MANoWAR

Seem to always concede late.

Lampard will be very useful as an impact sub later on, I feel.

Sigh

Schurrle >_<

Really like this kit Anyways, I predict 1-2.

Nice lineup. But why haven't we seen Azpi yet? Would like to see Van Ginkel too.

Ozil's doing amazing so far. Damn. Stoke actually playing well against City as well. Please get a draw!

Have you watched Courtois regularly? Cech is a legend but I can't see him becoming a Van Der Sar-esque keeper, whilst Courtois will continue to improve (in fact he reminds me of pre-injury Cech days). But I think Courtois had a better season than Cech. It'd be painful to see Cech somewhere else, but to see someone of Courtois' quality at Barcelona for years and years playing regularly when we could've had that service will also be very tough to swallow. We could also get a good keeper in the future, but this guy isn't just good, he's amazing. Absolutely quality. Best of all the young keepers IMO. People were questioning when Cech was first in when we already had Cudicini -- he was top class but having a younger keeper was better in the long run. Yes, CC wasn't with us for as long, but is it not ideal to build for the future? Have him compete and if he shows he's better, well... then what? Not saying we should sell Cech but I don't want to see Courtois leave. If we keep loaning him out and he doesn't get the opportunity, then he'll eventually leave. But even so, maybe in 2 seasons if we see Cech decline noticeably we'll give him a chance...? Think there were some articles which stated that Courtois refused to sign a new contract until he had assurances on his future with Chelsea, too. Guess we don't know those assurances are but the guy does seem keen on establishing himself in London... ^I like what Nick05 said though.

...Why do you think Cech is 'miles ahead'? A tad odd to say IMO...

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8908688/transfer-news-thibaut-courtois-ready-to-battle-for-his-place-at-chelsea Good to hear :). This guy is absolutely brilliant and I can't wait to see how well he does here.

Mata and Ozil are on a similar level although I'd rate Ozil higher (top form wise -- but there's not there's not much to it on the basis of their ability).

I said the best AM, in that Ozil > Mata (who was our main AM last season). But yeah we do have more depth there I guess. SS say they're also in advanced talks to sign Di Maria as well. Wow, if they sign him... Hazard/mata/oscar would not be far superior to that lot then in terms of the trio. Wonder if Wenger will end up getting a top striker and a CB. They'd really have improved then.

Wow, if Arsenal get Ozil that'd be some signing for them. Sheesh. But we'll no longer have the best AM in the league :(

They can re-coup some of the money from selling Ozil to Arsenal (for 45m or whatever it was). :p

Agree with the comments here. I'd understand why 4-3-3 would work best with ramires though, he hasn't got the qualities of a physical DM, and tbh he wouldn't have to try so hard to retrieve the ball if there's another person behind him to sweep up and we can just use him for his driving qualities. I struggle to see where we'd fit ramires though; he's a limited player, great at times but mourinho's midfields dominated/controlled games usually due to the midfield duo/trio. Alonso and khedira, cambiasso, motta and sneijder, then maka, lamps, essien. Jose is looking at this as a long term project maybe, the way he says we're youth and how he had men in his first stint. Tbh this is the only thing he can do atm to improve as a manager too so it works to our's and his advantage. I think he'll use the youngsters. Maybe not the academy but at least we won't be vitesse loaning everyone under 21 now. Oscar dropping deep sounds good. I think MVG will be an important player though. Maybe the Martinez role as someone said but I also think he'd work well in place of Ramires, with Luiz being a DM. Just seems like a good idea in my mind. Also have Romeu who did very well under AVB. He might be important as well.

Looking at the comments section on BBC and the like and every single comment there is just WUMing the club. And apparently, we played really bad the whole game... wat?! I know I really shouldn't care but sheesh. There were no pro-Chelsea comments at all! Anyways, I'm more confident about this season. Think we'll go furthest out of all the teams in England in the CL if we continue these performances. Shame to lose but it was a great game. Looked very dangerous on the break.

Haha, well, Mourinho seems happy enough with our midfield atm I reckon.

Out of curiosity, who do you think this 'strong' midfield could be?

Damn, every site I'm going there's people WUMing Chelsea for this. This site one of them. Sad.

That was a red tbh. Mikel on? Hmm...

Martinez on. Gonna be a fair bit more difficult now.

Luiz needs to be calm, he's too aggressive. We're doing really well on the counter though. oscar marking kroos out of the game well, very impressed with him so far this season.

Luiz steps out a lot which scares me. Cole does well to read the danger though.

^Where does it say this?

Saw this on another site -- I think it's applicable here: Firstly, it's the beginning of Mourinho's first season back. He said himself he was glad to still have a core of experienced players. Hence MVG and Lukaku haven't really had a look in as Jose has wanted to get off to a solid start. Secondly, Lukaku rarely started last season, he was used as an off the bench battering ram to come on, and it worked wonders for WBA. So it's not fair to presume he'll start the games for us at the beginning of the season when we're a top team, and looking for a solid start. He's still 20, Torres and Ba have experience. Lastly, most of the pundits believe Jose is doing it on purpose. Lukaku has given numerous interviews stating his determination to break into the first team. He's young and 'hungry', he will not be losing confidence. The Chelsea TV staff believe Jose is holding him back so he gives it all when he starts getting his chances to start, which will be sooner rather than later. Look at the work Ba put in against Villa. It wasn't effective but the guy never gave up running. They all know competition is fierce. Lukaku and MVG will get their chances when things settle down, presumably after the internationals. We rejected on offer from Ajax to take MVG. They're both in his plans. Stop over-reacting.