Leif

How do you make an informal inquiry? Do you get a member of your staff to locate a smokey bar and sit down in a booth a few booths away from a Chelsea representative, then ask the man politely in the next booth if he could pass on the following message: "Is Mata available for a potential transfer? Pass it on.", then get a completely scewed and inaudible sentence in return?

Ultimately, regarding Mata; the board itself and Abramovich himself - they like Mata, yes? And if you're liked by the people who control the manager to a big extent you're in good hands at the club. I doubt the board which scouted & negotiated for him along with the owner who's seen him bring rejuvenation he sought so long will want to let him go - especially to a direct rival - especially when you consider we have the deepest pockets in the league alongside Man City. Mourinho hasn't manipulated the media and played mind tricks on Manchester United for nothing. He wants us to be at a psychological advantage. That advantage would be completely lost if Mata joined United. He'd also lose the man with the most experience with the style of play Roman wants in this era. A fan favourite. A great player. Mata can't join United.

If we sign Willian I'm gonna feel like that Dudley boy from Harry Potter; Really spoilt on Christmas with expensive (thus REALLY REALLY GOOD!!! ) but unwanted presents. But really, who cares if it makes us seem spoilt and even stupid? At the end of it if we forget pride etc...getting presents is the jizz! Let's accept this bad-ass present from Abramovich Claus and let's show off our big new shiny present to all the boys in town starting with Spurs.

I want him just so Tottenham can't have him. Mature.

Incredible. Going from Benayoun, Moses(?), Sturridge ( ) to De Bruyne, Willian & Schurrle.

Ramires had: Touches: 120 Pass Accuracy: 94% Tackles: 5 Dribbles Completed: 2 He's finally playing... Brazilian

In Ba's last 12 starts we've won 9 games. 1 draw and 2 losses vs. Man City.

The reason for Moses not being on the bench isn't a mystery. Schurrle is the better player in many people's and probably Mourinho's eyes. This is what depth does. Schurrle played most of last season on the left and played perfectly fine on the weekend when he came on deployed mainly on the right. In fact, vs Hull City he proved that he can be an impact player coming off the bench. With a slightly rotated forward line this game (Mata for De Bruyne, Ba for Torres), we need at least some bench consistency in case the forwards fails to produce and get the chemistry going, hence Schurrle being there to just potentially pick up where he left off last time if needed. No need to take up a substitute spot with Moses who doesn't offer as much as Schurrle. Also, after Schurrle's little time out during pre-season, coming on vs. Hull City was a good way start to regaining his fitness. Should he come on today, he should be ready for a start vs. Manchester United should Mourinho see fit as he'll want high work-rate players for that game (I'm being bold and guessing it'll be Hazard, Oscar, Schurrle for the Utd game.)

There isn't such a thing as Lukaku being "3rd choice". Manager's don't decide "ok you'll be third choice whenever there's a game" - especially not Mourinho. Players play depending on form and the particular game. Anyway, even if we were to use the whole '1st choice/2nd choice/3rd choice' thing, you don't become 1st choice at a top club like Chelsea when all you have under your belt *at the club* is a decent pre-season and 0 Premier League goals in 9 apps*. This is literally only our second game of the bloody season and because he hasn't started yet people are contemplating loan options etc. Some people expect far too much.

Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Lampard; Mata, Oscar, Hazard; Ba. Woop.

FUCK MY BALLS

Possession football.

Wow. Talk about anti-climax.

Fantastic vision!

Torres has 3 goals in his last 4 starts for us. If like some members say - we shouldn't really judge players from pre-season - surely he's automatic first-choice ahead of a guy who's yet to score a Premier League goal for us?

Lampard's 500th domestic appearance with us

Lukaku played 4 days ago vs. France. Of course he doesn't start.

What a perfect day for him to have that quote go out to all of us. That and Mourinho's return! Well Chelsea's return in general. I love Roman

The current argument thrown around against what seems to be every striker who either fails with us or ends up being linked with us is always that their game has 'always relied on pace'. Can we move on now and have a new point? I doubt Eto'o has won 2 trebles relying on just his pace, otherwise we should fret as Walcott will probably win the Champions League and if not him then Lennon at some point. At least following this logic of; Pace = Success, Less Pace = No Success; we can see that Kiwomya will be amongst the best players in the world one day. Actually forget all this Rooney and Eto'o talk, let's sign Agbonlahor!!! PACE IS EVERYTHING TO A PLAYER!! But seriously, this 'argument' of 'he no longer has pace' seems to be thrown around by people who later confess they've barely, if even at all, seen him play since his Inter days. It's easy to look at a player who no longer grabs the local headlines, see that he's aged a few years and thus conclude he no longer has electric pace. I'm sure we've all done something similar at some point when we've wanted to enter the discussion of a player. He's still one of the fastest strikers on the planet. Just watch an actual game of his for god sake. As for the 'HE WOULD NEED TO DROP HIS WAGE DEMANDS' thing, I won't even go into that. It's common knowledge and doesn't need to be repeated every single page. We're not run by complete idiots who don't understand finance. They're not going to pay anything we can't afford.

So does no-one remember his comments in 2005 saying players would want to retire if we won the Champions League? That it'd be a disgrace to football?

Taking off your captain (Terry) and throwing on another striker (Lukaku) is bold. It paid off. It won us the game. This is what Mourinho does and what we've been missing ever since he originally departed. Apparently, Inter were once about to lose so Jose played with 4 strikers in the last few minutes. They won.

United fans on Twitter think Ronaldo is going back to them because Valencia isn't wearing No7 today

Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Van Ginkel; De Bruyne*, Oscar, Hazard; Lukaku I'd go with that for this game. Reason being, Hull should, in theory at least, be full of energy and enthusiasm since it's their first game back in the top flight. I don't exactly want Mikel, Lampard or Essien in such an important position vs. such opposition at this time. Losing the midfield battle and being overran by a newly promoted team would make me feel queasy. De Bruyne always gets a tackle in, Oscar is great at applying pressure, our midfield '2' would have more energy than the sun and Hazard & Lukaku would take the most responsibility in attack. It'll be no good using Moses or Schurrle as starters in this game. Both lack that creativity we'll need to break down an organised unit. Both would be handy impact subs if needed. *I wouldn't mind Mata on the right considering he's more talented than most teams put together, but I just feel like I have to put De Bruyne there for this game because of his work rate and the fact that since he's on his strong foot (unlike Mata would be) he can hit in cross after cross to Lukaku. We need width and energy for this game. Mata would cut in too much, compromising our width on the right side in the process, and he has one of the lower work rates in our team which is never good for the opening match of the season.

Schwarzer; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Terry, Bertrand; Essien, Mikel; Moses, De Bruyne, Schurrle; Torres Cech, Azpilicueta, Terry, Cahill, Cole, Van Ginkel, Essien, Hazard, Schurrle, Mata, Lukaku Playing one of those apparently.

ROMA (4-3-3) De Sanctis; Maicon, Benatia, Castan, Balzaretti; Bradley, Strootman, Florenzi; Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti