Blue Armour

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6805911/Willian-insists-Eden-Hazard-focused-Chelsea-amid-heavy-links-Real-Madrid-move.html 'He's never said anything about Real Madrid': Willian insists Eden Hazard is 'focused' on Chelsea despite being heavily linked with a Bernabeu move Let's focus on Chelsea's season Instead of buying into the media generated hysteria like has already happened many times this season.

So true. We got away with for a couple of seasons, when Pedro and Willian were still at their best fitness levels. Willian's dribbling pace couple of seasons ago was electric. He could easily take the ball from a congested midfield and make it to the final third. Now we hardly have anyone with that ability. Only Hazard and Kante in midfield, and maybe CHO from the bench. To top it off, both our CF's, Giroud and Higuain, can hover around the box, but can't be expected to break at speed.

Over the past few years I've been trying to pinpoint the source of why Chelsea have become the resilient team of the past decade, overcoming the odds and winning when least expected to. I think a lot of it stemmed from that mentality Mourinho, JT and Lamps instilled in the squad..Some of it remains, but the magic is starting to wear off. I don't quite agree with that. I can see why you would think that though, because he has qualities for sure. But he does silly things, like give away stupid fouls when we are attacking a corner in the opponents box, unnecessarily grappling with opponents. Plus, there was that incident from last year, when he committed that horrendous foul when playing for the national team. Also, he's a bit of a joker in the dressing room I think. Not that that's a problem, but its not something the team leader would normally be associated with. Maybe with maturity he can be a groomed as a captain. For now, I would just keep him as a vice captain. Definitely more vocal than Azpilicueta though...so considering the other options, he would definitely be in serious contention.

We were not over reliant on him for goals when Costa was in full swing at the club. Nor were we over reliant on him for creating chances when Fabregas could send defense splitting passes. I see your point, and maybe his style of play is not a 100% match for Sarri. But all our problems are because of the lack of good support. Conte drove out Costa (his tantrums are well documented, but it was the manager that exacerbated it. How many times was Drogba on the verge of an exit before 2009?) , and now we lost Fabregas due to Sarri's lack of proper rotation.

He really is more like Matic, minus the height. Can't rely on him to produce anything up front, but can press and tackle. At this point I consider him as just back up for Jorginho's position, nothing more. He doesn't offer anything in any of the other positions on the pitch.

City... with Aguero and Sterling (in a season where DeBruyne was absent) Liverpool...with Salah and Mane close behind Chelsea.... Hazard. We're missing our Diego Costa. Praying the price for losing him so easily.

Lol no. A 28 yr old David Luiz would have done the same nonsense we saw today. This is just how Luiz is, and has always been . Unless we have someone else in the back 4 to stop these kind of antics, or anticipate Luiz and provide cover for him, we will continue to see this from time to time.

You can't cherry pick attributes and comparisons to select players to support your argument against RLC. All I know his end product so far this season, considering his limited playing time, is superior to most our midfielders barring Kante. He has more confidence to drive into the box, and with our midfield we are really lacking in that department. Is he the long term solution? That I can't admit For me it has to be a rotation between him and Barkley for the starting spot, as needed. Kovacic should be 3'rd choice for LCM, and a backup for Jorginho. Kovacic for all his supposed dribbling ability, rarely drives into the box, and plays the safe option. That's my biggest complaint against Barkley too. For his early season form, he should have pushed on from there, but he seems to lose confidence when we play anything close to PL quality opposition. I hope he doesn't start against Everton. He would be in for a pasting.

Tell me what he did in the second half. The only thing he did was create a half chance for RLC. Face it, he isn't the type of striker to succeed against a packed defense with decent quality like Wolves. We were playing with 10 men, especially after they opened the scoring

I might be naive when saying this.. But I honestly think RLC will be restored to the starting 11 in less than two weeks, if his back problems don't crop up again. He should and will definitely start over Kovacic, and over Barkley as well unless Sarri is rotating.

Well at least it was that... Higuain on the other hand... Did the guy even have more than 2 touches in the second half? Not entirely convinced with what he does to keep Giroud out of the side every game.

Hope his fitness improves and Sarri sticks to word on restoring him to the starting line up within 2 weeks. His back pain was the only reason justifying Kovacic/Barkley starting ahead of him in games.

On Higuain, His movement and intelligence is there. But just like Pedro and Willian, his age has affected his sharpness a bit, and he's unable to make the most of it 100% of the time. Like how he took too many touches in the box when sent through by Hazard, or fumbled the ball over the top from Jorginho. Against the very best defenses, he won't get too many chances to redeem himself in the same game, like he was able to do so today. The good thing is that unlike Morata, he doesn't let his head go down. Because he's experienced, he knows what works. And he'll keep trying again to eventually score. We can get away with this with lesser sides, but I imagine we would need our other goal scorers to be at their top when the 2-3 really big games come, later in the season.

This is off topic, But as a side note, I hope his rest on the sidelines helps Mourinho recover some of his mojo back. He already looks to be more like himself, and in control. Still love what he did for Chelsea during his 3 PL title runs, and despite whatever crap happened afterwards, it doesn't overshadow what he's achieved with the club. His take on the Kepa situation and his take on Sarri ball are also interesting https://www.beinsports.com/en/premier-league/video/premier-league-jose-mourinho-reaction/1129197

I think it depends on the manager too. For example, when asked the question, Mourinho was one of the few pundits who said it wasn't really a problem to play Kante outside the CDM role. He felt Kante has the quality to play anywhere on the pitch. This is different from the useless narrative which states that putting Kante back in the lone CDM role (where he never really has played in the past for Chelsea or Leicester), would solve all our problems. Someone like Tim Sherwood on the other hand....

'It is not the same mentality': David Luiz admits going from title contenders to also-rans is a struggle for Chelsea's stars https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6744803/David-Luiz-admits-going-title-contenders-rans-struggle-Chelseas-stars.html This pretty much confirms what I, and several others, have suspected for a long time. A lot of players have already 'given up' on the league, in their minds. Honestly, I'm looking forward to this game, more than I did for the man city one. A lot lies on this. I want to see if we can muster a similar level of performance, as we did in the finals. Are the players really playing for the club? Or just trying to rack up their medal count? Going to be tough though, especially after the 120 mins.

Stupid. Anyway I hope this was just a one off. We have bigger fish to fry and dont need more soap operas. Things can be sorted out after the season. We dont need a Conte Costa type situation midway

Say what you want about his interest in Madrid, but Hazard genuinely cares about this club.

Moving on from the match,.. I really wish the board/Sarri had invested in a full-back and possible a better CB. Especially since it was known that we were shifting to a back 4. Emerson might be able to do a job for now, but we probably need something better for later seasons.

starting 2 games in a row. Hopefully this means that he will be playing more often.

Hazard, and to a slightly less extent, Kante, are the only two players on this Chelsea squad that can be compared to players from Drogba and Lampard's time. If they both leave, we will be joining Arsenal to look hopefully at top 4.

IMO Cahill organizes the back 4 better than Azpi,even though Azpi is a better defender than Cahill. But that's another debate, that no longer matters.

Mistake leaving him as a captain, when clearly he's a just substitute captain to Cahill. Should have given it to Hazard mid way in the season, like they were planning,..would have made him take ownership of the team, just like he did for Belgium. He wanted it too, judging from that Instagram post where he posted a pic of himself with the armband. Azpi is a good player, but it takes more than badge thumping and watching youth games to be a good leader. Didn't act like a leader when it mattered.

Me too. Tbh, till that situation, it was going alright. Good substitutions. Good, battling performance from the players. Honestly, penalties can always go either way, so IMO it was a good day at the office, if you ignore the drama with Kepa. Now it shows that are a few more ugly things to take care of in this team, as if there wasn't enough already.

If Sarri is intent on making a statement, by dropping Kepa for a game, he should strip Azpi of the captaincy too. There should NEVER be a break down in rank. Not so brazenly.