Daniel1980

I'm English with a bit of Italian thrown in there somewhere. She's English, but supports Barcelona because they play "pretty football."

Can't really give an opinion on him-- didn't follow him closely. With me watching Chelsea's, Barcelona's and sometimes Milan's games, I didn't really have much time to watch non-top team games in the PL.

Actually, pretty much same here for me, only replace Inter with Milan. Still sympathize the team, follow the news and watch some matches, but it's been mostly Chelsea in the last ten years or so. All right, I can forgive you Inter.

Figures that when I don't have the internet for a week, we get rid of Torres. You're no longer on my "cool people" list. Dammit, why couldn't Roma take him and give us Destro? There's no escaping from Torres, is there? Not for me.

We'll never hear the end of it if Lukaku scores against us. Ugh just thinking about all the gleeful articles makes me cringe. Though as long as we win, I don't give a fuck.

Hazard is better. He can actually score.

It means nothing. Sanchez had a very impressive WC and so far has been poor for Arsenal. Costa was poor in the WC and has been great for us. Before overhyping United, let's wait and see if Di Maria can repeat his last season's performance in a different league. Ozil couldn't.

1) This is not true. I remember him making at least one successful tackle. But Oscar did put on more tackles and was generally good at pressing. 2) This is true. Andre was probably the worst of all our players. So many wasted shots. Sometimes it feels like he prefers to shoot no matter what instead of looking for his teammates. 3)Noticed that too. 4) 13 backward passes out of 77 passes is hardly a lot. Matic had 14 backward passes out of 63 passes. Oscar made 10 backward passes out of 42.

I get the impression that so far Jose simply isn't impressed with Luis's performance in preseason and what he sees every day in training. I'm sure he intended Luis to be a starter, but Jose isn't the kind of guy who will play a player only because he spent £15m on him. He'll pick based on form. Luis has to impress him enough to start over Azpi.

I thought he looked a bit tired and slower today. Not as sharp and fast as he was before. But we have a week until next game. He should be well-rested by then. Gotta say it's a great feeling not to feel surprised when our striker scores in every game.

I said before the game against Leicester that I didn't expect an easy win, that we're underestimating the team. Oddly enough, I feel more confident about this game. 4-3-3 would be probably the best with Matic-Ramires-Fabregas, so that we aren't overwhelmed in midfield. Hazard and Costa will start for sure, of course, but I'm less certain about the third attacker. I would have picked Andre, but he didn't really have a good game today and sometimes he either doesn't notice other players or seems a bit selfish, tbh. On the other hand, his clever runs and speed might be needed. Tough choice.

So far, in these 2 games for Chelsea, Fabregas made 7 key passes and 3 assists. Oscar made 2 key passes and 0 assists. I think Fabregas is doing a pretty passable job. Pun intended. No one is asking you to praise him, but calling his performance poor when he's actually doing his job well -- distributing the ball, creating chances and getting assists--is strange. Right now, he's the top assister in Europe.

I'll have to disagree. No one is praising him for his performance, but calling it "horrible" is strange and I was responding to that. He didn't have a poor game by any stretch of imagination, unless you have unrealistic expectations. "Decent but poor by his standards"? What are those standards? Is he supposed to make 2 assists from through-balls every game to meet those standards? What the hell. It's not like he didn't make some neat passes and got an assist. Yes, it wasn't much of an assist, because Hazard had to do most of the work afterwards, but still, he was there, building our attacks, as he did the entire game. He could have gotten another assist if Iva was luckier. It wasn't a spectacular performance by him, but it was a solid one. Only Hazard made more key passes than him in this game. Yeah, I get it. Just to put things into perspective: David Silva made 16 through balls in the entire last season. That's 1 through ball every other game. Seems like not much, but it was actually second best result in the entire Europe last season, the first being Cesc's 24 through balls in a season. I know Cesc does a lot of through balls, but if he did 2 through balls every game like he did against Burnley, he would have over 60 through balls in a season. That's very unrealistic. So we should try managing our expectations. So far Cesc is more than on target.

You're doing precisely that. Because he did dictate the tempo of the game, just wasn't as decisive as he was in previous game. No player can make 2 through balls every game, you know. That's an unrealistic expectation. He made more through balls against Burnley than Oscar and Willian put together the entire last season. Are you saying he's supposed to make through balls every game? 3 assists in his first 2 games is hardly a Gareth Barry level player.

He was the player who retained possession better than any other this game, never misplacing a pass aside from a few risky long balls. "What did he really do throughout that whole game?" What do you want him to do? He's a midfielder who is playing very deep, you know. He isn't supposed to do anything flashy. He kept hold of the ball, rarely lost it, played some good passes, delivered good set pieces, tracked back and made a few tackles and interceptions, and even got another assist for Hazard's goal. Everything went through him today. He had 96 touches of the ball--more touches than any other player on the pitch--and controlled the center of our midfield while Matic looked disturbingly shaky. What else do you want him to do? He wasn't among the best players on the pitch, but he was among the few who were solid.

Amazing performance, hope he keeps it up.

I'm not sure what match you were watching. He wasn't amazing, but he was solid(far more solid than Matic). 94% pass accuracy, 4 key passes, 3 successful dribbles, 1 assist( ), 2 shots on target. Whoscored gave him 7.95 rating for this match.

I remember Cesc being dispossessed closer to the middle of the pitch, but he didn't misplace a single pass in our half. Matic misplaced 5 passes in our half, massive mistakes. Very poor.

Iva deserves MOTM. Hazard and Courtois honorable mention(though TC made a sloppy pass in the beginning that could have led to a goal). Oscar was good, though his sloppy pass in the 1st half could have led to a goal too. Oddly, Matic made a few mistakes too. Cesc and Costa were solid. All in all, good result.

Eh, Di Maria scored 4 goals last season too -- in 34 games. Di Maria is an excellent player, no doubt, but sometimes I feel like I'm reading about some other player here. If Di Maria goes to United, he won't magically solve their problems. He's been quite inconsistent and frustrating for Real until last season. He was amazing last season, but before that, Real fans constantly complained about how inconsistent he is(not unlike the way our fans complain about Oscar). In some games he looked like a Top 3 player in the world, then looked poor in many games. There's no guarantee that he'll be as good as he was at Real last season if he is to move to the PL. As Ozil shows, not every player from La Liga can easily adapt to the PL. I'd rather we strengthen positions that actually need strengthening rather than sign yet another AM. We have enough midfielders that are good at creating chances. I'd rather we sign someone who can, you know, score those chances. A second striker. Something we actually need.

Yeah, I don't want to lose him either, and I doubt the club does. A 1-year loan at Milan wouldn't be that bad. Milan don't have much money, so they give young players a chance. He should get enough playing time.

"According to Sky Sport Italia, the Rossoneri made a formal request to take the 21-year-old midfielder on a one-year loan, possibly with an option to buy." Milan wouldn't be the worst option for him.

Doubt we'll sign another CM/AM. We have enough. MVG will free a non-HG spot if Cech leaves too. If we sign anyone, it should be a striker or a CB.

It's already much better than it was. I mean: Now: Improvement, y/y? Give it another month.

Same here. I mean that part of Balo's appeal is the fact that the club he plays for gets a lot of media and fans' attention. He's talented, but his talent isn't what made him famous. His entertaining personality did.