Blue Armour

Sigh... Another week in which we have to hope results go our way. Looks like Leicester will pull away from us again.

Our play deteriorated with his subs today. Settled for a draw by bring on Reece James., and leaving Giroud

He was playing RW. But I still question his decision to restore Pulisic to the starting 11 without merit. It felt like he was reacting to all the negative articles in the press about Pulisic.

Played for a draw really. Returning to a back 5 with Reece James, and opting not to bring on Giroud showed that he wasn't pushing for a win. All his subs ended up making our play worse. Easily the worst match under his charge so far.

This question maybe out of left field, but given how much of an impact Tuchel has had on the midfielders (looking at Jorginho/Kovacic mainly) especially with how they deal with the press, and their off the ball movement.. Can he revive Ruben Loftus Cheek's Chelsea path next season?

So furious about the Werner offside. The commentators also called it onside at first look. A goal like that against big opposition would have done wonders for his confidence. VAR rears its ugly head again. And this time the pitch referee couldn't do anything about it.

The United fixture was definitely the more winnable fixture among the two, and we let that one become a draw. Can't afford to lose this one under any circumstance.

Or our general results against Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool. We have bogey teams and bogey managers.

Kante and Kovacic were stellar.., and for that matter even United's CM's were very good at shielding their defense. Mount and Ziyech were forced to run ragged just to make their way to the final third. I think they did better than their counterparts in Bruno and Rashford., but still not enough to make a telling contribution. I think Ole's decision to play Bruno in the Thursday fixture might have backfired. He looked lethargic. Mount on the other hand was full of energy even up to the 90th minute. I think it was a good idea to trade Giroud for Pulisic to give Lindelof and Maguire trouble, but Pulisic hasn't been Pulisic for nearly a year now. That last shot he took and skied, after he wriggled past the defense was telling of his current form. In retrospect, draw isn't the worst, but we very much needed a win. I was less worried about this fixture, than the next one at Anfield. Only saving grace was Arsenal doing us favor and knocking out Leicester earlier today.

Wonder if this Tuchel's own method of mind games 😄 He made similar remarks about Luis Suarez before the Atletico game, and it seemed to work

I also like the idea of Mount dropping deeper into midfield, and James replacing Azpi. I particularly like the idea of James playing as the RCB, because he can push up and make deadly right hand side combinations with Ziyech and CHO if needed. Opponents defending in the box will struggle to deal with that, because they won't be able to predict where a cross is going to swing in from. I think its a logical next step if Mount and James are becoming more mature players, with Mount dropping into CM and James becoming an actual defender instead of just being a wing back. As you said, if Tuchel sticks with 3 atb formation, this is something we could expect to see in the future.

I agree that Ziyech looked better for the first time this year, when he came on Atletico. Wouldn't mind seeing him the lineup. That being said, I'm pretty sure we're going to see the same front 3 we saw against Atletico. Don't quite agree with the calls to drop Mount, even if he needs rest. As someone previously mentioned, this is one of our most important fixtures for the top 4 race, and a must win game. Tuchel will not want to rest one of his best attacking players for this kind of fixture. Maybe against the likes of Burnley, not Man Utd.

Yes, Jorginho and Kovacic aren't going to cut it. They can circulate the ball just fine, but there's no decisive passing or goal threat from either of them.

One of the ESPN pundits, in this case our former player Frank LeBoeuf, for once seemed to offer a decent thought as to why our attack breaks down in the final third of the pitch despite maintaining so much control up to that point. His reasoning was that we don't have enough players playing up front right now that carry the ball for an extended period and try to 'unbalance' the opposition. He felt that Mount is the only player that does it to some extent. I can see where he is coming from. CHO for example also tries to do take-on's , but CHO is also a very direct winger as opposed to someone like Pulisic or Hazard, and doesn't necessarily drag defenders out of position. Long story short, we really need players like Pulisic to find their form sooner rather than later. Even Ziyech, whose passing ability can make up for the lack of dribblers in the front line. Ziyech looked a bit better in his cameo appearance against Atletico, so I hope he isn't too far off

I'm pretty sure our players won't fear them either. Just need to ensure that the lack of fear doe not turn into callousness. They are a shitty side that has managed to get the better of us in recent games through shithousery.

And without Silva too!

Its not Pulisic's fault obviously, nor was it the fault of quality players like Ledley King or Jack Wilshere. I am saying that Chelsea can thank their stars that Mount has remarkable endurance. He can play full matches back to back and not show much strain.

The most annoying is how a lot of people compare his output to players like Maddison (age 24) and Grealish (age 25), and use that as a stick to beat him down. To me, Mount has the necessary tools, the time and the attitude to reach those levels. More importantly he seems to also have that same kind of endurance that Lampard had as a player. An underrated quality which you value only when you look at players like Pulisic who end up being missing for nearly 2/3'rds of the season.

Which is what we should do anyway. It would have been nice to have Silva, but a clean sheet is the least of our priorities. Don't want a repeat of what happened in 2014 with Mourinho when we got a 0-0 against Atletico away, only to bungle it up in the return leg. We need to get away goals.

Hope so too. We really could use a 'big' win to really kickstart our season. Our biggest scalp so far this season, was against an out of sort Spurs side. A good result against Atletico is something that could spurs on to do better in the league. Didn't quite work for Liverpool, but they have different kinds of problems.

Its a do or die situation, considering that our next fixture is at Anfield. We are not going to displace United from the top 4, and unlikely to even finish ahead of them, but they are among the more 'beatable' top teams barring a VAR controversy..

......but, have they ever lost 5 straight..? Asking for a friend...

My favorite season. 2012 Champions league obviously special, but 2009-2010 brought out the best in Chelsea breaking the PL goal record with 103 goals scored.

Remember Carlo's match in charge when we won 2-0 at Anfield on the way to the title in 2010? Clinical stuff.

Ughh...don't remind me.