Blue Armour

But don't forget.... he can protest hand balls in the middle of the pitch... Best captain ever.

Both Kante and Hazard have zoned out of this game since the goal. When Lord Marcos Alonso deemed it necessary to concede a penalty..that sealed it.

Lol no...we need things to go up not down.

Azpilicueta rushing forward to protest a hand ball in the middle of the pitch.... Shows what the priorities and the mentality of this joke of a team.. Bunch of imposters

Honestly....does anyone even feel like supporting THIS squad for the Europa league final??? I really have mixed feelings now. The Europa league would be a good win for the club, but this squad.....they really don't give a crap. And this game just seals it for me. So lazy with all the easy openings they got in the first half, and then give away cheap goals to ruin it. How many times have we seen it in PL this season?? Miserable..

I honestly think he brings on RLC and CHO on towards the end of these games only to subdue the furious Chelsea fans after a shite game.

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, I wish Conte had stayed for another season.. Only because he would have cleared the deck with the likes of those who are just sticking on like parasites. And Sarri....I want to give him a chance, but he keeps shooting himself in the foot. Made the game all about effing Barkley by starting him, and restores his beloved son Alonso back to the lineup. Be prepared to see the same miserable line up should we make it to the Europa league finals. Also, can't be bothered to tweak his system to adjust to what could work. Higuain one of the best attackers today, but takes him off so that his bloody system won't be compromised. The squad needs to be revamped, but I don't feel comfortable with him being in charge of that.

I really hope it isn't Barkley. The game will become all about him and Everton. As it is, he rarely plays with confidence. Starting in Goodison Park would just kill it.

Been warming up to RLC since the start of this season.. Especially when he came back extra early for pre-season to fight for his place. Always keeps his head down. Has never kicked up a fuss when playing here, despite all the pundits and their dogs making claims.

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.