Socrates

Courtois Azpi Cahill Terry Shaw Matic Kroos Hazard Oscar Willian Costa Back ups: Cech Ivanovic Omeruo Luiz Cole Van Ginkel Lampard T. Hazard Schurrle Salah Mandzukic Lukaku

Would like to think Azpi would move to right back and we bring in a left back who can link up play and cross the ball. Have been impressed by Shaw but not 30m impressed. Can see Ivanovic being a squad player next season. A wholehearted defender but can't cross for toffee.

Oscar has been physically and mentally shot since December. He won't get the break he needs this summer. Which means he'll have to be carefully managed most of next season. Personally I think we need another attacking midfielder to take the pressure off both Oscar and Hazard. Playing them twice a week has caught up with both of them.

Even before the dubious penalty, we were looking desperate and heading for a disappointing draw in all likelihood. Truth is we lost the league a long time before today. In the bizarre decision to let Lukaku go out on loan at the start of the season. To sell Sturridge in the first place. To sell Mata when Oscar was knackered and done for the season. Of course it's easy to blame incompetent officials. But there's some really incompetent decisions going on in our Boardroom.

Despite the comedy turns from Eto'o and Salah, that was pretty heavy going. Credit to Ba for getting a shot on target. I'd take frustrating 1-0 wins from here on in though...

Lot of great performances: Cech, Cahill, Azpi, Schurrle. But I gave it to Luiz as he was immense. After Lampard went off we we were practically a one-man midfield. Focused and disciplined. Not two words that you would normally associate with Luiz. But it's games like this that make me think we'd be nuts to sell him.

Was expecting a much tougher game to be honest. But we were really up for it. Good tempo and commitment from the start. Salah created lots of problems with his pace. Matic was a rock in front of the back four and Willian had one of his best games - and scored a terrific goal. Really pleasing performance after some of our recent results. Same against PSG and we might stand a chance.

Embarrassing performance really. Little to take heart from. Oscar and Hazard are burned out for the season. Ramires and Luiz are not a midfield partnership with a future. Willian's engine can only take you so far. Poor defending and dire goalkeeping. That's before we even get to the forwards. Predictably the faith shown in Torres by the Board has come back and bit them where it hurts. As the season unravels at least the glaring deficiencies are there for all to see. This transfer window should be interesting for once.

Blimey that was a poor second half. What happened there?

Yep. But if Sturridge leads them to the title, I hope the irony isn't lost on the Board.

At least Terry showed some desire. Shame about the own goal.

Felt Jose picked the team with the Paris game in mind. Never really got going. Can't believe Oscar and Willian were on the bench today. After the goal Jose seemed to panic and just chucked anyone and his dog on. Desperate stuff from start to finish. Miserable way to end our title challenge.

Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba. What a spine! Arguably the greatest keeper, defender, midfielder and striker we've ever had. That's how blessed we've been with this generation of players.

He didn't have his best game last night but he worked really hard tracking back and covering. I'm sure that's why Mourinho always picks him. If Ramires had a better end product when in possession he'd be some player.

Lampard edged it for me although our defence was solid and Hazard was class.

Solid performance against a poor side. Worked hard for it though. Would've liked to see us being a bit more ruthless in the final third. But we never looked under pressure. Defence was never in trouble. Pleased we got to the quarters. Would've settled for that. League has got to be our priority though. Big game on Saturday. At least players didn't get too stressed out tonight.

Foy was blatantly one-sided in the way he interpreted incidents. If he is going to book and send off Willian for his challenge then he has to apply the law equally to Villa players. The fact he didn't is evidence of an agenda to me. What was also troubling was the poor officiating by the linesmen who called several close offside decisions wrong. Not just once. But consistently. Whatever happened to giving the benefit of the doubt to the attacker? Instead a marginal offside call is now always made in favour of the defender and the officials never get called out for it. If they're not sure, then don't raise the flag should be the rule. Not the other way round.

This. Got to be the most one-sided and cynical display of refereeing I've seen in a long time. We've been screwed in the past by refs but you could put it down to incompetence. Foy is worse than a useless ref. He's bent. Cynical, snide and doesn't even bother to hide his bias. A total pr##k who should never be allowed to ref us again.

Agree that Foy was just brilliant for Villa. If we had him on our side we'd win every game. I reckon we should put in a bid.

Thought we were solid in defence but a bit rubbish going forward. Don't recall us creating much. I'd pick Hazard if pushed. Easier to pick out our worst man of the match. Take a bow, Fernando. Sheesh. That was some crap impersonation of a footballer.

I think it's worse than that. Foy is bent. Not that he takes a backhander but that he deliberately set out to give decisions against us. He's a cheat and should never be allowed to referee against us again. I hope we lodge an official complaint. How Jose kept his mouth shut after that abysmal refereeing display is most un-Jose like. He must've been bloody furious.

Dp

Granted Torres was coming back from an injury but how bad must Ba be in training not to get a start ahead of him. Pity. One decent striker and we'd walk this league.

Really poor challenge. Let his frustration get the better of him. Also draws attention away from Foy's bent decision to send off Willian. Three matches should give him time to cool down and come back refreshed. Will miss him against Arsenal especially.

The officials gave every 50-50 decision against us. The Matic handball, offsides that weren't, the Willian sending off, last man fouls. The most blatant example of one-sided refereeing since the Clattenburg debacle. Saying that, we created nothing of any note and Torres was a passenger. Why Jose started him when he's been out injured is a mystery. Didn't deserve to lose and looked comfortable until Foy decided to screw us over. Don't think we'd have won the match anyway. Relying a lot lately on a second half performance. Sometimes it goes our way but tonight was the perfect example when it doesn't. Our creative front three look shot by the way. Still lots of football to play which is a bit worrying.