Pizy

While I thought we mostly handled him well yesterday, Luis Diaz is the exact sort of wide player we need this summer. Someone you can play the ball out to over and over and he will aggressively attack in 1v1 situations. Pulisic is like that when in top form. CHO was sort of like that before he got his big injury and now he can beat anyone out wide. Ziyech is more of a dead ball specialist who can’t really run past players consistently. And sadly it looks like Werner is never going to come good at Chelsea. I think Werner goes this summer for sure. For his sake more than anything. So at least 1 wide player will certainly come in. If the choice is between Raphinha and Dembele I’d definitely choose Raphinha but both fit the bill.

Sad to lose a final in such dramatic fashion but it’s the League Cup so it’s hard to get upset. Especially after such an encouraging performance. Thought we were every bit as good as they were and if we had our full strength XI all season we’d be right there with them competeting for the league. Delighted that Reece is back and looked good having not played in a couple months.

Salah just flops to the ground and wins that free kick. Cons the ref YET AGAIN.

The replay I saw showed him comfortably onside.

Our best performance in months but zero composure in the box. Two sitters missed that could cost us dearly.

Yeah, this could get really ugly if we don’t play proactively and try to go at them. If we cede control to them they’ll just try to abuse Alonso and Azpi on each flank as often as they can. We need to be aggressive and try to pin their fullbacks deep.

Hope we give a great account of ours.eves here and don’t play as poorly as we have recently. With the form Liverpool are in they could completely batter us if we aren’t careful.

Seems like rather than just directing their venom at Abramovich himself the entire football world is treating Chelsea itself as the enemy. So we can probably expect an extremely hostile, poisonous atmosphere at Wembley today and for the remainder of the season. Hopefully the players don’t get rattled.

All of these journalists and pundits baying for the blood of Roman (figuratively) is one thing. It’s almost understandable given the horrible situation in Ukraine. But all these assholes almost begging for action against our club itself are disgusting. Why the fuck should the players, the coaches, the staff, and most importantly the tens of millions of supporters be punished at all? Nearly every one of these billionaire club owners is a shady, scummy fuck. Newcastle were allowed to be taken over by the state that murdered a journalist, ffs. If the UK government somehow, some way punishes the club I’m absolutely done with this sport forever. If worst comes to worst, forcing Roman to sell would suck but it would be understandable. Fucking over everyone else who had ZERO to do with anything is outrageous.

The maniacal bloodlust amongst opposition fans is hilarious. Apparently they think Chelsea itself should be seized and we should be kicked out of the league just because the owner has connections with Putin. The same league that has owners from repressive Arab countries etc… Nothing is going to happen to us. This is Roman protecting the club preemptively. Taking himself out of the spotlight so he isn’t a massive distraction for the remainder of the season.

Sounds like a preemptive “I’ll step aside until the heat subsides” statement. Before the government step in and fuck with the club. He can now argue that since he will be hands off they shouldn’t punish the club that has nothing to do with what’s going on in Ukraine.

Least it should be much easier to sign Raphinha if Leeds go down. But I imagine there will be loads of clubs lining up to try.

Times are much different now. Arse, United, and Liverpool were bought years and years ago. Newcastle was a massively depreciating asset and their standing was in the toilet. These days billionaires and their companies have unprecedented amounts of money laying around that they’re looking to spend before things change. Look at all the colossal acquisitions you’re seeing in the tech industry for example. Like I said, as a London club that’s “ready made,” Chelsea is uniquely desirable I think. It being up for sale would be a once in a generation chance for an egomaniac billionaire to buy in to probably the most sought after sports league in the world.

No idea. Depends on just how rich they are. Roman is SO ridiculously wealthy that Chelsea isn’t really a money making venture for him, it’s a pure passion project for him. He doesn’t need to bleed the club to line his pockets like the American owners of Man United do. If some guy who’s worth tens of billions buys the club you could potentially see a PSG situation where he just wants to buy loads of superstars without caring about profiting from the club. But anyways, I highly doubt it’s going to come to this. They aren’t going to yank away his club when they allow the likes of these murderous Arab regimes take over other clubs.

If Roman is forced to sell the club there will be a line a mile long of billionaires begging to take over. Mostly Americans. Chelsea (the actual area in London) is the most popular place in the city for über wealthy Americans to settle. There’s a deep connection between Americans and that area. There will be numerous American billionaires who would be desperate to break into PL football. Unlike some of the other big PL clubs who have had ownership changes over the past few years, Chelsea would be ready made and already at the pinnacle of the sport. No staving off relegation, no searching desperately for a manager, no years and years of rebuilding, no overpaying for average players to get to midtable. A new owner would come in and already have a winning machine on their hands with millions and of millions of supporters all over the world (and here in the States in particular). As an American, I can tell you that this would be extremely appealing to and American billionaire. I can imagine one of the NFL team owners would kill to take over Chelsea.

I haven’t even been able to watch AFTV in what feels like a couple of months because these cunts keep quietly winning. 😒😒😒 Arse going out of every competition has been the best thing that could’ve happened to them and I’m sure Arteta is thanking his lucky stars. Full, 100% focus on the PL and having fresh players for every match. Because of this, those matches they have against the top teams that you’d expect them to lose may suddenly become much easier for them. They can luck out and catch those sides when they need to rotate for other comps. Feels like I say this with a different team behind us every week, but they are probably our biggest threat now. United and Spuds are too woefully inconsistent.

I just think he needs to find a club that’s as bloodthirsty to constantly improve as he is. It could’ve worked out here if we didn’t pull our usual “let’s stand still after winning” bullshit. Inter sold him on an ambitious project and then pulled the rug from under him by telling him that they had to sell for financial reasons. If he went to a club like PSG who will buy him every player he asked for I think he’d be happy.

I see Spuds have completely broken Conte. Explosive and damning post match comments from him. Most people questioned from the start why on Earth he would want to go there. A club of perennial losers with a chairman who notoriously doesn’t help his managers. A serial winner and highly demanding manager like Conte who is at his peak (unlike Mou when he was there) was crazy for choosing to go there. Conte should’ve waited until this coming summer. Could’ve perhaps had the PSG job or something.

Remember when we were comfortably ahead of Liverpool? Remember when we looked superior to them with 11 men and held them with 10? It’s so fucking gutting that injuries completely killed our chance at contending with the top 2. Would we have enough attacking firepower even with James and Chilly the whole season to win the title ahead of those two? Probably not. But we could’ve at least made it respectable. Seeing a Liverpool side who we made look average (and who were average to start the season) likely finish a country mile ahead of us is so annoying.

United are absolutely abysmal but Atleti have so few attacking ideas that it probably won’t matter. Think United gets through the tie by the skin of their teeth. Probably a CR7 penalty in the second leg or something.

I’m talking more outside the box or strikes from distance. He is a huge threat once he gets into the box but even right in the edge of the box he doesn’t have a go often enough.

He’s got this weird inability to strike a football with power. In general I mean, not specifically this match. Very much like Kovacic, it’s very strange that such super technically gifted footballers can’t strike the ball well. Every time Kai has a shot from distance it seems to be a soft roller across the ground that harmlessly gets to the keeper. Needs to add this skill to his game to ascend to the next level and become a truly elite striker.

Injury FC 😬😬😬 Not just any injuries, but injuries to our most important and in form players time and again. FFS!

If Jorginho returns to Italy this summer Sanches should be target #1. Kante, Kova, Sanches, and Connor G would be a lovely set of options.

They haven’t parked the bus, though. They’re aggressively pressing in midfield and forcing us to play quicker than Kante and Kova want to.