Jase

It's also worth noting that AVB can only seem to thrive in the weaker leagues (e.g the Portuguese, Russian leagues) where there's hardly any competition. He's already failed in the Premier League, twice.

According to the Sunday Times, Liverpool want AVB to replace Rodgers.

I really doubt Mourinho is going to change the entire starting XI and start playing the youth lads in this game. It's a dead rubber match but still a match that I'm sure Mourinho and the players would like to win, especially after what happened yesterday. I'm expecting him to put out a similar side that played against Strawberry in the Capital One Cup - mixture of youth and experience players in the XI. Also, for the record, it's a complete BS that we have to take into account of the other sides' predicament when selecting the XI. It should be about us and only us. If we beat Sporting and help Schalke, then good. If not, then whatever. Too bad for them. After all, when we were in a similar situation two seasons ago, we blamed ourselves for the group stage exit and not Shakhtar for failing to beat Juventus, didn't we?

Chelsea boss reveals reason behind Andre Schurrle struggles

To be fair, Schurrle has been ill for the past month or so, which he hasn't played well when called upon.

Hanging on the ropes? Everton hardly put any concerted pressure on City. They only created some 1-2 chances here and there. Lukaku's shot was probably the best of the lot. Otherwise, City were comfortable.

For starters, we are not keeping enough clean sheets/been giving away far too cheap goals. Only 3 in 12 away matches in all competitions and that's pretty poor by our usual high standards. We don't score enough goals either. Have scored more than 2 goals in one game in only 3 of the 12 games. When you can't keep clean sheets and don't score enough goals, it's a recipe for disaster. It feels as though we are playing with handbrakes on away from home.

What was ironic about that? Game management from City. That's all.

The thing is, 8-9 players out there today have played their 5th straight game in 2 weeks. Tiredness bound to kick in. Pellegrini rotated his starting XI and Mourinho should have done the same. Not saying he needs to change 4-5 players but at least 1-2 here and there. Can't expect the players to play at the same level in every single game.

City were smartly conserving their energy after playing the 3rd game in 7 days and to keep themselves as fresh as possible for their do-or-die Champions League with Roma in midweek.

Our home form, except in the 2011/12 season, has always been fine. We have always won at least 15-16 games at the Bridge for the past decade. On the road, however, that definitely needs sorting out because City are unlikely to drop many points at home. So, it might come down to who pick up more points away from home.

They lacked conviction really. City had no interest to go for the 2nd goal and were happy to kill the game off at 1-0. There wasn't any urgency or tempo to Everton's play in the last 10-15 minutes. Just kept giving the ball back to City!

:lol:

Yeah...just 3 points clear at the top now. From 8 down to 3 in one week. Unbelievable. Notice the four league games we dropped points in have come in Manchester and the north-east.

SCORE THE EQUALISER FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!

Why should I help you with your task?

Sunderland 0-0 Chelsea Sunderland 1-4 Manchester City Liverpool 0-0 Sunderland :doh:

No. You are really doing a bad job at it.

Harry, I'm honestly tempted to ban you. I really am.

Would be foolish to think we don't do that, or any other team for that matter. I guess it depends on the circumstances and Mourinho's thinking during the game.

Yes but one could argue that we became predictable with the approach. Newcastle were pretty comfortable in dealing with the long balls. In fact, considering they were down to 10 men then, they must be delighted when we started doing that rather than trying to play around them a little bit.

Obviously Matic is a key player in the team but considering this is our first defeat of the season, it's too easy and early to say we lost because we didn't have Matic. Sample size too small.

Possibly Derby, if I'm pushing it, since we have 5 days rest between that game and the Stoke clash.

We did the absolute no-nos in the last few minutes of the game really. Never mind the speculative efforts, we were just hoofing the ball somewhat aimlessly and hoping to pick up the second balls. Nothing intricate or be a little bit more composed on the ball.

Drogba has more Premier League goals this season (3) than the whole Liverpool strikeforce combined (2).