TorontoChelsea

I think the most underrated skill in football is positioning. With all positions on the pitch, knowing where to be, how to read a play, is so difficult. This is one of the reasons opposition fans often call Lampard lucky because he often seems to be in the right place. Yes, you can get lucky, but constantly being in the right place shows great instincts.

This is the signing I wanted. Good striker, excellent value and cheap enough where if he doesn't work out, he only cost you 15% of Torres and you can move on.

I agree. Winning should be everything. I loved the teams under Mourinho and Ancelotti but Roman wants something else. This is a quote from an article about the firing of RDM from an Irish paper....: "The objective had been laid out to Di Matteo in simple terms during the summer. He was charged with creating a team with a distinctive, confident approach. The obvious example was Barcelona, but there are other coaches and teams who are admired at Stamford Bridge and regarded as a template for Chelsea. One is Jurgen Klopp and his young Borussia Dortmund team. Roberto Martinez is well regarded for his determination that Wigan Athletic play bold, attacking football whoever the opponent. Juventus, who were also impressive when they got a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in September, are held up as an example of the kind of team Chelsea should be." That, to me, is a massive problem. The objective should be "win" but as long as Roman wants the particular style, I just don't see Benitez being at Chelsea long-term.

I agree with that. It wasn't a bad performance, but he's been excellent recently without scoring and the rest of his game was worse today than it's been recently. BTW, just saw this stat... Chelsea with Lampard this season-11 games-10 wins Without Lampard-8 games, 1 win.

Could be, but it's hard to know what Roman thinks. If he does want Chelsea's own particular attacking style, Rafa is not the guy to bring that and he might decide to try the AVB route again(young coach who brings his own style). I think Rafa has to do exceptionally in order to change that. I don't really know and I don't think it matters much. I'm fine with Rafa as the manager but managers are fungible and every Chelsea manager is just a bad handful of games away from being sacked anyway.

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.