SinineUltra

I have to say Palmer has been a steal for 40M given the crazy market recently. A joy to watch.

The injury pattern and the way he was after the injury really resembles a bucket-handle meniscus tear. Hopefully a fast recovery!

A team like Chelsea have the best specialists in the world a phone call away. Having surgery is not a magic switch. It's a more complicated thing, hope we can agree on that.

If only Kevin Gameiro was 6 years younger. Would of suited us well I think. I really like the comparison of Giroud, though - having a taller striker to give us more options against Stoke-like teams would be a huge bonus.

I do agree with you, but why is it always Chelsea players that get unsettled and want to leave on a whim? I'm not sure he'd get more playing time in Liverpool/ManCity, although Brigton might be another story (wasn't a regular last season though). Puzzles me although maybe my scope is to narrow and focused on PL/Chelsea.

Would Youri Tielemans on a free suit us?

Will be most probably operated on by Sakari Orava's protege Lasse Lempainen in Finland. Wish him a swift recovery and hopefully he will be back to his best.

Can anyone possibly explain what could be the rationale behind that? As an avid football fan I can't see the logic and if anything I'd have it the other way, because it would seem to be a more natural position for both players.

Honestly didn't even occur to me. Well you win some you lose some.

Might turn good but I'd be doubtful. Estonian league is not the greatest and it really doesn't take much to shine. The thing with playing in the mud leagues is that you need to have an impeccable work ethic and drive to keep working on yourself and -to me- signing for MLS DC United feeder club doesn't show much ambition. He supposedly had offers from Eredivisie/Ekstraklasa/Russian Premier League/Scandinavian leagues, which in theory could have been a better stepping stone to be noted by the European scouts.

The silver-lining to Chelsea's poor run of games is the evident need to strengthen in certain areas. Had we had good run of games in December, then we would have been blinded by the potential of the youth and might not have anticipated the downside of having so many talented but inexperienced players integrated to the team all at once. I fully understand the doubters - at times we were playing high-scoring, free-flowing football and the appetite grew over time, but no need to get ahead of ourselves and expect the unexpected - a young team with an inexperienced -yet loved- manager - the club's name itself won't give us the results. I believe we should for once stick with a manager -despite the recent poor results- and time will tell if it was the right decision. I'm fully behind Frank Lampard and i think the club is going in the right direction.

Agreed. Knowing you will not be benched for a bad day is a good confidence boost and will not make him play too safe. His goal celebration showed it.

A great game, a lot of positives. No need to go on an emotional rollercoaster for a SuperCup game. With penalties you win some, you lose some. I'm more worried about having to play next opposition already on Sunday coming off from 120min on high pace football. Luckily start of the season and a young squad makes the recovery easier.

Firmino is playing? Other than that i'm not so sure how Mane wins headers in their/our box. Brilliant game so far.

Agree with your assessment. We do need a natural wingback and we also need to sort out our strikers. We should be thinking out of the box when it comes to signing aswell - Alonso, Azpilicueta etc have been great and have not cost a fortune.