Tomo

Not going to lie, i was screaming into my I pad when i saw it was Cahill and not Luiz starting, not only does Luiz always play well against Arsenal, i felt we needed a proactive defender in this type of match. But he had a good game, really good game, made that vital interception in the first half, that prevented whoever was behind him having a tap in,

i am at the end of my tether with ChelseaMessiah and BMK, i really am. they are fucking born trolls and worse people keep getting baited by them.

Don't really have any feeling either way to the signing. In the past when i feel that, they turn out to be really good (Schurrle, Ramires) or flop (Pizzaro), i would say Zhirkov but the part he played in our run up to the title in 2010 (particularly against Bolton) means he was worth every penny, even if he didn't have the best of times overall.

Milner and Barry (before he left) were key elements in City's success despite neither being that good. It's the British players that will step up and rally everyone when the going get's tough, there's a reason Lampard and Terry still play almost every game.

We don't need to field an all English team, but a British base is vital to any successful English club and not just on the pitch.

When he played for us, i was never convinced, his defending looked like coming from the school of Bosingwa, and Leicester fans couldn't wait to get rid of him and said Kyle Naughton (who they had at the same time) was a class above him. However if he has improved at Vittesse, then i would rather we gave him the squad slot (if Bertrand leaves) instead of spending £7m on some average joe around Europe.

There's a mathematically chance Arsenal could fall down to 5th tomorrow too, it's nuts.

Well tbf, we were awful in the Champions League final (bar Cech). The players tried, they were just comprehensively outplayed by the better team. We are forever in debt to the fact that Cech had the game of his life.

With central defenders, for truly top one's to blossom they need a truly top one to play next to them aswell, to compliment eachother. Their are some exception's, like JT in his prime or Thiago Silva now, but mainly defender's are only as good as the defender they are paired with. Carvalho was the main example to that rule with us, when he had JT next to him, he was incredible and probably every bit as good as Terry was, take Terry out and replace him with Bolourhouz, Ben Haim or Essien, then Carvalho looked a shadow of what he was with JT. If we had Thiago Silva or JT was still in his prime, Luiz would be every bit as good for us as he is for Brazil, for sure.

When was the last time any team near the top lost 4 on the trot? not even Liverpool under Roy did. Also Swansea have been bang average since they have won the Carling Cup, even i would get seriously concerned if we lost that one.

That is mainly down to different managers, different direction's, focusing on certain position's while neglecting others. It's not an excuse, but that's what happens when we have kept changing tact. I hope in the future we focus on position's that need strengthening, knowing us we will go and collect every centre midfield in the market now But on the flip side young players off the quality and potential off Hazard and Oscar aren't available every year, and sometimes you just need to snap them up. If we didn't get them they would be at a rival ripping us apart for the next 10 years.

The amount of times i have heard that from Tottenham fans.

How convenient you started in 2000, didn't some English team beat you 5-0 in 1999?

Arsenal's inferiority complex will always give us a chance in this fixture, look at how toothless they were against United? (who they also have an inferiority complex with).

Are you mad? after going through 120 minutes at Sunderland on Tuesday, the later this game is, the better.

The League's the most important thing in my eyes. Cup tied is a tiny nuisance in the grande scheme of things, at worst.

TBH i believe Villa last season has been the only top, top match we have had since the double winning season, and what i mean by top, top is the kind performances we saw regularly between 04-10, we are still to this day paying the price for giving youth too big a role in the squad (which is rather ironic) in 2010. What (for me) summed up the last few years was last season's match at Anfield, we created nothing against a team managed by Brendan Rodgers who is hardly known for his defensive solidarity in teams, while Liverpool in the 2nd half cut us open at will.

I thought Benitez did a good job under the circumstances, i said so at the time. But every time we lose a game or don't play well i see a few post's saying "well Rafa did this, Rafa did that". It's like we didn't lose at home to QPR, or blow 2 goal leads against newly promoted teams, or come within minutes off getting dumped out of the FA Cup by a League one side.

All i keep hearing now, is how we played such great football under Benitez. Didn't hear it once when he was here, but now he's gone we were playing great football under him, funny that

Well they didn't have 'that 50 ms' for long, because they immediately gave 70% of it to a charity in Newcastle

Put's into perspective just how much we have struck gold with Roman. He may have made decision's that have supporters purring (replacing Robbie with Rafa the main example), but he made that decision because he thought that was the best for us in the long run. I mean he is a Chelsea fan as-well who takes a keen interest in our history before him (the first thing he did after taking over was offer Ron Harris a job in hospitality), i can't imagine he made the decision to sack a club legend lightly, but to run a succesful football club you need let your head rule your heart, all his decision's are made in what he believes is in the best interest for Chelsea, and i can never criticize him for that.

Am i the only one a bit bemused with the "Torres always put's a shift in" line. Yes he does sometimes granted, but he has his lazy days and when he does he makes Dimitar Berbatov look like a Shane Long type workhorse.

I have tried to hold my tongue on this issue for a while, but the recent week is the straw that broke the camel's back, something needs to be done about the trolls invading near enough every thread with the same old bollox, i have put them on ignore but still end up seeing their post's though other's being baited. Kojo and Rupert got banned for less, and while they both were annoying, they atleast had a way with words and backed up what they said, the current crop aren't even funny in the slightest. If this site wasn't such a brilliantly set up forum, with superb staff and members, in all honesty those planks would have probably driven me away by now.

@Styles, The funny thing is, our defense has gone completely to pot since he has been dropped. Azpilicueta has done allright considering he is a right back filling in, but with every passing game that fact is becoming all the more painful. For the Arsenal, Liverpool games atleast i would rather we went back to type and played Ivan,JT,Luiz,Cole, as toothless at that looks going forward, i think that is still our best combination defensively, i think we average 1 goal allowed every 2 games with that back four.

@Atholy, If you are referring to me, i think it's best if he leaves for a variety off reason's, not because i don't like him or rate him, i think he is very good. But the problem he has here, is who is he is going to displace to play regularly? Schurrle and Willian offer a bit more balance to the side aswell as a inhuman workrate, so for that alone there will not be many games we go into without one of those two on the team sheet. That leaves him competing with the Mazacar for the other two spots.