Novocastrian

Exactly, which is why he is Ashley's ideal manager because he won't rock the boat. No way he'll get sacked unless we are anchored in the bottom three in January.

The Portuguese commentator nearly snapped one off there!

I think this is the problem, Pardew has no system. No wonder the players are fucking confused.

Been coming.

He was already past Evans when he went down, that's why he was sent off.

It probably was a foul but Torres found the need to collapse his body and go to ground when there was no reason to. Fuck him he's a diver anyway.

Lots of perspiration, no inspiration. We can play the ball but the gap between the front two and midfield is still too big, hence long speculative balls.

Why? Was he meant to pick Evra up?

Game, set and match.

If we are just going to constantly lump it forward can we bring Shola on?

I'm having flashbacks to Allardyce here, hoof, hoof and hoof again.

£10 tickets apparently to get it to near capacity. It's almost as though some common sense has been used. It'll never catch on!

This. Even Championship teams are dong it! Wolves put out a second string and got battered by Chelsea with Torres, Mata et al!! A bit of ambition please, we can rest the big players when we really do have a fixture pile up a the end of the season. The way we are waving the white flag in the cups it's unlikely that will happen. The youngsters will get more benefit by being eased in alongside the first teamers in ones and twos, not mobbed up as a group with two or three first teamers alongside them.

I agree, but if they finish outside the automatic qualifying positions in their own country they should start at the first qualifying round. That seems fair to me and wouldn't be too difficult to organise. I also think the Europa League Champ should get a place, anything to inject a bit more life into that competition would be welcome.

Drogba is probably the single most important reason for Chelsea's success over the past few years. He is obviously not as effective as he was a couple of seasons ago but his strength, aerial power, shooting, skill and work rate meant he could be play alone up front. He didn't need a strike partner but could still terrorise defences on his own tying up both centre halves. This allowed Mourinho to deploy an extra defensive midfielder, free'd Lampard up to maraud on the edge of the opposition's box and the rest is history. I do think he is cheating more now his powers seem to be on the wane but that might just be me.

Was he taken off injured or did he make a miraculous recovery and play the whole game? Bert Trautmann played in an FA Cup Final with a broken neck.....modern football I suppose. Oh my god, he gave him a Chinese Burn! Is Puyol a man or a mouse? He'd just had his wrist stood on or something, had it strapped up shortly after.

Oh my god, he gave him a Chinese Burn! Is Puyol a man or a mouse?

Exactly, Bayern will pump them in the final so who cares, great watching Barca get put out and Chelsea will be in the Europa next season, win-win if you ask me!

That's not true at all like like. Both Ba and Cisse play best in a more advanced poacher role imo. Which is why I'm somewhat worried about their partnership. Playing Ba in a support role doesn't just diminish his attacking threat, it often results in our forward line getting detached from our ultra deep midfield. Imo the way forward is to scrap our ineffective wing play. We don't need to play each game with four full backs. Give Hatem the free role upfront and move Jonas infield. Pardew's philosophy is rigid to the maximum though and such a formation requires a lot of fluidity in passing and movement, so it's fair to say that's never going to happen No way Ba is a 'number 9' lead the line type player. He is better dropping off and foraging in the final third. Just because he has a knack of getting into the box on the end of crosses, deflections, rebounds etc doesn't make him a poachers, it's more to do with timing and an eye for goal. He'll be much better with someone slightly ahead of him occupying one or two of the centre backs while he probes and makes runs.

Never been his biggest fan (has anybody?) but just recently he looks fit, strong and confident. I'm not suggesting he displaces any of our other strikers (at least not the ones that actually score goals) but credit where credit is due.

Exactly! Like Ginola losing the ball at the corner flag, nothing to do with the other ten players who didn't stop the goal.

Simpson cleared one off the line 5 mins before, doesn't deserve this stick.

The worst pair of backup goalkeepers in living memory.

We are missing Steven Taylor far more than Ryan Taylor. Raylor is a solid utility man who can put a shift in, in numerous positions. He isn't even the best player we have in any of those positions, bit of a strange comment from Pardew. Sounds like he was just trying to play the old 'we are missing player X,Y,Z' to cover his arse from the shambolic defensive display.

Who said that?