Pizy

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.

Oh yeah. Well, he'd certainly score more that Torres up front.

Either José still thinks Drogba is WAY better than he currently is or another forward will surely be brought in. I can't imagine what a blow it would be if Costa got injured very early on and we're back to having the worst strike force of any top European team again. Maybe another combo forward like Schürrle who can fill in at multiple positions? Griezmann? I'm in agreement with many here that starting the season with Costa, Drogba, and Torres is potentially suicidal. Costa, Lukaku, Drogba I'd be delighted with but not the former three.

"Footballistic" José taking a page out of the AVB book there?

Let's offer £30m + Ramires.

Like MrBlueGuy said above, it sounds to me like he's saying he won't force his way out because he loves Juventus too much for that, but if an offer comes in that he and the club feel is appropriate he'll go.It's kind of weird that we haven't even been linked to him during this entire summer. The kind of player José loves.

No matter what is said, denials included, I'm still going to be nervous about him going to United until the window shuts. He's so obviously the exact midfielder they need that it would be stupid for them not to go for him. Still fishy to me that they so easily allowed Evra to go to Juve after he just signed an extension and they'd lost all of their veteran leadership at the back. Sounds like a deal sweetener to land Vidal. The inner muppet in me is dreaming that we're reserving the legendary #8 shirt for a world class midfielder like Vidal or Pogba. It's hard to even imagine how unbelievably ridiculous a midfield 3 of Vidal/Matic/Fabregas would be.