The only place to be

Normal position, harassing Arteta who is their main playmaker.

I think there's also a chance Lamps goes above Ramires in the pecking order. It's always been the case that Lamps has been better with the ball but Ramires's defensive work has been what has kept him in the first XI. However Matic is a beast defensively (statistically as well as just looking phenomenal) and his arrival has seen Ramires's defensive contribution stats fall off a cliff. I don't know if we need Rami in the team as much as we used to, plus Lamps is actually very underrated defensively. Managed properly and played alongside Matic I think Lamps can most certainly contribute in a more effective manner next season.

Huh? If the opposition are committing men forward and leaving space then why wouldn't we be able to score with just Costa up top? In fact it's been when teams defend deep late on that Eto'o has provided very little for us. Look at the West Ham game for example and how we could've done with a more direct presence in the box. If we got Costa then you'd expect him to start 75% of the games, which only leaves 10 or so starts for the other strikers. We had trouble accommodating Drogba and Torres in a one striker system so having three just seems like overkill.

This is about tying down a player who has world-class potential to a longer-term contract, and rewarding players who perform for the club in the right manner. I can't quite fathom how anyone would object to him receiving a pay increase if it keeps him here for a few more seasons whilst also sending out a message that he isn't for sale in the clearest terms.

Jesus...they only beat Olympiakos The way Sky are talking you'd think he'd outplayed Bayern.

Ramires is too stupid to man-mark a player. The best choice for doing that type of job is almost certainly Oscar anyway. I actually think our aspirations lie beyond parking the bus and actually trying to dictate the tempo of a match. I wouldn't trust Ramires to dictate a memo.

No team will want to face us. Our defence is pretty solid, we won't let any team play their own game against us and in Hazard we have a proper match-winner so I'm really not too fussed who we get. Having said that I think the worst draws would be PSG or Atletico. Olympiakos we could probably outplay and I'd probably be confident against Zenit and Dortmund too. Bayern, Real and Barca are all probably stronger than us too so it comes down to killing the game and looking to snatch a goal a la 2012. But Atletico and PSG are teams in between those two approaches and would be tricky ties indeed. Atletico in particular remind me a lot of us and are my dark horses to win the whole thing. Having drawn Galatasaray in the last round though it's probably certain we'll get Real Madrid and have Carlo return to the Bridge.

When we get a decent midfielder you'll realise how poor Ramires actually is. He's the perfect choice for a team who have zero aspirations to do anything pro-active with the ball hence his important to this club in 2012. 69% passing against a team as bad as Galatasaray is absolutely appalling. Oh, he scored a great goal against Barcelona in 2012 (new forum rule - you can't talk about Ramires without pointing out that he scored a great goal once).

The Mail also gave Ramires a 7....the same score they gave Azpilicueta Willian did some nice running, mostly without the ball, and didn't give the ball away too much but apart from that he was fairly anonymous. It is his first season in this country and he's probably missing his winter-break but he needs to start contributing in more meaningful ways.

Mateo Kovacic anyone? Seen a few rather tenuous links to this guy crop up (as well as United and Arsenal). Doesn't seem to be getting as many minutes as he was last season but seems a real talent. Obligatory youtube highlight package to follow.

Utterly dire performance. Did nothing in defence, added nothing to the attacks and couldn't complete a pass for love nor money. The rare moments of quality don't make up for his lack of footballing IQ and a consistent touch, and I'd love to see him replaced in the summer. Beyond stamina and running with the ball, he very rarely offers anything of quality to the team and was completely shown up by a 35 year old last night. Not too fussed about him missing the Arsenal game either because I'd have Luiz and Lampard ahead of him alongside Matic.

He's done very well but I'm not sure whether it makes sense to keep him as a third striker next season if we get Costa and bring back Lukaku. Costa would almost certainly start the majority of games and you'd want Lukaku to get enough minutes to continue his progress so I don't know if he'd get any meaningful minutes. Needs to start every match for the rest of this season though.

Not really. I wouldn't play either on if they were available at the moment. Big result needed and Arsenal missing some key players so I'm expecting a win. Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpi Luiz Matic Schurrle Oscar Hazard Eto'o Could definitely see Lamps involved after that performance against Galatasaray, maybe going 433 with him in for Schurrle or just starting ahead of Luiz.

Great match, great atmosphere but Galatasaray were really poor. We barely got out of first gear and could've easily scored more if we'd gone for it but there really wasn't a reason to. As usual Hazard and Azpi were spectacular again, Ivanovic, Terry and Cahill were solid as ever and Eto'o showed once again that he has to play every game between now and the end of the season. Lamps was brilliant in midfield, both defensively and going forward and probably deserved a goal and was my MOTM. Ramires was atrocious though and is becoming a real issue for us in midfield. Couldn't complete a simple pass and just did more to disrupt our attacks than the Galatasaray players did. Willian too was fairly poor in possession. Fortunately Oscar seemed to have woken up a bit and I was delighted he got an assist (his first since the Southampton game). Still has a tendency to under-hit passes especially when players are through on goal but he worked hard and it was a vast improvement on his recent performances. Nice to see Kalas get some time as well. All in all a professional performance and onto the next round.

So you expect a manager to come in and get a team playing free-flowing attacking football in the space of a few months?? Is your 10 year old nephew there? Maybe he could explain some of the realities of football to you.

Think you're wasting your time here to be honest. Emenalo simply doesn't deserve the shit he's getting from this tiny minority. I've seen a few people leap straight to blaming him when a few things don't go our way and most of the time it's nonsensical. I actually like the way we're doing business, taking a long-term, responsible approach to FFP but some people want us to go back to the early days of Roman's reign where we were throwing money around like nobody's business. It simply won't happen like that anymore.

Zhirkov's deal was dodgy as fuck but you're right about Luiz. He was similar to Mata in that he was bought fairly young (23 ish) and is still in his prime.

Premier League finishes - 6, 3, 1* Champions League Europa League FA Cup FFP compliance If you honestly think the signings of players like Eden Hazard, Cesar Azpilicueta, Nemanja Matic and Thibaut Courtois aren't a considerable improvement on the execrable signings made previous to his appointment then I honestly don't know what to say to you. You decrying us as 'loan sharks' is fucking ridiculous as well. We've amassed a lot of talent in a league where it's hard to actually develop young players, and through the use of the loan system the majority have either become better players or grown in value. Considering the piss poor job done before his appointment I think the guy deserves a bit more credit.

Marin didn't work out but that's because we signed Hazard instead. Meireles certainly contributed to the team and we only made a £4 million loss on him. The rest are too soon to tell, but even players who don't work out seem to have a lot of value left in them. Romeu could probably make back most of his fee, Bamford has probably doubled what we paid for him and even Ba is probably worth about £5 million still. Moses could probably fetch at least £5 million, plus there's whatever Liverpool paid for him this year and to be honest he's still a young man (probably).

Just looking at the first 11, we had one of the most fantastic spines of any team in this country ever (Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Lamps, Makelele, Drogba) but it was expensively assembled over a shortish period of time and the players around them were top quality and expensive too. FFP means that isn't possible anymore, but regardless of that our purchases before Emenalo were simply not good enough. Luiz, Torres, Shevechenko, SWP, Zhirkov, Bosingwa, Benayoun, Boulharouz etc. were all overpriced, under-performed and had little re-sale value when things didn't work out. Since then we've largely looked to younger players who make money for us even if things don't quite work out (De Bruyne, Mata and possibly Courtois). Players like Hazard, Matic, Azpilicueta and hopefully even Oscar are young but already established in the first team, whilst we have a wealth of young talent who really need to start getting chances here. I don't think Emenalo is solely responsible for that but I think it's astounding the divide between the credit he doesn't get when things are going right and the amount of shit he gets when things start to go wrong.

Honestly, I speak to her and Chelsea lose. Obviously for the good of Chelsea Football Club I need to ignore her and find comfort in someone else's arms....purely to help us win games of course. Anyway, I'll put my cock on the block and say that we can definitely win this league. Other teams WILL slip up and yesterday might just be the thing that pulls everyone together again. Clearly the FA are against us so time for a bit of the old siege mentality. No fucking around anymore.

I don't know about that. We can beat any top team on our day, and the stronger the side the better we seem to do. For me it's the Galatasarays and Atleticos that worry me, not the Barcas and Bayerns. Honestly starting to think that if we get into the next round then we become the dark horse favourite alongside Atletico to win it.

The whole weekend was pretty fucking shit to be honest. Every result went against us, plus we lost the rugby....then my ex-gf phoned me out of the blue. Anyway, new week and two big games coming up. I think we could do with a big result against Galatasaray, a proper European night where the place is buzzing. Could see us conceding early and then rallying to win 3-1 but we need to then carry that into the Arsenal game. Plus we've got the draw on Friday - worst case scenario is Atletico in my book. I'm not a big fan of counting matches because on any day, any team can do over a top side but if we're still in contention when we go to Anfield then I'd be happy. Liverpool are very beatable with the right setup. Pissed me off watching United yesterday because they just let Liverpool play their game. Fuck me, just stick Valencia on and run at Flanagan all day for a start and watch him get sent-off.

I'd be gutted if we went out, but going through isn't exactly going to cheer me up too much either. This match is just an annoyance right now because I'm focused entirely on the Arsenal game. The thing is that against top teams, we're always in with a shot because we've got Jose and Eden. I'd back our defence to keep out any of Europe's top attacks and Hazard has the ability to do something magical with the ball so we're probably a dark horse for the Cup like we were in 2012. The problem is we're just lacking depth at the moment which means we could spread ourselves too thin. If you gave me a choice between beating Galatasaray and beating Arsenal, it's Arsenal every time. If only Galatasaray's fans weren't such insufferable arseholes.

I feel the same. Spurs actually had a lot of good possession yesterday but simply lacked that cutting edge, combined with Arsenal actually having a decent defence. Would love Luiz back in midfield for this one but it comes down to the same thing - Hazard needs to turn it on.