Carefree92

Matic, with JT a close second.

Absolutely massive win. Really felt that was a must-win game tonight, and we can now go into the busy period coming up full of confidence. You could see it in the players' reactions that they knew what this win meant. Delighted! Bring on the Hammers, and let's put some pressure on City for their game later in the day.

Disappointed that it's the 4th, meaning I can't go. Expect a comfortable win, though.

Fabregas is suspended, mate.

Looking forward to this one. In Matthew Hardling lower, which will be great. Still can't quite decide whether I prefer the better view/worse atmosphere from the West Stand, or the much better atmosphere/worse view behind the goal. Hopefully Schurrle plays, and we break them down nice and early. A few goals for Costa would be perfect as well.

Schurrle for me. I thought he gave us that bit of extra directness we've missed in a few games, and took his goal very well. Matic was of course ever present, as always - definitely my favourite player after the legendary trio of JT, Cech and Drogba.

Pleasing night all round. We certainly didn't play like a team that had already won the group; I thought the commitment and desire from the players was excellent tonight. Quite a few nasty challenges from Sporting, along with some embarrassing play-acting. How the ref missed Costa being hauled back when he was though on goal, I have no idea. Nice bonus to do Di Matteo a favour as well. Bring on Saturday!

We're playing well, apart from Costa who again looks out of sorts (despite a few nice touches towards the end of the half). Think it's quite important for him to grab a goal, however scrappy, tonight. If we've learnt one thing from from that half, it's that Luis and Schurrle must start on Saturday.

If I can't make it (as mentioned above) you're more than welcome to use my membership.

Hoping they schedule this for either the 5th/6th as I'm not back in London until the 5th and really don't want to miss it (gutted enough to be missing Spurs and West Ham as it is). That aside, decent enough draw for us.

Don't see the thinking at all behind starting Costa tomorrow. We should be giving him a rest and play Remy/Drogba.

Bring back Rafa...

Looking forward to this one, despite it being a pretty meaningless game as far as we're concerned. I would personally like to see us use it as an opportunity to rest some key players and give guys like Schurrle, Luis and Remy a much needed run out. It's important for the mentality of the team to record a win straight away after Saturday. Certainly won't be easy though, with Sporting being right up for it. Also, potentially worth using this game to try out using two upfront. I'm sure Mourinho wouldn't be keen on that, but it might give a different dimension to our play going forward.

Indeed. I actually said to my Liverpool and Utd supporting flatmates before the games against them, that I was nowhere near as concerned about playing against them as I was about the trip to Newcastle. It's very frustrating given that Newcastle really are not a good side at all; as someone already mentioned, Cisse could go the rest of the season without scoring.Silver lining, however, is that the game is now out of the way and puts an end to all the invincibles sh*t getting bandied about. Can't wait to get back to the bridge for Wednesday's and this weekend's games now.

There seemed to be a bit of an inevitability about Saturday's result. St James' really is a place we seem to struggle, for no obvious reason. We were undoubtedly unlucky this time, though; by no means did Newcastle 'thoroughly deserve to win' as Shearer claimed on MOTD. However, we were clearly nowhere near our best. Costa and Hazard had particularly disappointing games, I felt. Matic's absence was painfully noticeable (I imagine I wasn't the only one at the Spurs game to shudder a little when Mike Dean booked him), but even without him we should have had enough to win. Jose could have done better with his subs as well, bringing on Drogba earlier and replacing Costa with Remy. However, putting things into perspective; it's one defeat, the first in 24 games, not the end of the world by any means. Anyone who bought into the media bullsh*t that we'd be invincible or that winning the league was going to be in any way easy, will surely have woken up now. It's a tough month coming up and it's important that we get back on track quickly. As others have said, the likes of Remy, Luis, Schurrle and Drogba should all be given opportunities in the next few games. It's how this team reacts to losing that will determine how good it really is.