TorontoChelsea

I actually thought it was his worst game in a while (his passing had been great, but he was pressured a lot and made some poor passes especially in the first half) but he scored two goals and we won 2-1 so overall, that's still a fantastic game. As for how much and how long, none of us know what he's asking for, so it's impossible to comment really but I highly doubt that his demands are so crazy, Chelsea couldn't possibly afford them.

Probably not even then. It will depend on who else is available. And RDM had us top-3 and in the running for 3 trophies and he got fired, so don't see why the same results would get Rafa a new contract. Only way, he gets hired full-time is if Roman's preferred targets don't want to come and Chelsea finish brilliantly (say, top-2 and win the Europa League).

Thought Cole was awful for the first 30 but tremendous most of the rest of the game. He really was calm and went around the aggressive Everton pressure with ease.

Except United would have waited until injury time to do it.

Very lucky to get the points. The first 30 minutes was the worst we've played all season. We were an absolute mess but Cech and the woodwork saved us and Lampard won it. Expected to win against weakened Everton side but the way we managed to do it was very impressive. You have to be able to win some games you don't deserve to.

Webb's had a good game IMO. He's allowed a lot pf physical play which I prefer to whistling for everything.

I think Ramires has more good crosses today than he had the entire year previously.

Sign that man up!

Holy...third time Everton have hit the woodwork today.

Turnbull with the save!

Nice shot by Torres. Credit where credit is due.

Beautiful ball by Luiz. Horrible first touch by Torres.

Oh crap...Cech hurt. Turnbull in!

It's almost a rule in football. If you don't put away teams when you can, it will come back to bite you. After Everton couldn't get the second after a lot of chances (and some great saves by Cech) us coming back looked inevitable. We need to play better in the second half. Everton are pressing hard and not giving our players room. We have to work our way past them but also make sure not to ball chase too much to keep Everton's tempo a little slower.

Legend!!

Finally...some of the ball. Hopefully, Everton will rue not putting us away like they could have.

Haha...I said the same thing to my friend. Like he should be on a poster that says "English People: What you should know"

Wow...we're getting killed here. Very lucky for it not to be 2-0

Yeah, it was a combo of poor play by Hazard, Cole being too lackadaisical, and Luiz not tracking back. A poor goal to concede for sure.

What an awful start.

Because Mazacar isn't a unit, they are three different and separate players who, for some reason, have earned a childish nickname. Oscar, Mata, and Hazard just don't work that well together. They are all central midfielders so when they play, we lack width and our side becomes imbalanced. Moses with two of those players gives the side much better balance.

Building a stadium wouldn't count against FFP and would actually help it greatly. In 2011, Chelsea made 82.1M from gate revenue. Arsenal made 114.7 and ManU made 122.4. Having an extra 30M to spend every year is a pretty big advantage.

Not Fulham's fault I agree, they just spend like we do. The problem (as much as it's a problem) we have though is that we don't have a top rival. English football is international but very local. Look at the plans at building a new stadium. You're talking about maybe 10 square blocks where a stadium would be acceptable to supporters otherwise you start to go into another team's territory. Real Madrid and Barcelona are not good examples because they are the two teams who have dominated Spanish football. In 81 years of Spanish titles, those two teams have won two thirds of all the championships. It's a rivalry because it's basically a league of two. (Portuguese league is similar. Porto, Benfica, and Sporting are really the only teams that have ever done well so they are natural rivals regardless of geography). There are six London teams in the Premier League right now. QPR and Fulham are our most local rivalries and both view us as their biggest rival, but both are too crap for us to feel the same about them. I'd like it if one of them were to spend money to become a top-5 sort of club so we could have "that" rivalry.

It actually makes sense. We're running low on homegrown players and Baines is one of the best left backs in the world. Personally, I think keeping Cole for another year or two and watching how Bertrand develops (and maybe buying someone like Luke Shaw to compete with him) makes the most sense.

This is actually the closest Premier League I think I remember. Not in terms of points, but in terms of quality. There are five teams that are all top squads with Everton being just a little bit behind that. Personally, I like the competition of a tough league. It makes winning sweeter. I may be alone on this board in this, but I really wish Fulham were better. They are are most natural rivalry, but because they've been poor for so long, it isn't a real rivalry. The other quality London teams Spurs and Arsenal are bigger rivals with each other than with us. Other teams we have rivalries with also have bigger ones with other squads (Manchester derby, Liverpool-Everton, etc...) Sherlock Holmes needs Moriarity, Batman needs the Joker and I think things would be more fun with a better local rivalry.