francozola

oh god I only got to see him play in his last few years at Bolton. Always liked him, great professional and seemed like a great guy RIP

True, true. I'm curious to see how he would behave in a bad time. So far he has only had a half season of first team action at Bolton and a half season here and has thrived in both.

OT but is there a bigger version of that? Would love to have it as my wallpaper

Confidence, arrogance, whatever. I just love his attitude.

Agreed. Sturridge and Mata should be the first names on the team sheet

Showing signs of improvement. Lets see how he does in a hostile environment next week - that's if he plays.

If they beat us with their kids we'll never hear the end of it

I think he did well considering he can't run anymore. It's painfully obvious that his legs are gone. He did put himself about a bit and was involved in the team's passing. Did fuck up a few moves but on the whole it was a positive performance, especially considering what we've seen from him in the last 18 months. Probably agree that he was 'one of the least effective' though. But I think on a day like today, that's by no means a terrible thing because most players played well.

Thought Drogba did well today but it's astonishing how much he has physically deteriorated. He just can't run anymore. It was obvious today because for the first time in over a year he's actually been interested whilst on a pitch. So far this season he's just been strolling about, not giving a fuck. The run for Mata's goal..... The old Drogba would have just charged at the defender and would have knocked him on his ass and powered a finish into the top corner. Also really evident in our counter attacks in the 2nd half where he didn't even bother to run, just dropped deep and passed the ball on. I'm not criticizing. Just commenting on how much he has deteriorated. But I appreciate the effort he showed today

Will try and donate next month, but well done everyone!

That yellow card today was so OBVIOUSLY done purposefully, so that he would be suspended for the Liverpool CC game (which he wasn't going to play in, anyway) and the yellows would be wiped out. It was absolutely ridiculous 1) JT never takes throw ins 2) he just seemed to stand there not even bothering to fake it

I thought Ramires was awesome, so went for him Sturridge had some great runs, and Mata involved in great build up play, but Ramires, for me, was just excellent all around the pitch

So happy Romeu is finally getting a start in the Prem

Official lineup Cech Ivanovic JT Luiz A. Cole Romeu Ramires Meireles Sturridge Drogba Mata Subs: Turnbull, Bosingwa, Mikel, Lamps, Malouda, Kalou, Torres Still no Torres, something goin' on behind the scenes perhaps Anyway happy with the lineup, best we could hope for I guess (apart from Torres)

Frank on the bench!

Hmm well Drogba changed games. Makelele dictated games. A DM's job is the control the pace of the game and/or to stop opposition's attacks. Mikel has done neither of the two that fantastically, IMO If we had had a better DM after Makelele, we would have been a better team and a more successful one.

Maybe, but even if he had done what you said, he wouldn't have reached his potential as a kid. He could have become a world-class attacking midfielder, but he's now just an above-average DM. He has played some great games, but overall I would say he has been a good player, nothing fantastic at all. And no, a few goals/more assists wouldn't have changed my mind.

If I see the midfield combination of Ramires-Mikel-Lampard starting, I'll punch someone.

In hindsight, he should never have been converted to a DM.

It's sickening to watch videos like the one Artinho posted above. Just sickening.

Nope no worries. I realized my stupidity immediately after posting all those things when a couple of the people I "attacked" replied me and explained themselves. That bradthelegend or whatever had really wound me up with his nonsensical posts.

yeh I got carried away on Wednesday, apologies. I spoke to the two or three people afterwards and understood that they weren't being torres fangirls/boys. It was just the frustration getting to me. There may not be any Torres fangirls/boys here but other social networks (facebook, twitter, tumblr) are full of them and they're unbelievably annoying. A lot of them are the same people that add Chelsea, Liverpool & Man Utd all as "teams they support"

The most pathetic gesture imo was the way they played against Newcastle and Everton at the very end. Most people knew that it was likely Carlo was going to get the sack at the end of the season. And instead of giving him a proper "send off" for lack of a better term they hardly gave 10% effort in both games and when both results and performances didn't go our way, you could tell that they didn't even give a fuck. I was so disappointed by that Newcastle performance. It was our final home game, immediately after the Utd loss and I just wanted the boys to give 100% and win by a couple of goals and a convincing performance so that there would be something to cheer about and everyone could have their lap of honour with a smile on their faces and end the season on a high and basically wave Carlo goodbye.

Kyle Walker is definitely the best English fullback. Can't see him wanting to leave Spurs in the foreseeable future though

He still made a couple of "defense splitting" passes only problem was Drogba gave it away immediately lol but I very much prefer the role he played yesterday. AVB has obviously told him to cut certain things out