Barbara

Yeah, I forgot to mention Torres in my summary. Bad match overall, but he was amazing in the goal. The finishing was great, so I think it makes up for previous 80 minutes he's had.

he had a long ball perfect on Eden's feet at the edge of the box in the first half, but Eden's ball control let him down. I don't think his passing was horrible, better than Ramires imo. He's playing out of position, I don't expect him to excel it. He's had a good match imo, but nothing that stands out.

very solid match by us against a team that was flawless marking and pressing in the first half. It was obvious they wouldn't be able to keep it up the 90 minutes because for a high pressing team to master it, they have to play like that the whole season and the physical drills in training sessions must support it otherwise the energy runs out quickly - which it did. I agree we didn't create much in the first, but this team is patient, we've been in control the whole time and we weren't threatened. I've never felt like we weren't winning this (although that 2nd goal was unexpected for me). Our defense stopped having the blips it had on Oscar's absence (which may be or not a coincidence), and proved again that we're very solid defensively. Hazard is the guy, he's really making the difference for us. I think Ramires had a bad match until Mikel came in. Azpilicueta also didn't have a great match imo... he had better matches in the left than today in his rightful. People seem to overreact though about our 'lack of style'. First of all this is a lie, we have a style. We don't rely on our individual brilliance as much as people make it out to be. When you have such a brilliant defensive work done by the opponent ofc you're going to rely on individual plays! breaking collectively is hard because the other team makes it hard. I don't understand most complaints people had about that first half. It was a difficult first half, playing away against a very solid team. What was the expectation? We continue to be solid, both offensively and defensively. Our pivot continues to be our letdown, but it's a broken record repeating it, stating the obvious so I won't say much about it. Cole had a good match, his best in a very long time - probably the season... One more thing though. Hazard normally drags 2-3 (or four like today) players with him, we should be able to capitalize the space it creates for other players. It's mathematical... there are only 10 outfield players, if the opposition has 2, 3, 4 in one guy it means the other guys have less people marking them. We need to learn to explore it better.

Torres can't believe what I've seen but YAY

now two timing saving subs, Mou Etoo for Torres and Mata or André for Eden.

Squawka Football ‏@Squawka 43s Eden Hazard has scored 9 goals, created 50 chances and picked up 5 assists in the Premier League this season. #CFC :worship:

Ramires has been shocking. Really. The worst on our side by a fair lead.

he deserves either way and we should be able to ask Cahill yellow to be removed.

FFS that was on his shoulder/chest. UGH Clattercunt!

FUCK TOLD YA HAZARD!!!!

see? this is exactly what I thought would happen. We're already having more chances. This is under control imo. The normal thing now is us to grow and then score. 1x0, 3 points, back to London

and yeah, Oscar should have scored, but let's not for a second pretend that wasn't a good finishing. It was, McGregor was outstanding and Oscar could have tried the other side, but I can't fault him for a bad finishing because it wasn't a bad finishing imo, it just could have been better position (like to the right instead of the left), but the way you read people it seems like it was one of Torres' sitters. I know it was our only chance and we should have capitalized, but let's not get carried away.

I feel the opposite actually (from most posts). I think we've had a difficult first half because they were pressing and marking brilliantly, but they already showed tiredness and I think we'll break them in the second. I can see us scoring one goal soon. seriously this isn't one of those matches that feels like we couldn't score. It feels like it's approaching. I'm not worried nor do I have a bad feeling about this. Quite calm about it (although the passing was frustrating - especially Ramires, as usual)

thing is first half hasn't even finished and you already see Hull players getting rid of balls early in the match they wouldn't give us a throw. All the pressing and playing the ball on their feet. we've tired them out already, so I suppose it'll be easier to break out now. I'd still play Mata early in the second

Luiz long ball What a shame, Eden

finally a break!

We've been frustratingly shaky in our passing here... not winning as many second balls as usual.

in addition to that the new Adidas contract didn't show in this year's numbers, that alone is £300 for 10 years and they to have pay at least £30 now (supposing they pay by year, which I'm not that sure they do - as some sponsors especially for kits prefer to pay 3-5 years worth of contract at once). They also mentioned a deal with Audi, so I think we're way positioned to comply their demands. What bugs me is how City that had a loss of £98 spend another £90 and UEFA does nothing. So some teams comply, others don't, and there are no repercussions? I'd love to see RM's numbers...

Those ratings mean nothing tbh. Proof of that is that Torres is the second best in the team with a 7.3 rating (http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/15/Show/England-Chelsea - at the bottom of the page) which isn't part of this chart because that's considering UCL too. If someone tells me that Torres has had a better season than Oscar, Terry, Iva and Ramires all I have to do is laugh on their face. It doesn't mean recently Eden hasn't been our best player and given how Oscar is back on form, I think it's fair to say the two of them are the best players for us this season, although I have a hard time deciding who's been better all matches considered. Oscar has been regularly one of the best players for most of the season having only a few matches after his injury in bad form, while Eden took some time to peak. I think Eden will surpass Oscar at some point, I'm just not sure if that already happened - which at the end doesn't really matter. I really want them to have the form of their lives in the following months and I couldn't care less (or couldn't it be any less irrelevant) which one ends up being the best of the season if both of them just play amazingly.

thing is I don't consider Arsenal or PSG as top teams. I mean the very top, he doesn't fit and the ones just after those - where I do include Arsenal and PSG, there's as much competition for him as with us. The point isn't that he can't play... he can, but I think nowhere he would have the same privileges he's had under Rafa. Teams just can't afford a guy with as much freedom unless said guy is named Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi. His style while the finest around there (although I think Ozil is a better player than him, Mata is classier in his plays), seems to be also difficult to afford given some of his limitations. I'm not totally convinced he can't work it around and improve some aspects of his game and turn this around. He has the hard part, which is the innate talent, vision and intelligence. Adapting to more demanding roles is easy compared to having those things, especially in the extent he has.

but in the end what matters isn't where he plays the most? He plays in the wing this season much more than he's played there since AVB's first system, but I feel it's been slightly exaggerated how he hasn't played in his more natural position. He has, but as the article explains well, he doesn't well the system and they came to the same conclusion I came a few days ago: he doesn't have space in any of the big teams right now, his style isn't that fitting in modern football and the league that seems to embrace his style better right now is Italian, but he has no space at Juve (both me and the author talked about his chances on Napoli though). I've posted all that just a couple of days ago if memory serves. He's in a difficult position with us now, but he'd be in a difficult position in most top teams now as well because of his style and the demands of modern footie. Which is all a shame.

still just a few days ago there were still people questioning why the POTY for the last two years has been put aside by Mourinho... implying that Mourinho didn't handle him well. If everyone knows all the reasons this article shows (and the another one posted a few days ago) and acknowledges them, then it's really more hard to understand why we have the same discussion for the past 5 months... Also check his heat maps and action maps on Squawka and you'll be surprised to find out he's indeed passed more time in the middle than in the wing, despite where he's started... he just naturally drifts inside.

I don't know where the idea of discussing how much he's worth starts (well I do, with someone that thinks the rightful star of this squad is Mata). Eden Hazard carried this team on his back at the start of last season when he's assisted and scored and the reason why we led the league back then. Then the last three-four months of the season it was him who shone as well. This season - as usual - it took him a while to be at the top of his game and then he's started influencing our matches like he did last season. most important of all, although he's younger than Mata and by definition more raw and less experienced and mature, still he's proved to be more willing to adapt. Hazard's game depends on his freedom much more than Mata's does (Eden is a counter-attack catalyzer, the less freedom he has, the less lethal he'll be), still the kid worked it around and now he tackles, recovers possession, help the FB, presses and still leads our attack. If anything I would have expected Eden to have more problems embracing the changes than Mata did, but the kid is proving his worth. He's not for sale and if anything Chelsea better work on his and Oscar's contract extension when they start their 3rd season with us and set some un-payable release clause on them (Eden even more so than Oscar). They've proved no matter who the manager or the system is, they're willing (and capable) of adapting and still offering a lot for the team. Not that I think Mourinho is going anywhere, any time soon...

Talk about entertaining football, I'll tell you my feelings. We've played some of our most entertaining football in the last few years back in October and the last couple of weeks. And we beat important teams in the process. I don't care if City outplayed us, we won (I'm not even sure they outplayed us tbh, but that seems to be the consensus). We beat Liverpool, we could have beat Arsenal if we didn't waste ALL the many chances we had (I'm not complaining about the draw though). We're still under development and we already played some entertaining matches. The last 40 minutes against Southampton were VERY entertaining. And maybe that's the difference, entertaining doesn't need to be beautiful footie. I just remember my feelings watching some of our matches this season and while we weren't anywhere close to Bayern last season (and this one) or Barça a few years back, I still had a great time watching us. For me that's enough. I want to sit to watch my team, have a good time doing it, enjoy our players, our display, and hopefully also have the result. Sometimes though as in a SF or F in an important tournament or a match that could give us the EPL title where the only thing I care about is the result. No championship is made of one match or a couple of them. If we somehow win the EPL this season, I'll be happy with the result, but I'll also be happy with many matches we've played. If we don't win, I'll continue to be happy with those same matches I've enjoyed watching. I'm quite happy with our past accomplishments, we needed luck to win UCL (who doesn't?), but we've won it, and I'm happy in this place we currently are now and I'm absolutely excited about the very realistic prospects this group of players, this manager and the two clinical signings (that we all know are a CM/DM and a ST) will give us.