Blue Armour

A lot of people want Bane as RB. While he's solid he doesn't really have it all his way against fast pacy wingers and of course Rooney who moves from side to side. Remember the Community Shield clash two years ago, when Nani cut in and scored the opening goal? Plus Bane has been in CB this whole time. Now's not a good time to change I think if Bosingwa can keep up this good form, he should be the one there. As long as he keeps his concentration and doesn't bomb forward too much he should do a decent job

Shame...after the last league match against Wigan, I thought he might just be getting back to his best. And then a few weeks later...gone. To be fair, he did mention Chelsea in that interview, when he was talking about initiation songs... Maybe he didn't ask about the club because of his tiff with the administration. I have no sympathy because he left on his own terms, but didn't he claim that he left because of the politics or something? He said he would reveal more info later. It may have been just for getting more wages on his contract but was that all? Anyways, Joe Cole's in the past...hopefully he can secure a regular starting role without breaking down any time soon.

Let's not fly off the handle here. Is it ok to have faith in him, especially after his latest performance. But it's unfair to shower excess praise just because he's Fernando Torres, No.9 for Chelsea/Spain etc...He's trying, just as others (Lampard, Malouda, Anelka, etc) to get back into his groove, but don't point the spotlight on him yet. Right now, the only the signings who deserve such adulation are Mata and Meireles who have actually reinvigorated the team,

Its nothing new...scoring from all over the pitch and all that? What's worrying is that our forwards don't have the majority of those goals...but then again there's been a lot of rotation up front so...

Good to see there's a nice distribution among the votes for the players for the past 2 matches...definitely a good indication... Players who stood out for me: Mata, Torres, Sturridge, Luiz and Cech(solid, but made some important saves to prevent them from taking the lead while it was 0-0) Also special mention to Cech's opposite number; thwarted us on a number of occasions

Either you haven't understood what I meant, or you just don't know what you're talking about

Guys, guys don't worry about the media and their cynicism... You know what match is coming up this weekend...., they don't want to dampen the mood right?

Yep along with Lukaku

I thought he already was, and his crosses are actually decent although he should refrain from crossing at every opportunity Agree on the mistakes, but Raul and Mata were obviously a bit tired coming in... Favourites from this match: Petr Cech saving from Michael Ballack (at least his return to the bridge has something for everyone to talk about) Luiz back in business Two-assist Torres, who I'm sure has two words to give to the haters in the media.

Yeah, absolutely love how they illuminate that place on the outside. It'll be nice to see how they whip that place up for the final.

Yeah, I've said it before...Lampard at 33 needs a lot more games to get back to high speed. He's only going to improve with each game which is a good thing. Hopefully todays CL match will see some squad rotation though...

Sometimes it takes a little spice to make the match more interesting

I honestly don't know why the fans are over-reacting especially after AVB gave reasons as to why he dropped him. I'm not a Torres fan, but I think a lot of people are over-reacting after the last game. With two of the main performers in Mata and Sturridge being taken out during the game, I wasn't expecting much after that. I believe Torres hardly had a sniff of the ball. AVB made it clear he wants to get the the rest of the team playing good football and creating chances first. ( ATm, its obvious less than half the squad is playing at its best). This will make it easier for Fernando to slot in and benefit from that. It makes it easier for him to regain form. Remember 09-10 when the team played superb no matter who came in (Deco, Belleti, Mikel,Cole,etc) to replace the player that was injured/suspended?

Yes... really... If you're still confused I'll elaborate. Form matters when it comes to the player, but in a game of football anything can happen. Example: Man Utd 1999. They won the treble. Was unbeaten till they came to the bridge to lose 5-0

I'm just glad that we're getting this fixture over so early in the season...its almost like getting the first leg away in the Champions league

Agains't all the top teams? We've won matches against Utd, City, Spurs and Arsenal last season..and did the double over rest of the original top 4 before that... Now this has nothing to do with the match coming up this weekend, as form counts for little in football, but do you have to spout portents of doom in all your posts?

He wan't magnificient I agree. Sturridge will get the occasional goal and assist but its too much to ask him to propel us towards any trophy.., I'm afraid that we'll continue to be in United/City's shadow this season unless one of our CF starts scoring regularly

No. I'd say it was much better than expected considering we had a new signing play in a role that was unorthodox to him, and also considering more than half the squad had just returned after a busy week of internationals. What made it look like unconvincing was the fact that we hadn't scored enough. We should have but unfortunately the CF's who have to take on majority of the goalscoring responsibility haven't exactly hit top form like the Rooney's and Aguero's... As for the Man Utd game, we are more than capable of coming away with a draw which is probably the best you can expect against a team that is playing at such a high level atm.

So many contenders!. Meireles, Mata, Terry and Cole stood out today... Sturridge while not at his best for periods in the match, however had a hand in both goals today: His cross to pick out Terry for his goal, as well as the innovative finish for our second

The appropriate topic would be, how do you stop them from scoring? I feel a 0-0 draw would be an excellent result at Old Trafford, if we can guarantee a home win later. Now, its unlikely AVB will set our team out to defend,. United, even as good as they are, can get frustrated if our midfield can press and move the ball as quickly as it did in the Sunderland game. Our defence is good but it needs to be more consistent in order to prevent cheap goals. We could get punished by their forward line for our mistakes... ATM the main advantage the two Manc teams have is that their CF's , Rooney and Aguero are in great form. Although Sturridge looks like scoring any time, I feel we need our CF, whether it be Drogba orTorres, needs to start scoring at least occasionally, even if it isn't for a 30-goal haul by the end of the season So I feel our defence will need to have an A-game, and our midfield should harry them for possession as much as possible if we need to come away with any points

For those moaning about Torres, don't worry...AVB's plan is to get the team playing good football first..Makes it easier for Torres to come in and improve his performances...

Don't be so sure, they're already referring to our "Unbeaten start to the season", and are probably start talking it up come Sunday... Nice to see AVB getting his tactics to work... For those moaning about Torres, don't worry...AVB's plan is to get the team playing good football first..Makes it easier for Torres to come in and improve his performances...

He wasn't talking about Torres in particular....He's just asking how you can be biased towards one player, and criticize another

Don't understand why Lampard is drawing so much flak...He was involved in lot of the pressing and movement in midfield which looked fantastic with Meireles and his quick passing..lot of runs into the box by Mata, Ramires , Cole and Lampard..brilliant stuff.. Torres should have added the 3'rd goal by squaring it to Ramires...

Man...our crossing was so good in that match...almost all of them were pin-point....