BlueLion.

Really? I must have missed that.

It has come my attention a member on this forum may have potentially fraudulently taken money from another member after taking payment for match tickets. Anyone who is caught doing this will have their details passed onto the Police. You'd be surprised just what information we can pull from the Admin CP. Your details will be shared with the relevant authorities and Chelsea Football Club will also be informed of your actions. May everyone heed this as a warning.

We win and it's the player's who deserve all the plaudits. We lose and Mourinho is a clueless cunt. I'm not sure what has annoyed me most today; being criticised for not being a proper Chelsea fan as in the grand scheme of things I'm not overly bothered about the FA Cup, or seeing the same cretins creep out of the woodwork to splurge their dirge across this forum.

So you're questioning my loyalty to Chelsea Football Club because I'm nonplussed about the FA Cup? You have my permission to go and fuck yourself.

I'm obviously speaking hypothetically. If someone offered me the Premier League and that only, I'd bite their arm off.

Feel a bit sorry for him today. A couple of stunning saves, but then he should have kept out Stead's shot, no doubt about it.

I didn't watch the game, nor did I listen to any commentary. I went to watch Derby-Chesterfield with my mate and thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon. When I heard the half-time score of 2-1 I was pleasantly surprised as our first half performances in cup games are usually staid and uninspiring. When I saw the 4-2 final score, I could barely believe my eyes. Then I saw City, Southampton and Spurs are all out. Add United's draw with Cambridge last night and you can see this competition still has a bit of the old spark left. Whoever said the FA Cup is dead? However, this is the calmest, most ambivalent I have ever been about a Chelsea defeat. I wouldn't go as far as saying I don't care, but when I say I was more upset at the fact we "only" won 5-0 at Swansea than I am about this result, I'm not lying. In fact I'm almost relieved. With City losing, us going to a replay and then potentially staying in the FA Cup could have been disastrous, especially with a potential League Cup final on the horizon. City will punish every misstep we take in the Premier League and stretching our clearly thinner-than-first-thought squad across four competitions throughout the season would only lead to disappointment, the same way it did in 2007/08. However some of the reactions on here are hilarious. Yes, José rotated too many players and we were incredibly poor after half-time. But this is the FA Cup. Bradford were absolutely magnificent and I just have to say we were simply beaten by the better team on the day. I'll support them for the remainder of the competition. Let me make this abundantly clear: I'd be happy for Liverpool to stuff us on Tuesday and PSG to do us 6-0 on aggregate if it means we win the Premier League. Four years is too long for a club of our size not to win a league title. In the grand scheme of things, the domestic cups mean nothing.

Would surely need a defender, or at least Matic?

I should have said "in the last ten years". Rooney has never lived up to his potential, though he is a very good player technically.

Got the link for this mate?

My work here is done.

But my point still stands; we can't say Zouma is a Chelsea academy product

Really? I think Drogba has been class every time he's played, though admittedly he was off the pace at the start of the season.

The Zouma deal would only be a loan. He has unreal potential, why sell him?

José Mourinho looks set to secure the arrival of Real Madrid defender Raphaël Varane, with the Blues' Kurt Zouma likely to be loaned to Internazionale Milan. The Daily Express is reporting that Zouma - who only arrived at Chelsea this summer after his initial purchase from and immediate loan back to St Etienne in January 2014 - is likely to move to the Serie A giants to open up a place in Mourinho's squad for Real Madrid's highly-rated Varane. Mourinho is credited with assisting in Varane's breakthrough with the European champions, though the young Frenchman has struggled to secure first-team opportunities under the tenure of Carlo Ancelotti, who has preferred to field Pepe and Sergio Ramos as his defensive pairing. Inter, managed by former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini, have already expressed an interest on taking Zouma on a six-month loan deal, and Chelsea look likely to sanction the move if they can land Varane this month. Manchester United are also reportedly keeping tabs on Varane's situation in Spain - though without the allure of guaranteed European football next season and the potential to challenge for honours, Louis van Gaal has targeted Valencia's experienced Argentine defender Nicolas Otamendi instead.

Needs to play more. Offers more defensive cover than any player I've ever seen because of his work rate, he even makes Essien look lazy. Offensively he can be a nightmare, yes, but in big games when you need to cover that backline? Ramires every time.

This video must be photoshopped, Balotelli's shot went in the net? He and Ross Barkley are the two most technically gifted English players I've ever seen.

He'll score a hattrick against the Scouse on Tuesday.

If Remy goes then it could mean Cuadrado comes in, though. We don't need a second striker when Costa is an untouchable and Didier is happy on the bench. We need more dynamism in midfield because Hazard can't do it all by himself. The only reason we had three forward last year is because they were average at best. When you have one superb striker and a very good one on the bench who is showing no signs of a decline, why waste Loic's potential on the bench? He will return in the summer to be our number two.

That was one element of Josh's game where he struggled, IMO, he was often a little shy when it came to imposing himself physically on the game.

Hazard is most definitely not a product of our academy. He represents direct investment into the academy from elsewhere. That's like claiming Zouma is an academy product when he was produced by St Etienne's prestigious youth academy, which is probably the best in France alongside Lyon.

The worrying thought for me is whilst our goalkeeper(s) and front six are frankly world class, is that at 34 an ageing John Terry - who is clearly struggling with playing on such a regular basis - is both our best and most consistent defender, and even he's had one or two stinkers recently. Our defence is being criticised because it is only a little better than average. Cahill isn't world class. Ivanovic isn't world class, but he tries, and to be fair if he is being told to bomb forward then perhaps it is José who is both overpressuring Willian to come back and mop up defensively and causing Branna to go AWOL. Azpilicueta is a very, very full-back and one of the best one-on-one defenders I've ever seen, so I'm not sure why he's copping any stick. But we need someone who can do the central defensive roles because JT is on a downwards physical slope. He can't cope with 50 games a season any more, and Cahill clearly can't cope with 5! If Jose thinks Zouma is too raw and isn't willing to play him more often then he needs to go and blow £40 million on Hummels, Boateng or Chiellini because we need a solid central defender now to replace Cahill and we'll need another young'un like Varane in the summer to work with Zouma in becoming the new long-term partnership. It isn't ideal but my suggestion would be to retain Azpi/Luis-Terry-Zouma-Ivanovic as our primary defensive four, with Varane arriving in the summer. Cahill can be a decent squad player (being reminded he isn't undroppable could be good in getting him back to his best when he had Luiz for competition), and in Zouma and Varane you have not just the future backbone of Chelsea's defence but the French national side's as well. We don't need to splash the cash on a defender now but we certainly need a long-term investment á la Zouma to complement our current options. And someone tell me why the fuck we let Benatia go and rot at Bayern for pittance? However in regards to being exposed behind the full-backs, someone tell me a team that isn't? The role of the full-backs has evolved and they offer the only genuine width of 90% of the world's top teams. Look at City and Barcelona for instance, what width would they have without their full-backs bombing forward? We just have to grin and bear it, full-backs have to attack these days. We just need a centre back to stiffen the defence up a bit. Mourinho (seems to, at least) thinks curtailing Willian's attacking role in the side and basically playing him as a wing back is the answer. It isn't.

Again you're putting 1 and 1 together and coming out with 462. There is a distinct difference between saying Luiz would be more suited to the system we're playing and saying Luiz would be the defensive saviour of this squad. If anyone is arguing the latter then I can recommend a good psychologist who offers very competitive rates.

Well something is obviously being lost in translation because Luis spends more time in the opposition half than he does in his own, though the sole reason we bought him is because we needed a more offensive left-back to compliment Dave, who is more conservative in his attacking. Agreed, we're not playing as high as AVB had us playing, but that's because José isn't as tactically naive as he was. But we are playing further upfield, and we're doing so with two incredibly slow centre backs, an AWOL right-back in Ivanovic who thinks he's Gareth Bale out on the wing and a clearly knackered CDM in Matic who looks so tired he could nod off in the centre circle.

We're definitely playing a lot higher up the park, which explains why we struggle whenever Matic performs badly. The full-backs are pushing on much, much further this season, splitting the two centre backs who are also pushed much further up the pitch. And it doesn't help that Terry and Cahill are both reactive rather than proactive defenders. True, Luiz often got sucked into challenges he didn't need to make and was on occasional capable of some epic brainfart moments, but his style of play complimented Terry's, much like Gallas' and Carvalho's did. Terry and Cahill are too similar, but even at 34 Terry is playing at a level Cahill can never even imagine reaching. Terry has the ability to read the game and get himself into good positions; his ability to sense danger is incredible, but that comes through experience. He's never been blessed for pace but makes up for it through his awareness, much like his mentor Desailly did. Cahill is a brave, last-ditch defender, but expose him one-on-one and he's toast, and those flaws are being exposed even more by the higher line we're playing. Especially on the ball. Technically, John Terry is an outstanding footballer, easily one of the most underrated players I've ever seen in that regards, especially for a defender. He is comfortable on the ball and can use both feet to play football. Cahill was born and bred a kick-and-go-run defender, lumping the ball 60 yards upfield and hoping a striker can hold it up. It might work with Drogba in the side, but Costa isn't prolific in the air and Willian at 5'8.5" is our next-tallest attacker. He isn't comfortable on the ball and the amount of attacks that break down when he's in possession, because he either a - passes back to the keeper or b - panics and lumps it upfield, is frankly ridiculous. He is suited to park-the-bus tactics and can be made to look like Superman when he has that extra defensive midfield coverage, but because José is finally playing a breed of all-out attacking football in 90% of our games, Cahill is exposed as being what he is - an average centre-back, who as LAM09 has said is only in this squad to meet homegrown quotas.