The only place to be

Terry actually points to Ireland and tells Mikel to get on him but Mikel simply can't make the ground up.

I've just realised that all the arguments about us not playing young players are becoming reasons not to play our senior stars. Can't play Chalobah because he might make a cock-up that leads to a goal, or he simply doesn't have the experience to control a game in the pivot. Essien makes a massive cock-up in 13 seconds against Southampton and Ramires blows 4 chances against Stoke and has a 74% pass completion rate. Courtois still needs to prove himself able to deal with British crosses at places like Stoke. Cech fails to deal with a simple cross away to Stoke. Lukaku needs to improve his general play and passing outside the box. Eto'o gives the ball away whilst we're in transition and Stoke score the winner on the break.

Apparently Lukaku isn't good enough for us because his touch isn't good enough, his back to goal play isn't good enough, his passing isn't good enough. With his back to goal, Eto'o fails to see the Stoke player about to tackle him, fails to make the pass to a wide-open Juan Mata on the wing and leaves us wide-open to a counter-attack.

Do you know who I'd like to see up front for this game? Schurrle. I stopped myself from saying it in the match thread but on occasion he looks like a white Henry. He's big, he's fast, he's good off both feet and he can finish. Plus he's never once let us down so why not go with him up front in a not-quite-a-false-nine role? Cech Azpi Luiz/Cahill Terry Cole Lamps Rami De Bruyne Oscar Hazard Schurrle If Luiz is fit then he needs a run out. Cole needs some time on the pitch too. De Bruyne deserves a chance in this game and if he does well then he starts at Palace. Oscar NEEDS to come back, Mata simply hasn't done much in his recent starts. Hazard can have another Sunderland performance and the midfield probably picks itself. We could drop Cech but I honestly don't know if it'll do much. Schwarzer is good but I'm not sure if he's a good option for the rest of the season. The permutations for Cech's inconsistency will be felt next season when we possibly move on to Courtois.

Ireland wasn't Cahill's man. Terry went to Walters who had fouled Azpi out of the game. Terry assigned Ireland to Mikel, but Mikel couldn't get back to him. Ivanovic was too far up the right side of the pitch. Cahill was left to mark Crouch.

I'd rather have Lukaku at the Bridge, learning his trade here and loan Eto'o out to help derail our competitor's title chances. In fact I'd love to loan Eto'o to Arsenal and let him derail their's.

No, you're a WUM. Nothing more, nothing less. You're also completely classless because you'll slag off Lampard at any opportunity but lack the balls to admit when he has a good game. Like I said, it's why you're so disliked on here.

Defence was poor but that doesn't absolve him. We missed Oscar I think today. Whatever Mata brought to the team last season simply hasn't appeared yet this season. Maybe that's a fitness issue but Oscar is the first name on my team sheet right now. There's plenty of blame for today's result for why we lost, but there's also got to be some for why we didn't win when we were in command for so long.

We signed him from Russia and then loaned out Lukaku 3 days later. 4 goals, 3 of which were flukes or lucky. He's 32 and he looks it.

74% pass completion. 5 shots, 1 on target. He'll run all day for you but he's technically limited.

I voted for Cech because he was the most important player on the pitch. Schurrle was our best player, but hard to find joy in that performance.

He has had good games but you'd want some rotation in those positions and we haven't had that. Luiz needs to start the next game.

I agree with the majority - he should be starting. We missed his magic against Stoke and we could've done with him playing the game.

He does it every weekend. He's the definition of a troll. Spot on. There was space for our midfeld, and we (Ramires) were wasteful.

You are the worst Chelsea supporter I've come across in a long time. You deserve banning from this place.

A cross against Stoke? A dribbler of a shot at him against West Brom?

The game completely swung on his blunder and it's not the first one this season so it's hardly a kneejerk reaction. Football is a team game so it's harsh to say he's costing us points, but in two matches now (at least) he's made mistakes at key points. The reason this will get so much attention is because he IS under pressure because we have a keeper who is at the very least as good as him waiting to come back.

Fucking dire. Completely in control until a blunder by Cech and then nothing went right for us. The fact that Eto'o gave away the ball so cheaply for the winning goal simply underlines the failure of his signing and then loaning out Lukaku. Hard to get to angry because the problems today were the same old ones.

We signed Eto'o. We loaned our Lukaku. Once again.... we signed a 32 year old from Russia, and loaned out a guy who has scored more goals than our strikers combined.

As soon as Cech calls for that ball, it's his responsibility.

Not really. We have another keeper on our books who is younger and arguably better (and cheaper if that type of thing matters). Maybe Cech knows that and it's affecting him, because he's not playing like himself this season. Would bring Lampard on though. This is his type of game and we actually look like we're missing him. Keeper calls for it and comes out, then defences stop. It's hard to blame them for this one like we did on Wednesday.

Can't blame Ramires for those misses - that's WHO he is, that's what he does. He has an inconsistent touch and will misplace passes and balloon shots over the bar, but he won't stop running all day. Personally I'd rather have a more composed presence in that spot and lose a bit of athleticism but we don't have that choice at the moment.

That's completely different from the other set-pieces we conceded off. That is pure and simply a goalkeeping howler and it's not the first one this season from Cech. Twice in winning positions his mistakes have drawn the other team level, and another one put us behind.

I'm sure if you asked each member on here, you'd get a variety of reasons why you're a clown. In this case it's because you fail to understand the reason we conceded goals. The back 4 weren't the sole reason we conceded goals.

You clearly didn't watch the match because we weren't vulnerable 'for most part of the match' and when we almost conceded at the end we had Mikel and Rami sitting a bit deeper than Frank so I'm not sure how you could really blame him alone for that. The fact is that there's a couple of classless individuals who berate a couple of players relentlessly, and they aren't man enough to admit when these players have a good game. There always has to be a caveat, however preposterous.