Peace.

We aren't in a position where we can afford to make gambles. If we are truly aiming to end up in the top four, then we should stick to the safest choices. Untill now, the Drogba-Torres partnership is yet to be proved as a good one. Hence we shouldn't start him. Excuse me ? Torres outplayed Danni Sturridge in the Napoli game ? This isn't true. Torres has been praised for the same amount of work rate that Sturridge had done, though he has only got labeled as a greedy player. Furthermore Torres didn't managed to put the ball in an empty goal. Is it because he showed he was a team player that he has to start the next game ? No, not at all. If that was the case, Kalou, Bosingwa and Ferreira would also deserve to start games. And the fact he had a good game today shouldn't guarentee him to start the next game. Why ? Because what did he do in the games before ? He did fuck all except to have spend a whole day without scoring. No players should enter the first team right away just because they had a good game against a side coming from the Championship obscurity. He has to prove he is worth to come back in the starting eleven. He is yet to prove that. To prove he is worth it, he has to play good in few games in a row, and preferably against better sides than Leicester.

So you would rather play the biggest flop in Football History to keep his confidence going, than keep our chance of winning an important game ? Last time I checked it was Chelsea FC, not Torres FC.

For me it is a non-starter. Yes the spaniard has been good today, but we should remember he has just come out of a drought of 24 goalless games. One good game against a mid-table side of the Championship shouldn't guarantee him to be in our starting lineup. He has a lot of thing to prove, while Didier has been consistent untill now, even if he hasn't been in his best form, he has been rather good, and he has been very good when it did matter (cf : against Valencia, City and Napoli).

Must be Yahve. Didier.

Luiz having a laugh with Eva... Get off your hand off her !

Had it been Luiz, he would have been labeled as a liability.

He is on 24 or 25 by now.

Yep, that was a lovely lob. I must admit I have a crush for his lob.

Holy shit, what a goal by Messi !!

All players (Barça + Sevilla) having a t-shirt for Abidal.

I dont know. Though, if it's true, it would - once again - stress the stupidity of our board. If we don't play him because we want to keep him away Barça, why did we bought him in the first place ?

Avec les années, c'est vraiment devenu un torchon. Dommage qu'un bon journal tourne mal de la sorte.

Yeah. I'll wait to see how the players react when they will have a tough time against a non-glamourous team. For now it is easy for them to be motivated, there's a new coach and they have a point to prove. André was there to have a long term impact. Hazard didn't want to move and Lille didn't want to sell, the same thing is also true for Lucas' case, while Willian was too expensive. So there were no points in doing a panic buy. Plus I feel like the board was useless as usual, Roman knows the Shakthar owner and I believe with clever negociators we could have make this deal happen. I wanted him to sign Sergi Roberto from Barça, but can you imagine the commotion among Chelsea fans if it were to happen ? And look at what happened with Cahill. Despite the fact Cahill wanted to leave Bolton and the fact Bolton wanted to sell him, it took us more than two weeks to sign him, and we had to overpay him (fees and wage) to make the deal happen. A bad mood an unwillingness can ruin the biggest projects.

Tomo is right. When Torres does a decent work rate, people are like "it doesn't matter if he has missed the goal because he works hard etc.." but when it comes to Kalou, the hard work becomes insignificant. Just as when Torres kicks the ball out off the Bridge, people are saying he is unlucky while when Malouda or Bosingwa do it people insult them.

André Villas-Boas was forced to put faith in the players he had. The board failed miserably this summer with negociations. He had no choice.

From players' point of view, it would be great if we draw against Madrid, thus the Old Guard could more easely request to Mourinho to come back.

I am happy, delighted, in joy, etc... Though I can't be proud knowing they could have put such performances in the last six months but have refused to do it.

You have to see further than your nose... We will only be able to draw conclusions when the honeymoon will stop.

This duo will (or at least should) only exist this summer on the "players out :" sheet.

It was sarcasm. I didn't think a post saying Gourlay was knowing stuffs about football needed a sarcasm smiley lol.

^ Gourlay knows better than you.

First off, this is the Chapions League, the point is to play against the best teams of the continent. Secondly, if we aim to win the CL, will sooner or later have to play against them, so why not know ? And finally, I am curious to compare our level to the very best, since Barça is the best team in the world, I am curious to see what we can do against them - And it will probably open Roman's eyes on the fact we are mediocre.

I hope we win so we can play against Barcelona next round.

^ It says the physical trainer who is following Mourinho since his Porto days has bought a Ferrari and the license plate is registered at London.