Blue Armour

Crosses being swung in from our left towards Azpi and Moses have been like kryptonite for our new formation ever since we began playing with it... In the game against Man Utd at the bridge, you could see how Zlatan was targeting Azpi and leaping over him to win headers (which he didn't convert in the end). Azpi tries his best to give the attacker as much of a challenge, but there's only so much he can do against players with real leaping ability The left hand side of our defense has to be more proactive in cutting out crosses coming from that side. They should be scrutinizing this a lot given how similar the 2 goals that Spurs scored were.

True, anyone can put their spin own it and have their own 'mind game'. Liverpool despite beating us at the bridge, Arsenal at the Emirates, and unbeaten against the rest of the top 6 are still 6 points behind. Easy to counter mind games like the one Klopp supposedly made.

Merseyside troll alert on previous page^^ Already posted 4 times on this thread and on the match thread as well. Not even halfway through the season, and this guy is already cracking up by coming onto our forum

I'm thinking they will get more chances with fixtures piling up in Dec

Tbh, I see both quotes as more of a dig at the press than us, because he's always been chastised in the press for his style of play. Mourinho knows he's not fooling anyone. He's been known for defensive and counter-attacking football, 1-nilers and the rest. I'm pretty sure he enjoys that kind of efficient play. Like Gary Neville said in commentary, only the greatest teams are so devastating at counter-attack. That goes for Chelsea, the United sides under SAF, old Arsenal sides and more. . I'm pretty sure he would have adopted a similar approach at Man Utd, if it weren't really Man Utd.

At least for Dec, I think both Willian and Pedro will both get a fair amount of chances with fixture congestion.

Really nice to see him get pumped whenever we score these days.

I wouldn't say out-coached. Granted, Costa made things easier, but there were more or less equal opportunities for both teams to make the most of some shoddy defending. City just failed to take their chances. And like you said, the spirit instilled in the squad has made it possible for defenders to bail each other out, especially with the last-ditch clearances in the second half.

Yes, 2-0 down could have been a challenge, but there was always a question about whether we could get back into a game with this system, after going a goal down. And we've answered that with games against teams like City and Tottenham, nonetheless. In this one we were down at half time. Good character building for the side.

Returns to the pitch like a boss., after being out for more than 2 months. You always see a bit of ring rust in players who haven't had any match practice, but he comes back and starts pinging those long balls like it was 2014 again. Its almost like instinct.

The author of said article: I'm guessing his degree in creative writing helped him conjure up this article., but there could have been other influences.

Social media has become a plague these days....with fans pulling quotes out of their arse. Even without searching on web, you can tell that someone as savvy with social media as Cech, wouldn't make a careless remark like that.

Lol. [media]

I thought he played pretty decent. Winning a lot of free kicks.., again taking a lot of abuse from the opposition defense. Should have done better with his shot at Lloris, but was a constant threat, like his involvement for Moses goal. Tottenham were guarding him closely, but he didn't have to do too much in this match, with Diego pulling the strings up front.

Aw man, would love all these guys Drogba, Lamps, JC and AC3 in our backroom staff....not practical but still.

Like Conte said, he's our captain...whether he's on the pitch or not.

Lol...that's Messi in the pic though, right? Spoilers.....?

Pretty much like Drogba there...defender was struggling to hold him back! And any guesses who was wearing no.4 and giving the assist?

Yeah, I can't understand what goes in the heads of these players...ethics thrown completely out the window, no respect for fellow professionals. Its even more annoying when refs fail to give straight yellows for fouls like these (targeting specific players) For the first foul from Adam Clayton, he was also having his shirt held back by that DeRoon.

Mate, you should really keep asking the doubters the question...especially after a game like this last one. Was at the heart of most of our best moves in the game

Its been said plenty of times of late, but he has truly got us playing like a team again. Too often in recent seasons, you turn on the telly to see whether Hazard can turn on the style, or if we could get the odd goal from a set-piece, or who could come off the bench to turn around the game.....Now you see that there's a lot more combinations going on, Alonso, Matic and Hazard on on side, Pedro, Kante, Azpi and Moses on the other....And in defense you have Cahill and Luiz providing cover for our full-backs.....There just seems to be a better game-plan with players like Pedro much more confident in their decision making as a result.

With Luiz, despite the slip-ups he has made in the past, I have always felt as a defender his ceiling was far higher than most. When he's 1 v 1, versus an attacker, there's always that assurance that he won't back down from a challenge because he's not afraid of going into a tackle. No wonder he earned Aguero's ire in that match against City.

Yeah I remember it was Kante...or rather Kante preferring Chelsea because of Conte and his speech.

Odd,..was wondering why he wasn't showing up. Never saw him as the type to cause trouble, or at least disrupt the forum for others...

Influence of the Luiz...