BlueLion.

Absolutely agreed. Your point on this being a transitional season is something I have been saying for some time - with the ageing squad we have it was going to be inevitable that sooner rather than later, we'd have to go through a season that is sub-par in comparison with recent campaigns. We postponed that by sacking Scolari, but it has caught up with us. The next two-three years will see the rebuilding of this great club, with or without Ancelotti (though hopefully the former).

I was going through my own rep and found TX had given me and every other member who posted in welcome topic negative rep points. I was just trying to sort that out by giving people who posted a neutral rep for their posts to even it out.

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has leapt to the defence of Fernando Torres after a second consecutive performance of disappointing measures. Torres failed to rediscover his spark in a blue shirt on his debut against former club Liverpool, and misfired once again as Fulham held Chelsea to a goalless draw on Monday. The Spaniard made a record £50million move to Stamford Bridge on transfer deadline day last month but is yet to break his scoring duck after missing a series of chances at Craven Cottage. Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti substituted the striker with 19 minutes remaining but Cech believes he has seen enough to be convinced of his credentials as Chelsea look to get their season back on track. He told the club's official website: "I think he made very good movements throughout the 60 or 70 minutes he was on the pitch and he found quite quickly the understanding with everybody. "It wasn't to be to score a goal but it looks very promising," added the Czech Republic international. Luiz Fellow new-boy David Luiz, who made his first start against the Cottagers after coming on as a sub against Liverpool, gifted Fulham an injury-time penalty, which Clint Dempsey saw saved by Cech. Luiz, though, has earned rave reviews for his performance prior to that late mishap, and Cech fully expects the Brazilian to justify the £25million Chelsea paid Benfica for his services. He said: "It just shows why Chelsea bought him because he really is a great addition to the squad. "The way he went to the ball, I sensed he could choose the easy option, which is to go harder and across, so that's why I chose to go there," he said. Chelsea now lie 12 points off Premier League leaders Manchester United and face a fight to finish inside the top four as they currently occupy 5th place with just 12 games remaining. Cech concedes the Blues have given themselves a mountain to climb in terms of retaining their league title, but he will not give up until it is mathematically impossible to overhaul the deficit. "Obviously, we are quite far now because they won their games and we dropped points but there is still a way to go and we will fight to the end," he said. Sky Sports

My dad made me choose: Houseman - Lampard - Makelele - Walker Tambling - Dixon

Blackburn did it in 1884-1885-1886, and Wanders FC (now defunct) did it before them too.

I'm pretty sure we've done nothing wrong. We negotiated through Feyenoord, right? So its the agent thats at fault, its the usual press bollocks.

Think of McEachran as Xavi and Clifford as Gerrard... that's the difference between the two.

Fucking Stoke have won more points than us? Thats embarrassing.

Which is why they're going to win the league.

Our medical team again doing wonders, with a player being out for three and a half months because of a calf strain?! I'm sorry, it does not take that long to get over a calf strain, regardless of how severe. Excuse my naive medical knowledge, but coming from a family of medicine I know that unless there is a complete rupture of the muscle (which requires surgical attention and up to 4 months rehabilitation), there is no way it is just a calf 'strain.'

Absolutely agreed. The likes of Fulham and Liverpool were bogging down the midfield, and unlike in the past, we've not been able to re-establish superiority in the middle of the park. Granted, but nevertheless, we've played better against superior teams than Fulham this season as far as I'm concerned.

It took Drogba until his third game to score, the rest is history. Torres needs time to adapt to a new team.

For the sake of being different, I chose le Saux

Fair point, he was growing into the game. I'd personally have preferred to see Drogba and Torres on the pitch together.

If the Yids win on Tuesday of next week (its an FA Cup weekend this week), we're five points behind them. Oops.

Malouda/Zhirkov/Sturridge - Torres - Alexis Sanchez ???

I absolutely agree. I think that goings on behind the scenes are affecting the players. It was hardly harmonious last season, but the football we played certainly did not betray a lack of confidence.

Torres will come good. I repeat what I said the day after we signed him - that won't happen until next season.

Torres and Sturridge have to be part of our attack from next season onwards. I'll buy Didier's plane tickets if the club want. Its such a shame, the man is a Chelsea legend and his half-heartedness - malaria or otherwise - is seriously tainting the fans' opinions of him.

The system has to change next season. 4-2-3-1 is the only way I can see us being able to cater for all the quality we have in the side: Cech Ivanovic/Bosingwa, Luiz/Alex, Terry, Cole Essien, Mikel/Ramires Malouda/Ramires, Lampard, Zhirkov/Marek Hamsik Torres/Drogba Its a nice and radical thought...

Ancelotti did all he could. He changed the system, he did what we all asked for by bringing in Torres and leaving Drogba on the bench. He made attacking changes, as you'd expect... he can do little more than that.

The thing is, it is very sporadic. The football we played between Ipswich and Sunderland away was actually very good. I thought we'd turned the corner; I imagined the confidence was back and we had a chance of actually being able to push for the title. However, such a naive sentiment was shot to flames last weekend against Liverpool, and we've hardly improved so much since then. I don't think people would be saying yesterday had any positives at all if it wasn't for Cech.

I'm not. It is merely another in a long list of lacklustre attacking displays, undone by a lack of commitment and incision up front.

Response please.

It was so he could attend the public execution of the remnants of his once-unbeatable Chelsea side.