After watching the boys get harshly beaten last night (Yes, harshly! Two rare Brana errors and a wrongly disallowed Ba goal), I woke up with this question on my mind: Who will start at Stoke? Roman’s blonde baby or the fans’ current hope?

Going by the eighty-one minutes put in by Fernando Torres last night, the obvious choice to start should be Demba Ba. However, if Rafa’s post-match comments is anything to go by, Torres will get the nod again. If this happens, what message will that send to the fans? Is Rafa here to assemble a starting eleven that pleases the owner or is the number reason of being in the game, competition, still topmost?

To think that Torres played his 100th game for Chelsea last night is tiresome. It reminded me of a 100 games I have had to watch and pray endlessly for one player to shine. It reminded me of endless chances I have wished we had a proper striker to finish off. It reminded me of the pain of watching us play with 10men so many times it has almost become a tradition. It reminded me of a certain night in January 2011 I celebrated the arrival of a ‘marquee’ striker who was going to fire us to our 4th EPL title.

Today, we have a proven striker in Demba Ba. His 9 minutes yesterday was far more lively than the 81 mintes before he came on. it should be a no-brainer to start him ahead of Torres at Stoke. I just hope Benitez uses his head and not his heart. We need Demba Ba because we cannot afford to slip out of the top four.

Ba should be the ANSWER!