BlueLion.

Naser, thank you so much for your kind donation! I'll donate another fee after I get my wages for this week.

Like I said, Peace, most people. Thankfully we have people such as yourself who genuinely follow European/world football and have genuine knowledge on the topic!!

No-one deserves it, so Studge gets it based on the fact he scored a worldy.

Meireles was our worst player yesterday? Are you sure? He does the 'donkey work' Makelele did, the difference is he doesn't get the credit.

You can't just say we're winning/losing because of certain players, of course we have our game-changers, but frankly the great performances this season have been solid and professional from all eleven men on the pitch. Ramires just happens to be on the pitch at that point

Scapegoated is the word... but Bosingwa is shit in fairness.

We're now on 19,976. There are four games today, but I doubt we shall see 24 goals in them I'd be inclined to say we'll see another 12 goals today, taking us up to 19,988... then there are two games on Tuesday so I imagine we'll see the 20,000th strike on Wednesday. Reckon van Persie will get it

Welcome to the forum! Fancy swapping Hamsik for Kalou?

I found him disappointing on the night, however. I thought he looked a little laboured in comparison to how he has played, although the goal will no doubt give him plenty of confidence!

I only realised last night how integral this boy is to our team. That is coming from a massive fan of the player. I think a lot of other Chelsea fans will stand up and take notice of his qualities even more, now. Goalscorer and driving force of the team.

This is the Petr Cech thread though Tomo

I think Josh deserves more gametime than Kalou, Malouda and Mikel, in all honesty. I hope he goes out on loan for the sake of his career next month, otherwise this is a real talent we're killing.

He had a bad game. However he has very few of those, just think of the times when he has saved us in the past and will do in the future, and you can forgive him this fuck-up. His error was just a footnote in a whole chain reaction of errors last night. Why Ivanovic allowed di Santo to check inside onto his stronger side to get the ball into Moses is beyond me, how Bosingwa just let Moses steal into the penalty area on a whim is laughable, and what Cech was doing is also a tough one to answer. Three mistakes from three (well, two) usually-reliable players and you can see why we're short on confidence at present.

However no-one complained at the time... hindsight is a terrible thing.

More than Torres... and that was being second-choice all season. Besides, he's English and a consistent goal threat. However he is 29 and Spurs wouldn't let him join us on the cheap.

I think he was referring to the player's cost, not his actual worth. However I agree, I have never been impressed by Pato when I have seen him play and I think most people think he is 'amazing' because he is good in FIFA 12.

Basically I think we should simply get behind AVB, and give him time. Let's not jump on the bandwagon as we did with Scolari, and let's give him time to put a long-term plan into place. If it works out, fantastic, if not then at least we will have undergone this period of 'transition'. I don't think many managers could do much better with the same underperforming squad than Andre has done. It's easy to sit at a computer and play manager, but the fact is this is not AVB's squad, he is playing a style of football foreign to him and he is still learning the game. Maybe people are being too unrealistic about this season (there's a surprise...).

I don't know what's up with me at the minute but I find myself agreeing with Henrique once again. Our squad is too small! We are relying on the same five defenders (Bosingwa, Terry, Ivanovic, Luiz and Cole), four midfielders (Oriol, Ramires, Lampard and Meireles) and three forwards (Drogba, Mata and Sturridge) in every game, and we have precious few options on the bench.

Wow, what a wonderful showing of support! This is exactly what we need to keep this place going - unless we get a new server, which will be more expensive, the boards will continue to be shut down by the server hosts. Donating as little as £2 a month can be an enormous help. If 30 members consistently did that, and amongst them just half offer another £1 on top, with me and Jim also contributing we can pay the fees without a problem.

I thought it was a more significant setback than just a couple of weeks... I was expecting another long-term layoff... I'll read the thread properly before posting next time! However I do feel that he should be assessed based on the next 12 months in terms of his fitness, and if it doesn't particularly improve then we should cut him loose. Nevertheless, games like last night are ones crying out for the Bison and his strength and dynamism.

I think we're more combative, inventive, resilient and generally a more efficient footballing outfit with Raul on the pitch. Put it this way - all of our disjointed performances this season have come when he hasn't played.

Can't blame Villas-Boas for the players' complacency last night, they got what was coming to them. You can, however, criticise his substitutions, but give some credit to Wigan for a good performance. Some people are too determined on over-analysing what is essentially a bad Chelsea performance (caused by a bad, arrogant attitude, and the lack of dynamism in the midfield (Ramires)) and a wonderful sign of character from the home side.

1. Ramires 2. Mata 3. Sturridge 4. Oriol 5. Meireles No-one else deserves any recognition whatsoever. We seem a stronger outfit when all five of those players are on the field. Yes I thoroughly agree. I personally think Juan is more suited to wide positions, he is a good option at CAM but I feel this team needs a driving force in midfield (ie. Essien, Ramires) more than it does a playmaker at present, because we have high levels of creativity from the wings.

Sounds fantastic, whatever the result you'll no doubt enjoy the experience!

We were complacent. Add in the fact that as we had neither Essien nor Ramires (or even Luiz pushing forward from CB) we have no significant drive in the centre of the pitch - it all makes for a difficult night in the north-west. Wigan were excellent and we thought we'd trounce them; an awful attitude for the players to adopt. It stinks of arrogance, we did not deserve to win at all yesterday and Wigan fans should be proud of their wonderful, determined performance. I'd love to see our players put in that much effort again, not just when it suits them (ie. Valencia, City).