BlueLion.

or maybe Viagra so we can get past a semi in the cup

I don't see any reason why he won't, tbh, he's been the designated cup keeper from the off!

Reus isn't injury prone. Injury prone means he physiologically isn't up to the stresses of being a footballer. Being targeted by the opposition and quite literally taken out game after game is an entirely different thing.

Yes, but not with any positional discipline... he'll have to be more defensively minded, á la Fernandinho/Fernando.

Doing that he'd probably have to withdraw Toure into a central position and drop one of Navas or Nasri, which is where most of City's width comes from. Just think two strikers would upset the balance of City's present system.

But when they did it was always one playing as a striker and one playing off almost in a free role. The archetypal 4-4-2 is now dead; if City played with two strikers then one played in a withdrawn position in a 4-4-1-1 at best, or if they played together as genuine strikers (which I genuinely can't remember, though I find City's brand of football boring and thus can't stand to watch them) then it was only on a few occasions.

In terms of balance, we piss all over Madrid IMO. In terms of pure attacking firepower, as you say, Madrid easily top the bill. But I'd pick that Chelsea six over that Madrid six any day of the week.

Agreed but I can't for the life of me remember Pellegrini playing with two up top at all either last season or when he was Malaga? There were times when he'd play two of Dzeko/Negredo/Aguero up top when chasing a game but I can only ever remember him starting games with one striker.

Defensively he's very easy to beat when isolated one-on-one. When he's hunting down the opposition as part of a pack he's great, but when he's targeted he is a weak link, no doubt about it. Going forward he's a joy to watch, very exciting. Even if he did accidentally block one of Hazard's shots yesterday

They were horrific yesterday. P.S.: allez l'OL! They've been brilliant to watch this season. 2-0 up at half-time versus Toulouse. Puts them top as things stand. #8?

If we sign Reus, I'd go as far as saying we'd have the best front six in world football.

Is that a new formation? Would like to see us try that.

This is called an article. If I posted this in the Courtois thread it wouldn't get the forum any hits, plus the article would have thousands of unrelated replies. And let's be fair, this is a discussion about Cech as much as Courtois. So should I post it in Cech's topic as well?

Would anyone begrudge Cech if was more or less rotated as number one with Thibaut between now and the end of the season? 12 more appearances and he passes the 500 game mark. 7 more clean sheets in the PL and he's the top goalkeeper in the competition's history in every possible statistic. I can see him making those dozen appearances across all competitions (potentially 3 more League Cup games to play, could be a fair few FA Cup matches as well, and he's been our designated UCL keeper this season, so why not?) but the clean sheets record is just beyond him. His ratio is 0.49 clean sheets per game, so he'd need to play 15 more league games (in theory) to attain that record. Unless José is a canny sod and plays Cech against all the teams we're basically guaranteed clean sheets in

Has he had a bad game for us yet? The moment in the second half where he picked up the ball on the edge of the box, had no pass on, so he just bombed forward with surprising speed and played the ball out wide into Hazard. Class. Very tidy little player and far more comfortable on Cahill who tends to hoof the ball upfield. I'll be surprised if Cahill isn't recalled at Swansea though.

I liked this only for the first sentence. I don't think you can attribute the blame to Courtois for any of Spurs' goals. Kane's goals were epic, Chadli's was an horrific deflection, the penalty was unstoppable and Rose's was down to sheer bad luck. I miss Cech playing, always will be my favourite Chelsea player and an inspiration. He's the reason I became a goalkeeper.

I would say the only AM who has been more consistent than Oscar this season is Sigurdsson, but when Oscar is at his best he's different gravy.

Yeah sorry about that, can't help being a boss when it comes to these articles though

Spot on, if it was serious then Blackman would be on the bench. However why risk even a slight injury when you have a guy with 225 clean sheets for the club on the bench?

One of the players in this picture is someone who gave their all to Chelsea even when things didn't go well. The other is Frank Lampard. Already it seems such a long time ago since these two were wearing the #8 and #9 though.

What a waste. I'd take Jovetic though....

Yup: http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/jamal-blackman-returns-chelsea-having-8382609 Blackman leaving is the reason why Kalas' loan to Boro was finalised.

Agreed, can't be that serious, but it is increasingly easy for goalkeepers to play with broken digits (trust me, I'm talking from experience). Neuer had these SMUs made up in 2013 so he could play with a broken finger: It's a risk, but if necessary then you can play with a broken finger. It obviously isn't a bad break or he'd have been subbed off at Spurs and wouldn't have been on the bench yesterday. But why risk him when you have a quality GK on the bench?

Messi is arrogant and selfish below the surface. Ronaldo is just arrogant and selfish.

Thibaut Courtois has a broken thumb, according to Chelsea assistant manager Steve Holland. Holland, standing in for José Mourinho for the Blues' obligated pre- and post-match press conferences, announced that the Belgian broke the thumb on his left hand during Chelsea's defeat at White Hart Lane on New Year's Day. Confirming that the injury was not terminal, Holland explained that the decision to retain fans' favourite Petr Cech in goal was so that Courtois' ailment would not be risked. "It was something that Thibaut picked up in the game against Tottenham", he said. "If it had been vital to play he could but when we had Petr Cech as a replacement it was a no-brainer". Cech, who now has 225 clean sheets for the club, made his tenth appearance of a frustrating season when he took to the field against Newcastle on Saturday, where he made one particularly fine save to deny Remy Cabella from giving the visitors a lead their play deserved in the first half. Instead, the Czech's intervention proved the foundation from which the Blues went on to cruise home to a comfortable 2-0 victory. After also playing - and keeping another shut-out - in last weekend's FA Cup win over Watford, Cech's fifth clean sheet in just nine starts this season means he has an incredible concession rate of one goal every 183.6 minutes this term - compared to Courtois' rate of a goal conceded every 95.5 minutes. "Obviously the clean sheet makes it even better but the most important is the three points because after the defeat at Tottenham, we wanted to bounce back in the league", said Cech after the game. "We had to really dig deep and in the second half we improved. Obviously the first goal helped us get over a difficult moment. In the second half we improved and then we had the chances to score more goals".