WNDS

Eh, he's too raw and naive to be a starter, I feel. Lots of physicality, seems to have potential, but not currently good enough. Hopefully he improves.

I have yet to see anything indicating that we are conclusively incapable of building such a team under the current management. Things may change. My outlook my change, particularly if we have a disappointing transfer window this next summer. At the moment though, I stand by my assessment.

I'm sorry, but we won the CL when Guardiola's Barca AND Heynckes' future treble-winning Bayern side were both active with a WORSE team/squad than the one we currently have. One minute you moan about our managers' negativity, the next you moan about how we stand no chance in the PL or the CL. Maybe our managers simply share your outlook, then. Maybe they feel that we stand no chance of winning either competition, so why bother trying?

How long has it been since Arsenal played a season as the defending champions? Sure, you have valid concerns, but surely I can't be the only one who tires of the ridiculous hyperbole and sensationalism that that seems to pervade just about every aspect of football fandom nowadays. Why CAN'T we win the CL? We're not the favourites, but we're currently in much better shape than we were for much of the season we actually DID win it. I thought that this was a decent performance and result against a good team. The negative aspect derives mainly from Conte being overly cautious in his approach: once he saw how Liverpool were struggling when Hazard ran at them, and how poorly Bakayoko was playing, he should probably have switched the latter for one of Pedro/Willian and then introduced Fabregas on the 60-65 minute mark.

Great all-round display. Well done to both the team and the management. What I've liked so far this season is our ability to bounce back after brief runs of poor performances/results, thereby avoiding a potential descent into crisis. If we could just find some consistency......

He started agaist Everton, didn't he? He played 60 minutes or so. He played for around 20 minutes against Roma anyway! If he wasn't fit he wouldn't have featured at all. And besides, Conte already risked Bakayoko agaist Tottenham when he was in the same situation as Drinkwater is now. It worked out.

Drinkwater wasn't playing then. He may not be a world-class player, but he's quite balanced in his attributes; I feel that he would work in a midfield three very nicely, as he's already displayed the ability to function in a midfield two (granted, alongside Kante). The imperative last night should have been to play it tight and hit Roma on the break: I believe that a midfield of Luiz-Bakayoko-Drinkwater would have allowed us to do this, with Luiz supplying the energy needed to cover space, Bakayoko driving forwards, and Drinkwater handling the link-up play whilst also making useful defensive contributions of his own. Yeah, it might not have worked-out quite like I've just described, but I'm confident that it would have been a least somewhat more successful than the awful Bakayoko-Fabregas pairing that Conte has kept deploying.

Why am I seeing specific players being criticised after a performance like that: EVERYONE was terrible except for Hazard. EVERYONE. Regardless of the grievances that Conte may have with our board regarding transfer dealings, he HAS to display a bit more imagination and flexibility when it comes to setting the team up without important personnel. Much easier said (by the likes of me) than done, of course, but these HAVE to be the situations in which the better managers show what they're really made of. It's been pretty evident that a back three (either 3-4-3 or 3-5-2) doesn't work for us without Kante, so why persist with such a system? Playing 4-3-3 with Luiz-Bakayoko/Fabregas-Drinkwater was surely worth a try in this game, for example. It surely couldn't be worse than a midfield two of Bakayoko and Fabregas, two players who posses certain valuable characteristics but are clearly spectacularly incompatible at present. Alonso is hideously out-of-form at the moment as well: this happens to every player at some point, but you can't therefore shrug your shoulders and let it slide for over a month; not when our other starting WB is out injured over the same period of time. Conte should have been able to find an alternative that works with the personnel available to him, and on this occasion he has failed. Hopefully he learns from this. (And hopefully Kante's impending return allows us to rediscover some semblance of stability and consistency, playing three at the back or otherwise)

Qarabag are actually quite a decent team when on-form, unfortunately; not as genuinely good as Shakhtar of 2012/13, but they have the potential to cause an upset or two in our group. Of course, they could also show their worst form and get destroyed by everyone. Given that the other two teams are Roma and ATLETICO, I really don't want us to chance things against this lot by putting out a ridiculously under-strength team; we NEED six points from our matches against Qarabag to put the pressure on the other teams in our group. I get the feeling that whoever drops the most points against this team is going to be the one missing out on qualification for the Round of 16. One of Cahill or Christensen in for Azpi/Luiz/Rudiger, Zappacosta for Moses, Willian for Pedro, Hazard for Fabregas should be the only changes made in my opinion. Aim to bring Batshuayi and/or Fabregas on at around the 60 minute mark (either because we're coasting, or because we're struggling and need to change things up), with Drinkwater being given his debut in the form of a 10-15 minute run-out at the end. This should allow for a decent amount of rotation without going overboard and risking a crucial three points.

He's a winger who's good at dribbling; his technique is far better than most WBs (I DID specify that this was taking into account the positions they currently play). His decision-making on the other hand....

Er, yeah.... maybe with Cahill. I have some recollection of that happening before. This idea that you can ONLY achieve success with absolute best-of-the-best world-class players in every position is one that I just want to see head off into a corner and die; it seems to stem from the same mentality that sees everyone go weak at the knees whenever they think of the Ballon d'Or/whatever. Seriously, are football fans now so vain/insecure that they consider it unacceptable for the teams they 'support' to have players in the line-up who are not universally praised/adored for their abilities? That's the impression I've been getting over the last few years, unfortunately. To achieve success at the highest level of the game, you need a CORE of world-class talent/technical ability (probably at least 5 players in the starting 11), which is then supplemented with other quality players who are not necessarily world-class themselves, but who can do a job within the manager's strategic and tactical setup. I would like the team I support to achieve success through a combination of genuine quality AND 'heart' (or whatever you want to call it); I would like the team to include SOME players (like Cahill and Willian, for example) who DO actually appear genuinely pleased to be here for reasons beyond the obvious (the paycheck, the prestige etc.). It pisses me off no end when I see tons of Chelsea fans taking cheap shots at some of our most committed players, seemingly because 'you wouldn't see THEM starting for Barcelona or Real Madrid'. Maybe not, but 95% (or over) of football teams wish that they could have these players in their squads. For what it's worth, I DO think we need to upgrade the starting 11 slightly, as I would say that we probably 'only' have four outright WC players in our first-team at the moment: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Kante, and Hazard. We also lack a bit of technical quality overall, with only Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Fabregas, Luiz, and (maybe) Moses having technique that is genuinely at the 'elite' level (taking into account the positions they play in). I'm all for Alex Sandro because he would improve us quite considerably on both these fronts, but I'm not going to start spouting rubbish such as hoping we finish 10th again just to spite the board for their perceived failings in our transfer deadlings.

Bayern won't sell Robben anyway. They're trying to sell Douglas Costa because they still rate both Robben AND Ribery more highly than him, whilst also viewing Coman as a more promising eventual replacement for either one. Bayern are a team that ONLY sell on their own terms, even if a player pushes for a move (e.g Ribery trying to leave for Madrid). I don't even see Robben attempting to do something similar to join us. Why would he? He's an Ancelotti favourite and is settled in Munich. And Douglas Costa IS NOT rated by the majority of Bayern fans that I know: they say that he was truly excellent for his first half-season there, but that his performances fell-away quite considerably in the second-half of that same season, and that he was mostly very poor (mis-management or otherwise) for almost all of the season just gone. They feel that they're getting a very good deal if he moves to Juve for 40M Euros, and that's with them taking into account the massive upturn in prices that has occurred over the last few seasons. In addition, he HAS also lost his place in the Brazil NT under Tite. Brazil currently play Casemiro, Paulinho/Fernandinho, and Renato Augusto as their first-choice 3-man midfield, with Neymar, Coutinho, and Gabriel Jesus forming the attack; the three first-choice replacements/subs are currently Willian (for Coutinho), Firmino (for Gabriel Jesus), and whichever one hasn't started out of the aforementioned Paulinho/Fernandinho. There are rumours that Tite might eventually ditch Renato Augusto in favour of moving Coutinho back into the midfield three, but it's one of Willian or Firmino who are currently set to benefit, NOT Douglas Costa. Douglas Costa has missed a few of Brazil's recent call-ups due to injuries, and whilst he DID make the most recent squad, he was played as part of the C-team against Australia, was rubbish, and was subbed-out for Willian (who had started and played very well a few days earlier as part of a mixed A- and B-team against Argentina, and played very well again against Australia). Consistency has always been a problem for Douglas Costa, very good player though he can be, and so I find it ironic that you'd be favour of bringing him in given your criticism of Pedro's perceived failings in this area. As for Pedro, he didn't only perform occasionally in the latter stages of the CL: he was a very consistent (and consistently dangerous) part of Guardiola's great Barcelona team. Is he (or was he) as good as Neymar (his eventual replacement after Guardiola left)? No, but Neymar is one of the top 5 players in the world at the moment; almost nobody (not ever our own Eden Hazard) is currently as good as him. Pedro DID go toe-to-toe with a certain Alexis Sanchez at the time, though. Remember that? And speaking of which: the Alexis Sanchez situation. Trying to get him off Arsenal will be like trying to get Modric off Tottenham: I honestly think that Wenger and Arsenal would much rather take the potential financial hit than allow him to join us under any circumstances. Simple as that. I'd love him here, though, of course.

You're ignoring the numbers that were posted above: Pedro and Willian combined provided us with 17 goals and 11 'pure' assists in the league, going up to 25 goals and 15/16 assists in all competitions. They also scored and/or assisted important goals against Man City, Tottenham, Man United, and Arsenal. Pedro has a history of performing well in the latter stages of the CL, SCORING IN ONE FINAL and providing an assist in another. Willian performed very well for us in the single deep CL run that we have made since he arrived here; he was excellent against PSG (and again last season), and was one of the only players to play reasonably well over both legs against Atletico (making our only goal against them out of nothing in the process). And you then go on to suggest aged and enormously injury-prone (but admittedly world-class) Robben, inconsistent and injury-prone Douglas Costa (who IS a quality player IMO, but is also currently failing to get ahead of Firmino/Willian/Coutinho in the Brazilian squad, failed to get ahead of Willian at Shakhtar, and isn't all that highly rated by Bayern fans), and ALEX OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN could give us the edge that we supposedly lack at RW. Robben probably could, in fairness, but he'd be a huge risk nonetheless. Sanchez is a non-starter, unfortunately. HE would be ideal, but there's no chance he'll come here from Arsenal. None.

Not sure how I feel about this. I could see Matic fitting-in quite well alongside Herrera and Pogba, as the two of them offset his weaknesses very nicely. That being said, Fabinho looks to be the superior, more dynamic and more versatile player, so if they get Matic instead of him we may actually benefit (both from the money we receive, and due to Man Utd's midfield being weaker than it has the potential to be). It's a shame that it's come to this, though, as Matic looked truly world-class in his first year at Chelsea. Whilst he's contributed well at times since then (particularly in the first-half of our most recent season), I can only agree with all those who claim that his overall standard of play has fallen quite considerably: he's now a solid 7/10 player rather than the 9/10 player he was threatining to be. Maybe he can improve his level in the near future (here, or at Man Utd?). I suppose we'll see fairly soon.

Not sure why there are comparisons being made with Pedro above; Vitolo is almost a complete clone of Willian in terms of play-style. He's pretty good, but a level below either one of our current RW options: he isn't as dangerous as Pedro is in the final-third, isn't as good at set-pieces or as fast as Willian, and doesn't seem to have any pre-existing love for Chelsea like Willian did before he joined. I think that this would be a pointless purchase, and is a weird rumour to start with.

Complacency appears to have been his biggest issue over the last few months. When he first came into the starting 11 at RWB and was fighting to retain his place, he was so direct and menacing when attacking; now he's often very languid. I don't know if he needs replacing outright when it comes to our starting line-up, but we certainly need to find someone who is able to provide him with some serious competition. At the moment he risks heading the way Ivanovic eventually did under Mourinho once he realised that he was undroppable.

We were really poor in the 1st half, almost to a man (Cahill and Pedro being the notable exceptions). There was significant improvement in the 2nd half, but that was offset by Moses' stupidity. And as much as I value the contributions that Matic has made to our season (more than a fair few appear to do), his performance today was genuinely one of the worst that I can remember witnessing by ANY Chelsea player for some time; it was right down there with some of the worst individual displays from last season. On the ball he was fine, but off it..... unbelievable. The number of times that Arsenal were able to pass it around him with ease whilst he was strolling around out-of-position was extraordinary. Add to that Hazard being anonymous from minute 60 onwards (he should have come off instead of Pedro, his body language was terrible), Kante having one of his poorest games this season, and Moses continuing along the downhill trajectory that he's been on since January (he's lost almost all of the refreshing directness that I could swear he used to possess), and you have.... well.... what we got: a very poor ending to what IS NONETHELESS an excellent season. I just wish that we handn't lost our collective composure in those last few minutes: everyone, including the relatively fresh subs, began giving the ball away at will; even Fabregas' long-passing went to shit.

Costa must be REALLY (REALLY) popular and influential in the dressing-room, because I really can't see any other reason for why he hasn't been dropped at this point. I mean, I could understand Conte's handling of this issue if Costa had shown him loyalty and an exemplary overall attitude during their time together, but he hasn't; all indications are that he DID actually make some sort of a push for a move in January, and that this came after he had ALREADY done something similar in the summer. They guy clearly isn't committed to this club, and he's an absolutely awful (close to genuinely useless) player when off-form, so drop him and sell him. Play a front 3 of Hazard-Pedro-Willian for the remainder of the season to try to get us over the line, and then get a long-term replacement at CF. If it's possible (and it may well not be), I'd get Alexis Sanchez, and have us roll with a front 3 of Hazard-Sanchez-Pedro/Willian next season. It's really saddening that it's come (back) to this, as I had (like just about everyone) been very impressed with him over the first half of the season. I had hoped that he might finally have settled into life at Chelsea, but it seems not.

That's more than fair fair enough, and it makes perfect sense to me. If we're in the CL next season and are making a serious effort to be genuinely competitive, certain improvements will probably have to be made to the starting 11; Matic, Cahill, and possibly one of either Moses or Alonso are the players who appear most vulnerable at the moment. That being said, we can only reach a certain level of overall squad depth and quality before we risk harming squad unity. I think that Willian, Cahill, and Moses/Alonso would all be fine with 'expanded squad roles' next season (the season after that, I'm not so sure), but Fabregas and Matic are the two that I can see leaving under these circumstances. Pedro could also be a worry if we strengthen the forward line, as he didn't leave the club he loves (Barcelona) to find himself with the same squad role that he already had (despite the form he's been in this season, he's almost certain to be the man to lose-out if someone new and 'shiny' arrives and Hazard+Costa are retained).

You said that you'd 'rip into' Matic and Willian for what they fail to bring to the team, and implied that their lack of quality was such that they are not worthy of sharing a team with Hazard. At least that's how your post reads to me. Even after re-reading it. If you meant differently, then fair enough. But using terms like 'rip into' when describing your own criticism of some of our players seems over the top to me given what they have contributed so far this season. Too many people give the impression that players who play for the team they support MUST be starting 11 quality outright or they can gtfo. I'm tired of encountering this attitude seemingly everywhere nowadays, and so maybe I'm too quick to confront people who are raising more valid points that I have misinterpreted.

Both of those players have brought plently to the team so far this season. I mean, Willian's got 7 goals and 3 assists as a squad player who has played only just over half the minutes that Hazard (10 goals 5 assists) has this season; this is the sort of return you want from a squad player, isn't it? By my calculations, the attacking contributions of Willian (and Fabregas) have been vital in ensuring that we have our current 8-point lead. Willian has scored the winning goals against Hull, Man City, and Stoke (6 points right there), whilst also making impotant contributions against Burnley (scored the second goal to kill the game), Sunderland (assisted Fabregas' winner), and Leicester (had a big hand in two of the three goals). Fabregas has provided crucial assists against Watford (for the winner), Man City (for the equaliser), Bournemouth (for the winner), and Stoke (two assists that were the difference between a draw and a win), whilst also scoring the aforementioned winner against Sunderland. Basically, the two of them have been excellent squad players so far this season, and are EXACTLY the calibre of player that we should be aiming to have as 'first-choice' rotational options. Sure, both of them have been inconsistent (particularly Willian), but that's what happens to any player who isn't allowed the opportunity to establish a rhythm within the first 11. And as for Matic.... Yeah, the guy has clear limitations to his game, and yeah, he should probably not start quite as many games as he does, BUT he was excellent for around four of the first five months of this season, and was absolutely crucial to the initial implementation of the 3-4-3. He has (and will continue to have) a very important role within the current set-up, limitations and all. Seriously, what type of squad depth do you (and others) think we can realistically achieve? Even clubs like Barca, Real, and Bayern struggle to keep their higher-quality squad players happy and contributing, and EVEN these clubs do NOT possess world-class talent throughout their benches. And speaking of world-class talent, Hazard (who I belive IS a world-class player, despite what other posters have been saying) CANNOT simply coast on his inherent quality and put in displays like he did against Wolves; his attitude and application absolutely stank the place out. It's notable that over the last month or two it is Pedro (a very good player indeed, but not on Hazard's level in terms of raw ability) who is looking increasingly like the key man in our 3-man forward line, being the one who seems to contribute the most in terms of both direct attacking contributions AND positional/defensive work at the moment.

Simply a great win, with fine contributions from (just about) eveyone. All the better because it transforms our draw at Liverpool from a decent result into a very good one. Great to see Hazard recover from his mini-slump at the perfect time; hopefully he can regain some genuine momentum. A shame that Fabregas, Zouma, and Azpilicueta got their wires crossed at the very end for Giroud's goal, as Courtois (and the defence as a unit) deserved a clean sheet today; this is only a very minor gripe, though.

I think it's less to do with Willian being better in possession than Pedro, and more to do with him being able to dribble through a press to devastating effect when he's on-form. Still a bit of a risk, though, as Pedro generally works better in our current system than Willian. That being said, high-pressing physical opponents HAVE been Pedro's (only?) weakness so far this season. Either way, I'd expect Pedro to return against Arsenal.

Positive confirmation bias. It happens all the time with footballers like Willian who tend to be so polarising: those who don't rate them are always on the lookout for errors and poor decision-making, whilst those who appreciate them more tend to place too much focus on the good things they do. In each case, significantly greater emphasis is placed upon the events that support the preconceptions that are held by the specific observer in question.

I agree with most of this, as Willian's decision-making in the final-third has always been one of his key weaknesses. I don't quite agree with your assessment of the contribution he made to our goal today, however, as I actually thought it was an uncharacteristically sharp bit of play: Fabregas had the better angle and more of the goal to aim at (because Djilobodji was closing Willian down in anticipation of an extra touch or a shot). And despite it otherwise being 'one of those games' as far as some of Willian's decision-making is concerned, he's generally been outperforming the previously excellent Pedro over the last few matches (Man City and Sunderland specifically). Not sure I'd bring him into the starting line-up just yet, mind, as I think Pedro fits the system slightly better, but he's beginning to ask the question whilst Pedro's beginning to flag.