capriccioso

Sanchez bouncing off Terry like he was a slab of concrete was hilarious

Midfield battle more or less won then

Probably

I found him to be incredibly comic, actually. I haven't laughed that hard when watching football in a long time. And to be fair, a couple of those 'dives' involved contact with the testicles, and contact there, no matter how slight means all bets are off. Just about every male should know that

If he was a woman he'd be playing for Chelsea Ladies and he probably wouldn't be known to most posters, myself included.

If I was gay, certainly

I did too! Woke up at 5:10, still early enough to see Drogba's goal

This is a vital match, we absolutely must send out a full strength team, with the exception of Mata perhaps as the lad drops hugely in his performances when tired. Anyway Barcelona will be sending out a full strength team as well, so they'll be just as tired as us.

And a Kalou tap in! I can just imagine the conversation: Puyol- Hey John take a look at my hand it hur...OW!

We paid 24 million for a relatively unknown guy and he's given us 19.625 goals a season on average for 8 years: 04/05- 16 05/06- 16 06/07- 33 07/08- 15 08/09- 14 09/10- 37 10/11- 13 (+17 assists) 11/12- 13 and counting. That doesn't make us a one man team/attack by any stretch of the imagination. Wayne Rooney has averaged 22 goals a season in 8 years, you wouldn't say United had one striker for the past decade.

Terry, Cech or Ramires. Mata deserves a shout as well. If Drogba can keep up this form all the way to seasons end and finish with 20 goals or more (he's on 13 now, isn't he?) I think he should win it.

One striker, one chance, one shot, one goal. Problem? More seriously, our reliance on him is still nothing compared to how much other teams, e.g. Arsenal, rely on one player.

Just noticed your sig. He's a good prophet, is Cesc

Let's go back to EURO 08 and play 4-1-4-1: 1. 2.,26.,24.,3. 12. 7.,8.,16.,21. 11.

No white text?

Not necessarily. If we give Drogba a day off physical training before both games he should be feeling better. It's not been that long since he declared himself to be the fittest he had been in his Chelsea career.

Well done to our scouts, we've signed a good player for a fair price. I'm surprised he didn't attract attention from other clubs, he's been great for us. Alex hasn't been missed (though those thunderbolt free kicks certainly have).

Torres can play for around half an hour against Arsenal. We play Drogba for an hour, let him grab his customary goal or two against the Arsenal 'defenders' and then let him have a break.

4-2, I reckon, Drogba x 3 and then one from Kalou. van Persie to score 2 meaningless consolation goals after the 80th minute. Arsenal are tragic.

Brilliant from JT I agree with Spike, Puyol is one of the more likeable members of the Barca squad.

He hasn't brought anything. All he's done is shove the best players back into the typical Chelsea 4-3-3. He abandoned all the fancy stuff Villas-Boas tried because he sensed that it wouldn't work with the players we have. The players have responded to this because they've gotten exactly what they wanted and so they're a bit happier and more motivated than before. He's not proven to be a tactical genius, what he has been really good at is picking the team. He hasn't made a wrong pick once in his tenure. Drogba was brilliant. He had me in stitches with some of those 'injuries'

Why not: Ramires-Mata-Kalou -----------Drogba------- Mata in the centre to hopefully keep our counter attacks together. Kalou and Ramires to provide pace, stamina and discipline while defending. Finally, Kalou to nick a lucky tap in™.

It gets rather cold at night, around the 10 degree mark; also I'm still recovering from a fever

Ramires can play. He never tires. Mata is a definite no. Perhaps we can risk Sturridge on the wing.