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Hazard, I was watching with my stepson and said that Hazard would look the better player on the day, great to see him do it in the big games.

Thought the Re gave Arsenal a lot of decisions today, Didn't think it was a free kick for the goal and thought Newcastle should have had one right before, could have had a penalty as well and looked the better team on the day. Ok they had no Ozil but without him they looked ordinary.

Here's my bet for today, half any winnings to the site. 29 Dec 2013 - Chelsea v Liverpool - Correct Score Chelsea 2-1 @ 17/2 Stake : £4.00 Estimated Returns : £38.00 and 29 Dec 2013 - Chelsea v Liverpool - First Goal Scorecast Oscar / Chelsea 2-1 @ 80/1 Stake : £2.00 Estimated Returns : £162.00 Come on boys

Tight between Oscar and Hazard for me, defense was solid but had Little to do, i'll give it to Oscar as I think we faded a bit after he was subbed.

That was always coming...big miss for the game with the scousers.

Rest for Oscar ahead of the Pool game and Eto'o is still on because his movement and link up play has been ok and the choices are no better. Hopefully Shurrle will come on at some stage.

Good movement again from Eto'o, surely the touch has got to improve soon.

I wouldn't be taking Eto'o off, he's got into some good positions, linked up well and if he could get his finishing polished up a bit he would grow in confidence and be causing more problems. Oscar and Hazard have been superb today.

Bet for today, half any winnings to the site, had to stay with my BPL prediction 26 Dec 2013 - Chelsea v Swansea - Correct Score Chelsea 2-1 @ 15/2 Stake : £5.00 Estimated Returns : £42.50 and 26 Dec 2013 - Chelsea v Swansea - First Goal Scorecast Samuel Eto'o / Chelsea 2-1 @ 30/1 Stake : £2.00 Estimated Returns : £62.00 Come on lads

Really nice to see, loved the bit where he explained to JT that he was watching the Cup final between Arsenal and Chelsea and Chelsea winning it helped him make his mind up which of the teams to support, JT "they haven't won much since then have they" What a great kid as well, the enthusiasm was eye moisteningly great to watch.

Cahill and Terry terrific last night, I'll just edge it for Cahill but what a pairing they are with some solidity in midfield.

If Lampards shot against the bar had have bounced in everyone would be saying that Jose said he could win 1-0 easily and got it right, the width of the bar stopped that happening but if you believe half the praise Arsenal have had all season and half of the slating we've had surely that result should make you happy?

What do people want, we've just played the top team over the season, at their place, restricted them to about one shot on target in weather that makes defending tricky after leaking goals and knowing we need to sure things up. Two points off the top at Christmas and on merit should have won the game. I'm happy enough with a point. Good games from Azpi, Lamps, Mikel, Cahill and another tireless effort from Willian who if he sharpens up the end product will be a great player for us.

I'd have settled for the point and its good to see a bit of steel in the side, should have won it with Lamps against the bar but had Jose gone for it we might have slipped up tonight. We'll improve and hopefully they'll have a dip.

I'd be bringing them on for Hazard and Torres

If only our Manager would read this site before he put the team out we'd be well clear at the top by now.

Fair chance of Mikels getting "men of the Match" tonight I reckon.

Here's my bets for tonight half any winnings to the site. 23 Dec 2013 - Arsenal v Chelsea - Correct Score Draw 1-1 @ 13/2 Stake : £5.00 Estimated Returns : £37.50 And last scorer scorecast Fernando Torres / Draw 1-1 @ 65/1 Stake : £2.00 Estimated Returns : £132.00 I had to stick with what I done in my BPL but can't resist a punt on the win so we've got an extra one today. Chelsea 2-1 @ 9/1 Stake : £3.00 Estimated Returns : £30.00 Come on lads, its only a bit of Rain.

I'd still stand by my second attempt although Newcastle look certain to do better than I expected.

Its difficult with our strikers (I use that word loosely ) as a few games ago Torres had done enough for me to believe he was our best option, hardest to knock off the ball and most up for a challenge, then Eto'o found a bit of form and linked up well with the attack and I thought blimey now there's options, not great but options...then Ba had a couple of run outs and ran into spaces where I'd want a striker to run, looked a bit better at muscling his way through a packed defense and getting on the end of things and I thought...Ba must get a start soon. Now I really don't know what to say, I've never seen three strikers that can be so completely different game to game, gut instinct tells me Torres in the game at the Emirates but I wouldn't like to have to make the decision. Edit: Sorry, read a couple of posts here about the strikers and never noticed it was a Mikel thread. I'd start him to be honest, and I'd have Ramires and Lampard in front of him, just think it might keep us a bit more solid until a change mid way second half gets us in front.

its hard to be sure while they are still playing as most Legends cult stautus magnifies when they hang up their boots but the measure of a legend for me is a player that you know isn't what he was but you still want him to stay even if he's only half the player he was, that for me applied to Drogba and Zola, it applies to Lampard and JT. If I had to guess a future Legend that is likely to be a big part of the team hopefully as it improves again to bring the trophies to SW6 I'd put my money on Oscar.

I think Jose is the best Manager we've had and in a small group that are the best of all time, that said I have always believed that any "good" manager can with time and the funds available get a lot from this Chelsea under Abramovic. It surely shows that keep changing managers is not helping (regardless of our bursting trophy cabinet) as we have these "give the manager time" threads at least once a season and there is little improvement every time we do (barring Robbies miracle). I have defended all of the managers that have been here since Jose left and mostly against comparisons with him, I knew he was a better manager than the ones I defended but never thought he would ever return and did think (especially in the case of Carlo and RDM) that given time those managers could do a good Job. Now we have Jose back and the team is not running away with the league in his first season, its not looking cohesive or showing the "Jose mentality" but instead of complimenting the manager on the position we are in even though its obviously proving difficult we actually have had people on here pointing out the "facht" the Interim done a better Job. Changing managers again and again will get us nowhere and is part of the reason the squad is so unbalanced, if there is a manager out there who has proved himself in the league, proved himself in the CL and proved that he has an affinity with the club in a bigger or better way than Jose then bring him in and lets waste another season, if not lets stick with the best we've had and trust him to sort it out.

Agreed mate, its a dilemma for sure. When you look at the players we have its hard to understand the lack of goals, personally I'm not worried about the defenders too much and fully believe if we had someone taking chances we would also concede less, other teams grow in confidence and we grow in nervousness with every chance we have go begging. I have confidence in the back four (especially when its got JT and Cahill in it) and believe a good defnsive midfielder that is more consistent and more able to launch an attack than Mikel would help us no end. I think the striker department is where its all stemming from, the good attackers we have would get more space if the opposition defenders had to pay more attention to an in form striker and I'm sure we'd see more goals from them all if we had one. As for the work rate thing I have no problem with it, I think games like last night are ideal for players like Willian to show his work rate and gradually find an end product to go with it, the manager must be liking his performances and likewise must have noted that a bit more cutting edge would change him from a hard working squad player to a very good option and I'm sure he's expressed to the boy that he needs to do more, last night he didn't do well with shots but did put a couple of decent crosses in and held onto the ball really well to keep posession, hopefully the finished article will be not far away.

We need two or three players but you are spot on, an in form striker and I feel we would have won that game and likely be enough points better off to be looking at a draw monday as enough to stay top. That said I'm not sure we'll be buying a striker in January, maybe a midfielder which will help but I've got a feeling a striker will be a summer signing.

I think Willians overall contribution was better last night than Shurrle who looked predictable but thats not to say I don't rate Shurrle highly, I just said in another thread that its hard to try to rate our midfielders against each other as they all have their plus and minus points and they have all had vastly different playing time. Looking at Willians workrate and knowing what Jose wants from his players though I would imagine he's doing the right things to push himself into the first eleven more often than I'd have expected. Hopefully we haven't seen the best of either Willian or Shurrle yet and they will both get a decent amount of playing time.