CHOULO19

How many matches of theirs did you watch this season?

He's right, though. We were out-sung by less than 2000 QPR fans. Honestly couldn't hear any chants from our lot at any time in the first half.

Cesc, MOTM for me. I thought he was excellent throughout the match and even showed more energy and mobility than previous games. Played some really brilliant balls especially in the first half. Hazard close second. Great game from him and he was a real bright spark in our attack. Costa was obviously no where near 100% though from the start. And just looked more tired and tired as the game went on. Oscar, despite the goal wasn't particularly great in the first half, imo. Miss placed too many passes for my liking. It was his mistake tonight. He has no business palming the ball to there. Generally looked nervy throughout the second half.

Thank you, Vargas. Would have really struggled for the winner otherwise.

Sorry, but this is just physically impossible!

How have we not scored yet?

Newcastle, who had only won a single match this season just beat all of Spurs and City away and Liverpool at home on the trot!

This is truly great striker's instinct from Higuain. Much much harder than it looks: Brilliant excuse for not trying to be not crap for the rest of your lives and still being able to say that it's not your fault!

I think you put that exactly right: "Chelsea is currently one of the hardest sides to play against in the continent." But that's not what I'm talking about at all, I'm talking about quality. City have more quality than us but we are favorites for the tittle and have been so since day one. That's because there are a lot more factors involved than quality like the manager, experience, 'balls' as Jose would say...etc. Gladbach play some really high quality football at times and that's because they have quality players. Like I said in the post on the previous page they lack a killer instinct and the ability to deal with teams defending in numbers, but their quality on the ball and especially the movement of their players is that of a top team. The reason I'm talking about quality alone and not the general ability of a team to beat another team is because we are talking about the ability of Thorgan to make the step up to a team like Chelsea and I think that that depends mostly on the quality in the team he was in than the other factors. If he can get into Gladbach, then he's not very far away from being able to get into Chelsea.

Pretty straight forward team with no surprises.

I'd agree that the Bundes Liga is rather poor, but it's not that black or white, imo. The bottom teams are frankly terrible. But there are good teams like Gladbach and Wolfsburg for example. I think Gladbach would easily be be challenging for top 4 here in the PL for example. Not at all far behind us in terms of quality.

I think City will get a fairly comfortable win against united. Good teams don't stay down for long.

Cesc is intelligent enough to play without getting a yellow card.

One year ago you would have been saying the exact same thing but with the complete opposite choice in mind!

Actually I think he was already injured but RDM risked him "a la Simone". Very bad decision by Robbie if true.

Tell that to Bayern Munich and the German NT...... Do you have a relevant point to make? Because it seems you're only making provocations and nothing that actually adds to the discussion.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x291k72_mourinho-costa-is-available-hd_sport

Hey, Zouma is on there. You're not allowed to support anyone else!

Obviously Eden is much more talented. His natural ability on the ball is matched by very very few in the world. But I honestly think that Thorgan now is a more all-rounded player than Eden was at his age. It hard to compare because of the different styles. I can see Thorgan developing into a box-to-box central midfielder or a number 10. I think he'd have a better chance of making it here.

I wouldn't put my money on United taking points off City. It just seems like a perfect situation for City to get back on track. Top teams don't lose form for large periods. They're due a performance and win.

*phew* Still, we should make sure that his 5th yellow 'happens to be' before a game were we can afford to rest him.

How many yellow cards does he have? Is he on 4 already like Cesc? Can't afford to lose him against Liverpool.

To the people saying he can never be a Chelsea starting XI player, how much of Gladbach have you seen this season? They are not AT ALL far behind us. They're second in the Bundes Liga and have not lost any matches in any competitions this season. They're playing some excellent football. Imo, they are just lacking the killer instinct and the ability to break down teams that defend deep (what Jose would call "balls") to be a really top team. They're certainly better than many teams in the CL this season including all 3 of the teams in our group. Granted, Thorgan is not a starter for them yet (hopefully the goal mid-week earns him another start in their next match), but he's not far off at all. He comes on in almost every match and starts in the cup and the EL. I have no idea why people would want to write him off when he clearly has talent and room for development.

I think people are forgetting how dreadful he was at united. I honestly don't think he'll adapt well to the league or the team for that matter. I get that we need to sign a CB in the next two windows, and I get why Pique would seem like a great choice: He's experienced, won literally everything and is homegrown. But I just think he would be a huge risk.

Only on TalkChelsea would a match thread get turned into counseling for thehappyone's girl troubles!