Tomo

Petr Cech 7 - done nothing wrong. Jose Bosingwa 4 - So sloppy and so frustrating, his sloppiness nearly got Blackpool a late 2nd. David Luiz 7 - Solid, although was sloppy a couple of times, his least spectacular performance so far. John Terry 8 - Great header from the corner and lead from the back all game. Ashley Cole 6 - Solid but still lacking his form of August/September. Ramires 6 - Strangely quiet tonight, a couple of neat bits of skill. Frank Lampard 8 - Best game for a while, am i the only 1 seeing a late surge to 20 goals? Micheal Essien 7 - Got to grips with the game more and more as it went on. Yuri Zhirkov 4 - very poor, looked completely diffrent to the Yuri that played United. Fernando Torres 5 - cant fault his effort but that price tag is really weiging him down atm. Didier Drogba 4 - awfull in all honesty, if he wants his place back he needs to do better than that. SUBS Florent Malouda 6 Soloman Kalou 8 (thought he was fantastic tbh) Josh McEachran 6

Is it me or is this guy so criminally underrated? Dont get me wrong i cant stand the guy but without him Man.Utd's midfield has got badly over-run at Anfield, it makes me laugh when all these Utd fans go on about how Fletcher is just an ordinary player but the truth his without him in big games they wont be winning many points and if Fergie wants to avoid a potential embarrisment today IMHO he has to get him on sharpish.

Morning blues Our squad in general needs a bit of a makeover in the summer and im all for bringing some quality young players (18-22) to compliment the crop we already have. This to add to the potential departures of key men. This will probably be the last chance we have before the fair play rules come in and Luiz and Torres signings shows that if the right players are available the money is still there. Players we should be looking out for Neymar - This kid is the real deal, i was speaking to one of my old Brazillian team mates (that i use to play football with) the other day and the figure discussed at £30m and he reckons we would be ripping Santos off he is that good and when i saw Santos play myself he was certainly the one of the best ive seen at that age, also add the fact he should click well with Luiz and Ramires. Phil Jones - Homegrown and can play in defense and midfield, that type of versatitlty is key in evrey squad and before his injury before christmas we were apparently front runners to sign him. Romelu Lukaku - the next Drogba, enough said. Jack Rodwell - Surprising choice but if Mikel goes (im hoping not but there has been talk of that) then we should go for him, strong, can play a bit, home grown and a potential leader. Alex Sanchez - Right wing is our weak spot in our squad and he would certainly change that. Youth players we should be looking at promoting in the next few years Dan Sturridge - Dont know if he can be classed as a youngster any more well not ours anyway, but Carlo surely cant ignore prolific premierleague goalscoring. Josh McEachran - Natural talent, so composed goes without saying he should be playing a bigger part next season. Gael Kakuta - Some of the stuff he can prodice with a ball is absolute magic, got the talent in abundance and the next couple of years will be key for him. Bruma and Van Aanholt - Both a bit ruff around the edges and need more time to develop, im 50/50 on Van Aanholt is he imo can go either way but got no doubt that Bruma by the time hes 23/24 will be a class player. Nathaniel Chalaboah - playing in the reserves and captianing an over his age England group at 15 says it all, might be a few years until we see him proper break through but what a player he could be. Billy and Conor Clifford - Billy Clifford is talented and versatile and Conor is a natural leader and will always give 100% evrey time he steps out, which is what evrey squad needs. Matej Delac - Am i the only one who thinks we dont need a new keeper? it will halt this guy back and i think he is more than capable of pushing Cech if not next year defo the year after. Aziz Deen-Conteh - As good as Van Aanholt going forward but so assured in his defending he would be wasted at left midfield, might take a good couple of years before he is ready for 1st team action tho. Feel free to name a few others. With the right guidance we could make quality players out of a lot of these and as we found out to our cost earlier this season its a squad game these days and quality signings plus good youth development will make for a bright future, not to mention the likes or Luiz, Ramires and co that are already in the 1st team. Imagine 5 years down the line if we get it right in the summer, other clubs will be involved in bidding wars for players with prices influxated to £50-60m and we will be sitting preety with the crop we have, would be good wont it? What do you think?

He has actully only been avalible for selection 3 maybe 4 times, due to Fullham playing FA Cup matches and also playing us, it was the same with Sturridge at Bolton he started off on the bench but then came to earn his place in the line-up, same with Bruma, Clifford at Notts was on the bench the 1st 2 times and the same will be the case for Gael. The fact that Fullham thrashed Tottenham in the FA Cup soon after he joined did him no favours. He still has to earn a place, if he just walked straight in i think Duff, Dembele and co will have something to say about it, apparently he was preety good today when he came on which hopefully will give him a chance from the start next time and if he impresses he can force his way in as there are no FA Cup games or games against us to worry about now.

I cant help but notice a smile on his face

The disrespect he has got in some areas since the city game is shocking. Not the best in the world but apart from the City game when has he ever disapointed? Barca and Liverpool he won the game for us and i would not be worried if he has to fill in again in the run in. 1 week after the City game he delt with Stoke's long throws and targeting very well. His contract i believe is up at the end of this season and if thats the case i think he will be leaving but he leaves with full respect and dignity.

Ive always been a fan of Sven, whats happened recently in the England set up makes you realise how good a job he did for England. All of a sudden 3 q/f exit's (twice on pens due to the brilliant Ricardo and once to argubally the greatest international team off all time) actully look a brilliant achievement in comparision to how McClaren did and Cappelo is doing. Also his work at Leicester is second to none.

As we found out to our cost earlier this season it is a squad game these days. For this season use Luiz for the prem games with one of Terry and Alex rotate them in league games to keep the pair fresh when the CL comes along. The 1st choice back line to me has to be Ivan-Luiz-JT-Cole but Alex will get plenty of games all 4 cant stay 100% fit all season.

Cant believe there were people against signing him Could u imagine the sense of regret we would have felt if we saw him put these performances on at the Bernabeu or good for bid Eastlands?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leicester_city/9410062.stm He is out for a month Although i dont think the Leicester fans give a toss there absolutely bashing him.

In decades gone by when Luiz is retired the roaming centre half will be known as "the Luiz role"

Then next year it will be the same shit about how their team are finally coming off age, tbh its getting very boring but the cycle will never stop until they win the league (then there be even worse).

good shout

fair point although it would be nice for him to hit another late surge, similar to last year.

He has got 7 goals so far this season now he scored against the Mancs? Am i the only one that thinks a strong end to the season could see him hit 20 again?

With our hugely succesfull and powerfull spine off the last 6 years entering its twilight years are we slowly seeing the basis of our next spine at Stamford Bridge? Cech-Terry-Carvalho-Makelele-Essien-Lampard-Drogba has been our spine in general over the last 6 years (4 in Maka's case), it has been a brilliant spine for us and saw us finish in the top 2 for 5 of those 6 season's, winning the title on 3 occasions along with 3 FA Cups and 2 league cups, but with Maka and Ricky gone, Lampard and Drogba well and truly in their twilight years, Terry slowly approaching them and Essien inconsistent in comparison with 2/3 years ago, are we seeing a slow transformation in this hugely successful spine? David Luiz and Ramires have been brought in firmly with the next 7/8 years in mind, David Luiz has started like a house on fire and Ramires after a tough start is starting to show us why we parted with £18 million for his signature, if both carry on like this for the next decade they will prove to be bargains, hopefully we will start seeing a lot more of Josh next season and he could be a key part of our next spine. Torres still has a good 5/6 years at the top level. Aswell as Josh we have players in this youth cup team that are impressing and the stand outs for me are Josh (obviously), Chalaboah, B.Clifford and Deen-Conteh with the right training and attitude i think all have a serious chance of being Chelsea 1st team players. Also on Chelsea's raidar seems to be Neymar and i cant help but think Carlo wants a Brazillian spine on the pitch similar to one he attempted to make at Milan (Silva-Kaka-Pato) he signed Silva but left before he officially became a Milan player. Petr Cech still has a good 10 years left and with the likes off Delac and Sebek up and coming we are fine in that area for some time. Looks like work is already starting for our new spine, what do you think it will look like? KTBFFH

Blainitant publicity stunt that was. He is that desperate for attention now hes retired he will probally sit in the kop on sunday.

i was thinking exacly the same. Dont like the sound of doing Arsenal a favour but tbh i dont even think about that, getting back into the top 4 was what we needed to do and thats what we have done, we did it for us not Arsenal. If this wont kick start our season nothing will, all it takes is droped points at Blackpool and were back to square one so lets not let it happen this time. Am i the only 1 that thinks a top 2 place is still up for grabs? We will go above City if we win our game in hand not to mention if we beat them at home and if you look at Arsenal's record at the buisness end of the season its hardly something that will stricke the fear of god into opponents.

While were all seeing how good Ramires is, he is still the scapegoat amounst rival fans, i keep hearing how "bad" he supposedly is Thats Arsenal, Man.Utd and Tottenham games he has dominated now, just a shame he werent playing aganist Liverpool then it might have been different.

Bloomfield road is a tough ole place to go but if we go there, keep our heads and stick to a game plan we should be fine.

After the last 3 it would be about time

Stoke City (away) on April 2nd according to the Chelsea website, although knowing sky that could change.

Alex (Blue Lion) has the guardian ratings above

Name: Ryan Bertrand Position: Defender Number: 34 Joined From: Gillingham Fee: £125,000 Signed by: Frank Arnesen?/Jose Mourinho? Age: 22 Ryan joined Chelsea in the summer of 2005 from Gillingham, he has gone on loan to Bournemouth, Oldham, Norwich, Reading and Nottingham Forest. He has recently became a squad player for Chelsea and was on the bench for the FA Cup replay against Everton at Stamford Bridge. His debut for the Blues finally came in a 3-1 win over Birmingham City, where he replaced the injured Ashley Cole midway through the second half, it was however his only appearance that season. He was named in the 25 man squad by Andre Villas Boas for the 2011/2012 season but found opportunities limited under the Portuguese, only appearing six times, but it was when Roberto Di Matteo took over his Chelsea career and career as a whole really kicked off. When Cole picked up an injury, Bertrand started two games in the space of three days aganst Wigan and Fulham and produced solid performances both times, unlike Andre, Robbie trusted the youngster to fill in when Cole was injured or needed a rest. His best Chelsea performance came at The Emirates against Arsenal, where he completely nullified the threat of Theo Walcott and picked up his first man of the match, after that afternoon he was picked for all bar one of the remaining league games as Cole was getting rested and redied the FA Cup and Champions League finals. But his season didn't end there, injury's and suspension's meant he got a shock Champions League debut in the final against Bayern Munich but where most in his situation would be riddled with nerves, he simply came of age, performed incredibly in tanden with Cole to keep the Bayern right side of Lahm and Robben quiet and when he was replaced by Florent Malouda in the 74th minute he and all Chelsea fans knew whatever the outcome he done us proud. We ofcourse went on to win on penalties and made history. Following on from that, he was given a call up to the Team GB Olympic team, despite a poor tournament overall, Ryan never put a foot wrong in defence and came out of it with his reputation further enhanced. Now if all that in a few months wasn't enough Roy Hodgson has given the lad his first England call up for the friendly against Italy. A few days after that he came on as a substitute for Chelsea against Manchester City at Villa Park with the Blues 3-1 down. He scored his first Chelsea goal to bring them back in the game and make it 3-2, although Chelsea didn't bring the game back level, on a personal level it's good he got of the mark in Chelsea colours.