TorontoChelsea

He's looked good almost every time I've seen him...and he's 17 and starting in the Premier League. He might not develop, but he's showing a lot at a very young age. I'd take Lambert too. Would be a perfect cheap backup to Ba.

Voted no, because I don't think there's any point this year. We're out of the CL and not going to win the Premier League. Let someone come in the summer, have some say over transfers (I can dream, can't I?) and get a fresh start. That said, I won't exactly be crying if I woke up to find out he had gotten sacked.

Arsenal actually makes money on their transfers. We've spent like a billion pounds (literally) in the last decade. I do agree with you that this buying for the future thing is bizarre. If you have the money that Chelsea have, you simply don't need to do that. You can buy for the present and also buy up a bunch of top young players. It just makes no sense. Also agree that there seems to be little rationale behind some of the buys. We seem to be chasing more skilled attacking midfielders. (Isco, Taison, etc...) Why?? It's the only position (except maybe CB) where we have a lot of depth.

He should have at least got it on net and forced a save but yes, he should have scored.

You're like Kojo with Mikel. Basically, you clearly hate Lampard so much, that everything you say is about him is bullshit and nobody can take you seriously. I'm sick of your narrative of Lampard as a selfish jerk. Yes, the player with the second most assists in Premier League history cares only about himself. Lampard also found himself in good positions a few times where he passed instead of shooting. He tried a pass to Oscar when he probably should have shot. Hell, if he's as selfish as you say, he'd have taken dozens of shots, right? I mean, he touched the ball all the time and because he only cares about himself, he must have just shot every time, right? It's not like he cares about the team at all. It's all just Lampard, Lampard, Lampard. If you look closely, when he kisses the badge, it's just a picture of himself. It's like you don't watch the game. You just watch Lampard and look for something you can construe as selfish and then jump up and down with a perverse delight... And no he shouldn't have passed to Ba. I hate this "he should have passed" stuff. When you are in front of goal, in the box and have a clear shot, you shoot. This isn't hockey when you have to pass the puck into the net. It was a terrible shot, but it was the right move. Hazard had the ball on his off foot in a worse position than Lampard. He should have passed too, right? Selfish prick. Only cares about himself. This happens every time someone shoots and misses and there was someone else (who they wanted to score) who was available. It happened all last year with Sturridge and Torres. It happened earlier this season with Mata shooting instead of passing to Torres. If you try to set players up for perfect shots every time, you will never score. When you are someone who can score goals and you are in a good position, you shoot.

It's the other way around. Our fans don't start off the game booing. They cheer, they sing. The only boos all game were by mostly Southampton fans for Torres. And if our players are so emotionally distraught from hearing "One Di Matteo" (only at home games mind you) that they just cry inside and play poorly, then they have no business playing professional football. Professional athletes take criticism and they have to take it. They take awful abuse, things about their mothers and girlfriends, and they have to take it. I'm sick of this ridiculous narrative. What do you think happened? We went up 2-0 and then the players got discouraged by the level of support and blew the lead? @RMPR-We have the talent to beat those teams easily. We don't have the talent to compete at a higher level. (We have a lot of good players and very few elite ones).

We absolutely do lack talent...we have potential but that's not the same thing. (That's talent for a team that rightly considers itself one of the best in Europe. Obviously a lot more talented than most clubs.)

Just awful. Why do we start our games so slowly? Even our big wins against Leeds and Stoke, we were very poor for the first 45. We are waiting for the other team to dictate play. Some of that is the players and some of that is coaching. Basically, everybody was pretty poor except Ba and Hazard. The Mata/Hazard/Oscar trio doesn't work. Lampard/Ramires doesn't work. I feel bad for Marin. We have no wingers right now and he still won't get a look. That said, we should be able to put out just about any starting XI and beat Southampton at home. This is just awful. Worse than any other post-Roman year for sure. We lack depth, we lack strength, and we lack talent.

This season is a disaster.

Fuck off

This is Luiz territory.

Damnbert!

Hazard! Well deserved. We've had beautiful ball movement the last few minutes.

Ba!

No, it doesn't work when you do it over one game, but it works overall. We have been worse under Rafa than under RDM and with a far easier schedule. Our best wins of the season (away at Arsenal and Spurs) came under RDM and our worst loss (home to QPR) came under Rafa. We've had some lopsided wins under Benitez, but overall, we have been poor.

And we'd have lost 6-0 at home?

I think Guardiola will adapt a style that suits Bayern's players rather than trying to force Barcelona down their throats. They are an immensely talented team but not built for tiki-tika per-se. They have a striker who is a true target-man and they have two wingers who are world-class and love to cut in and shoot. They play somewhat similarly to Barcelona anyway which is probably a factor in why Guardiola chose them. Bayern's style (using stats on whoscored.com) ontrol the game in the opposition's half Possession footballAttack through the middleShort passesAttempt through balls oftenNon-aggressiveRotate their first eleven

We have a worse record under Rafa than under RDM facing much worse competition. We've had a very easy schedule under Rafa and still have been poor. Yes, we racked up some goals a few times, but that doesn't come close to making up for some truly dreadful losses. You really think this team that couldn't beat QPR or Swansea at home, would have beaten Juventus in Turin? Come on!

It's like watching a movie you loved as a kid, as an adult. It just isn't the same and you will probably end up hating it. (Or, like when I re-watched the Wizard of Oz when I was older. When I was a kid, I thought Glinda was beautiful. She really isn't. Very disappointing ) Mourinho was the right coach for us at the time but I don't think he's the right coach for the future. I also don't think people remember what the end of Mourinho was like. We were playing terribly and there was just so much craziness around the club. Pretty similar to what's happening in Real Madrid actually. Here are the reasons I don't think Mourinho should or will be back. 1) He didn't get along with Roman. Doubt that will change. 2) Roman wants a specific attacking system. Jose is a win at all costs manager. 3) Mourinho likes defensive solidity and counter-attack. We've bought the opposite sort of players. 4) The drama Jose brings. It's one thing I'd like a lot less of going forward. We've had way too much (except for the CL last year...more of that please). Can you imagine Cech getting benched for Turnbull? Rumours coming out how the Portuguese-speaking players are favoured, etc...

Don't know why people think Benitez will get the job. Don't see him coming back unless we have a fantastic rest of the season. We've done pretty poorly under him and he doesn't fit what Roman wants (long-term offensive vision). Don't see Mourinho back either. He doesn't fit the team we built and wants more control than Roman is willing to give up. Plus, the mess he's creating at Real Madrid this season is a reminder of the baggage he can bring. I think Roman will go with a coach of a team that does well this year. Maybe Simeone from Athletico, Petkovic from Lazio, Remi Garde from Lyon. But I can also see him trying to pry away Klopp. Or, he can get another manager: I don't really care. There are plenty of capable managers out there. I just want a manager that comes in and has say in transfers and some patience from the owner (not likely).

Walters scores....for Stoke this time.

Good for him, he needs the playing time and wasn't getting it with Chelsea.

Love Song, but would need to pair him with a deep-lying midfielder. (someone like Modric)

Sturridge played very well and he's going to play very well in more games and poorly in others. Yes, we should have given him more chances and yes 12M for a player with 6 months left on his contract was good business. None of that matters now. He's gone. I don't want to have to see this topic explode every time he does well or poorly.

Mourinho is a winner because he went to places where he could win. Every single team he has been at, has been the highest spending team in the league and every single team post-Porto has been one of the elite teams in the world. There are three ways managers get considered great. 1) Get a job at a great club- Guardiola earn his shot with Barcelona how? Managing Barcelona B? If he had been hired to manage Celta Vigo instead, nobody would have ever heard of him because Celta Vigo would still be crap and he'd have been fired after a year. He did a very good job with Barcelona, but he had the best club team in history and unlimited money to work with. Tito Vilanova has no experience at all and is doing even better than Guardiola so far. 2) Get a job in a club that values stability and is run well and stay there long enough where you can implement your own system, buy your own players, and have the full backing of the board. The three best managers in the Premier League in terms of out-performing spending are probably Wenger, SAF, and Moyes. The clubs they managed before their current assignments? Aberdeen, Nagoya Grampus Eight, and Preston North End. None of them "earned" the right to be at the clubs they are by working their way up. (and really, IMO shows how silly the idea of needing to hire a big name is. Also, if it were Chelsea, Moyes would have been fired after a year when Everton finished 17th. Wenger would have been allowed, probably one, maybe two seasons of finishing second before getting the can although he'd have probably quit/been fired over lack of control in the transfer market before then, and Ferguson would have been fired after two seasons when United finished 11th.) 3) Get a job with a club at the right time and do a good job and their style often is a good fit with the players they have and...they also get lucky. Take Rafa. He did a good job at Valencia but he also took charge of them at the perfect time. Valencia had a host of extremely talented players who were coming into the club just then. At the same time, both Barcelona and Real Madrid were struggling. That's not to say that Rafa didn't do a good job, he took Valencia further than they would be expected to go. He did very well but...if he were named manager of Valencia say, in 2004, when Real Madrid and Barcelona became dominant, he never would have won anything. Valencia isn't not winning now because they don''t have a good manager, they're not winning because they aren't good enough. The myth of the power of the manager is so vastly over-blown. Managers can make a difference, especially when the club gives them the backing so that players know they have to listen. Managers can be awful and destroy a team or they can be good and give a team that extra bit of help. Just not fucking up is often good enough though.