Just got back now, thought I'd share a few of my thoughts from the game, these won't be [ithat[/i accurate as I didn't get replays and the option of seeing it from the better TV angles and so on.

First thing, I thought the most obvious was no Mascherano, he protects the defence so well and he's usually one of our best players when defending against the counter attack, Lucas I thought done OK and will probably come in for some unfair criticism, he worked hard but I don't think anybody expected him to win a midfield battle against so much experience and quality.

Second thing, I thought we were very slow tonight, the amount of second balls Chelsea won was ridiculous, we were letting them play and not winning the 50/50's enough.

Last thing, and I thought these positions made the difference for Chelsea, and it's a position I feel we've lacked in for a while; the wings. Chelsea's wingers carried the ball very well, they ran with it and they weren't afraid to hold it up, beat a man then give it off to the likes of Ballack, Lampard and Drogba around the box. I thought Kuyt and Riera were very sloppy tonight, taking too many touches when getting the ball, not carrying it well enough and lacking quality in terms of service.

Overall, I thought at 2-1 the result didn't tell the true story of the game, but when they went 3-1 up, and from then on afterwards, I can't have any arguments. It's extremely disappointing to see us concede two goals like that from set pieces, though.

As for the game at the Bridge, we're going to have to play to near perfection, and Chelsea to have quite a shocker for us to pull off a 3-0 victory. I'm optimistic but seeing how well they hit us on the counter tonight, I think we'll struggle to keep a clean sheet, and struggle to break them down.

Anyone writing Liverpool off is stupid. If there is one team that can come back it's them, plus Chelsea have been pretty poor at home this season, yes I know that was under Scolari, but even so. Plus it's the anniversary week of Hillsbrough, the emotion could either work in their favour, or against them like the Munich anniversary for us.

Barcelona on the other hand... WOW. If Messi is not the best player on the planet at the moment, we may as well give up now. Superb performance even after van Bommel's thuggish elbow attack. He should've also had a penalty but Webb fooked up and booked him for diving.

For their second goal look no further than Captain Fantastic Stevie Me for blame. Awful defending.

I thought that was generally a bad team effort. We didn't look organized and I could see either Gerrard or Carragher pointing around to the others to get into position, we didn't and paid the ultimate price. That's the difference at this level, one lapse in concentration from something like a set piece and it's game over.

Left the ground thinking thats that done and dusted on the train home started to think maybe we can do it Terry out for them is huge get an early goal and you never know.

at best we were appalling tonight, skirtl had his worst game for the club, and for gods sake why does lucas still get a starting place???????????

So what's wrong with Hull City?

Answers on a postcard to Phil Brown. And make it quick.

I hope Robinho is not on the Reeperbahn tonight. He's not very good at playing away.

League 1 thread, please. There you can explain how Leeds let slip a 2 goal lead against a 10-man Orient the other night.