Don't know. He played against us in the Super Cup last year, but I'd be surprised if it happened in the CL if we have a say in it.

I seem to remember Morientes playing and scoring for his loan club Monaco against his parent club Real Madrid in the CL some years ago, so i'm not sure what the rules are regarding prohibiting loan players from playing against you in Europe.

I'd rather loan Courtois to Barcelona than Cech since he's already in Spain only if he really wants to go. If he can establish himself as their number 1 goalkeeper, we either make loads of money selling him on or get an even more experienced CL quality player back. At this moment in time I rate Petr higher and he has PL experience.

Yep i think thats along the line of what we thinking at the moment.

We already have one of the top goalkeepers around and it be pointless to get rid of one of the best with one of the best just because of age (I know thats some fans obbesion), With goalkeepers the age dont come into play quite so much.

If it came to we played Utd at the end of the season we and we get the title and its 1-0 to us and in the 93 minute Utd get a pen, There is still nobody apart from Cech I would want in goal

The problem is Cech is only 31 so could easily go on as our number 1 for 8-9 years if he wanted and he stays fit/in form.

Are we really going to have courtois out on loan for that length of time? would be a pretty amazing loan if so, and he would be close to his 30s then. And Would Courtois be happy with that, he could quite easily sign for someone else on a free at the end of his contract(whenever that is?)

His contract runs out in 2016. Presumably we'll look to renew by next summer as we won't want it running down to only a year left.

Really looking forward to the game, should be a tough test for our team away to Everton, feels like forever since the Super cup!

Eto'o starting today.


Team: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Schurrle, Mata, Hazard, Eto'o

Cech Ivanovic Luiz Terry Cole Ramires Mikel Schurrle Mata Hazard Eto'o

Schwarzer Essien Lampard Cahill Oscar de Bruyne Torres




Howard Coleman Jagielka Distin Baines Mirallas Barkley Osman Barry Naismith Jelavic

Robles Heitinga Oviedo Deulofeu McCarthy Gueye Stones

Yep, nice to see Mata starting. Good line-up.

Mikel, meh. Mata should be fresh since he wasnt involved in international duty. Eto'o up front just shows how much confidence he has in Ba/Torres to do the job... none.

I quite fancy oscar starting further back in a midfield role and see how he gets on, maybe not the day to do it(Everton away), but i dont see why we shouldnt try it when we are playing at home.

Man City dropping points and looking poor again.

Just noticed - no Willian

Watched Spuds instead of City....they're looking good. Not title challengers, but still entertaining.

FFS.

Wasteful first half. Mourinho will be laying into the players at h/t for sure.

Yep, we should be winning this.

Chances not taken and look what happens!

Eto'o lacks sharpness

No Willian is odd, must be injured. Youd expect him atleast on the bench.

Yeah poor first half and Jose diddnt look happy through the majority of it. Very wasteful. Etoo has looked a bit off the pace, slower than he used to be but does look hungrier than Torres has ever looked which is a good thing.

Schrulle has been disappointing as well, wasteful and created nothing.

I don't really see who he'd replace among the subs, nevermind in the starting team? De Bruyne, Oscar and Lampard are all worthy of a place on the bench at the very least. Just sums up how pointless a signing it was really, unless we suddenly pick up a stack of injuries in midfield.

Strange how Essien makes it onto the bench ahead of van Ginkel, Ba and Willian, yet, he was the one left out of the Champions League squad.......

Oscar and Lampard coming on for Schurrle and Mata.

Well, that was a load of bollocks.

^^ that

Very poor, if anything we should have lost 2 or 3 as they had a lot of great chances at the end and we created pretty much nothing.

Very disappointing, should be doing better.

That's only the squad for the group stages though, isn't it? Presumably Mourinho thinks we wouldn't really need to call upon him, with it being a pretty straightforward group (on paper).

Disappointing stuff today, but then we haven't looked great in any games so far, apart from little spells in the first couple.

On the plus side, Eto'o looked more lively than Torres ever does. Probably take him a few matches though to get properly up to speed with playing at this kind of level again.

Well that was hard work, we were poor, but tbf Everton played well!

Personally, i'd have played Luiz in the holding Midfield role (not Mikel). And played Cahill at CB with JT.

At the very least that should have been one of the changes in the 2nd half. Mikel definitely should have been subbed off.

I can't decide if Eto'o *genuinely* looked good, or just looked good compared to the options we've had since Drogba was at his best....?