Pizy

We're now being dominated by a midtable Saints side with the title on the line. At home.

Both teams have lots of pace on the bench if needed to run at tired legs or change things so this could be a battle for the entire 90 minutes. Forgot that they had Shane Long who is an absolute menace.

Wow, shocked that Cesc is in for one of the wide players. Hope this works out. They have loads of pace and trickery in wide areas, both from their wingers and full backs. Very dangerous team.

Spuds' next two opponents have had a big upturn in form and results recently. A win here will pile the pressure on them even more. If Big Sam can pull off another stunner tomorrow and then Wenger's lot can do what they usually do against Spuds and this can be the defining week of the season for us. ABSOLUTELY MUST WIN THIS!!!

With Zlatan's United career looking over I worry they'll sign both Griezmann and Mbappe. Or maybe Griezmann and Lukaku.

Really glad that this one is at home. Extra energy and hype for the players especially after the Spuds victory. If we had to go to Southampton where they're excellent at home and went down it could be demoralizing. Wonder if we may see Cesc get the start for this.

Think if we want to be more comfortable football wise when playing against sides like Spuds we need a proper, world class midfield partner with Kante. Wonder strike aside, Matic was again poor. Much as I hate to compliment a Spuds player Dembele was excellent once more against us. He and Wanyama dominate the midfield most games for them which allows complete freedom for Dele and Eriksen. They give us so many problems in the middle of the pitch. We need a player like Dembele who has both steel and great ability on the ball to replace Matic who would still be a very useful option to have when we will be playing on 4 fronts next season. He's too much of a liability.

Matic is useless and totally outshone by the Spuds midfielders. So mediocre.

I personally never thought they were invincible but just that their style is perfect to exploit our weaknesses. Hate playing them.

He's not a slow, awkward wide defender like Alonso is, though. Easier to protect a CB than a fullback who the opponent can attack at any time.

Such a stupid, stupid yellow for Alonso to take. Target #1 now in the second half.

Michy's audition to stay for next season? Come on, Bats!!!

Now seeing that JT may start as well. Truly a 2nd team here possibly.

Yep, just saw Matt Law tweet Michy will start. Seems like Conte will place utmost priority in the League and treat the FA Cup as a bonus. Which is actually kinda fine by me.

If we were genuinely interested I think this summer would be the only chance we'd have at signing him. Neither of the 2 Spanish giants need a forward and I doubt he'd go there at his age anyways just to sit on their bench when he could play every game elsewhere. City have Aguero and Jesus so may not deem it a priority area. That leaves United and us, really. If Zlatan stays he's obviously going to be the main man. If he goes they already have one teenager in Rashford so will José of all people want a couple of young strikers carrying the load for him? Not sure. I still expect them to buy Griezmann. If we sell Costa for huge money and add in the additional cash we were already going to spend we should surely have enough to buy 2 of Lukaku, Sanchez, Morata, or Mbappe. We can play with 2 strikers like Conte prefers to do next season.

This is my main worry. That Eden will pull the "I've achieved all I can at Chelsea and would like to move to my dream club" shit and our board will agree to it. I mean, we allowed to two of our best players of recent years in Cech and Mata go to direct rivals because they desired it, we let Lukaku go to another English club, we let De Bruyne go because he desired so. If Eden really states his desire to go I'm not super confident that our club will dig their heels in at all costs. Hope Hazard isn't the type to kick up a fuss.

Did he even get a sniff against Bayern in either leg? I saw both Asensio & Lucas Vasquez got on the pitch instead. Like I've said before, I hope if we get Morata its in addition to Lukaku rather than thought of as our main #9.

True. I just don't even want to think about our team without him next season. How could we replace him? Not to mention the message it sends to everyone that Chelsea can be bullied into selling their best players.

In my eyes, he's asked the question about whether he'll stay at Chelsea about 50 times a season and never says any more than "I'm here now and focused on this season." Why not just for once say "I'll be at Chelsea until the end of my contract," or definitively say "I'm going to stay at Chelsea?" Him always being vague and leaving the question unanswered could be his way of not wanting to upset us supporters by saying he wants to go.

I don't know. For most of this season he's been saying how he's happy here and settled both on the pitch and off. These latest quotes are him basically saying "Yeah, I want to go to Madrid but I have to wait until the season is over to start talking about it." It's a bit like Lukaku's situation where it's clear where his ambitions lie.

I was very confident that he would stay here for next season at least and even sign a new contract, especially if we win the title. After those latest quotes I think he's off 100%. Why on Earth he'd want to go to Real Madrid and be another James or Isco and not even be a guarenteed starter is beyond me but he clearly still desires it. He's the main man at a big club who can challenge for every trophy, earns huge money, and lives in a great city. Why go to Madrid and be just another big name in a sea of about a dozen? Think the only way he'll stay is if we show huge ambition and sign world class players.

I'm calm now. I was more mad watching it than I am afterwards. This can be the necessary kick up the ass our players need to wake up. If this doesn't show our higher-ups that serious investment is needed I don't know what to say. We need some top class, highly technical ball players if we want to improve and take the next step. Too many of our players are poor on the ball.

There are just several players in our XI that should be squaddies and not every match starters. Matic, Pedro, Moses. Thankful for them getting us into this position, but they get exposed far too often. I'm actually starting to look forward to the summer when we can sell Diego one of those Chinese suckers who are willing to pay silly money for him. When he's not scoring goals he's basically a donkey like Andy Carroll on the ball.

I swear we've passed the ball to red shirts more than blue ones today. What the fuck is going on?