Jase

That's such a misleading statistic.

He starts for Milan tonight against Empoli in Serie A. (Torres also starts if anyone bothers)

Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois: from clumsy boy to top of the world Great read..

And Omeruo..

Ironic comments from Pellegrino really. Said we played like a 'small team', like Stoke but yet they only managed to take 1 point from two matches against us and Stoke and this despite having a frontline that cost a fortune! What's more, he likened us to Stoke and yet he instructed City to play like Stoke with all the rough and physical challenges. Pathetic. Alan Pardew was probably right to abuse him last season..

Steve Holland handled the pre-match presser for this one and here are some of the things he said..

'Park The Bus' is such an abusive and overused term these days, till the point people can't even differentiate that and the approach of 'defend and counter'/'counter'.

Yes, it did. They are now owned by Peter Lim and have actually made a great start to the season. 2nd in the table and still unbeaten after 4 games.

The annoying part with Ivanovic is that we haven't conceded goals from counter attacking situations where he's been caught out too high up the pitch or something. Instead, they are when he's actually in the position to defend and do his job properly but then, he has bottled it with his poor concentration levels and decision making. 5 of the 8 goals we've conceded this season in all competitions have come from our right hand side and that should really tell us something about a problem there.

There are two ways to define the untouchables in this case; one is that a certain player is the best amongst those playing in the same position and another is those not the best and actually be switched with another player but Mourinho is (perhaps?) reluctant to do so. And Ivanovic falls into the latter category. I know he has been great going forward this season and offers us extra threat in set pieces and even a target from GKs but how can he continue to start games after making so many defensive errors is beyond me. Had that been another player, he would probably be spending the next 3 months sitting on the bench!

And then one realized, we actually paid £30m for Willian...

Agree but I don't think our attacks were helped yesterday by the rubbishness of Willian and Ramires on the ball. Spoiled so many of our attacks because they couldn't even keep the ball for longer than 5 seconds!

Arsene's poor stunt double. At least when Wenger does it, the mind games have some sort of effect at least. With Pellegrini, nothing. Just comes across as a bitter, clueless old man.

It's funny when he tries to play mind games though. Doesn't even have the charisma to be at least decent at it.

Hardly an excuse for his dreadful decision making and poor passes throughout the game.

It really is only the case if that particular player isn't a 100% favorite of Mourinho...

Ivanovic must have blackmailed Mourinho with some nude pictures or something. Seems clear that Ivanovic is one of Mourinho's untouchables right now. If it was any other player, he would have been dropped instantly the minute he makes one mistake and yet Ivanovic continues to start at RB and makes mistake after mistake after mistake!

Worst part is, Benitez got beaten by a side managed by Andrea Stramaccioni!

Yes, I was aware of that but even at that point, we were getting penned in by City and there's no point bringing on someone Remy if no one is gonna hold the ball up long enough to make sure we can create chances. Besides, never got the feeling that Mourinho wanted to chase the winner anyway. He just wanted to ensure that we don't come under heavy pressure from City in the last few minutes and come away with the point.

Even though Drogba hardly did much when he came on against City, he was brought on to hold the ball up and try to relieve some pressure and get us up the pitch. Can understand Mourinho's intention to send him on rather than Remy. However, if he doesn't start with Remy against Bolton on Wednesday, then something might be wrong here.

Already on 3 yellow cards and he probably didn't even deserve any of them...

In case you lads have forgotten about it, we've another game coming up this Wednesday... http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/18923-chelsea-v-bolton/#entry988372

Another goal we conceded came from his side after he was caught ball watching and not tracking Lampard. I know he's been great going forward but is Mourinho really going to persist with Ivanovic at RB when mistakes keep on happening? Seems so nonsensical especially when he singled out Schurrle only for the Lampard goal.

Not really liking the fact that Mourinho seem to have singled out Schurrle for the goal we conceded when Ivanovic was caught ball watching as well and not tracking Lampard.