CHOULO19

It's a very powerful motive when someone has nothing to lose..

I am certain that at least one of Norwich, WBA and Sunderland will get something this weekend. Let's hope it's not Sunderland!

Yeah, you're right, forgot about that. But anyway I can't see City winning all of their matches in their current state of mind.

It's also helps when the opposition have a stick in goal. Actually, A stick would have kept that out.

Everyone expect them to get half a dozen goals. In the EPL that usually means that they will drop points. But we need them to lose. A draw would not affect us, we'd still need to win at Anfield.

And it was over for us and between City and Liverpool after we lost to Palace. Could still see some twists.

I honestly believe that I can play better than Pinto in goal.

Too many twists in the race already to write City off. If we and Liverpool both drop points this weekend, they're back in it. Like I said, play every game to win and don't worry about the others.

Jason, I'm a very scientific-minded kind of guy and I have never had any superstitions or believed that random actions affect your luck. But if you even think about writing that preview, or any preview till the end of the season, I will slaughter your cats!

Alright, after a bit of celebrating and a lot of panicking and hyperventilating, I've calmed down and now realize that the sensible thing to do is just focus on the next match and go into each match like we always do: to win it. There could still be a some twists in the race so there's no point getting ahead of ourselves. Just approach every game with calmness and self belief.

Not really the point. And Hazard's form has fluctuated with exact same suppliers next to him, in fact all of our attackers have had both good and bad spells, there is no denying that. Maybe if there was another world-class AM next to him there wouldn't be one person in here who would claim he doesn't deserve POTY, but that is just a hypothetical situation. We don't have another Hazard so there are people who think Azpi deserves POTY more.

I think people are overstating both Hazard's and Azpi's importance. Our attack won't crumble without Eden nor will our defense without Azpi. I don't think anyone can argue that Hazard isn't the player with most talent or ability in our squad and that on his day he is by far our best and most important player. Azpi on the other hand is the definition of solidity and consistency. While Hazard gives us a 9/10 15-20 times this season, Azpi has been a solid 7 week in week out. Both perspectives have their valid points. Calling either opinion "wrong" is just silly. Accept that people have different takes on things than you.

Can see it happening too. Especially that Sunderland have kinda been their bogey team the last couple of seasons. They've lost their last 3 PL matches to them IIRC. EDIT: Or not That was quick!

Good test to City's character after the blow at the weekend. How will their morale be now that the title is out of their hands?

Got absolutely no idea what it means physically, just going by what usually happens when players have hamstring injuries, so thanks for that explanation. Physioroom says that it's a hamstring injury, not sure if they mean that there is bleed or if it's just a thigh injury.

It's a hamstring injury. There is no way he will be fir for Norwich even if it a little strain. If they risk him and he hurts it again he would be out for a couple of months.

Hardly changes the fact that Torres was our best striker at the start of the season (which actually wasn't even the point to begin with nor what I was trying to say).

He's in pretty crappy form right now, but he was in good form and our best ST at the start of the season. Let's not have the memory of gold fish.

Parker, Cole and Brdge were as much "youngsters" as Oscar and Hazard are now (obviously not comparing ability, but age) and let's be honest, Jose failed with Johnson as is evident by the amount of shit that Glen talks about him. I did say here at Chelsea, but it was really at Inter that he got this "reputation" for failing to integrate youth because they had some very highly rated youngsters like Balotelli and Arnautovic who all failed to make it through (granted some of those had more to do with their attitude than Jose). Really, Varane is the only youngster Jose has managed to bring through the ranks (bar his Porto days because I know little about that). You can't really blame the Kalas situation on JT's form because if JT and Cahill both pick up an injury, every Chelsea fan would tell you that our back four would be: Azpi-Iva-Luiz-Cole and Kalas would be on the bench. Him not staying long at one club isn't really an excuse either because last season Rafa gave chances to the likes of Piazon and Christensen and Ake was practically a first team player in the last couple of months. The point about being successful and integrating youths is a good one, though. I always say that it is near impossible for top teams to integrate youth without the loan system. But this is exactly why I see this season as a huge opportunity missed. This season we did not have the expectations of winning any trophies. Yes we are surpassing expectations in the league and CL but the stakes were much lower. It would have been the perfect opportunity to give a couple of youngsters a chance even if it had to be at the expense of a few points Bottom line is, Jose has obviously either failed or refused to integrate youth in his career, because Varane alone is not enough. This probably remain his reputation until he proves otherwise, and trust me there is nothing I'd like more than for him to do so. And then was sold to buy Ben Haim. I literally facepalm when I remember that.

Ashton is actually a Chelsea fan. And the points he raised, while he did put them in a poor manner, are points that most Chelsea fans have talked about at one point or the other. Got absolutely nothing to do with Liverpool. Kalas is leaving in the summer. He's made it clear that he wants nothing to do with the club after this season and honestly I can't blame him. Zouma will most likely be loaned out which is the best thing for him, imo as he will probably have a similar season to Kalas if he stays. You have every right to hope, but everything in the experiences of the past decade suggests that it will be the opposite. I will get attacked for this, but the fact that Jose is our manager makes it even less likely that any of the youngsters will ever see first team action. Like it or not he's failed/refused to integrate youth in his time at Chelsea and I think that has a lot to do with the character and experience he likes his teams to have. The fact that the FSW who knew he was leaving at the end of the season cared more about giving youngsters chances speaks volumes.

Joe Cole mocks Arsenal fans by lifting up a trophy before West Ham lost at the Emirates :D

In a perfect world where we can buy and sell any player we want, I'd keep Ba from our current strikers. Not because he is the best, in fact, ability wise, he's probably the worst. But because he offers a completely different dimension which could really come in handy during the season (PSG game for example). Problem with that is that he will have to be third choice like he was this season and barely get a few starts.

He's not wrong. Do you really expect any of our youngsters anywhere near the first team next season? Jose can take them on preseason tours and talk about youth integration, but we all know that none of them would get near the first team during the season. If Kalas, who is not really a "youngster" anymore but has considerable experience and who was supposedly promised at least 10 starts by Jose got two minutes of playing time in the league cup. What hope do the likes of Christensen and Ake hold?

Bit late for that with four games left. We need to win it on points.

Yeah, I though defensively that was his weakest game for them. He's been doing really well in that department in the championship, always intecepting and breaking play up.