Styles

Costa enjoying life at Chelsea - http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/video/videoid=2166439.html

Good luck to him. He seems to have found his level in a decent side capable of competing for a Europa League place. Quite a few Southampton fans believe he's better than 27m Shaw http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?52149-Ronald-Koeman-says-he-wants-to-sign-Ryan-Bertrand-on-a-permanent-deal

I noticed that too, he was trying to be very precise with his passes and it showed. He doesn't look natural when passing, it looks like he's making a big effort with relatively simple passes. He doesn't have to be a great passer, however, just good enough will do - especially if playing with a partner that can pass well. People seem to love Cahill and he isn't that good on the ball himself. I really hope it's something that can be worked on because Zouma's athletic ability is ridiculous and would be a huge asset in the Premier League. He's a project so we just have to see how it works. And it looks like Zouma has been nominated for the Golden Boy award:

Pellegrino will be angry to hear that

Both right. Ronaldo is a great goalscorer, that's not even in question, but as an all-round player he can be ridiculously average. His passing, vision, playmaking ability etc all leave a lot to be desired. Honestly, this guy is supposedly the best player in the world but you can't trust him to make relatively simple passes even when in acres of space. This is the guy people beat players like Hazard about and say he's not on that level and never will be etc and it's an absolute joke.

Hahaha, if Hazard had all that space on the counter attack for Madrid do you think he would have got as many (if any) passes wrong like virtually all their attacking players did? Ronaldo's passing was downright embarrassing at times and this is supposed to be the best player in the world.

That reads like a love letter. I watched Madrid vs Barca earlier and couldn't help but think that a lot of the players people constantly compare Hazard to and/or suggest he's not at their level aren't half as good as they're made out to be. Hazard is better at a lot of things than most of these guys.

Mangala having an absolute shocker again. 40m

Hahaha

Another good game building on his performance against Bolton. His passing looked better too and it good to see that he was using both feet. Oh and btw, Mangala had another bad game and was at fault for one of the two goals City conceded tonight. Perhaps the comparison made in here was flattering to Mangala

Yep, I'll believe he's injured when the team is named on Sunday and he isn't on the team-sheet.

Brilliant goal on his weaker foot. He would have had socred more had he played the full game. Real shame about the injury; just when he's getting chances and playing well he gets hurt. Hope he's back soon.

OK, tonight is the only time I agree with the 'Hazard should score more' crowd. He really should be going for a hattrick right now

2-0 at half-time thanks to a Boga double. He seems to be scoring a lot more nowadays. With all due respect to Maribor, Boga is clearly way too good for this level.

As with Costa, Remy's fee was fixed into his contract; without a release clause he'd have cost considerably more than 10m. He may not improve beyond his current level now (he could quite easily, however, with better coaching and teammates) but his current level makes him a serviceable deputy. Whether or not we could have picked up a better #2 wasn't the point I disagreed with - and besides who was available that could 1) be bought at a reasonable fee 2) content to play second fiddle to Costa and 3) better than Remy? Benteke is/was nursing a serious injury so wasn't an option. Who else fits that description?

Right, because those two points somehow weaken my argument. I'm asking you to remember what happened last season; I'm not asking you to recall what happened 4 or 5 years. Giving Remy the benefit of the doubt is the least you could do since, you know, he hasn't actually let us down against good opposition.

'Prob better than Torres...' There's no probably about it; Remy is comfortably better than Torres at virtually every aspect of the game and Saturday was definitive proof of that. Remy scored 14 goals in 26 Premier League games last season. Torres never even sniffed double digits during his time here, and his all-round play was nowhere near the quality of what we saw from Remy at the weekend. Disagree with that. Remy is a good player and is an upgrade on both Torres and Ba in my opinion. Costa is one of the absolute best strikers in the world - and without his 32m release clause would have cost at least double that fee - so of course there's going to be a difference in quality between our #1 and #2 striker. I think Remy would have been our first choice striker last season had he been at the club. In the corresponding fixture last season (Palace 1 - 0 Chelsea) Torres was an absolute waste of space as per usual so being 'OK' (Remy was more than just OK on Saturday) in games against the likes of Palace is what we want from him. And until he plays against stronger opposition in the CL we don't know how he'll fare so at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

Doesn't look anything special, and I'd prefer we kept the path open for the likes of Baker.

I thought he did OK and was ufortunate that the ball bounced perfectly for Zaha. Let's not pretend like Azpilicueta wins 100% of his tackles.

His ability to receieve the ball with his back to the goal was quality and was a key part of the game; it got Delaney sent off, helped in the build-up to the second goal and very nearly led to a third. It makes a massive difference for the team knowing you can pass the ball to your striker and he won't lose it.

Ryan Bertand on Drogba: Drogba really is an amazing person

I remember that day vividly actually; they both made promising debuts and the future looked so bright...then we ended up with Benitez It just seems like so much has happened since 2012.

Great picture It seems so long ago that they made their Premier League debut against in Wigan in 2012 Time flies, eh?

I seriously expect Mata to start the game on the bench and perhaps not even feature. And with Rooney suspended that would really let Mata know where he stands with LVG.