Blue Armour

. City has no problem, I agree. I'm referring to Haaland specifically

While Haaland is no doubt a monster, and everyone his raving about how he is going to break PL records, every striker will eventually be found out in the PL. I'm not saying he is going to become useless all of sudden. Far from it. But at this point in time, no back line in the PL has been able to come up with a strategy to deal with him. Salah in his record breaking season was considered unstoppable, but he has been found out in the past couple of years IMO. Teams are able to put him off his game and restrict him from getting into great scoring positions. The hot-streak that Haaland is on will eventually be broken. When it happens, it will be interesting to see how he adapts his play to still make himself useful for his team.

Finally. Would be interesting to see what he can contribute when he starts., and he deserved to start especially given that Aubameyang hasn't been fully fit. Hope he calms his nerves (unlike Gallagher) and plays without pressure.

Interesting read (thanks for the share),- the article raises more alarm bells for me., with regards to Koulibaly. Apart from his ability on the ball, there's not been much to shout about, especially when it comes to his defending. The article highlights even more mistakes than what I've noticed from watching the games. Maybe Potter could somehow get more from him, but at the same time he needs to get the team winning again from the very next game and I'm not sure I'd I would risk starting Koulibaly in order to do that. I would either bring him back for a lower tier cup game or only after we hit a strong run of form (hopefully).

We dumped a lot of money on a bunch of disaster signings. Lukaku was the worst, but I'm also looking at the money paid for Havertz. What did the scouts see in a player like him to warrant that kind of fee? More than 2 years here and he hasn't found his step. Unless covid fucked him like Vesper said, but I don't think he has issues with stamina. Anyway. The less said about Havertz the better. Him and Mount have been beyond disappointing so far. Every season we would like to see how much they've improved from the previous season, but this year they're both acting like a couple of primadonnas that have achieved everything in football and have decided to take a break. I was really hoping our youth players would step it up a notch again this season, but they seem to have gone backwards., in the direction of countless flops like Delle Ali and the rest. Looks like we need to go hunting again for another Hazard or Drogba. No idea where we will find one though.

None of our attackers have that level of quality. Overall we're a stronger team. But we have no strong individuals to lift us up on a regular basis.

Looking at Sons goal against Leicester shows how a shit team can be made to look good with at least one or two world class attackers. We haven't had one of those since Hazard left. Based on the amount of money we paid for Havertz, I guess he was supposed to be the next big thing for us. Shame that it hasn't panned out that way and you have to wonder why we dumped so much money on a player if you're unsure about his quality.

To be fair, the bar is pretty low at the moment with the number of quality finishers in the team right now. All we have are Sterling and to a lesser extent, James With Aubameyang not fully fit, I'm keen to see how Broja will perform if he plays from the start.

Also, was it not possible to have Chelsea v Fulham this weekend instead, with the Pool game not happening?

Apparently FA will take a decision after the international break. If the FA have sense, and Oct 1 is a no go, they'll move it to Oct 2nd. They'll probably bend to the will of the broadcasting companies though.

Plenty of bright spots in his first game in charge: Just need the all important win in the next game to get us going again.

Players like Drogba, Hazard, Kante, Essien, even Fabregas, Costa, were not terribly expensive buys. Whenever we obtained gems in the transfer market, it's always been because of fast, smart recruitment. Four of those names I mentioned above happened with Mourinho, and Kante happened under Conte. Having the manager work closely with the club in identifying targets early on can really set us up strong. This is one area where I hope Potter can do better than Tuchel. If the past transfer windows were an indication, it would seem that Tuchel either did not care much for this, or his ideas were all over the place including chasing unrealistic targets.

No to Koulibaly, but yes to everything else.

Should he even be starting over Broja, especially if he isn't even 100 percent fit as he himself has admitted.

Werner's departure has to be pinned on Tuchel. I feel we fucked up this season by letting CHO and Werner leave, instead opting to keep an unhappy Pulisic and a wantaway Ziyech.

Agreed, even though I'm surprised at how easily a veteran defender like Azpilicueta was left ball watching to let an attacker get behind him like that. Its even more ridiculous when you think about it. It took two massive cock-ups by our two most experienced defenders to lead to their goal. What are the odds.. At the other end, we seem to miss from positions that are easier to score from. Can't make this up. Maybe someone needs to do what that former Liverpool striker Bruce Grobbelaar did by peeing on the goalposts at Anfield to lift their title curse. Even if it worked for only 1 year, lol.

I don't deny his attacking talents. Links up play very well, and a good eye for a pass. But I'm not convinced he is defensively sound. At least compared to Chillwell. When the team is leaking goals, and hasn't found the right combination for a defensive setup, I'm not sure if I would pick him over Chillwell.

Know Didier Deschamps, he'll be licking his lips in anticipation.

Yes the previous regime has a lot to answer for. Still can't get over how we let both Rudiger's and Christensens contract run down like that. And I really hope a new DOF and a couple of transfer windows can fix the mess we are in currently, but I fear we'll be in an even bigger mess if we fail to finish top 4 this season. If this window has been any indication, we will find it even harder to attract talent. If we fail to win the next league game and the next CL game, I'll be almost ready to write this season off. At that point its going to be a massive ask of Potter to steady the ship. And yes, Koulibaly is looking to be the biggest dud so far. But to be fair, not too many people thought he would be this horrendous. Ideally, I would have liked to sign Skriniar, and kept Koulibaly for rotation. For Silva. But 37 year old Silva seems far superior, FFS. Instead of solidifying the back line and linking well with Mendy he's gone kamikaze. I still hope his nerves settle and he can regain his reputation as a commanding CB., but for now the signs don't look. And agree about your assessment about Fofana. Physically Chalobah is better than both, but he still has mistakes in him.

Based on current form I agree. More than the turgid attack I'm concerned about our inability to keep clean sheets. I think today the oddball combination of Silva and Azpi in the center let Potter down. Just hoping he finds a better solution for the next game. But hey, Kante's back next month probably. So he might end up masking our deficiencies again.

Despite the current state of the team, I agree. If we win at least one of the legs against Milan, and at least draw the other one, I would fancy our chances to finish second.

For Potter's sake I hope this team gets him a win in the next match. Else we'll fall into a rut that I think he'll struggle to get us out of. His decision to go with back 4 was bold, but the choice to go with 2 ageing CBs (even if Silva is the best of all our CBs) was a bit weird Of course, the downside of a back 4 is that our wingbacks are no longer as aggressive as they used to be. Looking at James here. And Cucurella needs to be benched.

We lost Abramovich? Face it. There are a lot of questions about the current Chelsea. Its no surprise that we failed so miserably to attract first choice targets. There will be doubts about the clubs ambition, with the new regime taking over. Its absolutely imperative we finish in the top 4 in their first season to show that we still have the same edge. And this is why I did not want the added doubt of Potter replacing Tuchel, especially so soon.. It just adds to the list uncertainties.

Have to say., it is refreshing to to have club owners that at least openly speak about the decision making process. And while it's questionable, it will be interesting to see how Chelsea fares with a different approach. The old regime was purely driven by results first. While I'm not keen to see the club transform into another Arsenal, I'm interested in seeing how this vision plays out in the long term. I only hope they don't let the club become a lackluster destination like Arsenal has become. For that, the team needs to keep challenging at the highest levels in a consistent manner., even if not outright winning trophies every time.

Still possible he might change it for Chelsea and based on the opposition, right? But yes,...it's likely that Potter will stick with something familiar to the team