Pizy

Already looking forward to Vardy vs Cahill... 😑

This is why if I were Conte I'd seriously consider leaving in the summer to PSG or Milan. Clubs who are hugely ambitious and will sign any players he wants. I wouldn't blame him or be mad at all if he left. Chelsea have now sunk back to the Arsenal or Spuds level where we only look for bargains and up and coming talent which we have to take a massive risk on rather than proven, top class players. Signing any established top level player is a huge ordeal and only ever happens once we've sold a player for a similar amount. One in, one out. We can't challenge City and United with this policy going forward. You can bet your last penny that the United board will be shitting themselves about the prospect of watching their Manchester rivals doing better than them for the next few years so they'll probably give Mourinho £300m more to spend this summer.

So United today strongly linked with Alexis, Lucas Moura, and Pulisic for the summer. Meanwhile, the club which needs attacking reinforcement more than any other in the top 6 (us) are really not even linked with any attacking player other than Andy Carroll.

I'd take Giroud in a heartbeat as our backup striker but I'm not sure he sees himself as such. That's why he wants out of Arse, no? He'd be in the same situation here as he is there. Maybe a few more opportunities. He could probably return to France and be the main man, though. Really, the only reason we even signed anyone this month was because it had been in the works for months and Barkley cost peanuts. I'll be very surprised if anyone else comes in or goes out.

He's currently the polar opposite of Morata. Great with his feet and hopeless with his head! 😄

Can we unsettle Mahrez and have him pick up a mysterious "injury" before this game?

Indeed. Barkley at his best will drive with power at defenses and put them under pressure. Desperately need that now.

The attacking play has just become too predictable and stale. And when the starting attacking players are playing poorly we bring the same attacking players off the bench who are also subpar or poor. I never feel like we're going to get any spark at all when Batshuayi or Willian come on. It's basically just like conceding the rest of the match. We need an injection of quality in the January window. Mahrez would be my pick.

We are just dreadful to watch at the moment. No ideas at all going forward and no rythm to our play overall. If Hazard isn't in absolute top, unplayable form we're just an average side. No other great match winners or game changers. This Arsenal side was missing key players and we're at home after a terrible performance just days ago. You'd have thought we could get up for a hated rival and put on a show. Nope. Just let Arse have the exact result they would've wanted. If we play this poorly against the high energy, hard working Leicester side this weekend we'll lose.

We are so desperately crying out for another top quality attacking option at the club. We look like a blunt butter knife going forward. This Arsenal side has a bunch of kids in their defense and we've hardly troubled them.

Seems our players imply cannot get themselves up for these cup games. Our midfield and attack have been awful.

No Sanchez, no Özil (who was excellent against us last week) we outnumber them in midfield, and we're at home. No excuses here, really, other than our players not being up for it like the Norwich game.

Probably our strongest possible team. On the other side, that Arse team looks bang average. Unless Sanchez is off within days it's crazy that Wenger didn't start him. How terrible will that look if he throws away the chance at their only realistic trophy chances in the span of 1 week?

Really? I mean, I obviously want us to win tonight but will I be angry or devastated if we don't? Nope. Couldn't really care less about the League Cup. Even the FA Cup doesn't do much for me since I'm not English. This weekends match against Leicester is more important than this one for me.

Didn't Musonda just play and score for our dev side yesterday? Doubt he'll be in the squad if so. Plus talk of him going on loan. I bet we go full strength tonight. I too would like to see Barkley make an appearence but he probably isn't quite ready yet.

Seeing speculation on Twitter that despite his impending move to City, Sanchez may still start this. Not sure why he would risk injury here.

Why on earth would we be after another CB?

Only way we'd ever spend near that amount on a player is if we sold Hazard for £200m in the summer. Even then I'd have my doubts. Knowing our board, if we do ever sell Eden we'll probably buy 3-4 £30m players who aren't near his level.

Just has that feeling of a target that will go to one of our rivals after we've pissed around for months. I know United are linked as well. Honestly, in this case I can sort of understand why the club are cautious about spending around the same as we paid for Morata on a fullback. One whose level has apparently dropped considerably since last season. We all complain about Alonso's weaknesses, myself included, but if we are going to buy an expensive new LWB we have to be 100% positive that he's an upgrade. That being said, it's an area that we desperately need another body. I'd just pay the necessary money. Even when not at his absolute best he's probably better than Alonso against top teams with pace. Dramatically improves our depth as well.

Sanchez to City rumors heating up. It would actually be funny if it weren't so sad that the team miles in front of everyone is after a player like him while we're linked with Andy bloody Carroll. 😂 I mean really, does Sanchez improve City in any quantifiable way? They're already unstoppable going forward and have loads of depth in attack. As with Liverpool replacing Coutinho, I'm not even bothered by the fact that Liverpool/City are adding another quality attacking option, it's the fact that we don't even try to aim that high. We're now a club that seems okay with buying mediocre players. City, PSG, Barca, Real Madrid, and United shop at the upscale designer stores whilst we buy from the thrift shop. The only way we splurge a big sum on a player is if we sell someone for an equal amount. That's just not going to be enough to compete with the club's I mentioned going forward. And that's not even mentioning clubs like Bayern or Juventus who don't even need to spend big money because they just scoop up top talents at the ends of their contracts for peanuts.

While I hope he's competing with Baka for that place, I think by reading into Conte's quotes there he'll be competing with Cesc.

People are right to point out that some of the key players are aging. But as we saw with Sagna, Zabaleta, Kolorov, etc. they'll just go out and buy 3-4 players at £50m each to replace them and upgrade. Something we simply can't (or won't) do.

They and United are the only ones who have shown that they're willing to spend literally whatever it takes to sign their top targets. Until I see us do the same I just don't believe we'll compete. We shop in the bargain bin compared to them.

Unbeaten on the season, 15 points clear at the top, goal difference of 51, scoring for fun even without Jesus, and have far and away the best squad in the league. Yet they feel the need to go out and buy one of the best players in the league to add to their attack. How is anyone supposed to compete with that? It just doesn't seem fair. Unless United or ourselves go mental in the summer they will have a dynastic run for the next few years.

Didn't watch but I assume Arse saved all their big boys for us midweek?