Tomo

You hit the nail on the head by saying in contrast to his other season's, ofcourse he was poor by his standards but not to the depth's fans and Jose made out. Plus the fact he was playing with a hip injury plus the wear and tear from being overplayed the two seasons previous must be factored. Guus didn't drop him, he was easing him back in due to the same injury flarring up again, from then on he slowly looked like his old self again culminating in making Spurs and Liverpool look like idiot's. He more than can be, he already is the best player in this league, he carries us and (in my opinion ofcourse) if he spends his whole career here (or leaves when he's past his prime) then our greatest ever player won't or atleast shouldn't be debatable. Numbers matter more than anything in this day and age. Not when it comes to Hazard, he has had many godlike games without scoring and if he has 15-20 off such games he'd be my POTY even if he doesn't score again this season.

Even in the Jose meltdown period he was like 7th in key chances created, despite playing through injury and the club being in it's worse place for decades. I still can't believe people thought he was a problem back then. Unfortunately he will never get the credit he deserves due to the average fans obsession with goals and assist plus the unfair and untrue stigma around his 15/16 season.

I wonder if City fans will moan that West Brom rolled over for us while playing the game of their lives against them

United fans trying to convince themselves at the start that they got the better striker gets funnier by the week, Morata is so much better in general play Lukaku will have to score atleast 20 more than him for it to even be debatable.

Im far from a fan of Wilkins and i think he's one of the worst pundits going,but bar that ludicrous Willian selection that team is pretty spot on bar maybe Azpi squeezed in somewhere.

Cahill's a better option in a back 3.

Back in 2010 we were criticised for the Neymar pursuit because we had Kakuta, enough said.

Pep likes his fullbacks to go into centre midfield during general play, so in that Delph at fullback works well, infact similar to Moses as wingback as Conte likes them to go forward and offer width but they aren't totally responsible to end product, which is Moses weakness.

That's your opinion and reasoning, fair enough. The difference between you and Wright, Wilkins is i highly doubt they had any agenda in mind bar having a dig at the club. If Jake Livermore was from our academy they would have probably claimed he was better than Baka aswell.

The narrative has been set. Every single time RLC or Chalobah play well for club and especially country the same cliche riddles idiot's will revert to "he's better than Bakayoko, what are Chelsea doing?" Beyond cringeworthy.

Andreas Bjelland, Brentford CB, those 2 must seriously work if they are keeping Christensen out.

To score 6 IIRC within 4 months surely meant something. He's failing to even hit the target now, which is a drastic difference. Was good, but before and after that period he was pretty poor at them.

Did he ever really have it? That minor purple patch during the Jose meltdown period aside i dont ever recall him being that great at them, and he's certainly living of that reputation now. Outside of said purple patch he's took loads and scored how many? I can only think of the semi vs Spurs and 1 vs Brentford i think, and i can't recall that many threatening one's either.

I think MOST of the hatred towards him was for two reason's. Him replacing Wilkins as assistant, which while Ray was a great player for us and i appreciate him as part of our history, every time i listen to him speak football my first thought in my mind is idiot and that included his post match interviews with us. Hiddink and Carlo are quite mild mannered so probably tolerated the bizzare things he came out with but lord knows what Jose, Conte or even Benitez would have made of him. Secondly was his interview after Jose got sacked, which was very poorly timed and worded yes but if someone still thinks sacking Jose was the wrong decision i'd love to hear from them. The average Chelsea fan tends to act with the heart over head method, which is positive in many ways but can also tend to make us look a bit silly at times, ala booing our player's home game after Jose's sacking and some ridiculous comments about Lamps and Cole when AVB left.

Maybe this was more down to instruction from Conte to retreat, Danny not fully upto speed or the opposition becoming fearless in the late stages, maybe all 3, but i feel bringing Drinkwater on to see out the games vs Bournemouth and United hasn't really worked and has invited pressure. Ok not to Jose bringing on Mikel extent but it is something that's needs to be noted as i can imagine this ain't the last time we are bringing Danny on to see games out this season, especially if 352 in the bigun's is now here to stay.

On a side note, is this the first time Jose has lost the same big away game two years on the spin? Even at Real he didn't lose two years in a row at the Camp Nou? Infact is this the first time he has lost the same fixture (in any competition) three times on the spin?

Signings like Papy & Hector are the reason people disliked him. Can never prove it but i am almost certain that was down to Jose insisting Pogba and Stones or bust, which led to us backing him in that and then panicking when we realised they weren't coming. Compared to under Conte where we have made positive deadline day deals, it's not a coincidence.

The outcry of his sacking was mental, only beaten since by Rafa's appointment.

The whole hatred of him was truly bizarre, all because he replaced Ray Wilkins as assistant manager.

This is why i can't take criticism of his goal record seriously, if he only scores 10 this season but play's like he did vs Leti and today in half the big games, who cares?

You ain't letting this go are you? However my new job my boss and his brother are WBA fans, so it will be my worst nightmare if we beat.

I thought he was great vs Bournemouth aswell despite that ludicrous miss.

How many times did we nick the ball of United in dangerous area's? I thought we struggle with pressing but they take it to new extreme's, watching them vs City will be hilarious.

What's the odds he claims United dominated because they were better for like the first 5 minutes?

Works both ways, City fans aren't particularly happy with the fact they have splashed big money on the likes of Stones and Walker while we have Azpi and Christensen for peanut's. Also just like us, they tend to rest on their laurel's after title.