Tomo

That's simply not true. Chelsea fans have supported him like no other, still he gets the loudest cheer in the stadium ahead of club legend's, Lampard's goal vs Sunderland was greeted with groans by the MH faithful when they found out it was him and not Torres that scored (from the MHL it looked like Torres scored off the crossbar at the time, got undying support through 14 months were he gave us 5 goals and a 24 game goal drought. He got cheered through shit match after shit match while Sturridge and Kalou were getting dogs abuse despite looking like Pele in comparison to Nando. Look at how Eto'o is getting doubted after 3 games, then go back to after Torres played 3 for us, the comparison in support is so different it's stupid. Not a dig at you, i think your a good member, but Torres has had it easy from the supporters in general, especially in match days, if his abuse is bad like you suggest, then i would hate to think the word of Drogba's at the start of his Chelsea career (and he was 10 times better than Torres ever has been with us). Also he admitted to not caring about results last year, now imagine if any other player said that? they would have probably needed extra security on match days. No one hates him, but you can't say he hasn't deserved his critics at Chelsea, surely?

Wouldn't bother styles, there could be a video recording of Jose talking to Baker telling him about his plans for the lad and there will still be some trying completely ignoring that video or pretending it's fake, then continuing with the same tired myth's.

If Ramires out, then this game might boil down to how well Oscar is playing. Just think after this weekend we would have already played three of last season's top six away from home, the worst that could happen is we could 5 points off the top, and given that would be to serial North London bottlers, it ain't exactly a disaster.

Thankgod im not the only one that notices that. Despite Torres's ok performance tonight, it has to be Eto'o for Spurs still.

A pub team? they are a team of full time professional's in the 3rd tier of English football (the same division Oxlade Chamberlain was plying his trade not long ago), going to those places aren't easy, do i need to remind you about Brentford last season? or what happened to Arsenal when they played Bradford.

Courtois has established himself as arguably the best keeper in La Liga. We can't loan him to Arsenal or Spurs for obvious reason's, and loaning him to Fulham, West Ham or those types just isn't practical when top clubs in Europe will happily sign him with their eyes closed. If he was owned by Athletico, there would be a mad (probably goalkeeping record breaking) auction for his signature this summer, just imagine (in that situation) if we said, "we want to sign you, but your going to have to go on loan to Fulham to prove you can hack it in the prem". See what i mean? next year it's decision time, he is just not going to accept a mid table loan or a rotation role when Barcelona and Real Madrid want him and will make him number 1 straight away. This isn't aimed at you, but we really have to start thinking realistically with this situation now. If we wanted to send him on loan to a midtable PL side, we should have done it straight away in 2011 then sent him to Leti.

Maybe we should use United's blueprint, the one where Paul Pogba, Federico Macheda and Ravel Morrision are regular's in their team. Oh wait.

I don't think we can complain about tonight, we negotiated a potential upset with relative ease. Just because their in League One doesn't mean we have a define right to go their and win 6-0, remember what (nearly) happened at Brentford last season? remember what actually did happen to Arsenal at Bradford? They don't often get the big boys coming to their ground, so the fans and the players are going to find extra energies of effort and commitment to cause an upset, if your not on the ball then you will get embarrassed. I also like how the team took the sting out of the game when Swindon had their purple patch in the second half, that was a really professional thing to do. We also had players making their first appearances (or one of the first) off the season, we now have the luxury of a good back up keeper aswel, boy how long have i been waiting for that. Routine win, good night's work, in the next round, quite frankly, can't complain.

Would have been nice to see Kalas playing, he must still injured tho, surely he would have atleast been on the bench for this?

The United match is on a different day.

No one doesn't "realize" what we have, but its quite clear Jose is trying to make Mata a better player, if he adds pressing and tracking back to his game, then he could quite conceivably be the best of the rest in the world, ie behind Ronaldo and Messi. That will also give him more chance of starting for Spain as they like a pressing game. Why should we let Mata rest on his laurels after an amazing two years? he should be getting pushed to get better, and i hope it's not just him Mourinho does that too. After the record breaking double we rested on our laurels, and played players just because they scored 103 goals the previous campaign, and even when everything stagnated, Carlo still stuck to the same players on the hope that they will suddenly re click and start hitting teams for 7 again. Do you want me to remind you how that season ended and how we are still to this day paying the price for letting our squad so badly stagnate and rest on it's laurels? In short Mata is amazing player, and Jose can quite clearly see that he can get even better, so is giving him a bit of tough love like Artinho (can't remember his new username off by heart ) said. Too say Mata doesn't get support from fans is absolutely ludicrous, there's a big difference between supporting a player and placing them higher than the club.

True, i think a good performance will get him starts against Steuna and Norwich, however.

Have you seen Moyes's team selections this season? He is ignoring players like Kagawa, Nani and Zaha for on off form Valencia, a 40 year old Giggs, a below average Welbeck and dreadful Young. Atleast we are playing a top player while Mata is not playing, what Moyes is doing with those for-mentioned players is borderline criminal.

Moyes is a dinosaur, at Everton he kept playing Phil Neville while the likes of Ross Barkely are sitting on the bench. Expect Nani, Kagawa and Zaha to be unused sub's, while Valencia, Young and Fellaini hog the game time.

Duff declined pretty badly in 2005/2006, he started decent scoring at White Hart Lane and Anfield, but his form took a major nosedive after that and was rightfully stripped of his first team spot, he was like Torres in the fact injuries got the better of him earlier than they should have, even for £6m we scammed Newcastle.

Letting the experience of Hasselbaink and Desailly go (i thought that would be an asset as squad players at the start). Often favoring Gallas to start over Carvalho. Selling Duff. Replacing Cudicini with Cech straight away. 4 of the things i didn't agree with in his last spell, but he turned out to be spot on. Whatever plans he has for Mata (and im sure they are positive) then because of his track record he has my backing.

Carlo has also benched Cassilas, so there is obviously more to that than the answer the media and the simpletons have come up with.

We have 6 places in attacking midfield, 3 will start, 2 will be on the bench and 1 will miss out completely. I really don't understand the knee jerk reaction's him missing out Saturday. It was Schurrle against Basle, Willian against Everton, KDB against Bayern and at Swindon it will probably be Hazard (maybe Oscar too with someone like Boga filling the bench place), against Spurs i will guess KDB. Ricardo Carvalho and Eidur Gudjohnsen were key players in Jose's last reign but were occasionally left out of matchday squad's. When we had the 4 wingers in Duff,Cole, Robben and SWP one had to miss out altogether each time, just be happy we have a strong enough squad to do that. We cry when our squad's weak, and we cry when it's strong, the club can't win.

Your wish my command, the stats with and without Drogba in 2009/2010. With: Played 44 Won 27 Drew 9 Lost 8 my maths make that roughly 61% win percentage Without: Played 12 Won 12 Drew 0 Lost 0 100% win percentage There is no point comparing goal stats to Mikel for obvious reason's. Without him we nearly won half the games we did with him in nearly 4 times less games. But despite all that Drogba was our best player that season by a mile. So i need to see a lot more damming stats than results with and without Mikel to be convinced he is a complete hindrance.

I wonder what the excuse will be next summer, sign Alonso and Maserano, there know what to do

This summer just gone was the last chance Barca had to exercise the buy back clause, if his development went to plan this thread would have probably had about 50 pages of us shitting ourself's until and on transfer deadline day.

Jose > any player. Anyone who says otherwise are mad, Jose has a track record that suggest's he make's the right decision's 9 times out of 10. No player should be deemed bigger than the club, if Jose believes we are a better team unit without Mata then we have to back him. Mata has been a great player and been standout in our team's that have finished 6th and scraped 3rd, it's a new challenge for him standing out a club that are going to consistently challenge for the title, personally i think he can be that, and it's up to him for show that. Jose isn't a winner because he is sentimental, if he believes that letting a player (whoever that is) go and bring another one in, i will back his decision. It's easy to say "well if this was any of our previous manager's then we would go mad if he was not playing Mata or one of our favorites as much", our previous manager's under Roman don't have the same history of success so ofcourse they would get questioned more than Jose does. Pep and Ferguson if they were Chelsea manager's would get the same leeway and trust (for me anyway). We aren't "letting Jose off the hook" because of his history with the club, we are doing it because he is a serial winner who knows how to build winning teams. I remember in 2004 i thought we were a bit hasty letting the experience of Hasselbaink and especially Desailly leave so quick, but Jose proved me wrong. The fact Mata is not playing as much is only a good thing to us, this type of depth has been the stuff off dreams at Chelsea for the past 3 years, we are playing genuine top players still when Mata doesn't play, it's not like we are dropping him to play the Kaloudanelka trio, is it?

Amazing piece. Every time i see post's from Seb, The Skipper, Peace, hjperdeath amoungst others i get even more wound up about the journalist's and "experts" that grace the paper's/TV in England. I have seen a few of the lifesapitch videos where the journalist's get together and it's almost cringe-worthy not just what they are saying but that they are getting paid to say it. It actually makes me feel sick. Sorry for the rant back on topic, top writing, the only criticism i have is that you don't post more often

Moyes must get nightmares over Pellegrini. Back in 2005 he had a chance to take Everton to the next level but got his backside tanned by Pellegrini in the CL qualifayers, now he has got another tactical lesson by the Chillian.

In 2009/2010 we won every single game Drogba didn't play in, averaging 3 a game in the process. What are Mikel's personal stats like in the games you keep bringing up? Ie, pass completion? tackle success rate? and all that jazz compared to his rivals in the pivot?