Strike

but yeah if this doesn't go down well, it will be a bloodbath in the post-match thread

Pessimism is warranted though. Ramires in the wing is out of the blue after doing well in the middle so far this season + having decent wingers on the bench. Also, I doubt anyone on here is secretly hoping Chelsea will lose points today.

I really hope there's some master plan here. Maybe Gary Cahill will join Eto'o upfront..

Wtf? Oscar, Lampard, Ramires AND Mikel? Midfield will be a clusterfuck

based on 2 games, I doubt it. he didn't play especially well at Left back

Not a great performance by any means. But did take his goals well

FFS Boruc

Lukaku didn't have a great game but took his 2 goals well

LUKAKUUUU!

Just pump it into the box ffs. Another set-piece wasted passing the ball around

better late than never

Joe Allen

Well..that was fuckin pathetic from Deulofeu

Good tackle by Mirallas. Well timed

Barkley has bossed it so far

Lukaku took the wrong option there. Couldn't do anything after Mignolet got a touch

Happy Birthday Choulo! Hopefully 3 points to go with it!

Looks like Cesar's at LB again. I don't agree but hopefully it turns out fine http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3546609/title/mourinho-carry-on-cesar

It's a shame about KdB. He had a good pre-season, started vs Hull and had a good game as well. Willian was probably brought in probably because Jose felt that he needed 1 more direct player but KdB has been lost in the shuffle due to that.

Azpilicueta is not the answer to the problem at Left-back though. he did okay defensively against Schalke but very limited in attack. Why isn't Ryan Bertrand played at LB? Last season, he played well when Ash was injured around April. Year before, he had another good spell of games at Left-back under RDM. Given, Cole has struggled with form and fitness, why not put Ryan in the team. He offers a lot more going forward

those stupid bubbles though....

Longest 2 hours of any Chelsea fan's life with Drogba's last kick in a Chelsea shirt sealing the win. Football doesn't get much better than this

Consider the sample size though. Hazard was leading the chances created stats in October when barely 2-3 months of football had been played. He is not anymore.

Take the "Chances created" stat in isolation. Why do you assume that creating chances equals playing well? It is used to judge a players' creativity not a measure of whether he is playing well, so the Hazard example doesn't fit in here. Hazard leads EPL chances created stats. Hazard has not played extremely well this season. Both statements are true imo but completely separate. Even if a few chances do not make it into the stats, it doesn't make the statistics obsolete. If you look around, you see Baines, Silva, Ozil, Eriksen etc near the top of the stats and that I think is fair.

All the more baffling when you think of Ashley's injury/bad form and Ryan doing okay in the couple of games he's played