Dion

Our finishing is on fire today.

@Barbara, would you mind posting some gifs from the game on the post match thread later? I've been trying to watch the game for quite some time but my internet refuses to let me see more than a power point slide show

Those are some poorly translated subtitles

I was unfamiliar with that saying, I've just learned something today, thank you.

Classic Torres, give fans false hope that he is back just to go 10 games missing tap-ins.

It really is. Our taxation system is bollocks.

To me it's disgraceful enough that it crossed his mind to score the winner playing against us. Can't even bother to discuss the rest.

His assist was absolutely fantastic, the only other players we have in the squad who could have pulled that off consistently in the same situation are Hazard and Cesc, our best players. In the second half he could have still grabbed another assist in that beautiful collective play which ended with him passing to Costa with a header. Honestly, and speaking for the second half only, he had a very good performance.

Holy shit, it must have been atrocious then, because I can remember some terrible performances from him that I didn't think could be topped, stuff like failing half of his passes and being unable to keep possession for his life.

Was Oscar that bad in the first half? I only watched the second and he was one of the best players on the field during the period.

Costa is a beast.

Wow, Willian took ineffectiveness to the next level right there.

To be fair he had that good first touch in the beginning of the vid, if he develops a little bit further he could maybe reach bottom pro footballer level.

It shouldn't though. The only team comparable to Chelsea in England right now is City, and I don't see much of a reason for Eden to leave Chelsea and remain in the same league in a worse city in a team roughly as good as his previous one. If we're considering the other european leagues, there are only about 3 or 4 clubs which wouldn't be a downgrade from Chelsea, and all of them can and will pay the release clause if they really want Eden. Especially Madrid, which is probably the team Hazard would be more willing to go. Unless he's really not enjoying it here, I don't think he should worry too much about it.

Everyone knows that, that's not why people are frustrated. They are frustrated because they thought Lampard was one of the rare exceptions that didn't put the business part ahead of everything else in his career. That's why it hurts. In the beginning I didn't care too much about the move and gave him the benefit of doubt, but the more the time passes and information comes out, the more it seems likely that I've been wrong about Frank Lampard.

I think there are two points here. Me, as a fan and outside viewer, would like to see the best taker doing it always or as often as he can, which is usually our designated one, Hazard. However, mentality plays a huge part in penalties, and who to know best their mental states than the players themselves? Ultimately the designated penalty taker should have the last word in the matter, because at 100% he should be the best man to do it. But even the best players have those off-days, days when everything is going wrong and they're frustrated - dribbles don't seem to connect or they can't hit the right spot to score. Shouldn't the players, knowing best their own situation, be able to assess and decide whether they're in good conditions to take it or not? That's what I meant when I voted for letting the players themselves decide it. And that's just the objective analysis of the situation. Subjectively I think denying it to a teammate who is almost as good as you at the task but has an important goal to accomplish (be it individual glory or not) is a bit selfish and may create an awkward and bad situation between the players which I would prefer to avoid if I could, imo it's like saying you don't trust their ability or their judgement that they're able to do it, also I believe Eden is not the kind of person to do that, especially in a game when he'd be winning, even if by one goal only.

And to be honest, it's a miracle Cesc's form has not dropped a single bit as of now, he's been overplayed a lot, just as Hazard has. Mourinho needs to start rotating the squad, still a long season ahead of us.

I don't think this example is comparable to the argument you guys were having because the gap between Costa's and Hazard's PK ability is considerably larger than between Lamps and Drogs. Anyways, I think the designated player should decide. If I was the official taker and wasn't feeling confident for whatever reason, I'd rather have a teammate taking it for instance. Or if I was confident in my teammate's ability to take it and he really wanted to do it I'd allow him, no problem.

Maybe you have a point about the lesser teams in the PL parking the bus makes them look like they're better than they really are, but the fact that these teams have more buck to spend should imply they're stronger on average in the long run, we can't always count on La Liga teams spending more wisely or finding great homegrown talent. That's why I'm really surprised that, upon search for evidence and comparing the tables between those leagues for the last 5 seasons, the lesser teams seem more equal then I previously believed. The bottom half is really similar, some times PL teams are ahead, other times La Liga ones are, I can't really say I found a pattern there. The main difference seems to be on the top half, take away the first and second spots (where La Liga teams are always ahead by about 10 points) and PL teams are almost always ahead. I'm using those domestic leagues for comparison because I firmly believe they're the best way to compare strength (especially within the league and regarding balance), european games are too prone to flukes, long championships are a better display of real strength and depth of squad even if we won't have direct confrontations between leagues to observe. EPL 09-10 La Liga 09-10 3. Arsenal 75 3. Valencia 71 4. Tottenham 70 4. Sevilla 63 5. City 67 5. Mallorca 62 6. Aston Villa 64 6. Getafe 58 7. Liverpool 63 7. Villareal 56 8. Everton 61 8. Atl. Bilbao 54 9. Birmingham 50 9. Atl. Madrid 47 10. Blackburn 50 10. Dep. Coruña 47 EPL 10-11 La Liga 10-11 3. City 71 3. Valencia 62 4. Arsenal 68 4. Villareal 54 5. Tottenham 62 5. Sevilla 50 6. Liverpool 58 6. Atl. Bilbao 50 7. Everton 54 7. Atl. Madrid 50 8. Fulham 49 8. Espanyol 42 9. Aston Villa 48 9. Osasuna 41 10. Sunderland 47 10. Sporting Gijón 41 EPL 11-12 La Liga 11-123. Arsenal 70 3. Valencia 61 4. Tottenham 69 4. Málaga 58 5. Newcastle 65 5. Atl. Madrid 56 6. Chelsea 64 6. Levante 55 7. Everton 56 7. Osasuna 54 8. Liverpool 52 8. Mallorca 52 9. Fulham 52 9. Sevilla 50 10. West Brom 47 10. Atl. Bilbao 49 EPL 12-13 La Liga 12-13 3. Chelsea 75 3. Atl. Madrid 76 4. Arsenal 73 4. Real Sociedad 66 5. Tottenham 72 5. Valencia 65 6. Everton 63 6. Málaga 57 7. Liverpool 61 7. Real Bétis 56 8. West Brom 49 8. Rayo Vallecano 53 9. Swansea 46 9. Sevilla 50 10. West Ham 46 10. Getafe 47 EPL 13-14 La Liga 13-14 3. Chelsea 82 3. Real Madrid 87 4. Arsenal 79 4. Atl. Bilbao 70 5. Everton 72 5. Sevilla 63 6. Tottenham 69 6. Villareal 59 7. Man Utd 64 7. Real Sociedad 59 8. Southampton 56 8. Valencia 49 9. Stoke City 50 9. Celta de Vigo 49 10. Newcastle 49 10. Levante 48 My hunch is that the dominance of Real and Barça is killing the good teams who are not at the very top. That little edge of points they have over the champions and runner-ups of the English league is coming from these teams I showcased here. In the PL these other teams from top 10 will often find draws or wins against each other and sometimes even from those in top 2, whereas Barça and Real will usually massacre everyone in the league rarely dropping points, actually, even their top 3 is also on average about 9-10 points ahead of the 4th. As we approach the exact middle of the table and below there seems to be equivalence, they all lose and win in similar patterns - probably getting crushed often by the top 7-8. But it shows, nevertheless, more balance in the EPL than in La Liga, I just expected to see it across the entire table. I'd also like to discuss how English teams have been doing in Europa League but I'm still not sure how to explain it, it seems they are taking losses they shouldn't be taking, I'm not sure if they don't give it as much importance as teams from other leagues or if it is bad luck, or if it is both, or even if they really are worse teams. I don't think it is the latter though. Btw, Remy, Remy, Remy.

But I've seen articles before saying the lesser teams in the PL are richer/have squads with higher value than the teams in other leagues. And to be honest that sounds right. Even the worst teams in this league are not complete pushovers to be roflstomped by the top teams. The PL does feel more balanced in every regard, the worst teams are not as shitty as in other leagues, the middle of table teams are slightly better on average and the top teams are not as much of powerhouses as R. Madrid and Bayern for instance.

Costa participating very well in both of our first goals and holy shit, brilliant header from Zouma.

But, but, but Torres has better linkup play than Costa...

What the fuck.

Remy on the RW every game, please.

Offensively I thought he was okayish. Trying too much at times when the opportunity just wasn't there - trying to find passes out of nowhere - otherwise not too bad. I thought his defensive positioning in this game was a bit off though, left holes behind many, many times. Especially in the second half when we were chasing the game, it was a one man pivot for most of those last 45 minutes, if you add to that the fact Matic wasn't having the game of his life and Iva/Cahill were non existent you have the recipe for disaster. I still haven't figured who was supposed to stick there with Matic after Ramires came on, but it certainly wasn't neither Cesc or Ramires.