Pizy

BEAUTIFUL CHIP FROM PEDRO!

Significant improvement in this half. Far better on the ball and secure in midfield.

The problem with our pressing is that no one appears to know when to do so. As a consequence, maybe one player presses while others don't and the opponent easily passes through it. You MUST press as a unit in this system or you look foolish.

Yep. Neither of these two can start for us. Getting caught out repeatedly.

It's not what we look like on the ball that's so concerning here. It's the fact that we look clueless without it. Even our best defender Azpi is struggling here.

We look calamitous defensively and our midfield is totally invisible. Against fucking Huddersfield!

We look really, really poor. My goodness.

Huddersfield looking more comfortable pressing than we do...

Come on, then. Straight into them! No sluggish Conte/Mourinho start.

Think Willian will score here.

Just hope that left side of our defense with Alonso and Luiz keeps their head and don't make stupid mistakes.

Whatever XI we put out I hope we start on the front foot and press well as a team. Even if players like Hazard and Kovacic don't start we should have far too much for Huddersfield. Dominate the ball and make them very uncomfortable when they have it. Need a nice confidence boost to start the season.

No Cesc in the squad today by the looks of it.

As utterly terrible as their football is, United have Lukaku's goals and the ability to park the bus expertly when they need to. I think those things will carry them to a top 4 place. I think that 4th spot is definitely up for grabs between us, Spuds, and Arse.

He's right, of course. I think our raw talent will see us through the small teams in the first half of the season, but definitely think we'll be taking some lumps against the other big boys. With the exception of Arse they've al been drilled and coached for years in their systems. It will take us time. Even Arse have a months head start on us in preparation.

United look totally reliant on Pogba to be a beast for them to function. He singlehandedly saw them through there. Must say, Sanchez looks like he suddenly aged about 10 years since his move to United. Doesn't look anywhere near the player that was scoring for fun at Arsenal.

This lad Maddison looks class on the ball. Silky touch. Fred for United has looked really shaky so far. Given it away about 5 times already.

Yeah...that sounds like a goodbye rather than a see you later. Maybe rather than an option to buy we have first refusal. If he does well we get first dibs, if not Madrid sell him to the highest bidder.

I think we'll start with: ------------------Kepa----------------- Azp------Rüdi-------Luiz--------Alonso ---------------Jorginho--------------- -----Kante----------------Cesc------- Pedro---------Morata-----------CHO With Hazard and Willian coming off the bench in the second half.

People keep saying "Sarri didn't even get a look at him" but I think it's obvious that Michy had decided for himself that he wanted to go on loan again. He wants and needs to be a regular.

Does indeed look bad until you think about it the way Matt Law described it on the previous page. Batshuayi is far too good to be riding our bench for 80% of the time here. He would've got plenty of minutes here and there as a sub but from his perspective, why do that when you can go to another nice club and play a featured role? Tammy will be fine being a rotation option. The problem is, I don't think Tammy is nearly Chelsea quality yet.

I would bring Hazard off the bench as a spark. Give him another week of training before he starts.

Agreed. This is where the likes of RLC, Barkley, Cesc, CHO, Ampadu, etc will come in handy. We will have significantly better depth to rotate against lesser opponents. That way we can still afford to field strong teams in the Europa League.

Overall, I'm not only satisfied with our own business but I'm also happy to see that none of our rivals except for Liverpool improved significantly. City added Mahrez but I don't think he makes them any better. Their attack was already unstoppable. United signed only one player that goes straight into their XI. Spuds didn't do a damn thing all summer and they have several players (Dembele, Toby A, Rose) who were essentially forced to stay because Levy was being a greedy bastard. Arsenal, like us, are in rebuild mode but I think we've brought in a higher caliber of player than they have. If our players settle well and take to Sarri's system I feel good about getting a CL place.

This lad seems properly delighted and excited to be at Chelsea. He realizes that we've put enormous faith and trust in him.