Pizy

3 in midfield like I had hoped! 😄 Cahill in place of Rüdiger. 😩 Lets hope Kante is ready for this.

They've got about 3-4 squad players at any given time that would start for us. That in itself is embarrassing for a club our size. Bernardo Silva, Gündogan, Danilo. All would start for us. The they sometimes have either Aguero or Jesus on the bench as well.

City are just incredible going forward. Every player in their front 4-5 are class. They'll walk the league and take some stopping in the CL. Honestly, there isn't a side in Europe with a defense good enough to stop them so it'll take a Barca/PSG/in form Real Madrid to simply out score them. First time in many years I've been genuinely jealous watching another rival play. Other sides have had certain areas I envy but this City side have it all.

Imagine Salah tearing down our right side in place of Willian/Pedro and De Bruyne in place of Fabregas. Two players we had in our clutches for tiny fees and are now two of the best in the world in their positions. 😩😩😩 We'd be unstoppable going forward. Hazard on one wing, Salah on the other. KDB feeding ridiculous passes to those two plus Morata. Fuck! Sadly, I doubt the club feel like we need a Willian/Pedro upgrade at all.

I really, truly hope that our players will treat this the same way as they did Spuds and Atleti earlier in the season. We really need to raise our game and go all out. Treat it like we have to win it. A couple of them like Courtois and Rüdiger have been saying these things all week so I pray it happens. The Roma embarrassment should serve as the wake up call these players needed. We know Mourinho will have his team up for it so the likes of Morata and Hazard who have been exposed as a bit soft and let their heads drop in games recently need to produce tomorrow.

I know Lukaku will be a handful and very dangerous but the one player I'm really scared of tomorrow is Rashford. The thought of him running at any of our defenders is scary. It actually might be beneficial for us to play Azpi wide for this reason. He's the only defender we have who's actually good in 1 v 1 situations. From what I've heard since I haven't watched them every game this season is that Mou rarely starts both Rashford and Martial so if that trend continues it'll be great for us. Any super pacey, super skillful wide player against Alonso is a recipe for disaster. Can see this being a Mourinho special. A boring 0-0 until the 80+ minute mark and then they usually score. Think I heard they've scored most of their goals this season late in matches so hopefully that doesn't happen.

Cesc cannot start against this team unless both Baka and Kante are in there. Even then I feel Drinkwater should get a chance. He's more physical and athletic. I assume Mourinho will have one of his thugs like Ander Herrera shadowing Hazard for 90 minutes since it was so effective last time we played them. Hopefully Conte and Eden will have prepared for that and have some way to maximize his effectiveness.

It's pretty astounding to think that just a few short months ago we finished 13 points ahead of City and felt on top of the world. Now in the blink of an eye they've become arguably the best side in Europe and our season is on the brink of crisis depending on this weekends result. They've catapulted so far beyond us it's mad. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if by the time the January window rolls around that they're 10 points clear AND will add more top class quality to their team like Sanchez. The massive gulf in ambition between our clubs is staggering. One club wants to take over the football world and build a juggernaut whilst we were again complacent and content with what we had. The benefit of being bankrolled by a country with unlimited money as opposed to an individual I suppose.

City may actually be the favorite for the CL along with PSG. Would be absolutely sickening to see them win both the PL and CL. Hopefully the latter doesn't happen.

Conte is every bit the manager that Poch is but the big difference is that his players will run through a brick wall for Poch and they are relentlessly positive and attacking. Same with City. Wave after wave of relentless attack. Part of our problem is that we have about 5-6 slightly above average players in our XI and the other part of the problem is that they're soft. Their heads go down and they wilt when things get tough. We had ideal conditions to succeed last year with only the PL to focus on and the same XI that could play well rested each match. We're seeing the real level of our team this season as a result of inadequate buying and retaining of players last summer. If we'd have kept Matic, bought a quality upgrade on Alonso, and another single attacking player of quality we'd look like a different team.

Did they? They already had arguably the best Xai in the league last season and only lost Walker. They've not missed him even a little bit. Added Llorente and Sanchez who looks great.

All these teams that can actually retain the ball and use their quality in attack is the most depressing thing. You watch City and Spuds players fight and push, push, push. Understanding between all 11 players. Our players just give up when things get tough. You can honestly say that at the moment Chelsea plays the worst football amongst the top 6 in the PL and even sides like Roma make us look painfully average.

Looks like Real Madrid came into this game thinking their talent would just see them turn Tottanham over. Benzema looks completely washed up and Ronaldo looks totally out of it.

Spuds haven't even been great here. They've been much better at other points this season. Real Madrid have been awful and Spuds clinical.

You missed the key point between win major trophy and players down tools - fail to improve squad in summer transfer window. That causes the rest.

At a club like this where you're demanded to win immedietly or you get the sack I'm not sure Roman will risk a young up and comer. Especially after the AVB debacle.

True, but we were fortunate that a big name manager like Conte was available. Are there any that could be had now? Ancelotti is but I don't think he'd be the right guy at this point.

If Conte goes within the next 6 months it likely means we go back to a former manager (Ancelotti, Guus) or we take a massive risk on an up and comer from a medium sized club and have to start over with yet another rebuild. New tactics, new playing style, new personell needed, current players moved on. It would set us back years at a time when at least 3 PL teams (United, City, Spuds) will have had consistency and years to build. We could become like Liverpool or Arsenal have been recently - bang average and fighting for 4th. It would be disastrous. I'm praying we can turn things around and Conte stays for years. If we can stay in or around the Top 4 until the winter window opens and bring in a quality signing or two it'll help massively.

If Kante is out I don't see us having a chance. Matic will completely dominate our midfield by himself. Their defense has been excellent for the most part this season and it being Mourinho in a big game (plus the revenge factor) his defensive game plan will be top notch. Then attacking wise they have the main things our defense struggles against - extreme pace and running in behind. We'll probably see both Rashford and Martial relentlessly running at our weak wide areas and Lukaku running on the shoulder of the out of form David Luiz. If we line up with the same poor midfield paring of Cesc & Baka this could be just as ugly as Roma or City. Surely, surely we HAVE to go with 3 in midfield (Cesc, DD, Baka) if Kante doesn't play. Madness from Conte if we don't. This is a season defining match.

Ehhh. I agree that there's much more pressure on him to score now that he's the main man we depend on and that he'd look much better with more quality around him. But these last couple of matches he's had many clear chances that a player of his caliber should have scored. Instances where he was basically 1 v 1 against the keeper and didn't finish. I think he's just in a poor run of form right now.

Oh, was it? Either way, it was a certain foul that wasn't given. He wasn't the same afterwards.

One thing I don't see mentioned much on Twitter by all the journalists was how that knock Hazard got (that should've been a pen, btw) completely changed him. He was dominating up until that point and looked extremely dangerous. Went into hiding after that.

The mentality, will, and focus of our players is so fragile and soft. Anything goes against them and they crumble and give up. Just fuck off. Just when it seemed like things were ticking up for us we get pasted by a decent but not great Roma side. And now we have Mourinho coming to town who will be absolutely desperate to kill us. Plus the likes of Lukaku and Matic playing against us who will be out to prove a point.

I'm done. 3 terrible errors, 3 goals. Utter humiliation. This weekend should be fun.

Best we've looked in midfield and going forward in a while and we had them pinned in their box again and again yet were down 2-0. Both goals that should've been easily dealt with in the exact same area just outside our box. Rüdiger was playing brilliantly and one mistake costs us.