Veeria

I disagree I think Luiz and Matic is a very good midfield pairing,especially against the better opposition, the more they play together the more I could see them growing and dominating the middle of the park. When we have a good striker and hopefully Oscar back in form or other inform options (Willian, Salah) providing more upfront I think they could create the perfect balance,both capable of charging forward. Luiz is good on the ball and a good passer when he makes the right decision (he's still learning to play cdm) and matic is a better playing midfielder than people give him credit for

Good post mate, I think some people expect to much and don't appreciate how good things are, there will be a time in my life time, I'm sure, when we take a fall from grace, whether it be a Leeds style where it goes really badly or a Liverpool style where it quickly recovers without too much damage. Either way I hope it doesn't happen, but that thought makes me realise how lucky we currently are

Yeah I do agree be should do more, although he is better at getting back than hazard, last night hazard didn't track back for most the of the first half and was lucky not to get caught. His task is very demanding and he's gone from one of the easiest leagues to one of the toughest, we play in a system that suits hazard more than it does Willian, if we had Drogba still I think you would see a lot more crosses coming in from Willian and a lot more assists. Maybe I am letting him off easily because his return isn't what I'd expect but has done well in his first season apart from that.

I've just heard a lot criticism for him and read on lots of posts, he's done the job asked of him and that's working hard for the team. I'd say the quality hes shown hasn't been worth 30m but transfer the price tag is never just about ability, we paid over the odds for him but that's not his fault.

I agree but not sure RA would. No manager has survived 1 year so that for him would probably be his try at stability, I think two trophyless seasons would be too many, especially, if I'm right in saying, we haven't gone 2 without anything since Roman arrived. If Jose is allowed a proper transfer window there will be high expectations

I'm not blaming him. I get your point but I see Willian getting a lot of criticism for recent performances when it's most of the team. I've seen no really spirit from any players, no desire really. Oscars form has really dipped, no cm is playing decent balls in behind and there are no strikers, its like playing with 10 its a joke. Also the fact is that we have no back up plan, everyone on our bench provides the same sort of thing, all our am players play in such a similar way that the only thing one coming on provides is fresh legs. As I said if we had a good striker I think we'd see a lot better from Willian, he likes to cross into the box but at the moment there's just no point

I think it's just looking for someone to blame. He's not currently earning his price tag but it is his first season. He's an attacking midfielder but he is being asked to do a very energy consuming role which generally helps the team. I think with a better striker he can link up with well we will see a lot better statistics from him. Statistics for me tell a very warped story at times, if Jose likes him who are we so say he's not good enough.

I don't think there's a chance he'll go, if the board wanted success they would have bought a striker in the summer or more likely the winter transfer window without Jose's input. Like its been said were buying a lot more sensibly now and with a longer term approach, if we don't win something next year I think it could do it

After years of watching Deco I really liked him, should of got him years before we did but was once world class

As long as Luiz Lampard and Terry stay ill be happy, can't imagine any kind of team spirit in the dressing room without those three, the palace game showed that we need guts and those three normally show the most out of everyone (except Ivan)

Semi final and staying in the fight for the title until the end of the season would be pretty decent can't see how any one could argue that

I said before yesterday we could have one slip up. I think ill be singing Rick Astley until someone else lifts the trophy

They are 2 points behind, if they lose one game in hand and draw the other they will be 1 point behind, then if we both win all of our games we stay 1 ahead

Can see that loss coming vs lpool and a draw can come from anywhere, one of thier games in hand maybe. Honestly don't think it's all over if we can win the last 6 we have a fair shout. Well see what happens in the city Liverpool game but is unlikely but still not over

Liverpools maximum points would be 89 so if they don't win all their games they'll be on 87 or 86, if its not enough for us to win it why would it be enough for them, they have more momentum than us but still don't think they'll win every remaining game

Of course we can talk about it, but I feel that's a whole different issue, I am just thinking more about other teams situations, I honestly can see another palace/villa before the end of the season, maybe we won't lose but a draw purhaps, have no real confidence

I kind of think a draw would of made a huge difference, in that case we could have needed city to lose one draw one, which doesn't sound at all impossible but now need them to lose twice, can see maybe one coming vs Liverpool but not sure elsewhere. I still can't see us winning all our games and if we don't we have 0 chance instead of the maybe 10% chance we currently have... Sort of answered my own question, maybe I should have asked if people actually believe city will drop the points we need them to

I like most people now think we have little to no hope for the title, but I think it'll be down to us slipping up again. I can see the total of 87 points we would get from winning our remaining games would give us a very good chance. We would be above Liverpool but still rely on Man City slipping up twice. I'm not asking will we win all our games, I'm asking IF we win all our games would we finish top?

Yeah I'd take Gibbs

Yeah agreed, wasn't being realistic to be honest, probably just luke shaw in terms out what's possible/likely

Sturridge, rate him so highly and Lallana, we don't need a player like him with our players in that position but I'd put him ahead of salah and schurrle at least and this season he's been more consistent than Oscar

Everything has been said about how bad our performance so no need to comment, will be gracious though and say how well palace played, well and truly deserved the win, could of had more and probably deserved so, they had a plan, stuck to it and it worked, we could of played another few hours and still wouldn't of scored. Their fans were singing all game, especially after the goal the whole stadium was going, helped by a really annoying drum. I like pulls and what he's done thier and I hope they stay up now, not least so I can go back next year and see us win. Might sound like I accepted the loss but had my rant down the pub last night and don't want to talk about how shocking we were again

Ranieri - he wanted another season and I would say he actually deserved one, but obviously a good decision in hindsight. JM - built the chelsea that has lasted until his return, took us to a whole different level, his rise happened at the same time as ours and will always be our moet famous manager in my eyes. I was absolutely gutted when he left, felt we were unlucky not to win the title the season before, had Cech and Roben out for large parts, but he needed to manage elsewhere before (hopefully) settling. Should never have left in the first time. Grant - somehow got us closest we ever were to the champions league until Munich, but definitely wasn't the right manager. Left at the right time. Scolari - I never expected much from him, seemed strange to appoint him and had to go really. Again left at the right time Hiddink - would loved to of seen him have a proper go at the Chelsea job, would imagine similar success to Carlo really likeable but obviously had no choice in keeping him, if we could of kelt him i think he's still be Chelsea manager. Carlo - great manager, had a fair bit of expectation on him after hiddink and his reputation but lived up to it, got us playing the best football I've ever seen, had a big task of playing Drogba and Anelka together and even then everyone saying our squad was too old, great manager but ultimately the transfer windows led to his sacking, all of our midfield seemed to exit and weren't replace then Torres in January made it even tougher, should of been given at least another season and again could of been here to this day AVB - I was expecting quite a lot from him, can see why we appointed him, he had a good c-v and looked to be just the manager we needed, I liked him to start with then the results didn't come and the stories kept coming out and I grew to dislike him, it's clear he wasn't working and he needed to go RDM - perfect for the season, done amazingly well and will always be a Chelsea legend. His days were numbered as its clear RM didn't want him to be permanent, I might be alone in thinking it but I actually wasn't surprised or disappointed with his sacking at the time (I thought we would get someone decent in) he did great in the cups and got the most out of the players but I never thought he was the right man to build a new Chelsea era and his results were starting to go downhill, better to leave early and stay a legend then stay on to the point where fans wanted him out, probably could of been given to at least the end of the season FSW - less said the better, absolutely shocking appointment in the first place, seemed at the time the club didn't care about the fans, he was in the job far too long JM 2.0 - something will go wrong if he's not here for at least 4-5 years, hopefully 10+ then go into international management

Yep barca loss a lot worse than anything else, but every game we lost from a winning position under fsw was pretty annoying

Ba doesn't get a sniff now though, no reason next season will be any different, Ba should be easy to offload can see him doing a job for most teams outside the top four (Everton will be looking for example) and only need relatively small fee. I've said before that the biggest transfer business will trying to get strikers out as well as getting them in, I've got a horrible feeling that because it'll be easy to get rid of etoo and lukaku Torres is gonna end up staying, I hope I'm wrong