Not surprised after losing today.

Well that wasn't great, awful defending cost us. Will Jose sign someone in the transfer window?

We shouldn't be conceding 5 to anyone, you can argue that fatigue played its part but we should be doing better than this.

Its not the end of the world, theres still a lot of games to be played and the title wont be decided by this game.

As said in earlier comments, not enough change to the starting line up, not enough rotation and the same old formation. Decent opposition have Chelsea's number and know what they are going to do and when:

- through ball to Costa from Fabregas - check;

- no decent attempts on goal from Willian or Oscar - check;

- relying on Hazard to work his magic - check;

- relying on Matic to cover the back four - check;

..

I'd have brought Ramires in a few games ago, played with two strikers for a change and generally utilsed the squad more and varied the formation.

Man city are on a fantastic run of form and have virtually played a different starting line up in the last 10 games at least. Some of that has been forced on them, but it's working.

This is a wake up call for Chelsea and imo it's about varying the side more and varying the formation every now and then. If they don't do that, then barring a cave in from city, Chelsea won't win the PL this season.

There were other factors today such as not pressing in front of the back four. For once, Matic had a poor game, but can you blame him?

Overall though, not enough change as said.

Zouma should get a few games at CB. Cahill has been reckless in recent weeks.

Also, Remy is this seasons Ba. He's there only to make up the numbers - the manager doesn't trust him at all.

Some woeful defending tonight, coupled with a bit of complacency in my opinion. I thought it was only a matter of time before we got punished using Matic and Fabregas in the pivotal roles in a 4-2-3-1. It has worked when we were controlling the game against weaker teams, but Spurs looked a yard quicker than us tonight. There was too much pressure on Matic, and he was dragged out of position all the time.
I think we have to decide on three from Hazard, Fabregas, Oscar, Willian and Schurrle, then bring in a partner for Matic for away games, and home games against decent teams. Either that, or revert to our old 4-3-3.
We probably do need to look at our CB pairing, John Terry is still fantastic at reading the game, but he needs some young legs alongside him. Cahill is usually solid, but his reactions are sometimes a bit slow.
I'm not too surprised about Man City closing the points gap, they've just come to the end of a remarkably easy run of 5/6 matches. I was more or less expecting them to be level by Jan 2nd. It won't be so easy for them from now on, so I'm not too worried.
Anyway, I never believed we were as good as some of the pundits were making out, but I still think we're good enough to win the title in another weakish year in the Premiership.

But for Franks goals, weed still be 7 points clear, clanger or what? MC may be entering a harder run, but theyve got injured players to come back, & they dont have 2 tough games with Liverpool & perhaps Spurs in the C1C. wonder who will play V Watford.
Let me guess who will score against us on the 31st.

You're very keen on pointing out Lampard's contribution to City, but seem to be overlooking the fact that if he was still at the club it's highly unlikely we would have been able to bring in Fabregas too due to wages/FFP. Who would you rather have? It's a no brainer for me that we made the right decision.

Yep I agree with this. I'm not particularly concerned with City closing the points gap considering the run of games both teams have just had. Still very much advantage us based on the fixtures left to play. Probably a good thing that we've got a bit of a break till the next league game, a few can sit out the Watford game and recharge their batteries.

It certainly looks that way, which is a shame as he's done quite well when he has actually played. I couldn't understand the logic of not bringing either him or Drogba on yesterday.

Was Schurrle injured too? I know his lack of consistency is frustrating at times but I'd rather have him coming off the bench than Salah any day of the week.

Yes, but look at City's games over that period. Since a difficult away game to Southampton on the 30th Nov, they've had Sunderland (a), Everton (h), Leicester (a), Palace (h), West Brom (a), Burnley (h), and Sunderland (h). All those are relegation contenders apart from a struggling Everton.
I'm not complaining, we all play the same teams at some time or other. But (on paper) it was a dream December fixture list for them.

If the manager doesn't trust a player the club should sell him. For me, Remy has been very good when asked to come on, and would pose some new problems for the opposition.

It's difficult though, isn't it ? Wouldn't we all be complaining if Costa was being rested unnecessarily ? Costa is clearly our number one, even when he's not scoring he brings so much more to the game than most of us expected. Drogba has played well coming in as a replacement, or coming on as a substitute..even lasting 90 minutes a couple of times. It's hard to see how Remy would justify a place unless we go to two up front, or use him as a winger/striker. Remy has just been unlucky really, I just hope we can keep him interested for the rest of the season.

I agree that Costa shouldn't be dropped/rotated at the present time. What I mean is that Remy doesn't even seem to get much of a look in even as a sub. Last night being an example where Mourinho could have brought him on in the second half to play alongside Costa, but didn't.

I think we should of continued with Mikel in midfield. Away from home you need to help the back four.
Problem with Costa is that too often he drifts out to the wings and he is the one with the ball and no one in the centre. I would like to see Remy given a go as well.
Cahill needs a few games on the sidelines.

That's true. We are not getting the goal return that we should expect from players like Oscar and Willian. In a team like Chelsea they should be looking at getting into double figures if they appear in 40+ games. Maybe it should be a case of using Remy in place of one of those rather than as an out-and-out striker ?

Yes I was surprised that the Matic - Mikel partnership was abandoned so quickly, as it seemed to be working quite well. Saying that, I only saw the highlights of the Southampton match, so can only assume Mikel had reverted back to not being much cop again?

That would seem to be worth a shot. The Watford match is an ideal opportunity to try it.

I don't know what to think about Mikel. He had a few really good games playing alongside Matic, then came a poor performance and it looked like the old Mikel was back. Ramires appears to be out of favour, but he doesn't seem the same player he was a couple of years ago. To be honest, I think it's an area where we need to spend again. We need quality cover for Matic anyway, and I don't think Mikel is really the answer.
Same in central defence, we are a bit thin at the back. I doubt that Zouma is quite ready yet, we could use Ivanovic but would the shift around weaken us at full back ?
I'm not sure the January window is the time to make big market moves, unless Mourinho has targets lined up..it certainly worked with Matic !

Is Pogba worth the 70 million asking price?

If you believe certain sections of the media, Man Utd are preparing an offer of £77m for Pogba. If he was available, pound for pound I'd sooner have his team-mate Vidal at less than half the price. Juventus fans online say Vidal has made Pogba look good, often covering his defensive mistakes. But of course, Pogba is still only 21 years old so he has enormous potential.

1-0 Chelsea

66'

Willian Scores

3-0 Chelsea

73'

Zouma

After he made his debut for Man U u18s as a 16 year old I put a thread up on a football site saying he would save United £30 million pounds (as they wouldn't need to make a big signing).

But 70 million seems a bit high.

Chelsea advances and gets a much needed pick me up, Newcastle at home is next

Only if he is going to be paid under 45k per week

70m is just silly money for Chelsea to pay.

I can see it making sense for Utd to pay that but not for todays Chelsea.

There is no value in it.

At the moment we should not be looking to spend anything near that amount unless someone really really special comes along. We have put toghter a team of players that can challenge for titles and done so using the market in a very intellegent way, To go and spend 70m and more importantly the wages is chucking all that hard work out of the window, We have a number of players who if they get anywhere they can do we will need to give them new contracts soon (even Eden who has just signed or about to) and pay them big money.

There is just not enough value in this sort of signing for us. For a club like Utd threre is they bring in silly amounts of money and with their current team they need to invest hugh amounts of money to ensure the silly money still comes in