Chez

Chelsea looked more like European Champions than when they won the Champion's League. Mata and Hazard are two of the best players you will see and there were plenty of other very good players in their team to admire. Sadly admiring the opposition was all we could do second half as we just couldn't seem to get near them. Taking Morgan off killed any chances we might have of competing in the midfield, which meant 40 minutes of chasing shadows. Such is life. We've come a long way in two years, but there is a long way to go if we are to compete at that level. Boruc 6 kicking much better, although far less requirement. Throw outs really are excellent. Looks too casual to me, but better that than a rabbit in headlights. Yet to see him make a top class save. I assume he has that in him. Cork 7 given a tough game by Moses (another player I like a lot) and then Marin, but he kept fighting till then end, which must be applauded. Where on earth did he disappear to for the third goal? Why are we playing him there though. Richardson has never let us down. Yoshida 4 distribution was shockingly bad, which put us under tremendous pressure in the second half. Even with options he couldn't pass to one of his own. Didn't get tight enough either at times, but when he did he fouled. When stretched by quality strikers like Ba he does not impress. Fonte 6 pretty decent game considering the relentless attacks. The third goal went in far too easy. The injury could hurt us badly as he has been in great form. Shaw 6 very good first half, didn't seem to be able to get forward at all in the second. Guly 5 OK out wide, but when given the attacking midfield role he supposedly played in Italy he was non existent. That free role demands much more. Neither he nor Ward Prowse offered nearly enough. Might as well have gone with an extra striker and booted it down the channels. Davis 6 good first half but not good second Ward Prowse 5 putting to one side he's only 17, he didn't have his best game. I thought he not Morgan should have been subbed. Knowing that he is 17 this was great experience for him. Morgan 7 Thought he was having a very good game, our best player so to take him off when we went 1-3 down meant Adkins had given the game up. Rodriguez 7 great first half, but with no service what could he do? Made a lot of runs and perhaps tired himself out. Needed help us there. Maybe bringing Lambert on and going long would have been better than adding de Ridders non pace. Jos - won everything in the air. I' confident he will do a job next week now we need him. Time to get behind the lad. de Ridder - usual busy stuff that led to nothing. Game was done by the time he came on to be fair. Lee - he is not a right midfielder so why bother putting him out there? Get Reeves on and give him some more experience.

Jos looked fine at Stoke and his physical presence might work well against Benteke. Written off too early IMO.

I went to the early rounds of the FA cup when we were in league 1 and the atmosphere was non existent in those games. They at least had the excuse of a small crowd and stands being closed. Today was terrible, especially considering the size of the crowd. Not having a cop to get things started is probably to blame. Far too many tourists too. Still at least the chump next to me got lots of photos of the crowd on his ipad. Sigh.

has he ever shown any decent form ever?

"Play off hopes are now hanging by a thread"

Personally I'm more concerned with how we are going to pay for all these countless extra players you seem desperate for us to sign. Let's get a few out the door shall we?

Connelly was outstanding that day.

long kicking was atrocious and the underhit backpass showed just how slow he is

Would I take relegation if we won the FA Cup? Yes, so long as our current wage bill and BVI loan wouldn't cripple us financially. We've got our best side for years. Why on earth would you not want to take advantage of that by trying to win the cup?

I sincerely hope we put out our strongest side. When you put in reserve players not only does it weaken you individually, but because players haven't played together it weakens the team as a whole too. A double wammy so to speak. By and large most of our players haven't played every game every week. They have all been dropped or rested bar one or two. Fonte springs to mind, but centre backs don't do nearly as much running anyway.

I had a pair of those Quaser boots. A fella at SFC sold loads of them dirt cheap. Some of the better models were excellent. They were unusual because they had about 9 studs rather than the bog standard 6. Old hat these days. Hummel and Brooks (I forgot all about them) also make my list.

I don't go with that. Lambert was winning everything at the time and causing them all sorts of problems. I thought we should have taken Ramirez off and let Rodriguez try and get on the end of his countless flick ons. In the end we took both off and went with the extra midfielder. Our goal threat decreased not increased.

absolutely outstanding player, brilliant touch but also strong and quick too. Thought he was the stand out player. Credit to us for ensuring the other didn't benefit from his bursts into space. If only England could find another 1 or 2 of him.

Theo deserves massive credit for signing a professional contract with us ensuring we made £10m.

I haven't seen MOTD, but the flag went up immediately, so I assumed the ref blew for offside, was that not the case?

handling errors early doors, woeful kicking throughout and slow off his line to the under hit backpass. I'm not worried about the handling errors, but he has to sort his kicking out otherwise our problems in goal will continue.

For the first time in a long while I'm kind of with Alpine. I came away from the ground wondering exactly how we didn't win the game. We deserved to as we were by far and away the better side. We stifled Arsenal brilliantly, but equally they were terrible. Sagna and Corzola gave the ball away under no pressure time after time and they weren't the only ones. I'm not taking anything away from our own display, but they really were there for the taking (because we had done so much to win the middle of the park) but we just didn't see really go for the jugular. No idea why we took Lambert off. He was ****ing all over their centre backs. Swap Rodriguez for Ramirez and go for it. Instead we bring Ward-Prowse on for Ramirez and we take our foot off their throat dropping deeper rather than pushing on. Strange. I guess this might seem harsh/greedy, bloody hell, I went into the game worried about a beating, I come away disappointed not to have won. We certainly have come a long long way in three years. Hopefully we can continue this form and beat Villa in two weeks time. Boruc 4 forget the two handling errors, it was his terrible kicking that concerned me more. He struggled to make the half way line and put us under pressure with some woeful slices and bad clearances. How slow was he to come out for the under-hit backpass. Great throw outs. Cork 8 I hate to see his talent wasted at rightback and I couldn't help think why not play Richardson there, but he had a very good game and kept us very solid. He's top notch no matter where he plays. Lack of overlapping didn't help Puncheon, but perhaps was right for the team. Yoshida 8 Since I slated him he has been first class defensively. Distribution still leaves a lot to be desired at times, but I can live with that. Fonte 8 another very good game, although our tactics and Arsenal made it easy for him as they hoofed it long to the tiny Walcott. Shaw 8 very assured again, but with every game he offers a little more offensively. By the end of the season he might be running games from left back like Bale did for us...hopefully Puncheon 6 not his best game for me (he's set high standards), nothing seemed to really go right, but he also didn't seem to want to take Gibbs on. Did Gibbs have him in his pocket at the Emirates? He did fashion the best chance himself, but on his swinger he just put his head down and hit and hoped when tucking it in the corner was what was required. Good defensively. Very honest tracking of runners. Morgan 8 very strong game Davis 8 also a very good game. He was very composed and more than competed with their three in the middle Guly 7 another good shift working hard up and down the line. Would like to see him offer himself at throw ins, he just stands there doing nothing. Didn't really penetrate offensively, but the balance of the side perhaps doesn't need a second attacking wide player Ramirez 7 not a lot came off for him, he often tries that little bit too hard, but I just love seeing him go for things. I just get the feeling that when it all clicks he is going to take a team apart. Felt our threat decreased when he and Lambert went off Lambert 8 dominated in the air. Unfortunately Ramirez dropped deep to collect so when the ball went long he wasn't there to take advantage of Lambert's headers. Do not understand the substitution. Rodriguez with Lambert near the end would have been my preference. Rodriguez a threat when he came on. He offers us something different as he runs the channels.

aye? But you have done exactly that. Guly scores we go 4-1 up, but who knows maybe Stoke get a 4-4 draw. Guly doesn't score own goal today but perhaps they pile men forward a la Stoke and score at a different point to get a 1-1 draw. You can't/shouldn't predict the unknown.

out if interest how many times has he actually played up front in the last year?

what a great shout. Expect we'd be a long way down the queue.

I'm afraid you don't know what you are talking about.

and yet he's still much more useful between the sticks than a Gazza with confidence shot. Maybe Boruc's legs/reactions have gone as well - we have no way of knowing

sure is. What's the way out?

Gazza might be the most highly rated by Adkins and he certainly has excellent reactions and shot stopping ability if the Newcastle save is anything to go by, but he HAD to be taken out of the side when he did as he'd completely lost all confidence. The schoolboy wall organising and handling error was bad enough, but from that moment on he was routed to his line and didn't know what he was doing. His kicking selection was terrible, he came for nothing, he didn't even come to the edge of his area to collect over-hit passes, He needs time to get his confidence back, perhaps even a spell out on loan, as he simply can not be trusted right now. If he comes back it needs to be after serious repairs to his mental state. Boruc looked slow off his line against Spurs (I know that is debatable, but that's my opinion) and he may have come off his line for the first West Ham goal, but that's debatable even in my own mind. I thought his kicking was poor that day. He didn't **** up but he just hacked at things and didn't get his body in the right position. The ball went anywhere. That said, I'm not sure any of these things are reasons to drop him so it has to be the bottle/fans incident, which is crazy. I wonder what his fitness is like. He has always been a big fella so it's hard to tell. Davis hasn't been quite nearly as bad as some suggest since he returned. Compared to Gazza he has looked much more assured and the defence have benefited from that. His kicking selections have been spot on, something that could not be said about Gazza (who had lost the plot by the Norwich game) but his reactions are certainly not as sharp as they once were. He still comes, gets blocked off and flaps, but at least he comes. He has swept brilliantly behind the back four, something that can't be said of the other two. That is all forgotten though as soon as he spills something. I thought the Fulham `error' wasn't even the worst mistake in that goal and I feel the second goal at Stoke wasn't a mistake at all (again my opinion). He did flap at times, but I've seen pretty much every keeper do the same against SToke. Keepers come for things there that they wouldn't normally because defenders are being beaten by Jones/Crouch/Huth etc. I think he'll retain the jersey.