anyone remember the David Silva assist to Edin Dzeko two seasons ago? Forgot it was either against MU or Spurs.
I rate Mata as high as anyone really. If he's not as good as some of them, i'm pretty sure he will be.

one of mata brilliant moment in the game.

no douth his pass vision is one of the best in chelsea.

we should start with 2 striker next match against Sunderland on Thursday, hopefully Mourinho will give chance to Ba, he did really well against Soton...

2 strikers?4-4-2? Since when chelsea has become Malaysia / rajagopal?

If tactical changes during the game to 4--4-2 i can accept..but not during d start

pity Hazard wasted that chance, would be some assist though.

Based on my observation, if both Mata and Oscar start together one of them will tend to be just average. None of them can work on the right nor left ala Hazard/ Willian. Next match probably can rest Oscar and let Mata dictate from center, Hazard as usual on the LW and Willian/ Shurrle on the RW.

the weight of the pass was perfect.

to execute something like that while half volleying is....holy shit.

How was oscar injury? there is a big chance that mata will start on thursday and maybe ba will start in one of those matches this week, ba physical build and playstyle (glued to defender) come in handy vs defending team.

I almost deleted my comment after 14 seconds!

For once I think Mou is wrong because Juan Mata passing and vision is better than Oscar's.

I hope we beat them at Emirates soon!

Dave.

LFP AWARDS

Best Player: Messi
Most Valuable Player: Ronaldo
Best Midfielder: Illarramendi
Best Defender: Ramos
Best Coach: Simeone
Best GK: Courtois

Our future GK!

we never know our future.. maybe he dont want come back

According to reports..we alrd offerd contract extension till 2016 and Mou ask him to be back at bridge next season to challenge cech.

But he is stalling the deal coz don want to be on the bench. (cant blame him)..dont forget cech is only 32 next year.. that is a minimum of 3 years of good football left on him if he can stay with current level.

imho i want him to stay but very very difficult.
Worst is we need to cash him...dont forget he cost only 5 mils last time. That's pretty handsome opportunity even if cfc sell him minimun like 20mil (de gea cost united around the same if im not mistaken).

Dont get me wrong..i want thibaut too but .....

Well said bro. Cech still has a few more years in him. It will be very hard to Courtois to challenge Cech. Courtois don't want to be benched as well (World Cup coming), he will want to play and perform and established himself as Belgium's number 1.

UNLESS, one day, Cech wakes up and feel, 'I've won everything with Chelsea, EPL, FA Cup, Carling Cup, Europa cup, Champions League. It's time for me to seek for a new challenge somewhere else.' If this feeling comes to Cech, he might push for a transfer, like Drogba, Cech has gave us everything in his career, I would not be surprise if he seeks a new challenge. Unless this happens next season, I don't see Courtois being our number 1 GK.

From a report that I read, Barca is aiming for Cech's signature as Valdes is going to retire soon.... more over, now, he's injured... if the opportunity comes knocking, I won't be surprise to see Cech switching side.... La Liga provides plenty of new challenge for Cech.... If, Cech make his move, then Courtois will start for Chelsea.

He did mentioned this himself before this season iinm. The prospect of leaving CFC is in his consideration. I won't be surprised if this is his last season.

Then let's hope he end his career in Chelsea on a high note. Champions League and EPL double!

Felt a bit sorry for the bison when he came off. Apart from that horror no-look back pass and a couple of giveaways in the first half, I thought he did quite okay. Still can’t get my head around the introduction of lamps though. His pass out to mata which lead to our second goal was neat, but not something say, someone like KDB isn’t capable of.

Star of the show was without a doubt, juan mata. He tracked back well, but imo his tackling is still nothing to write home about. However when it comes to making the team ‘tick,’ in an attacking sense, nobody else in the squad even comes CLOSE. His perfectly weighted first time pass out to hazard from the halfway line when we were leading 2-1 and on the counter, is a perfect illustration of what juan can do, and the others can’t. Ecstatic that he completed the full 90 mins, almost expected jose to pull him out at some point.

Ba has always been one of our unsung heroes, and he really looked like a leaner version of the drogs in the second half. Saints defenders just couldn’t handle his strong and aggressive hold-up play. I still remember when he came on, he immediately took down a long punt from petr out of the air with a classy first touch, then proceeded to lay it off to nando, effortlessly. We would be fools to kick him out in January, and I for one believe we couldn’t survive by just relying on nando and eto’o firepower this season. He’s been severely underrated (and underused, yes I’m looking at you Jose) by many, but we don’t need to look too far back if we want a reminder of his class. My favourite case in point is his spectacular double which kicked utd out of the FA Cup during the last campaign.

Ramires as we all know can cause hell when he’s unleashed further up the pitch, and he put in a delicious cross which gave ba the goal he richly deserved. Very solid overall. Hazard was ‘okay,’ made some dangerous runs and pegged the saints back with some direct running, but we all know he can do so much more. Let’s hope he rediscovers part of the chemistry he had while playing with mata.
Now that oscar’s out, it’s a fantastic chance for juan to shine. The Brazilian will probably be reinstated once he fully recovers, but by then mata should’ve been given a good run of games to force his way into jose’s good books. The gaffer’s favourite number 10 was unfortunate to get injured, and he deserves a good rest imo.

JT and Cahill weighed in with two absolutely crucial goals, and I loved the latter’s technique to spin-around while falling backwards, to head the ball in. Couldn’t do anything about the one we conceded, but boy were they on top of their game vs osvaldo and co. Same goes to Iva and Azpi, they practically bullied Southampton’s attackers for the majority of the match. Special mention goes to nando, I thought he looked really lively, making some quick dribbles and winning free kicks. Should’ve gotten an assist as well when his deflected cross fell to Oscar, who was unmarked in the box.

Next up is Sunderland. Some hope for a KDB cameo maybe? Hmm perhaps poyet will give us a hand..u know..being an old boy and all