The Mak

In all honesty, we should be steamrolling Cardiff. They're a recently promoted side coming to the Bridge. There's showing respect for a team, but there's also knowing our level and theirs. If we're not confident of winning these types of games rather comfortably, well then I don't like our chances of lifting a trophy this season.

Can we just close this thread and agree to never create another 'X Vs. Y' thread ever again? Besides from us all knowing now what the reasoning behind it all is and the fact that Mata is back in the team, the wording seemed to force people to takes sides which created more conflict than necessary. Now all the majority of people seem to do in here is keep saying the same thing over and over. If I have to read 'Mata is more creative' or 'Oscar works harder' one more time....

Yes, eventually, he would've got a shot but who's to say he would've replicated the form he's shown at Everton? Lukaku has gone there and Martinez has basically said "Romelu, you're my guy", hence the 'last piece of the puzzle' comment from him. As we can all see, that type of faith in one so young does wonders for his confidence. He's basically been given free reign to go and express himself at the club; similar to Barkley. Now compare that to him waiting and biding his time here being 3rd/4th choice striker or whatever; knowing that if he performs bad even once, he's out of the team. As Mourinho said, performing here and at Everton are two different things altogether. We know how much pressure is here and looking at Lukaku in the Super Cup no one can say for absolute certainty he's ready for the pressure on the big stages (although his Euro qualifiers game was brilliant). Yes, people can also go on about developing him here and having him fight his way to first choice striker etc. etc. But these people really need to get their heads out of the clouds. Having Lukaku deployed as 1st striker above Torres/Eto'o is only a fantasy we could dream about, it wouldn't actually happen. I personally feel that most of the deadweight in the striking department needs to be moved on (mainly Torres) before Romelu has a real chance at becoming no. 1. So for the time being I'd rather have him banging in the goals at Everton while Torres runs down another year in his contract instead of risking him being benched for another season...

They can throw any amount they want at us, our decision will not be made by the amount of money on offer, that's a guarantee. We're not Arsenal.

Lewandowski and Lukaku sounds nice for next year...

What a lucky goal! Schurrle out! (on loan!)

Do I sound butthurt? All I said was that he lacks maturity when speaking to the press. Maturity also seems to go out the window when dealing with Lukaku fanboys...

I love Lukaku. It's great that he's fired up and all, but he seriously needs to learn to say nothing sometimes. He's like the media's dream: he answers everything thrown at him. He needs to talk less about Chelsea. If his focus really is Everton, then just say that instead. Great that he wants to outscore our strikers but the whole "I hope we finish above Chelsea" things is completely unnecessary. He should take the stance he did last year which was something along the likes of "I don't care about Chelsea right now" or "My priority isn't Chelsea" or whatever he said. Otherwise he's going to keep coming out with these Chelsea related one liners for the media to post on every page. He has yet to mature when speaking to the press.

Either: 1) A ploy to get Madrid to drop the silly compensation they were asking for. 2) Plan B if José didn't come. 3) Bullshit.

Knew we should've made him sign a contract extension before he went this time. Now we have to listen to this Barca shit until the end of next summer probably. However, Mourinho would rather die than strengthen Barca.

Ramires' weakness is a big one for a midfielder: he can't pass for shit. Gundogan on the other hand can act as a DLP or box-to-box, but tends to do a bit of both. All day everyday: Gundogan > Ramires. The ideal situation though would be a pairing of the both of them though!

I fully expect Schurrle to do the same to Schalke. Great against Bayern and fantastic tonight. Right now I think he performs best in Europe, along with the likes of Willian. The same way Oscar took time to adjust to the PL last season but also managed to play out of his socks in Europe; I think it's the same for some of our new players.

True, but people will still find time to complain no matter what. No point in complaining about the Lukaku decision now either, but people still do it. All we can do is support him.

Beware, the fap fest is here...

Exactly. I think one thing that stood out for me was a line from the commentator: "Great tackle by Mata". When have you ever heard that? I think it says it all. It was a great team effort, but there were two in particular who stood out. We also got to see the real start of Mata's transformation into a lot more of a 'hardworking' player.

Well it was Lampard who Eriksen ghosted by, but it doesn't really matter. We dominated the second half mainly because of the quality of our attacking players. Those top two players being Mata and Torres, not Lampard.

Did Lamps have Eriksen in his pocket for their first? Nah. It was also shocking Mourinho took Mikel off instead of him. I severely doubt Lampard ever has anyone 'in his pocket' to be totally honest.

I just don't get it. A billion attacking mids and we play Ramires on the right like back in the dark days. Whats next? Bertrand on the left? Way to piss off about half our team José.

Lampard may as well have not even been on the pitch for that one...be better for us if he wasn't!

That was before Roman had his way with him!

I don't think we'll lose...I think AVB is too afraid of us to be honest. Don't worry AVB, Roman can't hurt you anymore! Seriously though, we've had the psychological edge over Tottenham for decades and, especially now with José, I don't see it suddenly changing on Saturday...

Shit...poor lad. It seems like our DMs knees are cursed: Essien, Romeu and now MVG.... Only means we'll be seeing more of Lampard, which is mainly good news for our opponents. Sigh.

Schurrle should start and most likely will since he was rested. He's shown the most amount of penetration out of all our wide AMs. Ok, no end product yet but at least he's finding himself in those positions - which is more than others can say. He was fantastic against Bayern and should have a similar amount of space to run into in this game.

He must get a bonus for a chip or something!

Pleased with the win. There's no need to put any more effort than is required in at such an early stage for fear of injury (which we didn't avoid). But I would like us to start being a lot more clinical in front of goal. We should be taking the chances to bury the game as soon as possible. We didn't do it at Everton and it's one thing to throw away such chances against League 1 opposition, but totally different if we continue to do it on Saturday...