TorontoChelsea

Out best game of the season so far. We were having trouble creating any chances and we had about 10 today (and 3 penalties that weren't called). Yes, it was Norwich, but still a positive. It's going to be a tough stretch after the break so it's nice to see us gelling. Ivanovic, Lampard, Mata, Oscar, and Hazard were all immense today.

Three today!

So close...beautiful set-up and I'm happy Torres shot. I'll take those kinds of misses.

This is getting ridiculous. Two obvious penalties!

This is sexy football.

Are you f#$@*ing kidding me? Lampard has had a fantastic first half. His passing has been superb. He set up a number of excellent chances and scored a goal. He had the pass to Torres to set up his first chance. He had the long pass to Mata to set up Ivanovic for the cross for Torres goal. He made a brilliant tackle that led to Oscar's great move. He made a couple of beautiful passes to open up play wide. In fact, he has our highest gamescore in the first half from whoscred.com Why are people so obsessed with hating on Lampard?

I know it's Norwich, but this is the best we've looked all season. Gorgeous passing and ball movement.

But they were fantastic. There is no way we beat Barcelona without the two of them (or score either the Drogba or Ramires goals). The partnership has been mediocre so far this season, but it's been what, 3 league games and one CL match? As I pointed out earlier, our overall record with these two in the double pivot, despite excellent competition is very good. It's not perfect, but it's hardly the mess people want to make it out to be.

More promising than winning the Champions League?

Yes, it's worked many times, in fact most of the time, it's worked. We are 9-4-1 under RDM with the two of them in the starting lineup with the only loss being away at Man City. (And that's including the CL semi final and final and the FA Cup final...hardly an easy schedule.)

I'm fine with anything official, even twitter!

In fact, there will be loads of people posting loads of lineups because twitter usually has about 10 different lineups. I'd love if people waited until some official starting XI before posting but I think that's probably asking too much.

And he saves a goal. It's always like that, isn't it. You say someone's awful and then they make a great play...hmm, gives me an idea. Everyone on Chelsea sucks! They can't score, they can't pass, they can't defend. (Let's hope that works.)

I hope so. There really aren't many more fun players to watch in the world. He's like uranium or something...if contained, he can power the entire team, but if not, well he will explode the entire game. I'd love to see more players like that.

Have to say, City are very entertaining to watch this season. Probably because their porous defence which means that games tend to be very attacking for both sides. I wish we would be playing them now because you have to think they'll get their defensive problems sorted out at some point.

TV/Online or in a bar. I actually prefer to watch most games alone because when I'm with people, there's some inevitable distraction. (Also, Chelsea games tend to be on in the morning here and I like to go to bars to drink not to eat breakfast.)

Congrats Hutcho. Well deserved. (and a big thanks to everyone who supported me.)

I'm happy Mata is not going. Don't care about Spain and it's better for Chelsea. As for deserving to go? Depends on what Del Bosque wants. I can understand picking Silva who is out of form but who has worked well in the Spanish national team for years and Cazorla who is having a fantastic season and is more well-rounded player than Mata. ( works hard defensively) What Mata provides is fantastic creativity and movement, some scoring, great passing, very good at free kicks, etc...For Chelsea, that's absolutely crucial but when you have Xavi, Iniesta, Fabergas, etc...it's much less important. Spain right now probably has the greatest collection of midfielders in history so there's no shame in not making that club. If Mata keeps playing like he has the past few games however, he'll play his way on to the team.

Makes sense. Even if he's very close to ready, if we sit him one more game, he'll have an extra two weeks off. Really not worth risking aggravating his injury for one early season season match which we should be able to win without him.

Exactly. The way I see it, there are two decent ways to do it. 1) As you mention, just stopping the clock every time there is a significant stoppage or 2) Having an official whose job it is to calculate that time (basically stopping and starting a stop-watch whenever there is a delay) and then giving that amount of time as extra time. The current system just makes no sense.

1-I don't think we have a best starting XI. I think it depends on the side we're playing and the game we're trying to play. For example, the side we played against Arsenal would be terrible against a team that has natrual width and a target man up front but is great against sides that try to use the middle of the pitch.. 2-Premier league just ahead of CL. Then FA Cup, then league cup, then the club WC 3-I would like to see our attack seem more planned and less "hey guys, go out there and try to score". We seem to have excellent defensive gameplans and almost non-existent offensive ones. 4-New signings look good so far, but it's early. 5-CL-quarter finals, 3rd place Premier league, FA Cup win, League cup out next round, 6-Marin as a squad player, Sturridge as a CF who plays his way into extra playing time.

I don't think any striker would fit in with the way we're playing right now. We're just not striker-friendly. Cavani does a lot of things very well so he contributes in many different ways . He is an incredible defender for a forward and he holds the ball up brilliantly. Not sure if buying any striker for 40M+ is a good idea right now, but I can't think of a (realistic) striker I'd rather have.

Absolutely agree. Sturridge was our second best player in the first half of the season last year. He scored some absolutely crucial goals, He then picked up a knock and had a poor month and then was played absurdly out of position under RDM. (Torres would have actually been a better fit in the midfield than Sturridge). He also scored some dynamic goals, ones that he created out of nothing which is something special. It bothers me that he gets so much flak. I mean, he was 21 and it was his first season and he was playing out of position and he led us in goals. I don't know why he was so disliked. (yeah, he is selfish, but I don't think that's always a negative for a striker).

I don't people appreciate how strikers would fit into different systems. Falcao is one of the best finishers in the world and nobody would dispute that, but as others have mentioned, I don't think that fits in well with Chelsea. Athletico are a team built around service to Falcao and creating space and opportunity for him. Chelsea are not like that in the least. All you have to do is look at the shots taken last season. Falcao took 124 shots last year in the league. The next highest total for the team was Adrian with 61, Diego had 56 and nobody else cracked 50.. Sturridge led Chelsea with 93 shots and then we had Torres, Drogba, Lampard, and Mata all with 65 or 66. This season, Falcao is taking 4.5 shots a game. Torres and Hazard are our shot leaders and they both have 13 shots in 6 matches. Again, Falcao is a fantastic finisher, but he's not a multi-dimensional player the way a top striker should be. Just to show you statistically-a comparison to Cavani Long balls per game-Cavani, 1.3, Falcao-0.2 Clearances per game-Cavani-2.5, Falcao-0.2 Tackles per game-Cavani-1.7, Falcao-0.6 Blocked shots per game-Cavani-1, Falcao-0 Dribbles per game-Cavani-1.5, Falcao-0.6 In fact, I think whoscored.com sums up strengths well Falcao-Finishing-strong, long shots-strong, headed attempts-strong. Those are his attributes. Shooting and scoring. Now, you look at a top striker and I'll pick someone other than Cavani, take Van Persie. Key Passes-very strong, Holding on to the ball-strong, finishing-strong, long shots-strong, through-balls-strong, dribbling-strong, taking set pieces-strong. Scoring is the most important aspect of a strikers' game, but very few strikers are in the position that Falcao is in where a tea is built to get him opportunities. Chelsea is not built like that at all. We are built in a way where we need a balanced striker, not a poacher.

I don't think it's really that hard to pronouncehttp://www.forvo.com/word/azpilicueta/ (you obviously never get the exact local flavour) it's just a bit of a mouthful. People always like to shorten names anyway. Generally, any name that is longer than one syllable, maybe two, gets cut down to a nickname so to their friends David becomes Dave, Michael becomes Mike, Quetzalcoatl becomes...um...