The Skipper

@SkySportsNews: Chelsea striker Fernando Torres will not face disciplinary action - the FA has announced. #SSN Just as I thought.

Playing Mikel does not equate to sitting back and letting opposition dominate, don't be so ridiculous. You just have to look at the Everton game to see that what you're proclaiming is pretty much just fueled by your weird hatred/obsession with Mikel. Granted, we lost that game but we dominated and created enough chances to attain a comfortable win - and Mikel was one of the better players on that day. Everton have the highest possession average in the league yet we still dominated - so your theory doesn't quite add up. Besides - I thought Mourinho didn't rate Mikel and that Mikel would primarily be a bench player? What happened to that argument?

This. I don't think he'll get banned any more tbh.

So you're giving Lampard the credit for Ramires providing those aspects to our midfield in the 2nd half?

You said it yourself. Arsenal are only playing Gnabry because they have no other option there. Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski, Oxlade, Rosicky are all out. Arsenal's squad is injury ravaged, and that's the only reason Gnabry is playing. Not because Wenger wanted to give his talents a chance.

Still, I'm pretty sure the sideline ref seen the scuffle, and if he warranted that Torres should've been cautioned more than his yellow card for it then he would've alerted the referee about it. We'll see how things develop over the next few days though.

Well in that case, since Torres got a yellow card for the incident we're talking about (if I remember well enough) it means the referee did see it, and it means that retrospective action can't be taken.

It isn't malicious enough to warrant a 4 game ban sorry. If he's going to get banned for that then Vertonghen should be suspended as well.

If those reports are true then I'm not really surprised. This is why I said the Willian signing is unnecessary and will be a problem regarding KDB. Willian is a good player but not that much better than KDB. We should've just kept the money and kept Moses around with KDB than signing Willian - knew something like this would happen. Shame really.

So Mikel is the player that decides whether all of his other team mates should hang back? So you don't think Jose instructed the players to play conservatively in the first half but rather that it was Mikel that was telling all the players to sit deep? Didn't know Mikel was responsible for how the team's set up. Oh well. You live and learn right?

In that post I was merely commenting on who was the main culprit for the goal we conceded. Mikel was substituted because of tactical reasons, it wasn't Mikel that forced the team to hang back - Mou clearly instructed and set his team up in that way; Ramires on the wing - Lampard and Mikel in the pivot is way too conservative. We were chasing the game and obviously Lampard is a goal scoring threat so he moved Ramires back in midfield and taking off Mikel was the logical move - I'm not disputing that we didn't dominate the midfield after this move.

Watch the build up to the goal and you'll see that Mikel was actually pressing to regain the ball. Lamps lost his man and that's why they scored.

I honestly don't mind Torres being a bit aggressive if he performs like this all the time.

Meh, I still expect a lot more from Hazard, he hasn't been good enough but I have very high expectations from him. Granted he performed a bit better today but his previous performance was so bad that today still wasn't good enough IMO. Hazard needs to start influencing games and taking games by the scruff of their necks.

Of course Hazard can perform well without Mata playing - not disputing that mate. What I am saying though is that Mata and Hazard bring the best out of each other (it's a vice versa thing). I basically believe that both create spaces for each other which in turn allows them to perform better.

It was 100% Lampard's man for the goal, watch it again. Mikel left to press ahead of him and Lampard lazily left Eriksen unmarked which allowed Eriksen to start the creation of the goal.

As I said before - I'm not basing it on this game in particular though. I'm basing it on what we saw last season and during this season in general. The chemistry between Mata and Hazard was sublime on so many occasions last season. Hazard has in general been poor this season, there's no denying that, and I really think Mata not playing too often is partly responsible for that. Mata's work rate was pretty great today, he really got stuck in defensively and pressed pretty well when he came on. He keeps that up for the rest of the season and he'll easily be one of the nailed on starters under Mou.

Lloris is the best keeper in the world when it comes to rushing out, would've had to be an exceptionally exquisite finish for Andre to score that.

Terry - Luiz compliment each other very well. Thought both were good today, especially the former. Hopefully Mou is slowly starting to figure out our best team now.

If he plays like this for the rest of the season I'll be very happy with him.

I've said it before - but I really think Hazard's poor performances this season go hand in hand with Juan not playing that many minutes this season. He's our main creative threat when Mata isn't on the pitch so he gets crowded out by three players. With Juan on he has more space to express himself.

Regarding our first half performance - I think Mourinho got the team set up wrong. We were inviting Spurs on to us and when we did regain the ball we looked clueless going forward. I'm glad he changed that during the second half - where we started high pressing further up the pitch a lot more. Mou read the game wrong initially but reacted very well. The Mata for Mikel sub at HT was great. Again, hopefully this has opened Jose's eyes on the impact Mata can have on our team. Juan is literally the attacking brain of the CFC squad.

Mata MOTM simply because he has shown Jose today that with a in form Mata our general play is so much better. Brilliant assist for the equaliser. Torres very, very close to that 2nd MOTM. Was absurdly brilliant today and if he keep those sort of performances up for the rest of the season he's our number 1 striker for me.

Hazard has been worse than Oscar so I don't think there's anything wrong with the sub.