TorontoChelsea

He is less effective as a winger because he can't dictate play the same way and isn't in the same positions to score (unless he drifts into the middle like he did under AVB in which case, he still dictates play, but vacates the wing.Mata is actually on his worst streak of the season (aside from the first few games which we all give him a pass for because of how tired he was). In his last five games (4 starts) he has 0 goals and 0 assists.

But the problems remain. 1) Mata can play the wing but is less effective there. 2) Moving your best player to accommodate someone else is generally not a good idea. 3) Mata and Hazard still drift into the middle which means that we have a real lack of width. 4) Neither Mata or Hazard are good defenders which means when playing against teams with any wing play, we'd be incredibly vulnerable.

He was very good, but there were a lot of good games. It was a very good team effort in that pretty much everyone played well.

Oscar had a high positive, high negative game. He was involved in a lot of great chances and excellent play, but he missed 3 unmarked shots from the middle of the box and he had an awful 4 turnovers and was dispossessed 4 times. It's clearly Ba for me who not only scored, but helped set up a number of chances and was fouled 4 times (although one was a pretty bad dive) setting up further chances. Cech saved us at the end and Luiz was very good (excellent in the first half, his passing slipped in the second.)

3 points but a lot closer than it should have been.

What a save by Cech off the corner.

I hate when anybody shoots from that distance. You're much better off just playing it into the box.

Time for a change Rafa...

That's not even a foul, but a yellow?

Too bad...was a beautiful move and great passing but Mata was well offside.

Great first half but should have had a second especially one of Oscar's two glorious chances. Ba and Luiz particularly impressive. (uh oh, Ramires hurt?)

We haven't played this well in a while.

Ba!!!

He's been great recently. Fantastic against Spurs and Liverpool.

Don't really care either way, he looks like a good young player, but we don't exactly need more young attacking midfielders...I think Hamburger's HSV acronym is the most unfortunate in sports.

No. We all know that Torres has had poor service just as Drogba and Ba had/haveas well. It's a difficult system for a striker to fit into right now. The point is that even when taking this into account, Torres has been awful.

No. The problem is physical. His knees are ruined. Speaking as someone whose knees are gone, you simply don't get that level of explosiveness back. He could still be a passable striker in the right team/system (mid-table or say Spain) but Chelsea and Torres have to part ways. The whole thing is toxic.

I'm not worried. He's young and has lots of time to develop. He'll go on loan next season and develop there.

Enjoy and take pictures!!! Hope Chelsea win this one for...well, for all of us.

It don't understand...so, because people know his name who haven't seen him play, he's underrated? That's, to me, a hallmark of being overrated. Underrated is the opposite, when people see someone play and don't appreciate their quality or people have never seen or heard of a quality player. Witsel has never played a game in a top-5 league. He's played one and half seasons in top-10 leagues. Benfica has been better without him and Zenit has been worse with him. He's a talented young player with promise whose stock is moving lower because of his move to Russia. Would I take him at Chelsea? Gladly. Would I want them to pay big money for him? Not a chance.

I don't know how you can call one of the most expensive midfielders of all time wit h almost no experience playing top competition, underrated. I'd prefer him to Fellaini as well because he's a much better fit for our squad. I think he's a good player, but he's simply not worth anything near what he cost. Hulk wasn't worth what he cost and he was back to back player of the year in Portugal.

Doubt it too and he's not worth anything near that. He's probably around a 20-25M Euro sort of player but he's also probably on massive wages. Zenit is actually worse this year with Hulk and Witsel than they were last season.

This is one of the worst things because next year will also likely be a transition season. We'll be getting in a new striker (either a buy or Lukaku back), likely bringing back KDB, and very likely making a buy or two (especially central midfield). The basic questions we hoped to answer this year: Who will be our central midfielder of the future? Who will be our starting striker going forward?, Can Hazard, Mata, and Oscar play together? Who will take over from JT as our steady #1 defender?....none of these have been answered yet.

Good lineup. Finally resting a bunch of players.

I think Ramires would be fantastic in a Mourinho sort of system. Counter-attack football with strong defence. This allows him to work aggressively defensively and affords him space to run in counter-attacks. Unfortunately for Ramires, we are not moving in that direction. He's a very good player on the right sort of team, I just don't see how he fits into a future Chelsea team.