THIS! Eto'o did nothing but give the ball away when he came on. I can't stand Stoke, absolute bunch of dirty thugs . Defence is an absolute MESS. Ivan needs to be dropped from RB; start Azpi in his natural position, Luiz needs to come back as soon a possible and it's time Cole started at LB again.

Yep. Hazard wasn't particularly impressive....should have taken him off.

Good day for Arsenal.

edit: Apparently Schurrle asked to come off because of an injury.

Well the problem i have with Chelsea just keeps coming up...........consistency. It is something we have lacked for years now and i am sick of it. When we look back on this season, this will be one of the results that we will say cost us a chance at winning the title.

Shipping far too many goals. Agree the defence needs changing urgently.

Ah right, that explains it as it would have been a really nonsensical sub otherwise.

I suppose we can thank our lucky stars City didn't win. Really need a favour from Everton tomorrow though.

Can't believe 6 goals in two matches, just not good enough.

Will that make us any stronger ? It was only a week or so ago that everyone was saying how much better we looked at the back.
I didn't see yesterday's game, and have no idea why we have suddenly started conceding goals at such an alarming rate. I suppose we could put Azpil back to his natural position at RB, and try Ivanovic in the centre with Ashley at LB. But to be honest I don't think it would be a massive improvement.
I'm a big fan of Luiz, but he was making a lot of mistakes. I don't think he should be sidelined for the rest of the season though, he has too much natural talent. If Mourinho has no intention of playing him he should be sold and allowed to continue his career elsewhere, he could be lifting the World Cup in 6/7 months !

We could really do with Everton getting something out of today's game. Arsenal moving 7 points clear will start to look ominous, another 3 or 4 points on top of that and they will be difficult to catch.

Isn't Luiz injured? He'd be my ideal partner for Ramires in CM if fit. Lampard and Mikel seem a bit flimsy. Azpi and Ivanovic are both getting forward a lot more than they used to and it is leaving gaps in our defence. Have to admit I'm enjoying our attacking even though its coming at a cost. We're pretty gung ho and not at all like the Mourinho teams of old. Also a lot of goals being let in from dead ball situations which was unheard of before. It's a shame we dropped points at Stoke, but the football has been good recently, we're playing a lot better and we're still in contention. Hopefully agent Lukaku will do us a favour this afternoon as well.

Yes, I'd like to see Luiz given another chance in midfield as well. Jose does seem to have of faith in Mikel, and wants Lampard to play as often as possible to give us some much needed experience.
I do find Mikel a difficult player to judge. He does some things really well, he's very calm under pressure and can hold the ball in tricky situations. But if he wanders over the half-way line, he's done for if the opposition break. He's one-paced, and that pace is set to dead slow. If Mourinho can get him to stay disciplined and just sit in front of the back four, he might be able to fill-in at the back when Luiz is making his cavalier foward runs from CB ?

Nice that one of our managers has finally acknowledged that our strikers being so shit is a bad thing. Along with our defence being so laughable and our CM non-existent, I do wonder if our January plans will changes? Don't want any panic signings, but 1 or 2 could make all the difference for the rest of the season.

Any top players unhappy at their current clubs? (aside from van Persie)

Apparently Falcao is unhappy

On recent evidence I'm not too sure it really matters who we play at CB. Luiz was unimpressive when he was in the team, but we've not really been any better off since.

I'd like to see us kill the game off as quickly as possible against Steaua on wednesday, so we're in a position to bring on Kalas for a decent run-out.

Absolutely no chance of Falcao joining us whilst he's still at his peak, that ship has long since sailed. Knowing us we'll eventually sign him in a few years' time when he's a spent force.

How can anyone be unhappy living in Monaco on £250k a week, tax free ?

Who should we sign ? I'm saying nothing. This time last year I was all for signing Fellaini, that suggestion doesn't look so clever now.

Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but I'd take a punt on Jackson Martinez at the right price.

It looks likely that Porto will be out of the Champions League this week, so you never know, we might actually be able to persuade them to do business in January. Of course if we did, he'd be cup-tied for Europe, but that shouldn't really matter, the league has to be our main priority.

We've had a number of different managers try every possible combination of players in defence, and none of them have worked!

We now have a manager who used to be top notch at sorting things like this out, but even he's clueless at what to do now.
The answer is now abvious, and that is the players are either over the hill or just not good enough.
I'd keep Terry for a while longer, but all the others need replacing.
Just as importantly, i'd get rid of Mikel and Ramieres. Two nothing kind of players who've been given more than enough time!
Then there's shocking, almost unbelievable stat that a Chelsea centre forward has not scored an away goal in the Premiership during 2013.

So i make that at least 6 or 7 new quality players are needed over the next season or two.

Two certs, get Luk & Cortoiuse back next season them a run in the team. Cancel this if we win the PL or CL.

Prog on ITV4 tonight about The Drog

Probably not in the long run, but we need to start rotating a bit more. Ivan has been so-so lately so I wouldn't mind seeing him on the bench. And where's Bertrand? Is he still injured or something? For me, Luiz and Terry remain our best CB partnership. But yeah, you never really know which Luiz is going to turn up and that's the most fustrating part. When he's playing well he's a real asset to the team but when he's having one of his 'brain fart' moments...well...you can guess the rest.


Just lol. Is he really that slow or is he just lazy? (not sure which I'd prefer tbh). It's so infuriating seeing him casually jogging back - I can't recall one moment where he's ever made a full bursted run to tackle/win the ball back in our half. Contrast that to Ramires, who even after 85 minutes will still make a Usain Bolt-esque run to stop a counter attack. I used to be a Mikel lover but you can really see his limitations as a player at times. Ramires didn't have a good game at Stoke but he's been playing so many games lately. It doesn't help that we can't really rotate him because if we have a Mikel/Lamps partnership, we look slow and laboured.

I think it's just the type of player he is. There have been great players in the past who didn't possess much in the way of pace, but they all had the ability to read the game better than Mikel. It's probably a bigger drawback in today's football, particularly in the Premiership. I remember thinking that Tom Huddlestone would become a really top quality player, but his lack of any pace has held him back.
I really rate Ramires, and can't understand Dixon's view (above) He would be among the first names on my team sheet for his work rate alone. I think every side still needs a player of his type, someone who will work tirelessly and unselfishly for the good of the team.
With Luiz, we might have to just live with his occasional moments of madness and lapses in concentration or move him on. I suppose it depends whether you think the good outweighs the bad. He will win us games, and he will also lose us games. Hero today, villain tomorrow. Personally, I think he's too good a player to let go, but I can understand the opposing view as well.

Work rate alone is simply not good enough at the top level!
Apart from running around a lot, i don't see what he's good at!
His passing is poor so gives the ball away too much in an important area of the field. He's not a creative player. He doesn't score that many goals. He's not an all round mid field general. He's not an out an stopper and breaker up of play like Makalele.
I want top class players who excel at what they do, not mickey mouse journey men who should be doing track and field rather than playing football.

Schwarzer; Ivanovic, D Luiz, Terry (c), Cole; Mikel, Lampard; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Ba

Cech, Cahill, Ramires, De Bruyne, Mata, Schurrle, Torres.

Terrible defending again in this match, it should be 1-1.

Why is our defence so poor? Terry and Cole quite possibly past it and Luiz a liabillity. Ivanovic has been shocking in the last few matches as well. Not good, and not like a Jose team at all. I guess its not a great state of affairs when Cahill looks your best defender

Looking very shaky at the back still.

How the f**k did he miss that?!?!