BlueLion.

Championship loan required. Or, fuck me, we could give him a go? Can't be worse than Failcao and the permanently-offside Remy.

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

You have no idea where I'm coming from? I have no idea where you're coming from by saying you'd throw a load of youngsters into the team at Old Trafford.

I would as well. But in more amiable circumstances. Old Trafford is a baptism of fire. The youngsters will get the chances they deserve if they earn them!

Each to their own, but you can't possible claim to know that we won't get Pep or Simeone. The additional six players isn't a problem thanks to the millions being pumped in through TV revenues. This is a blip, a bad season. We will need years to rebuild sufficiently but we will not roll back into the dark ages for a decade like Arsenal did, as some people think. José will destroy United's long-term future for a couple of seasons of success, as he's done here.

Regardless of form and confidence, if you want to play the kids against United at Old Trafford then that's up to you. I wouldn't, in his position.

The players are shit. Do you expect Guus to wave a magic wand and everything will be okay? Can't criticise his selection yesterday as he had no fit strikers and one training session to prepare the team to play without one.

I disagree. Should we get a manager in the Simeone or Guardiola mould, we'll be challengers.

They've both been utterly garbage. In fact, our whole midfield has, except for Willian. I can give Pedro a bit of slack since he's new to Chelsea and to the PL, and he's had some decent moments. But Hazard, Matic, Fabregas, Oscar - they all deserve a smack round the head with a cricket bat.

Agreed, I go so much abuse on Twitter on Saturday because I was calling Oscar shit all game... then he misses a penalty and everyone started berating him. He's had about three good performances all season, the rest of the time he's living off the glory of beating Buffon from 20 yards back in 2012.

There are pros and cons for Europa League football. For me, the only major negative is Thursday night football. If it was played on a Tuesday or Wednesday, it wouldn't be much of an issue. Maybe there would be more travelling, but it would be a perfect channel for us to blood some of the youngsters at a fairly high level. But, if we were to miss out on UCL/UEL football for next year, it would give our title challenge a bit of a lift. No need to worry about travelling to Ukraine before a Saturday mid-day kick-off at the Etihad. We'd have longer to prepare for games and I do think our league ambitions would be more easily fulfilled.

I think so. It's another route into the CL and European football is a must for the club to be self-sustaining from a financial point of view. No European football can mean anywhere between three and eight less matchdays at Stamford Bridge a season. Okay, we've got the TV money, but we're trying to buy a new stadium, effectively. Every penny counts! I see your point though. If Europa League football wasn't on a Thursday night, it wouldn't be so much of a distraction.

I totally agree. We are 13 points off fourth, but we won't make that gap up on current evidence. Similarly, we are 10 points off a Europa League position. That is "doable" within reason, to some extent, but if we win the FA Cup then that points difference is irrelevant. We can achieve some degree of success from this position. We have to: we can't afford to stagnate as a club. Even Europa League is better than nothing.

I've made another topic for this, but I do honestly think we can get Europa League football for next season.

Yes, the first half of the season has been an utter debacle. We are - officially - the worst defending champions in the history of English top flight football, and considering we have also failed in making a decent defence of the Capital One Cup, you can say the second half of 2015 has been a disaster. 19 points from eighteen games is relegation form, and at the current rate, we'd struggle to reach the 40 point safety marker to avoid the drop zone. But we are still in with a shot of turning things around, in my honest opinion. I believe there are three criteria that would constitute success from this position: Qualify for European competition in 2016/17 Win the FA Cup Win the UEFA Champions League1. Qualify for European competition in 2016/17 Regardless of whether it is Champions or Europa League football, Chelsea have to play in a European competition. We are a European powerhouse and to be out of Europe altogether, as United were in 2014/15, would be an absolute disaster. The Europa League is unfairly maligned but represents a good opportunity for silverware, and would offer some incentive in the transfer window. Obviously, Europe's top players would rather be playing Champions League football, but it would be difficult to attract top talent without any European competition at all. Considering how competitive the Premier League has been this season, it seems that we do have a chance of qualifying via our league position - even if that chance is microcosmic. The Europa League positions would require around 60-65 points in a typical season, and you would need around 70-75 for Champions League football. With anyone capable of winning against anyone, and the sides at the top of the table looking to finish on around 75-80 points based on their current points-per-game projections, you could argue that you may be able to knock five points off those totals to work out the going rate for this season. That means we'd need around 70 points for Champions League football, or about 60 for Europa League football. With twenty games remaining, we have 60 points to play with. Even if we went on a decent run, reaching 70 points from our current position seems nearly impossible, but adding 40 to our current total is doable, which gives us a chance of Europa League football through our league position. Of course, if we were to win the FA Cup or Champions League, that would also guarantee European football next season - the Champions League winners are automatically put through as first seeds for the defence of their title the following year, and the FA Cup winner enters the Europa League group stage . 2. Win the FA Cup This is perhaps a more realistic target. As I've already suggested, winning this competition puts us automatically into the group stages of the Europa League, as well as adding a piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet. It would be easy to put all our eggs in this one basket, but with a favourable third round draw, there is the possibility that we could go far should the draw be kind to us and we eventually play ourselves into a bit of good form. Even if we were to stabilise ourselves in the league and finish mid-table, but still win this trophy, that would represent a brilliant rescue act - I don't know about you folks, but I'd rather finish 10th in the league and win a trophy than finish even second or third. 3. Win the UEFA Champions League The most unlikely of the three criteria for success - or is it? Michael Ballack once famously said we'd win the Champions League when we least expected it, and he was right - and yet we're far, far worse right now than we ever were under Andre Villas-Boas. PSG represents a tough draw for the round of sixteen, but both teams are evenly matched and a good first leg in Paris could set us up for a place in the last eight. Personally, I don't think we have a cat in hell's chance of winning this trophy, but I said the same in 2012 when we went down 3-1 to Napoli. When we lost 2-1 to Bayer Leverkusen, I didn't even think we'd get out of the group stage. We've not been brilliant in the Champions League, but we've shown resilience and we seem to be a different team entirely in European competition; one that is far tighter defensively. Stranger things have happened, and if we really go for it, we have a small chance. No-one will want to draw us should we go through to the next round, and that has to count for something. My personal view - I don't think there is any reason to think we can't qualify for Europe. I do not think we'll be playing Champions League football again next year, simply because we won't finish in the top four and I highly doubt we'll win the competition outright this season. But with us needing around 40-45 points in the league to qualify for the Europa League places, or with us qualifying directly if we win the FA Cup, there is cause of optimism that we can, at least, be plying our trade in some form of continental competition in 2016/17.

Fucking HATE stuttered run-ups for penalties. THIS is how you take a penalty: (The Munich one was better but this is a better video)

We won't even finish top half, let alone top four.

Agreed. At our current rate, we won't even reach the 40-point "safety line" for relegation.

Oscar was fucking brilliant. P.S.:

Sell Oscar.

Mikel is a great squad player, but I agree he is a short-term fix. We need another CDM in January - but maybe Guus will stop the José policy of playing square pegs in round holes. Cesc is a CAM and needs to play in that position to be effective.

Merry Christmas to everyone, but especially the staff, who I thought would have run this place into the ground after I stepped down! You all do a great job keeping this place running, kudos!

Guus Hiddink has identified a top four finish as a possibility for Chelsea, after he told his players to be “ultra-critical” of themselves following their disastrous start to the season. The Blues currently sit in 15th place in the Premier League table, eleven points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham and a further nine behind leaders Leicester City. Yet the Dutchman, who has previously been successful in resurrecting seemingly dead Chelsea campaigns, has called on the squad to show they still have the fight to succeed for the club. Whilst a top four finish may – mathematically, at least – seem a possibility, in 2008/09 during Hiddink’s previous spell as caretaker boss, he was able to lead the Blues to FA Cup success and the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. And with those two trophies still available, hope remains in SW6 that Chelsea may be able to achieve a degree of solace by ending the season with silverware – and with this Ladbrokes Christmas free bet promotion, why not opt for a festive flutter and back the Blues in 2016? Nevertheless, with several members of the Blues’ squad still underperforming, here we identify a number of star players who considerably need to up their game after an individually sub-par start to the club’s title defence. Oscar The Brazilian was excellent in last weekend’s defeat of Sunderland, but that sort of display has sadly been too rare in 2015/16. Despite his own inconsistencies – Oscar is the archetypal blows-hot-and-cold player – there is no doubting that when Oscar plays well, Chelsea tend to do the same. His dynamic approach to the game brings a great degree of energy to the Blues’ midfield, and, when playing released of his defensive shackles, the Brazilian offers a creative threat that combines inventiveness and incisive forward passing. But with just two Premier League goals to his name this season – and with both of those being from the spot, it is clear his attacking output is somewhat limited at present. If Hiddink is to bring trophies back to Stamford Bridge this season, he’ll need his best players to perform. Eden Hazard Probably the biggest surprise that has come with Chelsea’s downfall this season is the complete slump in form and confidence that Eden Hazard is currently suffering from. Without a goal all season and currently on the treatment table after picking up an injury in the defeat at Leicester last week, Hazard is unrecognisable from the player who won the Premier League’s Player of the Year accolade in 2014/15. Even in the formative years of his Stamford Bridge career, Hazard remained a potent attacking threat, but despite creating the second-most chances in the Premier League this season, the young Belgian looks a long way off his best. His development will not have been helped by former Blues boss José Mourinho’s comments declaring Hazard is as good as Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, but his quite obvious regression is cause for major concern for Chelsea supporters. Hazard has played more than 220 games for club and country combined since his move to the Blues in 2012 – his lethargy, then, perhaps down him being completely burned-out? With fellow Chelsea stars Oscar, Ramires, Branislav Ivanovic, and Gary Cahill also having played near 200 games in the same period, can Chelsea’s reversal in fortunes be down to players simply being exhausted? Whatever the reason, it is clear Hazard’s efforts must double, and soon. Nemanja Matic Whilst a convincing argument can be presented over the dramatic decline in form that Matic’s Serbia team-mate Branislav Ivanovic has experienced in the past twelve months, it is clear that the cause of much of Chelsea’s defensive woes are down to a lack of protection from the midfield pair of Matic and Cesc Fabregas. Whilst it is Fabregas who has, somewhat unfairly, in my opinion, taken the brunt of the discontent of the Chelsea supporters, it is currently Matic who is the weak link. There is a reason Fabregas isn’t even half of the attacking threat he was last season – it’s because he is having to work overtime in a less-preferred defensive capacity to cover for Matic, who is another player who looks leggy and continuously tired through overuse. Matic was the lynchpin of the team last season, but since Chelsea’s 5-3 reverse at White Hart Lane on New Year’s Day where Mauricio Pochettino doubled up on Matic to limit the time he had on the ball, other teams have followed suit and been able to nullify the Serbian completely. Without that link between the midfield and back four missing, the Blues’ defence has been overly exposed, which goes some way to explaining why they have shipped such a vast quantity of goals when, last season, they boasted the meanest rearguard in the top division. I have already expressed that a return to the side for John Mikel Obi – who Hiddink worked with the last time he was in the Stamford Bridge hotseat – could reduce the strain on Matic, who has been an ever-present since his switch from Benfica in January 2014. Chelsea need to go back to basics, and that means building from a strong defensive foundation which, at present, they simply do not have.