English Freak

We really need to find the next leader at Chelsea...cause Terry and Lamps are on their last legs and without them, we look clueless on the pitch.

Oscar, De Bruyne and Schurrle have shown promising signs...Ramires has been up and down, Cech has done alright...but all in all, most of our players have performed well below the expected standard. I haven't seen anything great from Lampard this season (apart from that free-kick against Hull)...he can only be classified as one of our better players this season because the rest of the team is performing extremely poorly.

Hope he gets a rest against either Fulham or Swindon.

@, Mata has looked average and out of place in Jose's system. Same with Hazard. We are a complete mess at the moment and unlike before, every match we play, you just get the feeling the opposition might steal a win. I think Jose just has to pick his best 3 attacking midfielders and stick with them. Let them develop cohesion. As the Skipper mentioned in the Basel thread, we lack a focal point for our team...there's no leader amongst our attacking talent and this is creating confusion.

I can just see Fulham beating us...with an early or late goal. Prediction: Fulham 2-1 Chelsea

The lack of competition for the central midfield positions is very concerning. I'm happy that we signed Van Ginkel..but he's a work in progress.

Disgusting performance after 70 mins.. There was always a risk that bringing in too many new players in the same transfer window would create disjointed performances. I'm expecting more losses like this one, this season.

The moderators are doing a good job of keeping the forum clean and on-topic. There will be always be a few members who like to get under the skin of others...but that's what makes the forum interesting If everyone was the same, the forum would be boring!

No-one put you down. It's just extremely hard to understand how a Chelsea supporter could say that Torres is better than Eto'o.

There have been plenty of occasions where Chelsea has been caught on the counter and Mikel is seen out of position, walking back. As I've said a number of times, if Mikel was just more consistent with his performances, our midfield would be solid. Mikel isn't a bad player but the lack of consistency in his performance is worrying..(maybe he needs some competition for his position?) (The same thing can be said of David Luiz...if he can be consistent and iron out those rush of blood moments, our CB pairing would be solid)

I don't understand how Ramires can be classified as an average signing. As for Cahill, for the price we paid, he's done relatively well.

Capoue could have provided something different to our midfield. He likes to use his physical ability and he's fairly aggressive from what i've seen. Mikel is nowhere near aggressive enough or consistent enough to be part of a top-class midfield. As for Chelsea's own youngsters...Chalobah needs experience, Aké will probably be used as a CB and McEachran shouldn't even be mentioned as an option due to his lack of development.

To be fair, the moderators did ban one of the members who repeatedly spammed the Mikel thread.

To be fair, he didn't really show enough consistency at Espanyol (on loan) and City felt he would be better off continuing his career elsewhere.

I see your point and you're right. We have issues in the attacking midfield positions that need to be resolved sooner rather than later. I just feel José needs to pick his 3 best AM's and play them together on a regular basis, so they can develop some understanding amongst each other. As for this whole Mata/Oscar debate for the CAM role, the problem is, both of them need regular football and they both offer different advantages to our team. It's going to be a tough decision...but at the end of the day, I just don't see how all of our AM's can co-exist...someone is gonna end up being unhappy.

I agree with your point about Barcelona...but to say Madrid won't be close to winning La Liga in the next 5 years is taking it a bit far. I reckon Madrid are just as good as Barcelona...the only difference for me is team chemistry. Where Barcelona have only added 1 new player, Real Madrid have added 3 new players in key positions.

You must really love Torres or hate Eto'o to make that argument.

Liverpool's first team Spurs first team ----------- Sturridge ------------ ---------Soldado----------- Moses -- Coutinho -- Suarez Lamela --- Eriksen --- Lennon ---------Lucas ---- Gerrard---- ------ Paulinho --- Dembele Enrique - Agger -- Skrtel -- Johnson Rose --- Jan -- Dawson -- Walker ------------Mignolet ------------ ------------ Lloris ------------ Spurs have the much better bench in comparison to Liverpool.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/429926/Napoli-step-up-Robert-Lewandowski-interest-in-bid-to-see-off-Chelsea-Man-Utd-and-Bayern Not sure how reliable the source is...but if Lewa's available*...he'd be a pretty nice signing. *I still think he's off to Bayern...but if he decided to change his mind, I'd love to see him at Chelsea

http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2013/0000269685.php Hamburg let go of their manager after a poor start to the season. Apparently Markus Babbel is lined up as his replacement

Found this place through google search. One of the best forums out there at the moment.

Just imagine the possibilities once Mata gets back into form... Hazard, Willian, Schurrle, Eto'o will all reap the rewards of Mata pulling the strings of our attack.

The focus is on Mata because he can only be effective in the central attacking midfielder role. Hazard will start majority of the games because he's our best LW/AML player and Oscar's ability to drop deep and play as a third CM will strengthen his chances of playing regularly.

It's because he's Brazilian.

From what i've seen, André hasn't performed better than Moses did last season. Also, I think the loan move is a bit harsh on Moses, he was one of the better players in pre-season, he finally seemed to be developing some chemistry with the other players...