nullabletype

I seriously hate having to stream matches. You go through loads of links, of which 99% are shit to begin with. And when you finally get a decent one, it inevitably craps out.

Fernando for me as he's starting to look like his old self, I hope this is his come back. Ramires and Mata also impressed, Anelka has really picked up these last few games too.

My point is I don't think anything about Torres's confidence, because I have no way of knowing. I was playing devils advocate when I opposed you. I really doubt, Rooney played Berbatov in because he'd lost confidence. It was a more tactically sound ball to play, which was only kept out because Cole barely made it back.

Why can't we say this? None of us know how Torres feels. Just because he doesn't score every week doesn't mean he is not confident. Fans and pundits talking about players confidence is purely speculation on their part. So if we are going to speculate, I'd say today's goal will lift him. His current form has all been leading to this point, that point being a very well taken, strikers goal. Not one person on this forum will argue that his miss wasn't grim, it was. I score those down my local pitches all the time and I'm crap. But as many have said before me, every striker misses sitters. And so in the same vain, can we not say that Rooney's confidence will have taken a hit today given that he couldn't hit the target from a dead ball 12 yards out?

You're getting called out because you don't make sense. You bash Torres despite the fact he's at the peak of his Chelsea career thus far. You then say he shouldn't be judged on goals alone when we bring up the fact he scored our only goal today. So we point out his all round good work rate and still you continue. You should want every player who wears a blue shirt to succeed, marquee signing or not. So yeah, I'm afraid you're going to find that most level headed fans want Torres to succeed. And amazingly enough, we're likely to back him even more in this good run of form. Edit: and as warnie 666 has posted above, our other forwards aren't exactly banging them in week in week out. So what do you want?

Well then somewhat amazingly your point is even less pertinent than it first seemed, because anybody who has been watching our games this season and running an objective eye over them could see that Torres for the most part has played well. 2 assists and a goal in his last two games plus his generally high work rate. But do go on...

I know, we're such dicks for wanting our marquee signing to do well and giving him credit where credit is due. The guy only scored our single goal today. Mug.

Today we were the better team, no doubt about it. Played some good football and were only beat by two goals that shouldn't have stood. I'm glad AVB has the stones to haul Lampard off. He done zip other than 2 decent passes early on. Personally I'd of seen Ivanovic or JT off for David Luiz too. JT's lack of pace scares me at times. The squad in general looked well and maybe we're starting to click. If we can play like this at Old Trafford there is absolutely no reason why we can't go anywhere else in the country and win. Torres looked well and I'm glad he got that long awaited 2nd goal. Now on his miss... Comments like this really bug me. Here we have our own fans giving Torres, who was arguably one of our best players today and our only goal scorer stick because of a miss. Fair enough it was pretty bad. But I don't see the same peaople critiquing Wayne Rooney for not even hitting a penalty on target. Quite sad really.

6'2" I believe.

A yes, Peek-a-Busquets.

I'd be more than happy to see the same starting line-up that was put out against Leverkusen. Obviously a victory would be preferable but I can see this game ending in a draw. I also don't like to compare our chances to that of Arsenal or Tottenham as we're a vastly superior outfit. instead I like to dwell on more positive comparisons like our similar results against West Brom. There's no reason why we can't beat United on Sunday but the same can be said of them about us. Looking forward to what will hopefully be a brilliant game and a nice win, fingers crossed. It would be nice to shut them lot and the media up to be honest. Not that that would happen even if we came away 9-0 winners.

Cheers. Good shout yourself for pointing out the image. I'm using it now.

Makes a pretty decent plain BG. Just made him bigger and shifted the lights so there was more going on.

The media really do get on my nerves. The Sun already have an article up calling Torres a flop in one line, and on the next talk about how he set up both goals. But it's only mentioned in passing as if it was nothing. Not so much a mention of his all round good performance and three very close efforts in the first ten minutes. I don't like any articles to centre on one particular player. But if they do insist on writing about one player all the time, then at least give him some credit where and when it's due. Edit: Happy with the performance for the most part. More entertaining than any of our EPL games so far.

Mata for me. Purely because the squad looked a bit lost after he came off. I hope this doesn't mean that we are solely relying on him though. Meireles looked good too. That ball to Sturridge was smashing.

I can get down with this. I'd even almost go as far as having a back line of, Bosingwa - Luiz - Ivan/Alex - Cole. We're playing a a high defensive line that I honestly don't think JT has the pace for.

Shocking altogether. There's not a chance Bardsley done that in error. In fact, there was no need for him to even go over the top of Mata. Fine if he had of been travelling at some sort of pace and needed to get over the top of Juan in order to avoid him. But he had virtually stopped dead. Absolute hallion who deserves a ban.

Well I don't think we play Ivanović as RB. He's okay as a stand-in but if we're to look at him objectively, he's not great at crossing a good ball in from the right. Bosingwa has been better recently, and for me personally, we keep him at RB for the time being. Ramires and Meireles sound good to me. But to be honest, in current form I wouldn't have Lampard anywhere near the pitch. Who we replace him with is anybody guess. Though it's a moot point since he wont get dropped. Sturridge, Drogba / Torres and Mata. Maybe start with Torres and see if he can actually come up with something. If not, bung him on the bench for Drogba.

I don't think it's so much a case of caring more about what Torres does, as much as what we would like to see him do. And in fact, really what we'd like to see the whole team do. I say leave Torres on the bench if he can't produce anything. But if you're going to play him, leave Mata on. As one of the few players who picks him out, if you're going to take Mata off, don't bother putting Torres on at all. There was a moment near the end where Torres was wide open and Malouda could of just played him in. He didn't though, and Torres threw the hands up. If the likes of Malouda was linking up with Torres then perhaps we would actually see something from him, and could of gone on to win with 3, 4, whatever. So it's frustrating for a lot of people to watch their team when many of the players aren't clicking. We may have won, which is brilliant no doubt. But in the end, it was unconvincing, albeit it certainly wasn't an easy fixture. If Mata hadn't of played a part in this game, it would never of ended how it did. So if he picks up a knock we're snookered. And for a lot of people, they wonder what we're going to do if we have to make do with the likes of Malouda on the supply line. Torres might be the key figure of many peoples worry's. But he's just the tip of the iceberg. The worry runs deeper than him.

Only caught the 2nd half. Thought we looked good at the start and commented on how I thought with the way play was going Torres could come on and score. Mata swapped for Torres? I hate the question the gaffer, but what! Then it became clear we aren't the same team without Mata which is a very scary thought indeed. The play completely changed after he left. Nice goal from Sturridge and hopefully he can produce more. Happy with the 3 points, but as usual we don't make it easy for ourselves. JUAN MATA F.C.! Edit: Oh, and if Malouda could please see it in his heart to pass to Torres then we'd all really appreciate that. Cheers Flo.

Preaching to the choir.

Like a lot of industries around the world, a presentable well spoken white man with a conservative haircut has a "better" image than other ethnicities and or women. It's not how things should be, but that's how it is. There's plenty of racism in football, and people would be naïve to believe that it doesn't exist at the top too.

Christ that lad is a monster. I can't believe he's only 18. I'm 22 and he makes me look about 12.

Consider me in the happy to of signed Meireles group. Good team player from what I've seen of him. Let's see what he can do.

Will do.