Yep it's a shame Schurrle didn't really build on his great performance last week. Hazard aside, our attacking midfielders do struggle for consistency. Oscar included in recent months.

With City crashing out of the FA cup and most likely the CL this week, it leaves them entirely to focus on the PL. Not so good for us...

Yea, aside from also gaining a few quid, I would of been happy to see City still in the cup.

I'm glad they're out. I wouldn't want them building up any steam, hopefully this defeat will knock their confidence some more.

Yeh, I agree. Plus, as long as Demichelis if fit there's always hope of City dropping points from these matches......

25 Mar, 19:45 Manchester United v Manchester City Premier League
29 Mar, 17:30 Arsenal v Manchester City Premier League
13 Apr, 14:05 Liverpool v Manchester City Premier League
3 May, 15:00 Everton v Manchester City Premier League

Another positive is that Arsenal will likely lift the cup - meaning a new contract for Wenger

Hopefully Barca will be up for the mid week game after their defeat in La Liga at the weekend.

It seems like an absolute age since city won the carling cup.

Rumour that PSG are going to bid 41 million pounds for Oscar. I think we'd take the money if that offer does come in.

For me, the most important thing about this season is not wether or not we win the league, but how much room for improvement there still is in our team.
No top class striker. Players like Willam, Ramieres, and now even Oscar, cotnributing very little. Shurlle is very hit and miss and who knows of he'll be good enough longterm.
Enough said about Mikel.
We've got one of the best young keeps in the world ready and waiting to join us next season.
Amazing to think we're top of the table with a team at probably 60% of what it could be.

Sell oscar?

That's the most ridiculous thing. Doubly so having sold mata.

You read too much daily mail

Oscar's been poor for a few months, but there's no way we'd entertain offers for him.

Oh dear, just oh dear

It was in the Daily Telegraph.
Also, Barca and Monaco are said to be interested as well.

I don't understand why you think selling Oscar for 41.5 million would be so ridiculous

Because if you started talking at twice that amount we have a realistic starting point (and only then if Barca chucked in at least 3 players).

Eden is for me a future "best player in the world" is a certainty and the only player who I think could stand in his way is Oscar, yes he not been at his best lately but the responsibility put on him this season by the manager has been massive and naturally has taken out of a very young player who is playing in a very physical league and in a very physical position, he was always going to suffer a form of burnout (more so with the World Cup coming up). If we have seen 20% of what Eden can do I don't think we have seen 5% of what Oscar can do

Oh dear. Now you're the one who's being ridiculous!!!!!

After a poor start to the season Edne has come on leaps and bounds. He might end up being a top 5 player of the future.
However, I think you're massively overrating Oscar!
You seem to think he could be the next Messi level of player.

Eden will not be a top 5 he will be a top one (if he continues along his current path.

I have never said he would be on the same level as Messi (or have I said the same about anyone else) as it's unlikely we will see a player like him for many many years (and even then it's unlikely) what I am saying is in 4/5 years his name will be amongst the best players around at the time (once again if he stays in his current road). A very very different type of player (Eden will be more your type of player i.e what the media wa@k over and lots of flair) but still a fantastic talent. For me he is just as important to Chelsea future as Eden

We might as well sell the lot then. Even Hazard will probably have another lean spell, and we could probably get £60m for him.
Who do you suggest we buy to replace Oscar ? Arsenal paid more than £40m for Ozil and he's hardly been a resounding success so far.
I was sorry to see Mata leave, I don't care what anyone says he is still a class act. I've accepted that he didn't fit in with Jose's plans, but it still hurts to see a player of his quality doing the business for another club. I certainly don't want to see us do the same again with Oscar.
I don't know where you think we are going to find all the replacements we are going to need. The young players we've got are highly sought-after, are you really so sure that we could improve on them ? We need a top quality striker, and we will need to think about replacing Terry, Lampard and Cole. If we also start replacing players like Oscar, Willian, Schurrle, Ramires etc, you are talking about spending £300/400m in total.

Can we really win the PL playing so badly ? (MC in the PL excepted), 4 gifts from Spuds, but overall pretty poor in the last few games, tight defence thou.

Lets take 40million for a fantastic young player (and a contender for player of the year last season), one that Jose has stated that he wants to build the team around (so much that he has sold Juan Mata as he was surplus to requirements).

Who shall we replace him with?

Oscar is currently burnt out - a result of playing so many games and putting 100% into each one.

Its a real shame the world cup is coming up, but i fully expect him to be the star for brazil. He usually is.

We have a fantastic young team that is just a striker away from being genuine league challengers. A team that could easily stay together for 5 or more years.

We should be looking at backups for Terry and Lampard instead of selling the crown jewels.

If anyone goes, i can see it being Luiz. I myself would keep him as he was tremendous with Matic when we played City off the park.

I can see Luiz being another star of the world cup and adding £20m to his value and going to barca.

Were not "League challengers" now, then?

I want us to get there playing well, not at 60% of what the team could be.

I think its more we not taking our chances or having that extra 5% then playing that badly. Yea we know where our problems lay but they not quite as bad as they have been in the past and we do seem to working at solving them.

Yes it not freeflowing stuff but we have been playing better stuff then anyone else in the league (from a whole team perfomance POV), Others are playing more pretty football then us but not getting results, Other teams are playing more attacking football then us but defense wise they are poorer.

While yes they was all major mistakes from Spurs but we still had to be in place to take advantage of them, Last 2 seasons I dont think we would have (and maybe had been a goal or two down from the 1st half)

Yes, I agree with you. We will have to make a decision about Courtois sooner or later, but it's a nice problem to have..two of the best keepers in world football on our books.
Our back four is arguably the strongest in the Premiership, and we have already signed Kurt Zouma who has tremendous potential, plus it wouldn't surprise me if Luke Shaw joined us.

We have at least partially fixed our defensive midfield problem with the arrival of Matic, and we still have Van Ginkel to return after injury. But I don't see any problem with Ramires, others may not agree. Perhaps we could look for a more creative player alongside Matic, but nobody immediately springs to mind who would be the right age and available. Then there's Luiz who always looks a natural In midfield to me, he's had some cracking games playing a kind of box-to-box role.

Our attacking midfield looks ok to me, I can't see us finding many better than Hazard, Oscar and Willian. The jury's still out about Schurrle as far as I'm concerned, but he's probably better than we've seen up to now. We've still to see what Salah can do, and then we have some talented players out on loan.

There will always be players around who might strengthen the team, but in my opinion it's all about priorities. Which brings us to strikers. We do need a top class striker, someone will keep defenders awake at night. Eto is a very streetwise player. He's versatile and will always get us a few goals, but he doesn't last more than 60 minutes these days. Torres is an enigma, sometimes you get glimpses of the player we hoped we had signed, but then it's back to normal. Demba Ba is a decent cover player, but no more. We have the option of bringing back Lukaku, I think we have to give him a chance after the investment we've made. Who knows ? he might be the next Drogba.
But it does look as if Abramovich will need to dig deep into his pockets and buy a really special player up front if he wants to compete with the very best in Europe.

We need to get rid of all the deadwood or players who will never get a game for us.

Invest all of that money into a AAA striker

the 37m for mata
whatever we can get for torres
if we will never play lukaku then sell him

It has to be Cavani for me.

I think both decisons on both of those have been made.

I am prerrty sure the striker has been indentifed and talks have at least been made, Who that is I have no idea but I think most of the work has been done.

Courtois future has also I am sure has been decided (maybe something to do with the striker situration I dont know) not sure which way it will go but either way I can live with, Cech for me has not even remotely put a foot wrong again this season and see no reason why he cannot carry on to the same very high standard next season BUT on the other hand Courtois is a fantastic keeper and would continue the very high standards of Chelsea keepers we have had for quite a few years now. Personally I would like him to work along side Cech for a season (taking over for cup games and Champions League group games etc) but not sure he would be willing to do that (and nor do I really blame him) as I think it would make him even better but as you said its a lovely problem to have

I am a big fan of Ramies as well (although we really need a song for him). Yes he gets alot of stick but players like him always will in todays game, Been a important player for us since joining us and much of the very good stuff he has done has passed by unoticed.

Lukaku for me is still under the header "future project", Has done a decent job so far at Everton but not yet quite good enough of one to be given a chance as a Chelsea starter. There is plenty of time yet for him to get to that place as long as we keep challenging him, We seem to be in a rush nowadays to put young players into the team, Even if he dont get into the first team until the season after next, It would still mean he could be a senior player at one of the biggest clubs in English and Europern Football for 5 years.

I would get rid of Torres and Ba in the summer, recall Lukaku and sign one of Falcao/Cavani/Costa. Eto'o can be a backup.

Defensive wise i think we are ok, although the Courtois situation needs to be sorted sooner rather than later. I would tell him he can stay at Athletico on loan for another couple of seasons then take him back and phase him in over Cech. Not sure he would be happy with that or not though. BBC Sport saying Real Madrid want him and have "verbal" agreement? Whatever that is. A long term replacement for Cole(Shaw?) is probably what we need, as well as a long term replacement for Lampard, who is surely going to play even less of a role next season.