Pizy

WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING DEFENSIVELY??? We look like a relegation side at the back! Zaha looks like fucking Ronaldo against us.

Zaha is absolutely owning our CB's. They can't live with his pace and skill. Needed Rüdiger's athleticism here.

Fucking embarrassing!

Absolutely horrific start. Bottom table side dominating us.

Cahill on skates already...

Zaha apart, that Palace team has so little quality. Even he's coming off a long term injury so shouldn't be in top form. That Mila-whatshisname dominated us somehow last season when we lost to them so hopefully that doesn't happen again. Their backup keeper is in... Anything other than 3 points here is inexcusable. Even without Morata and Kante our talent level is 10x theirs.

Feels like it's been months since I last saw Zappacosta play for us. Also, what will it take for Christensen/Rüdiger to lock down a place? Both have been excellent and yet Cahill still starts. Hopefully Willian is much better than he was against City where he was woeful.

Who's their backup striker? Think this'll be a hugely important match for Batshuayi in particular. He needs to have a great game to really earn Conte's trust. We've seen Conte repeatedly choose other options in attack before him when changes are needed which shows he doesn't have full faith in Bats yet. If he starts, scores a goal, and has a good all around match it'll be huge for both of their confidence going forward. Think Palace will really be up for this so hopefully no zombie football from us after the long break. Players like Cesc, Baka, and Luiz should be super fresh and hopefully in good form.

Think the main reason Özil wasn't being linked away to other big clubs like Sanchez has been is because everyone assumed that if Sanchez left Arsenal would do all they possibly could to keep Özil. That was what the Arsenal slappy' like John Cross had been saying all along. He'd be their talisman. Now, with Wenger himself even saying Özil could possibly leave as well I'm sure many big teams will be after him. It is true that he's got weaknesses but as I said, I think he'd be great in front of Kante and Baka. At Arsenal he's had essentially a different midfield every week and a manager who is hopelessly inept tactically. His weaknesses have been magnified by having the likes of Xhaka, Elneny, Coquelin, etc behind him. Think Hazard and Özil would form an instant connection and tear teams to shreds.

Honestly, we need more creative and flair players in our attack. We've got only 2 players in our attack that can reliably be counted on to produce and those are Hazard and Morata. Willian and Pedro can look great one game and then go missing for long stretches. We need another attacking talent that's on Hazards level. Özil has shown what he can do in an actual top team where he was utterly brilliant. Unlike at Arse he'd have proper structure and teammates around him that would allow him to flourish. He seems to really love London as well so there'd be zero adjustment period. Would be ridiculous to see Sanchez go to City and Özil to United. Two clubs that have so far already looked miles ahead of us going forward and who both have many more options than we do. Look at our attacking options compared to any of the other big boys and Europe and we're not even close to their level.

Have a really bad feeling about this. Pretty much everything is lining up for this match to be infuriating. Our best forward out, our best midfielder out, many of our players having only a training session or two after a long international break, and it's away to a team who will be absolutely desperate to turn their season around. This is like the classic "trap game" as we often call it here. You see that Palace will be without their main goal scorer Benteke, that they have zero points and a ridiculously bad goal difference, and that they've been blown away by every big team so far and think we'll go in there and win 4-0 or something. They'll probably now come out and play their best game of the young season against us now that Zaha will be back. I don't expect we'll be very sharp and we may look poor in midfield without Kante. All of that being said, a couple of our rivals have some tricky fixtures this weekend so if we pick up all 3 points and they drop any it'll return the optimism I had before City. Of course, the first actual test Man United will face is this weekend against Liverpool and they'll be without their best player. Of fucking course.

This is what I don't get. Like, why the hell post this now unless Conte has already told him a week in advance that he won't be in the match day squad against Palace which I doubt has happened. Can understand that it must be frustrating to see out of form Willian and Pedro get picked ahead of him when he probably feels confident that he could do better. Also surely sees other young players around his age at other big clubs getting their chances and excelling. But he's got to understand that he's competing for a place with seasoned champions who are used to a grueling PL season. He's also probably hearing through his agent that there are other opportunities for him out there and he could "pull a De Bruyne." Needs to get his head down and impress again in whatever minutes he does get. If he does, he'll get his chances.

Could he be talking about Belgium national team? As with RLC, I could easily see Musonda choosing to leave here and become a star for a direct PL rival if they aren't given a proper chance soon. Imperative that both are kept.

Hope so. I think we will cope better with the loss of our main striker better than other clubs like Spuds for instance. Our entire team doesn't depend on the #9 like theirs does.

Man... Just a few days ago all Chelsea fans were feeling on top of the world and thinking we could accomplish anything. Now we've been spanked at home by a title rival and may have lost the one player in our team we couldn't afford to lose for a lengthy period. I know we were further behind the top spot last season and still went on to win the league but the competition is significantly stronger this season and our fixture list is much more difficult. Think I need to adjust my expectations. On paper, we should be able to cope without Morata in our next few PL fixtures. If Batshuayi can't step up against Palace, Watford, etc then we are in deeper shit than I can imagine.

We're in serious fucking trouble if he's out for a while. And not just in the PL.

Damn. This can have a huge impact on us if it's serious. Didn't Diego have a similar hamstring injury a couple years ago? Or was that an actual hamstring tear? I can't remember.

Was just thinking this myself. It's perfectly set up. They've got zero points, zero goals, lost their only real goal threat to a bad injury, and we'll be coming out of a long international break. They've looked embarrassingly shambolic in nearly all of their matches. So of case they'll play out of their skin against us an probably win. I'd start to seriously fear for our top 4 chances already if we don't get 3 points there, nevermind any thoughts of the title.

Last thing from me this weekend - Cesc cannot play against this sort of tiki-taka, highly mobile side. Even with both Bala and Kante alongside he struggled massively. He's a total liability. You watch De Bruyne and Silva just ghost by him over and over.

This is going to turn out to be a depressing weekend. Gap opened up between us and the top, miles and miles behind on goal difference, potentially lost our star striker, and could tumble down the table. Liverpool, who have been pretty poor this season, can now go above us tomorrow. Probably as bad as someone could script it.

Looked completely lost when just one player goes off. That is a huge worry for a club of our stature. We shouldn't fall apart like that and see our level drop off a cliff.

We got made to look like a midtable side AT HOME after such a high just days before. They utterly dominated us in every phase of the game. They looked miles better going forward, fluid on the counter, and didn't give us a sniff defensively. All of that when we were the home side. Totally outclassed. The champions totally outclassed at home. Pretty clear that we don't have enough to win the league this season, especially with all the added matches.

We look totally outclassed now without Morata. Depressing.

We finally get the ball and literally cannot string together 3 passes. Literally 3. It's embarrassing.

We are all over the shop and can't do a thing going forward.