Tomo

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.

So no pictures at all off Cole, Schurrle or Bertrand with the Arsenal players? Well done dailymail, your shit.

What's worse is earlier in the year two threads were made back to back, one (i think it was from SEB or Peace) created giving us a insight into the way we set up under Rafa and what Jose will change (something along them lines), and it got about 5 responses, not long after some troll set up an account and made a thread "Mourinho will ruin Chelsea" then said about a few words and got SIX pages worth of responses

Mata has started 7 out of the last 10 premier-league games, only Hazard out of our AM's has started more PL matches in the same period. This Jose hates Mata conspiracy is getting a little bit old.

More inexperienced? Schurrle started playing first team football 2009 and has played 168 club games overall. Oscar also started in 2009 and has played 169 club games. De Bruyne started in 2009 (played 2 games in 2008, but im not going to try and manipulate the stats by saying he started a year earlier when he didn't really) and has played 152 club games overall. Hardly a huge difference experience wise.

Nail, head. I would love the sort of defensive consistency of 04-10 to return eventually. Consistent defense means consistent results, it's as simple as that.

This time last year Oscar had 5, this season he has 6. This time last year Hazard had 4, this season he has 8. This time last year Lampard had 3, this season he has 5. This time last year Torres had 10, this season he has 6, last season he played every game to this point, this year he has been sharing with two others. The only player you mentioned significantly worse off at this point compared to last season is Mata. Oscar, Hazard and Lampard are better off, and i bet Torres goal per minute ratio is better compared to last year.

Thankfully that seems to be something Mourinho identified pretty early, as that combination hasn't been used since Basle (outside of the Carling Cup).