BlueLion.

I wholeheartedly agree! Time for him to take a fair portion of the responsibility as well, I concur. I'll decide what needs to be moderated and what doesn't, thanks. If both users want to be antagonistic towards each other then that's their call.

An improvement. I think we'll get a good result tonight (I would actually take a point considering this is our toughest fixture in the group - so, if we lose, we can be thankful it is early on with four games left to recover), take a lot of confidence into the weekend, beat Southampton, and look back on our last six games and smile about it all again.

Who was better, then? I'm talking in terms of success and longevity - no-one matches José, IMO. Fair points, thank you for the reasoned judgement. We are underperforming, however I believe the accusations towards José are not wholly deserved. We can create as many "Mourinho out" topics as we want, but when will we create the "The players should pull their fingers out" topic as well? My point, referring to entitlement, is that some people have been spoilt by success and are being a lot unreasonable with some of the quite laughable over-reactions. When I talk about being spoilt by success, that means whenever we have poor periods - like we are at the minute - we can't look at things objectively. I believe all of these criticisms of Jose have only emerged in light of our poor run of results. If we'd won 7 out of 7 in the league, these comments wouldn't be here, it's as simple as that.

You know, I think the best thing possible would be for us to finish in the bottom half of the table so some of the shit that claims to "support" us fucks off to City or United. I wasn't alive when we were flirting with relegation to Division 3, but my old man was. Instead, I grew up watching the Gullitt/Vialli/Ranieri days, where we'd go out and beat United at Old Trafford then lose at home to Coventry next week - but back then, everyone was proper Chels and the attitude was firmly "win or lose, up the Blues". Nowadays the entitlement is so great that if we don't win a game 5-0 then people aren't happy. Football is fickle and you have to take the good days with the bad. We've been spoilt rotten in the last ten years, with the "worst" season we've endured in that period being either 2007/08 when we finished second in the league, and finished as runners up in the League Cup, Champions League and Community Shield, or in 2013/14 when we were a massive four points off the title and Champions League semi-finalists. There are teams that can't even dream of those "failures". People need to appreciate we've been spoilt rotten and we're due a bit of a bad run after gliding our way seamlessly through the entirety of 2014/15. Imagine wanting the greatest manager in the history of the club to get the sack because we've "only" won four out of our nine games this season :lol:

That's the spirit!

You're missing the point. I said "Gary Cahill wouldn't still be first choice", meaning you've misunderstood my point. If Luiz is as good a CB as you all think, it would be he, not Cahill, who would be leading our defence. And regarding your point about "few managers around would play Cahill instead of Luiz", one of those "few" managers happens to be the Chelsea boss, so that's too bad for you. Also, my memory is pretty damned good. Of course, if you want to overhype one or two very good performances as a defensive midfielder, largely in one-off games or Europa League ties and here and there in the Premier League, then good for you. At best he was a square peg for a round hole; played in midfield only because of a lack of options and the fact he was less of a liability in midfield than he was at centre-back. This is all subjective, but I just can't see how you can say you don't think Matic - who, for me, is without question the best defensive midfielder in the English game, possibly in Europe - isn't far superior to Luiz. Then again, scoring the odd cracker-jacket masks a tonne of shit performances, I suppose. Matic is bang out of form, but at his best, there aren't many better. Each to their own, if you prefer Luiz then good for you.

ENGERLAND ENGERLAND ENGERLAND Me too, shithole, the only thing we're good for is cricket and that's usually only when we feel like it.

1) I define youth quality as someone who is able to make an impact at Chelsea. We send kids out elsewhere - but they don't even get games for the likes of Bournemouth (I'm using the Atsu example here). That suggests that, if they can't play for Bournemouth (with all due respect), they don't have much chance of making it at Chelsea. A player is ready to be part of the first-team when they prove they are. We can all criticise Mourinho for his lack of faith in youth products, but the fact he's given playing time to RLC and Kenedy is encouraging. Even then, I don't think either of them are "ready" as they are just kids, and will only become "ready" with experience. However, they have made an impact already by imposing themselves on the manager's plans - so I would classify those players as youth quality. 2) No, I don't think the players at Arsenal like Bellerin, or Joe Gomez at Liverpool, or Wilson or Blackett at United, are any better than our current crop of kids. At teams like Arsenal and Liverpool where mediocrity is an expectation, you can give more game time to youngsters. At Chelsea, it is a lot harder, because we're expected to win games - and you have to admit we're far more likely to win matches with Diego Costa up front rather than Solanke or Bamford. Jose's track record of bringing youngsters through is not as poor as some people make it out to be, but it is poor in comparison to Wenger and Rodgers, but both of them seem comfortable with finishing in fourth or fifth. Jose just can't take the risk here. Everybody praised Ancelotti for supposedly bringing youth players through the ranks, but the only players he gave consistent chances to were Bruma (who after getting annihilated by Heskey in the 3-3 draw with Villa) and McEachran (who we all vastly overrated on the basis of a half-decent first touch and the ability to play one/two-touch passes). Otherwise we went with the tried and trusted old-timers like Cole, Ballack, Belletti. Yes, you can argue Jose could trust in the youth a little more - but can he afford to? With results being this bad already I don't think he's going to have too many opportunities to do so. You can turn around and say that a kid would player better than any of the first team did in the first half against Newcastle, but this is a quality squad that is unfortunately suffering from a crisis of confidence. You don't become bad players overnight, but to start the likes of Traore or Kenedy over Hazard or Oscar would be ridiculous, because despite having poor matches, it only takes one moment of genius (i.e. the Ramires screamer for the 2-1) to get us back into the game. 3) Trust has to be gained. The players need to seize their opportunities, it's as simple as that. Regardless of how few and far between they are, if you want to play for the top clubs you've got to take those chances. How many 18 year olds do Real Madrid play? One or two, yes - when they're 4-0 up and can afford to bring off one of their multiple superstars. We don't have that luxury. I think we have an outstandingly good youth academy and there are one or two diamonds like Charlie Colkett who could go on to become special, special players. But they won't get too many chances at a club that has to win every game, hence why they go out on loan - and if they can't do it in League 1, for instance, then we know it's unlikely they'll be able to do it in a Champions League semi-final in the Camp Nou.

I've found a third option:

Precisely. The 2010/11 season was abysmal. Granted we weren't helped by long-term injuries to Lampard and Drogba's bout of malaria, plus the whole Torres fiasco which destroyed the team's shape and balance, but the football we played was worse than what we've ever seen under Mourinho. And 71 points in the league that season was pathetic. Arguably the worse United side in history and we finished nine points behind them. The same people who want Mou out now were probably calling for his head in 2007 but then singing his name at Birmingham in the FA Cup in di Matteo's first game, after AVB had been sacked. Football is fickle but the fans are even worse. Let's stick by Jose because he's done a hell of a lot more good for this club than bad. Playing for Middlesbrough and doing well for Swansea is a far-cry from doing the same at a world-class football club with ambitions of silverware though, Ron. The way people on here generally over-rate our former youth products amazes me. Shall we re-sign Lalkovic because he forced Begovic into a save from the free-kick leading to Walsall's goal, too?

The table shouldn't even be looked at until after at least 10 games. By then I'm sure we'll be in double figures

Of ye of little faith! We'll do it!

Precisely. Despite being a goalkeeper coach, the best I can do for any young goalkeeper is, in these moments, to pray that nobody gets a touch and you can make a catch. But effectively, good free-kicks from that position are as dangerous as shots from six yards out - the goalkeeper can't commit as even the slightest touch off of anyone can deviate the path of the ball and result in a goal. Essentially, a GK can't react until the ball is either a; in the six-yard box, or b; has been touched by a player and directed on target. In either case, because of how late and fast attackers can get across the line of the ball, all you can go is pray that it doesn't go in. It's the hardest thing for a goalkeeper to face and I certainly didn't envy Tim Krul the moment it left Willian's boot. It had "goal" written all over it.

I understand people's frustrations, but making Mourinho solely culpable for the failings of the players is too convenient an excuse, in my opinion. He deserves his share of the blame but anyone calling for his head is making a severe over-reaction in my book. Okay, it is his job to set the team up and organise us tactically, etc., and to motivate the players, but the fact is we're still playing catch-up with everybody after our belated start to pre-season. I wholeheartedly believe we'll come good around Christmas and put a United-esque run together to get back into title contention. But with 93 points left to play for, I'm not worried just yet. Still a long time to go and we're just on a bad run. This is the fickle nature of football. Ancelotti's second season was amongst the darkest days in Chelsea's recent history, and the root cause of our failings up until Mourinho's return (his failure to replace key members of the squad, i.e. Carvalho, Ballack, Joe Cole, as well as his inability to instigate a period of transition between Mourinho's first squad and an overhaul of younger players being his biggest fault). Be careful what you wish for.

You're allowed to go mental at him - but he's a kid. He'll make these mistakes. I'm just glad people don't think he alone is the answer to our defensive crisis, because he isn't!

I would call them brilliant, rather than lucky. Okay, yes, hugely fortunate - but you hear people talk about free-kicks being that good that they "only need a touch" and it's an automatic goal. These deliveries didn't even need a touch to go in. Put into exactly the right area with whip and pace. A goalkeeper's nightmare. Both undefendable. Cracking stuff and we finally have a player who can deliver from set-pieces. We've missed that certain someone since Lampard left.

We're going to win the CL.

The amount of entitlement on this board is embarrassing. It's like you think we should automatically be top of the table regardless of performances. Football doesn't work that way. We're going through a blip but there have been worse moments than this. People are quick to forget the Villas-Boas/di Matteo/Benitez era and even the Avram Grant days. Considering we're in a real shit moment, and that Newcastle always raise their game against us, we have to be happy with the point, especially considering we were 0-2 down. That's a point gained on last season's result. Beat Southampton on Saturday and we'll have gained three points on last season's corresponding fixtures.

Ramires in the last two games = the Ramires of 2012. He's back.

You're really clutching at straws. What proof do you have that he is sexist? Because he fired a woman? Behave. Go and do a Google search for "straw man argument" and you'll be able to pick out all the flaws in your supposed 'reasoning'.

People like to be outraged for the sake of having something to complain about. If people really care that much, I'd hate to see how they cope with saying goodbyes to people who are actually in their real lives

This is a real topic?

It seems to be that you're calling José sexist because of what has happened. If he'd have had the same showdown with a male physio (which, in fact, he did, with Jon Fearn), would you be calling him sexist then? No. Stop playing the gender card. It's boring. If you don't like José, too bad for you, but let me just put something into perspective for you:

Why are we "back in the title race", may I ask? We were never out of it.