Tomo

There seems to be some underlying problem away from home that even with Diego and Cesc still hasn't really been fixed.With the exception of Schalke and the first half at Burnley, we haven't been convincing away all season (not even Everton convinced me that much, that was basically a game of ping pong that could have literally gone the other way aswell).

Nah, if it was Torres the usual suspects would have been like "we'll he worked hard".In all seriousness tho, Torres is in a league of his own, Costa was average but that was it average, nothing close to the act as a defender for the opposition sketch that Torres treated us too for three and a half years.

Our away form is patchy yet again, infact since that record winning run on the road under Scolari I can't recall us having a consistent run of wins on the road. Home form however is a different story, we picked up 17 wins out of 19 in the double season which bailed us out of our patchy away form, we need to be looking at atleast that number again in my opinion. If we can do that then we will get away with a patchy away record, look at United in 2011, 5 wins away all season but 18 wins from 19 at Old Trafford. We need to be looking at atleast 17 home wins, do that then 9 or 10 away wins should be enough. We will drop more point's away, the trick to getting the title back to Stamford Bridge will be the home form, in recent years The Champions have been unstoppable at home, last season City won 17 drew 1 lost 1 like us in the double season, them in 2012 won 18 drew 1, United the same in 2011. It shows just how vital home form is, we should try and win them all, but 5 point's is the absolute maximum we can afford to drop this season.

Let's not exaggerate

The people that only ever show up after a bad result are beyond irritating.

I swear every big side has won easy at SJP for the last 3 season's except us? Arsenal won there last year and before, City have won the last 4 there atleast, fucking Spurs AND United won 4-0 there last season. It's the same story at Villa Park, Arsenal or United haven't been beaten there for over a decade.

I definitely think Mou is exploring the possibilities, honestly wouldn't surprise me if Gazza is 4th choice at the start of next season behind Terry, our new CB and Zouma.

Fair point, although I do believe the reason we have played so well in games this season was due to a settled Xl. Either way we have a chance to rest players now, Sporting game is a non event and Derby will probably have a mix of first team and benchers. Of course there will be games were players are shattered but so far in Mous career pro's outweigh the cons in that regard.

When Drogba scored his last PL goal of the first coming vs Stoke, who would have thought two off his next three league goals for us would have been assisted by Fabregas?

I have said it for a while, If we sign a new centre half it will be Cahill who makes way not Terry.

I can't see him playing number ten, if he plays further forward it will be part of a 4 3 3, and that didn't really work (defensively) at Everton which is why Mou put Rami on the right at Eastlands and Anfield. He's been a great signing not for one second saying otherwise, however where/how he plays against Real/Barca/Bayern will be the biggest tactical headache of the season.

For sure Like Gary Neville said, speculative shooting is a massive no no when chasing a game.

This time last year we didn't know what our best Xl was and were dropping points a lot because of it.Mourinho has won seven title's and 2 CLs due to having a solid spine and a few untouchables, it works.

To use an analogy, they say in adversity you realise who your true freinds are. Well Lampards action's have shown us just what a complete absolute legend Drogba is.

The excuses people make to try and downplay Messi is hilarious. It's like a complete reversal from the people that try to say Torres is back when he finally doesn't concede a turnover. He couldn't perform without Iniesta and Xavi apparently, both have gone off the boil and Messi guess what is still performing.

Can agree with that and that's probably why Roman had doubts about giving him the job full time.Robbie did incredible in his interim spell, however family videos wouldn't have done the trick in a cold midweek at Reading. As painful as it was on a sentimental level, replacing Robbie with Rafa was spot on for the evolution of the new Chelsea, Jose needed more time than usual to sort the squad out, if we kept RDM all season he would have needed longer imo, we were becoming a bigger and bigger tactical mess by the week, the game in Turin was scary. Chelsea and Rafa was the ultimate marriage of convience, we needed an experienced high profile manager to get us 3rd and smoothen the evolution process, he needed us to recover his reputation that took such a huge dent at Inter even Villa fans were cringing at the thought of his appointment.

We have some nasty away games coming up, I said since we went 5 ahead of City that we need to atleast remain that much ahead of them else things get tense, 5 ahead in new year and ill be delighted, especially with City due at The Bridge.

We won 5/11 IIRC and some of the performances were horrible, despite nothing riding on it that display at Anfield still scars me.

I think the team gave up the fight for 4th fairly quickly and went all out for the CL. Because while Robbie rallied the troops in the cups, in the league there was no real improvement to what we saw under AVB, if anything we were worse.

Yep, lost both since.

Lampard should take notes from Didier on how to treat a legacy.

It certainly puts into perspective just how much off a legend Didier Drogba is let alone Terry.

We will have a chance to rest players in the Sporting and Derby games. We have got to where we are with a settled team while others have been rotating and dropping points all over the place. Smash tiny totts and all good with the world again.

WBA weren't too bad under Clarke and even under Mel they were better than the scores suggested. Irvine Is so out of his depth it's ridiculous.

I think Eto'o has looked better, especially when they faced us, everything that was wrong about Lukaku's game was on display, poor touches, awful decision making etc, while Eto'o came on he looked menacing and was dragging Everton back in the game, Styles said something after that game which pretty much summed it up, two players with something to prove, and only one with the quality to do it, and he was spot on. I think the Lukaku thread is quiet because we all know he is a goalscorer, that part of his game is not in doubt by even his biggest critic, it's his all round game that get's put under scrutiny, he should be using his frame to be a complete menace to defenders yet he isn't, i think he has focused too much on improving his weaknesses (technical ability) he neglected his strengths.