TorontoChelsea

Swansea is 12th. Where should they be in the table? 10th? Teams are way too quick to sack managers. Like Steve Clark, Laudrup's problem was that his team played above themselves for a period and the higher ups thought that they were better than they were. They are mid-table side who are in the middle of the table. Ridiculous sacking.

Easily one of the best offensive players in the world now. He already had that ability but now he is showing consistency. He's almost unstoppable on the ball.

Wow.Massive for us. Great game too and 1-0 is a weird score considering the game could have been about 5-4. Sensational win. Carefree, wherever you may be!!!

Very good first half. City could have scored early and made things difficult but we came on strong and dominated for a long period. Ivanovic's goal was brilliant. City is missing 3 regular starters and it shows. Dimicheilis has been awful and Dzeko is no Aguero. I have a feeling there will be more goals to come so we need to keep the pressure on.

Dislike our starting XI. Without Aguero and Fernadinho who are both hurt (lucky us), I think we have a decent chance to win, but we have such an incredible lack of creativity and our defensive midfielders have combined for what, 4 games in that position with Chelsea this season?

Don't get all the Luiz in midfield posts. He was an emergency player there and is our 5th choice central midfielder. He's less of a threat going forward than Lampard, Ramires, and Matic and he's worse defensively and more of a liability in the DM role than Mikel, Ramires, or Matic. Why do people keep trying to force him into the midfield?

Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead today. I'm not one for celebrities, but he was a fantastic actor in a lot of wonderful movies. He was only 46 too. Sad.

Exactly. Some moves are just about getting some depth. Not every transfer is about getting an elite player or youth.

Navas is a very different player. He's a real winger who can stay wide and stretch a defence and give players room. Players like Salah and Schurrle cut into the middle and shoot.

Exactly the opposite. Players like Salah and Schurrle are poorly suited for games when teams play super-defensively. When there is no space behind the defenders, people who rely on speed don't have space to use it and so are neutralized.What good is speed when there's nowhere to run? These sorts of players, in fact, almost all of our team, is best suited to playing counter-attack. Players who can get into space with quickness, dribble past a defender, and shoot. Oscar is not ideal for this game but is still better suited because he can create a beautiful goal out of nothing on occasion.

It's why I don't get why people root against our domestic rivals in other competitions. The more games they play, the harder it is for them to win any particular competition. Them getting into the CL knockout stage was great for us. It's the difference between being pro-Chelsea and anti-other teams.

Exactly and because Hazard didn't score, I should have started against West Ham.

Aziplicueta has 0 goals and 0 assists in the Premier League and CL. Ivanovic has 1 of each and you're basing Azplicueta's excellent crossing on a cross he made that bounced into the box and hit Oscar but happened to lead to a goal? You are vastly overrating his offense which is only slightly better than Ivanovic overall as well as what sort of difference changing RBs would make. We had 39 shots for christ's sake! We didn't win because our finishing was poor not because of Ivanovic. He was one of the people least responsible for us not scoring. We play that same game and we win 98 times out of 100. It's just silly. If you play poorly, then you can play armchair manager. If you completely dominate the other team, the manager's setup worked.

First of all. Azpilicueta is not far better offensively. His offensive game is being massively overrated here. He's a better crosser, not great, just better, but this is the second year in a row where his passing percentage is actually lower than Ivanovic's. He also turns the ball over more than Ivanovic does (both this season and last) and unlike Ivanovic, offers nothing on set-pieces. People make it sound like he's an elite offensive player or something. Yes, West Ham only had one shot but that's the point. With teams like this who aren't going to get a lot of chances, you want to make sure you close down their set pieces. And how could we create more? We had 39 damn shots!!!! Would we have had 45 with Azpilicueta? Ivanovic getting blamed because he fits the scapegoat criteria. He's older, has been at Chelsea for a while, and there's a younger player than can play in his position. It's just ludicrous that in a game where we draw 0-0 and take 39 shots, people are blaming the right back for us not winning.

I disagree really. Ivanovic is amazing in the air, and West Ham's major route of attack is set pieces and in the air in general. You shouldn't be relying on Ivanovic to be leading your attack anyway. He didn't play well, but he's become a scapegoat of ridiculous proportions on this team. We drew because we couldn't score on 39 shots. That's not down to Ivanovic.

It's ridiculous to criticize West Ham for playing that way. It worked (even if they got lucky). I find it annoying when expensive clubs play defensively, but we've outspent West Ham like 20-1 in transfers in the last decade. Are they supposed to try to out-gun us? It's up to us to break them down and we did but we just couldn't finish well enough.

We played well and should have won but West Ham defended brilliantly blocking what, 14 shots and their keeper made a few very good saves. We play that way and we win 9 times out of 10. Its sucks but it happens sometimes (which is why discussing title run in in January is ridiculous).

Red card, 3 goals, 6 changes and a fairly long injury break.

Arsenal/Southampton no doubt.

Wow. This second half is fun!

Wow. Moyes is really something. United have like 13 attacking players for the front 4 positions and he still manages to get Giggs and Ashley Young into the lineup.

I don't think people appreciate how impressive it is to be a solid LB at 18 in the Premier League. It is a position that usually takes some time to learn. He has things he needs to improve, but to be as good as he is at this age, he projects to be a star.

Definitely might be worth it. Not saying that, just saying that that price is hardly a great deal for any LB.

20M is a massive fee for a LB. You can't compare it to spending on attacking players. Jordi Alba was 14M Euros and was much more accomplished and experience player than Shaw is right now. I like Shaw and would be a great fit for us long-term but 20M would make him, I believe, the 2nd most expensive LB ever after Coentrao.

Like pretty much every young player who shows even the slightest bit of talent, right now he is massively overrated. (Andros Twonsend part two) 3 goals and 2 assists despite very high usage in 16 games with a passing percentage under 80%, poor defense, and lots of turnovers. Because he's so young, United fans will want to see him in their lineup, but the team is better and more balanced with someone who fits in better and is more efficient. Their best front 3 midfield would probably be Mata, Rooney, and Valencia because Valencia provides natural width and defensive work-rate to allow the other players more freedom and space.