Thor

I watched a fair bit of him last season, and I don't think the situation is as bad as people make it out to be. He can still play, still get into the right spots, and still finish. LVG was running some whacky line ups out there, playing players out of position, and changing tactics up every second week. It is hard for a player who isn't in form, coming back from injury, and playing in a new league to get any semblance of consistency. I'm positive he can still be a world class player. Yes, that good. It is all there, apart from the consistency and confidence. I'm sure we'll do everything to rectify that.

Can this bloke play in the pivot?

Haha, great game. It was great to see Costa get MOTM. He was as shocked as anyone. Boga looks like he has that bit of Hazard about him. Made some nice dribbles and you can clearly see the talent is there, but is obviously still very young, inconsistent and raw. This was my first time seeing him play. Was it the first time he played with the "first team" to an extent? We could have a very special player on our hands in a few seasons.

Benteke will more than likely never be as good as Dzeko is.

He would be perfect for us. I'm sure many would like to believe Costa's hamstring won't ever be an issue again, but it will most likely in a realistic world. He is the perfect guy to have as the number 2. Great in the air, can score goals, good hold up, great technical ability... By all the talk going in, he sounds like he'd be cheap too.

Why would he come here? He is good enough to be first choice at any other club in the world outside maybe a select 3 or 4 clubs.

As a fan of the game, I feel upset that anyone can sit here and actually think that Oscar is a better player than Isco.

I had a good, long, chesty laugh at this. Brilliant joke man. I love how well you sold it. You actually made me believe the best take on dribbler in the world and chance creator in the EPL was inferior to Reus.

At the same time though, hasn't he played most of the season there? Plus Atletico are a great team with great players feeding him the ball, more so than they were in Falcao's time, so 22 goals is a good effort, but as a decent striker, should be expected. And I also think this is being looked at that way from our point of view. A winger who can actually step in and play up front in Costa's position when he isn't available. I think this is more of a striker fix for us than in totality another wing option. Although I do think he will be taking Oscar's role in general.

You're acting as if all the great players didn't have some kind of ego. Who cares? We aren't here to appreciate him as a human, but rather for what he can do on the pitch. And what he can do on the pitch, is be the best player in world football, which he is right now according to the title he holds. Was Michael Jordan any less loved for being a classless piece of crap? Nope, you probably don't even know about it. Punching teammates, being a notorious gambler who wouldn't pay his debts, etc. Still loved all around the world. How about Cassius Clay, or Ali? I bet no one even cares how he turned an entire country against Joe Frazier, his very good friend, who helped him out when he needed it, by getting people to call him monkey and mock him with monkey chants. Nope, hardly anyone can remember that. Tiger Woods another... and the list goes on. You want to sit here and pretend like supporting a player who is the best in the world, gives us numerous highlights to watch, scores brilliant goals, and is an all time talent is some mistake on our part? Get real. All I hear from about this guy is how much he donates off the field, how much he does for kids, all the jerseys he gives away, how he takes time after the game to greet certain kids, etc. Because he has an ego on the pitch, in a game, a sports game, something that matters very little in the great scheme of things, I should shun any support for him? From all accounts dude is a class act of the pitch, more so than Ali, Woods, MJ or even Messi could say. But yeah, whatever...

stroey that sounds about right. I think our urgent needs are a striker, once again. Like I said, Man City will more than likely be doing a complete overhaul and fire sale, hence a proven, yet more than likely cheap option in Dzeko will be available IMO. If Costa goes down for a while, he is good enough to come in and score goals, and lead the line. Plus he won't hit our off season spending too much. Someone to pair with Matic is obviously where a decent chunk of our money will be going by the consensus. That and a CB for the future. Another winger will be wanted, but how much so considering we've got a few options there? We need to wait a little and see if Cuadrado works out, and Willian is breaking into stride nicely now, although he is much better in the middle, and if we get someone to pair with Matic, then Cesc will be playing there. The main priority for me is a partner for Matic and a striker that we can use if Costa isn't available. We can't have the likes of a Drogba who is 37 leading us for a large chunk.

I'm hoping after we beat Palace that he gets the rest of the starts for the season. It is a confidence thing, and maybe a little bit of adjusting to the physicality. You don't go from being the best/one of the best dribblers in another league to not being able to do anything on the pitch. We've seen this before with a few players, and not just on our team; wanting to do to much when they get on the field, then when that doesn't work out, they lose confidence, when they shouldn't because they were trying to go above and beyond to begin with. At the end of the day, it is football, no matter what league you play in. He clearly is a talented player, just struggling with confidence. Saying that, I haven't been completely confident with his play either, and I am getting impatient myself, but at the same time trying to understand his position.

3 wins and a draw would be the very least we should aim for, which in turn would get us to 90. I think as soon as we win against Palace, we will be a lot more free flowing and relaxed. We really should aim for 4 wins though.

I was sick of telling people how good Willian really is when played in the right position and given more freedom to do things on the ball, rather than being played as a wingback. Glad Jose has seen it too and given him some room to do his thing, because he has been phenomenal the last month. Two MOTM performances the last two game. And I think you'll find some of the "Boring, Boring, Chelsea" chants were coming from our own fans mocking Arsenal and Leicester fans. Haha. I found it hilarious to be honest. Oh yeah, Stevie G, come take notes off Terry to really find out how to not "let it slip". Captain there when you need him.

I'd rather we get Pedro. Great pace, flair and vision, and not to mention makes great runs off the ball. He'd be perfect here in the EPL. He isn't quite as good as Sanchez, but he'd definitely have a similar impact.

I will definitely be getting a plane ticket from Brisbane! Can't wait. When more details come out about the tickets, someone please post the exact times they go on sale and what not. I'm hoping it isn't too expensive.

Willian was incredible. Best performance I've seen from him. He is so much more direct with the ball recently, and he looks like a new player because of it. He was creating, taking players on, etc. He looked like Hazard out there yesterday. Let the Arsenal fans moan and complain... They should be glad they didn't give away 3 penalties. All clear as day.

We should also look into getting their best winger/attacking midfielder too. Coutinho.

You can't expect him to be decent in possession when the team wasn't. One player isn't responsible for 29% possession for a whole team. He is a proactive player, and hence he does like to get the ball moving forward. When the team is asked to sit back, of course he isn't going to have a lot of options to distribute too. He was getting crowded by Man Utd players due to not having options and thus they were able to throw more men onto him.

You mean the team that sat back the whole game figured out a little of what the other team was doing offensively? Of course they did. The point is we play overly defensive, end of story. This "lack of form" isn't a true lack of form. It is a self inflicted one coming from passive and anxious play, that stems from the possibility of choking away the title. I can guarantee this "lack of form" will magically disappear as soon as we have the title locked up. You can't sit here and in any way praise the defensive tactics as of recently. At the end of the day, there may be some ambiguity about the specifics of how we defended, in terms of funnelling or sending them to the wings, but we've been far too defensive lately, and it is making the team play worse, not better. If we played our normal style, we'd be playing Barcelona right now, and we would have thumped this United side 4-2 or 5-2.

That is good, and true, but some of us care about building a base, and general style of play which can eventually transform and build onto dominance. Playing like this, will never prepare us for greater things, and push us to build on anything against far better teams than current Manchester United. I for one, want us to become a team in the same realm as Real, Bayern and Barca, where no matter where they go, they play their game. All those teams tweak things going to opposition home grounds at times, and at times playing slightly more defensively, etc, but not to the extent where they give up their identity. We have all the tools and pieces to do that in the EPL. I never said that is something we should do in the Champions League yet, against Real, Bayern or Barca, but we should still have been able to do it against a team like PSG. We had that going for us from 2005-2009ish. We went anywhere and played our game. At times, eased back, at times we pressed hard. Not close to the case now, yet you could argue our team is further in front in terms of balance and the gap between our opposition.

I'm stoked about the win, but some of you are over the top with praise. "Set up perfectly" and "know how to win" are so over played... He set the team up the exact same way we've been playing recently. Overly defensively without much thought for penetration or attack, and on one of our few presses forward we did happen to score. Nothing too special about this performance apart from the points and opponent. We're becoming a one trick pony. People know how we're going to set up before the game. I hope it is due to anxiousness and the desire of wanting to finally win again in the league again, and only that. That way, maybe we'll open up again and play some more free flowing football again, which is actually far more suited to us then sitting back with the players we have.

The funniest thing about this video amazingly, given all his stupid opinions, was actually 'Marino'... LOL

Drogba played really well. So did Zouma given he was out of position. Shit match and embarrassing tactics apart from that. I can't even get upset about it anymore since I know it is coming. Jose's position here is too safe. He can play like this, win, and get called a genius. But we then lose or get knocked out by teams we shouldn't and it is eventually brushed off. Whatever. We'll be champions. Happy enough. Hope we can start playing like a big team again. Winning pretty is nice sometimes.

It is fine to have slightly older players on the team. We have a good base of good young players. Costa is only 26, and will be here for a long time. Getting Dzeko would be a solid pick up and simply one of the players that cycles through the team over the years. He isn't a player that will most likely stay here for too long, but you always need to have mercenaries come through the team, do the job, and then be on their way. Dzeko here for 2 or 3 years is a great option. Then he is 32, Diego is 29ish, then you sign another striker, and repeat the process while developing the younger ones.