Blue Armour

To be fair, Brentford were also poor today. Just another one of those sides that raise their game when we play them, doing team huddles before the match begins and do their damndest to not lose. Just like Leeds earlier this season.

Cucurella at LCB experiment has to stop. Better off playing Koulibaly there. Cucurellas sole purpose is to deputize for Chillwell to keep him fresh

On a side note, did you guys sense the hatred from the ex-Madrid boys of Casemiro and Varane? Varane punched the flag on his way out (although to be fair, he was wrongly booed off for an unfortunate injury) Casemerio got into a tussle with Mount and was acting like he was possessed by a demon after scoring the equalizer. Felt like slapping his face through the TV when that happened, lol.

A win should secure qualification with first place, right? Milan will not be able to pull ahead then based on the head to head record.

Maybe agree to disagree, but I don't see how his approach was ultra negative. Not when we match them on the pitch in term of energy and aggression. To me, ultra negative is what Conte did with us playing against City in the Etihad in his last season, doing nothing but ball watching. Potter has been making adjustments in the game right from the first half with Kovacic. If that isn't the sign of a proactive manager then I don't know what is. Like @ZAPHOD2319 mentioned, one of the subs even had an impact. I'm not sure what more he could have done with personnel we have available., without throwing the match away. Our back 4 needs protection, and if he had gone for a more gung-ho approach, I am sure we would have punished by United.

What were you expecting to be different? Just genuinely curious about what upset you in this game.

Nobody expected United to pull Arsenals pants down either, lol. But it happened. I wouldn't be surprised. For once Arsenal won't have the underdog card, and our players won't take the game too lightly.

Were we really dominated in midfield? Apart from the first 20 mins, before Kovacic came on? I thought it was fairly evenly matched. Two teams working hard and not giving too much room to operate. Pretty much cancelled each other out.

I don't know about Citeh (thank fuck we don't play them in the league until next year), but against Le Arse, I'm hoping we give Arteta a taste of his own medicine. Sit back, soak up pressure, and hit them in their soft belly. We should be able to shithouse a win against them. Which is pretty much what they've done to us ever since Arteta took over

Yeah., this is true. Honestly at 1-0, which frankly came out of nowhere, I expected us to pull it off, considering our recent spell of clean sheets. Shame we couldn't keep it going a few minutes longer, but United threw the kitchen sink. If we had Kante and James fully fit, I'd consider us the superior side, but without them, Chelsea and United are nearly equally matched,..below City quality, but fighting hard to earn points. My verdict on Potters Chelsea so far is it is at least a tough side to beat (no shit, considering our unbeaten run). While that's not enough for a title winning side, it should be enough for a side looking to strongly finish in the top 4. Spurs get another gift with this draw.. They are the fraud side that's in the top 3 currently. Only held up by a goal scoring Kane and Son.

Havertz is very unlikely to start. Seeing he stayed on the pitch while Mount was hooked indicates that he's not being saved for this game.

I was against him going off today, but I suppose even an engine like his needs rest, given the number of games he's started lately, in quick succession. Hope he's fresh for the United game.

For once in a long time, they seem to be the slightly better side, at least in terms of the form book. And with a decent manager Might be the time we finally break our winless streak against them.

Still uncertain. I'm just looking at it from Chelsea's perspective. If we get games with him ahead of the WC, I doubt it will be too many.

It's possible that both James and Kante coming back fit and fresh for the new calender year, after the World Cup, might give us a leg up over the other clubs in the final run-in

Well, that kind of backfired., lol. Lot of USMNT fans instead rage at Chelsea whenever Pulisic doesn't start a game.

I'm more concerned about our defending on the right side rather than the attack. Whoever plays RCB has to be extra sharp.

I guess Mount holding up his fingers to read 2 and 4 for his goal celebration, was his little tribute to Reece James. Getting some JT-Lamps vibes here, lol.

Good thing is he seemingly won't need surgery., which could have kept out for a good chunk of the season. So he faces 1-2 months out? So it's all up to his pace of recovery. I suspect they'll do another scan in a few weeks time when he feels better. It sucks because we are the half the team we normally are with him absent. It also sucks that we may potentially miss him for the Arsenal and United games too, but small consolation that the Arse game is at home. Also, we'll still have more than half the season remaining after the end of this calendar year. So that's another positive, I guess.

Where did the 6-8 weeks even come from though? Digging through reports, the only official piece of news is that Grahama Potter has said that he'll see a specialist over the weekend. Everything else, including news about surgery, or that 'exclusive piece' about ligament damage from the daily mail, looks like pure speculation

Shame really. I think with all that effort he exerts, he's really run himself to the ground. Hence all these niggling injuries. Reminds me of what happened with Essien. Another high intensity all action midfielder with intense workrate., who ruined his knees.

Sigh. Hope he comes back fit for the 2nd half of the season. But you just know he'll be selected for the WC. No way they'll leave him out. And he'll probably be fit right in time for that tournament.

Not a big fan of these. Why would any manager want their secrets and pep talks laid out in the open. Didn't seem to harm Pep or Arteta though. So who knows.

Have we lost him? Seems like this is not as bad as Fofana who had to leave the stadium on crutches (although I would be paranoid enough to tell him to use crutches just to avoid pressure on that knee) Hoping this does not keep him out for any significant period of time.

Slowly getting back. There's no doubt we are a much better team when he's in form. Mount and Gallaghers combined energy and work rate on the pitch is what I was looking forward too this season. Looks like we are getting there.