Chelsea190512

Bony is actually very underrated on a technical level as he's more than capable of good 1-2's and linking up the play and add to that he can actually head a ball very well which none of our current attackers bar Drogba can do. But 30m does seem like a lot although I can't help but feel that with our love affair with Vitesse we should have been more aware of what Bony was capable of and should have signed him for the 12million or so he transferred to Swansea for (not sure on the actual transfer fee but think it's around that)

Having Messi would be unreal but not sure how the team would line as either of Costa or Oscar if not both would most probably be dropped in order to accomodate him. Wouldnt be a surprise to see Jose produce a line up like this to hide Messi's less than generous defensive workrate. Courtois iva - cahill - terry - Azpilicueta Mikel - Matic Willian - Hazard - Luis Messi Or if we go transfer mad and buy players just because we can then I wouldn't mind this team. (Understatement of the century) Courtois Azpi - Varane - Terry - Luis Matic fabregas - Pogba Sanchez - Messi - Hazard

Listen to how much sh*te comes out of Michael Owen's mouth

f**king awful from Salah even I would net that

Atletico madrid springs to mind

I haven't seen a game like this in years where Chelsea are so idk sh*t? Life as an Arsenal fan must be absolutely dire

Ojhhh f**k

Okay so, I don't know how that became 3-1 to tottenham but it has and all we can do is hope we stage a great comeback. Now then the problem it's either the players can't cope with the expectation on their shoulders and are beginning to bottle it or the one I hope it is that they're just tired from the fixture pile up.

Agreed Oscar could have done more,but imo Fabregas was like a statue and let Kane walk past

Fabregas being booked was vile, it was a penalty whether it's accidental or intentional is another argument but it was still a penalty. I think the Mikel criticism is unjust he did his job well and he was very composed in possession, there was an incident in the opening quarter where matic was dispossessed and s'ton had a counter attack which I felt was a warning sign. I think Remy should have started this one with Willian starting at RW too. Costa looked jaded and Schurrle was ineffective. But I don't see it being the be all and end all game of the season like some are making out. Of course City are going to run us close what did we think would happen we'd win the league without resistance.

Courtois azpi,cahill, terry, cole Ballack matic Lampard robben, hazard Drogba Might be more than three. Ok definitely is but what a team that would be.

Agreed perhaps Real Madrid with Lopez and Casillas a few seasons back but arguably Casillas had started to decline already by that point. I think it would be in Cech's best interests to move to a team where he would be guaranteed a starting spot which is pretty much anyone bar Bayern Munich.

But then there's no Cahill who I feel is more than worthy of a first XI place. I'm all for reverting to a back 5 with Luis and Azpi as Wing backs and Iva,Jt and Cahill as Cb's. Maybe thats a bit far but reckon it would be worth an experiment.

Never? He was the reason our new no.19 was playing on the wing or on the bench at Atletico. So he must have been good at one stage no? He scored a hat-trick past Chelsea in the Super cup if that's not premier leagur class then I don't know what is.

I agree in terms of consistency Ivanovic has been one of the most consistent players for a while now not just for Chelsea but in the league. If someone was to ask how many 'bad' games he has had I would only be able to think of Swansea in the capital one cup which speaks volumes of the performances Ivanovic puts in. I myself sometimes question why Azpi isn't RB and Luis LB but the fact is the back 4 or 5 including Courtois are very solid and don't concede many. So would Azpi at RB change the overall sturdiness of the defence in comparison to Ivanovic at RB.

Not really a frequent poster but watched the Roma V City highlights (again) and after Zabaleta's goal, Neville went on to say that he was the best right back of the past couple years probably longer. Also that Ivanovic was closing in on him in the past 18 months or so. I disagree I really do feel Ivanovic is equal to if not better than Zabaleta. Was intrigued as to what others views are?

Aston Villa in December 2012 springs to mind a nice 8-0 and we missed a penalty.

Cech Ivanovic -- Carvalho -- Terry -- Cole Essien -- Ballack Lampard Robben J.Cole Drogba Subs - Cudicini, Duff, Gallas, Mata, Anelka, I'm sure you can tell by my team that I am pretty young lol.. Seems a pretty solid team nonetheless imo.

Fabregas should be captain, Ivanovic would be something of a stop gap captain as I don't think he has too many years left in him. Fabregas leads by example in terms of having a winner's mentality and he seems quite vocal on the pitch imo.

I do apologise if I sound a bit 'grass is always greener on the other side' I am completely a fan of Hazard and what he brings to the team maybe even a fanboy of sorts. But I'm merely acknowledging that he could be even better.

I guess Hazard's apparent lack of killer instinct in front of goal is the difference between him and say another highly rated young player like Neymar. Hazard's ability to take on players is awesome but imo he doesn't seem to use his pace to run in behind as much as he actually could. I do feel that Hazard in 2/3 years time will easily be a top 5 player in the world in comparison to the other talents of his generation. But players like Neymar, Bale will have the edge in terms of goalscoring. Take nothing away from Hazard he is absolutely world class but without the ridiculous goal scoring stats he can't be the best. A prime example of this was the game against Maribor where Drogba played him in and he chose to try and cut back instead of hit it first time which most probably would have went in to the net. But those are the fine margins that differentiate players from being good/great and the best.

I agree despite all the criticism Luiz got his performances in the big games were marvellous him and Matic were so dynamic in closing the ball and pressing. The Fabregas inclusion will of course be more beneficial against the teams where we need creativity but in these types of games where we want to play this way we need to outmuscle the midfield and close them down quickly. Which of course didn't happen today.

Cahill and Terry had a solid game but for me it was Azpi great performance from him

It's a shame it had to be Lampard to be the scorer but you could just see it coming. Jose made a few comments about him in the post match interview that seemed a bit like he had something against Lamps. Anyway I was really disappointed with the way we're playing the way we played last seasom at the Etihad was awesome full of tenacity and playing high tempo but today it seemed like we were so negative which was a shame. Last season the excuse was we couldn't match City for quality so we had to shut them out and try to beat them tactically on the counter. But Jose said that the team was complete this year and that fabregas/costa were the missing pieces of the jigsaw so why aren't we playing attacking football and taking the game to them? He even mentioned Roman's wishes for a certain type of football so why are we still watching Mikel come on when we should be going for the jugular against a rattled 10 man City team. Maybe I'm overreacting but I was not impressed with the performance at all. Also the fact that Schurrle was made the scapegoat. His job is to attack first defend second. The question should be where was Ivanovic?? Schurrle should be supporting Ivanovic not playing his position. Sadly the comceding of the goal seems to have taken away from the fact he was the scorer of our goal. 2 draws in a week isn't too bad but it's the fact they're 2 games we could have won as we were ahead.

Said it that Costa would be awesome. Everything Chelsea lacked last season, it almost feels too good to be true and at this rate we'll win it all.