Blue Armour

Thought he did really well, considering how little he got of the ball in the first half and early parts of the second. Him and Moses on the right were the main reasons why we had any sort possession in the game, and of course it was the foul on Hazard that led to the Luiz's free kick. Having said that, I don't think he enjoys playing in this kind of game. Team is on the defense, and Matic/Alonso are struggling to get the ball to him. Barring Willian on the other end, he has no one to really link up play and create the chances. I think he has better time combining with Pedro and Fabregas. The only other person thinking as quick as Hazard on the pitch was Kante. Also, I hope he stays on the pitch longer than he has for recent games. Like Ballack remarked, I think he is a confidence player and he likes to be acknowledged for what he contributes. Of late, the spotlight has been on Costa. It's far cry from the last couple of seasons, were everything HAD to go through Hazard. I could be wrong, but my guess is that Conte was going for a draw by withdrawing him and Willian for Pedro and Cesc. And saving Hazard to be fresh for the game against Arsenal.

Ah okay

Not sure if it was a typo in your post, but they were not playing in Europe this season.

No wonder Lampard singled him out in his interview. Truly one of the great performers this season.

I've said it before and will say it again. His hold-up play is very good, and reminds me of how it was when we had Drogba up front. Hope he can continue to work on it. Diego does it well, but having another striker like Michy who can setup chances up front is a great boon for the team

I'm not his biggest supporter, but I thought he was really good today. Made excellent probing runs, for Fabregas to pass the ball, and involved in a lot of goal scoring opportunities. Not going to complain too much about his 'selfish' shots at goal, especially when we're 2-0 up against lower league opposition at home.

I was not referring from the article itself...but rather to the related video interview with him (a couple or so days back I believe, and it should be on the Chelsea page of goal.com). In it he says, how 'we' didn't do that well last year, but this year 'we' have responded really well. (along those lines). But yeah, he was using 'we' in the video interview.

I love how he still addresses the club as 'we'. Loyalty.

Mate, I think what you're trying to say is that planet has always gone through cycles of cooling and warming. While the science does agree with that, and yes, we are in one of those 'warming cycles' the fact is that the earth is warming up at an incredibly fast rate especially in the past few decades. Co-incidence? Honestly, the point is the not fact that the planet is warming up. Yes, its happened before and the planet will definitely survive this one. The point is that we're making it happen much faster than the norm,..faster than we might be able to keep up, and we're only shooting ourselves in the foot with this. The planet won't care and won't miss us if we do so,.... but we ought to start caring for ourselves. That's the point.

Media Logic: "Personal terms agreed with player" == "YEAH, baby! This move is gonna happen" The chairman of the Chinese club was saying the same about Costa, as well as Benzema, and Falcao. If you look at the facts, like Conte said, this is all that has happened so far: 1. Player injured Tue last week, couldn't train with rest of squad 2. Player didn't travel to Leicester, but like any injured player showed his support for the team on social media 3. Returns to training on Monday (ALONE!? Why?, because the rest of the squad is on holiday after the win) 4. Rest of the squad returns to training, and Costa trains with them Now if you want to read between the lines and get all these additional 'facts', just like the journos and their sources from their local Chinese restaurant, then you can come to all kinds of interesting conclusions. And like Unionjack said, if Costa was/is thinking about a future move, we need to do our best to convince him otherwise,...Only need to know how long we had to wait for a new 20-goal-a-season striker since we lost our last one.

Too lazy to check myself, but are we the only the club receiving bids from the Chinese?

No, don't think this is the game for that. At least, not with the number of changes you were suggesting in the lineup you had posted. There would be almost zero chemistry. I've seen us try that kind of option with different combinations against teams from lower divisions, in cup competitions, and we've come up short. You only need to look at the game against West Ham in the EFL cup this season to see how it went wrong.

Looking at that, I would think JT's is the most impressive....considering the sheer number of appearances, and still keeping that clean sheet record. Statistically, I think he would be no.1 in almost all departments.

The very simple thing that Kante does, that really lifts the entire team, is that he keeps things ticking. When there is a loose ball in the oppositions half, he's the one that's usually on it quick as lightning, when others are more inclined to just dropping back. Its a big boost to our forward players, who only have to think about spending time and energy in setting up the next attack...instead of dropping deep to build up play all the way from the back.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/07/chelsea-stars-mock-jeremy-clarkson-over-his-custom-car-on-the-grand-tour-6366554/

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.