Elliott

Matt Bellamy (Muse) - Just a great guitarist and vocalist. Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree/No-Man/Blackfield) - Started as a schoolkid making a fake band and has evolved 17 years later into a modern alternative/progressive rock band with plenty of things going on on the side. Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters) - Great musician all round Josh Homme (Kyuss/Desert Sessions/Queens of the Stone Age) - Just awesome

Carlos? Do you mean Roberto Carlos? Seriously? He's like 37 or something now

Collar doesn't look all that bad to me...

Great win, very good performance, my only problem is that we sat back on a 1-0 lead instead of trying to increase it. It's all well and good successfully defending a 1-0, but if Grant is serious about playing great football, we have to go attack these games and kill them off. In the end we did do that, but gave Spurs a few chances before that. But that's a minor issue, we've swept aside Spurs again and I am very happy Player ratings: Cech: 7 - Very commanding, made one good save Belletti: 9 - He's having a great time of it at the moment and a fantastic goal Ashley Cole: 7 - Struggled with Lennon in the first half, but got a hold of him in the second Carvalho: 9 - Magnificent again Alex: 9 - Top notch performance from Alex today, possibly his best in a Chelsea shirt so far Makelele: 7 - Good performance from Maka, looked rusty but did his job Ballack: 8 - I thought he had a very positive influence on our play, good performance Wright-Phillips: 8 - The midfield role seems to suit him a lot, it allows him to make better decisions and he is less one dimensional than on the wing. Took his goal well, in good form at the moment Joe Cole: 7 - Didn't have an awful lot of influence on the game, but showed how good he is at getting out of tricky situations with his feet Malouda: 7 - Decent performance, I like how he drifts inside sometimes Pizarro: 7 - Didn't think he did all that badly, but not what we're looking for Subs: Anelka: 8 - Looks very good, was unlucky not to score, despite a lack of understanding with his team mates he was still able to find them on occasion with some clever flicks and looks to be a great signing Sidwell: 6 - Didn't have enough time to assert an influence on the game, not that he probably could or anything Bridge: 6 - Not enough time

Both of his sending offs this season have been unjustified. He does make some bad tackles, but few of them are red worthy.

Sounds like some dodgy Miami based cocaine smuggler!

Nah I'd totally put Jokanovic in instead of Fletcher

We don't need to rush him back. Alex is a capable replacement, not as good as JT, naturally, but I don't worry with Alex and Carvalho as a centre back pairing. Just make sure he is absolutely fit when we play him.

Excellent news, just when we need another midfielder!

You should organise a nationwide strike of nurses... oh wait you can't do that. So just everyone resign at the same time. The government will be scrabbling so fast to try and keep everyone they're bound to up the wages

If Huntelaar is going for £12 million then I disagree with you there, but with Anelka we know he is suited to the Premiership at least.

The fact that we are 6th is little to shout about. No-one wants to finish 6th. This table is all about Liverpool being right down the bottom!

Of course he's not going to be a bargain. He was never going to be a bargain. Bolton signed him for a club record £8million. They have got a £7m profit within a year and a half which is pretty good, they have gotten more than he was worth because he still had a long contract to fulfill and he was an important player. The real point is, we have signed a capable player who is hopefully going to score plenty of goals for us and who is available for all competitions too.

Sooner or later the management are going to get shafted by their own bad decisions. We need a rise in the unions again. Glad I never touched medicine as a possible career. Not worth it.

You don't seem to understand that we are playing the few young players we have ever going to be good enough in the Carling Cup already. We're just not playing them against the top sides because then we'd lose. And of course Premiership teams should take part, it's a top competition, without that it'd just be another Johnstone's Paint Trophy. Edit: Many of our young players that are going to be good enough for our first team are already in it. Our young players that are potentially good enough are: Mikel, Kalou, Sinclair, Sahar. Mancienne maybe, but he was on loan. Smith, no. All other players are a bit too young, such as Stoch, Woods, Bertrand (who will get more involved next year I think).

If we bought all those players many of our first 11 would have also left.

Haha overdramatic much?

in Chelsea Makelele in Chelsea Essien in Chelsea anyone else except Ballack

Why? Do you think Grant's game plan is an excruciatingly complex system? Give me a break What I'm saying is, Anelka without the understanding of his new team mates is still a better option than Pizarro.

Of course we throw him straight in, he's miles better than Pizarro. We just have to say to the team, get the ball to Anelka if you can and we'll be well away.

Happy birthday Yougs!

Nah I just know how to use google

But we do do that, look at the earlier rounds of the Carling Cup this year, we played Sinclair, who is the only reserve/youth player good enough to consider getting in our team and not on loan at the time, and we played fringe players such as Sidwell. What more can you ask for? There's no point us playing a team of 17 year olds, then we'll just lose, it'll ruin the players confidence and won't have many beneficial effects at all because we'll be out of a competition we're good at. If we get Premiership opposition, like we did in the quarter final, then we should treat it as such and play a mostly first team like we did.

I agree.

We can't act that smug over replacing Robben with Malouda mind, we've not seen an awful lot of Florent either. Hopefully he'll stay fit from now on though, and get a bit of form. He's definitely a talented player, though he'll never top Robben at his best.