didierforever

i dont expect any change from the previous match. cech azpi GC JT AC DL rambo willian oscar hazard torres.

"leper"!!! No one is casting aside cech like a "leper". but it is one thing to give him a legendary status and another thing to take a decision simply out of sentimentality. courtious IS already a WC keeper and he is only 21 year old. Cech IS also a WC keeper but he is 31. ina heartless world, there would not even be a discussion of what the right decision would be. but sometimes such decisions have to be taken. DD was "let go" while FT was given the mantle of our no.1 striker, but that dint mean he was cast aside like a leper. sometimes tough decisions have to be made for the long term

liverLOL...

one manager can and probably will make one mistake in his lifetime but when 2 different managers do the same thing and that too beniyez did it over a period of half a season and now jose has done it, there must be something to it. Its not a decision thst they have made in just one match. Moreover, we seem to be winning games and DL seems to be playing well.

so u just compared heskey's striking prowess to DL's defensive prowess. seems legit!!!

^ OH DEAR SWEET MOTHER OF GOD.

seriously cant understand how DL had a bad game. he did start slow, gave away the ball a couple of times in the start but later, he was running the show. literally. and all those clearances, and interceptions aside, his passing was simply fabulous. every1 would remember AC's flick to EH for the goal, but DL's ball to AC was as important and impressive.

mourinho and benitez beg to differ on DL's worth as a DM.

persists!!!! Yes cos he has started doin it right now and I would like it to continue. I don't see him using schurrle as a Cf any longer. Also schurrle as a Cf wae barely successful whereas DL as a DM is. There in lies your dofference.

first things first, GC just turned 28 (on 19th december to be precise), and DL is 26, so they both have atleast 4 good years each left. JT might not go on forever but he has been our best defender this season too and he has a couple of years in his bag too. now, i get your idea of buying zouma, i really do. but the main point of a good back 4 is consistency, how much time would zouma get in chelsea as a 4th choice CB. look at kalas !!! so thats 2 years atleast wasted for him. plus players like ake who are showing tremondous talent dont get a chance. simply does not seem worth it to me, especially since we have such big DM/ST issues as of this moment.

yup. kalas' non-involvement (even in the domestic cups) has been shocking!!! i just hope atleast one of these 3 makes it big here. ake would be my best bet.

to be honest, i have watched him only against the 2 big teams (barca and RM), and he has been phenomenol. i remember a couple of seasons ago when barca scored 5 against ATM, he was still fabulous in that match. another mind-blowing performance that he put in was last season's copa del ray final where i have to say that he should have been MOTM. i dont know how his whole time in ATM has been, but i can say this, it was not as easy as it has been for him this season. ATM have been brilliant defensively this season. i watched the 2 super-copa, the match against RM and today's match, in all he has conceded 1 goal in those 4 matches and he has had to barely do anything. on the other hand, i was watching the highlights of malaga vs ATM, and valencia vs ATM, and i have to say that some of the saves from thibaut were amazing.

where is the post match interview?

barely had anything to do all match. probably just one odd moment with the messi shot.

we have chalobah, kalas, ake as our youth players so why do we need a 10/12mil pound player as our 4th CB?

best solution.

just 14mil pounds? were we not asking for close to 25mil!!!

in all honesty i would rather that we go for a WC CB rather than matic if mou persists with DL as a DM.

why? we seriously can make do without reus with the limitless talented AMs we have at our disposal. as for gundogan, we can buy him for 20mil rather than exchanging our only good striker and then going into the transfer market to buy a couple of WC strikers.

when did this happen? i thought moyes in his PC said that RVP would be ready for our game.

where is @WECKERZ??? this is the EH i wanted to see playing. the EH which made defenders tremble with fear everytime he has the ball. and hence i used to critisize EH when he put in "average", "okay" performances!!! this guy is MAGIC.

thanks mate.

united will up their game for this one. they will be playing on the counter, i have no doubt about it. and with rvp and rooney coming back for this one, wont be as easy as many think it will be. nonetheless, their defence and mid is in appaling form. we should be able to get a win in this one.

brilliant win. TOP OF THE TABLE. we found it real hard to break hull down and it had to be a piece of brilliance which would have helped us across. also the timing of the goal was PERFECT, i think. jose was going to gamble with probably taking out a defender. anyways hazard was brilliant, luiz started very slow but by the end was simply running the match. deserved win and top of the table for atleast 24 hours. cech - 209th clean sheet for chelsea. LEGEND. dint have much to do though today (it seems like a pattern now, our GKs dont have anything to do these days). a few long range shots were all he had to deal with. 7/10 cole- brilliant link up play. its not everyday that AC gets involved offensively and even has an impact but he definitely did today. that chip pass to put hazard thru was delicious and that link up with EH for the goal was exactly what we needed to break down a solid defence. 9/10 JT - some very uncharacteristic mistakes. missed a couple of clearances too as well as gave away that ball. not a great performance. 6/10 GC- ANOTHER brilliant game. and the operative word here is another. he has been a new player since the sunderland fiasco. covered JT perfectly and even his passing today was good. 8/10 azpi - another flawless display. and that is what he does. nothing flashy. reminds me so much of paulo. 8/10 luiz - as i said above, started slowly, a few poor passes, gave the ball away cheaply, sometimes in the first half he even got in the way of oscar and willian but a brilliant second half performance. some of the headed clearances were superb, his ball winning was emaculate and was a beast in the 2nd half. 8/10 rambo - quiet performance. barely saw him on the ball. mainly it was luiz who ran the show. tried to take a couple of bustling runs but gave the ball away more often than not. 6/10 oscar - workrate was rate, as usual, but simply lacked that final pass to break down a packed defence. does not have that mata-esque pass to create problems in the defence.missed a great oppurtunity to put us 1-0 up in the first half and had his shot blocked brilliantly in the second. 7/10 willian - bombastic. he was everywhere except probably on the wings giving us some much needed width. but nonethless brilliant workrate and football. he has really cemented his position in the team. 8/10 hazard - when i used to critisize him for putting an "average" performance, people used to chastise me. i did that because THIS is the performances that hazard should be putting. magical. the difference between a 0-0 and 2-0. the difference between a team winning/fighting for the PL and a team fighting for top 4. i have said that hazard can be our ronaldo. he can be our EH17 rather than CR7. he IS that special and there is no doubt about it. from the first moment it seemed that if we score it would involve EH in some way. he would be central to our goal and he perfectly was. i hope he continues in the same vein. 10/10 torres - brilliantly taken goal. to even think people want etoo to start over him is laughable. as soon as we scored and the game opened up, he really got into it. won a lot of air balls, ran at defenders, closed players down. definitely our 1st striker among the 3 we have right now. but had a poor first half and worse was how much he was out of the game for most of the time in the first 45 minutes. 7/10 subs - mikel - did what he does best. broke up the play a couple of times and started the counters. provided a good shield along with luiz. 7/10 schurrle & essien - n/a

line ups?