The Skipper

Solid.

Giroud is better than Torres and Ba, definitely. Still a very underrated striker, will have a good season at Arsenal.

What are you smoking? Yeah, he has the potential to be a great player for us but he hasn't been one of the best strikers to ever play for this club.

Likewise. PM if you still need another person.

I love how this signing has practically gone under the radar now. Eto'o will shock a lot of opposition fans (and our own) this season. He's still a very, very good player.

Osman has definitely done pretty well but Barry is a specialist in that role, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him starting over Osman. Regarding Willian/Schurrle, I wouldn't mind either. Schurrle probably has the edge defensively but offensively Willian is better, more creative, however Willian is also pretty good defensively, he works very hard and has the right positional sense, but Schurrle is slowly catching form so I wouldn't mind either playing. That's the beauty of having great options in your squad.

Replace Osman with Barry, and replace Fellaini with McCarthy and the system already works a lot better for them (genuinely think McCarthy is better for Martinez's system than Fellaini is). Add in the fact that Lukaku will most likely replace Jelavic and they're really a threatening side. We must bring our A game here and challenge Everton for possession. Mata and Luiz can provide us with the edge to control possession. Hazard and Willian must play to exploit the spaces Coleman and Baines will leave when they transition into attack, where we will be able to counter attack effectively. It'll be a very tough game because Everton have signed well. Bring it on though!

I would love to see an Oscar - Ramires partnership, don't know if Mourinho is thinking the same though.

Bumper Graham on Sky Revista says Ozil's camp were hanging on for Utd, Ozil's camp offered him to Utd weeks ago but Utd turned him down.

The latter. We've already got great players in Özil's position, so it'd make no sense to sign him. I'd rather have a stronger squad.

Personally that has to do with Anelka not being one of my favourite players whilst Sturridge is, so naturally I'd keep more tabs on Sturridge than I would for Nico.

Confirms exactly what I thought. FFP is not a hinderance on us at all, and this brilliant article explains why that is exactly. Thank you for posting this.

Lukaku about his move to #Everton: "I decided that #EFC was the best choice. A more prominent club than West Brom where I had a good time."

Off topic but it isn't anywhere near as bad as you're trying to make it out to be. It's still a pretty solid strike force. You're just bitter because we've sent Lukaku out on loan so everything just seems negative to you. Lukaku is better than Torres and Ba yes, but the development time he'll get at Everton is a lot better than the one he got here, he knows that himself. I'm glad he doesn't have the same mentality on this issue as you do. City: Negredo, Jovetic, Aguero, Dzeko United: Rooney, RVP, Hernandez, Welbeck Chelsea: Eto'o, Torres, Ba Arsenal: Giroud, Sanogo, Bendtner () Tottenham: Soldado, Adebayor, Defoe Liverpool: Sturridge, Suarez, Aspas When compared to the other teams in the PL, we aren't the best, but we aren't the worse either. You have to think long term about it though (as I'm sure Mourinho is doing), Lukaku will come back to us next season a better striker, we'll probably try to offload Ba and/or Torres next season, Eto'o's contract is up... We have to make due with what we've got at the moment but next season we'll be able to concentrate on reshaping our strike force.

Pretty good. Yeah, we didn't really fill in the world class striker and world class CM void but we did try on the former, and on the latter I believe the club are still waiting for the right option to come about. When signing these players they have to be the right one. Our squad has been improved by a ten fold. We will have no problems rotational-wise now, and we have a manager that can make us challenge for the title. We're on the right path, and hopefully next season we'll be able to add more pieces (the right ones) to make this squad even better.

I'd love to see us go all out in this game simply because Everton are not the sort of team that sit back anymore. Play Luiz. Play Mata. My starting XI would be: Cech Azpilicueta - Luiz - Terry - Cole Ramires - MVG Willian - Mata - Hazard Eto'o High energy, creativity, defensively solid, brilliant technical ability in the front four (the link up play will be outstanding). Let's have them.

It's not what happened though, if you scroll down a little further Lukaku himself is delighted with the loan move and blasts this theory away, so save your tears.

Rotationally-wise I'm not worried anymore, we have a quality team now so we can afford to rest Hazard.

Conspiracy theories out of the window then. This is the best for Romelu, I'm very glad he sees so himself. I'm pretty glad he doesn't have the same mentality as some on here. Lukaku is realistic, he knows that if he wants to become the striker that he can be he needs to be playing regularly whilst working on his lesser qualities (link up play comes to mind which he'll definitely develop at Everton). This really is the best for Romelu rather than having him come off the bench now and then for us. He'll gain more experience, be more mature when he comes back, and most importantly, be a better rounded and better footballer. Lukaku Pienaar - Barkley - Mirallas Barry - McCarthy Baines - Distin - Jagielka - Coleman Howard Fantastically solid team that could easily finish top 6, maybe even challenge top 4 if they settle down. Once again, it's a brilliant loan move. Lukaku will be the number one striker ahead of Jelavic and Kone (anyone saying otherwise is just being bitter) and he will develop much more as a footballer at Everton than he will here. There's no rush with this guy people. He's only 20 and has the world ahead of him. Have faith, look past the blind hatred, it's the right decision made for his and our future.

Do you honestly think Lukaku would've scored as many goals if he stayed here as 3rd choice striker?

Genuine question, do you think he could work in a deeper role ala a role in the pivot next to a defensively sound player?

It's much more than just a signing though. The signing is a statement that Arsenal are back. That Arsenal are back to being an ambitious team. This is just the start for what could be a bright future for them providing they keep on making signings like Özil. It's a great signing and I'm glad to see the best players signing for the PL.

Gibson over Barry?

What a brilliant loan move for Lukaku. He goes to a club where he'll be the number 1 striker, a club that plays possession football, a club that has a manager that has a great track record over developing promising players. It's a great deal IMO, and Lukaku will come back as a much better player than he would've been by getting some minutes here and there if he stayed at Chelsea. It's a good move because he'll improve his link up play (which is the most important thing for me) immensely at Everton. At the moment he looks too uncomfortable with his link up play. Of course Lukaku should be our second choice striker but Mourinho doesn't see it that way so there's NO point in keeping him here. Superb move, I'm delighted.

Hope not. Looks like Schneiderlin - would be a great signing for them though.