Blue Armour

Alex was no longer interested in us...that makes nearly any option better than him

Lol...guess that's why Drogba never cuts his hair

I think so too. As of late he's been forced to play nearly the whole 90 mins of every game, unlike how AVB used him as the start of the season

Agree with that. Lukaku despite his size is very fast, even faster than Drogba at his peak. If he can learn to turn the defender inside out like Didier does, there will be no stopping him....

Bosingwa defends like this: With his back facing the attacking winger

There's a big IF regarding Essien... If Essien were to return to 100%, then I would remove Romeu, Ramires and Mikel and just play two attacking mids in front of Michael in the 4-3-3. This is because he can be the shield, and also bring the ball out of defense quickly. We don't yet know in what capacity he has returned, and that's why we're in this dilemma. Ever since his previous injury, he seems to have lost some of the tenacity to break up attacks and win the ball back. That's part of the reason why we used to concede possession so cheaply last season. Like Jaimin said, Essien can't just walk back into the starting 11 without proving himself. The same would go for Gary Cahill. Him and Terry should have a good understanding from the England games, but the defense doesn't revolve only around the centre-backs. Also, its not fair to write off Luiz just because there's another option.

I noticed how quickly he got back into "the groove"...A lot of his passing was forward, rather than the sort of sideways passing that you can expect from a player trying to get back on his feet..Went for the ball, and also had a chance on goal... However it was only for the last few minutes of one game, and is still yet to exhibit the sort of pressing and drive we've come to expect from him...So I'd wait for another couple of games before judging him completely.

Loved to see Essien back on the pitch and seemingly back in business, BUT..... Its indeed funny when a player who was out of action for more than 6 months can return to the pitch with 20 mins left to play,( and we're desperately holding onto a 1-0 lead) while McEachran couldn't even get a minute in more than 90% of our PL games..

Phil Toad...same useless character from the Man Utd game

Even if they lose the media will go on abt how Scholsey tried to save them

Then we're definitely going to win tonight!

Man....Drogba was such a powerhouse back then...

Also true...In that sense Drogba is also a good dribbler... Joe Cole's was also pretty good and had a good flow, but nowhere near as fast as Robben's

Surprised no-one mentioned Malouda or McEachran...Flo was pretty good when he was in form and he was sure of what he was doing unlike Robinho who did pointless step-overs... So Robben and Malouda... From the current crop I would go for Sturridge and Josh...

If there had been a bid then he would have said "he's an interesting player" or something along those lines... He's very frank in his interviews. If he says the club hasn't made an approach then its very likely they haven't considered signing Hazard yet.

I think we've done you enough favors this season by beating the Toons at SportsDirect arena

Might be a change from buying a 50m pound out-of-form player...

If your suggestion was to pair him with another striker, that would be fine, since he has shown a capacity for link-up play...but as pure attacking midfielder? No.. Torres needs to be in his best position, which is upfront...free from any defense related duties and the responsibility of orchestrating the team's build-up play

Please tell me that this thread was intended to be a joke...

Yeah that quote Ollie put up is incomplete...he said that "Chelsea wouldn't want to let go of their best players" The part about second rate players was in response to another question, indicating that he wouldn't go into the market just for the sake of buying someone..

Lol...but I think he was just moving away to block a potential cross actually...

^Well said... People are forgetting how easy it is for people like Frank (who still has time left on his contract) to sit on his arse and earn a fat paycheck...He's just being ambitious by saying he would like more minutes... Its not as if he's getting into a brawl with the manager and other players to get his starting role back..

What's that supposed to mean? AVB chose Drogba at the time, because during that period Didier's level of play was far superior to what Torres had....

Speaking of wages, remember the news that was going around the start of last season? There were rumours of Roman doing away with all the performance related bonuses...it was around the time we were scoring in 6's and 4's per match, and then Wilkins was fired and our slide began.

The two things I wish he still had in his game are his long diagonal passes, and the shots from outside the box...at least the goals are still there, and that's still a good bonus for our team