Blue Armour

Start Kovacic right from the start in this game. Drop either one of Mount or Havertz for Broja. Maybe even drop Mendy for Kepa. If Reece still isn't fit., do not hesitate to start Fofana right from the get go.

Bring Broja on. Maybe even the Aston Villa kid

We also won 2 1 despite being a man down and then go on to lose the next game to mediocre opponents. Chelsea thing.

Mason just needs to be dropped for a few games IMO. Light a fire in his belly. Surprised to hear that he started this game. More so than the result.

Drop him for Kepa. Serious. Mendy is the better keeper but he is playing below par.

Shame we retained Pulisic and loaned out Odoi. Must have been a daft upper management move.

Feels that way. Especially if you see the craptastic performances from Mount and Pulisic. And who knows how the forced departures of Werner and Lukaku (needed, no doubt) have weighed on the squad.. I'm always on the managers side in these situations, but I really fear the worst. 2 losses in the first 4 games? This had vibes of the 2015 2016 season. Seriously, fuck off 2022. This year has just been miserable for us since the beginning. Sanctions, loss of Roman, players departing and now this. Just fuck off.

Madrid Hazard is a different player than the one we had. Its a broken down, injured shell of his former self. Yes, he tends to hold on to the ball a lot longer than other players, but that's just the way he opens up the pitch for other players drawing attention to himself. And no one can ever accuse Hazard of being selfish. While he has had forgettable CL performances, he has performed against big teams, scoring against several of them in the league. Whether Sterling is a better player for CL knockouts remains to be seen. He hasn't won his former teams a CL either. Anyway, agree to disagree. I think you have made up your mind about Hazard, and you have a right to your opinion. While I'm glad we have Sterling, I don't feel we have the air of superiority or the X factor we used have with Drogba or Hazard. Can guarantee if we had a player of that quality in our team right now, we wouldn't be complaining about our over reliance on wing back play., or lack of attacking threat.

What's so bad about Hazard's passing ability? Genuinely curious.

That Twitter thread is hilarious, lmao! All the Chels fans with those memes 🤣

Kovacic., Broja on as subs.

It's really annoying. IMO, VAR shouldn't be involved in any of these types of decisions. It was supposed to be meant for clear and obvious errors. But the officials have chosen to abuse the system, opting to create more drama instead. Basically to turn the Premier League into a cheap sitcom to increase ratings.

Exactly what I meant, when I compared their performances to our first season under Conte. We used to grind out 1-0 wins like this with Costa scoring. They are going to be awful to watch but will still be consistent., and could upset bigger teams in match ups against them. I doubt Conte will combust in his first real season with them, so we're in for a rough ride this year. To make it more difficult, Arsenal seem to be better than last year and United seem to be on the mend.

What is up with this guy? Ever since Sterling arrived he seems to be content with playing second fiddle and play in cruise control. I'm seeing more involvement from RLC in our general play. Hope it's just a case of him just warming up. He started last season a little slowly as well.

Raheem Sterling just singled out Kai Havertz for his great effort in his post match comments. I think Havertz did a lot for the team in the 2nd half after we went down. To use Sterlings own words - "worked his socks off" He deserves a lot more credit than he is getting here. But yes, we need a clinical finisher in our ranks.

Either him. Or worst case Ivan Toney. How is Mitrovic's link up play though? Toney has decent link up play.

He was alright IMO. Vardy got clear of him on 2 occasions, and would have put those chance away on another day. Chalobah still has room to improve. Hopefully Fofana can step in right away, or at least give Chalobah impetus to raise his game.

I think we will likely see some rotation on Tue for our front 3 attackers.

This team is odd at times... On one hand, it can do incredible stuff against the odds, like drawing away to Liverpool despite being a man down, nearly turning a tie against Madrid in the CL, and rescuing 3 points here. And on the other, it can be wasteful with chances created, and also leak goals from individual errors. We are still missing that one talisman like figure that we had in Drogba/Hazard. Kante when fully fit and in form is our only bet atm.

That's what I fear. They could really solidify a top 4 spot,... But that being said, we were 5 points clear at top of the table in Nov last year and we know how that ended. So, never say never.

Exactly this. And our problem is never really to do with the strength of opposition. Complacency is the issue with our team, and it's plagued us since last season. We either don't turn up or just shoot ourselves in the foot with individual errors.

This is true. He nearly setup Sterling for his second goal (the one where he hit the post). Definitely deserves more credit. That being said, we still need a goal scoring reinforcement to give him and Broja competition.

I take back what I said about Cucurella. He really stepped it up in the 2nd half. Great distribution by him, and great movement by Sterling, RLC, James and Kai. Yes, Kai. Shortcomings regardless, felt Havertz put up a good shift in that second half. And thank you Silva. What a warrior. We're still playing with fire though, without signing that additional CB. On another day Vardy would have gobbled up those chances he got by going against Chalobah.

Bring Chillwell back. Cucurella stealing minutes based of his decent cameo in the first game. Hasn't done anything that's amounted to more than what Chillwell would do at his best. Gallagher not ready for the step up.

Now Tuchel is saying 'maybe no one comes in' because there's very little time remain this window.