TorontoChelsea

Don't believe it. It's possible, but I am also positive that Chelsea are working on a few things. To be honest, it doesn't make nearly as much sense now at the end of the window though. Mikel and Moses will be gone a maximum of 3 more games. Hopefully, we'd get Luiz and Hazard back around then (if not before for Luiz) as well. Once their back, we'll have passable depth everywhere except central midfield and even there, we'd have 5 players that can play there. We could really use a central midfielder but if there isn't one that fits available now for good value, it's best to wait for summer.

Meh...same 4 or 5 posters who want Lampard gone jump on him every bad game he has "see, see!!!". If being ineffective for a couple of games were enough to not get a new contract, Chelsea would never re-sign anybody. (Never mind that this was Lampard's fifth start in 15 days which is ridiculous).

I also blame some of this on fatigue. In the last 6 weeks, we've played 13 games. Cole has 11 starts and 1 sub, Mata has 11 starts and 2 sub appearances. Lampard has 10 starts 3 subs. Ramires has 9 starts, 2 subs. Etc...It was obvious that we needed more depth in central midfield going into the year and instead, the team loaned out Essien and sold Meireles and didn't buy a replacement. That Cole and Lampard who are both over 30 are playing twice a week over such a long stretch, is ridiculous. I don't like Rafa and want him gone but he's right that a squad of this little depth can't compete.

Awful...guess I'd vote for Oscar for MOTM if he were an option even though aside from the goal, he was also terrible but everyone was. Really poor effort. Same problems as always. confused team, horrible spacing, exhausted players, forwards can't hold the ball, midfield can't get it to them and add to that the extra problem 'of having an atrocious game from the keeper Turnbull. Last thing we needed was an extra cup game.

Replay...ugh.

That was handball!!!

Fernando!!!

Boy, Rafa really likes these defender for defender subs. How about...Benayoun for Bertrand or Ba for Torres? We do need a goal!

Oh Turnbull...

Yes we is!

Oscar!!!

Better start

Awful first half. The pitch is the cause of some of our play, but we have to be able to take the play to a 1st division club. No excuse for that. Chelsea were terrible.

Who didn't see that coming?

The pitch is just awful. Especially in the middle of the pitch...which makes some of the bad passing understandable...some...but no excuses for not winning.

Oh Jesus...

I hate these low camera angles, So hard to see the game properly.

Makes sense. Chelsea have Torres and Ba already at striker. Benayoun is cover for 3 positions. He's not going to be long at Chelsea, but I'm fine with him playing in this sort of game. I would have liked to have seen Ake start at midfield instead of Lampard who must be exhausted. Hopefully, we can go up early and rest a couple of players.

No, I can't. Because you can't be elated at winning and also thinking "I'm unhappy with the way we won". You don't have to try to explain more because I am not going to get it.

Umm...maybe, yeah. I understand when people want a better overall style and are unhappy with something that is less than beautiful to watch (that's for you Roman) but I don't understand how any Chelsea fan felt anything less than unadulterated joy when we won. I was jumping up and down like an idiot when Torres scored/Drogba scored/Cech saved a penalty/Drogba scored the penalty. I didn't think "well, the football we played was not aesthetically pleasing so this is less than satisfying." I can't imagine a Chelsea fan feeling that way. In fact, it's shocking to me that anybody would think that. T

Are you seriously complaining about us beating Barcelona? Had we tried to out-pass Barcelona or something, we would have lost 5-0. We played the only way we had a chance to win and we got lucky and we won. The people complaining were mostly either Barcelona fans or people that hate Chelsea. Nobody could call that game anything other than thrilling, even for neutral.

??? You said that Arsenal didn't rest their players. They started with five regulars on the bench. That IS resting players even if they come on as subs for 20 minutes.

Arsenal didn't start Cazorla, Wilshire, Walcott, Gibbs, or Sagna. They didn't rest their entire squad, but they certainly rested players.

I've gone through all this before. You're trying to make it out as if teams are always struggling for keepers and it's just not true. Maybe a top team will take a year or two to find the right guy and even then, they could still win..Brazil's #1 keeper is the goalie for the worst team in the Premier League. There are more top goalies than there are top teams and unlike say, striker, you can win fine with just good goalies. Arsenal had their invincibles season with Lehman in goal. ManU is going to win with De Gea in goal. Besides, It makes no sense to sell Cech and keep Courtois. Cech would bring in maybe around 7M pounds in a sale if we're lucky. Courtois would bring in probably 20M. Courtois is an impressive keeper but people on here are overrating how good he is right now. Right now, Cech is a better keeper. Courtois plays in front of the stingiest defence in Spain. They allow the fewest shots on goal of any team in the league. He saves 2 shots a game. (by comparison, Cech saves 3, De Gea saves 3.2) He's playing very well and again, I like his future very much, but who's to say he wouldn't have problems adapting to the English game? (Which is different even for keepers) It's just a pointless risk to satisfy peoples' obsession with potential. We have ,RIGHT NOW and for the next few years at least, one of the best keepers in the world. A player who has captained our side, who is well-liked, who has never caused a problem and we're going to get rid of him, Why? Because it might cost us in 5 years. You don't make decisions for five years down the road at a top club or you will always be rebuilding. What's the worst thing that happens if we sold Courtois? We have to spend 15-20M pounds on another world class goalie in 5 years? So what? We'll just buy Ter Stagen or whatever new keepers have emerged or maybe we could even buy a keeper who is 25 or 29. We got Cech for 7M pounds. He's been utterly amazing for us. We got Cudicini for 160K. He was our player of the year and one of the best keepers in the Premier League (always felt sorry for him that he got stuck behind Cech when he could have been starting almost anywhere). I'm sick of this masturbation to prospect porn, drooling over our potential players in five years. I'm tired of sacrificing the present for the theoretical future. While we're thinking about what could be, ManU are very likely going to win the league and are still in the CL because they are thinking about what actually is. We're talking about how we can work in our youth into the starting XI next season, and they're talking about whether to start Kagawa or Rooney or Valencia or Nani.

The league is the priority. If we get into the latter stages of the FA Cup and our CL place is secure that could change, but an FA Cup would be nice and missing the CL next season would be disastrous.