francozola

Not surprising at all. For the whole week, everyone has been going crazy praising us for our last 3 wins. Odds of us winning the PL and CL getting slashed, etc etc. I was expecting this result and this performance. While Jose has indeed gotten loads of things right this season, his continued insistence of the Lampard-Ramires partnership in midfield is absolutely bewildering. There has been no rotation whatsoever (in meaningful games). Everyone has their opinion on Mikel, but imo Mikel-Ramires provides much more balance and stability. Our pivot is nonexistent in too many of our games. The transition happens directly from defense to attack, bypassing the midfield. We're always looking and waiting for one of our attacking midfielders to start something. Lamps has still qualities to offer but no way should he be a guaranteed starter the way he is atm. He should have started less than half of the games he has. It's ridiculous. Now I'm looking to see whether Jose will play Lamps as a starter throughout the season or will he rotate others in. Also, my opinion is that while Mata does have obvious deficiencies when compared to Oscar and Hazard in terms of defensive contribution, the other 2 seem to be untouchable even when they're underperforming. I think Hazard has been poor so far this season. By other player's standards, he has been average. But for a player of his potential and talent, it's a shame. Despite this, he is rarely benched or substituted. Same goes for Oscar. He's been class in many games, but when things don't seem to be working out, he can't get into the game at all. His presence is rendered completely useless and doesn't help the team.

CHOULO19 Link #pray4Jason

Torres is an absolute waste of space. Not even good enough to play for our reserves. Embarrassing player. Luiz and Rambo were good imo. Going forward wise... No plan, no purpose. Oscar looked bright after coming on but then completely disappeared. No impact from Lamps. Hazard tried but was often crowded out. Sigh... Everton played well.

But it's not just about Petr's age.. His injuries mean that most probably his goalkeeping career will be shorter than usual.

Ryan McPartlin

None of us really know how Cech feels about the competition with Courtois, but if it really comes down to sticking with Cech or selling him and replacing him with Courtois, I'd go for the latter option without hesitation. Cech is a proper legend and all but as others have mentioned, Courtois can give us 10-15 years at least (potentially), and Cech has ongoing concerns with his recurring injuries. There's no question in my mind. We can't really be sentimental about it. World-class goalkeepers that can give you that many good years are hard to come by.

Admittedly I've not watched any of Anzhi's games but has anyone who watches them regularly said bad things about Eto'o? Because the few posts that I've read from people who watch the Russian league don't see him as an "average striker" but actually praise him a lot for adapting his style of play despite losing some pace etc. And from some clips (Youtube is not the best source, I know) he still looks good because of his excellent ball control and link-up play.

Liverpool forward Luis Suarez has been the subject of huge criticism in Peru for his antics in Friday night's game between Peru and Uruguay. Uruguay were 1-0 up through a Suarez penalty when Yotun Flores tried to tackle the Kop favourite from behind in first-half stoppage time. The forward went to ground easily, starting an on-field melée before Yotun was inexplicably sent off for violent conduct. The Uruguayans went on to win 2-1 , virtually ending any realistic chances that Peru had of qualifying for next summer's World Cup in Brazil. http://youtu.be/-JUOBSzWgJshttp://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpools-luis-suarez-angers-peru-2261845

I'd like to ask something random, lol. Why are there so many matches on Monday nights nowadays? I don't remember there being this many til just a few years ago. I mean there would be a couple on Mondays, but it definitely wasn't as frequent as it is right now. What is the reason for this? I can't figure out which 'market' this is aimed at. The matches are at 8pm UK time which means it's the middle of the night in Asia, so no one there would bother to wake up unless it involves a team they support. It would be the middle of the day in North/South America so everyone's at work. Is it for the African market or something? I get that it's a "brand" type thing with Sky's special "Monday Night Football" schedule but wouldn't they be getting more viewers (not just internationally, but in the UK as well) by just having the match on a Sunday afternoon? Pardon the silly question lol

at this thread Wish all the moaning and relentless arguing would stop. For my part, I do admit to getting irritated sometimes with the gifs, but honestly as I mentioned before, it's much better now as compared to during the off-season. I personally don't see any problem with the Pub thread. The constant bickering is just insufferable though and that's what makes visiting the forums less enjoyable. If you guys have a problem with one another, resolve it via PMs please. Or better still, just put the other person on your fucking ignore list.

Hmm. I think that the "like" feature has exacerbated many of the problems that are being discussed right now. With regards to the gif-posting too, on many occasions, they seem to be posted to get more likes (I'm not accusing anyone in particular, just generally). It can also lead to competition, jealousy, etc. Anyone think maybe we should remove the feature for a month or so and see if things get better?

I agree with this suggestion... Sometimes members are posting stupid gifs to make posts that are meaningless in my opinion. Or the same message could have been put across by just a few words/a sentence. I think it's better now though. It was much worse a few months back where some threads were a torture to get through.

This is a brilliant loan for him in my opinion. He'll do great there. Also, when will people realize that scoring 17 goals for West Brom does not automatically mean that he can do that at Chelsea too?! When you play for a team like WBA, you're going to have more space to work with and more lanes to run into. When you play for Chelsea, most teams sit back for 90mins, put 10 men behind the ball and try to cram everything. It's not the same thing at all. It is painfully clear that Romelu is still a very, very raw player. I obviously wish that we had him here instead of the utter hopeless nightmare that is Torres but we're going to be stuck with Torres and we need to accept that. It's not fair but it's the reality.

50 million today is worth about 25-30 million in 2005 though due to the inflation of player prices. In those days, splashing out 25 million on one player was a huge deal.

lol, very interesting comments by Jose. It's kind of staggering how candid and blunt he has been about this whole situation from the start.

People complaining about it being a boring match and "never getting those 90mins back" have probably never watched Chelsea under Jose before? What the fuck? Plus I didn't think the match was that boring. Sure, I get that there were very, very few chances and both teams weren't exactly going gung-ho for the win. But from a Chelsea fan's perspective, I don't think I'd ever be bored watching us play Utd. I'd be disappointed with the overall quality but not really "bored"

Whilst I am not defending or talking about the subs/team selection, I feel that this early on in the season, where the attacking players have not gelled yet and we still don't have a proper striker (Lukaku has not played with our team, so we really do not know anything for certain), it may not have been the worst mindset in the world to get a draw. If this match had been played 4-6 weeks later, I'm sure we would have been more adventurous.

Wow at some of the posts on here. I'm quite satisfied with everything! We were decently solid throughout the match. The pivot wasn't very good but that was to be expected. We clearly just came to get a draw and maybe nick a goal if possible which didn't happen. But I thought we defended superbly! Comparing the organization to the one we've seen in the last 2 years under AVB and RDM especially, this was very good. I fully get why Jose approached this the way he did. 2 wins and a draw out of the first 3 matches is a very steady start indeed. Gets the Utd match out of the way too. There was no real desperate need to "impose" ourselves to get the win to prove a point to anybody. If we had been more offensive and lost the match, the pressure would've been instantly on Jose and the players. We would start getting criticized for small things. Any signings we make would be seen as "desperate measures" etc. Instead now we've calmly gotten this match out of the way without any hoo-ha at all and can carry on with the rest of our transfer business

Surely not.......

LOL how did some of these even get selected

Mata has not been "on the bench a lot". Given the crazy amount of football he's played in the last 12-14 months it's understandable that he was given more time off and isn't fully fit atm. Seriously... need to stop believing what the papers write. There has been absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Jose does not fancy Juan Mata. He has not said anything to even hint that he feels this way. Ever since he returned, the papers said that Jose doesn't like Mata and everyone just believed it. When he was obviously given more time off due to his participation in the confeds cup, the papers start coming up with more crap, despite the fact that the other players who played in that tournament were given the exact same amount of time off. Jesus. I'm not saying that he definitely won't be sold. Just that people need to calm the heck down until there are some actual quotes from Jose or Mata himself. Edit: Quotes by Mata on the official website: "After having four weeks of holiday for the first time in as long as I can remember, it was very hard to come back from almost nothing to 100 per cent. I think that's why I had some muscle pain during that time."

Don't see why this has to mean Mata is off to Utd. Im just waiting for Jose's press conference now. Hopefully he will once again strongly reiterate that Juan isn't going to be sold.

Big big chance for him today but he was absolutely woeful. Can't see Jose giving him many more opportunities, especially since Lukaku did well.

That is true about drogba, but during the many times when we were drawing or losing a match, and drogba was on the pitch, I can bet you that every single Chelsea fan had faith that he would come up with some chances for himself and save our asses. And he did on so very many occasions. My memory is terrible and I can't list individual matches but I'm sure you remember. How about the Hull match the last time they played at Stamford Bridge when drogba scored two goals (including the winner in stoppage time) o win us the match?Do you have the same faith in torres? I certainly don't. I don't even expect him to score anymore. When he scores a goal, it's a surprise to me and I exclaim to myself "wow, torres scored." Is that normal? Lol

I haven't been posting much lately. How are you all doing??