Jase

For now, 3. Telegraph has reported that he may well get 5.

Why is there a smiley face there? Are you conspiring with that pesky kid?!

The press conference has been held. Here's what Perez said earlier. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1311028/real-madrid%27s-florentino-perez-denies-jose-mourinho-ultimatum-talk?cc=4716

It's probably just the new manager effect more than anything else. Worth remembering that Inter were embarrassed at home by Schalke back then, losing 5-2.

Any names to suggest?? No manager would want to come here for 4-5 months and then be replaced by someone else at the end of the season.

You can probably bet on it! He will go on a rant to take the pressure off Hazard and heap it on himself, like what Fergie tends to do when protecting his players. And Mourinho does tend to do it anyway.

Joey Barton's reaction...

Lampard's reaction to the sending off... http://d3fsqtc6sy2z27.cloudfront.net/uploads/7a9623db72a298a2f389441a207ad7b5_large

We needed something different last night. Someone that can provide width and a directness in attack and what did Benitez do?! Keep Marin on the bench and continue to play narrow and through the middle with Hazard, Oscar and Mata.

Right or wrong, whether he kicked the ball or not, it was unwise of Hazard to try and take the ball off the boy like that. Not saying what that pesky ballboy did was right but given the society we live in right now, once someone did what Hazard did, intentional or not, you're gonna leave yourself open to scrutiny and punishment. Can understand his frustration then, as we all are watching the game, but Hazard could have just informed the linesman or referee about the time wasting. Chris Foy would take that into account and add more time later on. On the other hand, can't help but to feel sorry about Hazard. He's now gonna serve a 3-match ban(could be more) because of one stupid ballboy's dramatic reaction over something that probably has no malicious intent in it. And also this incident will be hanging over Hazard wherever he goes to play now.

Looking back at this game, not too bothered about the result. Was always going to be a tough game. However, what I'm not pleased about is we threw away another chance to win a trophy this season and Swansea hardly did anything brilliant at all in this tie to get into the final. This tie was lost at Stamford Bridge a few weeks ago and back then, Swansea hardly created any chances, let alone attack us but profited from 2 costly blunders by Ivanovic(thanks a lot!). They might have played well yesterday but the 2-0 lead gave them the platform to do so. Had the tie still been 0-0 before the game, the game last night would have been completely different. Additionally, not trying to find any excuses here but think it's fair to say fatigue has begun to catch up with the players already. We should still be doing a tad better yesterday but playing a game every 3-4 days and unable to rotate at all thanks to the thin squad(!) is likely to take its toll on the players. And being 2-0 down in the tie and having to chase the game is arguably the last thing that we need. As mentioned, just annoyed that another chance to win a trophy has gone down the drain, just like that. We'll never get a better chance to win the League Cup given the teams that remained(no disrespect), let alone any other trophy itself.

Brentford vs Chelsea PRE-MATCH DISCUSSION AND LIVE CHAT FA Cup 4th Round 27th January, Sunday 2013 Griffin Park 12:00 Kick Off (UK time)

Brentford vs Chelsea POST-MATCH DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS FA Cup 4th Round 27th January, Sunday 2013 Griffin Park 12:00 Kick Off (UK time)

Mourinho managed to squeeze out every ounce of peak left in an aging squad. People say Benitez messed things up at Inter andhile that is true but subsequent managers at Inter - Leonardo, Gasperini, Ranieri - didn't exactly improve their fortunes either. As I said, on hindsight, it's easy to sit down here and say 'Oh we would have this', 'We would have won that' under RDM. Whether we'll achieve that, we won't know. I opposed the sacking of RDM too but let's not forget the defensive mess we were in then. We are still a mess now under Benitez, but albeit in different areas.

Not defending him here but as much as Benitez has his own failings and problem here, one cannot overlook the fact that the board allowed us to go into the season with such a poor squad that lack depth. Get 1-2 injuries and/or suspensions and the squad will suddenly become threadbare, similar to what is happening now. Easy to sit down here and say, on hindsight, that RDM or whichever manager would be doing a better job. Give any manager with the squad we have now and they would mostly struggle with it. As said, the squad lacks depth and is unbalanced.

Oh they will. A chance to get at us. Who would pass that opportunity...?

Thank goodness for that!

On the contrary...

Deary me!

Hazard was just interviewed on Chelsea TV. Said he thought he had kicked the ball and not the boy. He apologized and the ballboy has done the same. Said it's over. And he looked pretty devastated while explaining the incident.

He capped off his 2 blunders in the first leg by playing hopeless Luiz-esque long balls forward.