How would you rate the performances from the boys tonight?

I'd go for roughly:

Cech - 6/10 - Possibly at fault a bit for the first goal, though I thought it was more up to Terry to clear the ball before it got to Cech. Made a decent save from a deflected shot, but other than that, didn't really have all that much to do.

Cole - 7/10 - Played well, though Walker skinned him a few times. Worked very hard though as he always does.

Terry - 9/10 - Very solid performance tonight, especially considering the circumstances with everything going on with him at the moment Excellent block at the end.

Ivanovic - 5/10 - Not on for very long.

Bosingwa - 6.5/10 - Beaten too easily by Bale for their goal, but special mention should be made for his performance at CB. I was quite worried when he was moved in there, but he did very well, also helping to cover Ferreria at RB and doubling up against Bale.

Mikel - 5/10 - Did little before going off.

Ramires - 6/10 - Seem to say the same thing about him a lot: Great energy, great pace and enthusiasm..just lacking technique. Had 2 wonderful chances to win us the game and fluffed them both. If he improve his passing and shooting a bit, we'd have a real top player.

Merieles - 6/10 - I must have missed his performance tonight, since other people were saying he was great. I didn't see all that much from him to be honest, but much better than he was against Wigan.

Mata - 6/10 - Struggled to get into the game really. Flits in and out with periods of invisibiilty then a moment of brilliance, but unfortunately, mostly the cloak of invisibility tonight.

Sturridge - 7/10 - Another goal, surely must be one of the first strikers in the England squad list now.

Drogba - 6.5/10 - Had a decent effort against the post, and played Ramires in for what should have been a goal, but other than that fairly anonymous again. We were playing the long ball quite a lot again, and he was failing to win his headers most of the time, which meant surrendering possession pretty quickly.

Romeu - 7/10 - Improved the side when he came on. Actually looks up and plays the ball forwards more often than not, unlike Mikel who seems to only play forward passes a few times in a match.

Ferreria - 7/10 - Did very well considering he must have been lacking match practice.

Torres - 5/10 - Not really long enough to judge him properly.

AVB - 6/10 - Wrong decision to start Mikel and Drogba for me, who knows how it would have gone if Mikel's injury hadn't forced his hand to bring ROmeu on.

Cech was definitely at fault for their goal. It was his all day long.

You are way too harsh on Cole. His best performance for a long while. Yes, Walker did him for pace, but it mattered not, for Cole defended smartly against him.

Bosingwa was brilliant mate. 6.5 is way too low.

Ramires makes a real difference to our game. 6 is too low.

Mereiles grafts. He is not the best player in the world but he is not the worst. Tonight he went way up in my estimation. He was everywhere. 6 is too low mate. What's with these low scores?

Drogba deserves a 7. Not an eye-catching performance but a quality one. Did so much for the team.

As for AVB a 6? Mate, you're in a miserly mood tonight. We're going to have to call you Scrooge. AVB was fantastic. He kept his cool in a very hostile environment, under incredible pressure, with a loss potentially disastrous not only in terms of morale and points, but also in terms of the pressure heaped on us by the press. Spurs are top-notch at home, tonight we deserved the win, despite going a goal down, despite starting badly, despite suffering terrible luck with injury, despite having to play Bosingwa at centre-back, we got organised, we got grafting, and we took the game to them.

It makes you proud to be Chelsea. The manager deserves a 9.

Cech - 7 Not at fault for the goal IMO. Bossy and JT arguably were.

Cole - 7 Quality performance. You can tell the bloke hates Tottenham as much as we all do.

JT - 7 Took dog's abuse from the crowd, (yawn), but it just made him play better. The do or die lunge to try and stop the Adeybayor effort at end summed up what Terry is as footballer.................... Mr Commitment.

Ivan 6 - Didn't play well enough in the opening salvos. Easily done by Bale twice running through the middle.

Bossy 7 - Destroyed by Bale in the first 15-20 minutes. Totally. But there is no shame to be taken on that front. Gareth Bale is a very, very special player. I couldn't believe it when Ivan went off and Bossy got put in the middle, but he did the job well. Of course 'arry trying to exploit our lack of a proper centre-forward by bringing on someone called Pavlychenko made Bossy's job easier.

Merieles 8 - Tireless display and my MoTM. Frank won't get a look in if he maintains this work rate and level of performance. Intelligent use of the ball in possession and got a foot in when we didn't.

Mata 6 - Gone backwards the last few games. Not really that involved or threatening. A quality player, no doubt, but I really wish he had a yard or two of pace to make the most of his talent. Over shadowed on the night by the brighter attacking lights that were Mr D. Sturridge and Mr G. Bale.

Ramires 7 - Love the little fella. If only my car engine were as reliable and turbo-charged as him. Should have scored twice and got booked for bringing down Bale, (to be fair, it was the only to stop him at times), but his energy and drive is a key component to making our team work. Should always be one of the first names on the team sheet.

Mikel 6.5 - Didn't play badly to be fair but, as most people know, Romeu has already showed himself to be the better player for that holding position and, when Mikle went off, he showed it again tonight.

Sturridge 8 - Boy this kid's confidence is sky high at the minute. A danger throughout and another goal. But still has aspects of his game to work on, heading being one of those. He should have scored from Drogba's pinpoint cross.

Drogba 7 - Nearly snapped the post in two with that volley, and the chest control to set it up was sublime. Then there was the through ball for Ramires' one on one, and the 1st half cross to Sturridge. Still our first choice no: 9 and probably will be for sometime. Rightly so IMO.

Ferreria 7 - Cannot lie, for me the bloke isn't what we need as a fullback. But, that said, he very rarely lets us down when he comes on and tonight was no different. Had trouble from Bale initially but then when 'arry made the change at half-time Bale ended up he dropping deeper and therefore he wasn't up against Paulo so much.

Torres 6 - Not on for long and rarely touched the ball. However, *made intelligent runs in the channels but no-one found him with the right pass. (*TM Shed End Forums - Copyright reserved).

Again we saw a poor display from Ivan when used centrally. He and bossie both letting bale onto the outside left fo his cross for the goal

Maybe we should play Bosingwa CB and Ivan RB

Maybe we should play Bosingwa CB and Ivan RB

Claudio, is that you?

Cech - 6.5/10 - Made a couple of outstanding saves although was unfortunate with the goal and was also beaten for that shot which JT heroically blocked. I also noticed that Drogba was organising the wall on one of their never-should-have-been free kicks; while I admire Didier's spirit and willingness to step into Frank's boots as de facto vice-captain, sorting the wall is Petr's job and no one else's. His kicking was poor however and only actually got the ball anywhere near Drogba's head twice all game.

Cole - 8/10 - Very important going forward and got our assist. Defended excellently as well - arguably his best performance and my MOTM.

Terry - 8/10 - Another top performance from our marvellous captain; he saved our skins with a series of blocks and clearances at the end (especially that outrageous one which was certainly going in). Ashley's only real contender for MOTM. I'm proud that (like against Burnley) he came out of this media turmoil fighting and I hope he can keep it up; maybe he'll get some praise without us hearing the 'r-word'.

Ivanovic - 5/10 - Didn't really get a chance to make an impact on the game. I hope he's ok but he really shouldn't be partnering JT at centre back unless our defensive line is deeper than Roman Abramovich's pockets.

Bosingwa - 7/10 - The goal was at least partially his fault, but he made up for it by putting in an excellent (near-faultless) shift while out of position. Very impressive last 60 minutes, and he dealt with Adebayor and Pavlyuchenko's height and power admirably.

Mikel - 6/10 - Did alright before going off. The look on his face suggested outrageous levels of concentration that us emotional mortals can only dream of. I'm glad he was working hard to earn his starting place back and look forward to him and Romeu pushing each other to new heights.

Ramires - 6.5/10 - He had a quiet game by his standards. Sandro kept him well-shackled down the middle and he had to drift wide to take any effect. Wasted a few excellent chances, but always does well to get into those positions. If only his technique and passing were a little better...

Meireles - 7/10 - Decent one-touch passing to keep the ball moving and his defensive contribution was good again. Both him and Ramires pissed me off by wasting possession with those doofy long shots which were going nowhere.

Mata - 7/10 - Was helpful in attack but not essential, it's a shame he didn't create all that much because he's an excellent footballer. He attempted four crosses yesterday and didn't complete any of them. His defensive contribution was good though; I doubt Ash would have had such a good performance if it had not been for Mata helping him out with Walker.

Sturridge - 6.5/10 - Scored a goal, should probably have scored more. His defensive contribution wasn't great either, Assou-Ekotto and Bale saw a huge amount of the ball and nearly half of Tottenham's attacks came from that left hand side.

Drogba - 6.5/10 - Suffered a little from poor service, he had a couple of magic moments (three outrageous flick-ons to put people through on goal, one of which led to our goal). He was pretty quiet but when he did intervene he usually did well.

------

Romeu - 6.5/10 - Only misplaced one pass in his 45 minutes. He looks more comfortable on the ball than Mikel, but last night was certainly no less guilty of playing sideways passes than he is. On the other hand he looked a bit out of his depth defensively and ddn't contribute a great deal; Modric and co were skipping past him a little too easily at times.

Ferreira - 7/10 - I was horrified when he came on as I thought he was being slotted in at centre back (0-3 vs Sunderland came suddenly to mind) but ultimately did well. He hadn't played in the league at all before then and was suddenly shoved in to play an hour against Gareth Bale and his response was admirable. He had to sit very deep to counter Bale's pace and as such wasn't able to get forward to fire in any of his trademark great crosses, but I feel that was a classic 7/10 Paulo performance. If he's going to play like that with regularity then we might want to consider him as a more regular replacement at right back.

Torres - 5/10 - Got about 15 minutes and didn't really have a chance to contribute anything. To be honest I didn't think it was worth bringing him on (as much as the prospect of him scoring the winner turned me on) because we needed players with defensive aerial presence and Drogba is vital to that end, particularly when they had those two lumps up front.

Mata - 7/10 - Was helpful in attack but not essential, it's a shame he didn't create all that much because he's an excellent footballer. He attempted four crosses yesterday and didn't complete any of them. His defensive contribution was good though; I doubt Ash would have had such a good performance if it had not been for Mata helping him out with Walker.

Sturridge - 6.5/10 - Scored a goal, should probably have scored more. His defensive contribution wasn't great either, Assou-Ekotto and Bale saw a huge amount of the ball and nearly half of Tottenham's attacks came from that left hand side.

You giving Mata a higher mark than Sturridge?

We were clearly watching different games.

Why after such a good TEAM performance does someone always have to have a dig at fernando torres. He got 10 minutes and the lad hasnt played a game in about 2 months! He came on and did alot of running about for the team which was what avb would of asked from him.

Anyway I was very impressed with our second half performance and it was double the heartache for me when ramires missed those sitters as I had just stuck ramires in for lampard in my dream team haha. Jt was immense as was the rest of our back 4. We look a different team when romeu plays instead of mikel. I'm not one for mikel bashing but the sooner this lad is sold the better and I'm not saying he is a bad player he just dosn't suit our new system. Mereiles was brilliant and is very underated in my opinion. Ramires full of energy but missed a few sitters. Mata was on defensive dutys so didn't have a say in attack. Sturridge was quality yet again. Drogba drifted in and out of the game but put up a solid performance.

We should be winning our next 6 games if we have any title aspirations so let's just see what happens and enjoy the ride.

UP THE BLUES

Maybe we should play Bosingwa CB and Ivan RB

No maybe about it.

Ivan is a far better RB than a CB, and judging by last night's performance, the opposite is true of Bossy!

Cech - 7 Not at fault for the goal IMO. Bossy and JT arguably were.

I can't agree with you their Just. Bossy did as well as you could expect. Bale just put in a try good ball without beating his man - a little Beckhamesque!

Cech had to collect that ball. In the end he actually missed it altogether. His subconscious was telling him to watch his head and that split second of hesitation cost us the goal. I don't blame him, because I don't think he can do anything about it, but we saw him do the same for the goal against Leverkusen at the end. He felt he was going to collide with the post and hesitated.

You giving Mata a higher mark than Sturridge?

We were clearly watching different games.

I'd definitely have Sturridge ahead of Mata on marks for last night, but I can see where Plokoon is coming from in that Mata really worked hard defensively. Good for the team but it isn't really conducive to getting the best out of him going forward.

You giving Mata a higher mark than Sturridge?

We were clearly watching different games.

Yes, Mata had more than twice as many touches and his defensive contribution was far superior to Sturridge's.

I also gave Bosingwa a higher mark than Sturridge despite the fact that Tottenham's goal was largely Bosingwa's fault and Sturridge scored our goal so I'm not sure it's worth investing much time dissecting my mark system.

I can't agree with you their Just. Bossy did as well as you could expect. Bale just put in a try good ball without beating his man - a little Beckhamesque!

Cech had to collect that ball. In the end he actually missed it altogether. His subconscious was telling him to watch his head and that split second of hesitation cost us the goal. I don't blame him, because I don't think he can do anything about it, but we saw him do the same for the goal against Leverkusen at the end. He felt he was going to collide with the post and hesitated.

Mr Strategy has got this one bang on in a most ethical fashion.

I'd definitely have Sturridge ahead of Mata on marks for last night, but I can see where Plokoon is coming from in that Mata really worked hard defensively. Good for the team but it isn't really conducive to getting the best out of him going forward.

Regarding Mata, I would say this, he needs strength and speed, to really light up the Prem. However, he is young, he is new to this league, it is far more physical than Spain and far more to-and-fro, meaning you need much more stamina. Mata gets tired hence the reason he often gets subbed second-half. Also, he is being asked to come back an awful lot, to chip in defensively, even though he can't defend for dear life. He has a great attitude, is very clever and very skilful. With time, he will develop the attributes needed to excel here, strength and stamina. He may never be the fastest but nor are loads of top players, so we'll have to settle for that. Remember, everyone bangs on about Silva and rightly so, but people forget he was largely anonymous last term, particularly at the start, as he needed time to settle, and he is older. It's only this term he has come into his own. Mata is doing awfully well.