How would you manage the current situation?

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

I want to see Luis Terry Ivan and Azpi playing at the same time, at least once in my life. It is still too much to ask...

[quickpassnmove 924]

Drop Cahill.

Ivanovic and Terry as CBs, Luis and Azpilicueta as FBs.

Matic and Fabregas as the first choice pivot but Ramires should get significant game time especially in big games.

Hazard and Willian on the wings and Oscar as #10, but I would have them interchange more as all of them can play #10, RW and LW.

Costa is the clear starter at ST with 11 goals, but if he suffers a clear dip in form, Remy should be starter with Drogba still as the supersub.

I'll just add that even though I'm not much of a Mikel fan, I don't see any problem with rotating him in more; it's the forwards that need to produce more (aside from Costa and Hazard). I'm still in favor of getting another winger/wide attacking mid if Schuerrle just won't settle with Costa and the rest of the starters. Willian just seems to need a little something (mental?) that he's lacking at the moment.

Overall, Chelsea just aren't over this "hump" yet that began sometime back in 2007 and reached its peak with January of 2011 and many months thereafter. Or, to put it less kindly, Chelsea are lucky that Aguero is injured again.

[Mustafa 885]

Well fuck me eh?? Here's me thinking Gary Cahill is our best CB and has been so reliable for us since he's got here. Granted he hasn't been great this season... but MAN are we putting him to the sword after this Newcastle defeat. Yes he did screw up and probably should be out of action for a couple games due to his poor performances of late. But people on here are acting like he's never been a good defender and that he is complete and utter wank. Every single player in the world goes through rough patches. We can't just verbally abuse the fuck out of him and retract all support we had for him because he f'd up.

I'm shocked...

[didierforever 7,349]

- what would you say to the players to motivate them? Or stimulate them?

i dont think the players lacked motivation. just tell them to be more clinical in front of the goal. trust in their ability and go out their.

- will you drop anyone for Luis?

NO. i find it shocking that after 400+mins of football with no goal conceded, we are all so adamant to see FL in the team. i would "rotate" more often but our main back 4 remains the same.

- when everyone is fit again, including Ramires, would you give him a starting spot?

rambo is a very important player for us. in matches like soton (A), spurs (a), he would automatically select himself.

- how to replace Cesc for the Hull game?

rambo. push oscar way forward (i thought he was TOOOOO deep against newcastle. we were probably playing 4-3-3 anyways to cover for matic's abscence).

- which players would you give more minutes? (e.g Remy, Schurrle, Salah)

remy and schurrle. schurrle for sure. as good as willian's play and workrate is, his finish is just abysmal. schurrle on the other hand makes up for his lack of general play with goals. i think schurrle has been underused a lot this season.

- try another formation in away games (4-3-3)

i think we pretty much played a 4-3-3 against newcastle. and in every big game, we start with rambo on the wing to provide those extra legs in the mid anyways.

- do you want to see other players in the starting line up instead of others?

our rest of the away games are a different test from the last 2. stoke will be similar but soton, swansea and spurs all like to play football. they wont be parking the bus but rather trying to play football too. we need a solution currently for the stoke match. losing points there will be a massive blow and change the title race on its head.

[Paul1970 250]

For fuck sake...we only lost one game...we will lose a few more.

[Special Juan 28,092]

For me there isn't a 'Situation' we lost, fair and square, Jose has lost before, Chelsea have lost before.....

We have the best manager in the world and he will react and so will the players. Of course switching things may happen, players dropped etc but it's far from a crisis some think it is, it's one fucking loss.

Could be worse, could be Arsenal.

[lionsden 4,689]

This is hilarious. Did some posters on here actually expect us to go the entire season unbeaten?

historically speaken, the eventual league winner's form is usually 4 or 5 winning streak accompanied by either a draw or defeat followed by another winning streak throughout the season and occassionally hit a bad run of form where they only win like 2 games out of 5 or 6. That's how it's always been, even the invincibles drew many games and dropped alot of point (24 to be precise) despite going the entire season unbeaten.

There's absolutely no reason to panic as far as I'm concerned, not yet anyway. this is the premier leeague and all teams will drop points every other week, the title will be determined by which team drops the fewest number of points. I can guarantee that the eventual winner this year will drop atleast 22 points. so far we have only dropped 9 points. so we are still on the right track, until the wheels actually fall off, I see no reason to panic.

[Strike 7,474]

Ivanovic at Centre back. Cahill sits out a couple

[dUMB 189]

EASY.

Sign Thiago. haha

Alcantara? LOL

On the other hand, Thiago Silva would be great, but he's not for sale I think.

[drog.ba 239]

One loss isn't a problem but losing these kinds of games became a pattern last season. It's very difficult to beat a team who sits back, has pace and looks to counter; we've had a lot of success doing such. One option would be to sit back more, but we'd probably have too many draws. Ideally we'd have a striker like Aguero who can create a goal out of nothing and in tight spaces.

I think we need to play with more width, Azpilicueta isn't an attacking fullback and often looks uncomfortable coming forward and has to cut back onto his right; it's time for Luis who was arguably the best all round left back in Europe to start. A natural winger who stays wide like Navas would be massively useful in these games, we've bought a few pacey wingers over the past few seasons but they all like to cut/drift inside, which is fine if you're as good as Robben and actually produce some goals from it, if you're not scoring goals you're just further congesting the midfield.

Finally we could work on how to be more of a threat from set pieces and crosses, when he came on Drogba was winning almost every header, we have a big team. Much of Atletico's success last season in turning draws into wins was due to how many goals they scored from set pieces.

[Robertleghorn 1]

I know a point is better than no points, but watching the Sunderland for me, was more frustrating than watching the Newcastle match.

It seemed basic football had just been thrown out the window against Sunderland, simple passes and lack of communication. Players were just looking at eachother after misplaced passes as if to say "why didn't you pass to feet" and "why didn't you make the run", which was probably added by frustration.

Its always tough when a team (and it doesn't matter who it is) sticks 11 men behind the ball and rely on a hope of a counter attack twice, three times in a game, but 100% Chelsea have the capabilities to unlock Sunderland.

With Newcastle, at least there were stone wall chances unlike Sunderland. But the real problem personally against Newcastle was missing Matic. Mikel is simply for me not good enough, whether it be in that role, or in general. The best thing at the moment, is the strength in depth at the moment at Chelsea, we can literally make a strong team out of our subs and reserves and it would still compete. BUT for me you have to be able to cover you most important players. Which Mou has to be honest had a blinder with in regards to striking options because all three cause problems, a striking selection headache which is probably the most welcomed headache for us after the last few seasons!

But for me the most important player this season was Matic, and even at the back end of last season in the champions league we missed him, and could see the difference in the league with and without him. So when he's out, which he 100% is going to be at some point (like Newcastle), so reliable cover is probably needed there.

Another thing for me, and I can't figure out whether this is a plus or a negative is Costa. I think there's no doubts that he's not up to peak fitness, but you couldn't count the amount of times ivanovic made the run down the right and put a cracking ball between keeper and 6 yard box! genuinely the perfect balls in for strikers, but he just didn't seem to latch on to the idea that the balls were going there. 11 goals this season, not 100%, and clearly not on the wavelength of some players still, which isn't such a problem as players need time to adapt. but It makes me think, when he does hit fitness, and does understand the players around him fully, we could be looking at a bright future!

Credit to Drogba and Remy also, stepping up big time against Spurs as well, plus drogba changing the game against Newcastle to be honest. Luis also when he comes on, looks a cracking player, really suits this team.

[Whiskey 173]

I think people are overreacting.

Just get over the whole "go unbeaten this season" bullshit.

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Could be worse, could be Arsenal.

Aye.

They are more like 'the incapables' these days...

[iseah100 5,612]

I think people are overreacting.

Just get over the whole "go unbeaten this season" bullshit.

I had a sliver of hope we could do it. But I think it's best to lose now.

Players would have had a lot of weight on their shoulders to keep that run going and would have ended up playing for draws like that Arsenal team.

[chelseafc9010 224]

It's not about going unbeaten all season, it's about losing to a poor team where the problems were so obvoius; no width because of no attacking fullbacks and no energy because of poor rotation.