IVANOVIC: Do you agree with Mourinho that he is our best EVER signing?

Branislav Ivanovic scored an absolute peach of a goal on Saturday to win the game and take a massive three points for Chelsea at Villa Park on Saturday. After the game Jose Mourinho hailed the defender as one of our best ever signings and I just wondered how the Chelsea fans reading this website feel about his comments?

There has always been plenty of debate about his best position ever since he joined Chelsea as let's be honest, he doesn't look like your run of the mill full back does he? You look around the league at the players in that position and you think of slight footballers that are small in comparison; fast and agile. Ivanovic is a brute compared to the rest.

He isn't the quickest, he isn't as agile but you cannot question the fact that he has made the position his own through the years. Look at Cesar Azpilicueta moving to left back for example. OK, Ashley Cole had suffered a dip in form at the time but Ivanovic was irreplaceable at right back in the managers eyes and the rest is history!

What is important is that Ivanovic offers us additional protection with his height and heading ability in defensive areas; provides us with an additional attacking option from set pieces and has the ability to score goals in and around the box as he did at Villa.

Speaking of Ivanovic after the victory on Saturday that saw Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points, Jose Mourinho paid tribute to the Serbian defender.

He said:

“Every striker in the world would be proud to score that magnificent goal. Imagine a right-back, and a right-back whose best foot is not the left one – it’s an amazing goal, especially when he scored that goal and it’s the winning goal.

So I am very happy because he is a great guy. What he is doing for us is unbelievable. The injury he had against Liverpool and played the rest of the game, played against Man City and played again today – he’s a fantastic character.

You know how the media are and the way football fans are, but I think what matters more is what we as a club feel for him and what we feel for people like John and [Gary] Cahill and these kind of guys. Without them you can’t do nothing. But a team is exactly this – a team is an artist like [Eden] Hazard, it’s a defender like Branislav. The mix and combination of talent makes a team."

When asked if he believed having signed for Chelsea for just £9m in the January transfer window in 2008, if he was our best ever signing, Mourinho responded by saying:

“I think so. He came just after I left [in 2007] and after that he made a fantastic contribution for this club.”

So what do you people think of Ivanovic? Do you agree that he is one of or even our best ever signing?

Being honest I am not so sure. I believe others have made such an important contribution to our success over the past decade or so. Don't get me wrong here, Ivanovic has played an instrumental part also and has scored so really important goals.

However, for me it's Frank Lampard for £11m back in 2001.