DYC.

Yeah they were definitely the better side, no doubt about that. But many made it seem as if City were Barcelona-esque and that they were killing us. We were indeed poor with the ball where it mattered but we defended well, except for Joké Bosingwa, and they literally had just two chances.

You know I kept hearing about how we got outplayed in the first 20-25 min and all the time all I could say was: really? So I just watched the first 25 min of the game again and I have to say, saying City outplayed us is such an exaggeration. Don't get me wrong, City were the better side. We didn't create anything, except for the Drogba shot, but City only created two chances, the Balotelli goal and the Aguero shot which he should've converted. We had enough of the ball though our play in their half was too rushed and sloppy and we defended well, except for the moments I mentioned earlier. So to say we were outplayed is simply not true.

Except for that early mistake which got punished, another very good performance by Terry. Very weak in 1-on-1 situations and with space behind him but other than that, class. Villas-Boas should simply accept that he can't ever play a high-line as long as Terry is playing (the same goes for Alex and Ivan at CB), he's only hurting his own team.

Just love big games, let's do this.

Bosingwa . Was hoping for Alex in the centre and Ivan at RB. We can only hope for the best now.

Barca didn't play well last night, in Barca terms, yet they still beat Real comfortably, really says a lot.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Maka got praised as Chelsea's DM by football fans, Essien got praised when he played DM in his prime by football fans, Romeu currently receives praise as Chelsea's DM by football fans yet Mik

Woww. Starting a discussion would be useless so I'll leave it at that.

Better than (you even added much) Pato and Benzema, really? You sure that's not the bias talking?

Stupid red beard .

Liar liar, pants on fire.

Ramires is 1.80 m, is that really considered as tall?

Love you for this comment . Ledley is still among the best three CBs imo in the league despite his fitness issues, he's just great. Can only speak for the defenders I've seen. Alessandro Nesta is the best centreback I've seen. His style was beautiful and incredibly effective. There will never be another like him. And I didn't even see him in his prime at Lazio.. The likes of Cafu, Maldini, Carlos and Thuram etc. in their prime were before my time so Ashley Cole is the best fullback I've ever seen. Superb player and incredibly consistent, an honour to have seen him play.

Good player. I do wonder whether he's a world-class player though.

Yeah I noticed that too. He was sloppy in the first half and wasn't as effective as in the second half.

I think he realises that's it just not possible to play that way and win trophies with the current squad. It will really take a while before we get ther. Arsenal for example were still a team at their most dangerous on the break in the Henry, Bergkamp, Pires etc. days and became a possession football side when the new generation took over. We'll just have to wait and see.

Perfect reaction by Villas-Boas.

Yeah but the focus of Villas-Boas' philosofy, total football, lies on keep the ball on the ground. It sounds a bit strange saying it like that but it's the truth. Power was still a very important factor under Ancelotti and we were never able of playing like that consistently. Everybody is capable of dominating against inferior sides, even we did the same under Mourinho (the same for Mourinho's Inter). I'm not saying they're useless in a total football approach but definitely not the ideal men. Cavani's strengths can be found in his physical attributes but technically he's average (Cavani has never been able to really perform for Uruguay btw).

True but only one man put in a legendary performance.

We've never been side that plays dominating possession football, mainly playing short passes, before Villas-Boas came (except for Scolari but Anelka was Scolari's main man for that approach). The same Cavani at Napoli and Uruguay, both Napoli and Uruguay play anything but 'Total Football' or Barcelona football like it's called nowadays. Both Uruguay and Napoli sit deep and hit opponents on the counter-attack, except for when playing an inferior side of course.

If Villas-Boas still plans to make us a dominating side, and I don't think that has changed, buying a Drogba-esque player or a player like Cavani wouldn't be the right option as both fit a counter-attacking side. So it all depends on the way we wan't to play really and that makes this hard to discuss. Didier is a one-man army, he's just special when in form.

Drogba should've been the only option in the poll.

He's got pace but definitely not lightning pace and he plays on the left btw. Quality player. Good on the ball, very strong for his size, nice passing ability and love the fact that he's goal threat. He's still only 21 so a lot of room for improvement and he's got good head on his shoulders due to his father.. He would be good buy and I can easily see this happen if we really want him, especially with Essien here. We should go for him in January even though he wouldn't be able to play in the CL for us. The only downside is that we'll have to miss him during AFCON (when will that tournament finally be played every 4 years instead of 2..)

I seriously got flashbacks and started wondering why Carvalho and Maka weren't on the pitch . Wasn't that like a classic Chelsea vs Arsenal match yesterday?

It would take years to transform into a possession football team as we need a new team and that team would need years of getting used to each other and develop the needed (telepathic) understanding. Personally I would prefer a Madrid-ish approach. A far more direct approach but not sitting as deep as we did yesterday, though it's probably necessary with the current squad. We still have a lot of work to do though. Even though we won 3-0 yesterday, that was just one game. Not trying to be a kill-joy but we were very effective in the first half and punished the mistakes made by Valencia (Valencia also played a high line which played right into our cards). But we were very sloppy yesterday and you won't always be allowed to be that sloppy and still win. And we were too dependent on Drogba, who put in a great performance. Again, Drogba won't always be able to perform like he did yesterday. Throughout the game he had too little support and we were only allowed to sit that deep as a team because of the early goal. So yeah, still a lot of work to do.