DYC.

Well I expected the top teams not to perform really well. The busy summer and the top teams of the PL being filled with internationals, it makes sense to me. If you refuse to believe that's the reason, that's up to you.

Look at the performances of the top 6/7, it's not a coincidence no one looked really good. It's because a lot of didn't get proper rest. This is a good opportunity to make use of some of the squad players, with the Newcastle game in mind.

Cech Ivanovic Luiz Terry Bertrand Lampard Romeu Oscar Hazard* Sturridge Malouda *Free role from the right, Malouda providing width. Not gonna happen but im allowed to dream. Think this is the perfect opportunity to start with Oscar, playing at home and all. Especially if the coach isn't planning on starting him against Newcastle. He needs to establish a understanding with the team quickly. Rest Mata, didn't look good against City and Wigan. And looking at the upcoming games, I think this is a good opportunity to give Danny a chance up front.

Didn't know he only had a year left on his contract. Even more the reason for us to get him (but no links sadly). But looking at Nasri, who also had just 1 year left on his contract, joining City for 25 mil, I think Fulham would demand more than 10.

£10 mil? I find that hard to believe as that would be an absolute steal. I'd even get him for £20-£25 mil really. He'd make a wonderful addition to the team. I'd much rather have him than Fellaini. Having a CM with his work-rate and who can defend like him combined with his excellent ball retention is ideal. He's also a wonderful dribbler and a solid passer. He's as strong as a ox as well, fast too. Still needs to work on a few areas thoigh, especially his off the ball movement in possession. A midfield three with Oscar, Dembele & Mikel/Romeu, yes please.

When you say goes to ground, you mean sliding tackles right? But tackle succes rates are about both standing tackles and sliding tackles. Mikel is a awful sliding tackler tbh. His timing is just all wrong. But he hardly does sliding tackles so his tackle succes rate almost solely include standing tackles. Mikel does get too much stick most of time imo but he does need to improve his defensive play. When watching Carrick last season at Utd or Lucas at Liverpool in '10/11 for example, you can't help but wish you had a DM like that in your team.

That's a different discussion. Torres was told he'd be the number 1 striker this season. Going by that, if we're in the market for a striker, it'll be a back-up striker. If we are looking for someone to really challenge the number 1 striker spot, then Bebrbatov is not the player we should be looking at yeah. Hernandez won't join. And he's useless with the ball anyway, giving you a huge disadvantage against when facing good opposition.

Two completely unrelated issues. We need a back-up striker as going into the season with just Torres and Sturridge is very risky, arguably too risky. In this case, Berbatov is ideal as he only has a few years left and Lukaku will need at least two years of regular football before he's actually Chelsea material.

Why not? The last thing we need is a young striker with Sturridge and Lukaku at the club. Berbatov as a back-up striker for the next two years would be great. By that time, Lukaku would be ready to actually play a part in the first team.

It's not the first time Bran remained very cool in front of goal. Oddly enough, he possesses striker-esque composure when facing the GK. I wonder when he'll be allowed to fire long range FKs for us, not all the time of course, like he does at the Serbian NT btw.

Great game against Wigan. If it wasn't for Hazard winning us the game, he'd be my man of the match. Just needs to work on his aggression. Often it's just unnecessary.

That's true, he does defend against Barca. But only against Barca.

Cristiano defends? That's a rarity tbh but he scores 50+ goals so no one cares. It is important for the attacking players to help out defensively, mostly putting pressure, but not too much. Amen, bar special cases like Ronaldinho for example. It gives the players more options, I just don't understand how it's so unpopular.

Thought Frank had a good game.

The thing is we can always count on Arsenal suffering a lot injuries. And of course their lack of mental strength. Though we might have some problems with that as well this season. Key word being might.

We can't let Man City sign De Rossi. Imagine De Rossi and Toure in midfield.. We should hijack the deal, he would be a immense buy.

It's weird isn't it? Available for a one year loan yet 0 links. I'm sure Mourinho would like to do his former club a favour while Sahin would love playing with the likes of Mata, Hazard and Oscar. And if he were to regain his Dortmund form, he'd be a starter for sure. After a year, we get (a hopefully improved) De Bruyne back.

I love his directness. We definitely lack a player like that in our squad. He does lack a final ball yeah but having him come off the bench against tired legs will be great, just like with SWP. 10 mil is a bit much but that's the market today.

Bad game but we won and kept a clean sheet, which is the most important. Our performance was a bit worrying but it's too early to draw conclusions due to the busy summer. Luiz was very good though he needs to tone down the aggression a bit and try to win balls more cleanly. Hazard won us this game so great start from him. We had zero threat from the left. While Bertrand did cover and defend well, I hope we won't see him up front anymore as Wigan were allowed to solely focus on defending their left flank.

Come on Chelsea. Put them under pressure and control the game. Can't allow them to score one.

That wasn't the point. We spend 10x as much as Wigan and they would switch squads with us in a heart beat yet we should worry about how to stop them? They should be the ones concerned about how to stop our players.

Come on, we're Chelsea. We should be ashamed if we have to adapt in such ways when facing the likes of Wigan. We just have to win this game. Hope Di Matteo goes with a 4-3-3 because 4-2-3-1 is not the way to go when facing teams who'll mostly sit back.

Goal against Holland, hard to miss but still, and a goal again Pool. And from what I've heard, it was good allround performance as well. Keep it up Melu.

What a pass to set up Belgium's 4th goal! He has to make it here, he just has to.

Good point. Though I think without Terry we lack organization which still makes us vulnerable at the back. Top priority should be getting a world-class CB. Just look at Kompany's effect on City, Vidic for Utd and many other examples in the past.