TorontoChelsea

Seriously, probably the most satisfying win of the year so far. Liverpool supporters are entitled and they thought the trophy was already theirs. Great team performance!

Exactly. They have Van Persie, Rooney, Mata, Kagawa, Hernandez, and Welbeck to play 2 positions already. They need central midfielders, defenders and naturally wide players.

Early in every season, people are all gung-ho about every game. You can't rest anybody! You can't treat any game lightly! We have to win! etc..And now when we are in CL semi-finals and still vying for the league we have to rest people? We need to put our best XI out in the League Cup but a key showdown in Anfield? We need to sit our starters because their tired.This is exactly why rotation matters. Ivanovic has started 51 games this season. Azpilicueta has started basically every game since he took over the job from Cole. Cole has started once since January. Are you telling me he couldn't have started 4 or 5 games with Ivanovic and Azpilicueta getting rests and to make Cole more ready if/when we need him? We had a 3 game stretch in about 10 days against Stoke in the FA Cup, West Ham in the league and City in the league? We had 5 players play all 3 games. We couldn't rotate some people in against Stoke in the FA Cup? West Ham at home? Or how about the Christmas period? 5 games from the 23rd of December to January 5th. We couldn't have given Hazard a break in that period? He started 4 games and came on in the 54th in the other. Rotation throughout the season is needed so you avoid exhausting players and having to rest players in key matchups in April.

Will be happy with a win or a draw. Will be OK with a one goal deficit. Anything more will be very difficult to overcome.

I don't think managers matter much unless they are completely incompetent and we've done as well/poorly under Mourinho as we likely would have done under any other competent manager but it's been a fairly disappointing season. We're really no better than last year despite spending a lot of money and re-shaping the team the way Jose wanted. The Mourinho hire never really made sense to me based on the players Chelsea had and what reportedly Roman wanted. RDM was fired for not being able to bring a consistent attacking system to Chelsea. Why hire a defensive coach in Mourinho then? Our back four has gotten much stronger but it's come at a massive cost upfront where we completely lack creativity and imagination. Our attacking players have all, with the exception of Hazard, gone backwards. Even Ramires who I and many people thought would flourish under Mourinho has been worse. We have had a great run in the CL but most of that is due to playing really no decent teams until the quarter finals. We played poorly in the group stages and had we had a group like we did last year, we very likely would have finished second and forced to play someone like Bayern or Barcelona instead of Gallatasaray or been disqualified outright. We will win under Mourinho eventually because we spend too much money not to eventually win with any manager (Except maybe David Moyes).

But overall we've been helped more by referee decisions that hurt by them. We've had a whole bunch of bad calls, much worse than the penalty one go our way. We didn't lose to Sunderland because of poor refereeing, we lost because we were poor. We've been poor for much of the season. This was the last place team at home. Nobody's fault but our own that we didn't win.

Bad game where almost everyone played poorly. Referee gave us a very beneficial decision which saved us. If that's what we did against 10 men, how would we have been for 90 minutes against 11? Normally would give the goalscorer MOTM but it was not even a good shot that Ba scored on and he didn't really play well otherwise so I'm giving my vote to Cech.

Exactly. The difference between a yellow and a just a free kick is often nothing. Yellows are often used to calm down a game. Getting both of those called yellows is really rare for so early in the game. I'll take it of course but if that were to happen to a Chelsea player we'd all be outraged.

What a dull slate of games on Saturday. None of the top 4 teams in action and the 5th and 6th teams both have matchups against bottom sides. Sunday is huge though!

I didn't get a chance to vote in this but it's not really much of a contest. Hazard has been easily our best player. Azpilicueta has had an excellent year but in a much easier and less important role in many fewer games. Has Azpilicueta been more valuable than Terry or even Cahill this season? Not really. Our back four has been amazing . Players who can make a dynamic difference on offense are exceptionally valuable. You're talking about the difference between a very good defensive left back who offers very little offensively and one of the best players in the world. BTW, Azpilicueta ranked among the regular back four, last in passing percentage, last in duels won percentage, last in all offensive categories, was dribbled by opponents more than any other defender, and was by far the worst of all our defenders in the air. Ashley Cole in 12 starts has created more offensive chances than Aziplicueta has all season. He had a very good year and I can't wait to see how he can evolve his game to add offensive ability when he moves back to right back, but player of the year going to a one-dimensional LB in a defensive system? Over a player who leads us in goals and assists and single-handily won us a whole bunch of games? Not even close.

Hoping for a ManU victory is going to be a weird feeling.

I've also been very impressed with his pressing. He really agitates opposing defenders, blocks their clearances, and forces them to make bad passes. He also tracks back quite well. He's a very valuable player for this side even when you look past his scoring ability.

Most often I'd agree with you ("he sucks" after 3 games and other such idiocy) but the fact is that there's no way Willian will ever live up to his price tag. He just isn't an elite player and we paid an elite price to get him. He's also not 19, he's an established player of 25. He is who he is. He works hard, has incredible speed and stamina all of which Mourinho really values but...he has 2 goals in 37 games as an attacking player which is just awful. He also doesn't create a lot of chances for other players. He's a good player and a good fit for what Mourinho wants to do but not worth nearly what we paid for him.

Come on. Cech was at (along with others) at fault for the final goal and maybe should have been more vocal with the Luiz OG but the Lavezzi goal was not his fault at all And Courtois is not superman. A blasted shot that hits the underside of the crossbar is not going to be saved by any goalie with any regularity. Tie is hardly over. 2-0 win would see us through. It's going to be tough and I, like many Chelsea supporters are extremely disappointed in our team's effort. We have the talent we just looked like we didn't care.

Barkley has played one game in central midfield this season. He's an attacking midfielder and that's where he plays the best. He might be able to play centrally and be effective, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it would sort out our central midfield. I like him, but I don't really see the need for Barkley on this team.

You're right. My mistake.

Why do people open these threads so early? Success is defined for us by trophies and we're still in the competitions so we have absolutely no way of knowing whether the season will be a success or not.

No. City have to drop 5 points for us to pass them if we win every game as they're way ahead on goal difference which we certainly will not catch up on. They'd have to lose to Liverpool and Everton both or drop points elsewhere. It's a real advantage for Liverpool and City not having to play in the CL right now too (which is why all those people who root against our domestic rivals advancing in Europe are being short-sighted.)

It's not over of course, but it's going to be very difficult. We have to get 1 more point than City (a draw will be GD which they'll win) and they are in better position anyway and don't have the extra CL games to contend with. Even if we win all 6 games which is unlikely based on our inconsistency all season, City can still afford to drop 4 points in their next 8 games and be champions. They have a margin for error, we have none.

It's not that we play down to bad teams it's that our entire team has been set-up to emphasize defensive responsibility, work-rate, speed and counter-attack. This means that when teams come at us, we can respond as it fits right into what we want to do. When teams sit back and defend, we can't break them down. We played poorly and didn't deserve to win today and that's most likely the title race over for us as we are now behind two teams and City can lose 2/3 of their games in hand and still be ahead of us on goal difference. It's possible but slim now.

Extremely lucky to be up. We should have conceded a penalty. Pretty much everybody has been poor. Need to shake things up if they don't change fairly soon.

How is that damned if he does or damned if he doesn't? If he plays well consistently like he did early in the year, people will be praising him like they were earlier in the year. Scoring the 4th and 5th goal against a 10-man team doesn't show anybody that he's back in that kind of form.

Andy Carroll would be a very valuable player on a different team. He is absolutely dominant in the air and if you could get players that could pounce on those aerial dual wins, it would be a good set-up. West Ham are just so poor to react. He has won 13 headers won so far today. Every other player on the two teams have combined for 14 headers won.

Na, it's because you can't make anything from this game. It was over after 8 minutes and Oscar wasn't involved much in that. Like the 8-0 Villa win last year, scoring against a team that has given up (and down to 10 men) is pretty meaningless in terms of a player's form. He played well last game though so hopefully, he is getting back to his early season form.

Wow!