I thought Tit Top would of known that as he watches every game apparently.......

4th & the FA cup, Guus? well, perhaps not.

We only have to beat three teams over two legs and we're in another Champion's League final. It's been such a crazy season, anything can happen.

It's clear that the players are back on side. Matic:

'The team is playing better now, especially in the last two games. Step by step we will continue to get better.’ http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest...ble-point.html

With that in mind, Hazard to take over again as penalty taker. Oscar has been playing well, but he will never be another Lampard. Hazard off form? OK, he wasn't playing for the manager and rightly so, and for Belgium he's been scoring regularly. No problems. He's looking like the £100 million + player that he is again.

Given Man Utd's problems, I would bring back Mata to compete up front (£25 million), and make sure there are two solid holding mid fielders in the team when he plays.

And if Jose played two holding players you would be screaming defensive football.
The hypocrisy would be laughable if it wasn't you.
Why not bring Ake back as well. He's a goal scoring left back isn't he

No hypocrisy at all in that post!
Anyone with any knowledge of football would know you'd need two holding midfielders if we you were going to play the likes of a Mata, Hazard and Oscar behind a striker.

And bringing back Jose for one title was a price that was way too high to pay!

1 - Taken us into a genuine relegation battle. Unheard of for Prem champs.
2 - Completely destroyed what was being built.
3 - The team needing a huge amount of rebuilding and money spent on it to get back to anywhere near where we need to be.
4 - Unless lightening strikes twice, there'll be no CL football next, thus making it a lot harder to attract top players.
5 - The club will lose a huge amount of money.
6 - All this could mean the club being set back by years because of the mess Jose made.

Ahh but you are talking about reality.

Where what we real discussing is some sort of strange alternative reality (which has absolutely no base in real life) where we buy a player who more then likely would not want to leave for a price which the selling club would never accept.

On Earth 2 it makes perfect sense

This imaginary building nonsense is insane.

Nothing was being built apart from another a carbon copy of the the totally failure that is Arsenal.

All that was being built was smoke and mirrors.

The very modern trick of making something look good but actually nothing really happening.

Players will come to Chelsea without Champions League Football because even they are smart enough to know that even with the club missing out for a season it is more then likely be a one off and if it's not they can still move to another club. Same with sponsors, it makes a difference short term but to the long term business plan it makes not that much of a difference you just add other revenue streams to compensate

Dear oh dear Dixie. Age is catching up with your memory.
You absolutely.slaughtered Jose when he played two holding players yet now it's some sort of genius formation.
Your hypocrisy shows no bounds does it.

You really do talk like some young glory hunter. Oh for that real fan who travelled 200 miles trip was back again. We have no divine right to be successful.
Winning a title was not worth it ? Tell that to Liverpool fans like Tip Top who have not seen that trophy for over a quarter of a century.
One bad season since Roman arrived. United have had a couple, Liverpool have had quite a few. It happens and guess what, there is always next season to put it right.

A title is worth any cost.

It's the only thing that matters when you are Chelsea or City or Utd or Arsenal.

I know it's not the in thing but you don't get a trophy for finishing top 4. As it currently stands Leicester has had more of a title push then Arsenal has had in the last few seasons

Yep, winning the title is what it's all about. If it means a bad following season then so be it.

The way football is sold nowadays is that just taking part is a measure of success. They have to sell it that way as only a very small number of clubs can really win the league so they have to promote style over substance. They have created mini leagues and "races for 4th" etc

Forget winning that's a dirty word it's all about "being part of it".

Don't get me wrong, I like Mata. But I don't think he would be the answer to our prayers right now. We have Pedro who has much better scoring record, even if he did have the luxury of playing for Barcelona. Give him time to get used to the PL and I think you'll find he's a quality addition to our squad.
We could certainly use another box-to-box midfielder like Lampard. He was someone who could do everything, tackle, pass, and score goals. In many ways he was a better all-round player than Scholes. But I doubt we'll ever see the like of Frank again.

You can never replace players like Lampard.

They are at the level they are because they are one off's

What you do is you change you bring in players who offer different things that offer different strengths and that offer you different options.

Utd didn't replace the likes of Law,Best and Charlton nor have they replaced King Eric etc they bought in players who had different strengths and weaknesses but ensured that the results stayed the same. If you look at all the top teams and their real top players they all did the same.

This "we need another x" is pie in the sky dreamland talk.

Simplistic at its very worst

If being near the relegation zone is all Mourinho's fault (which it really isn't) then with over half the season still to play and a different manager we'll have no problems climbing up the league. If we don't then that just proves that the players are the problem.

Nothing of note was being built before he came back. We've been a confusing club with no real direction for a good few years now.

Matic has to put on a positive front. Whether he actually believes that we're playing better is another matter entirely. If he genuinely does and his idea of playing better is giving away a silly penalty the other day then I'd suggest he's probably as deluded as you are.

Hazard a £100m+ player? Good one. We'd do well to get £60m for him.

As for Mata, even if we did try to re-sign him (which I don't think we should) what makes you think that (a) United would sell him back to us & (b) they'd accept £25m?

Of course the interview was meant to highlight the last two games. That is the story being told but as with anything you have to take a look at the broader picture.

The last two games there has been an improvement just as there was during the games leading up to those two games, Not a massive difference but one of enough that if you take the games intermediately leading up to it to know it was more of a natural progression with the ability of the players involved.

Strikers thrive on goals so again Matic is saying nothing that is earth shattering.

Pretty basic interview that in reality tells us nothing about how the progression of the time is going.

Would not lay to much blame for the pen on Matic, It could have happened to any player at any time no matter how well the team (or the player) was playing

So the last 3 "Winnable" home games gets us 4 points?, must be worrying for the "Harder" games.

But those games would more then likely resulted in 0 points at the start of the season.

We only only take each game as it comes and judge the upcoming games as they come as you would any team that is in our current position in the league

I wouldn't say that. Sunderland is exactly the sort of team we would have won against earlier in the season too, we've already played and beaten better teams than them (West Brom, Arsenal, Norwich).

What we do against United and Palace will give us a better indication on whether we really are making any progress, and even then it'll still be too early in the new regime for anyone to be making any big proclamations.

Interesting game tonight, im not really looking forward to it though. Both teams are struggling and Utd are desperate to get out of their rut.

Going to be a dull game i feel, ill go for a 0-0 or 1-1 draw.

Man Utd v Chelsea 28/12/15

Not convinced by the team selection, although the manager's hands might be tied a bit there.

Ivanovic still at rb. He will get targeted again as a weak spot. No Rahman, and at a time when rotation is definitely needed. No Remy and no Cahill. Injuries?

Man Utd have changed their team quite a bit which could be a good thing given the last game was two days ago. They'll be fresher, although are on a very bad run of form.

Going well so far......