BlueLion.

There are few better headers I've seen than that.

Yes. 300+ games. In his eighth season with the club. Won the Prem, the League Cup, the FA Cup (three times), the Champions League, and the Europa League. You can add the Community Shield in there as well if you like. Legend doesn't do him justice.

You called?

A fair point. Willian is effectively undroppable at the minute given his form.

I agree with this post in most aspects. I think a lot of people on this forum are dismissive of de Gea. I think he is a very good goalkeeper. He has always been a good shotstopper - I think he is slightly better than Thibaut in this regard, but there is only a small difference; Courtois is still a very good shotstopper - but now de Gea is also starting to improve his all-round game. His distribution is excellent and his strength and physical conditioning has allowed him to become a good goalkeeper aerially as well. However, apart from shotstopping, I think Courtois beats de Gea on almost every other element of his game. As you say, he has adapted to the Premier League in a third of the time it took de Gea. Courtois is still also young; I think by the time he reaches the age of 24 he will probably be even better than he already is. Its a very subjective thing to list, but I think the impressive thing about Courtois is that when you talk about the world's five best goalkeepers - who in my opinion are Neuer, Courtois, Cech, Buffon and Hugo Lloris, Courtois is by far the youngest on that list. He has room to grow and I think when he reaches Neuer's age he will have surpassed him, or at least equalled him. Even so there is little difference even now. But my point is that whilst there are many impressive and exciting young goalkeepers - de Gea, Lopes (Olympique Lyonnais), Leno (Leverkusen), ter Stegen, Scuffet (Udinese) to name but a few - Courtois is already head and shoulders above them. That excites me! But can you remember when we had two genuinely world class goalkeepers? I can't. No other club in the history of world football has (probably, anyway). Not to Cech and Courtois' level.

Serie A is a very good league but the proof is in the pudding in terms of the Premier League being a more intensive experience from a physical perspective. The pace of the game in England is relentless, bettered only by the Bundesliga in my opinion. In Italy, the game is generally played at a more serene pace, less blood and thunder. Hence why Salah, someone who has come from the Premier League, has adapted to a slower style of football than Cuadrado has to a faster style. Admittedly he isn't getting any favours by being an 80th minute substitute every other game, but Mourinho has to play his strongest XI in virtually every match and that means Hazard and either Willian or Rami on the wing.

In all fairness you assumed correctly in this instance.

Your member title is "Alex is a rentboy" so you deserve all you get biatch

You'd find this slander would actually enhance your reputation. Peasant.

Hazard is damn close. Besides the odd glimpse he was all flair no end product in his first season. Schurrle and KdB - in my opinion it is arguable the two of them will go on to become very good footballers, but world class? I can't see that. But either way, this isn't FIFA15. You can't have a squad of brilliant players, it doesn't work. Look at City.

capricious kəˈprɪʃəs/ adjective given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour. "a capricious and often brutal administration" synonyms: fickle, inconstant, changeable, variable, unstable, mercurial, volatile,erratic, vacillating, irregular, inconsistent, fitful, arbitrary.

It is pretty fucking incredible that we have the second- and third-best goalkeepers in world football. I'm just gonna enjoy this season for that reason, for me being a goalkeeper and especially with Cech being an inspiration to me in the way he overcame that severe head injury, this is a pretty special rivalry.

He has, but after his start... 7 in his first four games, etc., its easy to see why people have revised their targets to more ambitious ones. I still think he'll reach 25 for the season which represents a stunning first season. Even when he is not scoring he is an absolute fucking nightmare. The amount of attention defenders have to pay to him is obscene. I genuinely think its because we have a brilliant striker that Eden has been able to shine this season. With Torres you could almost leave him be because 9 times in 10 he was borderline useless. All teams that play a similar style to our counter-attacking football need a striker to do the team's donkey-work.

Again, why? He's shown he doesn't want to be a squad player, and rightfully so. He's a top talent and deserves game time!

If we fuck it up from here, the club should sack Mourinho :lol:

We've got our Ramires back

I don't see why he'd want to leave Wolfsburg. Can see them seriously challenging Bayern in the next couple of seasons.

When we're under the cosh and defending deep, as we were in the second half, the bloke is a champion. However when we're playing with the higher defensive block, he looks like Bambi on ice. A frustrating defender to watch because he can go from epic to shit and vice versa in minutes. Cahill isn't a bad defender, he is just a little limited. Unlike Terry, he doesn't have the ability to read the game that well and he doesn't really have the greatest turn of pace either.

Courtois vs Cech would be the best boxing bout of our generation, ngl

Ramires = King. We've got our Rami back.

May I also welcome jnenclares17 to the team!

Chelsea took a giant three points thanks to a gritty performance and Eden Hazard's first-half header. The diminutive Belgian headed home from six yards after a lightning Chelsea counter-attack culminated with the former Lille man converting from Ramires' deft right wing cross. After a cagey opening five minutes full of plenty of endeavour but little easy-on-the-eye football, the game exploded into life when, moments after Hammers defender Winston Reid hobbled off, Diego Costa failed to punish the host's reorganised back four as he failed to convert from Oscar's incisive pass. That opportunity saw the game spark into a whirlwind contest of flowing counter-attacking football, with each side taking turns to trade blows. But after Thibaut Courtois - reinstated into the starting eleven after sitting out Sunday's Capital One Cup final victory over Tottenham - had done well to save from Cheikhou Kouyate's close-range shot, it was the visitors who landed the first punch. An initial counter-attack looked to have broken down when Cesc Fabregas dawdled in possession, but the Spaniard showed the guile to turn and feed Ramires, who in turn was able to float the ball onto the forehead of Hazard, and the midfield magician duly notched his fourteenth goal of a productive season. Replays indicated Hazard was marginally offside, but with myriad decisions going against Chelsea this season, with the Premier League title chase in full flow it would appear that the Blues' luck may finally be turning. Costa then wasted a chance he would surely have converted earlier in the season; bearing down on goal he allowed Carl Jenkinson the time to make a wonderful recovery challenge. At the opposite end, the Hammers, fuelled by what they deemed to be the injustice of the opening goal, went close to restoring parity when Diafra Sakho met Jenkinson's cross but could only find the gloves of Courtois. West Ham emerged reinvigorated after the interval and dominated the first ten minutes of the second period in terms of possession and territory, but it was José Mourinho's side who had the chance to effectively end the contest when Ramires stole forward and hit the base of the post from another flowing counter. Hazard was once more the instigator, and Ramires was terribly unlucky not to score - showing great composure under pressure, he checked inside one defender before seeing the ball cannon off the inside of the post and somehow role into the grateful palms of Adrian. The West Ham goal was leading a charmed life, and Adrian showed near-elasticity to repel another effort from Ramires just moments later; sticking out a long leg to deflect the ball away from danger. Courtois, who has had to perform brilliantly in recent weeks considering the form of the Blues' "back-up" stopper Petr Cech, justified his selection with a terrific save from Sakho, who was causing a degree of panic in the Chelsea penalty area. The Belgian keeper twice smothered attempts from the Senegalese forward, who was cursing his fortune in front of goal. Sakho, the victim of a vicious elbow by Crystal Palace's Mile Jedinak on Saturday, showed no ill-effects of that blow with this performance and was again unfortunate not to capitalise on an error by Courtois. The Belgian failed to grasp an initial shot, but before Sahko could fire home the rebound, a wonder-block by Gary Cahill saw the ball somehow smuggled behind for a corner kick. The Blues were under relentless pressure, with Sam Allardyce's side's performance defying the critics who have claimed the Hammers' season has stagnated since their FA Cup exit at the hands of West Bromwich Albion last month, and the home side were adamant they should have had a penalty when Kouyate ran into the back of John Terry, though Andre Marriner rightly dismissed those claims. There were muted appeals for a Cahill handball when substitute Nene's strike hit the forearm of the England vice-captain, but again Marriner - who minutes later would also correctly turned down similar Chelsea appeals at the other end - was on hand to make the call. Hazard and Willian combined to ruin what would have been a classic sucker punch moment following a final fifteen minutes which certainly belonged to Allardyce's men after a spirited showing - but ultimately, in shades of Ewood Park in 2005, this signifies a massive step for Chelsea in their tilt for title glory. Click here to view the article

Onside IMO.

that's the thing, we don't have to sell him. If we do, he'll command a decent fee.

Great review mate. Glad you might be able to make this a regular column between now and the end of the season.