The Skipper

He's insane. Ripping the Eredivisie atm.

Not sure if I want to see Benteke rape Cahill again. Hopefully Luiz or Azpi (so Iva plays at CB) play instead of Cahill for this one. Not going to be an easy game. Hopefully we show the gooners how it's done though. My starting XI if everyone was fit: Cech Ivanovic - Luiz - Terry - Cole Mikel - MVG Moses - Mata - Hazard/Schurrle Lukaku Take off Mata, Terry maybe Luiz or Cole when the game's hopefully comfortable. Should be good enough to produce a good result against Villa. COYB! Then again, not playing Terry is basically forfeiting his aerial presence during set pieces and with the long direct game Villa do play (long balls to Benteke for example). People really over exaggerate how slow Terry is - he's never been quick to begin with, he's always relied on positional sense and being in the right place rather than his recovery ability. Terry played well against Villa at the end of last season so it really isn't as big as a problem you're trying to make it seem to be.

Going to have a great season.

He was decent in almost everything today but I expect more.

After one game? God.

Don't forget we have United on the following Monday so we need to rotate the squad. Highly doubt we'll play the same team tbh.

Oscar and Ramires ran the show. Hands down.

We are playing absolutely brilliant. Nothing negative to be said.

Hazard could've easily had 1 or 2 by now.

Could've easily been like 2-0 now.

David Luiz: Chelsea conceded an avg of 0.79 goals per Premier League game with Luiz starting last season, compared to 1.78 without him #CFC

Exactly this. He feels himself he isn't ready for a big club, couple that with the fact that Southampton don't want to sell and that Southampton are now a decent PL side and you'll easily see that he isn't as attainable as you're making him out to be.He's obviously an obvious transfer target but he's very hard to attain. You can't say the scouts failed because of that because no other big club has signed him either.

Mata wasn't called up by the Spanish team.

I'm very sure that top clubs, not just Chelsea, had a look at the guy but couldn't get him because Southampton were not looking to sell him. Even if he did sign a new contract, Southampton have no reason to sell if a big offer came in as they're financially a very stable Premier League club now.

Ever considered that Southampton aren't selling for a realistic price?

Wouldn't be surprised if Luiz and Mata started. Jose's pulled that "they won't play" trick off before.

There's one thing not liking a certain player, but it's another being ignorant and saying he's shit when he clearly isn't.

Was anyone WHINING about how we sold him just now? All people were discussing is that he scored a goal and how Jose would've loved working with him. That's barely whining. Like I said, if you hate reading anything positive about Sturridge just avoid this thread whenever he does score.

I don't think anyone is rating Moses over KDB. Everyone knows KDB has more talent. All people are saying is that Moses was our best player in pre season. Which I incline to agree with.

The Drogba thread gets bumped whenever he scores too, should we delete that as well? There's an ex player thread to discuss an ex-player. This is ridiculous, no one is asking you to come here and read the thread. You can simply ignore it. Bloody hell.

*hypothetically* Lukaku, Sturridge & Rooney strikeforce would be insane especially given the fact that they can actually all play with each other when we really need goals late in the game (Sturridge on the right as an inside forward, Lukaku up top, and Rooney as a second striker?). Mourinho would've loved that. Unfortunately we aren't in that situation because of a certain ladyboy though.

If he stays injury free I'm very sure he will.

Of course he is, he settled that before the start of pre season. They're much more than just promising players now, they're both ready to step in and contribute massively this season.

Torres? Hard working? Hehehehehe.

Jose would've loved Sturridge IMO.