DYC.

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.

Villas-Boas is definitely a smart man.

We've gone back to the Mourinho tactics haha.

His play was bad? Seriously? He wasn't great but to say he was bad is harsh. His overall performances are better than Torres', that's for sure. The fact that he isn't as good as he was before doesn't matter. Torres scored goals but then went on a dry spell, that's why Drogs got a chance and he took it.

Drogba started in the past three games and scored two goals.

Loving the pressure on this game, can't wait.

Nahh I'm not a big fan of having both wingers in the side cut in. I'd like one to stay out wide, stretching play and play in crosses, curling away (the crosses I mean) from the GK. We already have a inside forward in Sturridge. Though of course buying a winger who's very comfortable using both feet, able to cut in and go around the fullback would be even better, but they are rare.

A quality left winger (preferably left-footed), a quality CB, bring back Kakuta from the useless loan (to use as a back-up) and switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation would be enough to secure us a spot in the top four I think. And then go on rebuilding the squad in the summer.

Difficult to tell. Luiz needs a partner who's calm and stays behind and sweeps up behind him but that's normally the role of a experienced defender.. So while I personally do think he can become a defender of that type, he'll need time so I can't see them forming a partnership of the needed standard anytime soon. Unless Bruma is a gem..

I love the tenacity in his play, we've really missed that. Mikel's as strong as an ox but he's a puppy.

He defended well, breaking up some play and got some good tackles in. Also positioned himself pretty well and also showed he's no push-over. Nurnberg did create chances but most of Nurnberg's threat came over the left side (Bruma plays on the right). He's showing promising signs for a CB that just turned 20 and is only now playing regularly at the highest level. He has pace, is good on the ball and has impressive passing ability, for a CB, so that's good as we need those types. Töre also looks good. Very comfortable on the ball, fast, pretty strong and has a pretty good pass on him. He still has a lot to learn, has to work on his positional sense and decision-making etc., but that's normal for a guy his age and with his lack of experience. Didn't know that. Too bad he didn't have the patience but we could've loaned him out instead of selling him. He's a better option on the wing than Malouda, Anelka and Kalou..