Blue Steel

Lampard, 2 goals and a good delivery for Terry's opener. We really missed him earlier this season.

Didn't get to catch this match, but sounds like it was a decent performance, and the result allows us to rest a few players in the home leg if need be. With Spuds losing as well, let's go on and beat Manure next week to cement our place in the top 4.

The lack of an orthodox wide player really showed tonight, Malouda and Anelka were poor again and it definitely looks like the place to invest in the Summer. Saying that, if Torres settles we will be in a great place to win the title next season with Luiz and Ramires playing as they did today. Let's just secure a top four finish and see how we do in the cups.

Think Mikel should start instead of Essien due to his recent poor form, but apart from that it's a great line up. Hope Torres gets his first goal for us tonight.

Really good news, will be a very important player for Chelsea for years to come.

Actually more excited about him than Torres. Think he'll be a brilliant signing.

This will be a tough game, but definitely one we have to win given the FA Cup seems to be the most realistic silverware we can win this season. I'm surprised Ramires sarts instead of Mikel, but it shouldn't be an issue. 3-0 to the Chels, with Lampard and Drogba both scoring.

Come on you Tangerines, 1-0.

3-0, get Josh and Sturridge on.

Surely Josh has to start this one, we need some creativity in midfield now Lampard is out. Pretty confident we can win this one although its going to be scrappy. Hopefully we're starting to put a run together consolidate our league position.

Probably the best defender on our books at the moment, and the sooner we get a new deal sorted out for him the better. Wouldn't surprise me if he is captaining the side when JT and Lamps retire.

I'm not sure whether its fair to say the lack of recent investment and the signings of Benayoun and possibly Pienaar reflect the new transfer policy of the club, although I understand your point. We had our most successful season in our history last season, so it wasn't a great surprise we didn't spend much money last summer. Also, most managers prefer to do business in the summer anyway, and with a lot of the major talent cup tied in the CL (eg David Luiz) its hard to justify paying extortionate fees for them in January. I'll begin to worry if we don't buy some players of higher calibre in the summer mind.

I think Pienaar is actually a lot better than people on here give him credit for, and certainly is a player who could impress if given the chance to play for a top side. He's a more quality option than Kalou, can play on either wing and will provide much needed competition for our forward line. Our fixtures will pile up so I'm sure the youngsters will get game time. It is a bit reminiscent of the Benayoun signing, but £3.5 million is a good deal before we hopefully look to rebuild (at least partly) in the summer.

3 tough games coming up, need 7 points from them. Is Essien back for Everton?

By God did we need that.

Are Terry and Alex fit for this? And when is Lampard back? This is a very important game to win. Malouda should play in midfield along with Ramires and Mikel. Reckon we're getting over our dip in form and could win it by the odd goal.

I doubt either Terry or Alex will play against Zilina, better just rest them and give Bruma a start.

I feel reassured we have Alex for this game and that Malouda is playing in midfield. A win with no more injuries please.

Would it be an idea to give Kakuta a start? Our frontline's been pretty shocking recently and it would allow Malouda to drop into midfield, who did well there at the end of last season and is probably a better option there than Zhirkov. Bruma should start, but it wouldn't surprise me either if we stuck with Paulo at CB. Need a win to steady ourselves while our players recover from injuries.

This. Ferguson has been great at bringing youth through the ranks at Manure and realises that the last 20 minutes of games simply isn't enough to develop them into first teamers.

Some aspects of it do seem very weak. Paulo as a 4th choice centre back (you could argue we have Bruma, but Carlo obviously doesn't trust him as much) is a big liability, especially considering that both Terry and Alex get injured quite a bit. Also, Zhirkov, while settling in well this season is not suited for a central midfield role where he's obliged to play due to our lack of numbers and really should play solely on the left. Any team would miss Essien and Lampard but surely we should have something more in reserve than Mikel/Ramires/Zhirkov. While the front line is great on paper, our only options off the bench are Kalou and Sturridge who aren't likely to be competing for first team places this season and can't be relied upon to come in and perform when Drogba, Malouda and Anelka go off the boil Oh, and lets just hope Cech doesn't get injured. We haven't spent much in recent transfer windows and although we have a great first team you can tell that we could do with 2-3 more squad players, namemly a centre back, goalkeeper and a striker. I understand that we are trying to blood youth this season, but when our top talents are only getting cameo appearances at the end of games anyway it seems rather pointless when we've got serious injury problems. Oh, and this isn't a knee-jerk thread after being humiliated by Sunderland, I still think we'll win the league, but we could just make it a bit easier for ourselves.

Why isn't Bruma starting? Surely a better option at CB than Paulo and he's not going to get many better chances than Sunderland at home.

Not a great performance but a win's a win. Essien misses Sunderland, Brum and Newcastle which is annoying but could be worse. I'm looking forward to having Lamps back, his goals have been missed in recent weeks.

Bison makes it 1-0, what a cross.

How reassuring our home form is these days. 3-0 win, hope Ramires starts and has a good game. he may have only shown glimpses of quality so far this season but the criticism he's been getting is over the top, and some of our current best players started their Chelsea careers in poor fashion.