Have to hand it to Schalke, they deserved their point. Mourunho's gamble didn't pay off, we didn't look the same team without Costa, He should have at least started with Remy, starting with Drogba just brought memories of the player he used to be. He's a legend, but he's 36 for heaven's sake !

Disappointing but not the end of the world, still expect us to cruise this group. Schalke did deserve a point on balance but we had more than enough chances to win this.

I wouldn't blame Drogba, a few others were guilty also, but thats the way it goes in some games.

The more worrying aspect is the defence still looks very shaky, our attack has covered it up until now but the defence needs sorted and quickly. Man City at the weekend and you just cant see us keeping a clean sheet. Matic doesnt seem to give enough protection to the back four. I wonder if Ramires/Matic would be better with Fabregas further forward. Although that means no Oscar.

Starting Drogba and not subbing him off soon enough was costly to us. I wonder if Mourinho plans to start Remy on Sunday, hence trying to conserve him tonight?

Costa was never going to play so it was between Remy and Drogba. Drogba has been working with the players longer etc so it was not really a major surprise he started. Was this his best performance? No of course not but he had some decent chances etc to warrant a start. When Costa is not playing it's the responsibility of the other players to take the extra responsibility and get the goals between them.

As much as a draw was a deserved result 1-0 would have been just as deserving and we need to start getting those results again(more so in Europe).

We need to learn the basics again. If we don't start getting clean sheets soon we going to start running into problems later in the season.

A small step back today but nothing that cannot be fixed in training and players stepping up a level

Had enough chances to close out the game before they scored. All seemed a bit too casual on the night. Jose slipped up as well in the team selection. Remy should of lead the line.
Better start than last season

We had Ramires/Matic tonight ? I thought it was working ok, they didn't create many clear cut chances. In the first half they went close after a bit of individual magic by Draxler, but that's going to happen, he's a quality player.
Their goal was a result of some sloppy play by Fabregas, he lost possession to Huntelaar who set Draxler away again.
I'm not blaming Drogba, he was doing his best. I just think we would have been out of sight by half time with Costa up front. It was too easy for them with the rather static Drogba, Hazard was causing havoc but they were able to double or treble up on him. Same to a lesser extent with Willian.
With Costa's movement and his continuous pressing, I think they would have caved in. Even without scoring, he frees up space for our other players. To be honest, tonight with Drogba reminded me a bit of last season with Torres.

Dixon not been in yet? This is his first opportunity of the season to have a little rant, and tell us how useless Ramires and Willian are again.

Yep, I thought the same whilst watching the game. When everyone's fit there's just no need for starting him, he should just be used as a sub in the last 20 mins or so.

Yes, I'm not going to say a word against the guy on here or anywhere else. But (as I said at the time) I didn't want to see him back as a player. By all means give him a job with the club, that would be fantastic. But leave his legendary status as a player untarnished.
He actually wasn't too bad tonight, he gave us as much as Torres or Eto'o did last season. But we don't want to go back to that level of performance, do we ?

It was all too predictable - just like playing with Torres.

Play Costa or even remy from the start, get the goals, and then bring drogba on.

Huge mistake by jose

Start Costa and he is not playing Sunday.

A hugh mistake would be running Costa into the ground for unimportant games.

Game last.Saturday, Game last night game on Sunday game Wednesday game in Saturday game on Tuesday means Costa has to be managed or we will lose him.

Since he was ruled out Jose had to go to Remy or Drogba, Remy has not been training with us that long and has had a international recently, Drogba has been training and working with the team since day one so there was some logic in starting him.

One player was not the problem last night just as Torries was not the problem last season. It's something that needs working on and the solution is not playing Costa when we should not use him

Chelsea statement:
"Costa has a problem and he can’t play three matches in a row at the moment. If he has one week to let the muscle recover he can start a game, like he did after picking up the problem with the national team. But, after playing on Saturday three days is not enough time for him to recover."

I hadn't read that statement until late last night, but it does explain the situation. But I still think it was a poor decision to start with Drogba. It was then compounded by leaving him on for too long. We still had to bring on Remy and Costa for a last desperate 15 minutes chasing the winner.
I don't see the risk in playing Remy, it was a big gamble to play Drogba. As I said previously, I didn't agree with bringing back Drogba as a player in the first place. But that's done now and we have to make the best of it. I don't think we can use him other than has an impact sub for 15/20 minutes in games.
I agree about "unimportant games" but last night's game hardly falls into that category. We want to top the group and make progress easier, that's become more difficult now.

I never really bought into the "topping the group" stuff. Yes if we was a team of Arsenal's or Liverpool level it might make a slight difference but if you look at the groups nowadays the difference between 1st and 2nd is not that hugh and since the really big clubs are confident of going though since 2 teams go though you will see someytimes the better club (and more dangerous one over 2 legs) have come 2nd.

Choosing between starting Drogba and Remy was to me 50/50, Both could start both are capable of getting goals so you have to look at other factors, Drogba's time with the team,Defensive play and experence are all acceptable and logical reasons to start him but yes picking Remy has just as many logical and acceptable reasons, Its a tough choice but I can see the logic behind the choice.

The team picked should have been more then enough for the team that was facing us. IMO to many players did not come with their A game (some not even B). The midfield was unable to keep the ball, Some of the passing would have had our under 21's going bright red with embarrsment. Leading up to the goal when Cesc lost the ball, To many players were jogging back to get into defensive places.

If I was to to the blame on anything it was a malaise though out the team, They sort of turned up looking like they could not be bothered. It was due to more a lack of effort from players then a lack of abilty from Drogba

Drogba's only just come back from an ankle injury, so Remy will have trained more with the team since returning from international duty. Remy had no problem slotting in straight away when he came on against Swansea either, so i don't see starting last night as being too soon for him.

I agree that the blame for not winning can't all be placed on Drogba starting but it was quite a big contributing factor and something that could so easily have been avoided. I even posted before the game kicked off that I thought it was a mistake to play him instead of Remy, so the outcome really came as no surprise.

It's apple and oranges really, Yes he only came back from injury but still would have spent more time training with Jose and he would have had more information to hand what Drogba level is at then he had about Remy and Jose is they type of manager that looks at reports from his training staff and his own notes when picking a team. Former and current players under Jose will tell you that he puts great importance on such things.

As much as I can see a case for Remey starting I can Jose's point for starting Drogba.

The level of other players have been more of a concern this season more then Drogba's and I think that had more of a impact on the result then Drogba's.

If we beat City tomorrow, I think Chelsea can really run away with like league this year like United did in previous years. The only team that really concerns me is City because Liverpool, United, and Arsenal all have major flaws that need to be addressed. Hopefully a rested Costa comes up big tomorrow. City at home are always tough.

I would be happy with a point from this one. Man City have been a bit unlucky in the games I've seen. They deserved something in widweek against Bayern and were the better team agaist Arsenal.
It was a tactical master class by Mourinho in this game last season, so I'm hoping for a repeat. But the defensive errors that have crept into our game recently are a worry, more of those today and we could be in trouble.
I can't see either manager throwing caution to the wind, so I'm expecting a cagey game. I'm going to sit on the fence and say 1-1 or 2-2. But I won't mind a boring, goalless draw.

Always difficult to predict these games between clubs at the top of the Prem.. Ill agree and predict a draw..

Happy with a draw, but we could really go clear with a win, take some pressure off.

Either way, we will still be top win lose or draw.

Here is the team for today: 4:2:3:1

Courtois
Brana Cahill Terry Azpi
Ramires matic
Fabregas
Willian Hazard
Costa

No surprises then, that would have been my prediction. The only question mark might be about Azpil, Ivanovich and Luis. Luis did well in midweek and Brana was outstanding in the game against Man City last season.

Great win for Leicester, 1-3 down and they come back to win 5-3 !

And their fans moaning about Clattenburg as well. Strange that as they said he was a brilliant ref when he wrongly sent off Torres a few years back.

I watched the game, it was quite unbelievable.

Yes it was never a pen, but united just caved in afterwards (they were actually still winning at that point). Its a classic case of an unbalanced team. Great going forward, but absolutely shocking at the back.

Falcao looks far too lightweight for the league at the moment, i think we dodged another £50m bullet there.

Back on our game, I would of gone with Matic and Mikel as two holding players and pushed Fabregas further forward. Hope we don't get punished for being too open.

I know what you mean, matic and ramires have been selected - and they did great in the fixture last season, with Toure looking like a shadow of his former self.

They have a new CD starting, mangala, which could give our strikers an opportunity.