CHOULO19

Like I said, he'll be up for it because of what happened at WHL. So he'll either win us the game or get a red card. But since he was up for it and got a red card at WHL, there's a bigger probability that he'll win us the game this time

Torres'll have a bone to pick with Vertongen. And we know that he's our best striker when he's actually up for a match.

Wouldn't change a thing from today's lineup except maybe Willian for Oscar.

Not just for the goal, Iva had what from view was one of the worst performances I've ever seen him put in in a Chelsea shirt that match and won MOTM!!

I completely get why Willian, and Oscar for that don't pop up in the final third as much as we'd like because of their defensive duties and the fact that Jose wants his number 10 to drop deep to receive the ball and create triangles with the pivot and the fullbacks, but what I do criticize Willian for and have been doing so from the start of the season is that when he does get there, his decision making in the final third and that final ball is, imo, below average. Most of the times, he seems to pick the wrong pass or wait to long to play it and the chance would be gone, or pass when he should shoot or vice versa...etc. It's not just him, though. That's been the story of our season so far with all of our of AMs and strikers. Obviously, Hazard is a bit better than the rest, but still, all 8 players really need to improve in that aspect. That's (partially) why I disagree when people say we're one great striker from being one of the best teams in Europe, because I think for that to happen, our AMs need to improve on their decision making and chance creating in the final third as well.

Well, that was random...

Not to mention that Benteke and Agbonlahor completely dominated our defense in the reverse fixture.

Villa away as well. They were the better side in the game at the Bridge and we only won with a huge help from the ref (not sending Iva off) and the lino not spotting the offside for the winner.

Couldn't agree more. But no one here was saying they want Suarez here. If you are referring to the discussion between myself and Skipper, we were just talking about the hypothetical situation if Suarez had been playing for Southampton and not Liverpool.

Haha, Well, I wasn't attacking him. More nitpicking than anything, really. I just really wanted that ball to end up in the back of the net after everything Hazard did!

It wasn, but Torres should still have scored. Richardson knew nothing about that block, it just hit him in the back. Had Torres headed it to the roof of the net or into the ground, that would have been one of the goals of the season.

This is just so good :') https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auAs0WwkB1o

Funny thing, against Gala, the goal aside, I thought we did exceptionally well at set-pieces and corners. We cleared everything against a more physical team. I even said so in the twitter feed a few minutes before the goal. I think it was just a bit of lack of concentration from JT in Istanbul and Azpi(?) who failed to clear it today.

You've all probably have already heard this, but I'll say it again: "Whenever a Mourinho team finishes February top of the league, they go on to win it." I realize that counts for very little, but it's something to get hope from I know this has been discussed many times before, but I'd like to point out again that that isn't necessarily the case. For example, our congested fixtures last season really helped us achieve our objectives of top 3 and winning the EL. Our players always looked sharp and up for it and anyone who came into the team was in good form. As Jose says (paraphrased because I can't remember the exact quote): You only get tired when you lose. Winning has a magical effect on players. You never get tired if you win no matter how close the games are.

Not surprised we conceded today, though. I read somewhere that only Southampton stopped Fulham from scoring at home this season.

He's been playing at CM the entire season, but he just had an excellent 80 mins on the left wing. Everyone talks about Piazon and Traore, as they should because they are fantastic talents, but from the ten or so Vitesse matches I've seen this season, Atsu has been the standout performer among the three, imo. Even when Vitesse had a slump in the past month and were playing poorly, he maintained his level of performances.

Him and JT are by far the best partnership in the PL, atm.

Keepers don't really make that much of a difference and they really aren't that much apart, imo. In CM, are Allen and Gerrad really that much better Schneiderlin and Corck? Not for me, I think they are pretty even, in fact for the football they are trying to play, I'd take the Saints duo. On the other hand, Southampton have the better fullback (probably the best in the league), the better wingers in Rodriguez and Lallana, and most importantly, they have the much better defense.

Strikers aside, how is Liverpool's starting XI better than Southampton's?

Everyone was slagging him off in the first half but I just didn't think he was that bad, in fact, I thought he was the least bad of the attacking four. Yes, things weren't really clicking for him on the ball, but off it, he was the only one making great diagonal runs and runs down the flank and creating spaces.

Exchange Lambert and Suarez, and Southampton would be, imo, doing better than Liverpool are doing now and challenging for the title and Liverpool would be below utd.

Turend on the magic in the second half. I know Shirley got the hat-trick, but Eden was my MOTM because he changed the match. Because it is the EPL; there are no weak teams.

So that's what clinical finishing looks like...

Impressive clinical finishing from Shirley, something we haven't seen in a long time in a Chelsea shirt, but Eden is the player who changed the game. He was simply magical and he was my MOTM. Special mention to Cahill who was yet again incredibly solid. Meaningless stat: The last three hat-tricks in the EPL have been scored by a Chelsea player Or just let Billy make all the pre-match talks

We won. Arsenal lost. What else matters?