BlueLion.

Would bite your hand off for a draw. City were only playing West Brom last week, although they did look irresistible.

To win the Champions League requires a top squad, a strong manager, and no small amount of good fortune. Michael Ballack once famously said that Chelsea would win the big-eared trophy when they least expected it. He wasn’t wrong. When the Blues beat Bayern Munich in their own back yard in May 2012, they did so with an ageing squad that, compared to the current personnel at Stamford Bridge, certainly lacked for world-class quality in one or two positions. For all the experience that Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech brought to the table, the Blues’ starting eleven in the Allianz Arena included the likes of Ryan Bertrand, Salomon Kalou, José Bosingwa and John Obi Mikel; players who may not be short of heart and effort but most definitely have their technical shortcomings. Whilst Chelsea don’t have the best squad in Europe – though, that being said, they didn’t in 2012 either – their ace in the hole is their manager, José Mourinho. The best tactical mind in football, Mourinho managed his side to the dominance of a domestic double in 2014/15 and next on the agenda is European honours with the Blues. One or two signings may have to be made, but the latest Champions League betting tips certainly take the Special One’s genius into account. Many football fans – including some Chelsea supporters – believe the Blues’ current squad is short of one or two players that would really give them another shot at a Champions League triumph, but if the West London outfit can muster the same grim determination, and benefit from similar good fortune, as they did under Roberto di Matteo in 2012, there is no reason why José Mourinho’s men can’t be celebrating a second European Cup success next May. Defensively, Chelsea were a shambles in 2012. The ragged partnership of David Luiz and Gary Cahill somehow stood firm in the way of exceptional odds in the Munich showpiece, whilst Bosingwa had to operate as a makeshift centre-half in that spectacular comeback in the Camp Nou. Three seasons on, and whilst Chelsea’s defence hasn’t improved to a spectacular degree, the current centre-back pairing of Cahill and the revitalised John Terry has given the Blues a strong foundation, whilst Cesar Azpilicueta is as good a full-back there is currently on the European circuit. Whilst there may be concerns about the form of Branislav Ivanovic, with the world’s best young goalkeeper behind them in Thibaut Courtois, there is no reason why a Chelsea side that so often sets up deep against more attack-minded teams can’t find success in Europe again. An area where Mourinho’s side has improved dramatically in the past twelve months is in central midfield, with the arrivals of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas giving the Blues a powerful combination of defensive steel and attacking nous. With the dynamism of Eden Hazard on the left wing and the more defensively-orientated Willian on the opposite side, there is a good degree of versatility in the Blues’ midfield, which can, when needed, be set up to play in both an aggressive, attacking manner, or in a more compact fashion. Up front, the Blues have firepower on par with most European sides. Diego Costa is, without doubt, one of Europe’s premier strikers, with very few individuals able to boast the same impressive goalscoring statistics as Chelsea’s number 19. Whilst sides such as Barcelona have an imposing offensive trinity in Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, Chelsea are an altogether different kind of beast that relies heavily on their striker being the focal point of, and foil for, their attacking play. With Radamel Falcao and Loic Remy waiting in the wings, the Blues certainly don’t lack for striking options from the bench, and there is plenty of goalscoring support from deeper in the team, too. As Juventus showed in last season’s run to the Berlin final, it takes tactical excellence, defensive discipline, and no shortness in firepower to put a run together in the Champions League. Who would bet against Mourinho and his men upsetting the odds once more and making it three European trophies in five seasons? I certainly won’t… Click here to view the article

Busted. Totally agree, with all due respect to Dortmund there is a reason he isn't playing at a giant club; it's because he's overrated as a defender and actually is overshadowed at national level by Mertesacker, IMO. For some reason Hummels would be at least a £50 million signing but I would go as far as saying he isn't as good as Cahill in terms of pure 7/10 consistency.

Yeah there was no point carrying on with the discussion as I was asleep by 10pm last night But the world would be a boring place if we all agreed on everything.

Judging by the size of his hands he's probably packing some heat. Secondly, judging by the size of his wallet.... it's no surprise, really. Considering how good he is at dealing with crosses, I'm just hoping he doesn't catch something else with all this cavorting...

[a] Firstly, we can only deal with the facts. We don't know whether Eva will be on the bench or not on Sunday; this could all be hearsay. What we do know is José has publicly called her out, which I have already said I totally disagree with. However, look at what the media are talking about. They're spouting bollocks about a "crisis" and focusing on off-the-pitch antics rather than what happened on the pitch on Sunday. That, you can say, is a successful deflection away from his side, which is the most important element of the club. José losing it on the touchline was stupid, but I firmly believe he has purposefully made the comments he has made to keep the press talking about some imaginary "feud" that will all be forgotten should we blow City away on Sunday, which, amidst all this furore, is looking increasingly possible. Mourinho has an almighty ego and that is to the benefit of the club. He makes sure the papers are focused on him. Would we have had such a slump in Ancelotti's second season if he had a Mourinho-esque attitude? The papers certainly wouldn't have been scapegoating individual players if all the attention had have been on him. With regards to your point about José berating Hazard - I'd say that's actually counter-productive to your argument. The season after that dressing down, Hazard goes on to win the Player of the Year award. With Mata, too - José told him what he had to do to earn his place back in the side. Mata didn't oblige. José uses the press extremely effectively, but he consistently takes a risky attitude towards the situation as it can, like in this episode, backfire somewhat. As for your second point which you are basing on the evidence of one Premier League match (you surely can't be referring to games during the second half of last season; we were consistently superior in the second half of matches from January onwards, compared to the first half of the season where we'd dominate the first 45 minutes and fade away, which cost us in games vs United, City, Newcastle, etc.), there is absolutely no point even discussing it. You can't possibly bring pre-season matches into the equation. And, until more fitness is achieved, of course the players are going to look jaded and performances will drop in the second half of matches. These are people, not machines. Mental fitness + physical fitness = match fitness. And since it will be weeks before the players achieve physical fitness, let alone mental fitness, we're a long way from the outcome of that equation. Let's analyse first half and second half performances once the team has eased itself into the season. I can't really be bothered going into much more detail than this as I'm tired and have had a stressful day - we'll have to agree to disagree. I just think José has acted very deliberately to move the attentions of the press away from his unfit and underperforming players (on the basis of Sunday's game). What I don't appreciate is people (this isn't aimed at you; it's aimed at others) accusing people such as me as being pro-Mourinho and backing him when he's in the wrong. He's quite clearly ended up with egg on his face here, but I believe he's manipulated the situation to make sure people aren't talking about how useless Hazard was, about how diabolical Ivanovic was, about how vulnerable the centre-backs seemed, and how (un)fit Fabregas and Matic looked. I suppose the point I'm trying to arrive at is that what's been said has been said, and there's no point denigrating the man who led us to a Double last season. That's even more daft than Mourinho's rant. But let's be honest here, the person who turned this into a full-blown war was Eva and her poorly timed Facebook status. Let's not blow smoke up anyone's arse. I might read this post back in a week and disagree with myself, but for the time being I see no reason to hail Mourinho as the Anti-Christ as so many seem hellbent on doing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24155092

Two words: deflection policy. Everyone is slagging him off, rather than focusing on the fact that, on the pitch, we're lightyears behind where we were this time last season. José loves the attention, but he does it to stop the papers from focusing on what was a turgid performance against Swansea (even when we had 11 on the pitch). I don't quite know what you're alluding to with the second part of your post. It seems you are insinuating that A; Mourinho's team-talk demotivated the players, and B; that it is his fault that Courtois suffered from a brainfart, and by extension that it is José's fault that Thibaut got himself sent off. I totally disagree with the way José has acted in relation to this situation, but some of the posts on here are incredulous. I can honestly say that Benitez got less flack than Mourinho is copping at the minute, totally unfair.

Meh. Sorry to say but, after that one good (half) season under AVB, he did next to nothing. Offers a little more offensively than Mikel, but nowhere near as composed on the ball, nor defensively disciplined inasmuch as maintaining the team's shape/balance. Wish him all the best, but we have better options than him already at the club, even Mikel counts as one of those options. He isn't going to start ahead of Matic or Ramires, and MvG is likely to at least get one more season to prove himself.

FFS, you've now got me looking on Google for "hot" pictures of a bloke. My life is in tatters.

Lad.

He's also weirdly good-looking, definite "weird man-crush" material. Which is a bonus as the majority of our squad is fugly.

Fuck off. If anyone deserves a shot, it's Moses. Had a decent year at Stoke and offers us a very decent option on the bench. Plus he stops Cuadrado from being anywhere near the matchday 18.

Exactly. If Eva wasn't a she, and extremely attractive, there wouldn't be even half of the nonsense that we're seeing on here. If you all want to choose a doctor over the best manager in the club's history, then I'm chuffed to bits for you.

Roman > José > every other fucker at the club. People only give a shit because Eva is a female and hot. If it was some spotty male teenager, people wouldn't really give a shit. José is flexing his muscles, but this is possibly also just pure bollocks. We'll see on Sunday. Ultimately Eva is replaceable. José, not quite so.

He is a limited defender - but the sad story is he is actually one of the best in PL. That's how poor the quality of defending is in this league.

I do. It's all because of that post-season tour to Australia at the end of last season.

Of course he will. If we try and attack we'll get beat, it's quite a simple scenario at the minute. For the next month or so we need to grind out results whilst we accrue match fitness. We're a good few weeks behind most clubs in that regard.

£14 million? Excellent if true.

No-one likes us. We don't care.

It's like having a review left late on in Test cricket. You might as well ask for a referral even when you know there's no chance of it.

Great point. I hadn't thought of that. Stones would be such a massive investment we'd almost be forced into playing him at times. I doubt José would get bullied by the media but he'd certainly have to play his hand after moaning so much about a lack of investment this pre-season.

We should turn to Everton, tell them to fuck themselves, and go and get Varane instead IMO. There's an absolute gulf between the two in terms of ability, but surely the €48 million Everton want for Stones would be enough to secure Varane's signature?

Martinez is so naive it's unreal.

Nothing to do with being flexible, just got saggy bollocks

Or Ivanovic