I thought we were poor tonight. The first half we were good and i thought we should have got a second and possibly a third. The second half was just a massive let down though. I love Mourinho but i think at times he holds the players back a little too much. There was zero effort to get the ball down and attack in the 2nd half and it was really frustrating to watch. This is Galatasaray, they ain't that great, and we were in complete control going in at half time.

I'm not the biggest fan of Ramires and Willian and in all honesty i don't think they are good enough, but i do think Mourinho needs to unleash them a bit. I am fine with defending a lead but tonight i thought it was just a bit over the top, there was no real need to go ultra defensive like that.

I am not sure if Mourinho is 100% confident in the players getting the job done to be honest and that could be why he makes us play as defensively as he does at times.

I know Mourinho did this in his first spell but not to this extent. He would let the likes of Lampard, Robben, Duff and Drogba do their stuff, i'm not so sure he believes he can do the same with the current players.

Considering he's played almost every minute for the past 3 months that's really rather terrible.

I have been saying it for a while now, if Schurrle got as much game time as Willian i think we would look a lot better in attack. Schurrle played a big part in the goal tonight. I haven't seen Willian play a pass like that since the day he arrived.

True Ninn and Bale has scored more than all the English teams put together.

Not the worst result, one of the worst places we could have gone to at this stage and we came around with a very important away goal.

The pitch will suit us better in the second leg.

That's because they cannot. The players are not yet at the level of Lamps Robben Duff etc, At the moment their stuff is nowhere near the level needed (or should be for that fact)

If we unleashed the players at the moment, it would make the media's comments about Moyes and Man Utd look like a campaign for making them and him the manager and team of the season

Ah yes, Madrid. Still amazes me how they manage to assemble those squads without any signs of a sugar daddy. A good job some people still believe all that tv money gives them a massive advantage.

It gives me a warm glow every time they fail to to win that champions league trophy.

What on earth was Czech doing time wasting in the FIRST half?? I thought at the time "youll get booked." we should have buried the game not played for 0-1. Dont tell me were going for 0-0 in the return.

Sums up Mourinho's negative approach.

I not sure what people expect, This is a team that two seasons ago was nowhere near good enough to qualify for the Champions League and last season was no where near good enough to get out of the group stages (and not really that much of a tough one) and according to many we have sold our best player. We are not talking about the all conquering Chelsea of the past we talking about a Chelsea that has struggled for the last 2 years.

If you had asked me play against Barca away with 10 men or go to Turkey then I would be packing my bags to Spain every single time

This time yesterday, I'd have settled for 1-1 in the away leg. It's a notoriously difficult place to get a result, forget that Real Madrid score earlier in the season, that was a freakish score line.
Gala are a different proposition on their own ground in front of their fanatical fanes, away from home they'll struggle. I think Mourinho is quietly satisfied with the result last night, given our lack of a quality striker.
Was Cech really guilty of time wasting ? I think that was over-blown. They were trying to play at a frantic pace to get their supporters going, it was sensible to slow things down a bit and try to take the heat out of the game. The great Liverpool teams in the past used to do the same in away legs and nobody ever accused them of being defensive bores.

I have been to just about every major ground in Europe following Chelsea and after our last visit there its somewhere I would never go again. It hits you on every level of your senses.

Yes Barca, Real etc have a atmosphere but one that is set around football, There it is something else, A very very nasty one, Not a feeling that should have any connection to football.

The ref for me was not the best, Never really let the game flow and that did not help us at all.

As for Cech's timewasting yellow card, We should ask for that ref for all our games in the league, He would send the other teams keeper off after 15 minutes for 9/10 games.

A tough away game and we come away with a draw and a away goal. Its not the end of the world and a decent result, and thats all we can hope for at the moment.

Oh and you do know its only a matter of time before we have the Liverpool fans having a go at you saying such a nasty evil comment about them, We all know they played the greatest football ever seen on the planet in the history of the world

Made even more so by the player who was ousted from the team to be replaced by him.
A player with almost zero end product replacing a player who was all about end product. That is right up there with the worst managerial decisions ever made at a top club!
We might now be seeing the beginning of the end for Oscar as well. Probably to be replaced by another player who can do shit all but run up and down the pitch all day.

At the end of the day it comes down to Jose not a fan of the 'beautiful game'.
So long as his teams ground out results, he wouldn't care if English football went the way of Italian football with games played in front of half empty stadiums.
Top of the Prem and still in the CL we might be, but it's coming at a cost.

Beginning of the end of Oscar ?? Lets at least have some serious comment.
The boy has played non-stop football for two years. He needs a break.

As with Mata, Oscar has looked a shadow of the player he was under Rafa.
Why are you guys afraid to admit that when it comes to football, Jose is master of destruction. He will never change his spots at his age.
The previous few years of trying to build a new style of team based on attractive, attacking flair have now gone out the window!

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-articl...-simpsons-link

Hmmm....

No Luiz?

Highly unlikely

All helps with FFP rules i guess

Unsucessful football you mean?

Winning 2 European trophies is not good enough for you?

Not at the cost of the league.

When we was bought by Roman it was meant to turn us into a team that won league titles, not Cups(we was quite good at that already).

We are 10 years into Roman's ownership and was turning into a Cup side (not a shock really as since Carlo we never had a manager capable of winning a league title).

For us The League must always come first (or should do).

Yes we have had some great cup games and its been amazing, But come on we have finished how many points from 1st place in the last two seasons? With the level of the league for the last two seasons and 8 years of Romans investment behind us we should have walked the last two league titles.

If City win this years title (and I think they will) we will only have one more title then them and we had the investment for nearly as twice as long (from memory). That for me is not good enough.

Its about time we started to mirror Man Utd and win titles. We have had the tools

i agree!
However, as usual, my whole argument is about how we're going about it under Jose.
Top of the league and still very much in the CL. However, for me this is a very strange season.
It doesn't feel like the other years when we've been challenging for the title. What we are watching shouldn't be anywhere near good enough to challenge for the title, let alone win it.
As for us following Utd's example?
They always wanted to at least try and play good, attractive attacking football. The quality of the last couple of years has dipped from them, but it was bound to sooner or later.

We cannot at the moment getting bogged down with how we do it at the moment.

Its not felt like other years because we have had years of mismangment from the board and avarage managers (AVB,Rafa etc). We are not good enough to win the league and yet we are in with a shout and thats my point about the last two years, We not been good enough then but we have had more chance of the media giving JT a award for his humanity work then winning the league. Even playing awful football we should be around 1st place. We have not been because we have not even been playing awful

Man Utd got to the stage where they tried to play good football by having one man in charge and everything running though him. It was being stable that got them to that stage. We have never even tried to be stable. Lets try it now (for the first time) and see where it goes, Not get bogged down going on about our style or what the media say about us.

We are starting from a much worse place then we did when we started our first league titles attempts

This. ^^

Seems to be story of our season, just can't finish teams off. But as JM has said all along, we won't win the League, we all know need we need an in form striker, this is nothing new and will be addressed in the summer.

Saying that, very nicely taken by Nando and can I just say, my love for Azpi is growing daily, what a fantastic player he is.