Barbara

I'm quite convinced we didn't offer him a new contract at all. We barely did it the season before. It took ages if you remember correctly... there was no reason to keep a player as expensive as him to be the 4th or 5th in the pecking order

Absolutely agree. I was among those saying we needed to improve our midfield, I support the club letting him go and I don't have a problem with his choices because we've made ours. Also, the Saints were rolling over way before his goal, but still some here will say Lamps won them the match that was already won... Whatever

too bad in addition to that they need to undo a 6-point lead... seriously, people expected them to drop points right and left? They have good morale/motivation after the Bayern victory - which is why I wanted them to lose. They will eventually drop points, but still they have to overcome a 6-point deficit

I needed the laugh, mate. Cheers

Mourinho needs to rethink some of his obvious choices in this busy time of the year. We're entering December's marathon and he thinks now is a good time to repeat the same lineup for the third time in a row in a week. And then if that's not bad enough, he takes his sweet time to make subs. Seriously, can't he see that's not the smartest thing to do? I hope he has a better approach of the starting eleven the next weeks. He calls the players that haven't been playing much his untouchables and it shows. He won't touch them at all. They'll rot in the bench. The players in the pitch were tired, uninspired, a little bit sloppy/lazy, but I can't even blame them...

Real Madrid, City, Barcelona, Bayern play teams like this the whole season... we need to show something. It sucks that they're parking the bus... but we should give a better response than we've given.

We need bite, hunger... we've been too quiet... but I can't see who could bring that to us. Bring The King... at least he'll put some effort.

well, it seems like Friend allows anything Sunderland players want to do in their box while 'marking' our players in set pieces.

I've been blaming both equally. Actually, I'm blaming Mourinho on playing Azpili more than Azpili being useless.

against a team parking a bus and not even attacking through that side? Makes no sense whatsoever. Azpilicueta hasn't played well this week, but Mourinho will refuse to bench him. Which is stupid depending on the match.

FFS AZPILICUETA

why is Azpilicueta playing a match like this? It makes no sense. And again, we don't have enough players approaching the box... sorry to say it, but our AMs looks sort of lazy there - except Willian.

So only Willian is going to really press their transition? Sorry, but we do look a bit complacent to our standards this season...

They have literally around 7 players at the edge and inside the box but our players haven't been populating that zone - which is stupid. We need to keep the most players surrounding their box. Why they're so many steps far from it, I don't get it. The three AMs and at least one of the midfielders have to approach the box and the attack more emphatically edit: and we've been a bit sloppy and lazy in our passing in the final third

1-5 Go Chels!!!!!

corner assist!!!!!! I dig it

I didn't even realize Liverpool was playing... I'm not watching any match, but I was checking my fantasy and my eyes completely skipped their match... that's what I normally do about teams without any relevance. So I guess my brain is ahead of me

Marco is his best friend... he would know straight from the source if there was any real interest. And if there was, I think he'd be supportive of his best friend coming to play in the same team as him, not threatened by it. I don't see André being dismissed by Chelsea any time soon.

why are we discussing Arsenal? they suck and hopefully that'll last forever and ever. That's the only thing that should be written here

both things are only partially true. He had an amazing individual play against Schalke where he advanced a lot before reaching the box. He's still polishing his game. We should remember he started playing football quite old for a professional, he still has a lot of polishing to do. He's much better than people give him credit for. He's not talented with the ball, he's not brilliant, but he isn't this useless guy either (not saying you're saying he is, but some did imply). He hasn't been at the top of his form in most UCL games we played... so I think it's only a matter of time. I'm very happy with his form at EPL, so I won't complain about his lack of goals in UCL group stage.

He's declared his love for Inter and Inter fans a thousand times - the last when Torres moved to Milan AC a few months back when he said he would have preferred him to go to Inter because he loves the club, loves the supporters, etc... (so it means he really wanted Torres to go to Milan because nobody that loves a club wishes them to have Torres). And what's the point? What's the difference? This isn't a competition. He loves us, he's happy to be one of us, end of it. He can love as many teams in the world as he wants, I don't think it has to be only one... he supported Chelsea wherever he went, he publicly supported us on UCL and the same with Inter, so I think it's more than okay. Couldn't care less which he loves more or less. He's probably staying here for a long time, and I mean a really long, long time. that's all that matters

Actually I meant regarding his work at real Madrid and winning la decima

I don't think we had any blip in our radar this season. Some people may think the results in Manchester was that, I think we've been flawless, unbeatable, recording our best start of season, the highest goal scorer, the player with the most assists, the best attack and many times much superior to our opponents. That's all I can see, but my glasses may be tinted... or not

yeah, while that may be the reason many love him - I love Robbie simply because of who he is. He's a lovely person tbh, although ofc I love the fact he gave us the fact too - it can't be labeled the reason why Jose is supposedly jealous of him. I believe Jose could be jealous of the affection Robbie has - especially when you think how bad of a manager he is (I love Robbie, but he's a farce as a manager, he's a really bad one imo and I think it was the players, after being so close to win, more than anyone else who won that UCL. Robbie couldn't have much to do with it when we finished 6th in the league and played some horrible, poor football. Again, I'm not sure he's jealous, I just think he doesn't like him as a manager... if there's one thing people like Mourinho doesn't like is people bad in what they do.

I think he could be more jealous about how much Robbie is liked by the supporters - but not because of a title. For a while his name was sang at the 16th minute, he's been missed by most - even if the same people admit he's tactically poor I would believe José is jealous of that, but jealous of him winning the UCL instead of him? No way... his chances are there and the first title is no different than la decima, for example. If there's jealousy, I'd believe it'd be of how much Roberto is loved by us.