We should be winning these matches its that simple. Our run in for the premier league is hellish too, we could slip out of the top 4 in this form.

Spurs at home, Liverpool Away, Swansea at home, Man Utd away, Aston Villa away and Everton at home. All pretty tricky ties IMO, especially if aston villa are still in a relegation battle.

Might not pick up very many points from those games, would let Spurs/ Arsenal/Everton overtake us.

They way we throwaway points I am now more than concerned its all going to end badly.

My stream died around the 70-something minute mark so i missed our late capitulation, although caught up with the highlights on MOTD. How come Mata was subbed? Was he injured or just another one of Rafa's inspired changes, as I wondered why there was so much stoppage time added on at the end?

Like pretty much everyone else here i'm losing the will to care anymore about this season whilst Rafa's still in charge.

Well no wonder you want Butland, Turnbull looks as motivated as a fat cat. When Reading equalised he just had a look of 'meh!' on his face! As much as i despise the dandruff freak, Hart at least shows passion and would have slapped his defenders silly.

We have enough players, there's the equivalent of two teams out on loan. Some of our club's policy decisions in respect to players leave me baffled, so I don't entirely blame Benitez.

The only comfort is that our main rivals do not seem to be any better. I don't often agree with Alan Shearer, but when he said on MOTD that defending appears to be a lost art, he was spot- on. It wasn't long ago that when we were 2-0 in front, you could just put your feet up, it was game over.

I suppose you have to hand it to Man U, they always find a way to win no matter how badly they play. But codeblue was right, the title was there for the taking this season, which just makes our current situation even more annoying.

2 reasons defending sucks now....IMO

So many managers - mostly ours - say the reason for 5 in midfield is to prevent the team from being overrun. Strange how both us and Arsenal have become so dreadful in that area, despite being the only 2 teams who absolutely refuse to try any other formation. We haven't looked solid in midfield for years, meaning we always look like conceding. It makes us too easy to put under pressure, which in turn makes it harder for us to kill games off like we used to.

Managers appear to have given up on the holding/tough-tackling CM role as well. We have Mikel, but all our managers ignore the fact he spends most of his time on the pitch trying to find his head......

4th?? and what happened to the team that finished 4th last year?
Oscar should learn that its a team game. not "See who can score the flashiest goal" game.
Whats the point of bringing Ba on, only to play defensively for the last few minuits, which didnt work anyway.

We need:

Cech
Cole, terry, Cahill, Ivan
Lampard, Luiz
Oscar, Mata, Moses
Ba

Why havent we bought a Nigel de Jong type character?

Terry just cant do it anymore, and we desperately need someone to replace him. The team is lacking a Mr Chelsea.

As much as Lampard is a legend, he just cannot do that role Terry has done, dragging teams over the line, getting himself ko'd to stop a goal etc

Unf the lack of JT this season has been as much of a problem as the sheer madness of Rafa's so called managerial genius.

Lol, yes we do - I saw that picture floating around twitter the other day! So much for Rafa making us defensively stronger. He's caught the AVB syndrome - we lead comfortably for 90% of the game then we manage to **** it up by drawing or even worse losing...

I wasn't even surprised when they equalised, that is how bad it has got.

Media/press etc blaming bad results on bad atmosphere at home?

Well sorry to burst your bubble, but the AWAY support was fantastic last night. Problem runs a lot deeper than disgruntled home fans.

Whoever takes over from Rafa has one tough job on his hands to turn this lot of fancydans into title contenders.

The only consolation is that Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs are just as mediocre as we are, otherwise we'd be out of the top four.

It's lucky our main challengers are cocking up as well. It was once again a case of not having a decent defensive midfielder, with their first goal Lampard moved towards his man like a snail on tranquilizers allowing him get the crucial pass away under no pressure. We need Luiz in there badly.

Why Terry wasn't thrown on at 2-1 I'll never know as well. This season has been shafted by stupid loans and allowing players like Meireles, Essien and Drogba (I know people don't agree but for big games I would have loved to have seen him thrown on) and a bunch of others to be got rid of/ loaned out thinning our squad at the worst possible time, i.e. when we had extra commitments linked to the CL win. It's been a truly punishing time for the players left - but in fact completely manageable if we'd just retained a few people.

Just bad bad decision making all round - completely screwed the silverware hunt but luckily we've got enough killer players to scrape us into the top four. Mata - what can you say, first name on the team sheet these days. I'd like to see Oscar play further up front as well he looked really dangerous yesterday.

I don't agree - with better management of the squad we would be title contenders this year.

They certainly are not fancydans.

And Rafa is hindering them more than helping at the moment.

Hazard ban will stay at 3 games.

1 to go.....

It is the correct decision.

However, i have to question the previous statement by the FA who suggested it was worth a much longer ban.

Whats changed FA?

Nothing. They're taking their cues from the tabloids and didn't expect the media to turn on them and show them up as clueless and inconsistent.

Outstanding!!! There's some people on here who aren't going to be happy about that

I thought it was that reason also.

What an organization, awful.

There is no place for Swansea's in-form attacker Michu or Chelsea striker Fernando Torres in the Spain squad for next Tuesday's friendly against Uruguay in Qatar, but Blues right-back Cesar Azpilicueta has been given a first senior call-up by La Roja coach Vicente Del Bosque.

Mata is also in.

What a pointless game, its a shame mata is involved

No Luiz tomorrow, and possibly no Cech.

Will Rafa start Ba against the club he just left? Or against anyone, really....

Probably play Bertrand left wing again to boot.

He'd better play him!

Cech Ivanovic Cahill JT Cole Ramires Lampard Oscar Mata Bertrand Ba

Turnbull Ferreira Azpilicueta Ake Benayoun Marin Torres