Sheva.

With the way this is going, Mata ain't playing today. Schurrle, Torres and Hazard will all come on in the 2nd half.

Lampard is old, old players should be used sparingly, and definitely not 3 times a week like Mourinho does.

Lmao.

Jose should do an Allardyce and throw on Hazard before it gets too late.

Worst 23 minutes of football, ever.

We can't leave our half, ffs.

Wow Willian, pleasantly surprised with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRckgn36lzY

Will Schurrle finally start?! ironically enough, he's hardly started since scoring his first Chelsea goal, while he was always a regular before that.

Massive game for Rafa and Napoli today. Without Hamsik and "all" they need is a draw against BVB. Difficult yes, but BVB will have at least 3 backup defenders out there, and Higuain, Callejon and Insigne can run riot and put the Germans to the sword.

9 games, 1 CC game = 1 start

Fair enough. But we have a better manager and better depth than previous seasons, an improvement in our November fortunes should be expected.

There is no confusion, people could have mentioned tactics but no, they talk about Mata and how he was "only" the best player on a 6th placed side. And since I am no mind reader I only talk on what they post, not what you think they meant.

I watch Real more than any club after Chelsea, I know about his stamina problems, but the fact Mou wanted 2 good players in his position proves to me he wanted something different even though both would initially start out as backups The last bit lol, and at the end of the season you can take any other 1month in isolation and we'll score less goals than last season.

Laughable. Because 1 player in an attacking position is always to blame for others failures all over the pitch. AVB fucked our season with his tactics and problems with the old guard the season we finished 6th. Mata and Sturridge were excellent by all measures before that. I really will never understand this thinking that Mata is to blame for those past seasons, when we've had managers far worse than our current one this season, we have better depth than we've had in those seasons. Torres is playing better than he did in those past seasons. Just so many factors people like to ignore to suit their "agenda" (my new favourite word thanks to TOPTB). Also about Ozil, i believe he played so much due to the lack of options, only old Kaka was his competition. He was always subbed early to his disapproval, and Mourinho has since said he tried to sign Kagawa and Oscar to compete with him.

Is Luiz injured?

I thought he had a good game, read 2 match reports who gave him a rating of 7.6 and 8. Mourinho also said he played well....

Spurs have 2 more goals than newly promoted Palace, ignoring the fact they got 2 gift pens. Ridiculous. AVB out!

With the highline Southampton play, i'd much rather have Willian or Schurrle in the team.

Ignoring the loan part. I can't see him doing well at Atletico with all their pressing and rough play. Juve though could work.

You answered your own question. Mata isn't as fast and can't take on opponents like Hazard. He also doesn't have great stamina, so making him defend like this only affects his game in attack. Anyway i am happy Mourinho said this, because TOPTB was saying on friday- everyone needs to defend etc etc. Mourinho showed he can allow that freedom to some players, he just doesn't want to do it for Mata and i'm fine with that. Now just sell the Spaniard in January, i hate seeing his face on the bench.

The point i was trying to make about Mata yesterday. Some players need to have the freedom to focus more in attack, especially when we're not playing against a top team.

Jeez.

He looked lively from the first minute and created 3-4 chances.

We played like any top team should in a game like this. In control of the game, and we buried the game early by getting 2 goals in the first half. The front 3 had some really good link-up play also, and Lampard had the freedom to finally join the attack with Mikel protecting the defence.