Tomo

And to add, it's not like we have many over 30's in the squad, only really Cahill, Luiz, Caballero, Pedro and soon to be Willian are over 27 even and one is about to leave, one is a keeper and two others have had there roles reduced. If our squad was in a similar position as 2009 (ala over half the squad ageing with a manager overreliant on experience on the way in) i would say no, but this squad could really do with a player off Arturo's profile.

I definitely agree with that.

If we are getting a natural LB to play LWB then we need to be looking at wingers for RWB, Moses isn't particularly great defensively but barely gets exposed because he has Cesar looking after him in that regard, so we need attacking impetuous over defensive solidarity in that position.

The only two times Conte has truly gone defensive at Chelsea was Spurs this season and Anfield last. You could argue his sketchy record against Arsenal is due to opening up a bit too much, especially with this fixture last season.

Im going to put this out there. Rashford is the new Welbeck, he had his honeymoon period but in reality he is a very average player.

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I disagree, i can't think of many other players who could have carried us the way Eden has. Apart from Messi, who can change direction at full speed and still have the ball firmly planted at their feet like Eden can? Who ( again apart from Messi) can change speed while running with the ball like Eden can? All these players who supposedly are much better (Neymar, Suarez, Bale, even Ronaldo) waste possession so much more than Hazard does. Literally everything has been set up for him to fail with us, He gets clattered numerous times every single game. Doubled and sometimes tripled up on, 1 on 1? Forget it, not even the likes of Azpi and Alderwierld could live with him 1 vs 1. Playing with limited team mates, the only players during his time here clever enough to link up with him are Mata, Cesc, Eto'o and Morata and the first three were/are limited by either lack of athleticsm or ageing. Playing under coaches like Benitez and Mourinho who are hardly reknowned for developing attacking talent, Conte isn't as bad as those two, but equally he isn't Pep or Klopp in the attacking football stakes either. He has been successful swimming against a tide for his whole time here and those other players have been playing in a lot more favourable conditions that pander to their talents, Hazard has hit the heights he has playing in a team with a lot of limitations. Also in the 15/16 season he was undeniably in the worst form of his career AND had a hip injury (for perspective Eric Lamela has just returned from a year absence due to a hip injury) yet still averaged 2.4 chances created a game, that is ridiculous, and he doesn't even take set pieces, i can't think of many other players who would touch such a positive stat while injured, off form and the club in the worst moment for over 2 decades, Messi probably would, anyone else? Forget it. If he could add more goals then ofcourse, nobody will be complaining but if he does i want it to be natural evolution, not forced (ala him taking 10 low percentage shots just to score 1) and it shouldn't be used as a deal breaker for him to be a top 3 player, he comfortably is for me and not only that, the best player we have ever had.

Hazard doesn't need to score to have god like games, many many times he's been 10/10 without doing so. If a winger/AM's status in the game is decided on goals scored then it's simply wrong on every level. He didn't score in either game vs Atleti or vs United but was sensational in all 3, if he performs like that for half the season does it even matter if he only scores 10 or even 5? Not for me. Hazard as he is is 100000000x more preferable to a Hazard who starts taking low percentage shots just to pad out his goal tally.

Actually he is very good at making runs, creating space and wiping out markers, he caused merry hell vs Man.Utd, Matic ironically couldn't live with his movement, doing that and is a big reason we can now for the most part pull off 352.

im not making any excuses for this performance but United, Spurs and even City all struggled vs BHA too, they certainly didn't dominate, Arsenal laboured to a win, only Liverpool out of our rivals dominated them the way you are describing.

Im not usually one to glorify ex players but we miss Costa in these type of games, his movement to create space was pivotal.

He wasn't any better than what he usually was, he just looked it because of how bad things got.

I wouldn't say they are prospering either.

If they are trying to claim he is just a normal player they are beyond jealous or know nothing about football.

I would hardly call us United's feeder club, if anything it's the other way round. You know it's Matic and Mata that's gone there not Hazard and Kante right?

Tbf, the wingback Ciyy brought for back up is just as bad.

Hardly, our big game record in games Bosingwa played was truly abysmal. Barca was a freak exception to the rule with him.

I agree Lukaku could have had a place in our squad, probably the role Bats has got now would suit his ability's, problem is he wanted an undisputed starting place something he isn't good enough for now let alone then. Di Santo was long before this policy begun but re the other two, yes not all will work out but it's been a policy thats worked well for us. The players that aren't quite good enough or want to be more than squad players (Ake, Traore, Lukaku) we can sell on and with the money buy players that are good enough, it's worth noting selling Rom basically payed for Costa a move thats been more than justified. Then when we find players that are good enough we basically have a big money signing for free, i dread to think how much Tibo and Christensen would have cost had Leti and BM owned them.

We either made a profit or basically get a multimillion signing for free, win win for all parties, players included.

Yes, but we are fans, we are all quite clueless in the grand scheme of things, that plus we were still in the honeymoon period of having Jose back, we were always going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Jose himself and the board however should have known better.

If that was the case wouldn't the deal have been done immediately? If wiki is not lying to me the deal was made permanent on 3rd August 2016, meaning Conte would have had a month to try to change his mind if he wanted to.

Well the one good thing that will come from the KDB saga is we will think twice before selling players of that potential again. Not really bothered about Salah, as already covered above he's in a set up that caters to his game, what also has gone unchecked it was actually after Conte's arrival we sold him. If Antonio wanted or rated him he would atleast have tried to convince him to come back.

He would comfortably be considered 2nd best player in the world (which he is now Ronaldo is finally declining) had he been playing under Pep.

First time we are facing Arsenal at The Bridge in anything other than the league since 2004, sorry for taking your job @Jason on another note kinda glad we got them, them finally getting a draw at The Bridge irked me and now we can keep up the record of beating them at home every season for ages, im OCD like that.

Not recently they haven't. 343 is needed for this, Allardyce is almost certainly going to try and close down the centre of the park like Moyes did, so we need to stretch Everton and open up the game.