The only place to be

Kakuta is a flair player. MeEachran is a flair player. Ravel Morrison is a flair player. Flair is overrated. You don't win games with flair, you win it with guts, workrate and determination. Hazard is maximising his potential by becoming an all-round player, the same as Oscar and that's what will be the foundation of big wins in the future. Pragmatism is something that people either don't understand or underrate but it's what puts points on the table usually, whereas flair is what they serve up in North London....although you have to make sure you go on a day when they're playing Sunderland or some other shit team. It was only a year ago that we reached rock fucking bottom, appointing that fat cunt, worrying about whether or not we'd have Champions League football and talking about whether we'd rather have Moyes or Martinez in. Now we're top of the league with the best manager in the world, Eden Hazard looking like he's fulfilling that potential, a match away from the CL quarters and talking about adding to a strong team in the summer and not rebuilding from scratch. But yeah, the first-half yesterday was pretty dull.

I'd rather see them have a couple more games to play in the CL, especially if we go through.

I think they can beat them 3-1. Teams that face City in the league get men behind the ball and look to score from counters and set-pieces. I don't think Barca would ever think of doing that.

I think they've got a great shot against Barca. They match up well against them and have nothing to lose whereas Barcelona really aren't the team they once were. Their big problem is keeping Fernandinho and Toure healthy because they are the heart of that team and their replacements simply aren't good enough. With the fixtures piling up then fatigue could be a real issue.

Hopefully Torres is fit for this one and it'll be interesting to see if Schurrle plays again with the Galatasaray game a few days later. Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpi Matic Ramires Willian Oscar Hazard Torres Could see Lamps starting in midfield or Schurrle starting in place of Oscar or Willian but a lot depends on what Jose wants to do on Tuesday. Torres is the 'away' striker apparently and Villa can be a bit of an athletic team so maybe he tries to match them. Tricky game potentially.

That's not a fact. City are the strongest team in the league and you'd back them to win each game, but football isn't like that. It took a calamitous error from Vertonghen for us to get a breakthrough yesterday and if that happened then the game might've not gone our way.

Against 10 men....and all he needs is for a midfielder who is playing in defence to slip over and a right-back playing in midfield to head the ball 30 yards back to him.

I'd be delighted if we could sell him to Inter for the reported fee and it frustrates me that he's not the player he was before we signed him, but I don't think that's a choice he made. He's been remarkably unlucky with injuries this season as well but he's put in some good shifts and contributed to our position in the league with key goals.

Who knocked us out of the Champions League that season? Mourinho gets results first and the rest will come in time. Honestly not sure how you can call a season when Hazard has emerged as one of the best players in the world as 'turgid'.

You give him the dogs' abuse constantly and repeat the same shit over and over again. Suggesting it's a blessing that he got injured when he started the last game and did well is pathetic.

Give it a fucking rest will you. I don't know why you feel the need to blame all of our problems on Torres individually but there's something seriously wrong with you when you continually pick on a guy who has clearly lost whatever was physically that made him such a great player. Honestly I don't know how it can't become boring after a while, but the level of abuse that you give him goes beyond banter and is nothing but bullying now.

We're competitive again, we've got a proper manager in charge and there's something being built here but there's still clear problem areas and Man City are further along in their development than us. We've exceeded our expectations but there's a reason our expectations were where they were. The only thing I know is that I'd be physically sick if Liverpool won the league. But City.....they're favourites still.

Where were they when Mata was available?

Spurs came with a decent game plan but Vertonghen managed to completely undo their good work. 4-0 flattered us but I can't remember the last time I saw a team capitulate in such a pathetic manner. Totally respect what Sherwood said about his players because there are some complete passengers in that team, like Vertonghen and Walker, whose heads dropped after the second goal. Almost felt sorry for their fans....almost. We were flat for probably 65 minutes of that game but made the most of the mistakes and did enough to get the result. First-half was appalling though and it's a recurring problem but if we can play poorly and keep winning then I won't complain.

Not sure I can be that excited about his performance. The game was dead when he came on and Spurs had checked out completely. Needs to put in that type of performance when it actually matters.

City still have the advantage. We're still very much a team being put together, we still lack a top striker and we've got some tough games. It's City's to lose because unless they do slip up then we're not gonna win a thing.

Unfortunately you don't always get a chance to choose when these opportunities come up, IF it's realistic. Terry isn't getting any younger and Luiz isn't trusted by Jose so you're talking about Cahill, Zuma, Ivanovic (if he signs the new contract) and then Kalas (who wants to play football next year, so looks likely to leave in some way), Ake (who has played more at DM and Left-Back this year) and Omeruo.....and I wouldn't say any of them are as good as Varane is or could be.

If he has a £25 million buy-out clause then we should sell Luiz and buy him. Simple as that.

Jon Flanagan was considered a 'wonderkid'??????? He's barely been capped at international age-group level so I find it highly unlikely that a single person (besides you) as called him that. In fact I'd say that Kalas was probably regarded more highly than Stones, Smalling and Flanagan. In fact Smalling was very much a late developer and never considered a prospect, elite or otherwise. My point was simply to illustrate that young, talented defenders can get minutes at big clubs and I think Kalas has just been unfortunate with his injuries and Jose's reluctance to make any changes to the defence.

1. He was an idiot. R.I.P. 2. He didn't ask to be paid that much though. It kinda comes with the territory of being a £50 million footballer. The whole thing is showbusiness, so I suppose a bit of pantomime is to be expected. 3. I'll defend Torres to a certain extent and moan about other players, but that's because you hold players to different standards. I genuinely think he's trying to be the best footballer he can be but he's just lost that X factor he once had. Ramires is in a similar situation - he tries his hardest but he's technically limited. It's players like Luiz and Mikel who are the most frustrating because they have potential but seem to lack the concentration or will to be the best they can be. 4. I always felt it was tough for him to come into a club that already had an established striker like Didier who was such a presence. That was good in some ways but in terms of building for the future it probably left us at a slight disadvantage. That to me is the board's fault though, not Torres's. The whole Torres transfer was a mess, but fortunately it's something that we simply don't do anymore. Yes he's still here but we're run differently and that's why it's important to look to the future. But I think that Torres gets far too much of the blame for the mistakes of our board.

Urgh....do I think she was trying to be racist or there was any nefarious intent behind it? Of course not. But there are too many people out there looking to be offended that they separate intent from the act itself.

Over the internet. Has all the physical traits. Has all the technical skills. Has weaknesses when it comes to concentration. Was like it at 23....still like it as 26.

I've actually stopped reading your post to point out that this is massively unfair. Labelling people as 'fanboys' is one of the more pathetic things to do. Fingers crossed the rest of your post is a bit more mature. I'm confused....are you upset with Torres or the people who defend Torres and then en masse attack other players (because apparently that's what they all do)? Who is reaping what who has sewn? Torres or the people who defend Torres? I can't defend all of the comments made about these players but I just think at some point it would become boring to continually criticise the guy when he's clearly deserving sympathy more than anything else. He didn't choose to lose whatever it was that made him special. He didn't choose to cost £50 million and he didn't force us to pay him whatever he makes a week. Maybe there's just something I don't understand about the mentality of certain types of individual.

That's on my list of completely meaningless things to say. Here's an idea....don't imply people are racist or xenophobic over the internet. Some people say that's the actions of a coward, but they're probably just calling it the way they see it. Which is exactly what everyone is saying. Glad we got there in the end.

Wait....we're going to argue about one of the great screen actors of all time being something but that??? It is a fact. De Niro is one of the greats, although arguing that he's not is probably going to be easier than arguing that Luiz is a world-class defender. He has world-class attributes, but it's like looking at an formula one car and thinking it's going to win the race.....No. You need the right driver.