MrExcalibur100

You realize he's now playing as a wingback?

Way too defensive imo.

I personally would have preferred Ake to Zouma to help with our transition from defense to midfield and cope with their pressing. But Conte knows best.

You already know what time it is

Delph, lol. I doubt even Conte would have prepared for that possibility. C'mon you fucking BLUESS!!!!!!

I think you need to re-read my post particularly my empashis on the Mourinho factor and the style of "football" he played in some of those big CL matches. Bringing up players who play for Barcelona and Real Madrid is just ridiculous. When did Messi and Neymar ever play for a team that plays 90 mins of defensive football in Champions league knock out games? Right, never.

City's defense is there for the taking.

I'll post the dribbling stats tomorrow that shows Hazard is a better dribbler now than Messi was in his prime years. And this is a guy many casuals believe to be the best dribbler in history.

Extremely harsh. I thought he was our best attacking player against PSG at home 2014/2015 and scored in that match. He also managed to score against them the season before that in 2013/14 and hit the post. Against Atletico he was just coming back from an injury. This is despite his team mates being truly awful and Mourinho playing the most defensive football known to man which basically gave Hazard no chance. If you truly think about it, which one of our attacking players did anything worth remembering? The reason is Mourinho and in reality none of our forwards had any chance of doing anything. I remember 2014/15 away to PSG were Hazard played as a left back for 90 mins. It truly hurt me to see that. I don't think Hazard ever forgave him for it. There's a difference between playing on the counter vs being a coward. Even against weaker teams, Mourinho played cowardly in the CL. Eden is yet to have a proper run in the Champions league with us. First season, we didn't have CL football. Second season, he actually had many good performances Galatasaray, Schalke for instance , but got injured against PSG at home in the quarters and was barely fit against Atletico. Third season should have been it but our performances had already detoirated by February. He will get a proper run in that competition under Conte.

His shooting technique is nowhere near as developed as them. He can't generate the same amount of power from his shots or have the same accuracy to them. He also has the same problem in set-pieces. He can't generate power on them. It's all about shooting technique, not just simply he doesn't score enough. If Eden had that shooting technique gift, he will be on par with prime Messi and Ronaldo. Besides, Hazard is currently a better player than Ronaldo, but I don't want to veer off to Ronaldo/Messi/Hazard. That wasn't the point of my post. It was to show how Hazard is both a better creator and dribbler than Messi was in his prime. Which I thought was rather fascinating since those two are so similar stylistically

Hazard is both a better creative player and better dribbler than Messi was in his prime. Some stats lie but creativity and dribbling stats don't

In the last 5 seasons Messi (2012/2013) - 33 key passes 12 assists Hazard (2012/2013) - 54 key passes 11 assists Messi (2013/2014) - 75 key passes 18 assists Hazard (2013/2014) - 85 key passes 7 assists Messi (2014/2015) - 55 key passes 7 assists Hazard (2014/2015) - 90 key passes (!) 9 assists Messi (2015/2016) - 57 key passes 16 assists Hazard (2015/2016) - 63 key passes 3 assists (his worst season ever) Messi (2016/2017) - 55 key passes 7 assists (and counting) Hazard (2016/2017) - 54 key passes 5 assists (and counting) In total in the last 5 seasons: Messi has 275 key passes and 60 assists Hazard has 346 key passes and 35 assists This is despite Messi playing with much better players who score from the chances he creates, turning his key passes to assists and also being one the set-piece takers for his team, which Hazard isn't. So Hazard is creating all this chances without set pieces! Hazard is more creative than Messi and is truly one of the most devastating creative players in world football despite not being a pure playmaker. If he played for Barcelona in this time period, god knows how many assists he'll have had! Next, I'll show how Hazard right now is a better dribbler than Messi ever was in his prime. A lot of myths in football.

They're very fragile defensively. If we play to our attacking potential, it will be a very long evening for them.

I'm not sure if its accurate, I saw it on twitter

Despite the disappointment today, something to bring a chuckle to the heart. Jose (or Maureen as some call him), is losing his mind. 200 million spent, most expensively assembled squad in history / 13 points behind Points after 28 games : Van Gaal - 63 Moyes - 59 Mourinho - 53 Out of the title race since October. Our ex-flame is breaking new grounds right, left and centre. Poor Jose

I thought he had a poor game today. Not playing as consisently well as he did earlier this season. Hopefully he is ready for the Man City challenge.

Romelu Lukaku "Not there yet" Kane "Not there yet" Costa "World class!" Narrative

City have players like Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling and Sane in their starting line-up. Matic is getting the run around by the likes of Puncheon. It's logical I'm a bit concerned they can beat us (and Arsenal who is in disarray).

You can debate if Batshuayi should start the game or not but in reality it's Conte's fault for not giving him chances earlier this season and making us over-reliant on Costa (who he clearly overestimated) I'm not sure what you're on about though. Costa has been absolutely terrible in almost all facets of striker play for months now. There was that moment were he missed a point blank header from Hazard's cross and failed to play in the same player after Pedro slipped him in behind. To say he "carved out most of the chances with good movement" and "great strength" has nothing to do with the reality of this game. Not sure which Chelsea you're watching mate!

Exactly. This loss was more than some are making it out to be, especially if City beat Arsenal!

Some of it is over the top from the usual suspects but what bothers me is if City win against Arsenal, it's all of a sudden a massive, massive game against them next for us. And there's no reason why they can't beat us.

It's hard to argue against Leif's post looking back at it. I hate to use the word but Costa really is the definition of an overrated player. Absolutely insane how some were saying he's better than the likes of Aguero and even saying he's the best striker in the world. Belotti eats his food right now. Shows how much media hype and living in the moment clouds judgement in football!

I know mate. BUT we face City next. Imagine if they win at Arsenal and beat us? However unlikely that scenario is, if some of our players play like they did in this game, City will turn us over. Then it will be 4 points!!

In the 2nd half, we were too impatient. Started to play too directly.

C'mon Arsenal!! Fucking hell, really disappointing