TorontoChelsea

Yes...BUT it depends on Vidic. He has missed most of the year due to injury (and was playing hurt early in the year.) He's one of the best defenders in the world when he's healthy so if they can get him back playing regularly, that would make a massive difference. (He wasn't playing today).

Awful game but I'll always take a bad game and 3 points over what happened to Newcastle today. Good result and even though these are teams we should be beating, we do have to beat them. Hard to name MOTM as no one really stood out. Voted Mata because his one moment of brilliance won us the game. Moses was excellent as well and MIkel was top-notch in the first half. (Our central defenders were also solid but really had very little to do).

And Hernandez scores in extra time 4-3

Wow...so close.

3-3 Newcastle/ManU...crazy game.

Yikes that was close.

I don't believe in god. I just thank my football knowledge.

People like flashy. This game is a perfect example of how that completely messes up the basic understanding of the game. Luiz has been terrible. 0 for 2 in long balls, giving the ball away carelessly, bad passing, horrible positioning. BUT people love flashy moments, the great pass, the back-heel whatever. and Luiz has a few of those. Mikel is not flashy but he positions himself beautifully and makes smart plays and that's never going to be popular.

Luiz has been awful!!! He made two fantastic passes (and a third that was ruled off-side) but other than that, his passing has been atrocious, his shots missed the net by 30 yards each, and even worse, his positioning has been baffling. People were complaining about Lampard getting forward too much. Luiz is not even playing pivot really, he's basically playing attacking midfielder in a band of four with Oscar, Moses, and Mata. His average position is about 10 feet further upfield that Lampard's most attacking game. He's been caught out of position a couple of times. MIkel is having a great half. Very strong on the ball and excellent positioning. It's Norwich so it won't likely matter and it's not something he's used to so he needs to be cut some slack, but if we played MIkel/Luiz right now against a top side, we'd likely get slaughtered.

Dull first half but we're up so we'll take it!

Luiz had a handball before the foul.

Let's hope this opens the game up some.

No right foot but what a left!@!

Norwich are playing like they're up 1-0 in injury time. We look pretty poor so far, but they are not the least bit threatening.

Luiz off to an awful first five minutes...Get it together man!

With the way they we and they looked in the first half, a comeback did seem pretty impossible. It was almost like at half time, West Ham drank some of the druid's potion that Obelix fell into as a baby. (for those of you who get that reference...)

Wondering if Mata won't get a rest today. This should be a winnable game regardless and we do need some players fresh for the crucial Everton match on Sunday. (And we then have 4 matches in the two weeks following.)

Hmmm...a question about the wedding...were the bride and groom related? I don't know why the Premier League doesn't have a package over the internet. My friend in Australia got the baseball and NFL packages. You can pay per team, per month, per game, or just overall. HD streams online. I'd pay for the Chelsea package in a second.

Giggs is five years older than Lampard and Scholes is four years older. When they were Lampard's age, they were playing 35-45 games a year. Lampard is not the player he was a few years ago, but he's certainly capable of helping Chelsea out for a few more years. I am not privy to wage demands or anything like that so can't comment on the business end of it (which is rather important) but this sort of thing won't help the club's image (which has already taken a beating the past year). You see the respect that clubs like Barcelona and ManU have for their older players. It's customary and respectful in football clubs to allow their greats to stay part of the squad as they age (look at Italy- Javier Zanetti is 39, Totti is 36, Di Natale is 36, Del Piero just retired this year at 38, etc...). That doesn't mean they have too play the same role or anything, just that's mutually beneficial for clubs and players to do this. Ruthlessness is not an attractive quality in a person or in a club.

It's true, we tend to rush to judgement way too quickly (it's human) but it takes a long time to get a read on a player. I'm skeptical because what makes a good and defender and what makes a good and bad defensive midfielder are pretty similar so I think over a long period with Luiz anywhere, you'd see pretty much the same thing: lots of solid play, lots of stupid decisions, occasional brilliance that makes you love him, and occasional incompetence that makes you want to yell at him. That's just who he is.

He got hurt but people are acting as if he sucked before that. He played 8 games and had 2 goals and 3 assists. Hardly a horrible start considering that he's been moved all over the pitch. (Rooney is playing in his natural spot). He's an excellent player but how good we will see. Hazard got off to a ridiculously awesome start but slowed down once Mata came back, then had a bad stretch when we were struggling but has picked it up again recently. Overall, to me, he and Mata have been our two best players this season. Oscar is not at that level yet. He's struggled mightily in the Premier League but he works hard and has very good instincts and skills so I have high hopes for him.

Also, with Essien, it was more than one injury. He had, I think three pretty severe injuries and where you can come back from one, there reaches a point of no return. To me, it all comes down to value. As Muzchap says, a 6-month loan with an option to buy? Who can be against that? To me, it would be about perfect. I'd much rather make signings in the summer when teams are more willing to sell.

I don't have a problem with debating. I enjoy it and I think it's what makes boards good. (I've been on some where everyone has to agree on every topic on every evaluation of every player, it becomes fascistic and uninteresting).

They deserve some credit because they have to hold a team together and not screw up. What AVB did last year was the example of how a manager can screw up by simply not communicating his message properly and losing his players. Managers are not useless. Hiring a manager that is respected by players is important so they will listen to him. and because he will install certain tactics that will work with the players you have. (In this, Pep would be a much better choice than Mourinho for the team we're building). But managers make 5-10% of the difference. You might get a few more points with the right guy, but no manager is going to make a mediocre team great. If managers made an enormous difference, you'd see a manager go into a side, that side suddenly massively improve without spending any more money than usual (or getting some new star come through the youth system), and then when that manager leaves, the side gets suddenly worse and stays that way. That just doesn't happen. Managerial stability is important because it gives the manager more say and players have to behave. SAF can control ManU because the players all know that he's in charge. There is value in that.

That's nonsense and you are ignoring fact! Money is the single most important factor in winning.This is not even debatable You can actually look at winning clubs and what allows them to win and what they have in common in a scientific way. What they have in common, is money. Calling it a "small part" is ridiculous. The highest spending teams in England are right now 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 8th in the table. The highest spending club in Germany is 1st. The highest spending clubs in Spain are #1 and #2. The highest spending club in Italy is #1. The highest spending club in Portugal is #1. The highest spending team in France is #1. etc...This is not some theoretical subject where we can say "who knows what allows clubs to win". We know why clubs win. Clubs win because they spend money. Yes, there will be blips over the course of a year or two. Smaller spending teams can win and bigger spending teams can lose, but it always be a blip. Reading will never win the Premier League because they don't spend, not because they have a poor manager. To me, this is like the Republican argument in the US when they say "people are rich because they work hard" when you can clearly see, again, factually, that people are usually rich because they are born to rich families. We have hard data and I don't know how people can argue against that with theoreticals. (and yes, the link between spending and winning is fact) but the myth of "the great manager" will be a hard one to kill.