The Skipper

3 weeks is fine. What games does he miss?

Season has barely started, very stupid from Charly - essentially closed down his window of opportunity for the rest of the season. One of Pedro or Willian get injured and he’s the first off the bench at the least. He had a good chance of breaking through slowly but alas, he goes and says that publicly - not only will Conte not like it, the club themselves won’t. Why’s he acting like he so deserves to be starting or something already? Why is he not communicating this directly to the manager? When he couldn’t even break into Real Betis’ first 11 last season... he shouldn’t be acting like he definitely deserves a spot just yet.

Kante’s an important player and we’ll miss him but the midfield is fine, nowhere near as bad as a let’s a Morata or Hazard injury. I’m ok with a Fabregas - Bakayoko or DD - Bakayoko or even Fab - DD midfield. Even push Luiz there. It’s bad but we aren’t screwed.

Watched Nate at youth level lots, I must say that his destiny as a player is that of a profile similar to Bakayoko’s - a pretty strong, decently technical defensive midfielder. Drinkwater’s partnership with Kante when they won the title is quite similar to that of Matic - Kante. He’s a decent defensive CM with good passing range, so a deep lying playmaker. Similar profile to Matic. It’s a shame he’s injured but he should be back after this international break to confirm the above. Even Conte’s alluded to keeping Matic and Bakayoko. I think I remember him mentioning that he wanted to break Bakayoko into the team slowly, as an understudy to Matic. Thus, it isn’t inconceivable that Matic ~> Drinkwater and Chalobah ~> Bakayoko.

If we look at the profiles of both players - wouldn’t you say that Baka is Chalobah’s replacement, whilst Drinkwater is more like Matic? Of course Baka > Chalobah and Matic > Drinkwater, but my main point really is it’s weird to compare Matic and Bakayoko and say that Matic is a better passer for example when they’ve got completely different profiles.

When? Conte doesn’t rate Batshuayi, that much was clear when he pretty much refused to start him during Diego’s half year absence. Don’t like Conte’s treatment of Batshuayi at all.

Hope Eden makes Messi-like demands about wanting the club to sign some top players in his contract talks.

One bad game against the best team in the division (mainly due to the way Conte set up and responded with in game management) and suddenly we forget how good the partnership versus Atletico was, and now we’re also trying to romanticise how good Matic was in big games, when he wasn’t. This guy’s had no pre season and has still put in some very good performances, amongst one or two average to bad ones, and now we’re clamoring back for Matic. As many have told me on here - Drinkwater is Matic’s replacement, remember? If there’s anyone you want to compare Nemanja to it’ll have to be him.

Well Bats, you’ve been waiting for your chance. Here it is.

Funnily enough we missed him big time today.

Honestly. Would be incredibly sad but 5 years of this nonsense is hard man. When you have a player like Eden and don’t build around him properly it’s incredibly sad. At least we’ve taken a step forward with Morata but we really do need another top quality forward to help him.

Seriously hope that £50m offer from United was just a rumour because boy... Conte will continue to pick him though.

Our most talented defender.

Well, mostly execution but also game plan. The game plan changed after Morata went off - around the 30th minute. Only had 2 more shots all game since then.

No, don’t expect to play an open attacking game against City but we could’ve approached the game in a much more positive manner. Instead of trying to get the best out of the best talent in our team (Hazard) we were only too worried about the threats City offered. We didn’t cause them any sort of problems, why? We set up to play on the break but we’re the home team. After Morata went off we went from playing on the break to playing for a draw. That’s when the performance went downhill - Conte didn’t want to risk playing with a CF that could’ve stretched the City back line a bit more, even though we already had 9/10 men behind the ball. That was the biggest problem of this performance alongside the rest of Conte’s in game management that @MrExcalibur100 outlined pretty well. As soon as he chose Willian instead of Michy I knew we were finished. That was the difference between our performance last season and the one we’ve just witnessed. Completely lost the ambition and mentality to win the game. Look at Conte’s post match comments, he’s actually ok with the performance.

They played well but we didn’t. We were more offensive in that game but that’s not exactly hard is it? We played with 9 men behind the ball today, at home. I don’t care if it’s City or Barcelona or PSG or Madrid, we have enough quality in the team to not play like that at home. Conte gave Arsenal too much respect, and he gave City even more.

Batshuayi is much more of an outlet than Willian. It was just a massive mistake from Conte who doesn’t really like Batshuayi to begin with. He read the game in completely the wrong manner. Willian is dead in the final third.

Same. Truly appalled. It’s a recurring theme - in the PL we seem to give the big teams way too much respect this season. Same against Arsenal a few games back.

Worst tactical performance in a big game since the Atletico away semi final. Shocking stuff from Conte, genuinely can’t understand his dislike for Michy. I hope he’s learnt his lesson. Genuinely cant believe he set us up to play like the away team today. Such an embarrassing performance. Gave City way too much respect. This is a huge result for them.

Love for dropping our vid on TC bro.

Mbappe sends most people for donuts. Shudder to think what he’d do to Alonso. I’d take Alaba. Think he needs a new challenge in a new league. He certainly is better than Alonso still, even if he has had two poor seasons by his standard.

A win would be a huge statement.

Must say - thought he had a relatively good game yesterday. Credit where credit’s due.

Looks like the PLs physicality’s helping Alvaro already. Way he bullied some of the strongest La Liga defending was incredible. He’s stepping up to the challenge big time, and he’ll only get better once his understanding with Hazard improves. Very complete performance, his hold up play was actually outstanding. If this is the sort of player we’ll get on a consistent basis... he’s already winning me over. Still giving him a season to settle in though - think he’ll actually be better next season.

Always say Kante is Ramires with a proper football brain.