Barbara

I think we could win this match, but I don't expect it to be as easy as it was last season, regardless of how many injured/suspended players they might have. They're confident and motivated after spanking Galatasaray yesterday and I think Arsene won't be as stupid and stubborn as he's been the past few years. There's so much raping from Mourinho one can endure before trying something else. I think the spanking at his 1000th match as an arsenal player maybe was a wake up call to him. I expect him to be more cautious. can still see us winning though. yeah, they're trying to cut their losses and as Per said they'll try to improve from last year. Instead of losing by 6 they'll lose only by three this time, Diego hat-trick with Cesc assists hat-trick. It's written in the stars

many players are so static... they get in position to make a run or receive an assist, but they don't keep moving. they stay rooted at their spot waiting, waiting, waiting and then the defenders just take a couple of passes ahead and boom, offside. Costa is always moving. He never stops. If he doesn't receive the ball he doesn't spend the rest of the afternoon rooted waiting to receive. He'll move elsewhere, he'll go deep to take the ball (many times he's caught in the flank, far from the box because he sees when his team is having problems breaking through opposition lines. And when he doesn't receive the pass - waiting in a good position - he'll lecture his teammates (which I love). there's no quiet moment with him in the pitch, he's either moving smartly, or helping the team to try a way to break the defense or he's lecturing everyone and their mother. It's such a leadership and an awareness and commitment to his role in the team, that it just brings us to a new level. He doesn't influence games only when he scores or assists. He influence games also bringing life and fight to the team, something we've missed A LOT against the lesser sides last year. He's invaluable, absolutely, invaluable to our team. I'm so happy we were lucky enough to have a guy like him. It must be good karma for being nice and enduring Torres for so long as we did...

How much was Samsung paying for us and how much is Turkish rumored to pay now?

so hat-trick coming against Arsenal? That's how he seems to react to the awards :ph34r2:

but that's his style. Oscar isn't a flair kind of player, he doesn't do mesmerizing dribbles. He's a very smart player with glimpses of good vision and creativity that are currently under development. If he carries on developing well, he'll be a player with very good vision as well as creative, but in a different way to Hazard for example. If you look in two of those chances created - the pass to Costa and Schurrle sitters, he pretended he was going to pass the ball, didn't pass yet, the markers moved and then he passed. That's the kind of thing he does, it's very similar to the kind of thing Cesc does. They can be creative, show great vision and creativity with simple passes... I disagree about the tighter games statement, the pass for Schurrle, he was pressed by two or three players (can't remember) and another one it was the same (the pass to Costa at 4:45). The problem with Oscar is consistency and turning glimpses of vision and creative into a normal occurrence. I don't think he has a problem to pass in tighter games. I think he has a problem carrying on form. He has one great match, then a quiet one, then he goes a couple of months playing really well, then a few months playing badly. He needs consistency and confidence to keep rinsing and repeating performances such as against Sporting. While he's no ace holding possession and passing in tight spaces, I don't see him incapable of doing it. He can protect the ball really well and he can pass under pressure. He just doesn't do it consistently.

No, Mata doesn't fit an English team unless the team is set up around him, it has nothing to do with Mourinho. Why he's on verge of being sold by United and barely made a difference at their side since he's there? He's suitable for another style, English league isn't the one for him. Even with all the amazing things he brings to the team, he also brings incredible liabilities. We've been through this discussion many times, and tbh, I'm not interested in having it again. We can agree to disagree.

For me the answer is simple to decide who's better: Would I trade Cesc for Luka? the answer for me is no. So regardless of who's better in what, I think Cesc is better for Chelsea and that's all that matters to me. Mata is better than a lot of players, but he isn't better for Chelsea. It's not only about individual quality, but how they fit in the system. Modric would fit here just fine, it's just that Cesc fits better... We need a Cesc more than we need a Luka.

http://www.espnfc.com/gamecast/406149/gamecast.html I found the stats, he's had 12 shots by ESPN: 3 on target, 3 blocked and 6 off target. I agree he was wasteful, but I tend to agree more with Jason's take of it, than Choulo's. It was bad, but not that bad...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrmvQKvCDsU&list=UUhX9gSVf1lhh1Kcfs-4Jcdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rtaS9sixyA I think this is one of his best displays for us. The quality to those passes was incredible. It was also one of the best presentations from any of our AMs this season. Hazard has been great for most matches, but Oscar has been amazing yesterday too. I wonder how many chances he's created... about 4?

ewww why should we employ a pivot or a midfield with Rami and Mikel? Fàbregas isn't defensively inept to the point he needs players Rami AND Mikel to be behind him. It's either one or the other, but even then, 'no, thanks' from me. I think Matic + Fàbregas have been working much better now than they were a month ago. I can only expect them to be even better a month from now. Against the biggest sides, we could bring Ramires and play 4-3-3, which is what we did against City, but surprisingly enough Fàbregas wasn't the most advanced, Ramires was. That's a waste imo... Fàbregas as the most advanced midfielder isn't immediately behind the striker, as were playing with Willian and Hazard. I get it that Rami has pace - much more than Cesc - and being ahead allows him to make runs. But let's be honest... Ramires didn't have one single run during the first half as far as I remember. We were that tad defensively. I don't expect Mourinho to be that defensive playing Arsenal, Liverpool or United away from home. He knows City have two good CBs and an amazing attack. The other teams - even the top ones - are unbalanced and we don't need to be as cautious, although I'm sure we'll be a bit cautious nonetheless when playing away, but not to that extent. on the second line of your post... haven't we been winning matches by 3, 4 goals anyway? City was the exception, as covered above (despite Costa's unlucky woodwork), but every other single match we played and didn't score more than three goals (Leicester, Bolton, Schalke and Sporting) it was because of bad finishing, not because we didn't break through the opponents defense. There's nothing to be fixed there. Adding both Ramires and Mikel to the team would affect us negatively in the attack and I'm not sure there's such an incredible improvement in the defense. This is going back to last year tactics. If we bring the two of them, as you're suggesting, it means we're wasting an AM to be replaced by a MD. If you want Ramires to improve as defensively, he needs to go forward less often. There's no reason at all for that. I know Villa and Sporting aren't that great attacking (the latter created some stuff but their finishing was even worse than ours), but we've managed to get too consecutive clean sheets. It's expected for the team to get used to the new tactics and for players to have a better understanding of one another, especially Matic and Fàbregas - as the rest of the team, except Costa, is the same as last season's. That's what I've been saying we need: time. Time is getting the job done and I can see us improve defensively some more, but we won't ever be as good as last season and there's no similarity between us and Liverpool, being an unbalanced team that attacks a lot and but is terrible defending. We aren't even close to being that. The Everton match was a one-time-off thing, that I don't see happening again once the team is ready. I said in a few posts in August that by the end of September we should be able to see improvements in our defensive system and if we still didn't have at least the slightest progress then it'd be concerning. I've seen more than enough progress in the last few weeks and I think we're going in the right direction, and the right direction has a midfield (pivot, diamond, triangle, whatever you want to name it) with Matic and Fàbregas and three AMs ahead of them. The exception is the tough away game here and there where I see us playing a 4-3-3 with Ramires joining them. Mikel is a sub that won't be used in the majority of the matches and Ramires will mostly be employed as a RW more than a defensive or holding midfielder. There's no need for him to be anything different from that. Also, even if we don't win matches by 3 or 4 goals every time, what's the matter? We already progressed into a more attractive football many were demanding, now the demand is for us to win by 3 or 4 goals most of our matches. What's next? There's no need to win every single match or most of them by a big scoreline. Seriously, we're very solid in the attack, regardless of how many goals we score, and we're on our way to have stability in the defense, but we'll never be as solid defensively as last season at the same time being as solid offensively as City was last season. In the real world where football is played by human beings, that's not possible. You simply can't have everything like in the video-games... What City accomplished last season with 102 goals scored and 37 conceded is already way too much and that's basically 1 goal conceded by game on average. For an attack that could score 102 times, that's outstanding and very difficult to achieve.

I came across this tumblr account http://ensinaromario.tumblr.com/ For fans who liked Romário the name of the account is 'Teach (them), Romário' Every time someone misses an easy goal they use one video of Romário old goals to teach them how to score properly. Too bad Romário is from the 90's and the videos quality isn't great, but you can have an idea. Chelsea had three players (not surprisingly) being 'taught' by Romário against Sporting: Schurrle, Salah and Costa. It's funny and also a homage to one of the very best forwards I've ever watched playing. I forget goals within 2 weeks - if that long, but the oldest goal I have a vivid memory of is Romário's in the mid-90's. I'll never forget that goal.

they wouldn't be like us. They wouldn't honor the competition. We're the only big team or UCL champion that took UEL seriously. United, City, big teams from other countries play their reserves in those matches and see what happens. Normally they lose around quarters or semis, if they go as far at all.

passed with flying colors against City imo. Our best player or one of the best. He played too deep, but he did very well. How he does against Arsenal isn't that important he's passed the test against City for me. I know he wasn't too creative in that game, but that mostly because of the tactics we played. Cesc and Costa have nothing else to prove to me... they're the real deal. They will certainly have a bad match here and there and Costa could even go a few without scoring. That won't change their value in the team and as players. One for under 30m and another for 32m. I totally get supporters from other teams saying we cheated this transfer window. We bloody did! It's a steal to have paid so 'little' on those players seeing how much di María, Falcao, Neymar (even if he's too young), Bale, etc have cost.

did you finish the comp? did you upload it? I'd love to check that

if Ramires was here it would have been 10 chips scored....

Rui Patricio for president ffs

we must be saving those goals for Arsenal... there's no other explanation

ffs, another clear chance wasted...

Diego is so smart. The way he runs just at the limit of the offside trap. He's amazing

we were playing much better with Schurrle and Oscar, even if Schurrle was wasteful...

our luck here is that they're even worse than us finishing and capitalizing. Every time Nani touches it, a waste is coming.

is that a brunette Torres, Sporting is going to bring to the match? separated at birth!!

that's a red for me

We're starting to look vulnerable defensively... can we start capitalizing those bloody wasted chances?