Jase

Agree with that notion. I remember that last season Benitez didn't really protect the players in any way to the media and always seem to let them have free shot at our players. And whenever, our players were the victim of an offence, he didn't protect the team and instead chose to do his best impression of Wenger; "I didn't see it. I didn't hear anything. I was only concentrating on the game. Every week there are many incidents of this. There is no point in discussing this bla bla bla...". The Suarez-Ivanovic biting incident was the most evident of all!

Err yeah...only seems completely nonsensical to you...

Yeah but don't think you're helping your case when you repeat such stuff... And don't get why people have to take the easy way out and jump to conclusions that anybody that wants Mata to start is immediately deemed as putting players before club first or not being supportive of the team as a whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrSr8JzkQ0Q

He has done well since joining and hasn't really put a foot wrong or anything like that. And yesterday, he was our only attacking outlet before Hazard came on. He drove the ball, skipping past a few Basel challenges and looking to make things happen offensively but pathetically, the others were poor and not on the same wavelength.

*copy and paste onto Google and sees no legit source of it* So, yeah...

That depends really on the type of player he faces. If it's a physical one, then you would expect Ivanovic to win 9 times out of 10 but if it's a pacey wide player or a full back, he'll struggle badly as we have seen in the past. Gets owned too easily at times and once the opposition skip past him, he doesn't even have the pace to track back in time and make a tackle. In the isolated incident of the Basel goal yesterday, had Azpi been at RB instead, think he could well have got back in time to put a challenge in on Salah and prevent the goal.

If we can't even beat a Steaua side who have nothing to play already at HOME, then we do deserve to finish second in the group and get the likes of Barca, Bayern, Real or Atletico Madrid in the Last 16.

With the way we were playing yesterday and couldn't even keep the ball and string passes together to save our lives, wonder if it would have been better had Ba came on instead especially when this was already evident in the first half. Because everyone were so deep in defending that when we do get the ball, we can hardly play it out from the back with Basel pressing us and in the end, we were just lumping it forward rather aimlessly to Eto'o and then Torres. Ba would arguably be better in winning those high balls, hold up the play and relieve the pressure while bringing us higher up the pitch a little to be able to attack Basel more.

Chelsea miss the chance to rotate and stay fresh A piece by Gabriele Marcotti on ESPN. Good read..

But 30m for a full back does look pretty steep..

And then while Ivanovic switched off - which can happen to anyone TBF - at RB, his lack of pace and problem dealing with pacey wingers/wide players was exposed.

Teams can't face the team from the same group as them in the Last 16. So Schalke or Basel is out of the question for us. And looking at the teams there, we definitely need to win against Steaua and (please!) don't mess things up then. Otherwise, we risk facing Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid or even Atletico Madrid in the Last 16!

Spurs step up interest in wonderkid Shaw but Southampton are holding out for... £30m!

Even if Luiz wasn't injured, I doubt Mourinho will play him in midfield given he has said against the idea of doing so previously in one of his press conferences IIRC.

The thing is the performance yesterday wasn't a one-off. We have been seeing it far too often this season, even though we have won games. With the squad we have, we expect a little better and more consistency in the performances but we're not doing it. Hence the concern and analysis of the performances a little deeper than if it had happened in just 1 game all of a sudden.

Have found it slightly funny that on Saturday, people were raving about Mourinho and his decision to go 4-3-3 (more like a lopsided 4-2-3-1) against West Ham and now not a word spoken about doing the same yesterday with arguably an even more cautious and defensive approach seemingly only looking for the point...

True but then, they don't have to win. Only need a point to secure progress to Last 16 and win the group while Napoli need to win and win big(!) if they want to qualify as well. Onus is Benitez's side and the counter attacking game will suit Arsenal given their attacking qualities as well as their increasing capability to play on the break going by recent development.

Don't need to create a new thread on Lampard when we already have one...

True but then again, with a better squad this time around, one would expect us to do better in the weakest group compared to last season's and the one before. Instead, we have hardly been convincing and making it somewhat harder than it should be. (in a way, we should also be thanking Steaua for messing things up in the group)

With posts such as that, it makes you look like you have an agenda against Mata and trying to pin all our failures for the past 2 years because Mata was starting...

I supposed it depends on how you view the context and perceive AVB...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2513987/Andre-Villas-Boas-best-thing--elses-fault--MARTIN-SAMUEL.html Martin Samuel on AVB in Daily Mail. Good piece.

André Villas-Boas on brink of losing Tottenham Hotspur job

C'mon Barbara. I wasn't just referring to that one isolated incident alone. It has been that way since the beginning and not just in the forum...