TorontoChelsea

As always, it will come down to the El Classicos, but an awful start for Madrid.

It wasn't his first test. He played well against WBA, but he was definitely poor against Reading. Gave the ball away way too readily, his passing was off, and he was knocked off the ball a couple of times with ease. I don't care much as he's a long-term signing coming from a poor league so expecting him to have an immediate impact like Mata or Hazard was always unfair.

ManU didn't have 10 great strikers, they had Rooney and Welbeck. Van Persie is a massive upgrade on Welbeck so they signed him. Either way, we're talking about 3 players for 2 positions which is very manageable not 7 or 8 for 3. It's just wasteful, especially for the price. There is such a thing as having too many players because it means that some players won't play. Let's say we got Hulk. Where does he play? On the right of midfield with Hazard and Mata next to him. Where would Ramires play? As a sub? Oscar? Maybe he could play occasionally for Lampard but he's probably behind Frank and Meireles there right now. Moses and Marin would basically never play.

Not a bad result really, and Stoke fans are contemptible. How do you boo Aaron Ramsey for having his leg broken a couple of years ago? Ridiculous.

Not his fault. He's willing to go somewhere else, but they aren't willing to pay him what he's getting at Chelsea. Would you take a massive pay cut to go to a different job just because you got more responsibility there?

No, it doesn't. Bogarde played 9 matches with Chelsea and was useless. Malouda played 220 matches with us and was a big reason for our success under Ancelotti.

Too defensive...I prefer the 0-0-10 formation...we'd solve the problem of lack of width! (It's as likely as any other formation change at this point. RDM wants the 4-2-3-1 and has played every single match like that. We're 3 games, 3 wins this season. It would take a bad couple of months for things to get changed). Mata - Hazard - Sturridge - Lampard-Essien-Torres - Mikel- Meireles-Oscar - Marin Cech

I broadly agree. Dembele is a very good player in the right system, but he's really a central midfielder in a system that doesn't have central midfielders (and is crowded with attacking midfielders). He's a bit like Ramires in that way. It's a moot point, because Chelsea are not going to buy any more midfielders. I think people see a very good performance and just instinctively want to buy that player but Dembele doesn't make any sense for Chelsea.

It was Malouda with 13 goals. I agree that it's time for Malouda to move on, I am just sickened by the complete lack of respect for a player who played with us for 5 seasons.

I think some of this is the way we space our defence. Often the defenders split wide apart and Mikel will come back through the middle although still 40 yards away. That eliminates any easy throws for him. It's something that can be worked on though.

In my next sentence I said I didn't blame Bertrand because it's not his natural position. Ben Arfa was really the only Newcastle player who looked dangerous though. Not saying that he had a bad game or anything, just that it could hardly be classified as an excellent game.

Yeah, they were poor. They were without Tiote which hurt, but I think their attempts to get Ba and Cisse in the same lineup are not working. They were also very lucky last season. They are more of a mid-table side than one that should be challenging for a Champion's League spot. Also, can't understand how anyone could call Bertrand's game excellent. He was basically invisible aside from a couple of touches in the box and one shot late in the match. He just wasn't involved in the game for most of the match. Don't blame him at all, he's not an attacking midfielder and I assume once Marin, Oscar, and Moses are ready to go full time, he'll rarely play up front.

Jesus...one game!!!! Mikel played brilliantly next to Lampard for about 20 matches last season but he plays very well in one next to Meireles and we get this from everyone. Why do people feel the need to make massive generalizations based on one match. Is Mata crap because he didn't play well today? Is Bertrand going to be useless because he was mostly invisible? As for the team looking better? We played fine today and we got the 3 points, but we were not brilliant by any means. How many clear cut chances did we create all match? If Cisse scores the easy header and Ba the easy chance, it's a very different game. It's the same thing with Ivanovic. He looked shaky defensively for two matches after years of being one of the best RBs in the Premier League and it's "Ivanovic isucks". Players have good and bad matches. Players have good and bad stretched. This overreaction to individual matches drives me insane.

I hate to use facts to counter this, but on average, the positioning of Lampard in the first two games and the positioning of Meireles today was exactly the same. (Just on the attacking side of midfield) Meireles made a number of runs today, people just are obsessed with Lampard making runs so they notice them more. Also, Mikel played some of his best football next to Lampard last season so saying that Lampard impedes Mikel is just silly. (But it's typical of many posters to take one match and twist the facts to justify what you already believe).

A comfortable win, a beautiful goal, and 3 points. It's nice to be winning games we should be winning.

3 games, 9 points, That is all.

Wow!

Jesus Luiz!!!

Malouda was our leading scorer two seasons ago.

More than one game.

Lampard should probably only be playing once a week or so, so no problem with him sitting, just not sure why we played him and Ramires against Reading and not the tougher Newcastle game. RDM loved having a defensive player in the attacking third. If you look at the game against Reading, Bertrand played a more like a second LB than an attacking midfielder. His average position was basically the same as Cole's and apart from two runs, he didn't get forward. It's a very defensive formation.

2 points 1) The midfield last year under RDM was no more compact than it will be this year. It was the same 4-2-3-1 formation with most of the same players. Having Hazard in the starting XI doesn't suddenly make Mikel useless. 2) We keep talking about a new style, but that style change is not going to happen overnight...if ever. You can't transition from one style to another in a year. It will take time. Some of the players we bought will work out great and some won't work out at as expected. The style might not work at all and the players' natural development might organically lead to another type of football.

Or nobody wanted to take on his wages.

Ramires is not a great fit for this formation/tactics. He's really a 4-3-3 midfielder who works best on the counter-attack. We're playing the 4-1-1-3-1 formation and are building towards a more ball posession/movement game. He's good defensively but he's not a real DM, he's certainly not a deep-lying midfielder, nor is he a winger. He can play a whole bunch of positions, but he's not made for any of them which makes him an excellent squad player. He'll play a fair bit, mostly on the right side of midfield.

We love Lampard because Lampard has been the greatest player in Chelsea history and is still a very good player. We are not basing a team around Lampard in the least and nobody thinks that we should. Frank is clearly the best player for the deep lying midfield role. He was excellent last season in his "unnatural position". People like you who want to shove him out every time he has a poor game are ridiculous. Mata had a whole string of poor games last season. It happens. Our central midfield simply is not a problem at this time. Lampard is not going to be around forever and will need to be transitioned out, but the eagerness for anyone to get rid of him is absurd.