Blue Armour

For those hoping for Malouda situation, I hope not. What happened didn't leave a good impression on the other players (Drogba ,et all) and that affects team mentality. The main reason for this soup we are in, is because we failed to make top 4. We should try to make the club as attractive as possible for incoming players this season, and retaliating against Courtois, no matter what he tries...is not going to help. Need to take the high ground on this, difficult as it seems.

Don Balon hahaha..says it all

Best attacker today no doubt, but curious game from him. He was all over Bellerin in the Arsenal game, but seemed to flinch a bit against Walker as if he wasn't sure of his own ability to beat him. Very cautious about not putting a foot wrong.. He did beat him twice (as mentioned in the above post). And again, have to remember this is still a 17 yr old we are talking about. Shameful that we had to pin our hopes on him for this match...such is the quality of the surrounding players.

I keep looking at the highlight of that first city goal and smh... What was Rudiger doing?? backing off Aguero like that.....and I thought that was Cahill's speciality. Add to that he was completely unmarked for one of their set pieces. It was as if the team was playing against him for the very first time.

Not sure, but his general level of play seems to have regressed. I know his touch was never great, but nothing seems to be working for him atm..including decision making.. Completely different player to the one that was with us up to fall 2017.

I just noticed the football in the picture is deflated. Sounds about right, for the moment.

Really clutching at straws? Hazard watching or not watching, wouldn't have made a difference. I for one am glad he didn't watch, and I hope he doesn't watch the highlights. Would have painted an even worse picture, with Sarri trying to get him on board.

Bit extreme, no? Last year was technically his first season as a first team regular.

Wonder if he necessarily means a central midfielder. Honestly, we have plenty of those and none too similar.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/we-are-lucky-morata-lauds-chelseas-jorginho-coup/1hu9j12ngkgvc1x2p1v5zplfv0

Hmmm.... https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/998730/Chelsea-transfer-news-Thibaut-Courtois-Maurizio-Sarri-Instagram

Yeah, I was also thinking that LCM/LAM might be an option. Playing at LW feels too similar to the role he had under Mourinho when he had to track back constantly and had less influence in our play through the middle. Won't get the best out of him.

I think the key right now is maintaining the intensity throughout the entire 90 mins.. There was a drop in intensity in the first 45 itself, with the pressing. I think the players need to get used to doing that. Also, there's no way to get around this lengthy season without rotation. At the moment, the there is a big gap in quality between the current starting 11 and the second choice

Difference being that in the case of Costa, there was a total communications blackout The club didn't have a clue about what he was up to.

I could have sworn Sarri said end of the month..when asked about talking to Hazard, Courtois and Willian face to face. EDIT: Well...that's the official quote

We'll keep hearing that till we face one of the top 5 in the PL.

Totally in control, first half. Careless mistake in the 2nd to concede. Inter grew back into it. Midfield 3 in second was Bakayoko, DD and Jorginho..which safe to say isn't our first choice combination, so not much to talk about there. Jorginho kept the team ticking to the best he could Notable performances: CHO, Pedro. Morata was much improved compared to his last outing.

I hate how these articles just go ahead and assume that Chelsea will just go ahead and sign some shit keeper as first choice, just to appease Madrid. 'Have up to Aug 9th to sign Butland, who would be easier to sign than Pickford'. Its continuing that shit trend from last Jan, when we were linked to the likes of Andy Carrol for striker.

Roman Abramovich was watching the match at Nice today from the stands.

People are reading into friendlies too much again..Calling out performances of individual players/CB's and what not. TBH, I've been surprised with how quickly our team is adapting to not just the new tactics, but just reverting back to a back 4 again. A lot of our defenders particularly the wing-backs have the 5-at-the-back mentality drilled into them over the past couple of seasons. I'm just hoping for our regular first-teamers to slot in comfortably as well, considering the little time left for the start of the season.

Would rather have Kante as B2B, and Jorginho as CDM, pulling strings in the quarterback role.

You're right about that... Its more about sustaining that type of football rather than how long it takes to switch to it. The Chelsea teams have been weirdly malleable over different seasons. We didn't take too long to switch to an attacking brand of football under Scolari/AVB. The key is to discover the balance and maintain performance against all the different teams we are going to encounter during the season.

Also, without top 4 qualification this season Hazard might be one of our best assets to lure in any star player

This. Several times over. I hope the club recognizes this as well.