TorontoChelsea

I don't think it's fixed, I think he's just card-happy which is the opposite of what a ref should be. Referees should not be determining outcomes of games.

No, not really. (Come on, you should know me well enough to know I know where Brazil is!!!!)

Brazil is in SOUTH America? Hot damn! This is pretty cool. Anyway, I think we should combine all the people on the map and find out where the fairest place in the world to meet for our future annual Talkchelsea conference would be (future subject: Fernando Torres: Why won't he just die already??)

Not really. I don't think anybody would consider Luiz anywhere near one of the best footballing DMs. He's played a handful of games at DM and has had mixed results. It's possible he'd excel there with more time, but to claim that he's a top DM right now is just silly. @the skipper. Unfortunately, Moses really hasn't been very good defensively either. He does offer us width, directness, and physicality though.

I understand what you're saying but don't agree. You can't build a team around potential and hope to win. WBA was probably Oscar's best Premier League game, but Mata has had probably ten games better than that this season. Yes, we spent 20 or 25M on Oscar, but we also spent 23M on Mata and Mata is actually our best player. De-emphasizing a legitimate player of the year candidate for someone who hasn't scored a single goal from open play and has been much worse is craziness. It we had to choose between them, right now it would be absolutely no contest. That said, I see no reason why they both can't get plenty of games in the middle of the pitch.Oscar doesn't need to start 50 games in the middle to get better and Mata doesn't need to start 50 to be effective. We play 60 games a season. The issue is that the trio of Mata, Oscar, and Hazard is likely to always be imbalanced and problematic. It really never made any sense to spend almost all our money in the last two seasons on players who all play the same position when he had/have so many other holes. We now have insane talent and depth at attacking midfield and very little anywhere else.

Thought Azpilicueta had one of his poorer games for us as well. Not horrible or anything, but also not great. Generally agree though, only Moses was poor.

Good call. Cats are a lot of fun. Go to an animal shelter and you can pick one up for cheap. I would actually advise getting two. Two is not really more work than one and they keep each other company when you're out and chase each other and that sort of thing. Cats on catnip is one of the best things ever.

Those teams were generally very good defensively. We had a great back 4 and players like Essien, Mikel, Ramires (not to mention Kalou who, if nothing else, did his defensive duties). Besides, we were smashing lots of teams then. If we start scoring 5 and 6 goals all the time, then we don't exactly have to worry about defensive shape. The problem with the 4-3-3 for us is that our two best players this year have pretty easily been Hazard and Mata and the 4-3-3 makes them less important. De-emphasizing your best players just doesn't make sense to me.

Mata does drop back. In fact, he often drops back further than Oscar. The issue is that he doesn't defend very well. I understand in certain teams under certain managers, the system is more important than anything and because Mata drifts, he might not fit into that sort of system. However, it's not like that in every system. Man City won the league last year in a large part to David SIlva who played a similar role to the one Mata plays for us.The fundamental question right now is are we better with Mata in the middle or not and I think the answer is very clearly yes. Oscar has enormous potential, but apart from his defensive work, he's worse than Mata in every way right now. De-emphasizing your best player for someone who has potential is ridiculous for a team who actually cares about winning. And many advanced midfielders also act as playmakers. Mata gives us results. In less than two years, he has won us tons of points. If some manager wants to come in and change the system around, fine, but to move Mata now would make no sense. Also, the defensive aspect of Mata and Hazard is going to be problematic anywhere. Is it better to have Mata and Hazard on the wings than Mata in the centre? The centre of the pitch has more defensive cover and you can afford a poorer defensive player there. A winger that doesn't track back is more dangerous IMO.

It was a weird game. 7 players had at least 5 tackles. Compare that to Spurs-Arsenal where nobody had 5.

Yes. Rabbits can be deadly so your cat is protecting you nicely.

I think that's a little hard on Kagawa. The Van Persie signing was unexpected by ManU which changed their entire system. They bought Kagawa to be the #10 but because of Van Persie, Rooney was moved back into that position which means that Kagawa has been playing out of position most of the year and he hasn't been the focal point of running the offense. Short-term, he's just another good attacking option for ManU, but long-term, I see him as their #10 guy. He is a fantastic passer (90.4% passing for an attacking player is superb) and he's actually quite a good finisher. He reminds me a lot more of Mata than of Hazard in style and ability. (Which is why it made little sense for Chelsea to get him while it made sense to go after Hazard who is a very different player). Also 5 goals and 4 assists in 14 games in the league and in Europe is quite good.

2:1...hope it's a great second half.

Awful defending by Arsenal. Those goals were just players running in behind the defenders and being played in by simple passes for 1 on 1s.

Someone on the Guardian (username bazza12) posted this which I think is brilliant. "Apart from the comfortable win, the best moment came at half-time, when they had some youngsters running with the ball and shooting it past the mascot. Everyone did this easily, apart from one poor chap, who hit the post, then followed-up with another mis-hit. Cue chants from Matthew Harding stand of "Torres, Torres.." made me laugh, anyway."

I'd love her more if she protested Bieber by taking her own shirt off...that'd show him!!! (and us)

Interesting...I've been looking at Mata's games...he's been incredibly streaky this year. (including Premier League and European competitions) First 5 games-0 goals, 0 assists Next 10 games-6 goals, 8 assists (ridiculous streak) Next 4 games-0 goals, 0 assists Next 6 games-5 goals, 3 assists Next 4 games- 0 goals, 1 assist Next 3 games-3 goals, 1 assist Next 5 games, 0 goals, 0 assists Probably just a coincidence, but still, interesting (and hopefully means that he's about to go on another tear).

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...