Blue Armour

It would definitely be a better option than Swansea IMO...I think Steve Clarke has a good understanding of Lukaku and his abilities, and could aid in his progression.

No. Just a lot of people who hate cunts.

And City as well..not that it makes a big difference

Only one Didier Drogba.

This was a good kit:

Just goes to show how many glory-hunting clowns are out there.... Chelsea fans want Mourinho back to bring back success to the club yes, but there are also sentimental reasons behind it.. United have no real connection with the guy, but the media is out to make him look like Old Trafford's prodigal son. Of course, it doesn't help when Mourinho tries his best to flatter SAF and co.

I thought he was: But agree, it could mean nothing in the end.

Like I said in the previous post, I'm not denying how good his performance was. But I can't call him the standout performer when there were so many other players that had as much, if not more, influence on the match and its outcome.

Sorry Choulo, but I find that part a bit ludicrous. In that Match, Bayern had no trouble creating wave upon wave of chances (of course its not entirely Mikel's fault when you have Bosingwa as a full-back) and taking shots at goal. If they had converted one of those, then I don't think anyone would be even talking of Mikel. Make no mistake, Mikel put in an excellent shift...but to call him the standout player just because he was the only Chelsea midfielder able to peform his normal role (which is defend against wave upon wave of attack) is too much. Again regarding Mikel, I'll say it. Right now in our squad, there's no one better than Mikel for the role he plays. And because of that, he remains one of our key players for us. But can we do better than Mikel? Yes. While I hope Mikel can still better himself, I think its more likely that we'll have to invest in another player to improve upon that position.

Its probably the right time.. Only sad thing is unlike Drogba, who wanted to leave (at least that's what it looked like), Lampard yearns for a contract extension.

Meh...I've seen McEachran play for us, and I have a different opinion from that of the fan myself. So yeah.

Mata apparently had a different opinion regarding McEachran... You would take the view of some random fan over Mata's?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

Hmm...wonder whether there'll be a certain Paulo on the team-sheet for one of those games. Could've been worse, I guess.

Kalou, Bosingwa, Meireles.... Ones who didn't? Makele, Essien, Drogba..... I think you'll accept that Mikel has shown inconsistencies in his performances against both weak sides (like Southampton, West Ham) , as well as strong sides (Juventus). While he has improved significantly over the past 3 seasons, he still doesn't look like shaking off that tag of inconsistency. All players can have bad games, but in Mikel's case the next one doesn't seem to be far off. The defensive midfielder is supposed to be one of the most reliable players on the pitch...that's why people have second thoughts about Mikel continuing to be first choice DM for this team.

How appropriate that this match is on fool's day..

FullEnglishBreakfast.

Absoultely true... Its come to the point where we need Mikel AND Ramires to provide any sort of protection to the back 4...In the past all we needed was one Makelele or Essien....

Never thought I'd say this but he has become a cowardly defender...backing off and backing off from his attacker until its too late...

Honestly how selfish can this guy be? I don't believe there's any other explanation... He clearly prioritized the Man utd match over this one..... When you rotate the squad you don't split them into: Weak team for match A and Strong team for the Match B... He dropped every single crucial first team player for this match: Ba, Mata, Hazard, Ramires, Cole and Luiz....and even his subs! He has Benayoun, warming up to be the game changer! Was Mata unable to play even 15 mins of this match? He wasn't involved in any of the international matches....Rafa wanted to save him for the Man Utd game so that he could play at 100 percent.... It looks like Man Utd will only be doing us a favor by knocking us out the cup,...if only to put an end to Rafa's crazy rotation policy

That so....? I wonder then what happened to the former Ballon d'or runner-up, FifPro XI and Uefa team of the year players that used to play for us.... Just because some of the Chelsea "homers" here love their players, doesn't mean they're all biased towards them to the point of ridiculousness. From most of your posts, I guessing for you flair players are more important to football than anything else...

Fail.

The problem with Cahill and Luiz is that the two of them are push-overs...Luiz when it comes to aerial balls, and Cahill when it comes to attackers who try and run at him with the ball.. You pair either one of them with Ivanovic or Terry, you would get better results....But with Ivanovic, you have a defender who goes brain-dead at certain stages of the match (not acceptable for a CB) and in Terry you have a defender who is past his prime, and thus a bit slower and more prone to making errors. Hopefully Ivanovic's recent spell on the bench would have given him enough time to recollect and realize where he went wrong, but until then my first choice CB pairing would be : Terry/Luiz , with Terry/Cahill as backup.

He's 30+ and has a volatile attitude..not an attractive option. He may be a lot better than players who play for us in a similar position, but he's not the type of player we should be going for. Add to that, he supposedly has a price tag in excess of 20m.... Let's just hope this is nothing more than a rumor...