Blue Armour

I think he's probably getting back to his level towards the end of last season...nothing spectacular but at least solid. We definitely need a replacement for him sooner, but for the time being he seems to have put his early season form (where he would crumble on sight of a running winger) behind him.

When is he expected to return?

That explains our starting line-up's. He must definitely be doing it to get under the skin of some of the members here.

Agreed, the sad truth is there's probably no perfect coach for the brand of football everyone hopes to play at a consistent level. We can definitely do a lot better than we are doing right now, but even someone like Klopp cannot maintain the level of consistency needed in this league. Liverpool are play absolutely scintillating stuff in some games, and still come undone in others such as against Crystal Palace and Newcastle (granted they are missing their best player in Coutinho atm.)

Still low on confidence...players like him and Willian are the ones we are relying on up front atm, and their decision making is too slow to genuinely pose a threat to a well drilled defense. Willian was always slow in his decision making, but Hazard is playing well below his normal level.

I don't know what's worse...the fact that he failed to put the right cross when there was a good chance, or the fact that when he finally put in a good cross today every attacking player near it failed to connect with it.

Shows how not getting the right CM in the summer is costing us big time. For a couple of matches there was a mini resurgence, with Fabregas and Matic some resemblance of form. Then when we play teams like Tottenham and Bournemouth that press...Fabregas disappears. Also, dropping Costa for a match to send him a message is one thing, but opting to leave the only other recognized striker in Remy on the bench for this match is another.

Definitely not great...but horrible and no end product? I distinctly remember the cross he gave to Hazard (which he headed over the bar), which was one of the best chances in the first half, as well the half chance he created for himself where he shot at their keeper.

Honestly with all the shit that's happened this season, I think fans should just let this one blow over and let it sort itself on its own. Just when things seem to be on the way up, we don't need another thing to bog it down again. Even though his attitude may have been nowhere near as bad, Drogba himself has done stuff that did more damage on the pitch than this would have. Stuff that is rightfully not given much importance these days, in comparison to his great acheivements. I feel that Costa's antics should also fall under that category

Well he got rid of his beard today. So maybe that's a start for change?

Probably needs to get rid of his Captain Haddock beard. For some strikers its their golden hair, for him I think its his beard.

Begovic is a really good keeper, but yeah, I agree that Courtois is one incredible get-out-of jail card that the Chelsea defense really needs these days...something that only keepers like Cech and Courtois can provide

What did it say? It seemed logical at the time because Baba was, and still is, adapting to the pace of the PL, so he continued with Azpilicueta on the left when Hazard was playing. Granted, Zouma turned out to be a flop in RB, but there's a reason why Baba did not immediately slot in. Baba performed well in a couple of games and finally earned his chance with a start against Stoke. And then what happened? Lost his man for their goal, and did almost nothing to support the attack in that match.

Sad, with confidence low, we did need that little bit of luck, and after Pedro's shot hitting the post, the writing was on the wall. Still happy how the lads kept going till the end. The biggest plus for me was seeing Hazard playing with such great tempo and finesse today. We really need him at his best to make this team tick.

I think there is a very good chance that board will invest heavily this Jan, one reason to mend the squad, and with the other reason being that its a fail-safe.

The words from Gary Neville were of more interest to me. He actually sounds like the 'supporter' in our forum, especially from 7:40 onwards Doesn't really say it explicitly, but he sounds more pained about Chelsea's current situation

Just a little confession. I understand the points made by many such as Styles and lionsden about how we are sacrificing many qualities, such as our style of play and youth integration in exhange for sentimentality, and most of the points they and others make are perfectly valid. We are not seeing any semblance of a footballing philosophy or too many young players breaking into the first team, but to me and I mean this strictly from a personal perspsective, qualities such as those are secondary when it comes to Chelsea. Yes, given a choice, I would love for us to play the football with slick passing and plenty of possession as opposed to counter attack, as well as integrate the team with real potential such as De Bryune or RLC, but there are somethings that go beyond that. Soul. I don't come from England, and am not born a Chelsea fan, but I've become a fan by watching the best that Chelsea had to offer, from the quality of Zola, the exploits of Drogba, Lampard and Terry, the double with Carlo (who can forget the 103 goal season?), RDM and his CL win, the list goes on..its these memories that make me keep coming back for more. If I just wanted to support a team or a club that had all the footballing qualities that almost eveyone desires from a team, then there are many other clubs that check those boxes. Yes, in the end, football is a results business and sentimentality cannot come in the way for too long, and it won't in this case either. However Mourinho is a part of the history and those memories that I talked about earlier, and I'm hesitant to let it go on a whim.

Well, I trust Cech , Drogba , Lampard , Cole, Ballack to turn things around no matter who the manager is, even if its an interim. Can you say the same about Oscar and Baba?

Make arguments if you want, but please don't try to pass pseudo stuff as fact. The only clubs where he has been 3 years at least are Chelsea and Madrid. And no, they did not implode during that time. Our matches have been mostly embarrassing this time around, but this so-called '3rd season syndrome' is one of the many things used to blow the situation ridiculously out of proportion.

^ True that On a side, I'm just glad Mourinho gave the media the silent treatment. I'm not trying to find excuses for Mourinho or the players, but the way the media works in this country is that they like to aggravate a problem to generate more problems... Why else would they come up with crap headlines like "Hazard hasn't scored in the last x games..." I mean he's a winger ffs,..and then they proceed to try and widen the rift between manager and player(s).

I guess there was still a lesson left for Drogba to teach him last season...

We nearly reached their quality last season, but this season they went on to spend another ~ 80 million to improve theirs, while we did nothing for ours.

Good to hear that there are no complaints about his defending in this game. I sincerely hope this was a test run for the weekend game.

The papers are oddly in overdrive considering Mourinho never spoke a word to them after the match. Coincidence?

Should have kept his head today, especially when the players were losing theirs. Aside from that, can't criticize him or the players. Unlike the Southampton match, they at least kept fighting till the last minute. Without Ramires miscuing his shot, we could have even had one of the most memorable comebacks in recent history. Next three games are most likely going to decide the outcome of Chelsea's season, and Mourinho's future with the club.