Hahahaha. Guess I was wrong to hope for the best. It really is 2 steps back whenever we move forward eh.lol.

Anyone noticed iva's pussy attempt at clearing his lines?bah. Guess we shouldn't be surprised.

Welcome to chelsea's youth development plan btw. Wait til we're royally screwed at home,then you can play the last 5 minutes and pretend you have a bright future here

Still a million times better than jose's favorite number 10 oscar

I just hope Jose puts in a 'courtesy call' to ranieri (with him being our ex-manager and all that), so his team doesn't humiliate us too badly. Haih.

If anyone read jose's post match interview,I have to disagree with his stance that we'll "never be fighting relegation, no chance,yada, yada.."

Say what jose? Emm did you misplace your reading glasses or something? I think this is exactly the kind of 'arrogant' attitude we need to avoid,in order to survive this season.

Stop with the misplaced overconfidence,because there's sure as hell no room for that this season,we need to stick a friggin' 5 x 5 metre poster highlighting our team's current position in the dressing room in big bold red letters,so everyone is made aware of how serious the whole situation is.

Never battling relegation..oh please jose. Please stop. That's the last thing the players AND fans need to hear right now,because we need to accept that's what this season is turning into. The sooner we accept that the better. Stop the delusional talk of a top six finish in public, save it for the dressing room until we at least reach the upper half of the table. There's no shame in admitting we have an extremely serious problem,and we're now reduced to battling the epl basement dwellers. Deal with it. Enough sugar-coating because because we're not fooling anyone.

Of course not to the extent of declaring 'yes we're going to be relegated,' but be man enough to admit that yes,"we're practically battling relegation at the moment with our inconsistent performances." It's that proud insistence that we'll 'never' be battling relegation that bothers me.

The way I see it,we're already in a relegation battle and I'd rather we accept that horrible fact right now until we claw ourselves up the table,rather than wait till we're only left with 5 - 7 games,then suddenly realise,oh sheet we're only 3 points off the dropzone. Even if the whole team collectively sheet their pants,at that moment it's not going to help us at all.

We need to stop being in denial. None of that top six finish talk because i feel it gives the players a false sense of security. the last team that truly believed it was 'too good to go down' was Leeds, and they had some amazing players such as viduka and kewell.

I fear the way we're going about things and our seemingly confident mantra of being 'too good to go down,' will only land us in more trouble. Players like matic,cesc,ivanovic,(just to name a few) they all seem to really believe that, because its showing in their performances.

Well after a much needed win vs Porto,I'm looking forward to the leicester game,but like everyone else I'm keeping my expectations low

We looked much more incisive against the portugese hotshots,and it's worth highlighting that although there have been some teams who have given us just as much space as they did,this time we looked much more dangerous. A lot of that is down to our attackers quickly spraying passes to our wide players and not taking unnecessary touches.

The exclusion of cesc obviously had a lot to do with that,and rami as well as matic always closed down the opposition whenever possible. Taking into consideration costa could've easily netted a hattrick,his drastically improved movement off the ball helped him get into those positions and he must keep at it vs the foxes.

However I must point out that 90% of what oscar did could've been replicated by kennedy,and his passing and creativity is still way,way off the mark.

After our last home disaster in the league,this is a must win game,there are no two ways about it.

Kudos to all of the hardcore fans here who have kept up with all our games this season,no matter what. Yes we get pissed,annoyed,etc,and let it all out here,but in the end we all just want what's best for the club.

Let's continue following this shockingly bad and weird season!!

Sigh..of all the teams to draw. Oh well. A chance for revenge I guess 😜

A few points that I'd like to bring up:

-What happened to the team that played Porto?

-Why was oscar only taken off after 65 mins?it was clear he was useless. Shouldn't even have started.

-Remy's reluctance to take a shot all points to his lack of confidence and Jose will probably ignore the goal,focusing on his missed opportunity instead of the goal to keep him on the bench.

-Our passing was disgraceful,azpi's near zero ability to cross with his weaker foot epitomises our embarrassing 'hoof and clear' tactics throughout the 90 mins.

-The fact that we had a towel ready at leicester's end every time we had a throw-in near their area,embodies EVERYTHING that's wrong with the team. £200 mil++++ worth of attacking talent on the pitch and we play bloody long throw-ins with a BLOODY TOWEL ready, while pretending drogba's leading the line. 99.9% it comes to nothing and we end up losing possession yet jose insists on this 'caveman' football tactic.

-Willian had a stinker.

-Matic had an even bigger stinker.

-Who coaches this team and is responsible to get them out of this rut?that's right. No two ways about it,after the amount of matches we've had,everything now lands firmly at the feet of the manager.

- Same squad,same players utilised,and what was most disheartening is the fact that we had a terrible first half and continued in the same vein for much in the second 45. That to me,personally,looks like a coach who's run out of ideas and doesn't know what to do with the team anymore. We didn't come out fighting,and really played like RELEGATION CANDIDATES. Now that is a HUGE cause for worry.

-Ivanovic oh ivanovic. Can't defend to save his life anymore,but can't put the ball in the back of the net from 3 yards either. Keep him in the team of course,that's the jose way.

Now I won't claim to know how exactly roman's mind works,but I would hazard a guess he'd be keenly observing how jose tries to bed in the younger players,given the fact that the seniors have let him down countless times already.

It's clear that he's creating reasons (I.e excuses) for not giving them a fair run and it's such a shame because I honestly believe that's one of the reasons roman has given him his undivided support.he wants to see what the gaffer does to develop at least one or two of these players and whether he will at least try to integrate them.if he somehow manages to get RLC/kenedy/traore to regularly displace the jaded seniors,he'd actually make a strong case for himself that he's indeed looking to build a dynasty.

Sadly, he obviously has a non-existent plan for anyone outside his circle of undeserved invincibles and that will count against him when roman takes everything into account to 'review' the manager's position. I don't even think we have a right to bash van gaal's tactics this season because if we had half the efficiency of their defense we would be much higher up the table,and at least he has the balls to drop underperformers and try their youngsters.

P.s: That bloody towel still gets on my nerves whenever I think about it.

He claimed we were playing with a number 10?really?on what planet does jose's favourite oscar qualify as a number 10 these days?if by number 10 he means a player who runs like a headless chicken and does nothing for most of the game then we have at least half a dozen number 10s in the team!


I think the catalyst for roman to ditch the 'nice guy' routine would be when the hardcore home support turns on him and judging by the away end's tune this morning,it won't be long until that happens.

Did you listen to his post-match interview?he now feels 'betrayed' by the players. He's literally gone full circle now,from blaming the board,to the physios,to the referees,to the FA,to the press,to the pitch,and now he's back pointing the finger at the squad.

I'm kind of on the fence about the whole situation,but one thing's for sure if roman gets the dusty(by his standards) axe out,I'll fully understand why. In fact I respect and i'm quite impressed by how patient he's been.

Overhyped and massively overpriced,don't want him. Oh and does he trackback like a headless chicken in defense?if he doesn't, in about 3 months Jose (if he's still the manager) will deem he's not good enough and we’ll end up selling him for 1/3 of his value.

First thing I'd love to see is him following through with his declaration that players are at fault for this disaster. When he proceeded to give loftus cheek a start vs villa and kenedy at leftback (can't remember the opposition), I was jumping for joy,because I believed this is the way he's finally starting to do things differently.there were supposed to be bruised egos all around,with senior players chomping at the bit to get back into the team.

Unfortunately,that change never happened for more than the odd game or two,and jose will revert back to the very players who've lost their way. I think certain seniors have sniffed this out and are quietly confident jose is all bark and less 'bite' with his empty threats,hence they're not afraid of putting in successive pathetic performances. At the end of the day,the gaffer's too afraid to drop them for more than a match and his stubbornness isn't hard for all to see. Iva's instant return to the team when he got back from injury is a clear example of a player who's practically 'betrayed' jose from day one,yet would worry more about catching a cold rather than being dropped from the starting 11. Just look at his embarrassing attempt at a 50/50 challenge that lead to bournemouth's goal. If that's not betrayal of the highest order I don't know what is mate.

But the important question probably being murmured in hushed tones around the dressing room Is,"what makes these untouchables so special?"what gives players like Iva,cesc,matic,costa,hazard,etc, the divine right to start practically every game without others getting a look in when results have shown their not cutting it. This is quite possibly the biggest issue tearing at the heart of the squad,which all points to undeserved preferential treatment and certain players taking advantage of the whole situation. They just know jose will recall them for the 'big' games,and they practically have nothing to worry about.

The hardest question which is probably making the board sweat bullets is whether jose's capable of turning things around before season's end. If he's given that much time,will we end up relegated?right now that looks a real possibility because I sense some players have stopped responding to his methods for whatever reason.

Therefore the relegation 6 pointer (who knew we would actually be using that term ) game vs sunderland will be a do or die for us this weekend. Jose must follow through with his declaration that certain players have betrayed him,and drop them from the matchday squad altogether.

Hard to put a finger on it. As the season progresses we might discover who actually plays 'better' without Jose. As someone rightly pointed out costa and cesc still look mediocre.

Is it possible for ALL the other 8 outfield players to betray Jose?sorry I'm not buying it. What I do notice is that we're playing with a bit more freedom,and getting more players into the box when we move forward. Something we definitely weren't doing under jose.

Suddenly it's 3-1,and it came from our left hand side,patrolled by azpi,one of the ex-manager's most trusted players.

Remy and mikel involved!!!!!!! Woot wooooootttttt lovin it

Haha yep that lobbed pass was so effortless!

Hiddink needs to reevaluate the zouma and JT partnership,looked really shaky in the second half.

Both goals which were conceded are surely contenders for the 'most ridiculous' this season,especially the one given away by matic. Brain fart of epic proportions,and oscar just had to slip for the pen didn't he. Guus still has TONS of work to do to revive this squad, but there were positive signs,particularly in attack.

For starters,we seem to be cutting down on the panicky clearances, and there is a bit more emphasis on keeping the ball on the ground when we recover possession. Mikel illustrated this very well,and I think he had a great job in the second half,chipping in with some timely interceptions and forward passes. We seemed to really dominate watford's midfield when he came on,and I think this was exactly what Guus intended.

Costa recovered his scoring touch with two fine goals,but u just knew he had to mess things up by getting booked. Typical diego,don't think we should be surprised but it's still friggin annoying.

All in all I feel if the boss can get Diego and even MIKEL playing well,there's still hope for our season. But as usual I look forward to watching the match at old trafford with zero expectations.

No strikers. Hmmmm. Huhu shaky start so far

What a save from de gea

Any decent player can get pass Iva these days..I hope Guus realises this soon.