Superblue

Although he didn't see much of the ball I saw enough that he gave us a focal point when he came on and a genuine threat up front that helped push Watford back for the first time in the match. It also opened up Hazard to be able to drift around and come deep to get the ball which we needed him to do to march us down the pitch. It massively asks questions over Conte's decision to not start him.

You either need reasonable pace as one of the outside centre backs, or a great understanding of the tactics and positional awareness of the position. Cahill has neither and the penalty was a clear example of this tonight. His attempts at the second and third goals too were poor. Someone wrote a piece the other day about how he's a reactive defender and that has always been his problem I believe playing at the highest level. Anybody runs at him and he'll back off until he's practically in line with Courtois. We need to start moving on. Christensen for me is and should be the undisputed number 1 in the middle. Azpi is a lock too, and the other space currently has to be given to Rudiger and give him the chance for a run of games and develop.

I do think the vision of the board is the biggest problem. I actually have no problem with the board having such an influence in transfers if done correctly because in today's climate managers rarely last longer than a couple of seasons and as a result it keeps a continuity there. The problem is that lack of continuity currently because the board don't stick to a plan. We were buying lots of technical players for a while and then brought Mourinho back to the club, so that core group of very talented young players was broken up for a more robust set up. When Mourinho went, we moved for Conte who's preference is a back 3 when we clearly didn't have the players for it. Don't be surprised to see us replace Conte in the summer with someone looking to play a completely different formation that suddenly renders the likes of Alonso, Zappacosta and Moses either surplus to requirements or sub standard in the new formation because they don't fit properly. In my opinion a football brain on the board that can plan the long term strategy and transfer planning of the club is just as important as our next manager for getting things right for the long term success of the club.

I'm not saying that Bertrand will have necessarily become first choice but surely could have done a job as a competent backup and essentially if we did still have him we wouldn't have slogged Alonso for the last 18 months with little to no rest. With regards to Mourinho, I understand what you are saying and its a fine balance because we don't want to become the Arsenal of 8 years ago which was young and full of promise but ultimately won nothing. When the opportunity is there to win trophies, take it. I think the problem was that the squad wasn't tailored for Mourinho's style when he first arrived and rather than taking the longer term, planning option to keep developing the attacking talent we had, we went for the quick, short term success which in hindsight we're now paying the price long term for.

Fair play to him for scoring 2 goals today, but within half a dozen touches of coming on, it's alarming to see just how much more comfortable and technically proficient Hudson-Odoi looks compared to Bats.

If the club is heading towards that path then I'm more than happy to be in support of it, but the board must follow a long term plan and not panic when there are difficult times. They also need the right manager in place for at least 2-3 seasons who won't be afraid to show the faith for younger players to prove themselves at the club. There is clear value in doing this and Chelsea should have reaped far higher rewards for doing so a few years back when we took the likes of Lukaku, De Bruyne and Courtois from Belgium and Salah from Basle. To a lesser extent Hazard fell into this bracket too of a young player with high potential but still far from the finished article and at the time playing in a French league which wasn't overly strong. But Chelsea panicked and moved away from building a younger, creative team to the Mourinho form of win now and the majority of these players, with others like Bertrand, weren't given the chances they should have been given. The worrying thing is that Chelsea have moved away from this over the last couple of seasons and need to prove again that they can pluck out this sort of talent at the correct time. With Bailey, why didn't we buy him when he was at Genk like the others and loan him out for a year or two. Even at Leverkusen, he won't command top dollar yet but we're still likely talking £30 - 40m minimum and at this price tag for someone still fairly unproven and inexperienced the risk is that much higher.

I think it's a good move for Kenedy to play games. From what i've seen I don't think he's good enough for Chelsea but there is ability within him and hopefully a run of games and playing well will at least give us another player worth a few bob to sell on when the time is right. Having said that Spurs fans would have said the same about Kane. Players can surprise at times how much they can blossom when given the platform to do so.

I agree, he's going through a barren spell no worse than Costa went through a couple of times here. There is more than enough I've seen from him so far that he'll be a success here and get better the more he gets used to the league. However, if we can get Dzeko and have two strikers that are both capable of starting, we will be so much stronger for it. Lots of rotation keeping them both fit and fresh, one hopefully picking up the ball when the other is off-form and the potential to play two very good strikers together at times when the situation requires.

Reports this morning that Chelsea have asked Leicester for Slimani on loan.

I think the biggest issue with upgrading our wing backs at the moment is the uncertainty with Conte. Because there wasn't great commitment in the summer, the club may have felt it was too risky to spend lots of money on wing backs only for Conte to leave and a new manager wanting to revert to a back 4. Alonso and Moses are not capable enough defensively to play as full backs week in week out (they could fill in sometimes but shouldn't be regulars). Zappacosta would be the same also. Therefore the club needs to be careful with this. Ideally buying players which are capable of playing as both a full back and wing back will be the best solution but again I don't think there are huge numbers around that are available and can play both roles so effectively.

I think Arsenal have managed to do pretty well out of the pending Sanchez deal. Given Sanchez can walk for free in 6 months time they've effectively been able to replace him for nothing. Ok, they are different players but if Arsenal can get Miki playing how he was at Dortmund he'll chip in with his fair share of goals which they would lose with Sanchez. I think Miki will prove to be a better player at Arsenal where he'll be given more freedom in his role compared to at United where he's expected to be more rigid under Jose.

I agree. For me Kante is the best around with regards to what he does and his abilities allow us to play a two man midfield and not be overrun by three man midfields which of course gives us more options higher up the pitch. A world class B2B would be perfect for us, and in theory having spent £75m in the summer on Drinkwater and Bakayoko that could have been done, whilst retaining Loftus Cheek as an extra option for midfield or even digging our heels in and keeping Chalobah for another year (seeing as we sold him for such a measly fee anyway). I'm also a fan of Alonso given how well he's done under such little expectations and how Moses has developed but there are clearly better options available on both wing back sides which could have been addressed properly in the summer too. I think two world class full backs/wing backs would also make a big difference.

I think a Bakayoko that played for Monaco last season would be suited to it, but he's nowhere near that level currently. I also don't think it completely depends on those two, but other players around them too. If the intention is for two midfielders who can get around the pitch, up and down, pressing and breaking up play, then I agree you need creativity in there too somewhere. But two in midfield gives the two in front complete freedom to drift around. I know Brighton are hardly a great team but Willian and Hazard seemed to flourish today having the freedom to float around and come deep at times to pick the ball up. There should also be a creative expectation on the wing backs to create chances too. At the moment, I don't think its just our midfield but other areas of the pitch that also need either improving or tactically tweaking to get more.

Agreed but with Drinkwater and Fabregas out injured we don't have much choice but to play him at the moment. Conte has played 3 in midfield a lot this season too and we just haven't had enough midfielders fit to drop him. I personally think we look so much better in a 3-4-3 and our players are more suited to it. Reverting back to that formation will likely give chances to rest him when others are back fit.

Agreed. We can't base game time compared to Bats, or the likes of Remy in the past because the drop off between them and our first choice striker has been so high, that managers have been reluctant to rotate too much up front. There will no longer be that drop off between Dzeko and Morata. Both have different playing styles which will hopefully suit different situations and give Conte options but I wouldn't worry seeing either of the two starting games or replacing the other during a game.

I don't think it's that people were particularly impressed with him in comparison to other players today, but I do feel that the last two games have shown improvement compared to recent weeks. I said the same after the Norwich game, and I stand by it again after today, I'm pleased that he seems to be growing in confidence. He was getting on the ball today and showing himself for it. It sounds ridiculous really, but his confidence has look shot in recent weeks. He's looked abysmal on the ball and been scared to receive it. A lot of his passes have been simple in the last couple of games but its important he goes back to basics, works hard and shows the strength of character to play himself out of the dreadful form he's been in. I do feel like he is taking these steps. In the long term we should all expect far more from him given the amount of money invested in him. But he's young and clearly taking time to adapt to a new league (remembering also he joined after surgery in the summer and was rushed back to play), and hopefully a little time and patience will see him still develop into the player we all hope he will be.

Not to mention that they have one of the best strikers in the world currently, so anytime they have to replace Kane it will be a huge drop off in quality and goal threat.

Yeah I'd take this all day long given who we have been linked with recently. He's never had pace so won't lose it as he gets older, and if anything has got even better at Roma. He would take huge pressure off of Morata at the moment and give us two strikers both good enough to start (and a proper dual striking threat in a 3-5-2). And I could see Roma giving Bats good game time at a high level if he moves the other way on loan.

Looking forward to tomorrow's £50m bid for Benteke as the fall-back option...

I know mate, I completely understand your view on it. I agree about Andy Carroll, and cannot understand why we are after him. But for example if the club has decided that we could use him as an option whilst we're short in attack this season, I would much rather we negotiated a loan deal for the rest of the season than buy him outright and then he can go back to West Ham and we can buy someone better in the summer who will more likely be available or cheaper to buy then. And IF he was a success then we have the option then of buying him. I agree though the whole transfer business over the last three summers has been abysmal, apart from Kante. Even players that have done well like Pedro and Alonso were brought late in the window and either seemed to be panic buys or far from first choice selections.

Plenty of big clubs do similar deals, loan with an option to buy (isn't that what Bayern had with Coman?), but it just doesn't seem to happen in England. I guess other teams look at the money in the league and want a straight deal. The idea would be for the club to get him in properly ourselves on loan and try him out - has he recovered from his ACL, or has he lost a yard of pace? Does he adapt to the league? If he does then we have an agreement in place that we can benefit from buying a good player for a reasonable fee. If he doesn't then we haven't really lost anything. Like Pato or Falcao, can you imagine if we actually brought them and were still stuck with them? I'd rather a loan in place with an option to buy when there are huge question marks as opposed to outlaying on him. And if Barca knock us out of the Champions League, and only 2 games left in the league cup, we could be back to playing one game a week for the rest of the season so if he is no good, Alonso will still be in a position to play more often than not.

Is it not one game ban each for Pedro and Morata? Both were second booking offences which I thought was only one game.

The one positive for me tonight was actually Bakayoko. He wasn't anything particularly special or ripped up trees but for the first time since his debut against Spurs, he looked solid and trustworthy. He did the basics and did them well in the first 10-15 minutes and seemed to grow into the game. A couple of passes went wayward but as things went on he seemed to grow in confidence and I feel he outperformed Drinkwater in the midfield. The most obvious example of his confidence was that he seemed to be in and around the ball regularly making himself available for the pass and wanting it. i haven't seen that from him in recent weeks, he's seemed scared to get on the ball where his confidence has been so low. As I said solid over spectacular but certainly a marked improvement over recent performances and hopefully one he can build upon, because we desperately need some of our players to kick back into form.

I agree £200m should have been more than sufficient to refresh our squad. When you consider Christensen came back from his loan spell and we arguably could have kept a couple of others like Zouma, Abraham and RLC to fill out the squad, we realistically could have spent that money on 3, maybe 4 top players to significantly improve the starting XI. However the board do still have a lot to answer for with regards to strategy. In hindsight bringing Mourinho back was arguably the most damaging thing the club could have done in the long term. We were in a transition phase but had brought so many young, quality players whilst the likes of Cech, Lampard, Terry, Ivanovic and Cole still had a year or two left at the top level to help bridge a changeover. So many of these players were exciting young players, and even purchases like Cahill for £7m were clever and considered. We had the makings of an attacking, expansive and youthful side but the last thing we needed was the right manager for this. I believe the backlash over Benitez made the club panic and go for Mourinho. I'm not his biggest fan but I can only imagine what someone like Klopp could have done with the squad we had at that time. When you think of the players that Mourinho discarded - Bertrand, Luiz, De Bruyne, Mata, Lukaku, the list goes on. When Mourinho was sacked it left us with a squad that had no structure, no long term plan. Then Conte comes in with a completely different system and style of play which was fresh and re-invigorated the club. But he was putting square pegs in round holes to do so, and because the club hasn't got 'all-in' with him to get the players that will suit his system best, we're heading towards the same position we were in when Mourinho was sacked 2 years ago which is a squad lacking a true identity.

I do my best to keep a reasonable and considered train of thought when it comes to Chelsea but even I'm struggling if we've seriously bid £35m for him.