Mustafa

We just need someone that will let our trio behind the striker have fun. Give them the ball frequently and can spread the play. At the same time he needs to be able to act as a shield for the defenders. Thats the criteria. Any takers ?

He was fucking immense ! Messi and Ronaldo standards for sure. I wanna see him do that against bigger and better teams and more consistently. I mean Phil Bardsley was marking him. Walk into the Emirates on this form and ill be beyond happy !!

I've got to the point where I dont really know what to expect from us. Like always tho, 3 points ! Preferably a comfortable win with the game killed off in the first half. I reckon Ba might play. Also, Eto'o might make a "surprise return" tomorrow. Dont know if i fancy him tho. Nando or Ba I reckon will do the trick. Preferred Starting XI : Cech; Azpi, Cahill, Terry, Cole; Mikel, Ramires, Willian, Mata, Schurrle; Torres

Cech - Barely troubled. Couldn't do anything about the goal. Ivanovic - Once again he was asleep and let his man in for Southampton's goal. Had a good second half and played a big part in our first goal. Cahill - Great determination for his goal. Was pretty solid. Terry - Osvaldo didn't gave him a challenge all game but he came out on top for the most part. Brilliantly taken goal on his 400th Azpi - Keeping Cole out of the side. Didn't do anything wrong. Essien - I felt bad for the lad when his pass gifted Southampton their goal. Subbed off at half time after a shocking first half Ramires - IMMENSE all game long !! Terrific stuff for Ba's goal. He's one in a million Oscar - Came off injured Hazard - I expect a lot better from him. Poor decision making. Had his moments when he was involved in the game but another disappointing performance from him Mata - He was excellent all night ! Heavily involved in all of our best moments throughout the game. My Man of the Match. Torres - Put in a shift. Good to see that he's trying to keep up the form he showed before his injury ! Subs: Lampard - Seemed like a strange move by Jose to put him on rather than an actual winger when Oscar came off injured but he wasn't bad at all. Played an important part in John Terry's goal Ba - Bold move from Jose to bring him on for Essien, but it paid dividends as he was terrific off the bench. Missed a clear chance, but he made up for it with a great poachers goal. Mikel - Got a few minutes towards the end of the game under his belt.

I dont think anybody will get the starting XI correct. Such is the variety we have but seem to be fucking up more often than not

After all the fuss of LORD JOSE returning. The savior. The messiah. The special one. What has he done ? Improved our general play ? No. Improved our defense ? Not particularly. Kept his players happy ? Nope. Doing immense in the league ? Nahh. He looks utterly clueless !! The fact that its been 5 months and he still hasn't found a proper starting XI.... that's awful mate. F***ing awful. Best manager in the world ? Not a chance. Soo many things that he's fucked up. Decides to keep our best player for the past 2 years on the bench for the majority of the season. Getting rid of Lukaku (who would literally put his heart and his soul into everything for Chelsea). Overprotecting Lampard. The talent at this club and how we're looking like sh*t is just not okay. Not one bit. Utterly pissed right now.... (Please excuse me because at the moment, i am not liking this lad one bit. So don't take this to heart.)

For the sake of argument, what has Mourinho done to make our team as a whole, better ?

Mourinho..... That is all.

Gutted for Mata.

Here is how I see the situation. We have Oscar who has been great since he's come to the club. This year tho, he's taken his game to another level. He's been out POTY so far. On the other hand we have Mata who has had an unfortunate (because of injury setbacks) start to the season but in my opinion Mourinho has mismanaged him. Mata only got a run of games when we were in need against Spurs and he came up with the goods in a great performance coming off the bench. Juan is a big game player. He earned his place in our next game at Steaua and he put in a solid performance. He was involved in most of our positive play and didn't put a foot wrong. He was unfortunate not to score when he hit the post in that game. Jose started Juan against Norwich the following weekend and again, Mata was good. His link up play was good he created a couple opportunities and again, Jose started him in our next game against Cardiff. This game, he was poor. Fast forward to the next game in which he was played. Arsenal away in the league cup. He watched from the touchline 2 games in a row. At the Emirates, it was as if Mata was at his best again. He looked sharp, clever feet, tricks and flicks .. And to wrap it all up he scored a fantastic goal. He played against Newcastle the next game but the entire team was shit... That being said, he was tracking back in that game and didn't really have freedom. (imo Mata was our best player in that dreadful performance) He hasn't played since. Now, let's look at the similarities and try to make a connection between the games in which Juan was good. In the Spurs game, he was played centrally and was given the freedom of WHL and he was terrific [Got us a point]. He didn't need to worry about defensive duties... He didn't need to do that at the Emirates either. Bang ! He was excellent there too [Through to the next round]. In the Steaua game, he very good. Again, I don't remember him chasing back at all in that game. Freedom [3 points, and 4-0 win]. Norwich, he was offered that freedom, he was deployed on the right hand side but he drifted in towards the middle more often than not. When he was on the pitch we were good, but we failed to kill off the game. The Cardiff game, was the one game out all of the games in which Mata was started/offered a free role that he didn't play well. I reckon if Mourinho put a bit if faith into Mata and played to his strengths, then we would see how good he really is. I don't think its fair/right to have Mata on the bench of 2-3 games regularly. He's too good to be a squad rotation player.

Whoa... That unfortunate that he isnt there and we chose MVG whose gonna be out for the year over him I reckon Oscar could. I mean, if we have Mikel and Rami alongside him... he can play the same role as Lampard did on Saturday

After reading the first two pages of this thread... Most people seems to want either a completely different side, or the same XI that beat West Ham. I reckon we should have a mix of the two. Same formation. A 4-3-3 with one of out CM/DMs staying put right in front of the back line giving the other two CMs license to go up field in counter attacking situations. Because of this, Mikel should start. The other two CMs are up for debate. Jose can pick from Lampard, Ramires, Essien... even Oscar can play there. Im not too bothered with who starts up front for us but I'd like to see Torres gets some minutes. The wingers we play wont be too much of a problem either. Whether it be Willian, Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar or even Mata we'll be okay i think. Here's the team i think would be best suited for this match. Formation: 4-3-3 Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole; Mikel, Rami, Oscar; Schurrle, Torres, Mata

I'm not particularly happy with his link up play. It was decent today but I reckon his awareness isn't good enough. The amount of times he has a runner on the opposite flank and he plays the simple pass to the lad right infront of him.... is just too much for me. He had quite a few bad touches and imo the only thing he's better than Torres at is his willingness to take shots and take on defenders. Everything else, i reckon Torres is on par or even better than him at.

Excellent. Lamps was my MOTM simply because he scored 2 goals. He looked like his old self... making run into the box, arriving late and generally just getting himself into goal-scoring positions. Oscar was superb too. He didnt let the Hammers defenders breathe for a single minute all game !! Brilliantly taken goal and his overall play was very good Eden was actually good tonight imo (with my very high expectations for him). He looked very comfortable on the ball, rarely lost it. Assisted Oscar's goal beautifully. I noticed that he made a lot of good positive runs in behind the defense and the pass was played through only once all game which was really disappointing (on that occasion, the ball had juuusstt a little too much on it and it ran away from him). Mikel was phenomenal. I reckon if he didnt play today, we wouldnt have won this game so comfortably. He gave Lampard license to go forward (and bag a pair of goals) and he was so calm in his position throughout. Excellent defensive cover from him all night. Great performance. Genuinely satisfied

I dont think Jose actually said that......

First time I ever shed tears because of football. Amazing !

PLEASE LORD BE TRUE !! http://www.givemesport.com/403800-chelsea-had-offer-accepted-for-falcao

If you read my post properly i said he's the best striker in the world .... Last season ! I said this because this season he looks unsettled and disinterested if you ask me. That's my opinion. What's also my opinion as that £52m is not too much for him because: 1. He was signed from Atletico for £50m. I don't think they would be selling for less than that amount. Its not like his value just drops automically 2. He's at the very beginning of his contract at Monaco 3. Monaco are not a team who is in need of big bucks... they're in probably the best financial position out of all the teams in Europe

Didnt say it was. I was just putting it into perspective for the fella above (who made it seem like £52m was absurd for a player like Falcao). He's for me, the best striker in the world (according to last seasons performances when he actually looked like he gave a shit). It wouldnt be out of this world for us to dish out 52million for him

Lets hope thats true ! I dont think he'll start against West Ham but the sooner we have him fit the better.

He's 27 firstly and we're willing to pay £52m. Only 2million more than what we paid an off form Fernando Torres. If that puts things into perspective for you

Eden Hazard advises team-mate Kevin De Bruyne to leave Chelsea• 'For him leaving and playing, that would be good' • José Mourinho yet to give De Bruyne a full 90 minutes theguardian.com, Monday 18 November 2013 10.24 GMT Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium. Photograph: Thierry Roge/EPA Eden Hazard, the Belgium and Chelsea midfielder, has advised his national and club team-mate Kevin De Bruyne to leave the Premier League side in order to get enough match action before next year's World Cup finals in Brazil.Since his return from a loan spell at Werder Bremen, De Bruyne, Belgium's top scorer in qualifying for Brazil, has started only four matches for Chelsea and has not played a full 90 minutes. Chelsea's manager José Mourinho attended Belgium's 2-0 defeat to Colombia on Friday."For sure, playing at a World Cup without having been in action for a year, I think that's very difficult. I think for him that leaving and playing, that would be good," Hazard told the Belgian public broadcaster VRT. "If we want to get the best out of Kevin, I think that it's best if he leaves."De Bruyne, 22, has already been linked with a return to the Bundesliga during the January window, which would give him several months to return to top form by the time the World Cup kicks off.

Man.... I think losing him in January would make me sadder than losing anyone else in the squad. Simply because of the circumstances.

Metaphorically i mean that we're not getting the points as desired.

I might get stick for this... but this is what I believe: Jose hasnt done anything so far this season to make us or Roman Abramovich (who essentially wants the same thing as us: Good football and trophies) feel satisfied. Dont get me wrong. I love Jose as much as the next person but I didnt expect this start to the season. Points and unattractive football is one thing, unattractive football and no points is another. He's struggled to find the correct combination in midfield and hasnt made our defense as immaculate as we expected from him. If any other manager had a start like this (especially at moments like the home loss to Basel or the shocking performance against Newcastle) we'd be on his ass !! Di Matteo and Rafa had us playing free flowing, enjoyable football and seemed to keep most of our players happy. Yes this didnt result in a particularly successful campaign but there were times in last seasons campaign where we looked unplayable. For example, Utd at Home in the prem before the 2 sendings off and the 2 Utd goals. The second half against Utd in the FA Cup. The first half of the Arsenal game at home in the League. West Ham at home for the entire game and for the first half in the away game. Villa at the Bridge. We were electrifying for the most part of the first 3 months in the league. The one game that we played champagne football so far this season was the Hull City (who were alot like a deer in the headlights if you ask me) match at home and that wasn't the entire game, that was only for the first half. On the flip side, there were performances like the Newcastle game, the United game, the Everton game, Basel, West Brom which were all poor displays either at the back or offensively. With all the talent at Jose's disposal, I and surely the entire TC community expected better.