Pizy

Good to see Salah get all these starts and lots of minutes so he can get in rhythm now rather than take a few weeks of the season to get up to speed.

Luke Shaw who's barely done anything and plays LB goes for £30m but a match winning striker who's scored over 30 goals in the last two seasons goes for £24m. Feels cheap. Can't help but feel we could've got way more for him somewhere else but we probably did a Mata and let him go where he wanted to go.

Unless we've milked them for £30m then this is pretty fucking stupid of us. I don't even particularly like Lukaku and his piss poor attitude, but it's annoying to see him go to another English club.

Are we really going to do the again? Send a young striker with massive potential to another Premier League club. To one of our bogey sides at that. Just not a good idea at all. I have no issue selling him but only if it's abroad. Imagine Everton taking 3-6 points off of us next season with him scoring. After the league came down to the wire last year and with the clubs at the top all improving those points could be absolutely vital. Sturridge to Liverpool, Mata to United, and now Lukaku to Everton. We're arming so many sides around us and it doesn't really sit right with me.

It has since come out that it wasn't failed medical but rather he couldn't agree personal terms with them. They probably offered him peanuts and expected him to jump at the chance to join "the biggest club in England" as they view themselves. I'd have him as a second option for sure should Lukaku leave.

Agreed. I think they'll be genuine contenders this season and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they look like the best team in the league for a large portion of the year. Their fragile mentality and naive approach to the big games will be their undoing once more, though in my eyes.If they were to add a seriously top quality DM and striker I think the league would be a toss up between ourselves, City, and Arsenal.

So they buy 2 RB's within weeks of each other that are starting caliber? They already had Jenkinson who was adequate enough as a back up. Also, yet another young English player going for FAR more money than an equally talented foreign player would go for.

Maybe he had the Tony Stark procedure pre-game. Don't understand how the bounced off of his chest and went over the bar from that close.

Liverpool have yet to buy a player that would make ours, City's, or Arsenal's first XI. If they would've made all these signings whilst keeping Suarez I'd say they'd be title contenders. Now he's gone and it just looks like they're doing a Spuds and buying a shed load of dross.

This.Torres was, as he always is these day, a one man attack killer. He loses the ball any time he tries to dribble someone or hold it up in the box.

If only Del Bosque had the stones to drop Xavi for Cesc and play a more direct style to suit Costa, Spain could've been champions of the world again.

No GIF's of the Costa goal yet?

He kind of makes Mikel's place in the squad redundant. Romeu and MvG will see plenty more of the pitch if we were to move Mikel on.

If Zouma can become more disciplined in both his positioning and aggression he can become an absolute MONSTER. He has all the tools. Can't wait to see Cesc being able to look up and have options like Hazard, Schürrle, Oscar, and Willian in front of him in addition to Costa. Should be awesome.

Excellent take by Costa for his goal. Torres looked unbelievably shit. Like, more so than he normally does. He's embarrassingly bad.

Our buildup in attack looks good for a preseason match but the final ball is still missing. Izzy Brown having a bit of a mare. Fabregas looks great. Matic and Costa working their asses off. Azpi looks very rusty as expected. Zouma can jump 25 ft in the air. Salah once more is great when running with the ball or when in open space but pulls a Torres every time he's required to play the final ball or have a shot. What was Izzy thinking with that pass around the box leading to the goal? Just hoof it away! His fault.

Dammit! Seems like you DO need the paid membership to watch this one on the official website. Why was the last one free and this one isn't!? Fuck.

I was able to watch it for free with just the basic membership in HD.

Yeah, I was just coming in here to ask if anyone knew if this one would be shown free on Chelsea TV like the last one was. I really hope so. Was crystal clear quality too.

A part of me hopes we meet Barca at some point in the CL and Cesc scores the winner to eliminate them. I would say I hope we meet them in the final but I doubt they'd get that far since their defense is shit and their tactics have been found out. Anyways, looking forward to watching him in a Chelsea shirt in a few hours. Expecting a bit of rust, obviously, but it'll be good to see him amongst our players on the pitch.

Christ, calm down.I wasn't suggesting he's "stealing a living." True, he made plenty of appearances last season but mostly when the game was already over. He's not an impact player at all. Like you said, he's decent at a very specific role. A point I've made here a number of times. I'm just saying that it's strange that he's happy to be a bit part player when he could go elsewhere and be a regular.

I had just about forgotten that he was still with us. He was warming the bench most of last season with Lamps, Ramires, and Luiz in midfield. Can't imagine him playing more than that this season now that MvG is fit. Plus the possibility of Romeu staying (doubtful). He must be very satisfied with his wage. He could go and start for some decent sides but seems content sitting on the bench.

Would make about as much sense as United buying him now. None.

I'd bet my house that if he's sold and does really well he'll eventually end up back in the Prem playing for one of our rivals. Guaranteed. Probably at City.