The only place to be

http://www.chelseafc...contract-agreed Uh oh.... Like Oscar and Mata....and Willian and Schurrle...and Hazard and possibly Boga and Traore. Meh

We also needed the win. I think that's where some of the confusion comes in. Mourinho makes decisions to benefit Chelsea, not De Bruyne or Belgium. If Mourinho thinks that the way De Bruyne puts out the cones in the morning is worth an extra point to us over the course of the season then I'd quite happily support his decision to keep him and not play him. Personally I think he'll eventually get a chance and become a good player for us, but there's no rush at this point in time when we're winning games and doing well.

Whilst it's very easy to bash the English media when you don't really know how it works and use terms like 'propagandist' in a rather hysterical fashion, there's very rarely smoke without fire to these stories and players' camps are often all too keen to brief reporters on their client's unhappiness.

When you're not perhaps acting in that manner, it's going to happen.

Let's not pretend there weren't a few things that caused that lack of faith. He's had a very good season though and is very much a cornerstone of the club again.

Wow....so a team beats Man City and 10 of them are dropped for the next league game to be replaced by the team that so valiantly defeat Bendtner, Miyaichi and the rest of Arsenal's team in the Coca Cola Cup? I think you gave the game away when you suggested dropping Cech. Well it's my opinion and it seems to be backed up by the stats, although I believe you were going to get onto whoscored.com about their stats not matching your view of the game, so perhaps a correction will be posted on their site in the near future. Personally I think Lamps improvement in his defensive game (the stats you'd be looking for their primarily would be interceptions and tackles, as well as clearances) as well as a pass completion average that exceeded 90% in 4 consecutive games (if I remember correctly) before the City game whilst including a lot of longer passes suggests he's become an important player in that pivot for us.

And Lampard had about 5 where he was key to our transitions from defence to attack...if you're going to stick to one-note then the Mikel thread is the place for it. Newcastle is always a fucking horrible place to go and I always expect a 1-1 draw, but we're the form team in the league and they're coming off a derby day loss. I expect that cheap Away shirt is the only charity we're going to get from Mike Ashley and the Sports Direct crew so for me it's back to the team that won against City and Schalke. Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Cole Ramires Lamps Schurrle Oscar Hazard Torres The only choices I'm not sure of are Cahill/Luiz and maybe Schurrle/Willian but beyond that, none of these players has done anything to be dropped whilst it's hard to take much from the Arsenal game and make changes.

I'd hate for him to read that and think he needs to be a quarterback in this team, when we have people like Lampard and Oscar in front of him who are far better at distributing the ball even from deep. He needs to focus on defending solidly for 90 minutes.

Considering Lamps was rested in midweek, conventional wisdom would suggest he would get the nod ahead of Mikel and probably rightly so.

He's a very capable deputy for Cole, and will most likely be a good one for Luke Shaw too if he's happy to spend most of his time in the reserves.

We're still in an experimental phase and we have fringe players who need games so it's tough to throw young players in, especially away to Arsenal. The only disappointment I have is not seeing Kalas alongside Luiz, but there's a case to be made that Luiz and Cahill need to build a rapport because at the moment we just can't leave out JT. The bench is a slightly different story and I'd have liked to see other options there but Jose likes winning cups and this is the first opportunity we'll have. Last year we were crying out for this type of depth.

Torres and Lukaku seem pencilled in right now (although it's a long way down the road) so that leaves one spot. We've got Eto'o and Ba as third choice, plus a couple of other youngsters. In theory, on paper, he's a great player but there's baggage there and I'd rather give people with character the chance to play for this club when they've earned it.

Fancied this transfer in the summer and think it could be a great one in January too. Rotating between him and Lamps alongside Ramires means we shouldn't lose too much in terms of tempo and vision in the middle of the park, he knows the league and he knows Mourinho and his system.

I agree. If you forget his attitude then he's a great player. If you forget Drogba's attitude or Terry's attitude, then they're much lesser players. It's why when you assess players then you have to take into account their character. In Lukaku we have a young striker who is dedicated to one thing - football. Why we'd buy a player who is a few year's older but far more immature I don't know.

I have no problem with him jumping out of defence and intercepting the ball...just don't fall asleep in games that you don't think are worth your complete concentration. To me that type of thing is dishonest and an insult to every fan who has made the commitment in terms of time and money to turn up and support the club. On the other hand that type of high-risk defending requires supreme football intelligence in terms of reading the game - maybe he should just stick to more 'basic' defending.

It's early in the season, we're a team in transition yet we're second in the league and just beat the strongest team in the land....but poor little Kevin isn't playing so let's throw the toys out of the pram. It's fucking pathetic and it reflects poorly on Kevin who seems quite willing to fight for his spot when he gets the chance. Unfortunately we haven't had many opportunities to test him yet because we've been to focused on winning games, but tonight is exactly the type of night when he'll get a chance and he needs to take it. Effort. That's what he has to show and if he does, he'll get another chance further down the line. It's only October. He's a good player and he'll get opportunities but it's fucking tiresome seeing some of the reaction from a very, very tiny, insignificant minority of supporters who probably aren't even that bothered about how Chelsea do.

Me too...I'm just using the stats to supplement what I saw. Maybe you should contact the stats guys and tell them they're wrong.

Of the 61 passes he attempted, only 6 were 'long balls' and he completed 4 of those. Which stats were you referring to?

Exactly. I know what I'm going to get from Cahill in most matches, which means you can kinda cover for him in some instances. Luiz could do anything. He can be world-class and completely no-nonsense, but then he'll just throw in a complete brainfart and cost us a goal. It's frustrating to watch him because he has all the physical tools to be the best defender in the world, but I can name a dozen defenders who were physically underwhelming (Adams, Moore, Baresi, Cannavaro, Terry for fucks sake!) who covered these physical deficiencies with the top three inches. Luiz is almost the opposite at times. Fortunately we have the best guy in charge to deal with him which is why I'm not that worried right now. We beat the best team in England with Luiz on the bench.

Despite all that time to pick out his passes, Fernandinho was limited to 77% passing accuracy. Frank, despite some of the comments on here, matched Rami for passing accuracy, had a team-high number of interceptions and effectively cleared the ball 4 times (to Ramires's 1) despite playing little more than an hour. It was certainly a dip in his stats compared to the last four matches but in tight games that can happen.

And therein lies the dividing line - people who pay their money and turn up week in and week out want to see players giving 100% every single time. In fact most supporters I know want that. I'd take a player giving their all and making the occasional mistake over a player who has lapses in concentration/can't be fucking bothered every time. He's fucking lucky to be wearing the Chelsea shirt and if he doesn't realise that and doesn't bother against small teams like Cardiff, then he can leave. He won't be missed.

I think that's exactly what is supposed to do. It might be risky, but it creates chaos in the game when a structured approach hasn't proved fruitful. I actually like the adventure it requires to take that type of risk.

Signing a younth team striker for free isn't really the same type of transfer as a £20 million purchase of a left-back who would be expecting first-team action from the get-go. I agree we should get Shaw but highly-rate young Germans are usually a decent investment.

I don't see many starting with 21 year olds. or 22 year olds. But then I don't see many 20 year olds like Lukaku with over 20 international caps to their name. We didn't give him a chance, but Everton did and he's repaying that faith in him. We made a mistake loaning him out in my opinion. Are Eto'o, Torres and Ba better than Lukaku though? Not were they. Not do they have more medals than him. Not are they older. Are they better than him right now? It's a simple question. The other question is would he learn more from the likes of Lampard, Terry, Mourinho and even Torres than he would from Jelavic, Distin, Pienaar and Martinez?

If he's scoring goals, why would Eto'o or Torres play more than him?? By the same token if he isn't scoring goals for Everton then why wouldn't he be dropped? As for pressure, there will always be pressure at this club. It comes down to character and I've always thought Lukaku had bundles of the stuff.