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Goal on his debut. Well played lad!

Starts today. Manager obviously has seen enough quality from him to select him straight away.

But it should warrant him to get time at least and more chances rather than being shipped out on loan. It is like the same with KDB. Most people were judging him by his form for other teams but Chelsea are a different proposition.

He was up there with Sagna IMO but as you say was vulnerable in defence. Overall though thought he was very good and scored a couple of excellent goals as well.

I like Oscar a lot but Mata is up there with the best no.10 in the world IMO. I don't think we will find another midfielder (maybe Hazard) here who manages to get as much goals and assists in 1 season as Mata did last season. He might not be considered an automatic choice under Mourinho but as the season progresses I am sure Mata will prove why he has so often proved to be the difference for us. Oscar is a quality player but Mata is pure class and I hope Mourinho would never ever contemplate the ludicrous idea of selling him. He started slowly last season then gradually produced moments of magic last season and it is a big season ahead and he has loads of time to replicate that form.

At least a point?? Nothing other than a win is acceptable. Regardless of not winning our last 4 games, we are Chelsea and games like, only 3 points are acceptable.

No problem. Watford usually line up with a 3-4-2-1/3-5-2/5-3-2 formation. However you like to define it, with wing backs anywyay The no.10 role is usually for Abdi but in most cases I think Josh will be a CDM with a more restrictive role to allow the likes of McGugan and Abdi to venture forward. They do mix around the team quite a bit though as they have quite a lot of CM already so we should expect to see him get a lot of game time. This loan move definitely suits him more than Boro though. Much more of a passing team and the best entertainers in that division IMO. Football is exciting to watch and the way Zola instructs his team to play will suit him. The good thing is he can play in any of the three CM role Watford have so he is definitely well suited. Chalobah had an excellent season at Watford, especially considering that he had no prior experience before he went to Watford and he nearly got promoted with them. Josh has first team experience with Chelsea, Swansea and Middlesbrough so hopefully he fins it relatively easy to adapt to life at Watford.

Well I have a soft spot for them but I think he will find it hard to be a nailed on starter. They got a bargain deal of the summer in getting McGugan on a free transfer who is a very good CM and Iriney who is very experienced and is more of a midfield enforcer. He is experienced and played tons of games in La Liga already and they are the usual starters in the CM department. I would guess that Josh would rotate for Iriney and sometimes McGugan but I can't see him breaking into the first 11 consistently because they have some good players there already. Strange though that he is on around the same wages as Chalobah but the loan move for Chalobah to Watford hit a stall because of wages yet they managed to get Josh on loan.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/18932/8931331/jamie-redknapp-jose-mourinho-needs-to-start-juan-mata-for-chelsea Interesting read.

Because if you judge Torres at his time here he has scored some goals but overall he has been poor and a poor investment. I was not all thumbs up for getting Eto'o but he has scored everywhere he has gone, has 3 CL titles to his name plus numerous amount of other things he has won with different teams. Just remains to see if he can replicate the same form at us. I would like Torres to start tomorrow as well but how why do you believe Torres is much better or better than Eto'o?

You are completely missing the point. It is not the fact that Torres is a better player. Alex is stating Torres should start based on his last game. You stating that Torres is a better player is completely off the point. Have you actually watched Torres at Chelsea or are you consistently watching Liverpool DVDs where he was scoring goals. Why can't you believe that people think Eto'o is a better player? He might have had a slow start but did you see how long Torres took to get his first goal here and how really torrid is time has been here? LOL, you are acting as if Alex stated Torres is better than Eto'o. He did not. He is saying he should start because of his last game compared to Ba's and Eto'o. That does not mean he is better but yes if it is based on Torres last game maybe he does deserve a start tomorrow.

But do you reckon Jose would have done the same if it was Schalke? I doubt it for some reason.

It was Jose.....

I don't want to rattle on about this but believe me, Josh is not more of a goal threat than MVG. MVG was a goal threat at Vitesse and on the odd times played in the AM position and got a near double figures. In first team, competitive matches I have never seen anything from Josh to suggest that he is a goal threat. He is a passer of the ball, but he rarely takes shots unless it is for reserves. Josh at Boro did not get one goal right? As Skipper said, MVG scored goals at Vitesse and had a bit more freedom and took some shots. At us for now he is given more of a restrictive role but if he is paired along Mikel and has a bit more confidence in himself and the call to roam a bit more I am sure you will see more of his ability to look for goal.

He would not have been "dropped" because of his performance because he done well against Everton. He was a doubt coming into the match and Jose as we know likes his rotation and thought MVG and Lamps would be a good fit.

You clearly have not gone Specsavers or you choose to read what you want. Cahill is criticized constantly on this forum and if it is not in his player thread you will see the criticisms on the match forums. He really is not as popular as you make out. He gets tons of bashing from the fans.

The sad thing is Cole used to be excellent at attacking as well but as he is getting older, just seems he does not have the legs anymore. Him and Evra are the same age but Evra still has that attacking instinct. I remember a few seasons ago Cole was one of the best attacking fullbacks. His goal against Sunderland was perfect, when we beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates, they could not handle his runs and if IIRC Cole provided 2 assists in that game. Was brilliant to watch. That is why in games we expect to win, for instance Fulham at home I would like to see Bertrand at LB because he has the ability to support attackers and is simply a better attacker and he has done well most times I have seen him in a Chelsea shirt.

Is it really a "massive statement"? He had not started any games for us before and although we were aware of the the threat they can pose I think Jose thought this would be a match to bring him in. At home, likely to have more off the ball and a game where he believed he MVG would settle better into the team but it did not really work. I still think, currently that Mourinho does not think MVG is 100% ready and I would expect Mikel to play more than him for now anyway.

Looks like he will go to Forest. Always thought this was the best move. On coaching wise Zola would have been good for him, but who knows, maybe Billy Davies can do well with him as well. The move makes sense if you look at it on a playing perspective. At Watford, with their recruits he is not a nailed on starter while at Forest they lost their best CDM to Palace and Chalobah should fit into that role.

When people were complaining after the Everton match that was a bit of an overreaction because we done well but tonight we were truly shocking and things really need to be looked into after losing this game. Basel are a good team and underrated but we simply should not even be drawing these kind of games, let along losing. I don't think it is a case of even underrating them as Cahill said in his interview because we saw the threat of them last season but our team is strengthened more than last season yet we have lost. Even when Oscar scored, it came completely out of the blue and you would think we would press on but no, shit performance second half as well. I think a lot of people saw Moruinho as an 'automatic fixer' but as this game proved there are much bigger issues and he is not some magician who will automatically fix things. We have some of the best attacking talents in Europe but the cohesion within the team is not there. Every single game we have played, the performance has been sluggish and not really impressive. It just creates a whole loads of questions again because now people will air their doubts over Eto'o and saying he is not good enough anymore for the PL. Still early to judge him but that is what 6 games or so played and not one goal from our striker and that worries me, really. A shame City got Fernandinho because he is the sort of player I think we need in our team. MVG can drop deep etc but he clearly is not as ready as some people think. That is expected though with his age and little experience of playing on the big stage but tonight right from the offset the atmosphere was poor and there just seemed little effort by the players even when we were down. Really odd for us to lose a CL group stage game and the performance with it. Worrying thing is though Jose does not know what is his best team and the way the manager wants us to play and how the team responds to him is not working.

Fuck off you silly prick.

Mata was poor. He did nothing when he came on to even change the game so I doubt he would have been any different from the start. Back to the summary of our other players. Hazard was poor but I am not concerned, I am sure once he gets his full confidence back, he will produce the goods no doubt. Cole, poor once again, could not handle Salah and as usual can not go forward. MVG, nothing special but it was his first competitive start. Lamps done a brilliant pass for Oscar's goal but apart from that was awful. To summarise our only good player to day was Oscar, the rest of the team was poor. Hopefully this is just a blip but it is worrying that we lost 2-1 to Basel at home, really shocking for us.

Where is Lukaku when you need him? .........

Well he has won every single competitive game they have played so far. Got a good game against Napoli on Sunday though.

Don't agree. Maybe he needs to prove his worth more to Mourinho but he got handed a start in a big game against Everton and Oscar needs playing time as well so no surprise. Mata does not seem as sharp as he could be so not really surprised with him being dropped, especially with the amount of attacking talents we have.