I think Mata was much better than Silva last season too. Chelsea would've ended up worse than Liverpool without him.

I think Mata is the pick of the bunch.
Can you guys imagine if we had picked up him instead of Gervais? Cazorla, Mata and Wilshere in the same team? 🙁

Cazorla is the best of the lot in terms of pure talent. Mata is clearly the most accomplished player though.

Haven't voted as i avoid watching Chelsea but trust your opinions about Mata being the best

Did we ever get to the bottom of the Mata signing fiasco? We had a deal in place and what happened for Chelsea to get him? Did we dally on to long to finalize (a la Ramsey) to get dispossessed, or did we not give him enough money?

As far as I can tell, we offered agreeable terms and then they weren't agreed because Chelsea came in and offered significantly more.

It sounded from Spain like he and his dad were convinced he was coming here. I'd like to read these things in Wenger's autobiography. "On Mata, we were a little short"

If you read between the lines, they played us for suckers.

I don't personally see that there's much between any of those 3.

Different players:

Carzola and Silva are capable of running the game(in other word make the TEAM play better), Mata can't.

However Mata is by far the most productive going forward.

I think it's fair to compare Carzola vs Silva or Mata vs Michu.

Nope. Not compared to the level he was at when he left us anyway.

Mata was on Fabregas's level when the latter left us. Fabregas's last season wasn't spectacular to be honest.

Only Iniesta is better than Fabregas.

Tony Montana wrote:

Xavi and Busquets?

Tony Montana wrote:

Xabi Alonso?

Flat Cap Wanker wrote:

Only Iniesta is better than Fabregas.

Have a suspicion that Alonso is done at top level.

Well, he might go to PSG come think of it. They could use him and it would give him a few more years in Champions League. But no top club in England or Spain is going to touch him next summer.

Ron Burgundy wrote:

Cazorla, Mata, Silva. In that order.

Yes. I expect Cazorla will get over his form hiccups and figure this league out, think there's a whole lot more to come from him.
Already I think he's had more of an impact than either Mata or Silva in their first seasons plus he's got the added challenge of playing in an unsettled, clearly troubled team.