Chelsea Legend 11

Really got to ask the question here... What naked pictures does Ivanovic have on Jose Mourinho??? If there is ever a person who needed to be dropped weeks ago its him, this is both frustrating and completely bizarre!

Ya right....

Nah. The difference in work rate between Oscar and Ruben is immense. He's not a 10 the way we use a 10.

I hate when people say this. Josh went on countless loans(which he needed to reach the next level) and failed to make any sort of an impact! We gave him a high quality loan to Swansea and he failed...(Joe Allen outplayed him) He went to Middlesborough and played in 38 games and only made a couple impressionable performances. You only get so many chances to make a positive impression before team lose interest. He had a lot of managers to impress and failed, his focus seemed to shift from football to that girl he was getting handjobs from.

Some excellent crosses today! He's still not clicking but that's to be expected given how little he's played... Man does he ever look like he's gonna make a major difference on the team dynamic though! wow.

Man the engine on this kid is electric! He looks like he can get more games for us in regular competitions mainly due to the fact he works hard at both ends. He seems to understand what the manager wants him to do and is executing it at a high level of effectiveness. He's only 19 and plays with a maturity well above his years... he's gonna be a gem in about 2yrs. Two-footed and looks lethal with both.

The fact he got something out of such a poor pass from Mikel and it was an assist at that is making me tingle all over.

This kid has looked fantastic! Still not ready to play big minutes in big games but DEFINITELY ready to play against the likes of Newcastle, Villa etc. He looks so lovely going forward and when he gets a head of steam he has a deft touch. Its extremely hard to feather perfect passes when running at top speed but Ruben makes it look effortless. I want to see him win more tackles and make himself available for the ball more.

I don't believe that for one second. Had Lampard done anything to warrant a ban, he'd be banned. What is happening here has nothing to do with reputation and everything to do with bias. Gabriel should've had his ban upheld and to the letter of the law Wenger should've been banned for leaving his technical area and pushing Jose... The reason nothing happened is because the FA are full of shit and are biased. These are the same people who accused Ashley Cole of lying when he said he never heard Terry use unsavoury language, the same people who played mind reader and declared Diego meant it when he walked on Can, the same people who upheld the suspension to Matic when he angrily pushed Ashley for nearly breaking his leg and decided not to suspend Ashley for a vicious tackle... I can go on and on and on. City rightfully should've had points deducted for illegally registering Lampard, instead they release a statement protecting what was initially stated by City Group, correcting the mistake that rightfully proved they were lying. When Chelsea win the title its a Herculian effort because the FA always make decisions against us despite setting precedence with previous incidents.

You're joking yourself. So if I punch someone and break his nose, because its the first time I've done it I get off? Do you understand how stupid that makes you sound? There is a double standard that exists, if its Chelsea punish with impunity, if its an infraction against Chelsea brush it under the rug. Funnily enough nobody has seen any footage on how Diego Costa actually ended up on the floor when he chest bumped koscielny. All you see is Costa get up and Laurent flop to the ground... Nothing made of the incident that led to that.

So are you actually saying that when Sanchez took a full swing at Ivanovic, which was an attempt to injure, the fact that he had no priors in this league was why it was thrown out? Are you saying that when Wenger left his technical area to assault another manager, the reason he got off is because he has no priors? What the hell are the rules for then!!??? If they only apply to those who've broken them??? That make little to no sense whatsoever. When you break the rules of the game you need to be punished, what kind of message does that send out to viewers?

Wow we have a whole section of choir boys in our ranks. Do I condone what Costa did/does? no... But three games for that is excessive. When Wenger pushed Jose he got nothing, when Sanchez took a full swing at Ivanovic he got nothing... When Aguero actually stomped on Luiz he got nothing.... Costa puts his hands in Koscielny's face and get 3 games. Its bullshit.

no the long balls are included in his pass distribution http://epl.squawka.com/chelsea-vs-arsenal/19-09-2015/english-barclays-premier-league/matches

87 passes 10 long balls 6 successful 86% Not bad at all...

Of course you did because you're nothing more than a whiny little tit. You show up to talk shit and then when we win convincingly you vanish. It'll only be a tough season for fairweather fan boys like yourself.

Lets face it, Maccabi Tel Aviv played the game to our strengths. They gave us space to get into the channels and loads of time on the ball! Its no wonder Cesc looked like his former self, he had acres of space and loads of time on the ball. The goal he set up to Costa perfectly illustrates how much time he had to pick out passes. If Arsenal are smart they will do what every other team in the Prem have done to us so far which is put our midfield under pressure to make quick passes and force mistakes. I'm feeling much more confident about this game because we actually found the back of the net midweek and looked ready to dictate the tempo by defending from the front. Oscar had a monster game midweek, not because of his play offensively, but because of the pressure he put them under when they tried to build from the back. He also covered for Cesc numerous times and gave us more balance in the middle of the pitch. Oscar is crucial to our pressing game and with him back in the squad I feel the active zones for the press will be much higher and effectiveness of the press will look more like it did last year where we looked like a pack of wolves hunting the ball down together. Getting tight to the opposition is crucial! And for that reason this is the game where Brana must be rested. He is lacking confidence and surrendering too much space to the opposition mainly because he doesn't want to be done for pace. If we want an aggressive ball pursuing team everyone has to play on the front foot and for me, the reason teams have targeted Brana is because he is less likely to press to win the ball. Baba is willing, able and needs to be played for us to be successful in the pressing aspect of the game. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was the MotM against Tel Aviv and I'd love to see him continue to build on that performance, I just can't find a viable reason to keep Matic on the bench... We can't take Cesc out and pile on the immense pressure to create on a 19 yr old in a must win game so for me its got to be Cesc - Matic. Ruben gets another game against Walsall and if that goes well he has more of a chance to get in the team against Newcastle. This game will be won and lost by our best players, if Hazard is the best player on the pitch we will win, if he is invisible again we will fall back even further. He simply has to have a positive influence on the game. Begovic Azpi - Zouma - Terry - Baba Matic - Fabregas Pedro - Oscar - Hazard Costa

A player lacking confidence going in vs. a player buoyed from a good performance in his first start... I think the choice is obvious. Arsenal isn't the type of game you use to rebuild a guys confidence, if Brana starts I will be very upset.

I hope you're 100% wrong here. All year long Brana has made average attackers look like world beaters, I can only imagine what the likes of Ramsey, Ox, Sanchez, Walcott will do to him... He's struggling with confidence and needs to be taken out of the line of fire. Baba was very good against Tel Aviv, I liked how he and Hazard linked up and he provided good safety against counters with his pace. Did he make mistakes? yes but not anywhere near as many has Brana has averaged per match since the beginning of the season. Bring him back against Walsall and have him build on that...

This Koke fascination is so hilarious. Anyways pogba showed exactly why he is the type of player we need in the midfield. A real shame we couldn't prize him.

ALL BALL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-nzKHSRJZY

I can't expect any of you to be optimistic about this since all the talk surrounded known quantities like Stones, Garay, Laporte etc. But for me I am HIGHLY optimistic! I actually saw him play live this past summer and without knowing who he was I pointed out to my friends that Hector was having a blinder. We all agreed he looked a very very good player and should be looked at by some Premier league teams. I didn't expect it to be the champions, but clearly we've gotten good intel for Steve Clarke. He is a rangy player who reads the game well and has decent pace. I'm curious to see how he turns out mainly because having seen him play I thought he'd be brilliant if given a chance... The best part about it is he's Chelsea blue through and through so lets give him a chance before we write him off.

This is awesome! I was saying this summer how nice a player he looked when he played for Jamaica in the gold cup... He was a standout player, thought he was worthy of a big move. Perhaps not Chelsea big but he is a supporter and as I said he is a decent player. Reads the game well and has decent pace.