Bir_CFC

Yeah, def thought Oscar should have been the one replaced instead of Mata, was very poor today. Although, not the poorest player.

It's never an easy game at Newcastle for us, but considering the circumstances we must win. We have a chance to go top at the end of the week, must grab it. Everyone is doing good, team has good momentum, anything less than a win will be very very disappointing. The only thing I would have feared was complacency from us but considering the fight for places in the team, I don't see that as an issue anymore. Cech Azpi - Luiz - Terry - Cole Ramires - Lampard Willian - Mata - Schurrle Torres Opted for Azpi as I feel he'd be able to stick tight to Ben Arfa. The 3 AMs, basically the ones who have performed the best over the last week imo. But it's hard to go wrong with any combination here.

Mourinho out! How do you play your reserves against City in the PL and save the first XI for a capitol one cup game? Ridiculous!

Pretty good Arsenal squad imo. Especially the midfield. They wont have much width though cause all of their mids and attacking mids like to be central.

Do you seriously believe that Luiz would ever be Mourinho's first choice CB with Terry in the same team? lol I'm pretty sure we play with 2 CBs in the first XI.

Considering how much Jose preaches professionalism, I don't see any way he goes for Balotelli. Imo though I'd love Balotelli here, he would fit in no problem but he's a problem in the dressing room and I feel our dressing room atmosphere is amazing and I wouldn't want to disrupt that.

For me Cahill makes defensive mistakes, while Luiz has brain farts. As far as ability goes, Luiz is def the better defender imo. When he's on, forget Cahill, I can't list 5 defenders better than Luiz in the world. Some of the games he's had for Brazil had me in awe. He dominated at times, attackers were scared to face him. Last year, he was easily our best defender and by a wide margin. But the fact is he's made as many if not more mistakes this season than he made all of last season hence why people are having this discussion. The only reason Cahill is getting games is because Luiz is off-form. Mourinho doesn't like his defenders making mistakes but he also needs a ball-playing defender in his team. He will work with Luiz and Luiz has to do the same, because I know Mourinho wants to trust him as his first choice CB.

Arsenal will play a stronger side than the one they deployed in the last round but it still won't be their strongest XI considering the important games coming for them. For us, it's just a simple rotation. Scwarzer Azpi - Kalas - Luiz - Bertrand Mikel - Essien KDB - Mata - Willian Eto'o Kalas is the only one that might not get the start as we have no idea how he's been training. If so, we'd likely see Cahill then. That side should be more than good enough to get a result, hell that'd be good enough for most of the PL matches as well.

When Hazard switched the play towards Willian, it looked like it was going out of play, not only did Willian keep it in play he lobbed it into the box towards a Chelsea player. Anyone know how he managed that? Also this is the second time his one touch lob have got us a goal. Worked hard on defence too once he came on and some class passes too, felt he helped keep possession in areas where others might have lost possession.

We won't win the midfield and we won't outplay them. Either we play on the counter or long ball.<br /><br />I actually think starting Ba is a good idea since I don't see how else we intend to go at them while still keeping it tight at the back.

It's pathetic just cause Jose doesn't play him people are now using that to say Ryan isn't a good defender. My criticism with him has always been his offensive contribution. I can't recall the last time he was found wanting in defence.<br />Azpi started out a little lost but he did very good overall but I don't see why Bertrand would have been a weakness.

Happy for his goals and performances but most of all as others have mentioned, while he's not at his old best (don't think he'll ever be) but he's actually gaining respect of his opposition now. Teams will actually have to scout him now and won't just write him off prior the match. Dare I say, some defenders may even start dreading facing him again. While I still don't think he's good enough for Chelsea in the future, but at least now he's adding value to the team. That's more than what we've had for a good while from our striker position. That's good enough for me, I'm not going to bump up my expectations too much.

awesome stuff, i'll look out for the stuff you pointed out when i watch them next

I was focused on him a lot the entire match and the run he made for the goal was probably the 20th that type of run he made. He can be as effective without the ball as he is with it. He is different from all our other AMs, and he will only carve out a larger and larger role as the year goes on. He's still young, he can become an excellent player, a key player for us. Like someone said before, we should try him on the LW and Hazard on the RW a few times. Hazard was very good last year at RW as well, plus Schurrle doesn't really need to link up too much to be effective so no help from Cole won't hurt him as much as it does Hazard. Whereas on the right, Ivanovic and Cesar go forward a lot better than Cole which will help Hazard.

Nice goal, similar to Lukaku's yesterday.

great night for him and for belgium, very happy for him and belgium

He still needs to improve his back to the goal play. I still don't see a big improvement here, he's still getting goals like he did last year. Against City he had a chance to run at the back 4 and destroyed them but for the rest of the game he was very very poor. Ball kept bouncing off him, wasn't able to hold the ball and link up with others, nor was he able to win any headers. For such a big guy he's poor at headers imo. Unless he improves these aspects, he'll remain at best a second option at Chelsea, a player who would make a great sub off the bench. He is still far from being a complete striker, or rather far from possessing the attributes required to be this Chelsea's first choice striker.

Yup exactly. I even think Isco will have have a larger role than Mata sooner rather than later with the Spain NT.

He's the Lukaku of AMs. Very young, big, strong, very direct but still raw. Everton will def be fun to watch this year. <br />You'd have to say though they should play counter attack instead of possession with the kind of attackers they have.

It's not his natural position. It's not his forte. He's a wide player. And using pre-season games especially just because he scored from a ST position is not exactly a strong evidence to support the claim. Him playing there was just more of an experiment before the season starts. Nothing more. I actually think second striker is his best position. He's played wide in the youth teams but his play style is very much of that of a second striker and not of a wide player. Even when he started on the left in the youth team he always moved central and down the middle, provided no width at all.He plays like a Jovetic.

Yeah, Ivan has been one of the better performers so far this season, hence why Azpi can't get a game. He'll get more chances in due time.

I don't see how it's embarrassing. They are KDB fans, what's wrong with them just wanting him succeed regardless of where he plays? They just want to see him play. Not like they are saying they are Chelsea fans, their allegiance probably lies elsewhere but are KDB fans. Similarly, I cheer for Galatasaray only because of Drogba. That said though, they shouldn't be talking shit about Jose and Chelsea, that's def out of order.

Amazing work. This is how stats should be looked at, in the context of the match and situations and not on their own.

well mou ran up to him as well, so to some extent it was the polite thing to do

Luiz was amazing. I couldn't even keep count of how many attacks he thwarted by being so proactive. A dominant performance from him really. Ramires is our best finisher. Lamps should have got one more. Oscar was meh in the first half but he was great in the 2nd. Schurrle played with a lot of confidence, very good performance. I also love that he's able to actually pick out people on his crosses instead of just firing them in blind.