carefreeluke

His hold up play has been class so far. Nice to see that when we play it up to him, into his feet or wherever, he holds it up very well and brings others into play. We've lacked that in a striker in previous seasons. Eto'o was decent enough at doing it last season hence why he was preferred a lot of the time in the big games. But with Costa it looks like (fingers crossed) we've got that class striker we've been lacking.

Love it how people say we ruined him. By 'bulking' him up which caused him to lose his pace. Or for whatever reason people want to give. His main problems are his hold up play, confidence and finishing. Three key things for a striker. If his loss of pace is to blame for his decline, what's the reason he misses chances then? What's the reason his hold up play is awful? What's the reason why he never looks in control of the ball? The sole reason or blame for his decline lies solely on Torres himself. He's had the full support of the fans from day one, despite what you may read online or wherever he's still well supported. He's had more than his fair share of chances, he's been given time when other players haven't. And for the people who say he's lost some of his pace, he's still relatively fast, hence why sometimes he's been preferred up front away from home in certain games. Although, it's early days with Costa still, the difference in class between him and Torres is massive.

First friendly for years to be played at Stamford Bridge. Hopefully this will become more of an occurrence.

I agree about Ramires, he was decent. Hopefully, he can put last season behind him and kick on this season, needs to up his game.

Fabregas was a joy to watch second half, completely controlled the game and kept us ticking over. We've lacked a player like him for a while. Let's hope we see more of that. I also liked what we did from a tactical point of view second half, 3 at the back, played very high up the pitch. Hope we see some more of that when we're chasing games next season as it could really benefit us.

One of the few beneficial things about AVB's time with us was that he did give some of the younger players a chance. Romeu was class for a period in that string of games he got for us that season but his injury problems haven't helped him at all. Was quickly becoming one of my favourite players that season, then if I remember correctly he got injured and wasn't the same. Didn't see much of him at Valencia but I hope he can be injury free for a while, I do see a lot of potential with him. Van Ginkel is slowly growing some fans but Romeu was even better back then. Wish him all the best with Stuggart. Hopefully he'll come back to us, having made a lot of progress and fully fit as well.

He got a bit better towards the end of last season. It will be fairer to assess him though in just under a year's time. I think with all players bar Oscar (who probably did the opposite) who play in a similar position to Salah we did see improvement from them as the season went on. Hazard, Schurrle, and Willian (to a lesser extent) all improved as last season went on, and that's all you want to see really, progress. Salah now has had time to settle in, so we should be seeing progress from him next season. At the moment, I'd say Salah is a decent squad player to have and that's it really. He hasn't necessarily done badly since joining but for a top club and given the other options we have in the attacking areas, he's isn't up to the level we want him to be yet but in saying that he deserves more time. I'd say Salah is a bit hit and miss with us at the moment, does some good things but then sometimes he let's himself down a bit when on the ball. Needs to work on his end product and retaining the ball a bit better but he should be given time to improve on that.

Lampard judas? My fucking word.

Matic looks like he could of started the season three weeks ago. Couple of levels above the rest of our players at the moment, not just fitness wise but performance wise as well.

I'm going to have to download this and watch it later. However, I'm currently watching the Schalke game and I take today was more of the same. We're not creating enough these days, it's the complete opposite from last season. The reason why is because we're not making enough effective forward passes and it's not because we don't have the players capable of doing that efficiently in the pivot (as a lot of Chelsea fans would say) I'd disagree with that. It's because there's a lack of movement from the forward players. There's no fluidity from the forward players no more therefore it's easy for teams to defend against us. The movement/interchanging last season from the three behind the striker brought us space, now we're too rigid and disciplined. The only real time we create chances for ourselves nowadays is when we win the ball high up the pitch, our pressing brings us chances. I agree we should have better quality in the pivot but the real problem lies with how we set up these days, not the personal we play. The disciplined, less fluid shape we have now could also explain why the likes of Mata and Hazard have been poorer this season

Looks like he'll be signing. I'll get behind him and support him all the way but he's not needed. I've heard, his best position is where Hazard, Mata and Oscar play for a start. I've also heard from a Wigan fan, that he's not that good on the right either.

Not needed. Judging by what some of the Wigan fans have been saying about him as well....not good news.

I agree with above but Mikel was class last season when Di Matteo came in, seems to improved loads under Di Matteo's management. He's much better on the ball now he seems more composed and more intelligent in possession, I don't worry when he had the ball like I use to. All these things, I thought I'd never say about Mikel. Mikel may have started the season slowly but I'm willing to give him time. I believe he said himself that he has been slow getting into the swing of things so far. Lampard? Needs to be watched more closely, he was poor tonight but in that deeper role, his passing is very important to our attacking play. His forward passing, allows us to build our attacks and I wouldn't say he slows us down at all. His passing, is still a very underrated part of his game. He gets the ball into the likes of Mata and Hazard, it seems like Mikel gets the ball and gives it to Lampard and that's where our attacks start from. Both I don't think will struggle against better teams. We saw last season under Di Matteo that both when playing together they can handle it. Mikel against Tottenham in the semi final of the FA Cup was one of the best games I've seen him play. They've played together numerous times in the big games and delivered, Mikel has finally started to show signs that he is a good player and I saw Lampard do things last season, that if Gerrard had done them, people would be banging on about them for ages. I still think Lampard is even underrated by some of our fans. Lampard's two passes in the Barcelona games, Ramires' goal and his pass in the build up to Drogba's goal in the first leg. His pass to Drogba against Tottenham in the semi final, his pass to set up Drogba in the final. Both can handle it, they have started slow but they should improve. I agree about the pace thing in the middle and Ramires should get more games playing in either Lampard's or Mikel's position. Ramires is better on the right in the big games or when we're relying more on the counter. Tonight's game, was more suited to Sturridge who I thought was our second best player on the night.

Reading played well but I honestly thought we deserved to win. It was a bit like the Wigan game last season where we won 2-1, except that day Wigan played better than Reading and that day Wigan deserved to win. I'm not taking anything away from Reading they did well but I thought Brian McDermott's tactics let him down second half, second half Reading were far too open at times and that's one of the reasons we went on to win the game. Second half, Reading's shape at times was all over the place and they failed to get enough men behind the ball. Hazard was class, he still needs to work on a few things but everything has came through him so far this season. 5 assists already, bloody hell. Still a long way to go, I don't want to get too carried away with him, it will be interesting to see how he does against better opposition but so far the signs are good. He gets fouled all the time as well, it's definitely not surprising he was the most fouled in France. He looks to have the beating of the defender all the time. Two games, two MOTM performances, hopefully he can keep it up. After Hazard, Sturridge impressed me the most, changed the game when he came on. This wasn't Ramires' type of game, we needed someone on the right who could go past defenders and Sturridge did that. Ramires should have came off at half time, on the right Ramires is better suited in the big games, or when we're relying more on the counter in away games. This game was crying out for Sturridge and I'm glad he impressed when he came on. Sturridge is also one of the reasons I don't want Moses. Lampard was poor by his standards, surprisingly sloppy in possession and his passing which is normally very important to our attacking play wasn't there today. I also think defensively Ivanovic has been poor recently, too many times a player has gone pass him or got their cross in too easily. Ivanovic attacking wise, can't complain though, 5 goals in 8 games or something. Defending is more important though. Good win in the end, I think we will struggle on Saturday against Newcastle though.

My personal opinion is that, part of the way we play particularly away from home is to let the opposition have possession, so it's easier for us to counter. We created a lot of opportunities on the break yesterday, I think Di Matteo wants us to soak up pressure then hit teams on the break. This tactic happens more like I mentioned above when we're playing away from home or when we're winning the game. It's why nowadays when we go one or two nil up, we sort of sit off a little as we know we're going to get the chance to counter as the opposition now have to attack. This tactic is one of the reasons we were so poor attacking wise in the Champions League final, we could sit back and soak up the pressure but ultimately we didn't have the players to counter with. No Ramires and not enough quality on the break. Kalou is not really good enough and it was too much to ask of Bertrand,(who was also a left back playing on the left wing). Not the way I'd go about things but it's won us the Champions League and FA Cup.