Blue Armour

I still think we need to suck it up and offer the big contract to either one of Rudiger or Christensen, and hope that Silva stays on for another year. We are NOT going to get two quality CBs next year, given our track record. Would prefer the club gave it to Rudiger, since you can clearly see who Tuchel prefers. With Chalobah coming up the ranks, we could make do without Christensen.

Arsenal in good form. I hope for once these guys can turn up against a top side and nick points off them. Home game too, so no excuses.

Interesting comments from Lukaku post-game. He admitted that he was trying to be less static in this game.

It was criminal to play Pulisic in the center of the front 3. He doesn't have the control of Hazard or the height of Havertz to win the ball against big center halves. Tired of Tuchel playing square pegs in round holes. It was acceptable when we didn't have the necessary players fit. But continuing to do so just sends a negative message to not just the players being left out, but the entire squad. This is the sort of shit that saw Lampard lose the dressing room. Already on thin ice with contracts winding down and no renewals in sight.

West SHam

Wasn't Willian only offered a 1 year deal? If not I'm mistaken.

You would think Azpi would know how the club works given how Willian was dealt with. Even JT was no exception

Not expecting miracles from him. More like just hoping he doesn't get any worse, lol. Just 1 month. Hopefully.

Great. Did Chelsea at least make an attempt to keep Mendy

Good. He needs to keep this form for Jan.

If there was one positive from this match. Its that Kante & Kovacic are back and seemingly playing okay, and we therefore look like a more balanced team again as a result. Even Saul wasn't dreadful for once. We really needed a win here to stay in a title challenge, but anyway I'm at least looking forward to the next match. If we get at least one player from Havertz/Werner back, we should be back to winning ways.

Arsenal winning again... Has all the omens of another shitty weekend., but I'll bite my lip and say Arsenal winning might be a good thing. Hopefully they can maintain form and somehow upset City at the Emirates end of month. Still don't get how they seem to play well in spells under Arteta but roll over embarrassingly against City or Liverpool. Granted they don't have enough quality players, but they seem to lose horribly every time they face those two

Hardest hit in what way though? We have 3-4 players confirmed. It's not a big enough number to warrant a postponement. The only part that sucks is that it took out all our forwards. If the club wanted to be sneaky like United we should have just shut down the training ground and pretended there was a possible covid crisis. Maybe that way we could have got it postponed.

Aren't Liverpool and City also playing on Sunday as planned?

Yes. And also you don't always get to be involved in a title challenge. If I were a club and still within 7 points of the top team at this point of the season, I would fight tooth and nail to close that gap. Don't agree with adopting this defeatist and 'practical' mindset at this stage. I have full confidence that if we sort out the contact issues over the next couple of weeks, and have key players return, we WILL get back into a title challenge. Only annoying this is figuring out when/how City will drop points. They seem to be on one of their runs were they just ruthlessly dispatch bread and butter teams. It would take one of the bigger teams to claw the lead from them, no doubt.

This is what I mentioned last month on the Rudiger thread. We are practically taking a gamble this season by having these stand offs with players., who all said and done delivered above their levels last season. And the club says it doesn't value that? Ridiculous. Instead we go and dump a boatload of cash on Lukaku. It's become a pattern. Every time we have a manager come in and work wonders., the club somehow manages to pull the rug off from under their feet in the very next season.

True.. just felt that this was/is one of our better chances to win.

Yes I agree we could replace them eventually, but we're practically throwing this season into the trash by keeping these defenders disgruntled. It's hard enough to make top 4 in this league, and in this one season where we were in good a position to challenge for the title we're seemingly going a bit kamikaze. Just watching City seemingly go for a 3rd title in a row is a bit frustrating. Reminds of me our own failure to do a 3-peat years ago.

Ffs,...hope at least Jorginho is fit. And hopefully Kante.

The other thing is the knock on effect this has on the squad. The fact that the club has seemingly adopted a stand-off'ish attitude to not just 1, but actually 2-3 players has a negative effect. You cannot tell me this team is trying as hard as they did a month ago. Just look at the amount of cheap goals we've leaked. The longer this drags on, the worse its going to get before the end of the month.

I was actually watching the full match highlights today. I had a sinking feeling from the moment I saw James miss. Just knew it was going to be one of those shitty matches.

Well...with whats happening with contract renegotiations the defenders, you would expect him to feel at least a little frustrated. Azpi already looks like he has his mind at another club.

Fuck off Everton. Shit side always manage to find us when they're on a bad run and somehow manage to turn into a banana skin. I know its easy to adopt a defeatist mindset especially when Everton and Wolves are exactly the same 2 back to back fixtures that set off a horrible run for us same time last time. That being said, I refuse to rule us out of a title challenge if we can keep up pace with a win in this fixture. With a little help from Conte, we might even pull closer to Liverpool. Following that, I hope some crucial first teamers return to the side and restore our form. Fucking injuries/infections have derailed us a bit.

Don't see Kante starting even if he is fit. Would rather just work him back to the lineup by coming on as a sub. Might see same starting lineup from last game, with CHO instead of Werner & Christensen instead of Azpi.

So...how many center backs are we going to be in the market for next season? And how many good ones can we actually afford? Even if we manage to convince Silva to stay, I doubt he's going to keep up the pace next year. Azpi already looks shot and on his way out.