HRiver

He was better than Drogba definitely. I understand that everybody expected him to score two goals per game when he joined us, but the WHOLE CHELSEA FC SQUAD is doing horribly embarrasing, apart from John Terry, Petr Cech, Ramires and Ivanovic.

The only positive out of all of this is that we won't be under pressure at OT and I expect Carlo to change his boring tactics for once in his lifetime, and attack and look for the goal. Inter lost versus Bayern at their home too but never gave up until the 90th minute. Even though Man U are not as bad as Bayern, and even though it's a Premiership game where you can't expect unexpected comebacks and especially from Chelsea FC, but the ball is round and ANYTHING is possible. KEEP THE FAITH

We did not deserve to win, but that was a penalty.

I feel devastated. You broke my heart Chelsea.

Have you people really thought that Anelka or Kalou would start instead of Drogba or Torres in a game like this? Drogba - Torres is how it should be, one of them will get the winner tonight.

Thanks God that Malouda isn't starting.

Is Ferdinand starting for them?

So nervous already, we should not concede tonight. COME ON YOU MIGHTY BLUES

Tomorrow is his night, and tomorrow he will shine, mark my words people.

But Carlo can't drop Drogba, not now that he's got his first goal since late January. Anelka and Torres both started against Manure but didn't do too much, whereas Drogba gave great motivation to the team when he came on.

In games like this Drogba and Torres must start, it's not time for jokes. Kalou can't dribble Manure's defence, even though Fabio and Smalling are likely to start. I expect them to play well defensively even though on paper their defence isn't that solid.

Luiz is ineligible mate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/12950670.stm

If he doesn't improve on his performances until the end of the season, I would definitely consider to sell him. He's been the worst player of the team no doubt.

I'd also rather play Ferreira, good shout. He's got Champions League experience and always does what he's asked to, and a big shame that Benayoun hasn't even made it onto the bench yet. Benayoun is very quick and skillful, something very important that we're lacking, and he's the man that I would expect a change of the game or a comeback from.

Agreed. We need strength against United on Wednesday, Bosingwa doesn't have it. Sometimes he's good offensively, but defensively he's not good enough and makes mistakes often. Definitely our only weakness in the line-up, which United can clearly take advantage of.

Means that when Bosingwa fails in his attempts to push forward successfully, Nani will have too much space and so United will be a lot more dangerous in counter-attacks than we all and Carlo think.

How come is Real Madrid - Chelsea a dream final for you Riccy? How come you wish to beat your ex team-mates and the club that you played 7 years for and the club which you almost won the CL with, the club that you were so close in winning it so many times. Makes no sense to me. But I've always liked Carvalho no matter what - a role model of a centre back, brilliant footballer. I wish him the best with Real Madrid, but obviously not in the final if we meet them. And because Jose knocked us out last year, this time round we must definitely beat him and have our revenge.

People are expecting too much from Torres. In his first game, he was subbed in the 60th minute, he was subbed against Man City even though he was playing well and he didn't start in two games; against Copenhagen 2nd leg and against Stoke. I'm expecting Carlo to sub him early in the 2nd half if he starts against Manure, or even worse, leave him on the bench and give him the last 20 minutes of the game, then the saga will continue. The same happened with Shevchenko. He was constantly either substituted too early or not given the full 90 minutes.

The line up I would like to see against Manure: Cech Ivanovic - Alex - Terry - Cole Ramires - Essien - Lampard - Zhirkov Drogba - Torres If Bosingwa or Malouda start, we won't win. Nani will make Bosingwa look like a school boy and Malouda will play like a 55 year old, like someone else on this forum already mentioned.

And yet non-Chelsea fans never appreciate him and don't even consider him as one of the best GK's in the world. Cech is much, much better than Casillas or any other keeper in the world.

With all respect to MJ - he's still one of my favourite artists of all time, but that statue looks quite cheap and ridiculous.

Happy Birthday.

He's very strong, our defence was struggling against him every time he had the ball. Probably things would of been a bit different had John Mikel played.

Happy Birthday Alex. Hope you're having a great one.