Bir_CFC

Word.

Not sure if he'll succeed here but I am hoping with all my might that we've finally found a left back that can last more than a season.

My Fiorentina supporting friend is astonished at the fee. Said he's not worth that fee at all. 10m player according to him. If Conte is going to give Hazard more freedom, you'd want a great defender behind him.

Bat shoo aah yiii! I like it.

His form is largely also because Conte is allowing him to play much higher on the pitch. He often is able to get 1 on 1 instead of the 2 or 3 on 1 he always used to encounter.

Sometimes must be going on. He started every game if he was available last season so there was no reason to suspect anything less this season. It's still early, let's hope it's nothing and he's back starting soon.

My Fiorentina supporting friend about Marcos Alonso (I'd trust him over anyone else in this thread): He's decent, but not really Chelsea starter material if you ask me. He's definitely worse than Azpi. Athletically he's very good, tall, strong, fast. He is indeed a presence in the flank. But he looks lost defensively and lacks initiative offensively. 10M would be a fair price.

Why does it block it? LB: Rodriguez & Baba RB: Azpi & Aina Nothing wrong with that.

Surely there's gotta be a statute of limitations here. How can FA charge him for comments he made 4 years ago. He wasn't even playing in a FA governed league at that time. Doesn't make sense at all. Surely, Burnley will contest.

I know a Real Madrid supporter. He says James doesn't get minutes because he's too busy partying. Doesn't train well, while he's good offensively, he doesn't put in any effort on defense, doesn't track back either.

Def agree, hence my criticism. But if the team and the manager's playing style is long balls or just getting the ball to the flanks and crossing blindly, it's going to be demoralize Boga when he's the only one who wants to play possession football, quick 1-2s, etc. Just look at Betis for Charly's sake. Not a great team, but they do try to actually play football so lots of chances for Charly to influence the game. Granada were playing like a Championship team. Hopefully it improves, as it's just 1 game but I do fear this being a poor loan for Boga's development. It was very much reminiscent of a Hazard (walking mode) performance when a lackluster Chelsea team fails to inspire him. It's partly Hazard's fault of course but you can't argue the lack of an increased tempo possession football doesn't also have an impact.

Eden Hazard : Teammates http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/slowest-laziest-angriest-eden-hazard-8681039

I watched the Granada match. He was very passive in looking for the ball. Walked around the entire match. Very poor effort off the ball offensively. That said, Granada play horrible football. I think it's going to be a really bad loan for him due to Granada's playing style.

Btw Cahill asked Ivan to pick up the Watford player, even though Cahill should have been marking him. You can see on the replay Cahill clearly asking Ivan for help. And then Cahill was marking no one. Its def Cahill fault and whoever else that should have ran back with Capoue.

Kante shouldn't be a holding midfielder. He did ok there but looks so much better when he has freedom of the entire pitch to play as a box to box. Let Matic sit instead and play Kante as a box to box.

These cards for dissent are fucking stupid. Refs just seem to hand em out for minimal shit. Did he really deserve one today? And then when he should be booked, they don't book him. Stupidest stuff ever.

Oil? What you need oil for? Bitch, you cooking?

I think he was just ok. Still room for improvement. Not sure his current position is best for him as he seemed lost at times. Hopefully he improves with time.

Must keep him. Oscar had a great game but it'd be naive to rely on him replicating that performance for the entirety of the season. If Cesc doesn't work with the team, sell him next season but he's too good to not keep around at least one more season, especially if we're playing 4-3-3 now.

Training the 4-2-4 paid dividends. The run by Michy, knock down and run by Costa were exactly like plays being run in preseason. So great to see that we got a goal from a practiced set play.

Lets get ittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!! Hugely important match. A win is a must, it'll give everyone so much confidence. A loss and all the confidence gained from the preseason, new coach/tactics, etc. can be in jeopardy. The way preseason went, I'm confident though, just hope we don't concede any fluke goals. That's my only worry. Some bum taking a 30 yard shot which gets 20 deflections and goes in the back of the net. We had way too many of those last season.

What does the camel emoji mean? Sorry not well versed in these things.

Arsenal didn't really play that bad tbh. Liverpool just had these moments that you couldn't really do anything about. Either Liverpool will continue this and be up there with title contenders or Mane and Coutinho don't end up scoring a better goal than those all season.

Watching all the top contenders this week, it's so obvious that we clearly have the best AM in the league. There is not one player in the league that can even get close to Eden. There are great players to be found, but one similar to Eden isn't around. He's our trump card. If he's on form, he can win us a title again on his own. The biggest thing difference with Conte I've found is that he's drilling our players to play very quick through the midfield to get the wingers 1 on 1 against the opposition fullback. 1 on 1, there isn't a man that can hold Eden back. Hell even Willian and Cuadrado can do decent damage 1 on 1. Just hope our defence can play well. Payet isn't pacey, so he doesn't really scare me as much tbh. I think Ivanovic can just push him off the pitch and into the stands.

That Mane goal was filthy! Not sure he'll score a better goal than that all season.