CHOULO19

Just made a brilliant brilliant run. Playing very well tonight.

Artinho just wants to let you all to know that he will stop logging in from Monday. Very sad to see someone like him go. His contributions will be missed.

That would be a great argument if what you said was actually true. However, Arsenal always struggle against the likes of Stoke who park the bus, in fact since the promotion of Stoke to the PL, Arsenal have only won once at the Britania, lost 3 and drew 1. That is a terrible record for a top 4 team against relegation battlers. The reason for that is, because as you said Arsenal only have pace and quick passes, that will get you no where with 7 defenders in the box. All Stoke and Westham do is lump the ball forward to the striker, so they rarely leave space for you to exploit with pace. You can have all the pace in the world in your team but when you hit a wall of defenders you will stop. Bottom line is, the bus beats the tiki taka, we proved that in the CL last season against Barcelona.

Prematch interview:

Fluid? Great! Another football term that I don't understand

I'd argue we have already been playing with a false number 9 and I for one have been moaning that we need a proper striker who makes runs in the box if we are achieve anything this season. Besides, the playing style associated with playing a false 9, i.e. tiki taka keep the ball until tomorrow bullshit, first contradicts with Chelsea's identity and more importantly does not work in the PL. I would like to see Barca score against the like of Stoke, Westham...etc.

Mikel made 9 interceptions yesterday, more than any other player in the opening round in CL. Not bad for a terrible game.

That explains A LOT . Torres from QPR and Juve was practically the same one from the back end of 2010-11 (yes that bad!) which got everyone's hope deflated yet again.

You are probably right, but as I said in my previous post, discussing 'Why' really isn't getting us anywhere especially that the reasons differ from one game to another since in one match he is guilty of bad finishing and not making an effort and in the next he works his ass off but doesn't get passes. What I think is becoming obvious however is that it is probably best for both the club and him if he moves on.

Of course not, Torres hasn't been in the pen area for months now

@Rmpr, lol please translate what Oscar said

Wow, did not expect him to be rated this highly by some here. I don't like Ramos at CB at all. He's constantly out of position and makes the same rash challenges that Luiz makes. Lucky for him he has Khedira and Alonso in front of him, I think a move away from Madrid can really expose his weaknesses.

Sickening. Just sickening.

No, no, I distinctly remember an interview with him a couple of month after he moved to London where he said that he was learning English but he wasn't comfortable enough yet to try speaking it.

This one is a must win for me considering the other matches of the stage. I can see a scrappy 1-0 win.

Don't see why this needs another thread, especially that the posts are almost identical to the ones in Torres' thread in the 'current squad' section. I think we've been through the reasons and counter reasons for why Torres is not delivering about a million times in the past 20 months and it is obvious that we aren't going anywhere in this 'discussion'. But can we, at least, agree that the situation is not working and that he needs to go? I personally never fully understood the term 'service'; it, along with 'creativity', are two words that mean very little to me in football. It's easy to just throw those around whenever in doubt, but what exactly is the bench mark for creativity and service? Did a Liverpool side that does not compare to our current squad in terms of player abilities have creativity and we don't? Kuyt, Babel and Gerard provide better service than Mata, Lampard, Hazard? In my book, service and creativity have to do with the recipient as much as the sender. If a striker wants the ball then he keeps making runs till someone picks him up. I don't remember Torres making a single run yesterday. I can understand someone saying that it's not his fault alone, but to say that he is not at fault alone is ridiculous in my eyes. How many sitters have he missed in his time here? How many chances to shoot did he waste by hesitating? How many times did he run straight into 3-4 defenders just this season? Those are his fault and his fault alone. I think we have reached a point where it is best for everyone if he just moves along in Jan, even for those who love him and still believe he can be world class, I think we can agree that his best interest lies outside Chelsea FC.

@TheCount, and @Cosmin, break it up you two. Does a heated discussion have to end with personal insults?

Yeah he did well yesterday. But the posts saying that he 'bossed' the midfield (never understood the term to begin with ) while the same posters say claim that Lampard was bad yesterday is the kind of over exaggeration and hyping that we often do for our youngsters.

That goal...the moment I saw it I heard in my head "Take a bow son, take a bow" But let's not get too carried away. Until the first goal, I thought he was having a terrible match, he was loosing the ball almost every time he had it and I was shouting at RDM to sub him off at half time. Luckily his shot took a deflection and ended in the back of the net. After that, the confidence made all the difference in the world for Oscar and he really got in the game. But let's wait till he can have a few good performances before we label him as the next big thing.

Had a bad game..happens to the best. And I just can't see how is he responsible for the first goal?

Silva and Iniesta are terrible finishers. And please don't post any videos of them finishing because a few cases don't constitute the rule. I'd say between the four, Mata is definitely the best finisher. And for the record, his chance last night was much much harder than it looks, he got the technique perfect but was a bit unlucky.

Sometimes I am genuinely stunned that a defender of his caliber is capable of making such amateur mistakes. Terrible terrible decision to step up for the second goal.

Get used to it mate, most of our fans sadly only see what they want to see and right now 'Lampard is no good' is a popular theme here. Just read back a bit and you'll see people saying that it is his fault that the double pivot didn't work yesterday and we were playing 4-3-3!!

Asamoah's pen at the weekend was much softer

I'd do it if I have to. Let's say his team have a signing session and you decide to go. I would, without hesitation kill you and impersonate you in order to meet Michael...