different level

By pulling out those stats you just proved my statement - he was a reserve player who didn't make an impact on his chances, therefore he was not good enough for Chelsea and was sold.

Unbelievable how much he's improved in the last two years. With Matic and Ramires on the pivot we would definitely look good at least on paper

Just a matter of opinion, I guess. My point is Ba was just as impressive for another EPL team as he was disappointing with us and I don't need to look for stats to prove this statement.

What's wrong with the comparison? This time last year Sturridge was the misfiring reserve player we were looking to offload and Ba was the striker doing well for another PL team. What they have in common is the fact they are both not good enough to be Chelsea players.

Villa are doing great at being absolutely worthless.

There goes the chance of City dropping points today. 0-1

The double sub worked like a charm. Oscar and Willian definitely changed the game, although the former deserves some ear pulling for that dive. As much as Mata was disappointed to be subbed the outcome shows it was a good decision. But anyway any suggestion that he needs to be sold is a typical forum overreaction and it's quite simply a ridiculous one.

What a great feeling it is to beat the lowly scousers, especially after the last match at that shithole of a stadium in Merseyside. The fact that they feel robbed of a penalty makes it even better for me. What a great night! Happy new year, everybody! KTBFFH!

Fulham are losing by 4 goals. Huddlestone scored and now he can shave that nest on his head

And City still not leading after an hour of play. One would think they'd be leading by 2 or 3 goals. Still enough time to do that, though.

3 goals in 4 minutes.

West Ham and West Brom on now. 1-2 at the break with all 3 goals scored by ex blues. Joe Cole for WHU and a brace by Nico Anelka for Albion.

This has 1-1 written all over it. I can't watch.

Wow. Seriously, Samuel?

Do you remember last season after his return from the knee injury many people were putting him in the retirement list?

If you want him to justify his price tag that's not going to happen, but he can still be a useful member of the squad. He's our best striker atm, but that doesn't say much as all three of them are lacking goals.

If we lose Arsenal will go top of the table with 5 points more than us. I agree with everything else but by "championship battle going our way" I meant for the time being and so we can end up leaders by the New Year's Eve. If we don't win today that's not going to happen, because surely City won't be dropping any points in their next two games.

Don't get settled for a draw, guys! We need to win this one and the two remaining games of the calendar year at all cost if we want the championship battle to go our way.

Liverpool are going to lose their next two games. Btw don't you just love it how everybody is wanking over their best form in 5 years, which ironically isn't better than what we're doing atm and it's a known fact it's either a criticism or nothing when it comes to Chelsea.

It doesn't get much easier than Crystal Palace. If we concede one more goal I'm sacking the defense!

Very happy with the win of course, but I believe the Stoke players and Mark Hughes will be grinning after watching the replay of our match and knowing we face them in a couple of days at Britannia.

Still can't believe we conceded 3 naive goals. We owe our victory to Frank and Eden.

Come on Cardiff. Do what you did last week! Edit: Just as I posted this they conceded. Fuck off!

Arsenal haven't dropped many silly points so far, have they? The loss against Villa on opening matchday and that's pretty much it.

At this point no matter which team we face at the round of 16 (regardless of where we finish - 1st or 2nd in the group) I can't be 100% convinced that we'll progress.