Tomo

Bit of a coincidence how both have been left out completely tho, Lukaku aswell for WBA and Forest are playing Wigan.

Neither Hutchinson or McEachran are in the Carling Cup squad's tonight. Im guessing we have refused to allow them to play in the competition?

If im honest i am wondering how long in will be before he has the number 1. His interview about Cech maybe having to retire early (although he should have kept his mouth shut) and his head injury makes me wonder how long Petr has got left. Had the club genuinely thought he could do a Van Der Sar or a Freidel then Courtios would not have been signed.

I don't want him anywhere near the first team, not yet. Kakuta and McEachran had decent cameo's at the start and expectation's for both went through the roof, i'd rather Piazon plays in the next gen series this year aswell as the reformed reserve league, then next season goes on loan.

Lillie or PSG will be an almost certainty for obvious reason's. I agree with Term and Strike, i would like the weakest teams in each pot if humanly possible, no more last day nerves this term, although having said that our group stage struggles probably ended up being used as a form of motivation as the tournament went on.

Every team who accuses us of parking the bus have seriously short memories. Do Liverpool fans actually remember the way they won it in 2005? likewise United in 2008? Infact Arsenal have done their fair share of parking the bus in the past, how many times did they play for draws when their unbeaten season was nearing the end and the title was all but secured?

Jesus, the penalty (along with the other two previous) were stone wall. The fact people are even trying to contest them show we have some individuals who are very bitter towards us.

If it means he cannot face QPR then the first CL game then so be it if it means he will perform better for the rest of the season than he would have had he not got the rest. The phrase small sacrifice for big reward comes to mind.

Yeah in cup finals he was the man and it will be tough to replace, but we never really missed his presence in the so called "lesser games" as it was made out. Liverpool's style was so reliant on Fernando that he was a huge miss against any opposition and they are still paying for it now if you look at the amount of stalemates they produce at Anfield to teams they should be beating with ease.

This may be a surprising stat but we went nearly 3 years without losing a league game Drogba didn't play in. Between the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal in the Scolari days upto the 1-0 defeat to Everton on Carlo's last match two and a half season's later.

@KonohasOrangeFlash, That would be good if he can score that many goals every season. But if he gets injured or loses form again, what is our plan B going to be?

How did i say we would be fucked if he scores ? i said if we do the Liverpool approach and play everything thorough him we will be solely reliant on him staying fit and scoring, if he loses fitness or form then we will be screwed. Look at what happened with Liverpool? far too reliant on Torres to score goals during his time there. It cost them the title in 2009 when he kept getting injured and since he lost form (2010) they still haven't recovered, there play still needs Torres, as showed last season when they couldn't even score in a brothel. I don't want us to become reliant on him like that.

Surely Spain won't call Mata up for the confederation's cup at the end of this season? If they do then his fitness will become a huge huge issue. What is the point of that cup? can't they turn it into an under 21 world cup or something? Personally i think we should have let him go on holiday for 3 weeks after the Newcastle match, come back the day before QPR or something.

I think we are looking at the new invincible s here, the only team not to score a goal for the whole season

Im worried we are going to set up too reliant on him. If he does come good (which i have to say looks a lot more hopeful currently than it has in his Chelsea career) then i fear we will make the mistake Liverpool did and that is play everything through Nando. Doing that will make us far too reliant on his goals and if he loses form again we are fucked.

More to do with the fact that QPR make his hostile for us, Mata got a bit of a harsh introduction to Premier League football at that place. I say the CL because he has experience in the competition and our first match is usually at home against a side we should on paper do ok against.

I swear Bielsa quit?

This one has been dragging for a while, finally pleased this has been done and for £6m is a absolute bargain. We might see a dramatically improved display from Ivanovic against Leti now, i do wonder when he will be given his debut (is he doesn't feature in Monaco)? I can't see him being thrown in against QPR away off all places, maybe the first Champions League match?

The attention is around Hazard and Oscar out of our signing's this summer. Moses will be left alone (so to speak) to get on with it and i think that might help him, same with Marin they (again so to speak) will be our joker cards this season.

Maybe we should remind the author of that piece how Arsenal would have a Champions League trophy themself right now if Henry didn't exercise his art of serial cup final bottling in Paris.

Borini hasn't looked great for Liverpool, certainly not Chelsea level anyway. Carlo mentally fucked Kakuta up by choosing him to take that last penalty at Blackburn, at outrageous gamble that backfired. Had he scored the penalty it might have been a different story. I hope we will learn from the Kakuta situation when it comes to nurturing Piazon and any player after that.

No point bitching about him, he is staying for one more season so we might aswell just accept it and support him if he ends up back on the pitch at any point.

Im dreading the reaction to his first below par game.

I have maintained all summer and now that Liverpool are no threat in terms of finishing above us. If we are stupid enough to hand them one of the most promising young forwards in this country i might have to re access my opinion. The offer is rumoured to be £15m, considering Liverpool spent £20m on Stewart Downing, the board should be sacked if they didn't laugh that bid off within a second.

It was more denial trying to convince themself he would flop.