Tomo

But but but, attacking midfielders shouldn't have to do any defensive work

Haven't they always had them? Could be wrong. While we are on City I use to like Pellegrini when he was in Spain, now the sight off him irritates me.

The Flash commenting with a laugh smiley in 3 2 1 On a serious note, fully agree. Eto'o especially on a lesser role would have done what was required.

When a team that isn't us are in a 2 horse race with Liverpool for a trophy, any ill feeling for that said club goes out of the window temporarily. Then after my relief that Liverpool didn't win dies down, I feel sick about the other club winning, like City last season.

Watching this game at a pub that I have watched 3 previous Chelsea games. 3-0 vs Stoke last season. 2-0 at Anfield last season. And yes you guessed it Munich

Jose Morais has taken a year out to manage in the middle east, strange timing.

I predict we go 1-0 down at half time, the usual suspects will be on the match thread moaning. Second half we come back to win 4-1 with one off the best 2nd half games in recent memory and they disappear.

We keep hearing the same thing about Ramires being undroppable under Jose. What is this based on? If Vidal Pogba or someone come next year he will be right down the pecking order.

Really? I thought he was all over the shop in the final and Boateng was carrying him.

Not convinced he is as good as he is being made out to be, but having said that if it comes down to gambling with Remy or persisting with Torres, only one answer.

There's a reason for that.

Also to expand further I was initially happy going into the new season with a band of 6 largely versatile defenders due to lack of rotation last season however now I think about it, could be a disaster. One injury to one of the five senior defenders and we would have to flog the other 4 because the back ups beyond that are teenagers in Zouma, Ake then im guessing Christensen.

Not from the start, we will still have to do some defending against these sides and if we go all Brendan Rodgers we will concede a lot of goals.

I hope this can happen if possible, yes it would be nice and romantic for Zouma to come in and instantly hit the ground running, but this is the real world. My worry about CB position is there is no one really top class in their prime, Terry is still good but father time can hit any moment at his age, Cahill is good but not world class I love his commitment and attitude and has improved ten fold under Mou but can he be the 'main man'? I have serious doubts. Zouma is a talent but still very raw, I would rather he builds up games for the next couple of years, not close to being ready for a major role yet and I seem to be one of a very few that prefer Brana at full back, always have. What Benatia will give us is a CB at his prime and in the form of his life, because im not convinced going into the season with the current batch, especially as we will likely be more attacking against the lesser sides at least. £30m for some one regarded as one of the best CBs around is maybe not a bargain but a fair price in this market.

Just typical that the best academy player we have had since JT got ruined by injures. If he was fully healthly this tedious Mourinho hates youth players myth wouldn't exist.

Matics performance vs Arsenal last season is the most underrated display by a Chelsea player for a while. He was all over there midfield and his pressing and harassing was arguably the main reason we swarmed all over them.

Haven't been so certain of a signing succeeding in a longg time, he has all the attributes needed to succeed in this team, and will bring moments of quality like he did in Turkey which will turn one point into three. Which we missed from our front line last season. I just wish we signed an adequate back up or kept Eto'o. Torres and current Drogba just don't cut it as back ups.

Well hopefully were just win the league and neither of us will have to find out either way I can understand the caution and maybe im a tad naive thinking this, but I reckon if we are heading on the right path I think Jose will stay regardless, obviously if we nosedive down the league he's gone, but next to no chance of that.

Without meaning to start another Mata flame war, Hazard is on another level to Juan. Plus RDM didn't really build the team around Mata, Benny did which imo was the right thing to do at that moment.

Honestly what is it with the grass is greener complexes. Moses was getting so much stick when he was here (I know he is still technically here but ill be amazed if that's the case come September 1st) now he's as good as gone he is better than Salah and Willian. I swear some people have to leave Chelsea for there stock to rise at Stamford Bridge, like Rafa for example.

Build the team around him, give the other ten players a structure and let Hazard do what he wants.

What's Torres done now?

Liverpool, that club are scum from top to bottom. Them winning the title last season would have been a disaster for society aswell as football.

No, they sack managers who they believe won't take the team forward, I love how people just think that they were sacked purely because they didn't win the league or CL, it's such a simple way of looking at it. Lets look at the managers Roman has sacked. Ranieri - Roman never wanted him, he was gone regardless. Grant - Not a long term option, if he wasn't sacked in the summer it wouldn't have took long after. Scolari - players were unfit, we had no game plan, Benitez showed the world how to combat Scolaris Chelsea and from then on we had no answer. Ancelotti - Awful second season, comatose football, sticking to underperforming players, giving to much away tactically in press conferences and pre match interviews, making the same mistakes again and again and again, I mean ffs Kenny Dalglish tactically outsmarted him. People refer to 2nd place but that doesn't tell the whole story, we still had a good defence that season so managed to scrape a lot of turgid wins but our attack was horrific. Carlo was sacked due to performances, we were absolute rubbish and that season set us back years. AVB - Roman wanted to give him time and kept him for as long as possible, until a variety of things forced his hand. RDM - Never wanted by Roman despite the CL, was always waiting for the first excuse and took it. If we are dining at the top end and just miss out, what would be the point? We saw what happened to United and if we sack Jose and make a Scolari lite mistake, with competition increasing all the time we could be in serious trouble. At the very very worst Jose will have us competing at a high competitive level, and I think Roman knows that. Furthermore just because he use to be 'trigger happy' (again overexaggerated, all the managers sacked had reason for dismissal, and all turned out to be right, apart from Jose but that was mutual consent) doesn't mean hr still would be now, are you the same person you were in 2011? Saying Roman will sack because he done it before is just to easy a way to look at things, I eat a tub of Harbenero sauce a few years ago and I sure as hell ain't doing that again.

Why?