didierforever

Not true. A right back, a xavi replacment will be their minimum requirement.

ATM probably need to get a squad midfielder while selling their 2 out of 6 fullbacks. They have siquera, insaldi and insua as their LBs, juanfran, gamez and silvio as their RBs. But their CM/DM options are only gabi, tiago, suarez and saul while their AM options are koke, greizmann, turan, garcia and rodriguez. That's just 9 players for 5 spots specially since they have just 2 strikers (Mario and gimenez). They probably need to get some cover for mid.

any1 got gifs of all 3 goals?

Courtois Iva GC JT AZPI MATIC RAMBO ANDRE CESC EH COSTA. That would be my team.

What a complete performance. We needed to up our performance in the first half after goong down a goal. We did it brilliantly. In the second half we needed to close out the game and we did that brilliantly too. We were barely troubled in defence. Set the pace of the match thruout the match. Fabregas, iva, schurrle and matic we're just awesome. Thibaut- I thought he could have done better for the goal. Seemed to be taken by suprise by the shot. Nonetheless, a solid performance. Iva- and then people were cribbing that he was started. A goal, an assist and an awesomr performance was his answer. Gc-JT - solid as ever. Barely let anything be played behind them. Dealt with any aerial threat with aplomb. The high line barely seens to faze them. Azpi- at 1-0 there was a point where he put his head on the ball near the box. Was critical that we don't go 2-0 down. Linked up well with hazard too. Matic- a very makelele performance. A very matic-esque performance. Ran the game. Set the pace. Was just perfect. Cesc- what can I say. I hate this guy and he is making me fall in lovr with him. That backheel to iva, thatvolleyed thru ball yo schurrle. I mean who puts a volleyed thru ball. 2 assists in a match whilr oscar had 2 in the whole year for us. This guy was my MOTM and the performance was as near perfect as u can get. schurrle- this guy is just so bloody lovable. Ran behind the defence at every situation possible. There was an air ball from azpi (I think) where he made a diagonal run. No suprise he is almost always on the score sheet when he starts. Keep it shirley. Oscar- brilliant workrate but nothing special. His position might be in jeapordy when rambo comes back as cesc can definitely play the no.10. Hazard- good gane. A couple of brilliant runs like the one to costa goal. Needs to be more decisive around the box and take a few shots too Costa- a DD-esque performance. Got a goal, held the ball, was a pain in the ass all night for defenders, should have had a pen instead got a yellow for simulation. Just the guy we need and want. Subs- Willian - we were in cruise control mode by the time he cane in. Barely got a touch and got it nore in our half than theirs. Mikel- perfect guy to close the gane and kill any tempo. DD- he might not be as pacy or as great a player as he was in 2007-10 but he showed he has still got it. Won about half the aerial balls with an EASE that only he can do. Almost had a DD moment where a nothing ball from courtois almost turned into the goal. He will be fine as our second striker here.

brilliant line up. only suprise is oscar for willian!!!! COME ON CHELSEA!!!!

i watched the sky sports KINGS OF EUROPE documentary to calm myself!!!

very.

Peoole are getting overly excited. Lets just keep calm. Ot won't be an easy match.

City are our main title rivals... any week where they dtop points will be great!!!

ake is a good cover. he might still have a future but bertrand definitely does not. moses would barely get ANY playtime. i would rather have that he increases his resale value and those few minutes be given to someone like baker.

“Can we keep them both? Yes. We are Chelsea. We can.” EXACTLY!!!!

GC, JT, cesc, ake, andreas,zouma, moses' spot will be taken by an U-21 too. so its still about who will be sold between mikel, cesc, thibaut. this move changes nothing.

i had delaney and ward!!!

there are better options AVAILABLE in the market. mikel is the best option in CFC's service at the moment. an option like khedira would be immense and brilliant. but would cost us 20mil and 200kpw (apparently thats what he is asking). mikel will cost us NOTHING and his "HUGE" wages are 70kpw. compared to that even someone like song would cost 10mil at least, with his current wages being over mikel's current anyways. also, i am not saying jose is a mikel fan. infact keeping mikel as the 4th/5th choice DM is hardlysaying much except as a good squad player. and thats what he is - a solid and a good squad player. i can see why jose has chosen mikel over romeu and chalobah. experience being one of those things. secondly, mikel's main role this season is going to be to close out games, and i honestly would give that task to mikel over those 2. thirdly, mikel will be started when we will be sitting deep, in need of pivot players who can attack, we have 4 better options, nat and romeu would not have made a difference. mikel offers us that something different, hence the inclusion.

Oscar changes his no. To 8 and gives 11 to DD. THANKS a bunch OSCAR. THANKS A LOT!!! DD11 is back!!!

If this happens, ATM might just do an encore.

Lukaku was here cos jose wanted him. It was lukaku who dint want to be the no.2. Probably that's the best explanation. Is not that so?So mikel got an MOTM against ATM while getting a yellow card. I mean JT got a red against bayern, rambo, iva and meireles got suspended. Does not mean their performances meant any less. Dude, I don't disagree but jose does. We are not a charity that we keep a player simply cos he wants a passport. I simply can't believe that the sole reason for mikel being a CFC player is that. Also mikel IS a limited player but also a player who gives us tactical advantage in some situations when we would be defending deep while also being a decent replacement to matic in case of injuries and rest. I am saying decent bot good or great. But off the current crop of DMs available to us, he is the best.

torres has FFP issues. selling torres would mean having 18mil on FFP just thru his transfer fee. mikel was bought for (MAX - apparently and rumored) at 16mil and would cost us less than 1 or 2 mil even on a free transfer. a very similar situation to essien. so please dont compare apples and oranges. as for moses, tell me a youth product who as good as he is for the 6th AM spot. is even salah better than him? i dont see a problem with moses as 6th AM. and i am pretty sure we would have had loan offers. moses stays cos jose wants him to. he might very well be on his way to loan at the end of the window like last season. so, again, mikel is here by jose's CHOICE. matic played against POOL. he was not "rested". as did mikel. and i will give him his due that he was really good in that match. as he was against ATM, or barca (both legs) or bayern. and why do u keep bringing up matic being cup tied? do u think matic will play 60 out 60 of our matches. do u think matic is unbreakable? or un-injurable? who here is saying that mikel is better than matic. people are continously saying that he is a good back-up. and he proved it when he put that MOTM performance against ATM cos matic was not availble!!! u kind of just solidated my point there!!! u keep on saying he is not a decent back up, yet he has put up performances to contradict that, our manager himself has him in the squad to contradict that. u say "For a player to leave, someone needs to buy him and then pay him." does that mean a 31 year old injury prone, has barely played in the last 4 years, earning more than mikel's 75kpw ESSIEN was more in demand than MIKEL? i am sure even u dont believe that.

the prejudice that people have against have is clearly not making people be objective about him and these are some of the best posters on here that i am talking about lets get this straight, if jose wanted mikel out, he would have been OUT. no doubt about it. if jose felt romeu/chalobah were a better option than him, they would have been here instead of mikel. mikel might not be the perfect player but he has his uses. he is a very good squad player as proven with his performances against atletico madrid and liverpool (both away). and that is what makes a good squad, having players of different ilk with whom a manager can play as it suits the team. at the end of the day, jose deems mikel good enough to be in the squad.

probably cos we were not sure if both courtois and cech will be happy and willing to play 30 matches a season!!! One of them could have not been Happy with the situation and asked for a transfer. We would have been in deep trouble then for a decent back up keeper while letting go off Mark who would have cost nothing and his salary would not be much either. A situation very similar to hilario's contract extension last season.

He must have given rambo 2 options - 1. Invite him 2. Duel to death.

Probably for the same reason our board extended hilario's contract last season and then dint register him for PL or the CL squads!!!

probably not register mark as the 3rd GK. that would be the plan. i mean with cech and courtois as no.1 and 2, dont see why we should waste a squad position on mark when we can fill it with blackman/beeney.