Las7

Yep, 3 goals in 3 games - linking alright with Suarez. While we are stuck with Liverpool's trash

City are bloody awful. How do they keep getting results?

Great half from Ba and Hazard - the difference between having Ba up top and Torres is like day and nightmare

BA! Superb goal; great work by Lamps

It would depend, I don't think he will get much play time if he is unable to make an impact in his first few substitute appearances - on the other hand I think Piazon is far more suited to play regularly in La Liga than in the EPL. Just as Josh found out during his loan at Swansea, physical and defensive preparation are quite important for mid table teams in the Premiership. I guess whether the loan is successful would also depend on what other business Malaga does during the transfer window - they are in the Champions League and they will have to rotate their squad if they want to do well in the League and CL.

You asked why people defended Sturridge in a thread where others are calling him a cunt?

Yeah defending Sturridge is mind boggling while calling him an overrated cunt is perfectly alright.

Only one of his shots was wasteful, is what Ja1 was trying to say.

Lukaku has seen how we treated youth players, him and Sturridge started one game up top last season for us; despite the fact that we had Drogba out on ACON; Torres in a 24 hour drought; Anelka sold. Even before Drogba went off to the tournament we only played them against Blackburn together despite Torres and Drogba being pretty sub-par in the League. This season he has seen our board playing Torres through thick and thin, in the one and half seasons Lukaku has been a Chelsea player we've changed 3 managers - none of them seem to want to develop him. Young players like Lukaku; Josh; etc cannot wait around in order to play regular football - especially Lukaku who is already physically strong and fast enough to make an impact in the Premiership. My guess is that as a young player he would want to be given a chance and it's not something our board are likely to give him. Most likely we will get rid of Torres in the summer and sign up someone like Falcao; Cavani; Lewandowski etc at which point there would be two senior strikers at the club and no one can guarantee Lukaku a place in the team ahead of Ba and the big name striker. We've seen Daniel outscoring our strikers two seasons in a row not given a chance - so it's in Lukaku's best interest to play at a club where he is gonna get enough playing time to develop. If he ends up building upon his current loan spell at West Brom and becomes a big enough name, our board will have to do it's best to keep him at CFC - and the best they can do in that case is guarantee him a chance. Right now he is better than Torres, but it doesn't take much for that to be the case. Right now he is probably the best Under 20 striker in the League but that's not enough for him to start here. The way I see it Lukaku and his agents are looking out for his best interests, unless a coach comes a long and tells our board he sees Lukaku as an important squad player who will get plenty of match time, he should go out on loan and make himself a big enough name for Chelsea. Simple as that.

I don't get the criticism it was only after half time that Liverpool even looked like scoring - before Sturridge came on Liverpool didn't even have a shot on target; Suarez was ineffectual trying to lead the line. Sturridge came on scored a goal; setup three chances had 3 other shots for a guy who hasn't played in the EPL since West Brom game two months ago it was more than a decent 45 minutes from him.

Attitude Ba's attitude is much better Let's not even mention Torres's attitude, that's legendary

Right now we have two strikers, and Torres will PLAY in the Europa League, whether you think he is good enough doesn't matter we don't have alternatives in the Europa League and it will cost us another title.

He scored; setup Suarez twice; Borini once; got himself in position to get more shots towards goal. Torres on his best days can't create as much in 90 minutes; let alone in 45 against United. But go on

RvP taking the piss with his shots tonight

Exactly I'm always an optimist

After our game against Stoke, complaining about luck

I want Looserpool to win - keep the illusion of a title race at least till we face United again

Fucking Persie freekick

Sturridge scores a debut goal in the EPL

Looserpool so poor marking that free kick

We gonna be the laughing stock of the Europa League lining up with Torres for every match.

It's not a matter of rating Ba over Sturridge - because Ba was not a Chelsea player until this January. I'm talking about the previous two years during which in the League Anelka; Drogba and Torres failed to find any consistency yet our board and managers failed to give even an ounce of opportunity to a player like Sturridge. As I've said you might have not rated him, but he cannot be deemed a failure with the statistics I've pointed out and the fact that he was never given two games in a row in his preferred position. Torres isn't the player Ba should be disposing - Torres should have been cut loose after his 24 hour barren spell last season. Fact is that Ba has a similar goal per minute to what Sturridge has showed capability of doing in a similar side like Bolton and Ba was also ineffectual when shafted out on the wing in favour of Cisse for 6 months last season. If we played Ba on the wing and he failed to become a good winger is it the fault of Ba or the board/management for playing him in a position which he is not suited to?

We didn't give him chances even though he should have been on equal footing to Torres this season based on their performances over the last few years. Sturridge has averaged a goal every 171 minutes he has been on the field since 2008, which is quite remarkable for a striker his age in the EPL. He got one start in his preferred position out of 14 possible matches he was fit for(Torres was banned) - that would of course lead to him looking for a club where he won't have to continuously try to prove himself to new coaches. Rodgers obviously will play him regularly and give him a fare chance up top. If Sturridge was given a run of at least a few games in a row in his preferred position and failed to take it at CFC, I'd understand him being labeled a failure but at Chelsea he never even got 2 games in a row up top. Even though on loan to Bolton he outscored the combined tally of Drogba/Anelka/Torres for half a season against the same defenders they could not find the net against. That's why I want to see how he does at Liverpool - just so I can call out our board of muppets for the huge muppetary their continued support for Torres ahead of better performing players and how that has cost us. In just one match we have seen what a difference a striker who is actual doing pretty standard things like trying to get to rebounds or trying to run onto crosses have allowed Ba to score two goals out of three chances in a game where I would not say our midfield created all that much for him. Imagine if we had actually tried Sturridge or tried Lukaku against the clubs we managed to drop points against we might have found similar results - it's not exactly rocket science just a bit more movement inside the box which has been one the major weaknesses of Torres.

Fact is that our Board was in charge of transfers - not RDM. They loaned Lukaku, they didn't do enough to keep Drogba, they released Kalou and sold off Anelka. Right now we should have had Lukaku; Sturridge and Ba getting regular playing - who combined would have similar wages to Fernando Torres. Fact is that Lukaku pushed on for his loan move due to obviously being told he would not be getting enough playing time to develop. It's also a fact that Sturridge was fit for 14 matches this season for CFC and started TWO - the only match he started up top instead of Torres, Torres was banned for. Reading between the lines it's obvious that no manager would be happy to start of the season with two strikers, one of which went 24 hours without the goal just 6 months prior to this season and the other untested up top for CFC. The board didn't do enough to sign another striker in the summer and trusted Torres, here is what our Board said after our CL triumph:

He'd be an absolutely class player. If we manage to offload Torres in the summer and make a big signing him or Falcao are the only two players we should be aiming to bring here.