Stats

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15116/10137342/who-is-chelseas-rising-star-charly-musonda

Courtois is better than Cech imo. Cech is a top goalie but I think from the time Courtois was at Atletico he had overtaken Cech and it was timef or him to be no.1. Although Cech has helped Arsenal this season, he has also made several mistakes. Arsenal's first game against West Ham. Both goals which West Ham scored were down to 2 huge errors from him. When they lost to Southampton 4-0, I would say he made poor error of judgemen's for at least 3 goals there. Even in Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Palace earlier on in the season, the angle in which he let Joel Ward score,a top goalie should really not be letting that in but luckily they held on that game. I think they have many similariites, but Courtois is better than Cech as a whole imo. But I would say both are prone to the odd mistakes. Cech more so.

Regardless of what people want, I think it is obvious that the back 5 will remain the same. Courtois, Ivan- Zouma- Terry, Azpi. Ivan and Azpi are definite starters. I know he really has declined this season but Ivanovic always seems to do well against Arsenal. I mean even this season, where majority he has been ripped apart, when we played Arsenal at home, he handled Sanchez quite well and was solid. I will love if we can put a dent in their title chances and beat them. No sweeter feeling. And to do the double over them will be even nicer

I was watching our U21 game with Spurs the other day and Jody Morris was spot on with what he said. He was basically saying at this point last year, RLC and Baker were ahead of Dele Alli in terms of England level. Alli was not even an U21 international till later on in the season while Baker and RLC were in the squad often. However because Alli has gone to a PL club where he is given chances, he is now overtaken them and seems a certainty to be on that plane to France while RLC will not even be a contender. Baker has been playing, albeit he seems to have been dropped by Vitesse first 11 for a few weeks now and it is in an inferior league so he too will not be a contender for England. However if RLC was at Spurs right now and Alli was here, Alli would no way be in the England reckoning because quite frankly, he would not play. And it is not doubt Morris who watches RLC closely, believes he can make the same rise as Alli. This is what he said: "Ruben has had a couple of runs in the team and I think he’s a top, top player. If you look at the attributes, he’s got all the attributes. It’s just how he progresses. Obviously, that’s down to him getting a few chances and down to himself, so it will be interesting to see how he does progress. But for me, he has got everything you need to become a top player. Dele Alli’s rise has been incredibly fast and why can’t Ruben do it?"

You will keep writing the same post over and over about how shit he is. Same thing you do with Matic. We won't hear the end of it. Yeah and the fact that Ozil was a better player before and found the prem really difficult when he originally arrived and even the season after shows that it is nto the easiest league for players to adjust in. Especially when you have several other underperforming players. I am not saying he will turn out great but as this season looks pretty much doom and gloom I am happy to give him my backing till next season. Simple as that. Right now is a difficult epriod for him, like it is for several other of our players.

If he is fit for this game, can you imagine the abuse he is going to get from the Arsenal fans I hope he plays just so he can piss them right off. If he scores that would be even better.

They still have to go to City, Tottenham, Everton, West Ham and United which are difficult games. Long way to go. They are only 1 point behind City. Let's just hope City keep on winning and be lifting the title come the end of the season.

Agreed. He has done very well offensively wise in recent matches however you only have to look at the likes of what Baines did yesterday and what Bellerin did against Sunderland in the FA Cup against Sunderland the other day to see how much we are missing by not having two natural attacking full backs in their correct positions. Had Baines been fit earlier on, Lukaku would have a lot more goals and likewise had we had a Baines/Coleman combo, Costa would have scored a lot more goals.

Us scoring really was not down to Oscar. Yeah he sprayed a few passes but he did not add any meaningful impact. I am not saying he was poor but for anyone to say he chanegd the game is as ridiculous as when people used to say we are a better team when Oscar is in the team. The only reason why he was able to "keep things ticking" was because Everton were 2-0 up and sitting deep and looking to hit us on the counter so of course he is going to "keep things ticking". Matic is far from the 'forum's darling'. It seems like me and a few others are the only ones supporting him. The majority have turned on him. What excuses? I am a Chelsea fan and say it how I see it. I don't think he done anything wrong but I also don't think he did anything spectacular to say he had a good game. Well actually he made the last minute assist which the ref failed to see No denying Matic was poor but it is no denying that a lot of the reasons we scored was down to luck. A more clinical team would have put us to the sword yesterday. Matic is having a difficult spell but he is no more a fraud than Oscar is. Matic has had plenty of quality games for us.

Us getting back in the game was not down to Oscar and I wouldn't say he was good, just decent. Yeah he sprayed a few passes but he did not add any meaningful impact. I am not saying he was poor but for anyone to say he changed the game is as ridiculous as when people used to say we are a better team when Oscar is in the team. The only reason why he was able to "keep things ticking" was because Everton were 2-0 up and sitting deep and looking to hit us on the counter so of course he is going to "keep things ticking".

Glad to see someone else agrees. I came back from the game and told a relative, despite Everton scoring 3 goals, Terry was very solid. Won majority of duels, made a couple crucial interceptions and most importantly scored our last minute goal. None of the goals were his fault.

He was poor today but like I said a few posts above, so much Arsenal and non Arsenal fans said the same about Ozil when he first arrived in the Prem. He looked completely out of his depth and just looked too lightweight for the PL. I don't need to say any more for people to get what point I am getting at. But I will say the adjusting period for a lot of players coming from Spain to England is not easy.

Fully disagree. He did not celebrate over-exuberantly at all and even if he did, I would not have a problem seeing that we continued to loan him out then sell him. If anything when Terry scored an OG, he was the only Everton player really who seemed to not join in. He just slowly walked over. I think a lot of it was disappointment because he would have scored if Terry did not hit it into his own net but still I have respect for him. He never speaks a bad word about us or Mourinho when he really has a right to imo.

Was like the Watford game. He was poor before he scored the goal and was so frustrating then after he scored, grew so much into the game. What a goal does to a player's confidence is amazing.

All in all, Lukaku was poor today. He has been magnfiicent this season but he did not trouble us fortunately. He seems a little cursed when it comes to scoring against us.

It is better than what we have seen under Mourinho this season but it is a bad point, no 2 ways about it unless you have accepted this is our new level of mediocrity.

There is no chance of Hazard leaving this month. We won't allow it. But summer is the biggest thing and if they appeal they will likely get the summer to buy players like Barca did. And then Ronaldo might make the move to PSG. He has scored goals but it is clear he is declining and imo Real will be better of without him as he is not a team player.

Depending on how long the appeal goes for they still may be able to buy players in the summer like what Barca did. Hope FIFA don't give them an extended time because if that is the case they will do exactly what Barca did and go buy players in the summer. A mockery but would not be surprised with that at all. So I do think that is the bad news. The appeals will go deliberately dragged on to allow Real to register players in the summer before they concede and accept the punishment. One thing for sure is they will spend heavily now. Ronaldo is declining and they need more fresh blood in that team.

WOW. At least this stops the Hazard to Real rumours unless they do some dodgy appeal like Barca and manage to buy players during summer http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11827/10129745/real-madrid-and-atletico-madrid-given-transfer-bans

People are like Jekyll and Hyde on here. I get he is not playing that well but the majority of the team have been poor as well. I remember when he made his debut here and everyone was so impressed with his performance against WBA and the amount of members who started turning on Willian and stated this is the difference between the two etc and Pedro is twice the player Willian is. Now Willian all of a sudden is most people's favourite. Willian has been here for a few seasons now and is adjusting to the player we knew he was capable of being. Why not give Pedro the same benefit of the doubt too? He has come to a different culture. He has been use to all his career of playing for a team who has it easy and never been involved in a crisis situation. Even if he comes good by the end of the season or stays poor throughout, I still won't give up on him and will wait for next season under a new manager with hopefully better additions to the squad. Believe me, if the likes of Hazard and co are on top form, Pedro will look amazing. While he has not been spectacular and on the whole average, he has showed some glimpses of his quality. His goal and assist against WBA in his first game of the season. His assist for Falcao against Palace was quality and his assist for Remy against Leicester was top class. Arsenal bought Ozil for £42m or so right and he has only started to produce now? Remember last season and one before, how many critics he got for not living up to his potential. Now, he seems fully settled it and currently is arguably player of the season. So with all what I have said, I am willing to give him time to bide in and hopefully he will make some people eat their hats.

WOW. Way OTT reaction. I can't wait for us to make changes this summer. I really hope he proves you wrong. I still think FWIW, Matic is much better than Mikel. Mikel may have more tactical discipline but I remain on form, I will not take any DM in the league over Matic and probably Europe too. He will come back to his best, believe me.

I think someone needs to remind Hiddink that in the PL, you can make a maximum of 3 subs, not 2. Every league game he has been in charge for us this season so far, he has made 2 subs, when he really could have done with that extra third sub.

We all get you don't like Hazard but seriously come on how petty are you getting? Making three separate posts about players scoring more than him just to take the piss. Is that really necessary. Can't you just put that all into one post? Feel like I am acting as a mod but just rather annoying becaue you are not adding anything constructive by doing that.

Yeah but like Hazard, Matic is having a below-par season. Going forward, would I want Matic? Definitely. I have een enough quality from him to know that he will be a big part of this team in the future when we have a settled manager and better team.

As poor as Hazard has been this season, I don't see us winning this if he does not make this game. We are lucky Coleman is injured because they would slaughter us going forward. Lukaku must be licking his lips coming up against this current state of team.