The only place to be

Dumb and stupid are synonyms in the sense that you're using them in. It's amazing how you seem struck-dumb when I ask you whether we'd be better prepared for tough league games without the pressures of midweek Europa League games. If you want to hurt me with insults though, I'd ask someone else to use them on your behalf. They mean nothing coming from you.

If we start dropping points, then we're in danger of losing our top-four spot. Arsenal are only 5 points behind whilst Spurs are 1 point behind. We draw a game and we're in trouble, that's how serious the situation is right now. I know that the people disagreeing with me are well-intentioned and respectful (in the majority) but pragmatism in a tough situation is not a bad thing. Going without a trophy for one season to secure greater opportunities next season isn't a bad thing. It's possible that we could finish top four and win this trophy, and I'd be happy if we did but you have to play the percentages and acknowledge not just what is possible but what is likely from what has occurred before. Yes we're Chelsea, but we're Chelsea 2013 not Chelsea 2006. Losing at home to QPR is something that can happen now. Throwing away 2 goal leads is something we're capable of doing now. This is who we are at this moment in time. You need to start from a position where you acknowledge these basic facts before you plan anything else.

Neither. I'm just a Chelsea supporter trying to be realistic about the situation we'll face. You're the one saying we'll win (or should) against teams not dissimilar from Southampton, Reading and QPR. Shouldn't we have won those games as well? In fact do you know teams who are quite similar to Fulham, West Hame and Swansea? Fulham, West Ham and Swansea. We've failed to beat these teams FIVE times already this season. So before you get into what we should have done, why don't you try looking at what we have done. Ignore the naive fantasy you're living in and look at the reality, okay?

You recognise the reality of the situation and act accordingly. Let's walk through this slowly. Do you accept that top four is all that matters this season? I do. Do you think we're best prepared to play Fulham with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play West Ham with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play Sunderland with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play Spurs with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play Swansea with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play Man United with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play Villa with a week's rest or 3 days? Do you think we're best prepared to play Everton with a week's rest or 3 days? Now some of these might not be a week because of Cup games and others being rescheduled, but if more than half of those answers were 'YES' then maybe we should recognise that the Europa League is nothing more than an inconvenience and that the long-term future of this club is best served by Champions League qualification and not the Europa League, shiny trophy that it may well be. Finishing this season without trophies isn't the worst thing in the world considering all the tumult and turmoil we've faced. We have to make sure we're in the best position possible for next season.

I think we have the squad....but not with these extra games. How many points have we dropped in midweek games because we've look underprepared or tired? Either way, surely we should be playing the percentages and focusing on what's important. People say we'd be acting like Arsenal to accept just a top-four spot but this season has been a clusterfuck of epic proportions and if you offered me third spot and nothing else I'd take it in a heartbeat, so why don't we simply focus on the league and ignore this competition? Oh right, because of a coefficient which you readily admit pertains to a competition that is becoming more competitive across the boad. Well the FACT is that to be the best you have to beat the best. But first you have to play the best and that should be our only focus this season. So we wait until we're in a tough spot before acting? It should be reserves from this point on. Ferreira, Saville, Ake, Turnbull, Bertrand, Benayoun etc.

You're just not addressing it. If you believe that we can finish top four with these extra games despite us struggling with short turnarounds then fine. Take that position and defend it. I don't though. I think it's going to be tough as it is without these extra games. So I would field weaker teams and not worry too much about being eliminated because long-term it's going to be better for us.

Again, completely missing the point. We don't automatically qualify for this competition. We do actually have to finish in the top four and last year we finished SIXTH. We've shown an inability to beat weaker teams like QPR, Southampton and Reading on 3-4 days rest and you're talking about the benefits of a cup run that adds up to SEVEN extra games? Have you even bothered to look at when the next rounds' ties are scheduled for? Round of 16 - 1st leg is 3 days before FULHAM (away). 2nd leg is 3 days before WEST HAM (home). We've already dropped 5 points to these teams. Quarters - 1st leg is 3 days before SUNDERLAND (home). 2nd leg is 3 days before SPURS (home). Spurs is arguably the biggest game we have remaining. Semis - 1st leg is 3 days before SWANSEA (home). 2nd leg is 3 days before MANCHESTER UNITED (away). Again, 5 points dropped against these teams and the draw against Swansea came after the league cup game with United where we played our key players. Final - Comes in between a game away to VILLA who will be fighting relegation and the last game at home to EVERTON. So you can talk about coefficients as much as you want but they're simply a problem we don't have the luxury of worrying about right now.

It's akin to worrying about what shirt you should wear on a date with Angelina Jolie - maybe you should focus on getting the date in the first place. And how exactly did that seeding work for us this year? The FACT is that the Champions League is getting more competitive and there are more teams capable of beating us than ever before which means seeding isn't something I'm particularly worried about at this time. We have a small squad who has struggled to beat teams like QPR, Reading and Southampton with 3-4 days rest. Now we're talking about going on a run in a competition that gives us more fixtures less than 3 days before tough league games????

Normally I'd say I disagree. This time I'm just going to say you're wrong. He worked with Robben at Chelsea, Etoo at Inter and now Ronaldo at Madrid. None of these players are hard workers in defence, yet his system worked and just look at how far Hazard has come in less than ONE season. The systems match, and more importantly they match throughout the club. There are objections to be made to Mourinho coming back but this simply isn't one of them.

So you think we should take this competition seriously for our CL ranking when there's absolutely no guarantee that we'll be in the CL next season??? You want a game 3 days before we face Spurs in the League? You think a final in Amsterdam 3 days before we play Everton in the league is a good thing?

You're talking about minor tweaks in the system we use. That again comes back to the problems in our double-pivot where the transition from defence to attack is often too slow. In games against Stoke and Everton we actually played our best football when we reverted to that Mourinho-style offence. Mata and Oscar don't do enough defensively, but look at Moses and Hazard who have improved so much this year on the defensive side of their game, Eden in particular. Look also at our youth teams who all play that type of football as well. Klopp and Mourinho are probably the two best choices in terms of the style of football they might bring. My reservation with Moyes has always been that it's unclear what his footballing philosophy is beyond survival through pragmatism.

So basically, Bertrand is okay but we should buy Shaw. I agree.

He would have more security at City, but the City job would only be open if City SACKED Mancini just one year after winning them the title??? That doesn't sound like that much more security than us, considering that's similar to what we did with Ancelotti. Plus they have the Barcelona guys there who rejected Mourinho a few years ago and would be a big presence there when people continually point out that Mourinho doesn't like people meddling. As for the style of football argument, is there a team we're closer to in world football than the current Madrid side? We're only lacking a Modric/Alonso in my opinion but we set up fairly similarly to them (Hazard/Ronaldo, Ozil/Mata, Khedira/Mikel/ etc.) Nice post OP btw. Don't disagree with too much of that although I think it's hard to judge Mourinho's use of youth in his time here because the young players we had weren't much cop.

Should be playing the team we played in the Europa Cup in this game, albeit it with the inclusion of Mikel and Moses. Ba will obviously start, as will Mikel, Moses, JT, Luiz, Oscar and Cole. Would be nice to see some youngsters given a chance but that's not in Rafa's best interests. We'll win and score somewhere between 3-6 goals, but this is just another game where we'll burn-out key players and rest them in league games so forgive me if it's hard to get that excited for it.

He looked busy on the ball but that was about it. I'm not writing him off because he's suffered from the same problems the other players have suffered from - a useless twat up-front and Lampard and Ramires in midfield. Mata was completely anonymous last night too, and not for the first time this season. What was encouraging was that Oscar played like his Brazilian self when he came on. Yes it was against shitty opposition but he was dropping deep and controlling the tempo beautifully and his goal was obviously well taken. We've talked on this forum before about the choice we've got to make regarding Cech (who had a dodgy game himself) and Courtois but I think we're going to have to make another at some point in the future in the number 10 spot......Mata or Oscar?

I've voted for Cech for MOTM - not Petr, but the Czech's in the Sparta team. They were shit but I'll be fucked if I'm voting for anyone in a Chelsea shirt after that shit.

Pathetic team to put out in this competition and the players treated it with all the enthusiasm you'd expect. Despite that we still managed to beat a very ordinary team and will probably shoehorn in a couple of extra fixtures when we don't have the players to cover them. All we learnt is that Marin really doesn't offer much, Torres is able of playing even worse than you previously thought, Cahill and Ivanovic are terrible at passing out of defence, Lamps likes shooting and the Europa League is as shite as it's name suggests.

His mother must be a woman after my own heart because I've wanted to drop him for the last 3 months.

Winning this tie means an away day to Amsterdam to play Ajax 3 days before either an away game at Fulham or a home one against West Ham. Do people actually want us to win this tie so that we have more fixtures in the run-in?

Right....but if we win this tie then we have to play more games.

Fun Fact One of these teams is the reigning Champion of Europe.

Lamps nearly gets closer to the record....I mean scoring the opening goal.

It's not just the worthiness of winning the competition that I'm questioning. I don't want us travelling around Europe on the Thursday before a game against Spurs or United or Everton when we need to win our games and don't have the players to rotate for them all. Again, it's the reality of this current situation that I'm referring to, not some fantasy world where we have 25 first-teamers who seamlessly interchange with one another.

You're not the first person to compare us to Arsenal and it's quite frankly ridiculous. Top four is more than good enough right now and I know you're trying to say the right things but try and acknowledge the reality of the situation. We finished sixth last year and we're struggling to hold onto third right now. We've thrown away points to Southampton, Reading and Fulham and we've lost away to Newcastle and at home to QPR. And be nice about Arsenal - if they weren't so shit this season we'd be fucked. And fair play to them for travelling, but you go and ask them if they want more away days in the Europa League next season or if they want to hear that Champions League anthem playing at some of the greatest clubs on Earth. Which would you prefer?

It's not ridiculous in the slightest. The best thing for this club is top four, but Rafa doesn't have anything invested in our long-term success. He's gone in the summer.