OneMoSalah

Still did Morata berate his team mates on said drought? Lukaku was isolated against us sure but he chose to join a Jose Mourinho team, should he have expected anything else in big games? To struggle at times? To be isolated against 3 CBs? For him to sit there and disrespectfully question his team mates, who have done and won a lot more than him in football over a question of “service” when he was virtually anonymous bar a 20 yard shot, which considering most of his goals come from the 18 yard box, is ridiculous and arrogant. I think his decision to join Man United was a good move for him (turned out to be very good for us as for me he’s an inferior all round player to Morata, perhaps more clinical than AM) as he can be a flat track bully vs smaller teams and get 15+ goals yes but against the big teams, not a chance he will be such as prolific a player.

Apparently berated his team mates in dressing room about a lack of service after we beat United. He was shite for them and I don’t know if he realises that strikers sometimes have to create their own chances. United aren’t Everton or West Brom. Think his goal drought is like 7 games now, hopefully will continue, can’t believe we were willing to pay 75m for somebody who can’t control a football.

Honestly I don’t think Ozil is the right player for us. He has all the talent in the world but honestly in the last 2 years he’s looked distinctly average most of the time and everybody already complains about Cesc’s off the ball work so imagine the upset there would be with Ozil. I’d rather Cesc than Ozil in the team because he is still able to dictate games in MF. It’s gotten so bad with Ozil that even Arsenal fans aren’t worried of he goes.

Good player. Not surprised he got a big move after his performances for Sassoulo, who punched big time about their weight under the now current Roma manager. Berardi another good player who is still at Sassoulo.

Still think he’ll go on loan again next year. If he continues playing at Palace and developes then again next year at some other club it would be a good move, he’s better playing every week than being an impact sub and playing cup games here because he’s not starting a game ahead of Cesc, Kanté or Bakayoko when they are even playing to 70% of their abilities. As of talk of Arturo Vidal, not a chance in hell thats happening, 50m for a 30+ y/o? Not a chance.

Honestly after watching him against City and even against other teams this season we’d be better to avoid him. There was a huge spell at starting of season he was on the bench. Players like him aren’t good for squad harmony, guys with similar attitudes who sit waving their hands about like panseys, berating their team mates and not looking interested because they’ve spat the dummy out, keep them away from here. Even Bayern Munich have said they aren’t interested in him anymore they know he’s already chose his next destination (where many reckon his wages will be extraordinary, apparently asking for similar/more than what Ozil wants). He may have won a lot at Barca but after watching his shit show at City game for Arsenal, not looking interested at all, waving his hands about like a tube, meh... guys like him should be trying to put themselves in the shop window not acting like a spoilt prick. Fortunately for us, there are always going to be right wingers about, it would be nice if we went after somebody younger like Malcom or Pulisic. Although I still think we’ll throw our hat in for Sanchez.

Barkley and Benteke? Benteke maybe a good option but will cost 30m+ easy and isn’t fit or hasn’t been great for Palace either. For me, Barkley even on a free is not worth taking. Sure he’s English but he’s played as a 10, 8 and even RW at Everton last few seasons and has never looked settled or particularly good at anything. He’s got a big frame but his decision making is truely awful, dribbles when he should pass, passes when he should dribble, let Spurs have him, he won’t start ahead of anything they’ve got either. Even if his decision making was better he’s still a poor quality of player.

Don’t see the huge rush regarding the new contract because I’m almost certain he signed a 5 and a half year deal back in February 2015? I think he’ll get one closer to the end of the season anyway same with Courtois and anybody else but honestly those guys in the last 18 months of their contracts should take first priority.

Fernandinho is not average. He is a top player. Suits City down to the ground and has done for years, playing as a 6 as opposed to a box to box midfield player like under Pellegrini but he has everything to his game: athleticism, technical ability, can create/score goals, defends well, reads game. I’d take him here in a heartbeat, think his price tag and age when he signed for City coming from Shakhtar was a risk at first but everybody seen how good he was instantly.

Emenalo leaving for me is a move in the right direction. We can always remember the players he’s signed who were successes, high profit sales, trophies weve won while he’s been in that role etc etc. Some things seem quite impressive in retrospect but let’s be honest, the way we went about in the transfer market after winning the CL and at the start of Jose’s second season back in charge was how we should of approached every summer, we wanted somebody and we got them signed very quickly or if somebody wasn’t attainable we got somebody else of similar quality. We had two huge summers after wining the league a few seasons back and last season, to cement ourselves again as the top team in the league, knowing everybody in top 4 or Top 6 would strengthen, his performance along with Marina in both of those summers was extremely questionable and poor in both summers. Various pundits and other managers had said that both those Chelsea teams could be a dominant force for years if I remember correctly. We were favourites to retain the title both seasons after romping to the league eventually but again the buck falls with Emenalo and Marina for the shocking recruitment and strategy in those windows. I mean even the guys we signed this summer, how long did it take to actually complete the deal for Bakayoko? For Morata? To make bids for Alex Sandro? I think MG has to go end of the season. New blood is needed, I don’t think somebody necessarily needs to be a technical director and not somebody like Frank who has 0 experience in a coaching or technical director role unfortunately, unless he works with somebody more experienced for a while to get to grips with it. It’s a pity, I think somebody like Steve Clarke or Gianfranco Zola would be a good choice for such a role, both have managerial experience and have worked with technical directors at clubs in the past. Don’t think it would happen but would be popular I’m sure.

Can’t see it happening. 1) He’s 30 years old. Do you think the club will spend 25m on a 30 year old who would be 31 before start of next season? 2) He is playing best football of his career as a striker. No way he’d start as a striker here ahead of Morata, not certain he’d be great outwide although he’s played there for Belgium but not to same standard or effect as he does for Napoli centrally. 3) More than likely would want to sign on a long contract and big wages, once he’s 33 or 34 he’d more than likely be sold on, could be hard to offload. 4) Even if signed and promised to play striker role would be off the bench. Can’t be any worse than Michy but again can’t see a 30 y/o in best form of his life coming here to be second choice CF.

Don’t think him being loaned out was a matter of if he could defend or not, it was more a matter of if he could get used to playing in a back 3 on a regular basis and learn the positioning and learning what to do with the ball. Hopefully he continues to feature for Stoke, he’s done right enough, I don’t think he has any problems physically as we all know but just technically and positionally. He could be back in the squad next year yes but would he feature regularly though?

Looked a lot better in a 3. Suits him more. Obviously the question is then do we continue with a back 3, 3 in CMF and Hazard off Morata or back to 343?

Fair play to Conte because Christensen came in today (after an up and down last few matches himself) and looked better than Luiz has in the last 3 or 4 games for me. Luiz has his pros and cons like anybody else but he’s been clumsy in the last few matches he’s played at center back.

Could of had a hattrick today. Just crucial moments his control let him down like when he feinted past Smalling and chose to do so again and also at the end. Class performance though.

To be honest he suit’s Liverpool a lot more than he would suit us. If I could have any player from Liverpool’s forward line it would be Mane. Think he’d be the perfect right sided player for us.

I don’t think so. Cahill isn’t even a marketable player either as opposed to an Eden or a Morata or whoever who maybe make the club money from sponsorships or image rights although that sort of things don’t happen too often in the Prem I believe. It’s mind blowing yes but I honestly think when Conte made Cahill vice captain or whatever in the absence of JT last year it showed he trusted him very much and he’s gone and made him captain so he is obviously a player he likes and wants in the team. Otherwise he wouldn’t have done that.

The benefit of a team willing to follow their manager, invest without hesitation and compete with teams to sign the best players.***** Napoli are an amazing team, play with such style and press high and City bar a wobble at first comfortably beat them once they got properly going. City this summer went for fullbacks and a GK that suited, as they desperately needed them, got them and already had the main bulk of their MF and FW line. They were good last season at points but two new full backs of high quality (never thought I’d say that about Kyle Walker) and a very good, assured, commanding GK and they are a different team. Like we could of been with Alex Sandro, Oxlade Chamberlain and Marco Verratti... well I’d imagine we wouldn’t get him but hey no harm trying 😂 To give Spurs credit they done excellently tonight too. The differences between ourselves, City and Spurs in the upstairs of the club so to speak is all different but they are showing that it can be done a different way as we’ve done in the past. There is no one way to run a club but these guys are reaping the rewards of different approaches.

Yeah valid points but again realistically selling Costa and Matic, two players who were extremely valuable to our squad in the two title wins in the past few years was never going to end well considering both are top 5 in the PL for their respected positions. Realistically (Or unrealistically) I think we should of maybe looked at offloading Cesc or benching him at the least and pursued a Veratti or Jorginho like player (although I’d imagine Cesc would be excellent in a 3 with Matic and Kante. Wishful thinking but think Cesc was more a problem than Matic when we didn’t have the ball as opposed to Matic when we have the ball. Ultimately the board fucked us there I feel. Costa may have downed tools so to speak since January but he was still key in some matches, still took chances, he had a similar situation under Jose in the second half of his first season. I just think for such a great manager like Conte to alienate somebody without properly securing a more than suitable, better or like for like replacement is idiotic, Costa said he would have stayed and came back to get himself into contention. I think even to January it would have been better to have him that not. To go into a unrelated point I think if Conte doesn’t get a good set of results in November he could be facing the sack. Honestly we’ve sacked managers for less.

To be fair this last couple of games he’s been poor but the common thing with him is he usually gets himself one or two big chances where as Batshuayi plays bad and doesn’t. Once he gets a goal or two again he will be fine. He’s hardly Torres

He’s looked better for us in a MF 3 (Spurs and Atletico) than a MF 2. It’s clear he’s not a holding midfielder but a box to box midfielder. Like at Monaco he had Fabinho holding next to him. Kante is not a holding midfielder either but he is much more comfortable doing that than Bakayoko and Cesc well, he isn’t a holding midfielder either. Matic is more suited to a holding midfielder role, I think Matic and Bakayoko would of been a much better pairing tonight than Cesc and Bakayoko. Although Baka has a lot to show, he’s struggled a lot. He will come good at somepoint, he has potential but unfortunately he won’t surpass the standards of Matic who was key last season and throughout his time here.

This was bound to happen eventually, we would get steamrolled by somebody because of a build up of poor out of sync performances, it was inevitable eventually. This season has been hit and miss but before the season even began there were 4 major fuck ups on the board and Conte’s behalf 1) releasing John Terry and NOT offering/begging him to take a coaching role 2) alienating and selling Diego Costa 3) selling Nemanja Matic. Without even mentioning to Man Utd by the way and 4) Poor recruitment. 1) Well it’s fair to say we could do with some stronger leaders on and off the pitch, guys like Cahill, Luiz and Azpi are all experienced enough but are they even half the leader Terry was? Heck he didn’t play much last season I know but he has always been a key part of the dressing room and you can bet your money on what he’d be saying to certain players in these last few games we’ve had. Guys like Azpi, Cahill, Cesc, Hazard they seem to me as if they are all “too nice”, there’s moments from tonight and lots of other games were years ago you’d expect to see a JT, Drogba, Lampard or somebody in that sort of mound taking people aside and saying a look cmon what is happening here, sort it out sort of thing. Sure Terry is one guy but he always sets an example and his experience and character is undoubtedly missed. 2) Alvaro Morata is a great footballer and will be a good long term investment eventually as he has won a lot and has a good skill set but he’s not Diego Costa. He’s not got that bullishness or brute force that Costa has, not able to bully defenders and that is hurting the team in some games. Morata has got some key goals yes but has shown also some limitations against much more physical defenders in the PL particularly. Sure he’s adjusting still but he needs to get prepared better for next season physically for sure. I wonder what it would of been like if Costa and Conte were on good terms and he was kept until Janary at least. Would of been a great alternative. 3) Matic. What more can I say? His sale has improved United’s midfield a huge bit and severely weakened ours as his replacement so to speak is not a like for like replacement. He has promise Bakayoko but not as a holding midfielder, as a box to box midfielder who has a more dependable partner defensively than Cesc. Sure Kante is a huge miss to any team too but I think people are maybe now realising exactly how important Matic was last season as well, especially after seeing Cesc and Bakayoko struggle a lot this season. I agree with a comment Phil Neville made: whoever made the final decision to sell him should be sacked which as far as I’m aware Conte said he didn’t want to sell him so somebody upstairs has got some explaining to do. Aging or not, you could still depend on him more than Cesc next to Bakayoko in a MF two and that they’d play a lot better than what we seen tonight defensively in MF. I get we need creativity in MF too but so many games last season we went with Kante-Matic in the bigger games and it worked almost every time. It was tried and tested, Matic looked rejuvenated to the high standards he’d set before and Kante was fantastic. 4) Recruitment. Well where to start? We pursued Alex Sandro all summer to no rewards, never signed an alternative (heck Juve even wanted Matic and we didn’t try swap him + € for Sandro) and it’s likely Marcus Alonso will play almost every game for the second season in a row because again there’s no way Kenedy is ready or at the standard to beat him to that role like season. Alonso will need to rest or come out of the team at some point be it potentially due to an injury or poor form. Zappacosta signed for 20M to back up and compete with Moses, who has looked a good option in that wing back role, fair enough job done considering Chamberlain, who could of been a good RWB here I Real went elsewhere but another RWB.. the jury is still out on him, although Azpi could have always played there, which is why I was confused how we signed a RWB and not a LWB at all. Id have thought if it came down to it and Conte could of only signed either a right or left wing back this summer I guarentee it would of been left sided wing back but hey here we are. Drinkwater signed for depth, homegrown, looked alright in limited minutes so far, time out injured was disappointing as he could of given us another option earlier in season. Bakayoko has potential but has struggled a lot if paired with Cesc and not Kante and I don’t think that’s a coincidence, he’s not a Matic replacement and never will be better suited to that role. Morata good signing, played high level at club and international level, won trophies, good level of ability and will continue to grow too and also same with Rudiger regarding ability, experience at club and international level. Now regarding another striker, maybe Llorente wasn’t best person out there but as a number 2 with that profile he would of been a good option, can hold it and link up with players, is a threat in the air and around the box. Michy is more a poacher who fair enough he’s got a decent goal scoring record here more than anything else, his holdup leaves a lot to be desired and personally I don’t think he’ll make it past next summer even if Conte is still here or not. I think this along with LWB is for me the most important issues to look at come January, we need someone to either come in then or get it wrapped up for the summer because we are fucked if Morata and Alonso pick up injuries. Batshuayi and Kenedy are a few levels below. These guys are not good enough for a top team like Chelsea unfortunately. Pedro and Willian are aging but for me tonight in the first half Pedro was one of our top performers with Eden. He would be good to keep for outwide but Willian is another player who come the summer could be a casualty. Although I think he can be kept until then. Ross Barkley must be avoided at all costs as well. Also how many of these new signings got a full pre-season? Must do better next summer. Still firmly believe Conte is the right guy, he’s got a system which brought success and if we had better and faster summer recruitment I feel the season would of begun better. For instance Alex Sandro is a lot bette than Alonso who is a good player. Look at City with two new FBs. Sometimes you only need to change one two or three players in the first 11 but it makes all the difference in a positive way, we seen that with Courtous and Costa coming into our first 11 when we won the title under Jose a few years ago. I thought the board would of learned from a few summers ago what failing to have a suitable plan B regarding targets can do. John Stones for instance never signed, no plan B instead plan Z, Papy Djilibijojdushdh not even gonna attempt spelling his surname arrives o recommendation from the technical director. Also signing second rate players like Baba Rahmann (another one from Emenalo. Would he of been signed by any other title winners by club? Even as a plan B,C?) - and then eventually resorting to using Kenedy at LB midseason😂 - when we needed a more developed first team left back (oh wait we didn’t have Filipe Luis because we stupidly sold him back to Atletico). The board has taken a lot of flak and taken a lot of praise but honestly more often than not, apart from turning a profit and complying with FFP, they let the club and manager down time and time again

Luiz, Bakayoko and Alonso looked off the pace for me. Don’t think Luiz should just be in the team just because he is good with the ball considering we have Christensen kicking his heels on the bench who has looked pound for pound just as good a defender at times if not better. Rudiger looked a lot lot better than Cahill has. Alonso needs a rest and high level competition (other than cup games he’s played almost every week since arriving here) for me, criminal we only have one left wing back of a high standard in comparison to Kenedy who is extremely raw and still tryna learn the position. Thought Morata was very good but his finishing has to be better he could of had two, when the bigger matches come around again he might only get one clear chance. He does everything well, times his runs, links etc but I suppose missing chances doesn’t get him down he keeps trying. Eden also played very good. Hopefully He can continue like this and score more goals.

If we can, 3 man MF of Kante - Baka (form not good but big physical presence) - Cesc. Roma dominated the MF against us and hopefully our wing backs press their fullbacks at moments as opposed to sitting off. Won’t be a straightforward match on their turf though. They look a really exciting energetic team.

Another decent cameo. Baka has a lot of work to do if he’s to stay in the team I imagine. Although his presence could be useful in there next to a Kante/Cesc/Drinkwater.