Superblue

The top 4 could suddenly open up massively in our favour if we can build a winning run together over our next five games and the game in hand. We historically have a very good record against both Liverpool and United away too. If we can get a bit of consistency and a run going, a confident Chelsea is more than capable of getting results from them too.

Ben Davies is starting for Spurs. I would have backed Hudson Odoi against him tonight to create problems.

This line up looks like it could get brutally and ruthlessly exposed and Spurs are more than capable of doing so. It appeared Sarri had learnt previous lessons at the weekend but maybe that was desperation to win a trophy. I admire his stand in dropping kepa but this game is absolute must win and I'm not looking forward to this, especially if we start poor. Time for Sarri to live and possibly die by his sword.

With the exception of the transfer ban (which is widely expected to be deferred through at least this summer on appeal anyway), all the other things pointed out have been thrown at Chelsea since Mourinho was first here, yet we've attracted a number of top managers to the club at their peak and even the ones not considered the biggest names were coming off the back of blossoming reputations (AVB, Sarri). Are we seriously in a worse position then we were in Mourinho's final season where we scraped up to mid table eventually and didn't even qualify for Europe whatsoever? That summer we got Conte. I don't buy this idea that top managers wouldn't be interested in taking the job. I do however agree entirely about not having a 'football person' on the board. The current structure we have and the need to start maximising resources, academy talent, etc we are crying out for a top director of football to be given faith and trust to come in and run the football side of the club.

Big club paying big wages, based in London (which is a big attraction for a lot of foreign players and managers) and the added attraction of working in the Premier League. We're not this poisoned chalice people make us out to be either, we've had some excellent managers here who have been successful and gone on to achieve further success elsewhere or left without their reputation damaged. Even Sarri if he leaves at some stage this season, will still be highly regarded in Italy and get a top job back there. Simeone I cannot see leaving Atletico. However Zidane is available and I see no reason why he wouldn't have some interest in the role. Similarly there's rumours Allegri may leave Juventus in the summer so again, he may be interested to try his hand in a new league next year.

Ironically in a game we were set up to contain, he had a very good game. You could see during the first half in particular he was organising the midfield. As the game stretched and opened up in the second half and extra time i thought he was overall very good on the ball and helping us build attacks. That penalty technique though is horrendous and I'd rather he not take penalties. That hop before taking the penalty means he won't be able to generate any sort of power, therefore relying purely on placement, and even that must be made harder also by hopping onto the ball.

Makes sense. If we can stay compact and in the game with 20-30 minutes to go we can open up more then and have attacking options on the bench to do so.

Even if the club can still trade in the summer, but with the ban still pending and potentially looming we're going to be seen as "easy pickings" for some clubs to bump their demands up if we're interested in their players. We'll probably have to attempt to be a bit savvy where we can in the market - target release clauses, consider any buy back clauses we have on players, use some of the deadwood or loan brigade as bargaining chips to sweeten deals, etc.

I think what is most interesting is that the FA have been reprimanded and are seemingly embroiled in this fiasco. Is it possible that Chelsea believe they have followed regulations as far as they're aware with the FA, but its the FA that have cocked it up? The FA statement earlier seemed to suggest that their fine and Chelsea's punishment are linked somewhat. It would be interesting to see if any more information and developments arise from this because if the FA are to shoulder a proportion of the blame, i'd be amazed if we're the only English club who get FIFA knocking at their door.

You have to speculate whether this was the reason why Emenalo left so suddenly. But to have already been caught out previously over Kakuta, the issues when tapping up Ashley Cole. This is a club who have almost stuck two fingers up at times to the footballing bodies and the board now need to take a good look at themselves and rebuild this club because it's embarrassing. We can't go a season without at least one or two dramas, most of which are through our own faults.

It's far from ideal but it might be just what this club needs. There are many examples where the club has acted above the rules and given this impression they are 'all powerful'. It's about time people take accountability and a bit of humility over this situation. Take stock of the current situation of the club and start formulating a longer term plan and vision for rebuilding a club which is falling behind its rivals. The club must be bold here, not panic and start holding on to Sarri and players who are undeserving of staying. We can still start a rebuilding process with trusting some of the young players. Hudson Odoi, Loftus Cheek and Christensen should be given first choice roles moving forward and given the chance to form part of a new spine at the club. We have at last 3 or 4 players out on loan who could come back and refresh the squad and replace some of the dead weight, and Ampadu should also be given a more rotational role from next year. A season giving some of these players chances will allow us to truly evaluate them and give us a base from which to work from when we can buy players again. If that means another season without Champions League football so be it, the money element won't be a huge issue when we can't buy anyone for a year. We do though need the board to be willing to take this bold decision and similarly a manager willing to implement it.

I hate the idea of a player being written off once they hit 30. I understand the idea and logic behind it, getting their best years, potential resale value, etc I just don't agree with it myself. Yes the Premier League is a different beast but there are plenty of examples of players still performing and scoring goals the other side of 30. In this day and age all the players look after themselves far better then they did even 20 years ago and can very easily prolong careers at the top level. Aguero if anything seems to be getting better with age and I wouldn't back against him to continue scoring goals in the Premiership for the next 2-3 years comfortably. Drogba turned 32 in Ancelotti's first season which I think was his best overall season at the club. There's even recent unfashionable cases like Glenn Murray scoring at a very healthy rate at the age of 35. In the same way with young players (if they're good enough, they're old enough), the logic applies to older players too (if they're good enough, they're not too old). If Chelsea took the idea of players the wrong side of 30 being too old and need replacing then our main players in our Champions League run and victory wouldn't have been at the club and I remember the likes of Lampard and Drogba being written off as past it during AVB's time. I think that if the team is set up to suit the strengths of a striker there's no reason that a goalscorer suddenly stops scoring goals once they pass 30. If anything with someone like Icardi who doesn't rely on pace, I'd say if he did come to the Premier League and adapted and fit into a system that complements him, he'd likely have a prolonged career at the top.

I think him and Kante as a '2' would work very well and complement each other. If fit, we could also try Loftus-Cheek in a '10' role which I think he would be most suited as being given freedom. Otherwise between Hazard, CHO, Willian and Pedro it would allow us to play 3 of the 4. For me the lack of bodies in and around the box when we attack is a problem and playing somebody higher up the pitch would help with that, but in doing so the midfield behind this needs to be strong enough to accommodate and those two would be in my opinion.

What some have alluded to on here, the biggest problem with Sarri seems to be that he has listened to Guardiola's advice (he's even admitted to this) and focused on a core group of about 15 players to work his philosophy on for this season. When that core group have proven to not be good enough, poor form, injuries, etc he's backed himself into a position by then having a group of players that (1) he hasn't bothered helping to learn his philosophy and (2) alienated from the rest of the group. His stubbornness is a by-product of the above and is a major error of judgement. Like others have said, if things weren't going well but he was giving chances to other players, or making changes in game to impact then I'd be prepared to give him some leeway and time. But he's currently offering nothing to encourage us to show faith and support to him.

May not have been to watch a full game but I'm sure it was something like that. I could be completely wrong though, it feels like a lifetime ago supporting this club!

I'm pretty sure Roman went in with the fans in the stands for a game after Mourinho was sacked just to try and appease them.

Whilst that may well be true, I think fans would rather see Emerson have that run of games to prove that theory, as opposed to the odd game and back to Alonso. It's difficult to guage him properly when he's never had a proper run in the team. If he does prove to be worse than Alonso, I cannot see it being by much.

I don't see Sarri surviving much longer. The problem is however who would he be replaced with mid-season. I can't see many top target managers taking the job on in the middle of the season and the board would likely want time to sort out their next appointment. That would almost certainly leave Zola in charge until the end of the season. I love Franco but I cannot see him having a positive change on the side, especially after having been working so close with Sarri this season.

I would actually take this a step further and question that this may well be the end of the clubs cycle. It happens to every club that has a high and sustained level of success - Leeds in the 70's, Liverpool in the 80's, United in the 90's, Arsenal in the early 00's, us in the late 00's and early 10's and now looking to be City's turn. It's easy to put blame on the board and they are by no means blameless, there have been big mistakes made. However I don't think it's highlighted enough just how great our team was in that period. Cech in his prime was a top 5 keeper in the world. Terry in his prime had a genuine argument for best centre back in the world and likely the best leader and captain around. Carvalho wasn't far behind Terry and was at a world class level. Ashley Cole in his prime was the best left back in the world. Makelele even in his 30's was the best holding midfielder in the world. Essien would have gone down as one of the greatest Chelsea and Premier League midfielders if he didn't get ruined by injury but before that had a phenomenal and dominant couple of seasons. Ballack, although perhaps no longer in his prime had the dominant, arrogant presence in that midfield. Lampard, at the very least stats wise, was the best goal scoring midfielder of his generation (possibly ever) and for me the greatest Chelsea player of all time. Drogba in his prime was the best striker of his type in the world We had all of the above AT THE SAME TIME. Add on top of this players such as Gudjohnsen, Anelka, Robben, Duff, Malouda, Joe Cole, Gallas, etc who were all very good players and all made significant impacts to add to the above. To start this whole process we also had a manager at the peak of his powers, who will go down as one of the greatest of all time. Replacing all of these players sufficiently is next to impossible no matter what board you have and how much money you throw at the problem. If we were all doing a greatest ever XI for Chelsea, most if not all of us would have 4-5 of the above players minimum in that team. The same as Liverpool would have the likes of Hansen, Souness, Rush and Dalglish; United would have Schmeichel, Keane, Scholes, Cantona, etc; Arsenal would have Vieira, Pires, Henry and Bergkamp; and City will likely have Aguero, De Bruyne, Silva, etc. Liverpool haven't won the league since their cycle, United and Arsenal the same. All under extended periods of time. I actually think we've done pretty well to keep the success going and a couple of title wins at the back end of ours. I have no doubts we'll come back again, but I think people also need to be realistic where we're at currently perhaps compared to someone like City. I can understand some having extremely short patience with the situation, a fair few on these forums have only ever seen the success. I still remember the early and mid 90's sides and my dad (and older members of the forum) remember the late 70's and 80's which was far worse. I have mates who are Liverpool fans who were too young to see their last title win. I also know Leeds supporters who were there in the 70's and look what they are going through now. We should all strive for better and demand more, like every football fan of any club but sometimes you have to stop and simply appreciate that you've witnessed greatness and are lucky it's happened in our lifetime.

Whatever people think of Icardi and his wife, to put a woman and children in danger is quite frankly disgusting.

Whilst I don't think the Sarri project is working, I'd be sceptical over replacing him mid season. It would be very difficult to take somebody already in a job mid-season. The prime candidate available in Zidane I cannot see taking over the job in the middle of the season when we're not playing well. I could possibly see someone like Blanc perhaps taking the risk mid-season to get back into a big job but he hasn't been in work for 2 and 1/2 years. It would leave the likely short term replacement until the end of the season almost certainly to be Zola and he just doesn't strike me as someone who could get a different tune out of this group of players. At least with Di Matteo he still had that core group of 'old guard' players to lean on and even the other members of that team such as Mikel and Ivanovic were also vastly experienced.

Emerson is only decent, nothing great. But when he plays he's not a glaring weakness for Chelsea, which Alonso is at present.

Plenty of players his age are going or have gone from academy football or championship clubs to very good level premier league players in far less time. There are also plenty of players that come to play in England that are a success having been playing in leagues no better quality than the Championship. Until we start giving some players chances we are never going to know just how good they are and what there level is. Wan-Bissaka has been excellent this season, but does he have a higher upside than Reece James or has he just been offered a platform to play games and gain top level experience by his club? Reece James is one of the brightest talents out of our academy over the last couple of seasons and buying a young player in his same position just seems a massive 'fuck you' to him. If we can't start providing a pathway for these players to establish themselves in the squad then we might as well give up on them all now and keep relying on filling up our squad on dross like Zappacosta and Drinkwater.

Dortmund were very poor in that second half and Pulisic was by no means that good but to be fair to him he kept plugging away and looked their only outlet in the second half, whereas I can't remember Sancho even touching the ball. I actually think ironically his style would suit Sarri because he plays vertical and direct. Whether Sarri is still here to use him is another matter.

Don't forget too that the 3 months with Di Matteo we won the one trophy we could never seem to win with a far inferior squad. A man manager is just as important as tactical in my opinion and sometimes having someone who's past experience as a player demands respect at that club and adoration from the fans helps lift everything. It is somebody the fans immediately like and can get behind and the manager in turn helps instill that confidence and pride of playing for a club that they have an affinity with. What this club is starting to lose is the leaders and players who will give everything for the love of the shirt. You can't buy that into the club, it happens organically over time. But bringing in someone who already has been there for the club to oversee and motivate the players into that mindset will help that process. For me if we change the manager, my first choice would be Lampard and Morris.