BLionheart

Let others fight for 40 million rated Hazard and get this lad , he is simply magnificent ,. He would be my no.1 option for a winger unless we are willing to pay 40 millions for Hazard .

The most important thing is securing a place in the UCL next year , that is critical for our future success .

Ramires is the best at doing that and i never really got the idea of playing Kalou or Malouda just because of their defensive work , if u need to play a winger who will only defend then you can deploy the likes of Essien , Miereles there and believe me they will be better defensively and just as good as Kalouda offensively . Marko Marin for 6.5 millions is a great piece of business , specially coming from the chelsea board !! he is better than all of our wingers but that doesn't mean he should be a starter next year .

Does that mean Chelsea fans can be there as neutrals as well

I still stand by what i said , his words and rumored acts (If true) were a disgrace , but his ability on the pitch is outstanding ! for me Lampard , Ramires and Drogba were the main men behind overcoming the best team in the world. He may have had a lot of bad games and moments during the last couple of years but i think his form had picked up significantly during the last 3 month and his game play in the double pivot role should be much more appreciated.

And i thought the come back against Napoli was the greatest one in our history !! After Iniesta's goal , i gave up , i was about to stop watching but all of a sudden we are heading on aggregate ! I am starting to think that this may be the year where ladyluck will be on our side in the UCL , but to play against Real / Munich without Iva , Rami , Terry and Miereles is not the most promising situation.

We have only a 1 goal lead ! Barca will score that's certain , even during their worst classico in 10 years they still managed to score !! but we need to have the quality and efficiency to hurt them on the counter. I see a lot of optimism from our fans and i hope i can share the same but for me , i think we have a chance of only 40% of winning this clash , this game will be decided on very little details , like the Sanchez ball that hit the post in the 1st leg , a ball that if was a goal we would have lost the game , if Barca scores within the 1st half we probably won't progress.

Not in the wildest dreams of a Chelsea fan would anyone expect us to thrash Tottenham in the semis 5-1 and then beat Barcelone in the UCL . Cech-Terry-Cole-Lampard-Drogba where the main men behind this win and those players didn't only stand out in terms of quality on the pitch but more importantly they were the very needed leaders who showed great personality.

Now a bigger question is can Di Mateo do the same against Arsenal and in the Camp nuo ?? and if not who should be rested ??

Hated his role in the AVB dismissal , but he has looked a lot better recently and now he actually contributes something to the team !! not as good as 4 years ago but miles better than 4 months ago!!

We need to be more realistic , the chances of us coming out of the game with a 2 goal lead or more are the same of Torres scoring 20 goals this season , it was possible 2 or 3 years ago but now it just won't happen. a 1-0 win for us would be perfect to go at the camp-nu , park the bus and try to snatch an away goal. Our game play should exactly the same in 2009 , all about defending in numbers , wait for them , keep spaces between defense and midfield very tight that means the double pivot has to drop back just in-front of our defense , have patience , use pace and power for counters and get physical as lions defending their territory. May be then if we are lucky enough we can keep a clean sheet and get a goal.

2 games in four days is O.K. but 4 games in 11 days is not . The barca counter and the arsenal game are far more important than today's game.

I don't get what all the fuss is about !! the FA cup shouldn't be one of our priorities . a UCL place next year and the UCL semis are definitely more vital to the success of any big club . We have Barca within 3 days and then arsenal in the league , we have to at least put in a display against Barca and win against arsenal to save our season but winning the FA cup without a UCL placement will mean nothing. Di matteo will be completely stupid if he fields his best line-up , thinking they have the legs to play 4 exhausting and extremely important games in 13 days .

Would rather have a devastating trio a la Cavani-Lavezzi-Hamsik or Robben-Drogba-Duff/cole or Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez .

Player of the season but he has not lived up to his standards since the departure of AVB , i don't know whether it's exhaustion or the more defensive approach that is affecting his game .

Kalou is back to starting games more often and looks like he is going to get his requested new contract again and again and again .... He can score goals and tap ins as much as he wants but i just want him to fuck off and stop playing in our shirt .

The happiness with the result is understandable , but the praise for the performance is not !! In a game which we were structured not to concede , the opponents had two clear-cut chances , we had a goal-line clearance and Terry's handball should have been a penalty , but the bigger problem is that was against Benfica !! If we are to keep our advantage during the return leg , our next opponents will likely be Barcelona .. A repeat of this performance might turn into a disastrous score-line against Messi and co. Glad we won , hope we can get more wins in the next two games but tbh i am more worried about our inability to keep possession , build up play , lack of creativity , urgency , and our inability to get the ball back anywhere before our 18 yards box !!

It certainly looked like two teams were playing for a draw today , i can see why spurs were to be happy with that but why the fuck would a team whose only hope to get a UCL place playing at it's own ground will go for the draw !! We certainly looked like we would rather avoid defeat than risk it for the sake of the 3 points , sturridge should ve been restored to his RW position but we were too worried about Bale . We don't have one quality midfielder in this club, that is unacceptable !! , first thing we should do in the summer is sell Essien - Mikel - Miereles - may be lamps as well and get a whole new midfield .

You can't just keep changing personel regardless their form and performance just in the name of keeping everyone fresh !! Luiz was our best and most consistent player during the last month , and it will be an emotional return for him against benfica , so if he is to be rested it should have been against the weaker , emotional benfice.

He is 19 years old now but he looks like a 14 years old boy , he has to improve a lot physically !! i think that is what's keeping him away from becoming an EPL quality midfielder .

Just re-watched the Napoli game , and to be frank we were brilliant in terms of personality , determination and spirit but wasn't that brilliant as a unit defensively nor did we have an extra spark or enough creativity attacking wise as our approach was simply cross the ball into their box and while that's understandable due to Napoli's obvious struggles in the air but during some moments we still fell short in the creativity area . Other than that game, we have won 1-0 against 10 men stoke and two champion-ship sides .. which is not as impressive as some make it sound , Certainly we are buzzing atm and the players' spirit is up to the sky but lose against City and Tottenham and we are back to where we finished with AVB except that we will be with no good manager as well. So this game along with the spurs game IMO will have a MASSIVE effect on our season , and unfortunately in terms of players and team quality we might fall short compared to both teams so our best bet will be a repeat of the live or die attitude the players had against Napoli , we need to make sure that we are that side who wanted it more and showed that on the field. Within the next 5 days we might know whether our season has already collapsed or if we are to finish this transitional , full of disappointments season with a big smile on our faces.

Torres had a very good game by his recent standards but don't think he is revived yet.

The sudden disappearance of Oriol Romue is very worrying for me .

Although this hasn't changed one bit of what i think of his and other senior players actions during the AVB dismissal , but it had absolutely demonstrated how smartly you can manipulate the media , play along and win more people on your side.

I think we will get either Munich or Benfica .