Jase

AFAIK, yes but I'm not sure if he's recovered. And I don't want to sound cruel here but I don't think that can be used an excuse for the questionable decisions he's made so far this season, especially when he's done some of them in the past.

Mourinho is seriously deluded if he's blaming Hazard for not tracking Ward all the way back to our penalty area! The team's organization completely went out of the window the minute he switched to 3-5-2. If anything, he should be asking himself why did he put an attacking midfielder in the left back area when we had an actual left back on the bench. Had Rahman been playing instead, Sako probably wouldn't have had the chance to head the ball back across the goal for Ward. On top of that, he should also be asking why on earth are the oppositions' chances always coming from our right side! It seems pathetic that Mourinho finds it incredibly easy to blame attackers, midfielders for not doing their defensive work but not defenders, whose main job is to defend!

Just pray the club do not offer Mourinho's love child a new contract!

I know Costa can be somewhat of a thug at times but people are over-exaggerating the situation. It's not as bad as some people are making it out to be. The same could be said for Falcao and no offence but you're naive if you think Costa does nothing else other than getting at the end of crosses. At his best, he offers so much more than Falcao - stretches the play, links up with others, capable of creating his own chances etc.

Just a note - Ivanovic's contract expires at the end of this season.

If Ramires recovers from his injury in time, think Mourinho will start him in this game.

Even if Costa doesn't score, at least he will put himself about in every game, unlike Falcao.

We might as well just start the game with 10 men.

Some of them have looked as though they're satisfied after winning the Premier League last season. There must be a deep-rooted problem here, I mean we can't go from being the champions of England to looking like a team battling to avoid relegation the following season. Something major must have happened behind closed doors that we do not know of. On top of that, Mourinho's body language is all wrong since the start of the season. He looks tense, unhappy, pissed off etc, which is completely opposite to the start of last season, where he looked more relax, calm.

I know we haven't been playing particularly well since the turn of the year but our performances right now are even worse than the second half of last season. Back then, we still looked decent in attack and capable of defending properly. If we have to grind out a result, we can do it but at the moment, all those things have completely gone out of the window. We can't attack, we can't defend and we can't even get a good result. Would gladly take the boring 1-0 wins right now!

So is lifting the title and that was only 3 months ago! We have gone from being the champions of England to looking like a side destined for relegation.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9972045/jose-mourinho-warns-chelsea-players-to-improve-or-risk-sack?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Ivanovic sure showed plenty of urgency in trying to get back the ball here... https://vine.co/v/eIM1jM6JDnE

Had Mourinho been playing the FBs in their positions properly, we wouldn't even have to waste a sub on taking one FB off for an attacking player.

Didn't we also play Everton after the first international break in 2013/14? Conceded the goal from a comical defending and lost 1-0, despite dominating the match otherwise.

How long before people put Oscar in the 'injury prone' category? Seems to be picking up random injuries at random times.

If we do end up losing our title this season, I hope, at the very least, we make a strong case in our attempt to defend it. Would be embarrassing if we just tail off and don't even put up a fight, like what City and United have done in previous seasons.

#RemyCrimes?

Must be getting pretty desperate if we're starting to believe Tancredi Palmeri...

http://en.valenciacf.com/ver/42620/vcf-official-statement--aymen-abdennour.html He's joined Valencia on a five-year deal.

If we're gonna look at pre-season performances, then pretty much everyone was hopeless.

It's not exactly the same. Players will have a slightly different role and position in a 4-2-3-1 compared to 4-3-3. Heck, if we play the 4-3-3, we won't be using CAMs in the CM position, would we?

Imagine if Claude was a Chelsea fan. Would be hilarious watching him going berserk over Ivanovic.

I know Fabregas played an instrumental role in helping us to win the Premier League and League Cup last season but when you look at the bigger picture, at what Mourinho is trying to do, it feels as though he's bought the wrong type/profile of midfield playmaker for the team. Fabregas, with his defiencies, is clearly not suited to playing in the pivot in 4-2-3-1. If anything, we should have been looking for playmakers like Modric, Alonso etc who aren't only capable of dictating the play, creating chances and all that but also can defend properly when needed to. Fabregas can do the former but not the latter and when he's not contributing offensively, then you start to wonder what else does he provide to the side. I'm kinda surprised that Mourinho hasn't tried to use the 4-3-3 more often. We have the players for that system but we seem so adamant on using the 4-2-3-1 all the time. It can probably give the team a better balance and help the likes of Fabregas to improve - it allows him to bomb forward, create from deep areas without worrying too much his defensive responsibilities given that there will be other 2 players covering for him.