Joe The Hobo

After today, I'd have to say Matic. Drogba and Remy have both looked good on the pitch with and without Costa. Willian does a similar job to Oscar and always looks to be covering the same ground back and forth, just with less end product which we can cope with. Terry, I think would be a huge miss, however Bran and Cahill are both really good defenders who can do the job to a high standard, just maybe not as high as Terry + Cahill. And as of late, Hazard hasn't looked as good as he usually does, he could maybe do with sitting a game or two out and if he did, I don't think we'd notice such a huge difference as when compared to games where he's always looked like scoring earlier in the season. Fabregas' assists would also be a big miss, however, it looks like we could cope with Matic playing a slightly similar role, with some of the passes he's managed to play this season and last season, except obviously with less of an effect. Which is why I believe he's so irreplaceable. With Matic, he does so much when you watch him. Whenever we need him to win a tackle, he'll win it 9/10 times. He's started going forward a lot more as well, and he's actually quite the driving force when he does run. Not only this but his decision making as to where and when to stand, and when to go for the tackle is brilliant. The second goal in todays game showed how much we missed him. Newcastle went on the break, and Mikel went in with an important challenge that he had to win, and was left on his backside, and then Fabregas followed him with an even more important tackle that he had to win more than the last tackle, and he didn't, which left us completely exposed with a 3 v 3 counter attack to deal with whilst on the back foot. I genuinely believe that if Matic was playing today, he wouldn't have fallen into the same trap that Fabregas and Mikel fell into and he would've followed the defence staying on his feet, trying to keep pressure off the defence, and not making such a rash decision to quickly try and tackle straight away and putting all the pressure on our defence and this would've greatly reduced our chance of conceding such a goal.

Too bad we've already had the home game, but at least we do get to see him again! Wish him all the best with Schalke

Last night he was absolutely brilliant and I can't remember him really doing anything wrong. And as we as being defensively brilliant, his runs and heat seeking crosses were good too! Really making me curious as to who will start the City game.

The rumours of Ronaldo leaving Madrid are still going, and are gathering momentum. So it means if Ronaldo goes, who will Madrid replace him with? And of course there's one main contender for Real Madrid to replace him with: Eden Hazard. Everyone knows what Madrid are like when they need new players and how they just go around throwing money at replacements. Do you all think there's any chance of Eden joining Real if Ronaldo leaves? Lets hope he gets this new record contract sooner rather than later!

And now he scored his first hatrick! I still can't get over the fact we have such a prolific striker!

We've got Bolton on the 24th, hopefully he gets at least a 20 minute cameo, although, I really hope he gets a start

Reading this thread just makes me realise how many great albums my collection lacks! I don't even want to attempt to pick 20 because I know I'll regret most of my choices after a day and I'll end up changing it on a daily basis

Now there's more reasons to be excited about the new season! Just made mine and joined since my Internet has been a bit funny as of late.

I seriously think Torres will score more goals than before, I wouldn't be surprised if he hit the dizzying heights of 10 league goals because no one is actually expecting anything of him even though we all support him for as long as he wears blue. So, saying this with a bit of optimism, I think he'll chip in with a reasonable haul because we really need him to take some pressure off Costa and he has came through (sometimes) at those types of moments eg. Europa League final, CL semi final when we've needed him, so I have a good feeling he just might this time round

It's like having to choose between a Veyron and a Zonda. We are somewhat lucky to have such an issue

Probably will have been. I can't imagine Barca starting an 18 year old kid when they have the amount of wingers they have

In the space of two years, Deulofeu only made two appearances for the main Barca team. While all his appearances were made for Barca B in the league below which is just a worse version of the Championship, a bit like the Belgian league. There isn't really much difference between Hazard and Deulofeu except Deulofeu has made two more appearances at a world class club than Hazard. I would love to see Thorgan Hazard in next years squad, however, him being loaned to somewhere like Everton would be a brilliant idea.

Odds on Skybet put us at 1/3 to sign him ahead of everyone else, considering Lampards odds of going to New York were 1/5 just last night, Fabregas at Chelsea is looking quite realistic

I reckon Bamford will come on and score an 86th minute winner. And if he does, we'll have a premier league club we could loan him to if he doesn't get the necessary minutes

He cried at the fact he's leaving the club which shows how much he cares about the fact he's probably leaving, and yet some people have the nerve to boo him and others off in what could be (and most likely will be) their last home game. Absolutely world class left back, wish him all the best wherever he goes.