Blue Armour

MOTM for me was Ramires.... Torres deserves to be commended for his work-rate and playing for his team-mates...Tracked back several times and passed the ball to set up chances..Very similar to Drogba in those aspects... Special mention to Lampard, Cole, Bosingwa (even if his faulty clearance led to the equalizer) and of course, Romeu for composure and effort

Today's performance was all about heart... I want to see more of the same

His fatigue is getting the better of him, but strangely enough he's been the only one running around besides Torres and Ramires

I was referring to the movement of the players...our creativity is poor because Mata is too tired, which leaves only Lampard and Meireles to create half chances... We really should bring in Josh for Raul

I hope we get rid of this zonal marking...it makes us look like a Rafa Benitez side

4-5-1 formations aren't very attack-minded...it just helps keep possession

Fatigue showing. Hope Torres does not fade after starting brightly. AVB has NOTHING much to lose by bringing on McEachran for Raul Meireles. Mata or Cole should also be subbed since they look a bit exhausted

I feel that was due to a lack of creativity at the time, and the absence of Cole+Essien, and the two apes Lucio and Samuels trying to latch onto Drogba....It was one of the few blemishes in his first season with us....but the second season was downright terrible during Nov-Jan months...

Will be curious to see how we play at an away stadium this Monday... I feel the support at SB is still there but as of late it loses patience too quickly, and gets weak when things aren't going their way

Have to agree with that..there seems to be some sort of callousness especially when it comes to facing some of the lesser teams..Like I said in earlier post, the team goes into cruise control when we take the lead and the win looks to be sealed...

Mata is simply overworked and hasn't got the stamina to play the whole 90 mins when fixtures get congested. When he's tired, the team's creativity takes a dip.

Agree with the highlighted part.

Thanks for that....was still feeling hot after the last few mins of the match... Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Wasn't 2012 for the most of us..so don't get too upset..

Before I get started on how horrible we were in attack, I just hope the entire back line gets flogged... How many times should we get 1-0 lead and just throw it away? Its become a recurring theme this season...Can't they hold onto a clean sheet till we score a second? I think a lot of players are taking the matches too casually. 1-0 up at S Bridge and they go into cruise control as if its a routine... Looks like Drogba's recent good run season has halted for the moment...Hope his only replacement Torres can step up...Mata and Cole are getting burned out....

This is exactly why I have been suggesting the use of a 2 man midfield with four attackers (two wide players + two strikers) upfront. Most of the time only the fullbacks and the forwards seem to be involved in the build-up play...

Didn't see the last game but from the goal highlight, I thought Torres did pretty well to set Mata up for the shot.. However I'd feel a lot more comfortable if he had actually scored from the chances he got.. So Didier should be a sure starter for the next game. And of course, Ramires...

Didn't see the match, but I always knew we would somehow screw up our boxing day fixture...Can anyone tell me how well each player performed, please? From what I've heard the Lampard/Meireles midfield hasn't performed to expectations.... This is why I suggested earlier that AVB should just drop both of them because of their inconsistency and play Ramires and Romeu, with four attackers up front, since only those guys and the full-backs seem to be involved in most of the build-up play....

Rooney was also restricted to mostly appearances as a sub around that time...although he did start some of the less important games..Torres has to win his starting role back, but I agree he needs more minutes and appearances than what he's getting now (namely just the last 10-15 minutes of alternate games)

He did pretty well...but if Adebayor were smarter he would have taken advantage of Bosingwa's lack of aerial ability instead of trying to run at Paulo through the wings..

I don't care about the PL title...Now, I would no doubt love to win it this season after all the adversities we've faced, but for now I'm just happy that we're still mathematically in it and our team still has some sort of desire in it, even if the results don't show it. Yesterdays game was proof of that, and it was truly a bloody good game we played. After the opening 30 minutes I thought Spurs were going walk all over us, and I seriously thought our goose was cooked when Ivanovic came off,...but what I saw after that showed me that this team can still achieve something great this season even if it isn't in the form a treble of titles...

I understand what TX is trying to say here... No disrespect to Raul..he's done a pretty decent job after arriving here but that job is what Lampard used to do (and did it even better) when he was in good form..namely the goal scoring runs into the box and spraying passes effortlessly,.. Modric might have well been the missing piece of our midfield puzzle....Its not really the club's or AVB's fault that we didn't get him..Its just unfortunate, considering the dumb spuds regularly bend over for Man Utd when they come along for new players...

Irrespective of Tommy's sentiments I hope we crush some spuds tonight...

The only positives for me from this: 1. The FA's decision will be delayed a bit. 2. This reminded me of how much I wanted to see QPR get relegated again