DaRick

Yep he was, but both Terry and Courtois have helped keep us afloat lately, while Matic has contended with suspension and possibly injury.

I think Courtois and Terry shift into #2 and #3 respectively now, with Costa coming in at #4. Courtois in particular has been incredible lately and has consistently been keeping us in games. Hazard is still #1 though - simply a wonderful player.

Livin' the dream...

The only consolation from all of this is that City have been even worse...plus they have a grueling trip to Barcelona in mid-week whereas at least we don't. Really we never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, do we?

It'd be nice to see a convincing performance, but I guess that's out of the question.

Hazard put us ahead, Courtois kept us there with help from the defence + Zouma. Given how many opportunities West Ham had, I'll plump for Courtois this time.

I was unfortunately asleep, but from what I've seen, I'd pick JT. Captain, leader, legend.

Liverpool hand us a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.

He is starting to play like he did against us for Basel. It shows that he possibly had the talent to do well here but maybe not the mentality to cope with heavy competition on his position. At Fiorentina, he has to compete with the likes of Ilicic and a past-prime Joaquin. At Chelsea, he had to compete with Schurrle and Willian. There is a fair difference.

We'll have to switch back to the 4-3-3 to prevent our lead from being completely whittled away now... What a joke.

Reckon he'll be banned for 3 more games?

More great refereeing...

Of course they do; I'd rely on crack too if I lived in Manchester or Surrey*. *except for Chelsea fans, of course...

His goal showed how dangerous he can be when allowed space behind the defence - he remains a speed merchant. I like Fiorentina so I hope he does do well for them.

It's close between Willian and Cech - without Cech we would almost certainly have conceded, without Willian we wouldn't have won. However in this case Willian made the defining play with his goal, so I'll (just) plump for him. Matic was a monster too, while Zouma and Hazard weren't far behind. Zouma was very impressive against Lukaku - I wonder how well he'd go against Harry Kane? Almost certainly much better than Cahill did.

He made the game-defining play with one of his sporadic long-range specials against Everton! Good on him; he's really stepped up his game now that a genuine competitor in Cuadrado has been signed.

First would comfortably be Eden Hazard for mine. His first two seasons were very good but this season he has just been brilliant. A good game for just about any other Chelsea player just seems routine for Hazard, so brilliant has he become. Even if he's not getting goals or assists, he's roasting full-backs with unremitting regularity, invariably getting them carded and either making them more reluctant to challenge or leading the opposition manager to waste a substitution on that area, meaning that they can't change things up in other potentially more vital areas. Although it is a very tough call, second is Nemanja Matic for mine. While we have proven in the past that we can survive without Diego Costa, weapon though he undoubtedly is, Matic is the one man who can dominate the midfield and distract the opposition's attentions from Cesc Fabregas, leaving him free to pull the strings. He is a textbook defensive midfielder, replete with excellent positioning and powers of anticipation to disrupt opposition plays in the midfield and an excellent engine. Not only that, but he's a pretty handy passer himself. No coincidence that we look far less solid in the midfield without him. Third is Cesc Fabregas, the loader of bullets for Diego Costa and co to finish. He's such a metronomic passer and a gifted playmaker; his absence in midfield has been so sorely missed for these past few matches because our play is so much more disjointed, turgid and predictable without his magic touch. Diego Costa, John Terry, Thibaut Courtois, Oscar, Branislav Ivanovic, Cesar Azpilicueta and even Willian have performed with distinction and each could have made the Top 3 in other seasons. Petr Cech, Kurt Zouma and even Filipe Luis have been impressive when they've actually played. Zouma in particular is a lock for any Chelsea Young Player of the Year award and looks to have a big future at this club.

Yes, I have admitted that he was overpriced - but it doesn't really explain why some people seem to idolise him and others see him as being inadequate. You don't usually idolise 26 million pound solid pros after all. ...and yes, I can imagine him improving and hope he does. Improvement would be most welcome because at the moment he's solid without being a superstar.

As I've said in the past, I'm not sure why opinions on Willian are so polarising; he's not really a star (at least in this side) and he rarely defines games in the way Hazard, Cesc, Costa or even Matic do, but he's a solid professional and every successful team needs one of those; a relatively unheralded player who puts in the hard yards for the team's benefit. Barcelona from 2008-11 had Seydou Keita, Man Utd had Park Ji-Sung and even we had Paulo Ferreira. Not wonderful players by any means but players you know will put in a good shift whenever they play and set an example to the rest of the team in that regard. He's has been playing a bit better lately that's all, but there's not been a massive difference, just a bit more willingness to take on his man, a little more inclination to try a killer pass. That being said, that slight improvement in performance might be crucial in a league where victory typically comes by a fine margin.

Well in fairness, no city epitomises the words 'post-industrial slum' more than Birmingham. Umm, except for maybe Manchester.

Energetic but he didn't really have the chance to do much.

My thoughts: 1) Jose breaks his Villa Park curse, but geez we made hard work of it against a vastly inferior side. This Chelsea side is playing like Alex Ferguson's Man U used to - not necessarily putting in great performances, but somehow consistently picking up the points. 2) Willian responded to the signing of Cuadrado with one of his more impressive performances in a while. Consistently he's been industrious without possessing much of a cutting edge, but today he managed an assist and consistently troubled Villa. Good to see. 3) Oscar was uneven; he did initiate the first goal, but technically he seems a touch below Hazard and even Willian and it shows in his sometimes leaden first touch, which is problematic against parked buses. Matic was mostly decent, but could have done better in the lead up to the Villa goal. 4) Ivanovic - his transformation into a marauding full back has been incredible to witness, especially since he was once regarded as a natural centre-back. It has sometimes proven costly defensively, but offensively he comes up with moments of magic like his first-time curling shot into the top left corner. Sheer magic. 5) Drogba was terrible, sadly. His inclusion made some kind of sense, but he should have been taken off far earlier because he provided absolutely zilch. Ramires wasn't great either, typically lacking the precise passing needed to properly replace Fabregas (though his yellow card was extremely harsh). 6) Ah Hazard. We'd be half the side without him, I swear. 7) Courtois was not all that convincing today - it seems he's contracted the Cech curse regarding being tentative against crosses. Let's hope it's just a temporary illness. 8) Surprised that Cahill made it in, but he was not too bad today. I'm not convinced that he should play ahead of Zouma in the future though. 9) Possibly a strategically significant win, even though some of Jose's tactics to get there were dubious (keeping Drogba on for too long) - we are 7 points ahead of City. They really need Toure's driving runs and midfield influence - without him, they just look like the kings of sterile possession.

For a full-back, Ivanovic is sure some goal threat.

Not much choice for this game unfortunately.

Ok, looks like the reasoning with Drogba hasn't really panned out as of yet.