Sheva.

He's done his fair share getting goals, actually more than his fair share because he made up for Lamps and our strikers not scoring. But he's also a CAM, and meant to be our primary playmaker, yet he has 0 assists in the league. And it's not like he has created abundance of chances for people to miss either. Only time we look good in attack is when we counter or Torres takes matters into his hands and dribbles his way through. Everyone can do better, but mainly Oscar since it's his job to dictate our play. Anyway, my original point wasn't even about Oscar and Mata but you turned it into that. Having Mata around is good for us because he's a player with tremendous quality in attack. He doesn't have to start every game, but he can still play a major part for us.

People brought up fair points to counter your criticism of Willian so:

Attack could really be any different combination. Only Torres looks like a definite starter.

He has done well but we are 2nd because of our defensive workrate imo, because our attack has hardly been brilliant so far.

Obvious you're not a Chelsea fan, but Mourinho specifically told players to limit crossing because we have only 1 person in the box. So crossing definitely does not help KDB's cause. And your last line is just fanboyish bitterness.

Our other attacking mids are not great enough for us to sell Mata, they are all good but Mata is still the best and most effective of the lot in attacking positions.

Lol no. Hazard has played well since the Norwich game, only exception was vs City. He will always start if he's fit, Schurrle and Willian are fighting to play on the opposite wing.

He has had good moments like these every season for us, except his first half season. But something happens and he stops trying again. I do hope this lasts more than the others, because we look so much better in attack when he's hungry and skinning defenders.

The return of the Special Juan.

Willian will soon take Schurrle's spot.

Azpi

Clichy was a joke all game lol.

Overall he played a good game. City didn't have many clear chances, and when they did it was due to individual brilliance of their very good players.

City hardly had a shot before 42 minutes, Chelsea should have been 3-0 up by the time they started playing. Honestly anything other than 3 points would have been 2 points dropped considering how the game was going, thankfully Hart came to the rescue.

Can't expect players who started against City to play again after 1 day rest.

I thought Hazard was worse, but i didn't expect anything from Oscar this game. In big games he will spend a lot of time defending and doesn't have a huge impact in attack, why we need Hazard/Willian/Mata whoever is playing to step up and create chances not only for themselves, but for the striker and Schurrle.

I believe its some shit to do with goal.com. They keep posting about that symbol. http://www.goal.com/en/news/5610/mysterious-circles/2013/10/24/4353940/mysterious-messages-at-times-square?ICID=AR_RS_2

According to Daily Mail, Cahill will start alongside JT - they are usually right when it comes to team news before anything official.

If Kompany was fit, he'd single-handedly mark Eto'o or Torres out of the game. Now we have a better chance of scoring, but doesn't really change anything when they have players like Toure, Nasri, Silva, Aguero and Negredo in attack. Still a massively difficult game.

Mikel unsurprisingly handled Toure when Nigeria knocked out Ivory Coast at the Afcon. I don't think we can handle City with only 2 midfielders, Oscar will have to drop even deeper than usual and I'll be okay with whoever starts between Frank and Mikel. Lamps has done well defensively this season and not playing like a secondary striker like when he needed those goals.

Lmao at Robben. At the weekend Pep told him to give the penalty to Muller. So yesterday Pep told Ribery to give to Robben - started crying that he didn't want

Yep he got the ball a lot but couldn't get past Uchida. Hardly had a shot too, so unlike him lol.

We did control games last season with Mikel-Ramires.

All big teams in Europe have experienced big name strikers, and when you look back at when they were around Lukaku's age they were playing for clubs not too dissimilar from Everton. There's no doubt we bought him too soon imo, but by next season he should be good enough to be our 2nd option.