Daniel1980

Agreed. I can't see him wanting to leave Chelsea. Top club, ridiculous salary, fans cheering him no matter how badly he plays, familiar surroundings and friends. He's happy where he is. Obviously I want him to leave, but I'll be extremely surprised if he decides to do that.

She's not ugly. But her body is kind of disproportionate. For example, Cesc's missus: She's... eh...pretty proportional everywhere.

Every time I see her pics, I can't help but think her head was photoshopped to her body, so weird it looks.

...and track back to help out Cesc when he plays in the pivot. He'll play on the right side. So I'm sure Willian's work rate will be really appreciated by Jose this season.

Not a chance. If anything, his work rate and tracking back will be required more this season if he plays on RW.

He's the kind of player who does a lot of pushing like that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ipqCV9q9Q The worst thing is, he already has the reputation of a dirty player, so EPL referees will likely be watching him closely.

Bold(?) predictions: 1-2 in the league Costa to score 18-22 goals in the league (if he doesn't take penalties) Hazard to score over 13 goals and make at least 8-9 assists Fabregas to assist in more than 13 goals and score at least 8-9 goals Oscar to score 7-9 goals and make 7-9 assists. Torres to score 7-9 goals. Costa to get at least 2 red cards. Hazard or Fabregas to win POTY.

I like that he doesn't let opposition bully him, but I'm kinda afraid that because of his temper we'll end up playing with Torres and 36-year-old Drogba in many games. He must keep his temper in check.

So do the other two teams play with each other or is our team meant to play against completely fresh players in the second half?

The timer is off. It should be 4 days+.

Ah I see what you mean. I wasn't observing him closely this game--my stream was crappy--so I thought he was better than in the previous match(he was very poor then, imo). It's just preseason, of course, but considering that he's been training longer than the other Spanish lads, I expected his form to improve rather than worsen. There are three more preseason games. We'll see.

I think many players that play on Friday won't play on Sunday, or will play just for half an hour. The youngsters will likely be used. We have another game just two days after that against Real S. Crazy schedule.

Yep. There's something fishy about it. Jose isn't stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQofo0K0jp4

Yeah, Costa has to stay fit. I know Drogba only started training, but his performance didn't give me much hope. And Torres is Torres.

Actually, that miss after Eden's pass aside, he played pretty well today. I thought he looked sharper today as #10 than he did in previous game. Was certainly more involved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3VwAVqZCRM Those highlights don't have his passes to Drogba though: If only Drogba was fitter. And Torres wasn't Torres.

IMO, Luis was worse in the previous game. This time he looked okay.

This. I've said numerous times that I think playing him as the most advanced midfielder in 4-3-3 would be the best, but even I am confused by this strange "no to Fabregas-Matic pivot" after the match he didn't play in the pivot. So he lost the ball a few times today when he played higher up the pitch. So what? All attacking players did. It comes with the job. We saw Fabregas-Matic pivot only once--against a weak opposition, granted--but the fact remains that it worked. The overreaction after today's game is strange and quite unfounded--and I'm saying this as a guy who's always been skeptical of playing Cesc in the pivot. That said, 4-3-3 would be better: less restrictive for him and more solid defensively.

I always said that Cesc wasn't great defensively and playing him in the pivot might not be the best idea considering his average pace and the fact that it would limit his creativity, but I'm not sure what today's game has to do with the argument of Fabregas-Matic pivot not working. MVG-Matic pivot didn't exactly look stellar today, despite MVG's great pace and their advantage of training together for a month already. Yes, Fab misplaced some passes today, but misplacing some passes when you play as #10 practically comes with the job.

As for the poor link-up between players, what exactly did you expect? Everyone is joining the training camp at a different point and it's hard to make everything click. Hell, our new signings had a total of a week of training with the team and then we had matches every three days. Drogba and Eden joined just three days ago. Having matches so often means players don't get to train a lot(they are usually given a day off after every match), so it's not surprising that they all look like they're seeing each other for the first time. The understanding and link-up play will come with time. There's no reason to panic. If anything, I'm glad that this defeat came now rather than later in preseason. Hopefully it will give Jose some food for thought.

I can't even vote for a MOTM. Besides a couple of moments created by Hazard and Cesc, don't remember anything special.

The panic is ridiculous. It's just a preseason. If we lose, it will be a lesson to them. No one is having a good game. It happens. They aren't match fit, but they're playing every three days and obviously are afraid to get injured. It's better to see our weaknesses now and work on them than to win every match and get smashed in the first game of the season.

Yeah, I would have preferred him to get as many minutes as possible deeper in midfield too, but with our current players, it's not that unexpected. Jose made it clear that Cesc will play both #10 and #8 this season, so it sort of makes sense for him to get some practice there while our other #10s aren't here. When the Brazilians are back, Cesc will obviously play #8. And maybe Jose also wants to give MVG as many minutes as possible while he can.

Lots of praise and lots of interesting comments all around. This is also interesting, LOL Did he really call him Fab? It's interesting that he sort of relates to Cesc's situation. Just watch Cesc become his favourite.

On twitter. Shh. Cuddly toys do things to women. No woman can resist a cuddly toy.