The only place to be

It depends on the FA Cup. At the moment there are 4 games before the City game (Brentford, Reading, Newcastle, Wigan). If we beat Brentford then we have a Fifth Round game before then (5 games). If we have a replay against Brentford, we have a 6 games between now and the City game.

Ruprecht, is this you?

I can't remember the last time I saw Frank so ineffective in two games - not just ineffective, but completely 'passed-by'. It's not his fault, I just don't think he's cut out for the double-pivot. I hate to say it because he's been so important for us for so long, but he's almost becoming a liability in that position especially with Ramires alongside him. They're struggling to impose themselves against teams who offer a threat in that area. If we're playing with our backs to the walls then it could work but I don't think anyone wants to see us doing that for extended periods.

I actually agree with this. Mata looks knackered, Moses is still in Africa and Oscar simply doesn't look comfortable on the wings. Now we're going to miss Hazard for any number of games. I've been against bringing him back but we're looking seriously bare now, and he'd get minutes which wasn't the case before.

Rio Ferdinand has never fitted in with footballers. He's always been like that kid at school who tries to hang around with the cool kids, despite them constantly taking the piss out of him. I'm seriously worried that I almost agree with something Barton said though. He goes a little further than I would but anything other than 'Hazard kicks ballboy' is being ignored by the press and it's utterly shameful. Even occasionally decent 'journalists' like Dan Levene have gone for the sensational over the fair-minded approach, although if I wrote for the Fulham Chronicle (is there enough going on in Fulham to require a daily chronicle of the events?) I'd be inclined to blow this up as much as possible.

If we get through then that's one more game for Hazard to serve a ban before the Man City game. If we draw this game, then the replay is another. Just saying.... Mata needs a rest, Oscar can play in the middle, Torres is probably decent enough to score against this lot, JT needs the minutes, Ashley needs a rest, Azpi needs a rest and a few of the youngsters can fill gaps. Cech Ferreira Cahill Terry Bertrand Luiz Lampard Marin Oscar Piaz....De Bru....Fuck.... Torres Maybe we start with two up top or put one of the youngsters (Ake, Sav) in midfield and push Lamps on, or maybe Rami on the right and Marin on the left.

Ignoring all the Hazard malarky, the performance was toothless. Mata was utterly appalling throughout, Oscar simply never got into the game and Ba really had nothing to do. He made the right runs, managed to have a couple of shots but that was it. Hazard seemed to be the only one in any form, and we saw how that turned out. The defence was okay, but Ivanovic had another rocky night. Swansea appears to be his bogie team, whilst the full-backs had another solid game. Shame we didn't give JT a run-out but we needed Bertrand's......something on the pitch. The problem for me though was the same problem on Sunday - the midfield. Ramires is the weirdest player ever, oscillating between the sublime and then clumsily standing on someone's ankle or failing to find a player 6 yards away. But (and I await the barrage of 'you hate him' comments) Lamps had another poor game. Now it seems fair to talk about him when he plays well, but not when he completely disappears in games. He was appalling and the game seemed to pass him by completely, which is weird because people talk up his experience yet it was obvious to anyone watching that the long balls weren't working yet time and again one of the back two just lumped it forward aimlessly. Shouldn't his experience have kicked in and made him tell one of the back two to be patient and lay it off to him? The shot towards the end from the free-kick just summed the evening up. Until we sort that midfield out, we're going to struggle in games where we dominate possession. If we plan on being shit and putting ourselves under pressure (basically parking the bus) then we have the midfield for that. But I don't particularly want to watch that and I don't think Roman does either.

People see what they want to see. That's why you're getting so many headlines about him kicking the ball boy when it seems pretty clear that he kicks the ball from under him. Should he have done it? Probably not, but Eden was trying to get on with the game and win it for us. He showed a bit of passion that was missing from so many other players' performances last night and some little shit was on a mission to slow the game down. I'm never going to criticise a Chelsea player for caring too much about the performance and trying to get the win, especially when I don't think he's done much wrong. Honestly, I don't give a fuck how bad it looks on tv or how bad a PR disaster it is because I want players to play for the badge and give their all. That's what used to count to supporters of this club, not how shit affects the sales of fucking lunchboxes with Hazard's face on them.

Football fans are weird. We treat Paulo Di Canio's fascist leanings as a quirk and think that Cantona kung-fu kicking a fan adds to his 'poetic mystery'. Hazard's lucky that the kid he accidentally kicked (going for the ball) acted like such a cunt afterwards. It removed any sympathy fans had for him and will make him the butt of a lifetime of jokes.

I don't think he'll be booed for long. I could be wrong, but fans generally respect a guy trying to get on with the game and the guy getting more genuine stick is the ballboy. He'll get it for a while and then he'll grow as a Premier League player and garner respect for his game. He doesn't elicit the same hatred as the other two players you mentioned because he doesn't have the tabloid shit.

I can only speak for myself, but he hasn't let me down. He ran his bollocks off, as he has done for the last month or so, and tried to keep the game going by retrieving the ball. Yes he was over-zealous in trying to kick it (the ball NOT the lad) but that's just enthusiasm and frustration coming out, and to be honest that was in short supply tonight.

Fair play to the father - if my son acted like that I'd disown him there and then. Maybe he just wants to get him home to give him the kicking he actually deserves. :banghead:

On the upside, all these shit results guarantee Rafa is out come June. :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

If Luiz Suarez parked in a disabled spot in fucking Tescos there'd be a lynch mob outside his house because there's a certain type of person in this country who lives to find things to be outraged by. They love it and the media will never go short of exploiting it.

Well some people are. But a spot on post and incredibly sensible.

Some of the photos of this kid are going to haunt him for life. THEY NEED TO BE MEMES. Cunt little fucker - his life is over.

If you look at other forums and see what football supporters are saying, most of them are being fair-minded. Hazard deserves the ban but the little shit deserved a kick. The fact is that Hazard seemed to be trying to get on with the game and the kid milked it. You might think people will be embarrassed but they're not the ones in a rush to throw their own players under the bus. The media will try and milk it for a few days but it'll be forgotten over time.

Then maybe it is relevant?

Saying he kicked the ball is talking shit? From the angle I've seen it, he went for the ball when the dumb shit was lying on it.

Hazard tried to kick the ball from underneath the ballboy. How the fuck else is he supposed to get the ball when the kid's lying on it? You might say he should've told the ref and then sat down after the match and written a strongly-worded letter to the FA, but he was trying to get on with the game so in your rush to condemn him, maybe try and see it from all sides. Eden will get a ban but that little kid deserves everything coming his way too.

The most frustrating thing is that Hazard was probably one of the few players who seemed to give a shit all night. The guy's been great in recent weeks and it continued tonight but everyone around him was fucking atrocious. That's not to say he was brilliant, but he at least tried to do something. And for that he gets some fat little shit timewasting and then rolling around on the floor LOOKING TO THE REF for a red. Absolute cretin. It'll overshadow another crap performance though, and some utterly inept managerial decisions. The midfield was non-existant and although Swansea deserved to go through, I hope Bradford do them in the final.

He was only a kid, pathetic from Hazard and from some members here. Really pathetic. He was a ball boy. His job is to get the ball back to the players ASAP. He was laying on it like a fat cunt and Hazard tried to kick it from under him. Little fatty then roles around on the floor and starts crying. Kid deserves a beating from his old man, although in Swansea that could literally be anyone. His twitter's already been found too. Apparently he bragged about timewasting 4 hours ago. Start running kid.

Hope he gets internet bullied too. The kid who cried on tv when he was barely touched - I would say that no girl would fuck him for at least a decade, but Swansea's full of slags.

The kid was laying on the ball, Hazard tried to kick it out from under him. People laying into Eden need to have a fucking word with themselves.

FUCK YOU FOY. What a little cunt. Fucking scummy Welsh shit.