Blue Armour

DAFUQ?

And who would've thought it would've come against Southampton, the 2nd most in-form team atm, at their home stadium..

Haha, did he finally cut his long hair?

Choulo, when I see some of your posts regarding Mikel I wonder whether you genuinely like him or its just sarcasm showing...

First piece of news with quotes from someone who could actually be in the know? http://www.football-italia.net/80149/moratti-mourinho-manchester

C'mon mate, not all on the same page

Hazard needs more love than he gets from some of the fans... I find it hypocritical for the same people to diss Hazard, and reserve special praise for Mata. Let's not forget, when the chips were down for Mata under Mourinho, he was the one who didn't bother to stay and fight for his place or try to improve his poor form at the time. He was the one who actually left in the middle of a season, and that too when there was a chance to fight for the title. Not Hazard. Just because he has never had a prolonged bad spell, or because he writes a blog about how he likes the fans of the club, I don't see why he should be put on a higher pedestal. And unlike Hazard, he has never driven the team to go and win a league title. In case anyone is curious, I'm a big fan of the Spaniard and am very grateful for his time here..., but if he can get special rounds of applause every time he sets foot in Stamford Bridge, then Hazard deserves as much if not more.

Sarcasm aside, who else would you have chosen to play in defensive midfield from our squad? Especially with Matic also suspended..

Not to mention the timing of this article....they always put stuff like this out before crunch games.

Depends on the criticism. Criticizing form is one thing, saying that the player has limited ability and should be offloaded is another. You are right when you said Costa got harsh treatment. There were people who said he should have been offloaded as well. I wonder what their opinion is now, based on his form after playing regularly under Hiddink

The players might have deluded themselves into thinking they can go all the way in this competition, which could also explain some of the lax performances in the league. No Drogba this time around, and we don't even have Kalou with his spider haircut.

I hope I can eat my words, but I honestly don't know who we can get (managers or players) to challenge City next season....but then again, our priority might be to just break into the top 6 again. If only he had shown up a season earlier...maybe the boys would have shown up at the start of the season a lot more motivated under Jose and wouldn't have slipped so far down the table.

Well.,.if you were ever wondering what was going on in the player's heads this season..

Real bad time to lose him indeed.... Essien's right knee suffered one freak injury after another if I'm not mistaken...ACL, medial ligament and ACL again....it was the second one that triggered his slow decline and the 3'rd one killed his chances of playing at the highest level

Started poorly in the first 30 mins, but grew into the game afterwards to create more chances. Mikel and Matic in the starting lineup was not needed for this game. Should be used only against teams that are really dominant with possession.

Haha, I swear its only because Mikel and Matic gave him acres of space to operate in the first half to make him look good. EDIT: Just saw Jason's post on Lingard.

Hope they can keep that spirit in the Champions league, because they're gonna need it.

What is the point of starting Matic and Mikel in the match when they both can't even do their intended job of marking Mata out of the game? The Spaniard had acres of space to operate in the whole game. Cowardly lineup against a team that doesn't deserve so much respect when they're playing away from home.

Chelsea and Man Utd have fallen behind their rivals - how do they catch up? Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/12142270/Chelsea-and-Man-Utd-have-fallen-behind-their-rivals-how-do-they-catch-up.html Just some perspective before the game....

Although it doesn't excuse the team from dropping below 16th in the table, I agree with that sentiment. We were definitely not going to challenge for the title based on this transfer window. Its practically the same thing that happened in 2010-2011 after Carlo's double winning season. We became too reliant on Drogba, Anelka and Malouda on replicating the same performances from last season. On the other hand, what happened after our 2004-2005 title win? We went out and got Michael Essien to improve on an already strong squad....no surprise that was our last back-to-back title win.

Bit-part only if we actually get a good replacement, or if Matt Miazga steps up to the challenge (in all seriousness I hope this guy can make it).

Let's hope that at least one of the DM's is on the bench when the match starts!

He's probably going to start Matic and Mikel again in the center....what a bore that would be.

He was probably just trying to imply that even Dave Barnard might have nothing to do with the player transfers...meaning that just because he handles the paperwork for the transfers doesn't mean he is actually responsible for choosing transfer targets or shaping the squad.

See? Useless...more than halfway through the season, and we need to bring him back to full fitness to get anything out of this signing