Blue Armour

Sounds like a precaution more than anything... Even the NT won't take chances with the WC being so close.

Yeah, I think Conte himself won't have an excuse for that... Going by his 'more money = more results' theory, its fair for the 2 Manchester clubs to be ahead....not Liverpool, or Tottenham however..

I said the same for Morata, but Baka's confidence is completely shot. Its even worse than Morata I would reckon.

Not saying these are the reasons for his poor play....but Baka is younger, hasn't gone through career threatening injury and is very new to the premier league. I would definitely give him a chance over the 3 you mentioned. But whether he get's that second chance with us, is the question.

Yep, Eden is the single most important player in this squad right now. You can always spend millions on 'potential' but you can never guarantee that you'll get quality like the stuff he produces for the team. People are always quick to blame everything on the first thing that comes to mind. The fact that Messi scored a couple of goals on counters is enough to mask all of Eden's contributions over the two legs.

Yeah, the CL is the biggest stage of them all. His lack of performance in these kind of games is no doubt due to mentality. To some players, like Willian and Alonso, they're able to naturally raise their own games to perform at their best. I think in the case of Hazard the spotlight has got to him a bit. Personally, I feel he is suffering from the lack of a guiding figure like Drogba/Eto'O/Lampard in the squad to ease his nerves. Basically players that have already won the lot. He's now one of the longest serving players right now, and has all the responsibility of carrying /inspiring the his team to the next stage. I feel if he was paired with another quality player, (who is also an experienced winner), he could do much more in these types of games.

Well regardless of his quality,... I'm sure you'll admit that its better for us if he doesn't have a desire to leave.

Lets look at it this way. Regardless of whether you think Hazard is WC or not, he is the least of our problems in this squad. We have plenty of other positions that need strengthening, and we need to strengthen it to support him, cause he's our best regardless of where he stands next to the elite. If someone argues that we can sell him for millions and re-invest in good prospects to improve the squad...well you only need to look at our track record and see what will happen. The likelihood is that you'll end up with a Liverpool/Tottenham squad that hovers around the top 4 spots, but is shite at just about everything else. And then we won't get a sniff of a player close to Eden's quality and will have to pray to the football gods for a Lampard or JT to come along through the youth ranks.

As much as I support Conte...it is the manager's job to turn players head and bring them back to the fold. Imagine if Scolari had ended up removing Drogba for not getting along with him...you don't give up players like that on a whim. The same (albeit to a lesser extent) to Matic as well. We gave him up without being sure if his replacement was up to the task. The Barcelona game and our entire season is an symptom of us shooting ourselves in the foot.

Goalkeeping today was the worst. We are a far cry from the winning team we used to be with Cech and JT at the back.

One thing has to be accepted. Some people might call this Barca team 'inferior' to Pep's but they are a lot more crafty and unpredictable. They let us have so much possession after going up in this game, and essentially hit us on counters. Different story from Pep's Barca which would just mechanically keep coming back for more even after going up. Not creating an excuse for us, but we would have had a tough time anyway regardless of the tactic we used. The first leg result ruined us.

I see where you're coming from...and there's also evidence of his quality, like the game he had against Athletico Madrid away.

Part of Willian's game is also to whip in crosses quickly with his right foot....also he's adept at shooting from anywhere in front of goal. Hazard on the other hand is adept at crossing/creating plays from any angle. But its easier for him to shoot coming in from the left. You'll be nullifying some of their contributions if you were to switch their positions. Besides, its not like they don't trade positions during the game. Hazard moves all over the pitch. Willian's goal against Palace came from the left hand side.

Still think he's the best man for us up top. Its his negative mindset that's dragging him down. The pressure of starting for a big club, the criticism from the media (and fans if he has been paying attention), and the refs here have gotten to him. Its a vicious cycle, and I hope he can break free from it sooner rather than later. Needs a bit of luck and no doubt, a goal, in order to do so.

You could say the same for Lukaku when he's not in form. Lot of United fans were thinking he's garbage during the autumn months

The Morata vs Lukaku debate is amusing for me... Imagine if we had only recently played the Stamford bridge game in which Morata scored and Lukaku sucked...lot of opinions would be turned upside down

See what happened with the mighty lion Gaz back...

Haven't watched too many Belgium games, but isn't KDB quite underwhelming in general for the national team?

Well we have to do everything to score in this match...wonder whether his game plan will be to absorb all their attacks for 80 mins and try to hit them with a sucker punch afterwards. In that case, we know the formation he's going to go with.

Too soon. We are still in it.

Yeah that's true...was just stating that it did not look like an outright mutiny

Seriously hope that clown doesn't score on his comeback..again...last thing I want to see in a Chelsea match right now.

I wouldn't go that far yet...the players seemed to stick their one task which was just to nullify City's attack, and were mostly successful barring that one mistake from Alonso.

No, but any concerned fan would be worried about the direction in which the club is heading. We've been on the decline since Drogba's playing days have come to a close. Thankfully it hasn't been to the extent of some of the other clubs in the big 4. Unless you're telling me the board planned for the situation we are in right now from the very beginning, there is every reason to be worried

Well when you say performance, its mostly off-the ball performance right? Because that's what it was. Until Giroud came on for the final 10 mins making him drop deep in midfield to receive the ball, there was no service for him whatsoever.