MetsajCFC

It's not about the competition for places that makes it harder to score for Chelsea. It's the fact that teams defend with 10 behind the ball when playing against us, and with only one striker up front he can not afford any mistakes. Simple as that. Please try to have more perspective.

He's been the best player for us past couple of games - and doing that while getting all that crap from supporters, having the media on him and so on. In that perspective the situation is easier for Lukaku.

Different situation for Lukaku. And let's not get ahead of ourselves and make long standing opinions based on couple of matches. I'll also add how do you know other players haven't worked their socks off in training? He was loaned out for his own good, in order to get games on weekly basis. Even Lampard can't get that many games. The club put Lukaku's progress ahead of their own depth, that's admirable.

Some of you make it sound as De Bruyne has done something remarkable to deserve the first team spot or to be in a better position compared to other players. I didn't watch most of the pre-season games but this season so far he hasn't done anything out of this world. He might be having great games during international matches where tactics are different, players around him are different, coach and the staff are different. This is Chelsea Football Club we're talking about, no player is bigger than the system, especially not a 22 year old who has only played two games for the club. It's infuriating to read "experts" degrading Mourinho, a man who works day in-day out with the players, he communicates with them on daily basis. A man who has won so much in his career, there's a reason players in every club he worked with (maybe less with Real Madrid) have good relationship with him, a special connection. Comparing De Bruyne's situation with Mata's is just ignorant. Mata has been the player of the season twice in a row, won the Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, European Championships and so on and so on. Can't count how many times he saved Chelsea last season and how much we depended on him. We were a one-man team at times. De Bruyne has won a couple of Belgian titles and that's that. If you look at Kevin's statistics, he is just a normal player. Huge potential of course, but that will not open doors for him if he fails to take the chances he has been given. Keep in mind Mata's (25) and De Bruyne's (22) age difference isn't that big. It's only been one and a half months into a season, early to judge. He'll get his chances for sure, he just has to take them. That's all Mourinho is doing - making sure no player is in his comfort zone when it comes to squad competition. Very welcomed thing if you ask me. Mourinho's done great. It seems some of the Belgians here won't rest this case unless every Belgian player we have are starting the game on weekly basis. Ain't going to happen, not in the near future atleast.

Man of the match for me Torres

Like the saying goes: "Days aren't brothers", if we can keep this 2:0 lead I'll take it with pleasure. Let's not get picky!

Nice finish by Oscar! Anyone else seen how much defensive work Hazard does? Brilliant player, absolute class

Spot on, good post. We played nicely, had problems finishing chances but it will improve. And it was Everton, never an easy place to go to, no shame especially if you look at the stats.

Out of curiosity I'd remove the MOTM award for couple of months to see how the atmosphere changes around here. I'd even remove the "like" system. I read the posts here, partly in the August thread as well and I can't see what Kojo, Zolayes or Term-X said wrong, frankly I agree with them. The point about Peace was spot on. We've got to ask the basic questions here. What is this award for? What's the purpose? When it was introduced it seemed like a great idea but now it's like political campaign every end of the month. I've been registred here for over 2.5 years and hovered about before that as non-member and this place isn't what it was before. Back then you could have an argument, disagree with someone or EXPRESS an opinion without escalating a all-out war on the forums, hell, people seemed more articulate and mature. Only the MOTM August thread shows what I mean, Kojo made reasnoble points and was shot down by the same 2-3 Pub faces, like always - guess they took it personally or recognized themselves.

Is Mata injured?

Give Lukaku a break, that's the exact reason why he couldn't be Chelsea's number one striker. The fans would tear him apart even if they know 20-year old will make mistakes. He learnt much today. Chelsea fought for 40mins with 10 players, proud of them - especially Lampard, Cech and Hazard. Cech MOTM for me, couldn't ask for much more, at the same time Eto'o and Willian couldn't come sooner.

Go get the bus keys

I think that was a yellow card offense, look at the way he leaps onto Götze's foot, with studs and everything. Can't complain about that, and he had lots of time to think about it and time it, just got it mis-timed. Bayern been playing very dirty aswell, especially Mandzukic, picking fights while being a skinny twig - as Cahill rightly indicated to him. Lampard, Hazard, Schürrle been alright this game. Torres apart from the goal has been a pile of misery and losing balls way too much, should have passed on his turn and shoot opportunity. Oscar should have scored it, the Dante mistake. Neuer with close range shot from Luiz's bullet header and Ivanovic hit the woodwork. Blaming the referee would only be an easy way out here, we put ourselves into this position. And subsitutions?

Could have-would have. That's just speculation. It was hardly Old Trafford of Moyes either or Mourinho's Chelsea, all this takes time.. changes and ideas...

We got a point from Old Trafford and people aren't happy? Get real... Also some comments like "Mourinho cost us the game" scrape my eyes, said it many times, its one thing to have an opinion but that's just stupidity. Waiting for certain people to open Mourinho out thread and a post explaining why we're out of the title race after three games.

First half shows why we need Willian. We got strong bench, I'm sure Mourinho will get something out of this. Got to add - what a dirty bastard Van Persie is...

Willian will only add healthy competition to the team. We should be delighted that we arent' heavily dependant on Mata's or Hazard's form. We can actually rotate without having to compromize for the result. And who says Willian isn't as good as Oscar, Mata or even Hazard? I'm sure so many people will be positively surprised when this guy gets going. For a change we have a player who has been wanting to join us for a long time. Very excited and even more so than I would be if we signed Rooney. I don't understand how some people here were against signing the likes of Cavani and Falcao while would take Rooney in a heartbeat. I think Eto'o would be a pefect addition to us, will be around just for the time Lukaku is starting to hit his physical peak. Wouldn't cost a fortune and wages would be on par if not lower than Rooney's - but we don't know exact numbers so I'm just speculating. Also - the fact that the club wants to sign someone and has the funds for it doesn't automatically mean we'll get the target we're after. This isn't football manager people.

Great signing, delighted. Welcome!

Brilliant signing!!

My vote goes for The Skipper, quality poster

You missed the part where I wrote "Found this", you're barking at the wrong door.

Found this: Missed out on Pastore - got Mata Missed out on Modric - got Oscar Missed out on Hulk - got Hazard Miss out on Cavani - don't worry!

Weird reading some of the messages here. "P$G and A$ Monaco" - guys, we like them not too long ago, buying anything and everything for fees out of this world. What do you expact? ADL to roll over and sell Cavani to Chelsea for less money because we are playing in the better league? Hell no, it's a business. Time to open your eyes and not be so drawn in by all the nonsense. PSG is very attractive club, it's not like they came out of nowhere and judging from last years Champion's League campaign, they're not too bad either, almost knocking Barcelona out. So let's not be hypocrites here. As for Cavani. Would I have liked to see him here? Yes. Do we need an established striker for next season? Yes. Should we pay them 70m? No. Is he worth it? No. If it's true that he is going to PSG, we've dodged a massive bullet and I'm glad bidding-wars aren't considered a sport in Chelsea boardroom anymore. We should be happy Chelsea's board double-thinks bids and to be fair has been making very good signings lately - Courtois, Azpilicueta, Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Lukaku, KDB and so on, all young players who rival clubs surely regret they didn't get. So props to the board. Still think going into the new season with Lukaku-Torres-Ba is risky. We haven't seen them play under Mourinho but Torres just hasn't got that killer instinct anymore. His body language and even physique ooze of lack of self-confidence. Ba is great squad player but not much more I'm afraid. Lukaku hopefully will be our main striker for years to come but to put that kind of pressure on a 20 year old is plain stupid. He needs time and patience and if you're Chelsea's main striker then those are the two things you won't have. Strikers aren't our main weakness though, we need to sort out center midfield and even center back situation as priorities. But that's a whole another story.

Great signing for the future. But we need impact signings for the coming season, I feel we're still too weak in midfield and if we keep signing 20-21 year olds it won't probably change much.

If I directly answer this then Cavani. But actually I wouldn't mind if we go into the new season with Lukaku, Ba, Torres as our center forwards aslong as we add to CM position.