Blue Armour

Same. Playing Emerson itself doesn't inspire confidence,..Emerson against an 'out of form' Willian sounds even worse. Thiago Silva will have his hands full. Emerson being the only available LB is almost reason enough to go with 3 atb (and yes, I know playing 3 at the back was useless at the Emirates last season)

Good for those teams, but sounds 'meh' if any one other than Brentford win it. For Spurs it would be just a repeat of their 2008 carling cup win. A simple reason for them to say that they finally broke their trophy drought. For City, it will be another routine Carling cup win, just like Arsenal and the FA cup. A United victory would mean more for Ole, than United. A chance for Ole to claim his first trophy as manager, and a chance for United fans to bleat when comparing him to Frank.

Well..not sure how much of a positive this is, but at least Tammy, Giroud, Pulisic and Azpi have scored against Arsenal. And at least one, if not all, of them will be playing on Sat.

The pundits on ESPN said there will actually be more pressure on Chelsea in this match, because anything other than a win against this team would be unacceptable. I'm so nervous about this match given how the stage is being set,...will take any kind of win. Even if we scrape it by some fluke. Losing or drawing in any way would be beyond embarrassing. Also have to hope that no shit refereeing or VAR decision comes into the picture. Would be typical for the officials to grant Arse or one of our rival teams a favor

Looks like Aubameyang is a doubt for this game (and the next few games apparently) ?

Struggling to think what this ass-whooping will mean for our match. You would think they'll be determined to put things right again on their home ground. Thank goodness they won't have crowds in their stadium.

Think they're planning to do more frequent checks for tier 4 area clubs. If nothing else, hope it helps to isolate infected players before they spread it everywhere.

Okay my mistake ( @MoroccanBlue ) , thanks for correcting. Yeah, now I recall. It worked well against Spurs, but backfired against Arsenal (who were anyway playing dour football at the time)

tbf...we've beaten all 3 of them convincingly in some matches under Lampard. But yes, our overall record against each of those 3 NEEDS to improve.

I think the first time we tried 3-4-3 at Emirates, we were decent. The mistake for that game was that Lampard started with Emerson (sigh) and later hooked him to bring on Alonso. I don't recall that we changed formation (could be wrong, that game was a year ago). It was just LWB for LWB change if I recall correctly

Seriously ought to consider going with a back 5, for at least one of these games. Don't care how good Silva & Mendy have been, don't think they can compensate for every single mistake that both our stand in fullbacks could make. Plus it could make us less predictable. We can always switch back to a 4-3-3 during the game if needed.

Maybe trust Emerson at LB for 1 game.., but expect him to be reliable for all 3 games including City?? No way. Attackers like Mahrez will turn him inside out. It would suck to change our team shape for just one missing full back, so not sure what the best option is. Silva could be real busy for the upcoming games. Hopefully James can return, and we can play Azpi at LB instead

Who is the referee for this game anyway? Better not be Antony Taylor. EDIT: Just checked., Its going to be Michael Oliver Fourth official: Stuart Attwell. VAR: Paul Tierney. Assistant VAR: Constantine Hatzidakis.

What are the odds that we play a 3 at the back against Arsenal with Alonso returning as LWB.

Ah well.. I'm not expecting much from Emerson or Azpi in attack, but I hope they can remain defensively solid. Our central attacking midfield needs to step up to support our wide players.

I'm just glad that we got to see Hazard and Drogba play one season together (under Mourinho nonetheless). That was a dream Seeing them combine against Tottenham at the Bridge, and not to mention win the PL title. Chelsea heaven for me.

Drogba could do it all. Play on the wing, operate in tight spaces, be an aerial threat, hit long shots. Win free kicks (sneakily) He is the kind of intelligent, not to mention ruthless, player we've been missing up front ever since he left. We've had plenty of great attacking talent since, but never one with that attitude.

Yeah, our central attacking midfielders need to do better. Mount works hard and creates chances (underrated in that aspect), Kovacic also a hard worker, but both of them need more end product. I'm not putting much expectations on Havertz at this point, so hopefully someone else can step in. Wouldn't be against Ziyech being deployed there, or at a stretch, Gilmour. Both of these two would be more decisive around the final third, I think.

Yeah, would be good. Hopefully Chelsea and Lamps look into it. Silva hinted at staying on next season I think after the next international tournament, all his focus will be on club football. Unless he cares for Qatar 2022

I remember how Terry used to pick out runners like Cole with that sweet long pass from his 'weaker' left foot. Lot of people forget Terry started out as a midfielder.

Looking we might be missing at least one starting full-back for this match. If by chance James is fit and Chillwell isn't,..would you prefer Azpi or Emerson to start at LB? Would personally prefer the former, and sacrifice some attacking strength on the left in exchange for defensive solidarity.

Yeah at one nil, I was honestly wondering if it was going to be one of those games. The sky commentators also did nothing to improve the mood by bringing up names of W Ham players that messed things up last season. The positive is that after the second goal, we started playing more confidently and with more slick passing. Hope that's all it was. Something to restore confidence.

Come on Chels

This season started late. Not sure your comment applies

Haha, I think some people just dont watch our games from start to finish. We could have put a lot more than 3 past Leeds.