Daniel1980

I can't deny that I would like us to play a more attractive football. With the players we currently have, it'd be a shame if Jose can't accomplish that while keeping the team defensively sound. That said, results matter the most, of course.

Yeah, I definitely expect Jose to give Oscar a chance at #10. But after his great WC and with Cesc's arrival, a player with Andre's qualities might be more needed on the pitch. On the other hand, Oscar's workrate and defensive contribution will be needed too. Jose has an interesting dilemma on his hands.

This. It's imperative that we have continuity.

Squawka just tweeted: LOL this reminded me of a Barcelona fan's comment on barcaforum after our friendly the other day:

Yeah, and that's considering that the lads didn't seem to train yesterday and had a day off. 1 day of training is nowhere enough. Costa and Cesc practicing finishing...

I liked his set pieces. I wonder if Cesc will be still taking set pieces after our AMs are back. Have just seen another video, with a bit different highlights, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDmJW9WqoXU

The problem is, we are a top club fighting for trophies. We can't afford to give young strikers 10 games until they show some promise. It sounds nice in theory, but it's very unrealistic in practice. How many points would we drop while we're giving young strikers 10 games to just show some promise?

I don't see why not. A few days ago, Jose said, "I can play Azpilicueta right back and Ivanovic centre back because of Filipe." There will be rotation, of course, but I expect that Azpi will play over Iva most of the time.

Well, the WC is over now. Oscar might rediscover his form.

He looks ten years older without hair, mate. It's pretty clear that he didn't shave his head to hide his supposed baldness. His hairline at his temples has been high for ages, but his hair is generally good enough. I get the impression that Fabregas is pretty self-conscious about his image to ugly himself up on his own volition. Still think he just lost a bet. Or maybe he really decided to try a new look and ended up hating it. Anyway, I doubt we'd ever see that haircut again. His personal sponsors wouldn't like it. And considering the fact that he keeps wearing caps when he isn't training, it's pretty obvious that he hates his shaved head as much as fans do. In any case, his hair will be decent enough in a few weeks, so it doesn't matter.

That's what I'm hoping for. Our tactic of “give it to Eden” was unimaginative and put too much pressure on Eden. With another source of creativity in our team and a competent striker, Eden should get some breathing room. Defenders now will have to pay attention to Cesc (and Costa), and killing our team's creativity wouldn't be as easy as isolating Hazard. Now our creativity will be more varied and unpredictable: Eden can penetrate defences with his top-notch dribbling and speed while Cesc can penetrated defences with his through balls. Last season we were pretty one-dimensional and I'm glad Jose acknowledged that we needed a player for the midfield with a different profile and addressed the issue. Can't wait to see them all play together.

From eurosport: Good thing Costa scored. I can imagine the massive criticism he would have received if he didn't.

Yes, to be fair, he wasn't terrible today at all. But that miss was terrible.

Regardless of the formation, he did play as the most advanced midfielder in the second half. On an unrelated note, his hair is growing back already. Should have decent hair again by the start of the season. Thank fuck.

They just can't let go, poor things. Pretty hilarious to read.

Great finishing, very pleased with him -- and for him. It would give him confidence after all the criticism after the WC.

Very impressive today, even without considering that it was his first game for us. After so many years, it was strange to see him play so deep in the first half. But he did very well as a DLP. Great long balls, and he made some decent tackles, actually. But he played more like the #10 in the second half when he assisted Costa.

Cesc and Costa

It shows that our AMs are young and inexperienced. I wouldn't blame Costa for being mostly invisible. He should be getting service from the AMs. Cesc's passing was great, though. Gotta say it's weird to see him playing so deep and not being involved in attack much(besides long balls). He hasn't played that way in years.

Glad we'll see Matic-Fabregas pivot. We can safely conclude Jose at least wants to try Matic-Fabregas pivot. It's better to find out during preseason whether it works or not.

Yes, I know, but still. We have just 3 weeks until the start of the season. It doesn't make much sense to waste the few pre-season games we have playing Cesc on a position he's not going to play most of the time. And if he's unable to play in the pivot(if Jose intends to play him there at all), it's better to find out now than when the PL starts. Let's see what Jose does.

If he's going to play mainly in the pivot, it doesn't make much sense to play him as #10 this preseason - he should become accustomed to his position next to Matic. IMO, if Jose plays Cesc as #10 this preseason, then he's intending to use him mainly as #10 this season. That's why I'm very curious where Jose will play him this game.

I just think the author loses his credibility when he accentuates one player's faults, barely mentioning and glossing over inconvenient facts that don't suit his argument. I agree with the author that Cesc was needless signing by Barcelona, but the way the author made Cesc the scapegoat for Barcelona's fails is very naive (How Barcelona’s Prodigal Son Became Their Most Damaging Signing in a Generation, lol). It's wishful thinking. Those Barcelona fans who think that now that Cesc is gone Barcelona will go back to dominating are up for a rude awakening. Their system needs changing, but they're too afraid to do it.

That article basically suggests that the entire team, coaches, etc, were forced to accommodate Fabregas and that's why their tiki-taka system was failing rather than the simple truth of other teams finding weapon against it, Messi's form dropping, Xavi and Iniesta aging and dropping form, their defence being pathetic, their wingers' wasting numerous chances. As for Cesc's lack of tactical awareness and erratic behavior, From barcaforum, Of course his tactical awareness and positioning suffered at Barcelona when he was played on a different position every other game. Give him the stability he had at Arsenal, and he should be fine. The article's author says Cesc built up his numbers against shitty sides, and while true, he fails to mention that Cesc still created chances against big sides too. It's not Fabregas's fault others wasted those chances. All of this is conveniently forgotten, in order to make the facts fit the narrative. It's an interesting article, but quite biased.

As someone said in the comments, "this is almost entirely narrative driven article forcing facts to fit the narrative and shouldn’t be taken as a forensic examination of the Cesc saga." That Barcelona fan basically puts all the blame for Barcelona's troubles on Fabregas, which is extremely naive at best. As someone who was forced to watch a lot of Barcelona's games while not being a fan, I can say that is a very one-dimensional article. That said, I've always said Fabregas was very far from being a defensive genius, and that's why I'm not at all sure playing him in the pivot is the best idea. Granted, our team is much more defensively disciplined than Barcelona, and last season we struggled with creativity, not defence. We didn't really need another defensive-minded midfielder. So playing him in the pivot might work, but personally, I think playing him as #10 or the most advanced midfielder in 4-3-3 would be the best choice. His strength is in attacking and penetrating defences, not defending, though he's not completely hopeless at defending. I'm very curious how Jose will use him in the friendly today. That should answer some questions.