Pizy

Wish we weren't even playing this to be honest. Just another injury risk to an already thin squad. I hope Matić, Cesc, Hazard, and Terry are all benched and saved for the weekend at their absolute freshest.

Spot on. Trouble is, we don't have a consistently top quality player to use in a 3 man midfield seeing as José doesn't use Oscar from the start against good opposition.

Yeah, I'm not basing that opinion on just this match. I really like Remy and think he'll have a great season with us but he's not that upper echelon striker that will score 20+ for us or anything.I'll put it this way, Diego has to play AT LEAST as many PL matches as he did last season for us to retain the title in my opinion. If Remy and Falcao have to play a huge number of minutes I'm not sure they're enough.

José will rage if we don't sign Stones I think.

This isn't a moan, but just imagine how we'd look with a player like Vidal in there instead of Ramires or Oscar. A beast of a box to box midfielder that would allow Cesc to always stay deeper. Good in both defense and attack and is a tenacious competitor. The one thing we're badly missing.

If he doesn't get FULLY fit soon and stay that way for the majority of the season then I don't think we can win the league. We can challenge for it of course but not win it. Remy and Falcao are good enough as fill-ins here and there and as backups but I don't think they're title winning quality as players who have to lead the line every week.

What do you know, when Cesc was played in a more advanced position he was poor. Something we've known for ages now. Don't know why José keeps playing him there. Well, actually I do; he doesn't trust Oscar in these big games. When he moved further back he had more influence and grew into the game. If Oscar is able to step up and become a top class player it'll make Cesc's job way easier since he can stay deeper. The puzzling thing with Fabregas is his set piece delivery. Sometimes it's the best in the league and other times like today it was woeful.

Still trying to figure out how Ramires failed to even hit the target with that sitter of a header from a couple of yards out. Could've changed them the match. Wouldn't call Hazard's miss a sitter because he still had a huge keeper in front of him to beat, but at his best and fittest you'd expect him to put that away. Only one or two worrying signs that you may be able to put down to it being preseason. Other problems that you can put down to lack of quality which is more worrying because they likely won't be remedied.

Didn't play poorly at all. Quite the opposite, really. We outplayed them for the most part. Just couldn't finish some easy chances. Positives: Matic was a beast, Courtois was a wall, CB pairing weren't troubled too much, Willian started well, Cesc grew into the match. Negatives: Ramires, Ivanovic, our backup strikers, and our general lack of creativity in the final third. WE NEED A COUPLE OF SIGNINGS STILL! But I doubt we'll make any attacking signings at all so we better get used to this if Hazard and Cesc are struggling.

Is Ivanvic fucking colorblind? My word he's been woeful passing the ball this game.

Indeed.Yet more evidence that we should bring in a top right sided player and move Willian to #10 for good. Excellent there.

Pretty even overall. Totally blunt in attack, though. Just look at Arsenal, though, when they get the ball around the box. They actually look like they have a plan and form triangles between themselves. We on the other hand look like we don't have a clue and are just hoping something happens.

Hazard completely out of the game. Needs to demand the ball and be more aggressive. Remy, FFS cannot stay onside.

Ramires is trending worldwide on Twitter.

Just going by what our Twitter account said. Willian #10 and Ramires on the right. Of course he won't be a pure winger, but I'd rather have seen Oscar start instead.

The official club Twitter.

Is it not justified in this case?A box to box midfielder with next to no passing ability being played on the wing.

Agree with people saying it's an annoying lineup. Ramires....fuck. More pissed off that after all that talk of Costa finally being fully fit and all of his own quotes saying his goal is to stay fit all season and he's now out injured before the season even starts. Think it'll be a reoccurring theme too. We better start hoping that Remy and Falcao can step up big time.

Wonder which version of Ramires we'll see today...

Didn't Wneger say Sanchez would be out for this?

Haggling over a few million. Just like fucking Wenger. 100% guarantee he ends up at United if we don't pay up.

Think we can forget about that. Faith has been put in the mighty Mikel and the non-footballing footballer Ramires for another season.

The fact that other super rich clubs like PSG were supposedly interested had to have inflated the price.

I suppose the price isn't THAT outrageous due to his age, but man...

"More" than €25m Bild say!?