TorontoChelsea

How the hell does it hurt team morale? This is absolutely rubbish your'e posting. You think Ba is sitting around thinking "I didn't score a hat-trick, I suck?" You think players don't have confidence in Ba because he only scored two goals? It literally makes no difference and in a week, nobody except you will even be talking about it. If Ba had wanted it, how would THAT not be selfishness? Taking a goal away from someone chasing the Chelsea goal-scoring record so you can have some personal glory in a 5-1 FA Cup game? Lampard is our penalty taker and Lampard earned the penalty himself. Even if he weren't chasing the record, it's his to take. You're just being ridiculous.

Are you fucking kidding me? What an insane reaction. One of the best players in Chelsea history, and you hate him because he didn't give a penalty in an FA Cup game for the fifth goal to Ba? Why is Ba getting a hat trick so important? He played very well, scored two goals. What's wrong with that? In what world is scoring a hat trick more important than trying to get the Chelsea goal scoring record?

Lots of contenders for MOTM. The front 4 were all excellent and I thought Cole had one of his best games in a while. It was a game we should have won easily, but as we saw against QPR, you can't take any games for granted.

Ba with his second! This one is over...

Ivanovic!

Great goal by Moses.

There we go...

Crap.

Gus Poyet knocks Newcastle out of the FA Cup yet again! (He scored a brace for us against Newcastle in the FA Cup semi-finals in 2000). Always liked him as a player. Scored some fantastic goals for us so nice to see him have some success with Brighton.

Just watched Brighton's Lopez with one of the worst dives I've seen in order to get Ameobi sent off (which worked). He literally rolled over five times. The last one, he actually stopped to make sure the ref was watching and then went on to roll again. Should be a suspension IMO.

It Cole leaves, we'll buy another LB for sure. CB is one position where we have depth IMO. Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic, and Cahill.

I think Ba should be starting probably today and then against Stoke for sure. He has the physical play that is quite useful against those thugs. Torres would just get pushed out wide.

Lampard should get a breather for this game. Would like to see Oscar in the pivot instead today. We should be rotating the squad these next two Cup games give players a bit of a rest for the league, but not all at once!!

I think formations tend to be too much of a fad (there's always an "in" formation) and managers should use the one that is best for your squad rather than trying to copy one that fits another team. That said, The 4-3-3 would solve problems for some players (it would also be better for Ramires IMO) but would be worse for Hazard and Mata who are our two best offensive players which is why I don't see it happening. I don't know if anyone really plays with a narrow 4-3-3 these days because it leaves your wings so exposed. You clog the centre of the pitch, but your width has to come from your fullbacks with really no cover. If a cross by a fullback isn't successful or if they give away possession, the opposition winger can run, unmolested, the length of the pitch. Offensively, there are problems as well because it would (once again) mean that Hazard, Mata, and Oscar would be playing in very much the same area of the pitch.

We definitely need a deep-lying midfielder and Benat seems like he'd be a good choice. My real concern though is then what happens with Oscar? I understand the Oscar transfer only if Chelsea were going to make him into their deep-lying midfielder and there was indication from Oscar that this was indeed going to be the case. He's going to have a difficult time getting regular starts up front with Hazard and Mata ahead of him so my preference would be to start giving Oscar more games in the pivot to see what he can do there and if he doesn't work, we can get a replacement in the summer. (It's not like it's Benat or nobody. There are a number of central midfielders who will be available.)

The friends of that West Ham fan can laugh at him forever because of this. Any single time he opens his mouth to try to express an opinion on anything to do with football, they can just say, "Scott Canham is better than Frank Lampard" and he has to shut up.

Agree. He's a good pickup for what I assume is pretty cheap. He's probably ready to play immediately (he looked great against Arsenal) and his father is English so the adjustment should be easy. I wonder if having Steffan Freund as assistant coach at Spurs helped this along. And for the record, I think Spurs have had a fantastic season in the transfer window. They've completely rebuilt their squad, made it younger and better, and did it an no cost. Of course, Arsenal have won the transfer market value league many times and it's translated into no trophies for years.

I think it is. I think it's about Roman wanting a locker room with no strong, veteran presence so the manager can have complete control. Roman wants a new start and a new Chelsea.

I honestly don't think it matters what Frank decides. I think this just about Roman wanting a change. I don't think Cole will be back either for the same reason.

Clearly not like Torres...Millhouse's first touch is quality.

Replaces Drogba who crossed himself after goals. One day we'll get an atheist striker who will do science experiments after he scores.

It could be even better: Blues Bag Ba, Ban Blondie to Bench. Benitez Booted by Board who buy Busquets and Bale for Bupkis.

Agreed. People want to read too much into individual games. I'm not saying Oscar will be great in the pivot, he might not work out, but it's worth a shot. Not sure Oscar, Mata, and Hazard (how the hell did Mazacar or whatever become a nickname when "Omaha" fits?) will ever be able to play together well up front. Even Barcelona need one of their front-3 to provide width. It's just too imbalanced for my liking.

We're a deeply emotional board...We just need to control our mood swings better....Too much of this from game to game-

Everyone on the team should have more assists and would if we had better finishing! I agree with some of what you say and some of it can be applied to Hazard as well. At Chelsea, Mata is the #10 and he gets the freedom to roam around the pitch. He deserves that right based on his play. However, this is really also the role that Hazard and Oscar would be best at and the role they're most used to (being the creator/finisher all over the pitch). RDM tried (perhaps at the request of Roman) to play the three of them up front but it didn't work because there was no defensive organization and no width in the attack. I'd like to see more of Oscar in the pivot because I think that's really the only place where he'll maybe be able to get a little bit of freedom and a chance to play.