Pizy

Both can be true. Right wing back position in particular can be improved but wouldn't change the fact that Willian and Pedro fail to finish the vast majority of the time. Willian especially gets past players time and time again but disappoints with the final ball. A more clinical player would score 15 PL goals per season from the positions he often gets into.

Would normally be a devastating injury. Thank god for Christensen and a somewhat lenient few fixtures.

It's yet another indication that we are missing that one more special attacking player. It's not as frustrating lately because we've been creating plenty of scoring chances and getting into great positions, but Pedro and Willian both blow so hot and cold. They'll score a worldy one match and then like today they'll get into great positions and fluff their lines. We need an aggressive, clinical attacking player to play with Morata and Hazard.

Meant top 5 Fewest amongst the top 4 contenders.

I see we've scored the fewest goals amongst the top 6. Not that it matters, but it looks nasty on the table.

Moses tried his absolute damnedest to hand Swansea a late equalizer. So extremely careless and rusty. Morata has to quickly sort himself out in front of goal with his feet. He's actually better at getting shots on target with his head than his feet! If he was more clinical we'd have scored about 3 more today.

From what I was actually able to watch (NONE OF THESE FUCKING STREAMS WILL WORK CONTINUOUSLY!!!) we were completely dominant. How the hell have we not scored at least once? The longer it stays 0-0 the greater the chance for a total flukey sucker punch.

Can someone post a high quality, mobile friendly stream here shortly before kickoff?

Hmm. This XI should be more than good enough to beat Swansea at home but I'm not really feeling it. Resting Hazard at the start I'm fine with but seeing a Kante + Cesc pairing is sketchy. I feel like Cesc should always be in a midfield 3 these days so I would've also started Drinkwater.

Uhh...

Does Jefferson Montero still play for Swansea? If so, he's given us trouble in the past.

Thinking about it, anything less than 3 points here would be even worse than the Palace defeat earlier. Palace at least had a star man in Zaha who can rip anyone apart when in the mood and it was coming off a long international break. Swansea have lost their main goal getter from last season in Llorente and will be without our Tammy as well. They don't have that standout threat that can cause us huge headaches. At home, in good form, the players and manager are saying all the right things in regards to not giving up despite City's massive lead, and we can keep pace with United who have a couple of extremely tough games coming up. Expecting and hoping for a convincing win here assuming we approach it like its a big game. Don't let a shit team gain belief that they can get something from us by playing zombie football. Attack, attack, attack. Hopefully a goal or more from Morata.

Honestly haven't even looked at the table recently so didn't know we'd only be 3 points behind United with a win tomorrow. You're right, they are still easily within reach and I'm seeing they have Arsenal at the weekend. Hopefully Conte doesn't rotate too much tomorrow. Must win against such a terrible opponent. Can't afford to think we can stroll in and walk it.

Yep. Not even really thinking about the Manchester clubs anymore. At this point it's all about 3rd.

Fighting the urge to laugh at Spuds until we play tomorrow.

Please, no! One of my favorite players here. 😩 How can he suddenly fall out so badly with Conte? Just madness. He was one of the first names on the team sheet and then after the terrible Roma performance everything changed. What's even more worrying is that David is clearly hugely popular in the locker room. Him falling out with Conte and leaving would probably poison the team.

So much for Watford being a big test for United...

Haven't really seen any of Swansea this season. I know they're near the bottom of the table but have they actually been unbelievably terrible or have they been competitive? Trying to get a feeling if this'll be another West Brom where they have no real chance or this'll be one of those annoying small teams who are actually decent.

Was very good in the first half yesterday and could've scored twice had he been sharper. Not bad at all for his first start. Will be a very useful squad player for us.

City will probably still win 4-1.

Precisely. Kante biggest area of improvement has been his on the ball work and passing. He has become exponentially better since working with Conte. He singlehandedly dominated Liverpool's midfield yesterday even against their high press. He can now dribble past players and his passing range has definitely improved. I think we can expect the same sort of development from Bakayoko after he has a season in this team. He's shown plenty of flashes of brilliance and plenty of sides to his game that need sharpening up. He'll get there.

So much overreaction today from TalkChelsea. Conte's lost it, Hazard deserves better teammates and will definitely be leaving, Bakayoko is trash... Just a couple of matches ago Baka was great against Man United. Think people have to remember that he's still young, still adjusting to a new league and new team, and he's very raw. Conte wanted to keep Matic around for these very reasons. So he could ease Bakayoko in and not have to depend on him as an every single match player. Last season with Monaco was his first breakout season, remember. It seems like a lot of people here and even more annoyingly people in the media thought we bought a ready made, top class player who would be a level above Matic instantly. Can always tell when fans of other clubs and the media haven't watched much of us when they say how poor Bakayoko has been this season. He's had far more good games than bad. Thought Stevie G was actually pretty spot on in his analysis post match. Bakayoko seems a little unsure about what exactly he's supposed to be doing sometimes. Because of that his confidence can take a hit like it did today and he plays poorly. This is to be expected. He'll improve with more and more games. When to retreat deeper, when to bomb forward, when to carry the ball or when to pass it off. I think Liverpool are the exact sort of side that will give him problems in his early days here. He's not great when pressed or when he's got to make super quick decisions. Conversely, we saw what he's capable of against a team that lets opponents have more time on the ball like United where he was a constant threat and menace. So he had a poor match. Oh well. Not a disaster.

Some of you complaining are doing my head in. FFS, you guys want us to play suicidal, naive all out attacking football away at Liverpool?

Even first half. Pretty scary to see Cahill continuously isolated on Salah. Alonso also getting caught too high on a number of occasions allowing them to easily get the ball down our left flank. We were much better going forward than anyone could've thought. Drinkwater essentially playing the Lampard role and popping up in fantastic positions around their box.

I think you're going way overboard here. We aren't entering games to shut up shop and turn every big match into a turgid shitfest with no attacking intent or quality like we did under Mourinho. This is a perfectly sensible XI. If Cesc hadn't just played against Qarabag I'm sure he'd have started this. While on paper Morata and Hazard are the only two "attackers" we have out there, as you well know Bakayoko, Alonso, Zappacosta, and sometimes even Azpi will all join the attack when we have the ball. Kante often bombs forward now, too. Being solid and fresh in midfield is the most important thing against Liverpool's crazy energy and pressing. Especially at Anfield.