Jase

But there's a difference between having expectations and being confident AND having ridiculous expectations and being overconfident. Am sure you can see some of the latter in this thread's posts.

Who says I'm being negative? Am (cautiously) confident about this game. Was just saying with people expecting so much, it's gonna hit hard if we get a disappointing result. That's all.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28jel7_oscar-s-book-signing-hd_sport

Costa calls Terry 'Capitano' and it's not shown in the video, he apparently also calls Schurrle 'German'.

On current form, yes but since most people are expecting crazy things here...

With all the 'high expectations' here, this place will probably suffer a meltdown if we don't win on Sunday...

Reading my post again, which was posted 2 years ago, think I've changed my mind on this. Cahill would have been a really good candidate to replace Terry as he captained Bolton (yes, I know it's only Bolton but still captain nonetheless) and has been playing first team-football for ages now. But after 2 1/2 years at the club, don't think his leadership qualities have developed the way they should have, especially after playing alongside Terry. Like most have mentioned, he seems to get a bit lost when there isn't a leader beside him. Do think he can give orders and organize things on the pitch but just not vocal enough in the manner that I probably want my team captain to be. Would arguably classify him as a 2nd/3rd tier captain, but not 1st.

Tough choice but... Courtois Azpilicueta-Varane-Terry-Luis Matic-Modric Bale-Hazard-Ronaldo Costa

@MrExcalibur100, sorry. Just noticed this piece was published in the 'Articles' section. Have to move it here because it doesn't qualify as an article but it's an interesting topic nonetheless to discuss. Cheers.

You have completely misunderstood the point. There is a difference between saying "We are going there to win" and "We are going there to play and will win". Not once have I mentioned that Mourinho should be saying the latter. In fact, that would be such a daft thing to say and one that I would never want to see my club saying that, at least publicly. My point was when he was asked the question about the approach we would take for this game, his first line of response wasn't stating our aim or ambition but rather "Try the best result. Try to play as good as we're playing and we are always trying to play...". Only when Martin Tyler asked a similar question later on, did he finally say "On Sunday, we go to win..." and even then, he was going a bit in circles with the whole win-draw good result thing, almost as if to suggest that he will stick to his conservative nature for this game rather than be positive and go for the game. Then again, maybe it's just the common perception Mourinho exudes I guess.

Don't you get it? We're living in the FIFA/Football Manager world you know...

Guess there isn't any point taking what Mourinho's approach would be like for this game. Action speaks louder than words. Here's a favorable stat - Chelsea have scored in 9 of their last 10 Premier League matches against Manchester United.

Cheers for taking one part of what he said to make my point seem out of context.

The main point was that he didn't say 'We'll go there to win because we are playing well right now, we confident etc' outrightly. Instead he was going in circles about it. Maybe it's just because Mourinho has that conservative nature about him that made me perceived his overall comments that way. I wouldn't be surprised one bit at all if we were a tad conservative in this game. And lessen expectations? Has that ever worked, especially in such cases? Regardless of what he has said, I doubt people would suddenly stop being cocky and think this is going to be a hard game.

While beating around the bush of getting a point there may not be a bad result...

Funny how when Mourinho was asked about the approach he will take for this game, he never said we'll go there to win. Beat around the bush instead. Even when Martin Tyler followed it up later on, still didn't give an outright answer.

He's actually 6ft 4", which is 193cm and that's only 3cm shorter than Cech. The problem with Mignolet is his positioning and the way he sets himself when a shot is coming. Gary Neville mentioned this point on Sky Sports not too long ago.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2014/10/mourinho-conference-live-on-chelseafc-com1411.html Mourinho's presser at 1pm UK time today..

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has to improve to be called the best in the world, says Edwin van der Sar Van der Sar mentioned an interesting point there..

Point taken but Palace are no United, even if the latter lack any real organization/structure within the side. They are also going to cause us more problems defensively than Palace did.

If we have Costa or Remy fit to play on Sunday, I would be confident because we'll be sticking to the way we've been playing. But without them, we're gonna have tweak certain things, the intricacies if you like, in the approach, which may or may not work. That's why I'm not really sure what to expect on Sunday. Doubt Mourinho is gonna shed any light on the injury issues in his pre-match presser.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. I just think it's not going to be as simple as having better personnel now and/or United's defence being rubbish for us to get a win (or draw at least) on Sunday.

At this point, I don't even believe the stories about Khedira anymore. The media has been going back and forth between us and Arsenal looking to sign Khedira, till the point it felt like they don't even have a single clue what's going on. (they probably don't even have a clue to begin with)

To be fair, Lamela is actually a good player. Showed that at Roma. Still perhaps adapting to life in England or he's just not suited to it. Worth remembering that he's still only 22 years old.