BlueLion.

Defence is moreorless nailed on to be Ferreira - Ivanovic - Terry - Cole, since there is no Bosingwa and Luiz is ineligible. I hope to see a Lampard-McEachran-Mikel midfield (giving Essien and Ramires a rest before Tuesday), but this is largely wishful thinking.

I see your point now. Agreed on all parts.

Como esta! Welcome

I was anticipating he would be wearing his shooting boots as opposed to the slippers he used.

[stephen Fry]Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome and welcome to you! [/stephen Fry]

Ivanovic will score this weekend. I can feel it in my waters...

We'll need a lot of luck, granted, but so has every team that's won the competition in the last seven-eight years. Liverpool finished 5th when they won it, remember...

Since it's not even transfer season...

Cunts.

Good post. Hazard is exceptional. I'd love to see THE SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES or CHICAGO FIRE beat Olympique Lyonnais, Girondins de Bordeuax or Olympique de Marseilles.

No.

I don't think he'll go. But I think its best if he does. Best for Sturridge, anyway.

I hope this is a generalisation... The fact of the matter is I believe Ramires is a superb signing. He has adapted quicker than I anticipated - and at 23 he can at least continue to perform at this level, or even improve.

Exactly. Yury is no saviour but his pace and creativity will at least give us another dimension; as opposed to the tactics of our current quota of wingers, which seemed limited to running walking around like a headless chicken. No.

I want to pick up on the points you made which I have emboldened. 1 - it may be appalling to you, but until now, there has been no need to make world-class signings. The squad we had last season was one of the strongest in the history of Chelsea Football Club, and whilst we did let a lot of quality but ageing players leave, the squad that started this season with back-to-back 6-0 wins and won 11 of their first 14 Premier League matches is the same squad as the one that has picked up just four wins in the last ten. 2 - you've acknowledged the exact reason why we haven't gone out and spent countless millions on talent... 3 - no-one was calling for them to be replaced in the summer. It was the perfect chance to bring the youth through that moreorless everyone was calling for. (Now I've said that, I expect at least a dozen people reading this to say "Erm, no; I didn't," but my point is the general consensus was it was an opportunity for the youth to be introduced to the first team. 4 - its easy to say that now, but I repeat a point I've already made - the squad has only improved since August-time. 5 - ^ this.

Early April return to training I imagine - I can't see him playing until May.

The Premier League is the best league in the world. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan et al may be some of the best teams, but the best overall league is the English top division, whether you like it or not.

What's your point? I don't mean to sound rude here... but he scores against those three teams; who's to say he puts away one of Torres' chances against Fulham, or even gets a shot away in the Liverpool match? That's like saying we should not have sold Duff because 4 years later he scores a goal against Newcastle...

Added another question to the poll.

Spot on, Kez.

As far as I'm concerned it is absolutely fine for people to criticise. Its human nature, after all. The criticism should always be backed up with evidence - the amount of times you read something like 'Drogba is shit' as an isolated statement with no back-up drives me insane. Criticism - to a point - is acceptable. We only criticise since we care.

He's been our best midfielder this season in my opinion.

If Andy Carroll is worth £35 million, we've got value for money as far as I'm concerned.

Why, because he's Brazilian? I know the old adage. The English invented football, the Brazilians perfected it. But that doesn't stop the world's top five players being Argentine, Portuguese and Spanish.

I was going to take away about 95% of the negative rep you'd given, but I then realised I could neither be arsed or be bothered enough by it to go that far. Five or six, yeah, but ten times that would just bore me I think.