Happy Christmas to everyone here, I hope that Santa is kind to you! (Although no presents marked Falcao shall be opened and used until Jan )

Thanks mate, and the same to you.

And a happy Christmas to everyone who helps keep this thread interesting, and all our frequent visitors too.

Happy Xmas matey. I reckon you will be hoping Santa heals a certain Japanese midfielder very quickly as he is getting way behind.

Merry Christmas all, hope it was a good one! Had a stinker of a hangover(stupid mistake) which made today a bit of a struggle, feeling not too bad now after dinner and a few more drinks though!

Many thanks!
Yeah, I do need him to score somethong like a hat-trick every game now, to stand a chance of winning!

Ahh well, you never know eh?!

Merry Christmas to you and to everyone else in this thread!

Rafa is basically the Miyagi to Torres

"Torres.....you football do yes.....or you football do no......you football do guess so....get squished"

Hope you all had a good Christmas


Cech Azpilicueta Cahill Ivanovic Cole Mikel Luiz Moses Oscar Mata Torres

Turnbull Ake Ferreira Lampard Marin Hazard Piazon.

Merry Christmas fellow Chelsea lovers!

Lets keep the good form going.

If only Mata was stronger on the ball...

Bit sloppy so far - many misplaced passes.

Sloppy start but getting a hold of the game now, would like to see us score before halftime though.

What a goal by Mata, fantastic

Great finish, as ever.

42nd minute and that's the first time I've noticed Torres.

Great goal by the little magician.

Torres has been hit and miss this season. Last season when he wasn't scoring, he contributed to play very well with his link up + pressing. Whilst he has been scoring this season, his overall play has regressed as he can't seem to pick out a pass to save his life. The modern day striker doesn't just score goals now. He needs to find the right balance between scoring and assiting the team. One step at a time I guess, now Torres needs to start scoring 'important' goals - goal openers, equalisers, game winning goals etc.

Come on Chelsea, don't lose your concentration now.

I'm trying - and failing - to tie Christmas tree chocolates before my niece gets here......I'd really like 2 or 3 more goals to prevent me from going mad, thanks

Pretty nervy boxing day but all turned out okay in the end. Merry Xmas blues.

Not a good performance from what i saw. Got the win though, which matters most of all.

Not even sure who we play next...

Norwich away is a hard fixture, they already beat Man Utd and Arsenal this season, so the 3 points was the main thing. I thought the performance wasnt too bad either, they defended well but we had a decent amount of chances and probably should have got another couple of goals, again the lack of a striker who can bang in goals is a problem again. We need to buy someone in January, having Torres and Sturridge only is just plain stupid. Noticed we are linked with David Villa now who i think would be a decent purchase.

We looked comfortable and Norwich never really threatened us, part from a last minute chance by Bassong. In the premier league teams are always going to have chances though, 1-0 isnt a safe result.

Getting that second goal is always the key and do often we don't. Lucky we didn't need it today.
Big game Sunday.

£12m for Villa would be mad. He's too much of a gamble after his injury.

Hi fellow Chelsea fans, Haven't been on the forum for a while so thought it would be a good idea to catch up with everyone and share my thoughts on a few things at the club:


- Didn't agree with the Di Matteo dismissal. Why give him the job of they didn't really want him, but that's how Roman works isn't it.
Wasn't overly please with the Benitez appointment either but as with every other manager will support him in the role and the team.


- Did the team really want to win the Club World Cup? Corinthians totally deserved it on their play. It would have been nice to be known as World Champions.


- Piazon should be playing more. In those few minutes against Villa he certainly impressed. Potential top talent there, Shame he missed his penalty but a good showing in general.


- Note to Rafa. Please take both the Carling Cup and Europa League seriously. They are both winnable competitions and it would be nice to win the Europa League and do a European double.
The team has been given a second chance in Europe. Don't necessarily agree with the fact that teams that get knocked out of the Champions League should be able to compete in the Europa League but while that opprtunity is there, please put every effort in to winning it.


- In regards to the Transfer Window. If Falcao wants to stay in Spain until the Summer, let him. Don't annoy him to the point where he would ultimately refuse to join the club. Think we are the frontrunners to get him but as mentioned let him do what he wants. If he really doesn't want to move until the summer don't force him to.

Also leave Lukaku at West Brom. Let's face it he isn't going to get many games at Chelsea and he wants to stay there and play more. Let him do so.

As Sturridge is pretty much going to Liverpool though the club does require a couple of additonal strikers. Villa would be decent if her can be acquired fo under £10m or on a loan deal. He's mates with Nando and Mata and most likely has a good relationship with Benitez too. Should be pursued to see if he can be acquired.

Think the club should focus on getting Schurrle from Leverkusen. Looks a top young talent and can definitely improve the team. Is Cavani still available also?

Also, good job Rafa for acknowledging Luiz does not want to play as a defenderm but do let Marin play and give him a good reason for joining the club.

They've played nicely recently. Keep it up Chelsea Football Club.

Agree with most of your points there, but i think we need Lukaku back if Sturridge is leaving, either that or we need to buy 2 strikers in January. Lukaku would give us a different option to Torres and i think he would get enough game time. Look at all the other top clubs. Man Utd have RVP, Rooney, Hernandez, Wellbeck, Man City has Tevez, Aguero, Dzeko, Balotelli, Real Madrid has Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuian, Barca have Messi, Villa, Sanchez,

Who do we have? Torres and Sturridge only, and Sturridge is leaving. Competition for spots is healthy and right now Torres is only playing for us because we have noone else. We need some strikers badly at the moment.

I dont know enough about Schrulle but he seems to be highly rated, and i agree Villa would be nice as a stop gap if we cant get Falcao until the summer. A loan deal for Villa would be pretty good for us IMO. Falcao should be our number one target though, pay the £50m Roman, as his value is only going to increase IMO. I think Demba Ba for 7m is good value too if we arent going to break the bank.

Everton tommorow is going to be a massive game, if we can get the 3 points we will be in good shape for getting back to the top of the table. We arent going to win the league but if we can catch up with the top 2 and put a bit of pressure on Man Utd and City i would be happy. Obviously need to push on and win the Carling cup now we are in the semis. Im not too fussed about the EL, thursday night games are never ideal, will only add to our fatigue. I would give fringe players a go until we get to the quarters / semis.

The thing about Lukaku is he's alreafy said he doesn't want to come back to the club and not play regular first team football, so if we were to bring him back we would have to play him on a regular basis, wihich may upset Torres and Benitez obviously won't want to do that.

I would like to see Lukaku back but not if he's just going to be bench warming behind other players.

We seem to be receiving about £12m for Sturridge, obviously once other parties such as Man City have received their share we should have about £10m of that left. Chelsea should use that to try and get David Villa. If it really isn't possible then focus on Schurrle. Strikers should be the main focus of this transfer window but wouldn't mind some extra defensive cover also.

As stated don't think we should go after Falcao until the summer. He's made it clear he doesn't want to leave Spain in January and the club should respect that. If they try and force it too much Falcao could easily just state he no longer has any interest in joining Chelsea.

Obviously Man City and Real Madrid want him also, but Falcao has no guarantee about being the Number 1 strker at City which he would be at Chelsea, and don't think Atletico would want to sell to Real. We surely have the advantage we just need to keep a form of communication in place with Falcao to ensure he is happy with the sittuation regarding the transfer.

Obviously in regards to the Europa League it's not ideal scheduling, but these players are used to a European schedule it's just a day later than the Champions League. It's still a prestgious trophy and one that this squad can certainly achieve.