Daniel1980

Probably not. Iniesta - 90% pass accuracy Pirlo - 88% pass accuracy Silva - 88% pass accuracy So they all misplace at least every tenth pass. It's perfectly normal--brilliant, actually. There are a couple of people here who have an overly critical attitude towards Fabregas, criticizing him for ridiculous things and having some unrealistic expectations no player can meet. Give the guy a break ffs. He played very well yesterday and in preseason in general. I know he played for Arsenal and was a smug little prick at times--I couldn't stand him either---but come on. He's a Chelsea player now.

Very happy with him so far. I wasn't thrilled by the prospect of signing him, but I'll gladly admit that it seems I wrong. So far, he's exceeding my expectations.

So he can make excellent through balls but can't do simple passes... Hmm. His general passing is more than fine. Some mistakes, sloppy and misplaced passes are to be expected when he expects his teammates do different things, since we play completely differently from Barcelona or even Arsenal. He is pretty slow, you're right, but everyone has known it for ages, so I'm not sure why you bring it up. I doubt Jose failed to notice that he isn't a speed monster before signing him.

Missed the match. Gutted. Seems it was a great one. Was the atmosphere good? Did the crowd make our new signings feel welcomed when they were subbed?

This was awkward as hell.

He's a very good CB, no doubt. But pace is always a great quality for a CB, especially when our pivot guys aren't the fastest players out there. I'd take a great fast CB over a great slow CB any day.

And slower.

I honestly don't know how realistic this transfer is, but apparently United want him too. If he joins them, their team will be much stronger. As things stand, their defence is pretty weak. At Roma, the attacking players don't track back as much as all our players do, yet last season they conceded less than us - 25 goals(in previous season they conceded 56 goals), and Benatia was easily their best defender. Also, Benatia played in 3-5-2, 3-4-2-1 formations at Udinese, so he's used to playing in a three-man defence, which would be very useful when we need to chase the scoreline. Considering that our midfielders in the pivot aren't the fastest lads out there, Benatia's pace would be handy when the opposition counter attacks. No matter how you look at it, we have only one good experienced defender(Iva) to cover two CB positions as well as RB in over fifty matches. One injury&fatigue and we would end up playing teenagers in important matches, and so far, our young CBs didn't exactly look solid even in preseason matches against shitty teams. While I want a good striker more than a top defender, so far there's been no indication that we're going to sign a fourth striker (unfortunately). If we don't sign a striker, we'd better address another weakness, though it's a less serious weakness than the striker one. If we sign a striker and don't sign a defender, I'll be happy enough. If we address neither, not so much: two potentially vulnerable areas is one too many.

Coming to a new team is never easy, though he has the benefit of knowing a few players. Fitting in is especially hard when you're supposed to compete with a player who's been in the team for ages. I'd be uncomfortable in his shoes.

This is hilarious, but if/when it happens at Chelsea, it won't be so hilarious anymore. Unlike other clubs, we don't have any good strikers to take his place. If this happens, we're basically screwed.

I was rewatching match highlights and there was something that bothered me. Costa's little incident with Matoes. I had a crappy stream and at the time thought it was just some normal pushing/shoving around, but I'm not so sure anymore. It looks like he backed into the guy and swung an elbow at him for no reason, completely unrelated to the play. It was pretty subtle, but it didn't look like an accident. Perhaps Matoes said to him something to provoke him, but either way, it worked and they won a free kick, interrupting our attack. Costa's quick temper can be--and I'm afraid will be--exploited by the opposition this season if he keeps it up. He demonstrated his temper several times this preseason. I like that he doesn't let anyone bully him, but hopefully someone lets him know the Premier League is more strict when it comes to bans compared to La Liga. It is worrying, especially considering who we have as his substitute if he gets suspended. Another good striker is really needed in any case.

I think Schurrle will start. The biggest question for me who will play as #10--Oscar or Willian. This is the first real test of the team against a decent opposition this season(besides the Turkish teams). After playing shitty teams all preseason, we'd better not get embarrassed in front of the home crowd.

Yes, best case scenario, our defence is as great as last season, no one gets injured and Iva would be enough to cover 2 CB spots. But we play a lot of games. With only three experienced CBs, we're one injury away from not having any good CBs on the bench. IF we can get Benatia for the right price, it'd be great. But 38 million is too much.

Asking for freedom. lol what. Yep, we're keeping him against his will. It's such a hardship not to score goals. Set the lad free, Jose.

Preseason, August 2013.

But it works two ways. If he's too far away, he should get into better positions so that he has an opportunity to pass/receive a pass. That's part of having a great vision. It's not always only his teammates' fault.

You've probably seen him play: It's his first preseason with Roma, against us.

Arsenal fans at Arsenal Mania when someone posted a gif of Cesc's goal: They loved him to a ridiculous degree, and now seem to be torn between "Cunt!" and "It's not really his fault, I wish he still played for us." I'm really looking forward to our game at Emirates. Curious how they greet him. Better get earplugs, though.

I feel like a terrible person for saying this, but if he's really out for 6 months, it's a good thing it happened now and not after the start of the season. We can get a decent striker now.

It's a bit of an exaggeration. This year his form dropped after 15 February - only 1 assist after that. Pretty similar to Eden, actually, who didn't have a non-penalty goal or assist in March-May last season. Let's take a look at Cesc's performance in the second half of the season at Barcelona. 2011-2012 first half of the season: 5 assists, 8 goals; second half: 3 assists, 1 goal. It's a significant drop in stats, but he wasn't used in many games in the second half of the season, the coach preferring a trusted duo Xavi-Iniesta. 2012-2013 first half of the season: 9 assists, 5 goals; second half: 2 assists, 6 goals. This is very curious. He was excellent until Christmas and had a huge drop in form in January-March just right after Vilanova left Barcelona because of his cancer and Roura replaced him. When Roura was the coach, Cesc scored just 1 goal in January-March. On 31 March Vilanova got a bit better and returned to coach Barcelona. After that Cesc scored 5 goals and made 2 assists in the remaining games. 2013-2014 first half 9 assists 7 goals; second half 4 assists 1 goal. The thing is, this year Cesc wasn't the only one who had a run of poor form at Barcelona. Iniesta, Xavi were shit a good part of the season, but since they don't score or assist much anyway, it doesn't matter. Out of all Barcelona midfielders only Cesc was supposed to score and assist a lot, according to Barcelona fans, and only he got criticized when he didn't. Actually, massive criticism and booing might have contributed to his poor form too. Frankly, in the last couple of months, he played like he didn't give a shit anymore. Also, in the first half of the season, Martino tried to play a more direct football, and most of Cesc's goals and assists came then--he was one of the best Barcelona players then. In the second half, Martino went back to playing tiki-taka, because despite playing well and winning, fans and some players were unhappy there wasn't enough possession. It didn't help that in the second half of the season, when important matches started, Barcelona coaches tried to shove as many stars on the pitch as possible and he or/and Iniesta ended up playing on weird positions, and playing Xavi-Iniesta-Fabregas at the same time never worked at Barcelona. When Cesc played with Xavi in the first half of the season, it worked fine. Iniesta-Cesc was used rarely and when it was used, IMO, they didn't look very comfortable playing together, since neither of them was good at being "Xavi" for Barcelona. All in all, I'm not sure his experience at Barcelona can say something conclusive, since he didn't even have a fixed position and stability to be consistent. At Arsenal he didn't have such big drops in form in the second half--he just had many injuries, but when he was fit, he played well enough in the second half of the season. As for his poor performance against big teams Barcelona fans criticize him for, it's true and he definitely deserves some of the blame, but part of the fault lies with Barcelona's coaches. It's not like he's a choker: At Arsenal he played fine in many big games. Hell, he assisted in the World Cup final and Euro 2012 final. Games don't get bigger than that.

Granted, he's a more aggressive defender than our CBs and he makes more fouls, but he also does far more interceptions(Cahill - 29; JT - 35; Benatia - 92), which shows that he's excellent at reading the game. Thiago Silva is another top defender who makes many tackles too(at least he used to in his best years at Milan) and he isn't exactly mistake prone.

He's 27. His age is just right for a CB: not too old but not too inexperienced. He was the top defender in Italy last season and was excellent at Udinese too. He's fast--which is something we lack. Our defence lacks depth. Zouma doesn't inspire much confidence and JT will probably retire soon. He's one of the top defenders out there. He has a rating of 7.55 on whoscored for a reason(in our team only Matic and Hazard had a bit higher). Pace, tackling, interceptions, positioning--he has no significant weakness. Just to compare him to JT and Cahill: Tackles per game: JT - 0.9; Cahill - 1.1; Benatia - 2.1 Interceptions per game: JT -1; Cahill - 1; Benatia - 2.8 Dribbled by other players: JT - 0.2; Cahill - 0.3; Benatia - 0.3 IF the price is right, I'll be delighted if we get him. He'll strengthen any defence.

It's true that he looked a bit shaky, unsure and perhaps overeager with his crosses at times in some games this preseason, but it's just preseason and his teammates and the way we play are unfamiliar to him. He's a class player. Though it's undeniable that our other new signings seem to be adapting to the team much faster than him, Luis might just need more time. It's different for everyone.

Torres is staying anyway. I stopped hoping that he'd leave. But if Drogba really is injured, we might actually get a good substitute striker for Costa, which we desperately need. With all due respect to Drogba, he's no longer good enough or young enough to be our main striker if Costa gets injured/suspended/has a run of poor form.

On the contrary. It increases the chances of us getting a decent second striker. There's still time.