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Mourinho is not naïve to leave out Hazard and he certainly will not risk Salah to start ahead of him for this match. The Villa game is the main priority then once that is done we can focus on Gala. Our key players like Hazard will start. "Something about this fixture" is that going to Villa Park has never proved easy and that is why we will see our strongest line up with maybe 2 changes but not Hazard.

Of course Hazard is not going to be rested. He is our best player and Mourinho reiterated the other day that he is too important to rest right now. We will have a whole week's rest till Saturday so no need to rest him despite the UCL game in the week and Arsenal following up. We don't rest our best player in vital games like these. Right now the PL is a much more realistic target than the UCL and every game counts. One slip up might just cost us so there is no time for complacency. Hazard must and will start. This is not an easy game.

He is scoring and that is good for him and us. However he is scoring in the Championship. Ba scored around 17 goals or so for Newcastle last season or so iirc but is finding the step up to Chelsea more difficult. With all respects to Bamford I reckon he is a dark horse to make it here but if you ask me would he get into double figures at us or another team in the PL right as of now I would say no. The step up is completely different. Playing regularly at Derby will improve llhis development rather than waiting here to play. He is also behind Lukaku who has played a full season in the PL and still finds himself out on loan and is better than Bamford. He might take part in the pre-season friendlies but I expect him to go out on loan again as imo and Jose's I would assume he is not ready to make the mark at us just yet.

Yes and that is why he has come on in matches when we looked bereft of ideas attacking but he never really changed the game and then Schurrle got form and edged Salah away from the team. Well I won't say it like that but a reason we have been winning recently is because of the team blend and some individual brilliance and right now just don't think Salah has as that team chemistry as he has not been here that long.

So because we bought him that means he should play? That is what you are suggesting. Be serious. You don't take chances when you are chasing the title. You might rotate the odd 2 players but apart from that you want to see more or less your best team or players who have been playing regularly. Salah has just joined and he needs some adjusting time. We want to win the league, not play around with it. This is not friendly matches. I think Mourinho has used Salah in the right way, especially when you see that we are top of the league.

Just seen some of these posts not but that is ludicrous to suggest Bamford is better than Eto'o or even Ba. Bamford is scoring goals but it is not the PL. If he made the step up to the PL right now he would struggle. Just because you see him scoring goals don't be naive to think he is better than our current strikers because he is not at all ready for us and him being out on loan will benefit him. If Ba was at that level he would be scoring goals galore. Just remember his goal record at Newcastle. He just has not had the same impact at Chelsea. There is a huge difference in quality between the PL and Championship.

Don't be so gullible to every rumour you hear. The story about PSG bidding £40m is probably full on bullshit.

There is no way Salah is going to start. He has not started a game for us so far and as expected with the adjustment process, he has looked a little out of place when he has been involved. If Mourinho has not started him since he has joined he will not just throw him in for a game like this. Every game we now have is a cup final. I don't expect him to start any games tbh as I reckon all games will count in the PL race and it might just well go down to the final day so Mourinho certainly will not be starting him imo, especially as he already indicated Salah is a player for next season. Also no reason to rest/rotate Azpi. He will start and Cole will either be on the bench or remain sidelined.

Well it balances itself out. Scored one in the first half and messed up a counter attack which he should have done better with. Second half he done brilliantly to get the ball of Vermaelen and played in Barkley brilliantly but he was not able to convert the chance. Not a brilliant game and not a poor one. But I would rather concentrate on the fact that he has 2 goals in 2 games since returning from injury and I am hopeful he will add to his tally against Cardiff next week.

Arsenal were relieved when Drogba finally left us. Lukaku is going to pick up just where Drogba left off by being a constant thorn for Arsenal

Belgian coach confirmed he will not use him for more than 20 mins. Thanks god for that

The same people who say it is only 1 game and that does not mean anything etc also have to understand he is a young player who is in his first season in the PL and has scored a few goals this season and while there is room for improvement he will get better and like we saw at Leverkusen I am sure he will score more as well.

Has also been excellent this season in the Uefa Youth League and if the U19 progress and he continues with his form he probably will end up player of the tournament for this season as well. Yes, fully agree with Solanke. Massive talent and what will help him progress here over other strikers we have is that he is extremely powerful and fast. He is still only a schoolboy as well so he is not even a 1st year scholar yet. Should develop into a top notch centre forward and hopefully with us!

Got a feeling that Baker might just be the next big thing after Terry to make a mark here. He is a proper CM. Can pass, shoot, brilliant technically with either foot, physically strong, excellent set piece taker and he is only 18. No wonder he captains the U21. Natural leader, composed and makes things look so easy. He pretty much has the full package and hopefully it is not too long before he gets a U21 call but he will need proper first team competitive football first. Expect him to go out loan next season which hopefully will be brilliant for his development and our assessment to see where he is at. Not to mention that his goalscoring record for someone a CM is absolutely brilliant. Second season in a row he is in double figures IIRC. Nearly on 20 or so it seems this season. Top talent!

Happy with the score draw away from home, definitely. Got the advantage but Galatasaray are firmly in the tie. We should have finished them in the first half. What annoys me though is that Gala's strong points is clearly in attack and they are more error prone in defence. Mourinho going on the defensive was quite disappointing as there is nothing to suggest that if we went and attacked we would not have scored. A lot of people assume that because we are at home for the next game we will win but they still have dangerous players who can harm us. Real are on a different level to us right now but when they attacked Gala relentlessly you could see how Gala could not cope. They simply got torn apart. Gala made that one sub then the whole momentum of the match shifted. Like other people I am happy with the score draw but can also understand the people who are frustrated with the more conservative approach second half. Just seemed like there was no real attempt to win the game and from what I remember Eto'o played all his minutes out wide and even when Oscar came on he was installed as a false no.9 in other words and Gala are a decent team but inferior to us so letting them do all the attacking basically signalled our intent that we are happy with the draw because we got the second leg at home and they need to score. I would feel more comfortable if we won 2-1 for instance then you would know Gala need to score 2 at the Bridge to stand any chance of going through. Yes we got better results than Arsenal and City but what we got to take into consideration is that they played two teams who are world class and we played a much inferior opponent. To summarise the score draw at their home looks good but Gala are no way out of it. Just frustrated that for one we did not finish them first half and secondly with the more negative approach second half as there was a lack of urgency to attack and now the only advantage technically is knowing that they have to score at the Bridge but that is its own self is a dangerous game to play.

Fatigue does not exist for Ramires. He is the Brazilian version of Mo Farah.

Well Mourinho basically says the same thing but I am sure the inner-belief within the camp know what they are capable of and they basically are taking it game by game. Mourinho takes the pressure of or tries to anyway and BR does the same because they are better off without the expectation levels.

So frustrating to think that if he was still here we probably would have the league firmly in our hands with his conversion rate. £12m looks like a bargain buy for Liverpool now. If only. I don't even comment in this threat that much so about time I started to give him the praise he deserves

This. We can see how no European footy is helping Liverpool. They are a real contender to win the league imo even though I think they might just fall short but there is no wonder that SAS are on top form almost every week when they most times have a whole week to recover. Last season they were in Europe and fell of quite short. If City are still in Europe they have several competitions to deal with which might help other clubs like us so while City will be annoyed at going out at the knockout stages it certainly enhances their PL ambitions.

9 in his last 8 games right? Magnificent record and now has scored in his last 8 prem games. Quite amazing that him and Suarez lead the way in the PL scoring charts despite missing several games this season. Anyway he probably will get his hattrick at some point in the game later so I will congratulate you now as it is inevitable

We got a lot of money for Mata but ultimately making the decision to sell him in January may be difference in us winning the league or not. Oscar has not been playing well recently which I am sure is temporary as class is permanent but to take him out of the firing line, Mata would have been the perfect replacement. Yes, he has not suited Mourinho's style of play but he would of had to adjust and like Mourinho said before Mata left, he still had a big part to play this season and us leaving out Oscar for a bit and playing Mata would still give us a cutting edge and much more prominent threat going forward. That is the predicament we leave ourselves in. We made a great business decision in selling Mata considering he was not getting starts however the fact we done it in January like stated now creates possible problems as apart from Hazard, going forward we look weak sometimes and we are just scathing through games recently and had we had Mata around I would not really view it as a problem if Oscar was not playing well as you have another no.10 who might not be as good tracking back but is much more of a threat creating chances and would of gradually adapted more to Mourinho's pressing style. If Oscar is given a rest for a bit maybe it is best we go 4-3-3 or so which suits Ramires and Lamps more while you still have Hazard at LW doing what he does best.

I don't know if Martinez realized but even if Ramires did con the ref for the free kick which I don't think he did, Mccarthy was all over Torres anyway, tugging his t-shirt in the run up to that goal but the referee seemed to not see that incident or let play roll on and that should of been a free kick anyway so tough luck. When Martinez sees the replay I am sure he will know what I am on about

Well it is pretty much vice-versa. We were pretty awful today and taking your word, so were they yet we both won 1-0 That is football sometimes. Wednesday night will be a whole different spectacle. I will be happy with a score draw tbh as going to Istanbul is no easy task contrary to what others may think.

That is what Champions are made of. Might not necessarily play well but you get the 3 points and that is what we done today. Did not see that coming so over elated with that. I thought Azpiliceuta was excellent. My MOTM. Won the ball back several times and started many attacks. Crucial win! We are top of the league!

He tore them to shreds when he came on in the game at the Emirates and scored a late equalizer. I will be annoyed if we don't win but whether we lose or draw we are still firmly in the title race imo. Say if worst happened and we lost while City, Arsenal and Liverpool won we would only be 2 behind Arsenal and we still got them to play at the Bridge and have an inferior squad depth which might cost them in the run in imo if they get more injuries while if Liverpool win we are still ahead of them by a point while if City win we will both be level, albeit we have an inferior goal difference and they have a game in hand but they do have some tougher fixtures than us on paper. Arsenal, United, Everton and Liverpool away. There is every reason to think they can drop points in those games. Title race will not be over regardless of result tomorrow as the Prem is too unpredictable and takes many twists and turns but hopefully we get the win and stay top of the league.