The only place to be

Because it's a nice thing to do. It's good for team morale for the new guy to come in and score a hat-trick. It's also good for morale when one of the senior guys walks over to the new guy, gives him the ball and says 'here you go'. A couple of the older players did that for Piazon against Villa and people mentioned what a classy thing it was to do. On the other hand Lamps is after the record. Like I said, I can see both sides. Personally, I don't think the goalscoring record matters a jot in regards his status as a Chelsea legend but it's a nice record to have.

When the most important thing on your mind is the next game. Like I said, I don't blame him for taking it but there are captains out there who would've given the ball to the new lad who facilitated the win today and said 'here are, you take it'.

He's the penalty taker in the team and he's chasing that record so you can understand him taking it. On the other hand, what's best for the team? His personal glory or for the new guy to get his hat-trick on debut?

Tough call. Of course he wants to get that record, but some captains would have given the new guy a chance to get a hat-trick on his debut. Can't criticise him for wanting to take it though.

Showed how much we missed Mata on Wednesday, and how much we've missed a proper striker all season. Southampton were weak but we still showed a lot of good things for the future. Everyone seemed a lot brighter after another slow start and the movement of everyone stepped up a gear. Luiz looks tired though and needs a break at some point. Overall, a good performance but we need to start off faster and we can't drop Mata for big games. Also got to say I was mightily impressed with Shaw at left-back for Southampton. If he's available for £5 million then he's got to be worth a look.

Ba just makes the right runs. It's page 1 and 2 of the strikers' manual and shows that if you just do the sodding basics, you'll score goals. Benitez needs to take a break and let Torres take a few fucking notes for once.

Fuck me, Shaw did brilliantly then. That was absolutely top class defending and he's only 17???

Plenty of people on here were saying Benitez wouldn't drop his lover/girlfriend/whatever for a new striker, but it took him 1 day to do it. Give him some credit for that when it would probably be easier to start him from the bench.

Fernando?

Looked better and better as the game went on. It's almost as if we had something unfamiliar in the team and it took them time to settle. Ba's movement has completely changed the way we play though. He sprints (yes, actually exerts some effort) when we've got the ball which creates space for the players behind him. He plays on the last man and that's why he scores. And did you see that thing he did that Torres doesn't do. It's really subtle, and hard to notice, but he actually SMILES. He actually seems to like playing football. What a peculiar thing for a Chelsea striker to do. Also, Azpi is a machine. Gets up and down that right flank all day and when he's got a target to aim for he's very accurate. He just needs to get better at putting the ball into the right areas when players aren't free.

If that was Torres, he would have been standing on the 18 yard box and then defender would've cleared it. A striker doing things a striker should. Thank fuck at last.

Been impressed every time I've seen Shaw. If Cole is off we could do a lot worse than go after him for £5million.

You said we were shit after about 6 minutes.

A cynical person might suggest that Rafa benefits personally more from a photo holding a cup than a top-four finish. I agree we should've picked a stronger team against QPR.

These Demba Ba puns are shit - Some of you really need to raise the Ba and that goes for all of you, Ba none! Lukaku's starting for West Brom against QPR and Chalobah is starting for Watford at Man City. No McEachran in the Boro squad today. Kane starting for Preston against Millwall.

Pretty much the team we should've played against QPR in midweek, bar ba (black sheep!). Ba needs to score goals so he can't be dropped and I'm looking for Luiz to have a massive game after a slightly disappointing one against QPR. Nice to see Ashley made captain too and hopefully this is an overture to get him to sign an extension.

Starting today against Man City. Be a good chance to gauge just how well he's adjusting.

Cech's contract runs unti 2016 so we're going to have a real problem at some point. Would be absurd to sell one of the most promising young keepers around to Barca, but at some point he's going to want a bit of certainty with his career.

That's almost exactly the team I'd like to see. Luiz looks like he needs a breather to be honest, but Mata and Hazard look nailed-on to start, Ba is ready to go and I want to see Oscar play deeper. If Moses and Mikel aren't available then I'd go for Marin and Luiz.

I said this at the time. It's a tough enough time without the captain wading in and making such emotive statements at this time. Leave it to the end of the season. Although I suspect his actions had nothing at all to do with his own contract about to enter it's final year.

This comparison between Lamps and Torres and their contract situations has been brought up a few times and it's rubbish. It's not like the club decides at the end of each week how much a player should be paid based on their contribution. Torres is overpaid, but it's hard to do anything about that if he doesn't want to renegotiate. I expect that if Torres was coming to the end of his contract it wouldn't be renewed either. But we're stuck with him unless someone comes in with a bid of about £20 million. I agree that getting rid of Cole is a bit daft though. He's still one of the premier players in his position and would cost a lot to replace unless Bertrand steps up. JT is becoming ever more injury-prone which isn't surprising, and he has a ton of baggage too. I expect him to leave at the end of next season. The simple fact is that players don't go on forever, but clubs do. We've lost great players before and we'll lose great players in the future, but I think the club is doing a sterling job of going about replacing them. It's not inconceivable that we go from a spine of Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba to Courtois, Chalobah, McEachran and Feruz. We could create new legends for fans who haven't even been born yet to treasure, but for something new to take root something old has to move on.

I think he's good at scouting teams and breaking down their gameplans for players and coaches to understand. I think he's awful with people. Managed to piss off so many people at the club and still wanted some credit for our successes last year. But I'll give him credit for spotting Romeu for us, and if that ain't worth £13 million I don't know what is.

I can't imagine we'd sign many 20 year old unproven players from the second division in Spain. A highly-rated young midfielder from the best team in the world on other other hand.... But I'll give him credit for that one.

Because transfers at big clubs are done by committee - the same probably applies at clubs like Spurs too. I actually think he is a good scout, but I don't think many of the signings made at clubs he's been at in this country and involved him a huge amount.

Prat.