Chippy

I don't think Andre needs any tips from Nando

53 points from yesterdays games but only two players net yet played, still an improvement on last week though.

The goalkeeper situation is a difficult one for me, looking at Courtois and believing in his ability from what I've seen in his loan spells and the one game here is obviously easy, feeling safe with him between the sticks for us is again relatively easy, letting go of a keeper who has been consistently top five in the world for ten years or so, a keeper who has showed loyalty and courage through injury and been at the heart of our teams best ever run of sustained top end of the table and top trophy winning form for me is still risky. I think Cech has another five years of the same level of performance we've come to expect in him, I think he'd love to have those years here and I for one would welcome it. Obviously it looks like a great move for the future to get a keeper ten years his junior in with proven ability but it's a shame it's come a bit early in Petrs career when the decision could have been made much easier had he been on the wain. Best scenario for me would be for Cech to come out and say he loves it here and will fight for his place, I just worry that an injury to Courtois and a good run of games from Petr would see the youngster looking for a way out if he wasn't selected when he regained fitness, based on nothing but gut feeling but something that would make me wonder if there was any point in staying if I were in Cechs shoes. Hopefully he's not as imaginative as I am or maybe he knows the youngster better and knows he would be up to fight for his place. A nice problem for the manager but not one I'd like to make the decision on.

The ball to Andre was outstanding, Fabregas certainly was very good signing and likely to get many more votes on our man of the match thread.

Stupid rule, you'd expect it to be more realistic than that. cheers though

Looked a penalty to me, the fact that Costa half played for it shouldn't mean it wasn't a penalty...the keeper missed the ball wich Diego had put past him and made contact with his leg, penalty for me. No matter as we're looking good but penalty or not there was no need for a card.

first bet of the season, gotta go for a biggun...half any winnings gos to the site. Chelsea 4-0 @ 16/1 Stake : £3.00 Estimated Returns : £51.00 18 Aug 2014 - Burnley v Chelsea - First Goal Scorecast Diego Costa / Chelsea 4-0 @ 45/1 Stake : £2.00 Estimated Returns : £92.00

I'm tied with Loz in 114th place...its a marathon I'M not sure how the subs work i.e if a midfielder (Sidwell) doen't play and the first sub on your bench is a defender, does it use the defender and change your formation or does it skip to a midfielder if you have one (Sigurðsson)?, hopefully if it chooses the midfielder I'll nick another ten points.

I'm in Butch, thanks for keeping up the hard work.

I'd imagine there's a cream for that

I just checked my team and found I'd done the same thing...was happily counting the points till then.

I wonder how he knows your watching?

Cheers for that B&B, I'm in.

I popped in to see if we are having one this season...not sure who normally sets it up.

How anybody can worry that Drogs is not good enough at this level anymore when we still have Torres in the squad is beyond me...what he brings with his experience and team ethic will do wonders behind the scenes and surely help with keeping the squad motivated, what he could bring on the field if used sparingly will still have opposition managers worrying. It certainly wouldn't tarnish anything he's achieved here for me if he played 5 games and looked rusty and past it, he's here for more than what he can do on the field but for me is still quality back up.

Mixed feelings about Drogbas return...Elation and Jubilation being the main two

Nicely done Ploks...good to see the voting over the season giving us something to think about in the close season.

There are always exceptions, I think looking at the way players like JT perform for him would be a better pointer to his man management skills.

I've watched football (only Chelsea) since Benitez was appointed...what difference do you think that makes? Self proclaimed special one maybe but he's proved he's pretty special in every Job he's had, his way of treating players must also be part of his success, who are we to tell him otherwise? We only hear what the media wants us to and I expect Hazard and Jose can give and take a bit without either getting too upset. A bit of a contradiction to say our best players have been defenders and then to say Hazard has been outstanding, I'd add that Oscar was outstanding before injuries/form let him down and that Shurrle and Willian haven't looked half bad , add to that the purchase of Matic and I'd say we're heading in the right direction and I'd be happy we have had some solid defending.

Stim already answered almost word for word as I would have done, results first, we all want to see Chelsea attacking and playing superb fantasy football but that would be pretty Liverpoolesque if we were conceding goals like we would be if Jose hadn't addressed the defensive problems. Not only that but the inconsistent old Chelsea you crave would mean a change of manager every six months under the ownership of Roman. If we want a settled Chelsea, a winning Chelsea then we have to give a manager time to get things how he wants them, Mourinho knows Roman wants us to be a bit more attack minded and he will have that in mind when he makes changes to the squad, what he did do to his credit was risk his job in the knowledge that things weren't working when we we're a bit more tippy tappy early on in the season, when our defending was poor and remedy it to save our season and guarantee us CL football for next and with it the better chance of attracting the kind of players he'll be looking for. One season is not enough to be yearning for a different style of football (imo) when playing a different style would have cost us a CL place and possibly another change of manager. You yourself mentioned Spurs (did I know who their manager was?) and really that should be enough to have us all sleeping sounder at night as new next Mourinho type managers are always likely to be in Romans plans when he decides he wants another change, even he realised that the original Mourinho is likely the much better bet.

Do you honestly believe with a different manager we'd have gone to the Etihad and to Anfield and come away with the points? I'm not an apologist, more of a realist and not spoilt by the success we've had since Abramovic has been here (a lot of which is directly down to the man you feel I'm apologising for). I don't think we'd have won all the big battles with any other manager with the available players and losses in those games would have seen us struggling for the europa spot in my opinion. Taking the piss, no are you?

I possibly would if I was a UTD fan but I doubt they would make it to a CL final in their present form. I really don't think we'd have racked up as many points as we did had Mata stayed, he just didn't fit with Jose's gameplan and although he tried to change his game it was much more detrimental to his play than say Oscar or Hazard who adapted well to the extra work he wants from them, it was sods law that Oscar picked up some niggling injuries and dropped off in form which made it look as if we would have seen a lot more of Mata and maybe he would have found a way through the packed defenses where we struggled but in reality I expect Willian would have got the nod more often than not anyway. I'm surprised this is still a stick to beat the manager with being as we came so close (which didn't look likely mid season) and had such a good run in the CL, surprised as well being as the fee we got was fair in comparison to say the fee for Sturridge who plays in a position we really do need strengthening. First season back for Jose and in my opinion a good one, I'm excited to see if we can kick on from it but not naive enough to think there won't be improvements at the other clubs and to expect us to brush aside the clubs we have struggled with while beating the top teams as reliably as we did this season. I think in all honesty that had we struggled more but put in a run to grab a CL place there would be less questioning of Jose's overall contribution, the fact that we actually had a chance in the biggest two competitions (surprising for me rather than expected) and then faltered right at the last, made the expectations followed by the reality we weren't quite good enough reason enough for people to question the manager. My question to those people would be, what do you think our season would have looked like with pretty much any other manager? my guess is europa league and an early CL exit.

You only have to look at our goals conceded column to see that Jose has worked his magic on the defensive frailties we have suffered from, the same frailties we suffered from this season until he decided to build from the back again. still managing to be third highest goalscorers with a blunt trio of strikers while conceding less than the rest, in a league made up of the top six we would be top by a distance which shows his tactical nous is as good as ever and a CL semi final again shows us as the best premiership club in europe. Mistakes? I'm sure fans of most of our opposition would secretly love to have him making mistakes at their clubs. Anyway a thread digging out Jose and Yorkleyblue isn't one that holds a lot of interest for me so I'll leave it there.

Mourinhos biggest mistake...not reading this forum for tactical advice, team selection and tips on how best to curb his personality traits. We have one of the best Managers in the world and we were competitive in all competitions without a top class striker while reaching the CL semis with our most important DM cup tied, everyone makes mistakes, thankfully Jose makes less than most.

Thanks for all your hard work keeping this going Butch, top man.