The Skipper

Agreed.Cech is still top top class but Courtois is the way forward if we leave any sentiment out if it.

Luiz barely had any good games at DM last year, maybe 3 or 4 and they were all against weaker, sub standard opponents. He was consistent last season, especially for the last half. If you can't remember that then I can't help you, sorry. Luiz was IMO after Mata and Hazard our 3rd best and most consistent player. He had tons of good games at CB last season.

Seriously impressing me this season. Keeps it up and he can be a very useful squad player for us.

He didn't have a pre season and came back injured. Cut him some slack. He was brilliant last season and his start of the season so far has not been ideal at all so I think you're being unfair.

Very rational and fair post. I agree with quite a few things. I'm not in the "sack Mourinho" camp whatsoever, to me the credit goes to Jose for having us be two points off top even though we don't have a concrete playing style whatsoever. I agree that we haven't played as well as we should've been but that is not my biggest concern. My biggest concern at this moment is our lack of identity - at the end of last season under Rafa you could see that we were moving in the right direction with Hazard, Mata and Luiz all starting to shine. One would've hoped that we would've improved on that but so far it seems as if we've been stagnated. The three mentioned above aren't performing like we know they can and one must wonder why Mourinho hasn't got them to hit top form yet. Attacking wise we've been shocking for the majority of the season, still heavily relying on individual brilliance - there is no pattern in our play whatsoever and that isn't good enough. I have the patience to wait it out but there hasn't been any promising signs whatsoever. Our AMs should be lighting it up for us but so far, most of them have been marginalised creatively. Our AMs haven't really got a clue on what they're doing IMO. Obviously as I said before, credit to Jose for getting us this many points without us hitting top gear but we really need to switch a gear up sooner rather than later. Everyone knows we can play a lot better than this. We certainly have the players to.

Are people really expecting DL to come back after a month of being out and barely playing in about two months and expecting him to be world class straight away? Unbelievable.

Agree with this. Don't know why Mata hasn't been trusted with a spot in the middle. It's the reason why he hasn't been scoring either.

People are crazy. Dude hasn't played in a month, pulls up an average performance and there's again talk that we should sell him... At least give him a couple of games to get into his rhythm.

He's been great so far this season though. Already got 12 goals and 8 assists. I don't think it's a forum thing either - I just personally really rate the type of striker Benzema is - a striker that can do anything. Personally I think Benzema needs a change of scenery to truly establish himself as one of the best in the world.

Real don't need a 16 yard box genius. Their team is built around Ronaldo and Benzema is a much better fit in that sense.

How the hell are we second and 2 points off top?

Thank. God.

If we don't win this...

Ah completely forgot about that. Shame.

Back four of Cole - Terry - Luiz - Azpi against Arsenal it looks like. About time too.

I think we're waiting to concede again.

Just all round bad defending tbh. Happens when you don't have a consistent back four.

Lmao. You should really ban yourself dude

At least we're creating guys.

You were saying?

Chalobah should've been playing instead of Essien today.

Luiz is back. We will not concede today.

That is exactly my argument in two sentences.

So you think Falcao is a better passer than Benzema? And that he can hold the ball up better? I did state from the start that I think Benzema is better than Falcao. I rest my case. Don't worry about it we'll just leave it there.

So it's Mikel's fault our managers get sacked? Haha... Amazing.