Madmax

"If Baker and Izzy Brown aren't playing for England in 3 or 4 years, I will consider myself a failure" Gives them a combined total of 0 minutes against 4th tier opposition while half the squad is injured or completely exhausted. It's okay though, because with our great experienced players we forced the said fourth tier opposition to score an own goal.

Lol Mikel

I like Schurrle but he should pull his finger out FFS. He looks like a Lego World Champion. Baker should be pissed off having to sit out for this shitshow.

Schurrle and Salah cost 30 m between themselves ..

Wow, read a lot of guff over the last few pages trying to write off a solid player who also happens to be one of our own. Always amusing when people try and flip everything around to it somehow being the player's fault when in reality it comes down to this - we simply don't give them a chance. If Ryan had been bought for £20 million from overseas.

In sporting terms -Ballack, Sturridge, Eto'o On an sentimental level - Ballack, Ashley, Joe Cole and Mata

The quality of the top teams in the league doesn't decide the overall quality of the league. Otherwise Bundesliga was the greatest league around in 13-14, seeing as Munich won in record time and La Liga is the default best league ever since Ronaldo moved there. Create a competition with the bottom 5 teams of England, Spain, Italy, Germany. Who'll win? Do it for the ones finishing 8-15. Who'll win? Chelsea's record points total and Arsenal's unbeaten season are unlikely to be replicated not because Chelsea and Arsenal's current sides are poorer than before, but because back then you didn't have such quality in the middle and lower-middle reaches of the table. Would you ever have seen Sigurdsson playing for Blackburn, Bolton or Middlesbrough in 2004 to 2008? The clubs are wealthier, the wealth is distributed somewhat evenly and that has raised competitive levels. P.S. Fernando, we'll see if Mourinho extends his logic to us this season if we do end up winning at a canter. I thought even Chelsea fans would've started to take his words with a pinch of salt by now, but apparently not.

Away being put down by the RSPCA, hopefully

We should have a lineup predictor competition for the cup games. Everyone would get at least 7 or so right for the league games but for the cups, it would spice up the match buildups and keep everyone's XI out of the match thread.

We know why you think Rocchi is one of the better ones, Chou Noo.

Guilty as charged

(Mods add the complete nominations list please, I'm on mobile) Courtois, Hazard and Costa among the 23 man shortlist. Only 2 other PL players - Yaya, di Maria. Ronaldo and Simeone have to win, surely?

Italian for sure!

Oh so now we are 6 points ahead of our nearest (realistic) rivals, the league has gotten poor? Weren't everyone wanking themselves silly over 'how competitive the league is' for most of last season? If Arsenal and Liverpool truly were on a different level a few years ago, why is it that only us and Man U won titles between 2004-2011? Truth is it's not the league that's gotten poor, there is simply a more even distribution of talent around the division. That's levelled the field a little bit since the top sides aren't guaranteed a win anymore against the mid and lower table sides.

If the young 'uns don't play tomorrow, they never will. Mourinho's walk should reflect his talk. I won't complain if we go out of the cup having started Baker, Solanke, Ake and the like.

I'm amazed none of the popular football media talks about how shit it's going for him there. £37 mn is a total rip off lol. He needs to get his ass to Spain to start looking like a footballer again.

He hasn't joined the 'Board', technically.

I can't get over how big of a douche Ronaldo is when someone other than him displays the temerity to score. After the most benign penalty/3 inch tap-in in a tennis score, he'd jump about like it's a World Cup winner but no matter how important a goal his teammates score, he has this porcelain pout on his face 9 times out of 10.

Especially because it pisses off those insufferable cunts so much (seriously, trawl through their forums - it really gets on their tits). Is this sort of amusement petty? Sure. But is this sort of amusement the best? Fucking yes.

Aw yisssss. I hope he doesn't go all Negative Nancy tomorrow at OT (like at City). City's result means we have nothing to lose and I hope that's how we play. Let's overwhelm United; we have the ability and the chance. It's a free hit. Let's start to really put some distance for the inevitable November bad moment. P.S. The captaincy comments above quite clearly hint at Ivanovic.

What's the matter, no refs to be bought in Europe?

You're losing to Olympiacos LMAO

Talk of 'new business opportunities' is a strange one considering how settled and comfortable he seemed in that wide ranging interview a few weeks back.

But Brendan said coaching defence is easy

What's the best way to develop Lewis Baker?