TorontoChelsea

Yes, we got some really bad decisions but we've also been on the other end of that this year. It happens. The issue for me is bigger. It's about us playing poorly over and over again and depending on us turning things around in the second half or even requiring some sort of horrible screw-up from the other side to win. We simply have to play better, more consistent football. We were playing a poor team and couldn't control the game or score.

I have been following football for a long time. I understand. Lallana is a good player and deserves to be starting for England based on his play in the Premier League this year. That's completely reasonable.

Who is saying Lallana is Ronaldo? Can't someone compliment a player without thinking he's a ballon d'or contender? There is a large gap between sucking and being great. He's nothing like Townsend who had one good game for England but has useless in the league. Lallana has actually been one of the better players in the Premier League season. Not only does he score goals, he sets them up, has a good work-rate, and does a very good job defensively. He's a good player.

He displaced those players because Mourinho values pace and work-rate over everything else. And it's not that he's not scoring 4-5 goals a game, he's scoring 1 goal every 15 games. I never said he's a bad player or a useless player, he's just not worth what we paid for him and never will be.

Hazard was 21, and was the 2-time player of the year in France. He was one of the most sought after young players in football. He made the PFA team of the season in his first year. He was an elite young player with world-class talent who made an immediate impact at a top level. He was 32M Willian is 25, was playing in a crappy league, couldn't crack the Brazilian national team, and he cost the same. He cost more than Oscar, Mata, Silva, etc...Willian cost the same as Mario Goetze...etc.. And yes, I am aware there are different kinds of midfielders, but WIllian is not a central midfielder and doesn't play the same role as Iniesta, Xavi, etc..play. He is an attacking midfielder, usually playing in the #10 slot. Nobody would be upset if Matic doesn't produce goals and assists because that's not his job, but it is Willian's job. 2 goals in 30 games is terrible. Yes, he has great work ethic and energy, but that's not a 30M midfielder.

I agree. I can't ever support a player playing against Chelsea. Chelsea has been around for about 109 years. Drogba was at Chelsea for 8 years. He's a Chelsea great and we will always love him, but I hope he doesn't come close to scoring against us.

Because it's been tried many times and has been a financial and humanitarian disaster every single time. There's a reason it fell (and continues to fall. It's only a matter of time before the last few counties leave it behind). I have a lot of sympathy for Socialism because the ideal behind it of equality is something to strive for, but in practice, it simply doesn't work. That being said, counties can and so use elements of socialism to make their societies more equal.

Fantastic move by Everton, very good save. by Cech.

Willian has 2 goals in 28 games as an attacking midfielder. He has great pace and he works hard but it's not as if he's setting the world on fire. Oscar has been pretty invisible for the past month or so as well. And Salah has gotten on ahead of Schurrle as a sub recently also.

Because it is still easily the best system. (Or, if you want, the least bad system). Capitalism with proper checks and balances where the rich are actually forced to pay taxes and the poorest are taken care of works quite well. And what else is there that is viable? Every other economic system ever tried has been an unmitigated disaster. Capitalism is like Democracy. It doesn't work great and needs constant tweaking and checks and balances but it's far better than anything else.

Again with the Rothschilds. What's with people holding on to idiotic conspiracy theories. The conspiracies were wrong 100 years ago and 200 years ago and they're even more absurd today. Rothschilds aren't even particularly rich in the banking world and the idea that they somehow control things is laughable to anyone with even a cursory understanding of how the economy works. Bankers do have enormous influence (which is different than control) but the big banks are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Deutche Bank, Barclay's, etc making hundreds of billions...not relatively small, private banking houses. @Choulo- It just seems to be getting worse too. The rich are getting richer. The super rich and are getting much richer and everyone else is getting fucked. The whole system is so broken and it's for complicated reasons. (fall of unions, rise of technology in the workplace replacing workers, rise of lobbying by big business, etc...). There are some easy answers (higher taxes for the rich, cracking down on offshore accounts, etc...) IMO but also hard ones. Look at a company like Whatsapp? In the pasty, companies worth billions would have employed hundreds of thousands of people. Now, they have 55 people. I do work for a company worth about $100M who employs about 20 full-time people. Is there an answer to that? Did you see wolf of Wall street? Matthew Mcconaughey has a good scene there where he explains how the investment bankers make money Mark Hanna: Nobody knows if a stock is going to go up, down, sideways or in circles. You know what a Fugazi is?" Jordan Belfort: Fugazi, it's a fake. Mark Hanna: Fugazi, Fugazi. It's a wazy. It's a woozie. It's fairy dust.

I don't think it's even close. It's not just a few matches. It's a couple of massive games and it means they have to rest players in the league. You can't get to the CL semi-finals and be resting your best players. Momentum and confidence are overrated in football and sports in general. (In fact, momentum really doesn't exist from game to game(. We had our biggest win of the year against City, killed Newcastle, and then couldn't beat WBA at home and looked limp against City..Shouldn't we have been riding our momentum and confidence?

In fact, after the red card, City had about as many chances as Barca did too. One horrible decision cost them badly. It' be better for us if City and Arsenal go through but they got brutal draws so it was always unlikely.

Willian cost 30 or 32M pounds and has 2 goals in 28 appearances. He's a useful player,has incredible energy and a great work-rate but isn't worth near what we paid for him. For that price for a midfielder, you should be getting one of the best players in the world, not a work-rate effort kind of guy. (We got Hazard for the same price and Hazard is better and younger). Salah's transfer fee is much more reasonable so he doesn't have the same expectations.

Maybe he'll be good, maybe he won't, Way too early to tell either way.

The spirit, mental toughness thing matters very little in the scheme of things. Hughes would have won with City eventually too had they kept him on. City spent 230M pounds in the two years after he left building the team they have now. Yes, there are outliers. Teams that spend money that don't do well for a year or two, teams that don't spend that have a few good years, but they are rare and short-term. It's very unromantic, but money equals success.

We just need to rotate more. This will become more and more key as the season wears on. Schurrle, Ba, Cole, etc..can and should start some games to give other players a breather.

Awful performance in the second half and I think some of it might have been down to players being tired. Chelsea play a very high pressing, high energy game and playing 3 games in a week requires a lot of stamina even for professionals in great shape. 8 out of the 10 outfield players started all 3 games.

It will come because the United brand which makes them money depends on success (CL, world tours, kits sold, etc...). Malcolm Glazer is worth 4.5BN or so so it's not as if they are going to be poor. They are still spending lots of money. They are not Rangers, they are a team that still spends money. The idea that they are going to fall apart forever because they having a bad season is ridiculous. A good manager with a plan could turn this team around in 1, maybe 2 years.

They do, but I am saying that long term, these mistakes won't matter much. They are a mess right now, but if you have money, you can turn around teams very quickly. We had terrible transfers for a few years and were able to overcome them.. I see 2-3 bad years for United but they have a huge fan base and a lot of money so I can't see them not being contenders within a few years.

Spurs didn't spend 100M, They spent maybe 10M. You can't ignore the sale of Bale. And anyway, yes Spurs spend fairly large in comparison to other teams which is why they are battling for a place in Europe. The link between clubs that spend big and clubs that win is absolute. People like to think it's managers or effort that wins in football, but money is easily easily the most important element in success. United have a huge fan base and lots of money coming in so can spend big. As long as they can, they will be able to compete.

Permanent? No. Any team that spends money will eventually do well. It will be a couple of years though.

Hard to say really. Any of the teams 2004-2008 were amazing. The 09-10 season was one of our best, but by then, the team didn't have the same depth.

Was mostly excellent , and I love what I see from him so far. He needs to get acclimatized the Premier League a bit still though as he tends to try to dribble too much out of traffic which results in a few turnovers in bad places. I'm sure he'll figure it out soon.

Good first half but the scoreline flatters us. Newcastle got a number of good chances. We've got to tighten up a bit and we'll be fine. Hazard is just ridiculous right now.