time, unlucky not to score. Would love to see Oscar and Lamps being tried out with Mikel behind them in a three man midfield.

Don't think those with that typical British mentality will ever like David Luiz. He played a bad pass in the attacking third, the opposition had so much ground to cover, flawless counter attack btw, and there were enough players at the back (though Oscar switched off). To put all the blame on him for that goal would be ignorant.

People people.. Just look at the boy, so much natural talent. And he doesn't seem to have any attitude problems and looks like real professional so I don't have any doubt he'll be huge for us. You just can't expect a newcomer to come in and rip the league apart. It has happened in different cases and it would've been nice but still unrealistic. To make things worse, he joined a unbalanced and struggling side, a team that doesn't possess a clear style of play. He used to play in a inferior league as well. Ligue 1 can't be compared to the Premier League. Remember Essien, Drogba and Malouda? They were all Ligue 1 imports and they all needed time to adjust (and they joined a team that was among very the best at the time). They were far more experienced as well, Hazard is 21(!). But they turned out okay. Hazard didn't ask Chelsea to pay 32 mil pounds for him did he? This is a completely new experience for him. Just give the boy some time and he'll come good.

10's are anything but rare on whoscored, I've seen it happen so often. But very impressive stats indeed, quality player. Spanish midfielders dominate world football.

Busquets and Adriano aren't exactly regular goal-scorers haha. Adriano's goal was insane.

Haha I can watch him score goals like that all day. Talk about accuracy.

Haha I just love Busquets. Great fake shot. 3 great goals really. Haven't enjoyed a game this much in a long long while.

Yes. Right now, Mata is the best option for the playmaker role.And I'm still counting on a top four finish definitely. Something would have to terribly wrong for that not to happen. Arsenal and Tottenham have serious issues as well.

Very harsh. Mata does have a rare ability of being decisive, even if he isn't playing well. And he's done so in big games as well. It's just easy to focus on his flaws as there's no one else to take over when he doesn't play well.

I agree he's no playmaker. Not of the highest level that is. I think he's much better as a left midfielder/left forward and he has what it takes to be world-class in that role imo. Not your typical wide man but with his great crossing, terrific positional sense, a quality eye for playing the final pass and his goal-scoring ability (also able of picking players out from deep positions), he'd be great.Oscar is the real playmaker in this team. But he needs time as he's not at the required level yet.

And we saw how much Van Persie on his own could do for a team simply not good enough to compete for the major titles last season, which was my point.

I absolutely love Pellegrini. But I don't think he's high-profile enough for the club. He'd need to win the CL with Malaga. And even if he managed that, he'd get sacked after a few poor results so yeah.

Unfair on Mata. There are only a handful of players in world football who can look good in a disjointed team on a highly consistent basis. Not only does he have to start attacks, he has to finish them off as well. And so often, the other players just aren't on his wavelength. I'm personally surprised at how well he has done in this team actually. I'd love to see how he'd do if he had someone to share the load with on a consistent basis. Mata isn't up there with the likes of Messi, Iniesta and such but he's not too far away from them.Drogba for example played some terrific games for Chelsea in his last two seasons but he also had a lot of games where he looked absolutely awful, which I'm convinced had nothing to do with his age.

Guess the previous manager couldn't do much about some of the poor results under his tenure. Who knew.. This has been a season filled with embarrasments and it's only December. I expected a bumpy ride but I didn't expect the bumps to be this big. I can only hope the men in charge have their eyes open and recognize our faults. Haha who am I kidding. They'll probably buy Falcao and think all our problems are solved. This is not good.