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I didn't expect him to hit this form so quickly as earlier in the season I thought he looked pretty poor and out of his depth and therefore it would take a lot longer to adapt. What is most pleasing for me is his two goals yesterday and against Watford. He seems an intelligent and willing runner into the box to get on the end of things, very much how the likes of Mane, Sterling, etc get a lot of their goals. As he continues to improve and gain confidence he could become a very productive and important source of goals for us.

Reece will be much more attacking than Azpi and is far more of a threat. It will be interesting to see how Hodgson plans to set up today. Does he allow Zaha to cheat and stay up top and try to exploit the spaces potentially being left? Or is this the best way to combat Zaha by utilising an attacking full back who will hopefully force him back the other way and have to pick the ball up in deeper positions?

Very surprised Azpi isn't playing. Even more so when Jorginho is out too. Let's hope we blow them away with the attacking options we have and two full backs who are capable of getting up and down.

Yeah to be honest it's probably highlighted more when a manager from a Bournemouth or Wolves win it and then their form drops off as expected.

Because in a lot of cases surgery is the last option because it's usually the slowest recovery time. As an example I read that Lloris is just about to have elbow surgery for his injury but he suffered that about a month ago. The club have clearly exhausted all possibilities to deal with this groin issue and have now decided surgery is the best option. Trust the experts. Hopefully this will clear things up for Rudiger and help getting him back fit and on the pitch. Even if the transfer ban remains in place, if we can have a fit Rudiger and RLC returning for the second half of the season that will be a huge boost.

I'm not really one for superstitions but it does always feel more hindrance than help winning these monthly awards.

We have had Rudiger, Kante and RLC out for most or all the season so far and all three would almost certainly have been first choice if fit this season and immediately upgrade our team. You're talking £200m or more of talent right there. I genuinely believe a couple of top signings a time over the next couple of summer windows will have us challenging for the title, providing the young players continue to kick on and from what I've seen so far with their desire, character and commitment I'd be surprised if most of them didn't.

Thoroughly deserved but those awards always feel like a poisoned chalice!

Your third point is being massively overlooked by most. Take Azpilicueta out of our defence at present and there's absolutely no experience and leadership in there (including keeper). Now moving Azpi to left back and playing Reece at right back is certainly an option. It's strange but he seems to be more comfortable on the left side than he does on the right and with so many 'inverted' wingers nowadays I think it makes his defending easier with players looking to cut back against his stronger foot. When Rudiger is back fit and playing, Azpi's experience becomes less of a priority but at present its invaluable amongst so many younger players.

I do think a bit of leeway has to be given on the defensive side of the game. Losing Hazard meant Lampard had to find goals and create chances from other sources and he has opened our team up to do so. The football has been excellent and a number of players have excelled offensively as a result to the point where we're also not solely reliant on one player like we used to be at times. I don't feel we're as open as we were earlier in the season. Our pressing as a group has improved a lot and the gaps between defence, midfield and attack have closed up. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but we are definitely moving in the right direction and Kante back at full fitness should also improve this aspect. The defending set pieces in my opinion has also improved compared to earlier in the season. Lampard has clearly been trying to address this as we're now setting up with a mix of man marking and zonal and it's been successful before last night. It has to be noted too that our two first choice centre backs, both big personalities to boot, from last season haven't been there. I know it was Lampard's decision to sell Luiz (and I think the right decision in the long term) but it has meant younger players assuming this role and it will take time for them to grow into that role and become leaders within that back line. The biggest issue for me is lapses in concentration in open play at times which are either causing mistakes or bad luck. After a couple of clean sheets on the spin, we've conceded 9 goals in the last 4 games but when it's broken down 2 were penalties (which were from mistakes not great opposition play), 2 (Rodriguez and Rashford) were worldies which neither will likely re-create again this season, 1 was a fortunate deflection and 2 were own goals. It's difficult to be too critical when we have so many young players on the pitch playing because we will have to ride their inconsistencies but if we can cut out these individual mistakes and lapses in concentration I do firmly believe we can become a force with the bulk of this squad to grow and develop.

You say that but we won the penalty to make it 4-3 when Ajax still had 11 men on the pitch. The momentum was definitely swinging in our direction at that point. I personally think Azpi's VAR goal being disallowed killed us. The whole place was rocking at that point, fans and players as one. I feel the outpouring of emotion when that goal went in, only to have it disallowed took the wind from our sails and whilst we had a few half chances we didn't really create anything more clear cut and struggled to regain the momentum fully. Full credit to Ajax for being bold and prepared to play in that situation to take the sting out of the game though.

Valencia didn't impress me in the first game and I think were fortunate to play us at a time when we were still finding our feet early on. I think we're very capable of going there and getting a result.

Unbelievable to be 4-1 down with half hour remaining and end disappointed not to win! This shows the fight in the team though. To keep going and attacking when 4-1 down, this game could have gone very wrong but tonight was a reward for our team not giving up.

The game has been pretty even in general play. What hasn't been even is our inability to defend Ajax's play out wide and then their subsequent crosses. The first goal was poor from Tammy and the second goal whilst a fantastic cross, left us very flat footed. The third goal was very lucky but when we're creating so many problems and so much panic inside our box those things tend to go against you. We shouldn't have played into Ajax's hands playing so frenetic, especially after getting back level so quickly. It is a concern at present that the players seem to struggle to control a game as well as away from home. It's almost as if the players feel we have to attack more but it leaves us disjointed. If we can sort ourselves out defensively and don't go gung ho straight away, we still have a chance in this game because Ajax look very open themselves.

Only just caught the back end of Lampard's pre match interview but I think he said that Emerson just wasn't ready to play another game so soon after Watford as he's just back from an injury.

That probably came out wrong. I think he has developed, the question mark on him will be can he make the step up from Bournemouth to Chelsea and possibly kick his career on further playing with better players at a better standard. A number of players can do this, but there's always the risk that for some players their 'level' is that one slightly below what we need.

I keep debating to myself whether buying back Ake would be a good idea. He has improved a lot during his time at Bournemouth and looks a real talent at present. Given the current market (Maguire being the ridiculous benchmark now) I think theres a lot of value if we do as reported hold a £40m buy back on him. Is he a big improvement on what we have? I'm not sure if he is right now, but I think potentially he could continue to develop to be. And at the moment I dont see many stand outs to buy at centre back for a reasonable price. Theres some very good, young options abroad but that in itself is a risk too. The other question to be answered would be if we brought a new centre back, who is replaced. The assumption is if Rudiger can get back to full fitness his spot shouldn't be questioned. So is Zouma now ahead of Christensen in the pecking order?

Most of these games have been won very comfortably too, and the ones that maybe don't look it in scoreline could have been with chances we create. The difference, in my opinion, of a manager with full belief in his players to go out on the pitch and out-play and out-battle teams, thereby setting us up in a positive manner to win games compared to the likes of Mourinho, Conte and even Sarri who did not trust in full the players available to them and therefore set up in a more pragmatic way to try and control or disrupt and ultimately nick points. Our approach this season has been so refreshing and enjoyable to watch.

He might not be everyone's cup of tea and he is obviously a short term player over the next season or two as opposed to long term but he's playing an important role in this team at the moment and I feel he's thriving being one of the senior pro's. He had his period in 'that' Mourinho season where he played well above everyone else (which to be honest wasn't very hard to do), but I would say that so far this season it has probably been the best period so far of consistently strong performances in his Chelsea career. Hopefully he keeps it going because this version of Willian at the moment is an important player in the side.

I think this season if we managed to get top 6 but the atmosphere was good, football was positive and the building blocks were in place for the future with regards to the younger players then I think this would be accepted by the board and give Lampard time. Perhaps the start we've made will alter those expectations although I would be surprised if Lampard wasn't given at minimum next season too, even if we were to miss out on top 4. I think next season top 4 will be the expectation for Lampard. I don't think there will be an expectation to challenge for the title, although I think the board would like to see continued progress towards that target. I do think that Lampard's mentality however will be to be challenging as soon as possible, he's a complete winner. Even after today's game, he wants expectations to be tempered but has already talked about perhaps looking up the table and not down it because we have the players capable.

To be honest I don't care what we spend so long as we get 2 or 3 top targets that Lampard and the club want, rather than settling on 3rd or 4th choice options which in the past have left us burnt. If that means a combined £200-250m or just £120m I'm not bothered so long as we get it right. The very least I think this position does leave us in that we should now be able to compete at the top end of the market so if there is a player we really want to buy available and he's £80-100m or more then we should be able to go and get him rather than baulking and picking up a far inferior alternative for half the price.

Agree on all points, but I think we definitely learned our lesson from the first game of the season with regards to leaving ourselves open to that style. The penalty I thought was generous but it was such a stupid foul and I agree we gave the ball away too easily at times in areas we shouldn't have. As I said, I think it was an all round poor performance from us and in particular a number of players had arguably their worst game this season. So long as there is no hangover from this moving forward then I'm not overly fussed and you'd like to think that with a number of players we rested coming back into the team (because it was clear we missed them tonight), and hopefully Kante and Rudiger back fit too very soon we can kick back on again with some good results in the league and Champions League.

I wouldn't say we've fallen into the same United trap again. They barely looked threatening on the counter attack and created very little, summarised by them scoring two set piece goals - a really stupid penalty given away and a 35 yard free kick. I can't remember any clear cut chances they created bar this. We've simply struggled to create chances of our own tonight. It was a very poor attacking effort. But it's hard work breaking down mid table and lower teams who sit everyone behind the ball, let alone a team like United coming and doing it. As Chelsea fans we should know better than anyone just how effective this can be to nullify in form, free scoring teams. Bear in mind too, United did the exact same thing to Liverpool a little over a week ago and made them look very poor in the final third. As long as there is no hangover from this game and we get wins against Watford and Ajax, this game will be quickly forgotten and like some have pointed out with the injuries we've had to contend with so far this season, perhaps a few less games won't do the squad any harm.

I suppose a few years back I'd be really disappointed going out at this stage of the Carabao Cup just because you knew that was it then for the season for any young academy players to get a run out. Now it's viewed as a potential positive being out to rest them.

Poor tonight but it can happen. Lampard showed his priorities tonight and was prepared to put more younger players in probably knowing that United would go pretty strong. Disappointing that Kovacic and Jorginho both probably had their worst game of the season in the same night. Bar Bats goal, the front 3 were poor in my opinion and although he came on later, its clear how important Mount is in our current setup giving us energy. We actually missed Willian too tonight in the recent form he's been in to give some balance to our attack. And I really like Reece James and I think he will prove to be an excellent player at the club for a long time, but tonight I think did show that he's not quite as seasoned as the likes of Mount and Abraham are currently and needs time to be slowly bedded in this season.