Blue Armour

Great result, but i'll find it funny if people start thinking the Mikel-Ramires pivot is the way forward. It worked today against a team that was happy to sit back (and still counter well btw,).There will be games in which we will need to someone to distribute the ball well from the center. Torres, despite failing again in front of goal, played pretty decent and was a good outlet for his team-mates. I'm still waiting for Sturridge to be given a start though. Hopefully Moses and Marin will become our solution to our problems out wide. They both seem well capable of doing that.

Even if Sturridge is (and always has been) my preferred CF for us this season, I think the critcism aimed at Torres for his performances this season so far, is a bit OTT. I take it most of you are disappointed with apparent lack of productivity against Juventus. But the fact is he was up against 3 CB's that are part of one of the best defensive lineups out there. Any world class striker would struggle. Plus its not as if he was totally uninvolved. He did try his best to help with the attacking play (even though its obviously not his strength)

If Sturridge is fit, I hope he get's a start. Its been a long time coming...

I hope selling Meireles and loaning out Essien, means a certain Marouane coming in Jan..!

He was injured. Hopefully he'll start against Stoke.

Today both Terry and Mikel were at fault for the second... But whereas Terry made a mistake, Mikel just casually gave away the ball and hardly made an attempt to stop the attack which it led to. Sloppy from him.

Yeah, our result was no less than we deserved. Shame about their equalizer. Mikel needs to be rotated with Oriol..Its impossible to expect him to perform without mistakes against quality opposition.

Robbie will be making a mistake if he relies on Mikel for all remaining matches. He WILL have off-days like this again. Time to give Romeu more playing time.

I just hope we don't set up to defend..not at home..not just to get a result.

Or it could be because they realize we have a real gem on our hands and that we wouldn't give him up so easily!

Torres has a decent record against the Italians, as seen from the Euros. As much as I prefer Sturridge to start (because of his ability to drop deep and set up attacks), I'd like to see how the Spaniard fares against the Italian champions. Hopefully he can get some kind of service though...

Also I'd like to think what Lampard could have done against Pirlo during the Euro's, instead of Parker and Gerrard. Another battle to look forward to in midfield.

I don't really care about the tactics...Just really excited about this game. If I'm correct, we're the last team they faced in the last champion's league they played. Torres had a good outing against the Italian defence (although a man down) during the Euro's, and hopefully we'll see more of the same. Hopefully Sturridge also gets to play a part tomorrow.

There are too many weird celebrations to think of, but I remember my reaction to Drogba's goal against Napoli, when I refused to celebrate. I was almost repeating to myself aloud: "Job's not done yet..."

I honestly don't know what to make of Torres' fit of rage when being subbed. What you have to remember though is when a player shows anger, it doesn't meant that its necessarily directed towards the manager.

For now I'll just assume he's trying to "bed in" the more youthful members of the squad as slowly as needed....Otherwise there would be no reason for him to start with both Ramires and Bertrand in midfield against a team like QPR You must remember that he beat a similar team 6-0 at home last season. I feel in due time, he will be having Oscar, Marin, Sturridge and Mata starting regularly. My real concern is what happens when we face bigger, faster teams. Our double pivot, which is the most integral part of his 4-2-3-,1 needs to be sorted out or dropped altogether

Dull match. Positive about us is we've kept the ball, haven't given them a good chance to score, and a couple of penalty shouts. Downside...hardly enough creativity. Don't like the fact that Ramires AND Bertrand have to be deployed in the wings against a team like QPR.

Just hope Ji Sung Park doesn't turn up like he usually does against us...

He can't do much wrong by playing alongside a midfield destroyer like Mikel or Essien. But then again, he won't be able to do much good either. His passing range is decent but not great. And we won't be able to use his pace on the counter.

I don't know for sure whether we'll have another captain like Terry, Lampard or Gerrard. To have someone like that, the player should be one of the first names on the teamsheet. Always. To become someone like that, its not just about having the ability, but its about performing consistently to set an example to fellow players. From the current crop its a bit too early to decide who has those attributes. Then there's the question of character, but I'm not part of the Chelsea dressing room so...

Clearly Mikel wasn't critcizing Lampard. He was just talking about his own defensive duties. But you're right in saying Lampard has made too many forward runs ( pushing well into the opposition d-box in some of the recent games), leaving Mikel isolated in the counter-attacks. Lampard did do well in the recent England game though, and his runs yielded results. But how often do we play teams like Moldova, who hardly put pressure on the midfield?

True...If anything, we've done Paulo a favour by allowing him to play...much better than sitting on the bench and watching Ivanovic and Cesar do the rounds...

Ramires on the wing...I hope not!

Anyway...what's done is done. Hopefully Lyon will come calling in Jan, and that move will finally happen. Even if what the club did was wrong, its not like Malouda could have contributed much with the amount of attacking talent ahead of him.