BlueLion.

Match ratings Petr Cech - 6 - disappointingly little was offered by Blackburn, but Cech did all he had to well Bosingwa - 8 - superb performance from Bosingwa; a sign he is back to his best, or at least close Terry - 7 - a solid match at the back, a typical sturdy performance Ivanovic - 8 - like Terry, he was rock solid defensively and scored a goal and set the other up Cole - 7 - excellent throughout offensively, and did his defensive duty as well Essien - 6 - an energetic performance at times, and signs he is getting back into the swing of things Lampard - 8 - again, super Frank was indeed super Ramires - 9 - man of the match, a dynamic and energetic performance; and he almost got the goal he deserved Anelka - 7 - after his recent criticisms, it was refreshing to see Anelka back in goalscoring forms Malouda - 7 - like Anelka, a far better performance Drogba - 4 - fookin' shite Subs - McEachran - 6 Sturridge - 6 Kalou - 6

Drogba is a disgrace. He's just walking around, sulking.

Whats the point in five minutes for Sturridge?

City 4-3 Wolves

Ramires has been absolutely brilliant today. So unlucky not to score earlier as well.

Fucking hell, Didier, shite.

Last time I checked Toure and Toure had scored...

Drogba's been pony I'm afraid. Anelka and Malouda have had good games, however.

Ivanovic for the golden boot!

The referee is fucking awful, we're playing against 12 men (12 defenders).

Anelka's enjoying a good game in my opinion, but he needs to put a chance away whilst he can.

Ramires has been superb.

Is Drogba even on the pitch?

Drogba should have done better there.

Really? Ramires is in good form, Lampard simply wouldn't be dropped and Essien always seems to play well alongside those two...

Surprise surprise.

And I heard neither of them happened.

Agreed on your first point. Match fitness seems to come hand-in-hand for footballers, since the sport is very much so a game of confidence. The thing is with Kalou is he tries - a point I've made so many times I'm bored of typing it. But as you say, I am only a moderate Kalou supporter, I have my criticisms of him as well. I think he has shown very little development since coming to the club. But I have no issue with a player such as he scoring a dozen goals every season considering in fairness his overall contribution (in terms of goals and assists) is good considering his minutes on the pitch. If the player can accept he is playing below par (take note, Didier), and can improve, I'll be happy. I just think the reason why I refuse to condemn Kalou is because he doing neither better nor worse than any other player in the squad at this moment in time.

Care to enlighten us? Because as far as I'm concerned, you're not living in reality. The days of us buying players for £30 million have LONG since gone. Exactly. Pinenaar is a proven player in the Premier League, equally capable of scoring and creating goals as he is at defending. He is an excellent, dynamic midfielder and would fit easily into the Chelsea system.

The fact we're paying £3 million now demonstrates a - how serious Ancelotti is to bring fresh blood in to the team, and b - that we need to be buying players. Your point about Ozil is a fair one, but why would he want to come to Chelsea over Madrid? We simply don't have the financial pulling power any more, and we have to be contented with this type of signing, because it'll be a rare occurrence that we'll spend more than that on a footballer over the next couple of years.

Carlo Ancelotti appears to have survived the axe, for the moment at least, but some of his most senior players may not be so lucky. The Chelsea manager is considering leaving out either Didier Drogba or Michael Essien, or even both, for today's home game with Blackburn Rovers, and pitching into their places a pair of young Englishmen. Daniel Sturridge is the only striker in real form at the club. He scored twice in last Sunday's 7-0 demolition of Ipswich Town in the FA Cup third round, following five goals for the reserves against Tottenham Hotspur three days earlier, and is pushing to replace Drogba. Last season's Golden Boot winner has struggled for form this season, with eight Premier League goals from 20 appearances, including a hat-trick in the opening game against West Bromwich Albion. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/Drogba-and-essien-pay-price-of-chelsea-slump-2185039.html

Another pointless reply in a Kalou thread? *yawn* Although I actually agree with you, the Kalou debate is a boring one now. There are the people who support him - some of whom not to look fickle when he scores, some of whom just have genuine faith in the bloke - and the people who don't like him. I support the player because he tries, which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for some members of the squad, whether they're tired or not. They're paid millions to run around for 90 minutes on a Saturday. Fucking hell, my dad's nearly 60 and he goes running for up to two hours on a weekend.

I'll repeat a point I made in another thread, as I think it is relevant - I think the reason we're buying this type of player is because of the UEFA financial fair play rules. Roman wants us to break even and I can honestly see us maintaining this conservative approach to the transfer market whilst we're attempting to break even. In a few years' time, where we should be operating at a profit, I can see us making a few more 'marquee' signings, but until then, we're going to have to look at pulling off coups and putting faith in the kids, whilst bringing in players like Benayoun and Pienaar to act as stop-gaps whilst the kids mature and are developing.

As much faith as I have in McEachran and Kakuta, it is going to be another couple of seasons before they are regulars - two seasons where Pienaar can act as the stop-gap at £3 million, as opposed to signing someone for ten times that.

Another highly-rated youngster that every club in Europe is linked with. No chance we'll sign him, he'll end up in Spain or Italy guaranteed. If he does come to England, it'll be to join City. We just don't have the financial power any more, and people should realise that. Abramovich poured £700 million into the club, and he is now understandably being more conservative with his spending (and I can see why quite clearly, in fairness). The days of spending £20 million + on players are long gone - it looks like we'll be making one 'marquee' signing each window and then the rest of the players will be less than £10 million - a more sustainable, Arsenal-like approach.I think Abramovich is concerned with the UEFA Champions League financial fair play ruling, and because we're so close to breaking even I can see why he doesn't want to start buying massively again until we are operating at a profit. As far as I'm concerned, we'll see another two to three years of this conservative and sustainable approach to the transfer market, and then go all guns blazing afterwards.