BlueLion.

Essien will probably play 15-20 games for us this season in cup games and when we're short at CDM/RB in the league... no more than that. It's quite clear that the pecking order for the deep-lying midfield pair is 1. Lampard, 2. Ramires, 3. Mikel, 4. van Ginkel, 5. Essien.

Poll is up

Both fair points - but again, there is literally no coverage of South American football in the UK. ESPN used to show the Copa Sudamericana, I'm not sure if they do anymore. Even the most-hyped talents like Neymar only came to national attention in England in 2010/11. It's quite bad really, I enjoy Latin American football as it's so technically brilliant, and very exciting in terms of attack-versus-attack.

I only heard of him in 2011 - a year before we signed him. You have to realise that in Europe, South American football is moreorless irrelevant to quite a lot of people. That is why a lot of people look down on national leagues over there, and then get surprised at how good the league's level actually is. It is also very rarely televised over here - so with no coverage, how can you expect people to to know about South American football? The difference is you guys over there get even more live EPL games than we do!

Arsenal... pathetic... in 2005? Are you sure? Arsenal were a brilliant team back then. Liverpool, under Rafa, were one of the best teams in England and equally as good - if not better - than AVB's Spurs are right now. United were as they are now; in a state of transition but a good side nonetheless. Everton played a blinder that season and finished fourth, so there is little change there. The only difference is Arsenal have regressed now and City have taken their place as one of the "big three". The competition is always the same, it's just the names that change.

Yeah, going into the season it was full of promise. But between the three of them, in all competitions, we got 39 goals between the three of them. I fully expect Ba, Eto'o and Torres to conjure that amount up between the three of them this season. I loved Eidur too, he is in my top-five favourite Chelsea players alongside Cudicini, Cech, Drogba and Lampard. He had flair, but José turned him into more of a deep-lying forward than the out-and-out number 9 that played alongside Hasselbaink - and eventually Mourinho played him as the CAM in 2005/06. He had a bit of an unknown quality that he could bring to the table, but then again, so can many of our current squad. So whilst I see your point, I believe now that our strikers are no longer imperative to the way we operate beyond being a nuisance for opposition defenders. Any success we have this season will be conjured by Hazard, Oscar et al.

Let's be fair, Drogba (in his first season), Eidur and Kezman was hardly confidence-inspiring as a strike-force in 2004/05, was it?!

What a brilliant poll. Overall, I'd rate it Drogba, maybe verging on Drogba-Osgood. Very satisfied in the fact we addressed key issues (bringing in a quality goalkeeper to provide back-up and competition to Cech; as well as signing an experienced striker to add much-needed firepower), added quality to the midfield in terms of established brilliance and raw potential in Willian and MvG respectively, and brought in another "Amigo" in Schurrle who is going to have a brilliant career with us. Also we kept all of our major players at the same time as giving various players really competitive loans that will give them a good chance of improving and making the World Cup in the summer. And, of course, we've got The Special One. Very satisfied.

Well of the three I think Eusebio was the greatest, but that's another debate entirely!

Banned for topic bumping.

Shit only gets real when Pele (Jim), Maradona (Steve) and Eusebio (me) join the club

All it proves is you don't have the intellectual capacity to look beyond your own opinion. Goodbye xxx

Yes, "silly Thor thing", because this is a forum where I want to enjoy myself, not get caught up by people taking the internet so seriously. If you don't like what he posts, block the cunt and get on with your life, don't make a fucking mountain out of a molehill. Topic locked.

Nigerian wide-man Victor Moses has been loaned to Liverpool on a season-long deal, Chelsea have finally confirmed. The young Blues winger has been knocked down a peg or two in the midfield hierarchy with the arrivals of Andre Schurrle and Willian - and coach José Mourinho has deemed it important that the Super Eagles man enjoys a good season out on loan in a World Cup year. West Bromwich Albion had looked favourites to secure the young winger on loan before Liverpool's interest emerged, and the pendulum seemed to have swung in favour of the Reds when Moses was pictured at Anfield for Brendan Rogers' side's 1-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday. Moses will team up with former Blues colleague Daniel Sturridge on Merseyside, and the good level of competition at Anfield - as well as their top four aspirations - will no doubt prove a great challenge for Moses in a season where he tries to secure a place at the World Cup finals in Brazil. Of course, Moses will not be able to partake in any fixtures against his parent club, but this can be seen as a shrewd move by Mourinho and company by strengthening a team in direct competition with Arsenal and Tottenham for fourth-place this season. Moses enjoyed a productive first season with the Blues, where he netted ten goals in his debut campaign at Stamford Bridge - a feat made all the more impressive when you consider it was achieved in merely 27 starts. Moses' goals-to-minutes ratio also stacks up reasonably well against Chelsea's star attackers: Fernando Torres - 23 goals in 4,934 minutes = a goal every 215 minutes; Frank Lampard - 17 in 3,682 = a goal every 216 minutes; Victor Moses - 10 in 2,537 = a goal every 254 minutes; Juan Mata - 20 in 5,149 = a goal every 257 minutes; Eden Hazard - 13 goals in 4,734 = a goal every 364 minutes. Click here to view the article

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3445390/title/moses-moves-on-loan Confirmed

We won't sign anyone today, but we'll offload a few. Promise you.

This is a forum, and we have to respect everyone. If you're feeling butthurt over the stance we've taken, then tough; deal with it. We're only asking people to counter-argue rather than saying "you're an idiot" in response to an opinion. Is that really so tough?

Straight at him Nah, brilliant save. This is like Cudicini or Cech in 2004, but the issue here is Cech is ten times the keeper that Carlo was.

Of course he's got more potential than Cech, Cech is 31.

Abso-fucking-lutely. Agreed! Despite missing half of it, I had a very good August! Bossed it!

Best member this forum has ever seen tbf

I say BlueLion.

Brilliant mate! Going for silver. Well I wanted to found one for the Midlands in general, but there is one for Staffordshire already!

Local derby. Don't read too much into it. Liverpool's record vs United at Anfield is incredible.