Corner

The Sun? He was set for City a month ago. He was set for Chelsea a week ago. He's set for City again. Expect a lot of this media bullshit over the following months.

I was gonna say that!

Mourinho the spy!

Downing starts over Sturridge.

That topic has been talked to death. The truth of the matter is that 90% of players would leave their current club if Barca or Real came knocking.

I know, but that's always going to happen. Unless you intentionally try not to be affected by the media, you will be. While watching Match of the Day yesterday, I actually asked my mate, who is a neutral as a Birmingham supporter, what he thinks of all of this? And he just said he's fed up of hearing about Lampard's contract. It seems that most other fans are fed of hearing about it. He also mentioned that it seems to only be United and Liverpool fans putting up facebook statuses saying 'Chelsea are a bunch of cunts to not give Lampard a new contract.' So basically, most other fans are as sick of hearing about it as I am, but United and Liverpool fans will do everything they can do make us look like shit. No surprises there.

I could be wrong but I'm 80% sure that we started with a 4-3-3. I think many just assumed it was a 4-2-3-1 with Ramires on the right of the 3. But if you look closely you'll see Ramires is sitting deeper and is more infield and in a compact trio with Lamps and Luiz, while Mata is mostly on the right wing and Hazard on the left. Benitez shouts something after 30 minutes and you can see an immediate change in those positions. Plus, as soon as Mata came back into the middle, we were dangerous again. I think the idea that Benitez had was that if we played 3 in midfield and they had 2, we would be able to dominate possession. It didn't work at all though because of how high up Everton pressed us. Mata moved back into the middle, he had to be track, which left gaps through the middle for us. That's how I saw the game pan out anyway. I really really don't want to get into a discussion about Lampard at the moment but I will say this: He's been an amazing player for us. I've loved watching him for the last ten years. He's scored many important goals and I will never forget everything has done for us. I can understand why many people are angry about him leaving. I can also understand why the board don't seem to be willing to offer him a new contract. But what's amazing (and really interesting) is how much people are affected by the media, and so easily! I'm pretty much a neutral in all of this but I have to say that not many people were talking about the Lampard situation until the media decided to make Chelsea look evil again. And oh how people buy into it so easily. I have actually seen people on here and in person use the exact arguments that I saw being reported in the media for the past few days. I don't even think they realize. It's very interesting (fuck, I sound like a nerd).

Liverpool win and City-Arsenal draw for me. Obviously, we all want United to drop points. And City will drop two if they draw but would still gain a point on United.

I don't want to get involved in this discussion because it's boring by now and fans are just going around in circles, saying the same things... but I'm pretty sure that for the first 30 minutes of the match at Goodison Park, we lined up with a 4-3-3. A midfield trio of Luiz, Lampard and Ramires with Mata and Hazard on the wings. This clearly wasn't working so Rafa made the switch to 4-2-3-1. Luiz and Lampard as holding midfielders, Mata pushed back into the middle and Hazard and Ramires on the wings. I think it's fair to say that playing 4-3-3 was the main cause of our struggle to control the midfield for the first 30 minutes. As soon as Mata came back into the middle, the game changed.

Don't know about the reliability of the article. All I know is he's playing really well this season. Decent player. Probably not for Chelsea's level though.

Osasuna 0 - 0 Real Madrid. Real simply couldn't afford to drop any more points. Terrible performance once again.

Was it just me or did the fans not do the usual applause on 16 mins today?

But it's not as if Oscar shies away from a challenge. He seems more than happy to get stuck in. He's also much better on the ball and we would have had more possession in the first half if Oscar had been playing. We were lucky not to go 1-0 down in the first half. I just thought that this was the perfect game to start Oscar in. But I guess opinions will always differ on how we should approach a game. I think Rafa plays Moses a lot just to provide width. He's also great a crossing the ball, which would be helpful when Ba is playing.

I agree to some extent. But it's not as if Bertrand is a midfield dynamo. He also offered sweet fuck all in attack or defence today. I'm not suggesting Oscar deserves to be a guaranteed starter. But not playing him at all is going to massively hamper his development. But I'm pretty sure Rafa couldn't give a fuck about Oscar's development as he knows he's more than likely going to be gone after this season.

I know, just trying to brighten the mood. I hate to see such good posters arguing about such trivial things.

For once, I was Abramovich to interfere. Benitez needs a good kick up the arse. Oscar needs regular playing time. He's ruining the brightest talent we have for fuck's sake.

The tension is unbearable guys.

I'm getting more and more annoying with Benitez for not playing Oscar. You could argue that he should have started instead of Bertrand today (who wasn't spectacular by any means). If not, then he should have at least come on when we were 3-0 up. Instead, Rafa decided to take off Mata, bring on Paulo Ferreira and go to 5 at the back. That baffled me, to say the least.

I would agree with the ratings you gave. It also helps to consider that we have been beaten by both QPR and Swansea recently, so when a result like this happens it's understandable that a lot of people get excited. Like zolayes said, it's not very often you'll see a team beat Stoke 4-0 at the Britannia.

Oh trust me, I've had quite a few rants about double standards on here. There's nothing I hate more, so I'm with you there brother!

I agree that it wasn't a very impressive performace, but there were many positives. And the result itself was great of course. BUT... they say a team that win even when not playing well is a great team.

While I actually think Hazard had a great game today, I'm gonna give this comment a like because that last sentence is pure good Muzchap. Also, Hazard does need to learn when to take a touch, when to dribble and when not to etc., but that will come as gains more experience in the Premiership. What we needed from him most today was to be dangerous in and around the box and the opposition's half and I thought he did that splendidly.

Luiz was brilliant once again. He has stepped up his game so much over the past few weeks. I've been massively impressed. Great performance!

Great and unexpected win! Hazard was brilliant today, even if he hadn't have scored that amazing goal I would still be saying the same. Pretty much every attack went through him. Luiz was brilliant again. He has really stepped up his form over the past few weeks. It's a shame that Lampard didn't get more than one goal but he played well overall, I thought. Put in some great passes over the top. As @The only place to be said, I thought Bertrand was the weak link but he played pretty well considering he was out of position. Benitez not bringing on Oscar really annoyed me but oh well, we won and I'm happy. Not too sure if I should give my MOTM to Luiz or Hazard.

All good news for me!