Superblue

Starting games slowly is definitely a concern. We started both Milan games sloppy in the first 10-15 minutes, Palace was a poor start and the last 2, the first half has been really poor and we've been thankful for Kepa. We've looked significantly stronger in the second half of games but United will be a bigger test and they're in a bit of form currently; we can't afford to be chasing the game. Need an atmosphere at the Bridge at the weekend and the players to feed off that.

I do feel another 5 or 10 minutes and we would have broken them down, they were just getting pushed back deeper and numerous half chances and spaces kept cropping up as they tired in the last 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, the space on the edge of the box was there for Kova when we needed someone like Mount or Gallagher there to tee off. I've been very critical of him in recent times, but I thought Pulisic looked very bright when he came on. He looked sharp and confident running at people which he hasn't done enough at times. On the flip side Havertz was really poor and not sure why he ended up staying on for so long when Broja and Mount went off relatively early.

Likely to be somewhat of a swansong for him on his return to fitness but I would be interested to see whether this surgery actually rescues his career and is something that should have been done a while ago. He's been so integral for managers at club and international level that nobody wants him out for too long, but it's had such a debilitating effect on his game time longer term. There is absolutely no way we should be offering him a 3 or 4 year contract in the current situation but I'll be intrigued if he can get himself fit in the final third of the season and come back to play regularly fit and well. He does still have the possibility to get back to fitness and ask some tough questions of the Chelsea hierarchy.

My dad spent some of his childhood in London, with my grandad a cockney and my nan a scouser. As a result, their household growing up consisted of my grandad being a Spurs fan, and three boys supporting Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. Thankfully my dad was a lot stricter and, like me, ensured some shit like that was never going down in his own household. It's been Chelsea passed down from there on in our part of the family!

That's the nature of the beast in knockout competition, anyone can beat anyone on their day and in that situation as a result a lot of the time the best team doesn't end up winning. It's why it took us so long to win that elusive Champions League and similarly City can't break their own duck for it. It won't make Dodgers fans feel any better, but as a Chelsea fan where our bread and butter is league competition, I find the Dodgers consistency and record throughout the season more impressive. Hopefully a similar winning machine can be built at Chelsea.

I think we'll get one. I'm hoping for Bellingham, but expecting Rice. We'll definitely spend in that position but some of the big name midfielders we're looking at £100m or more, so can't see us buying more than one of that profile.

I think Laimer is out of contract at the end of the season. Might be a good cost effective squad option that potentially allows us to go big on other targets, especially considering we're likely to lose two senior first team midfielders to free transfers next summer. There's links still with Bellingham, De Jong and Rice but realistically I cannot see a situation where we buy two big money central midfielders, when we're also being strongly linked with Nkunku and Gvardiol and we also need to strongly consider our options for backup to Reece, Goalkeeper and long term striker, unless they're confident to roll with Auba until Broja is ready.

If Reece's injury is as being reported or currently assumed, which is 6 - 8 weeks with no surgery required then currently we're assuming he's out until the break and then back thereafter. It's 9 games from now until that break. Realistically before today's news we thought he might miss the next couple anyway, and even if fit I think he'd likely have ended up playing only half those games anyway. It's the big games we'll really miss him I feel - Arsenal, United and Newcastle before the break but we have to find a solution. If we get a result against Salzburg then the Zagreb game is dead rubber and as much as I don't like to throw away or dismiss competitions, given how hectic things will be after the World Cup, the Carabao cup tie with City isn't as high a priority. That gives a couple of opportunities for GP to explore alternative options (particularly if Reece got injured again in the second half of the season) and keep players like Azpi as fresh as possible.

Nothing seems to be certain yet as GP in his press conference said speaking with Reece yesterday he felt better than the day before. I guess we'll know more by end of the weekend. From what is being reported, the expectation is if there is knee ligament damage it's likely to be 6 - 8 weeks but if it was decided he'd need surgery then that could easily turn into 3 or 4 months I assume.

Albeit was Wolves, but thought Azpi looked significantly better in that game, just seemed to play more free when pushing up in attack. The issue given his age will be flogging him for the next few weeks game after game. GP will need to find another option to rest and rotate alongside him. If Reece is out for 6-8 weeks as has been speculated it's hardly ideal, but it's also significantly better than it could have been, similar to Fofana. My bigger concern is two of our best players will likely miss now the rest of this schedule up to the World Cup in Kante and Reece, and almost certainly be picked for the World Cup if there's any chance of them being fit, and will be risked playing in it. There should definitely be some sort of ruling from Fifa/Uefa which prevents countries calling players up who have had an extended period out injured. We've suffered for years with Deschamps doing this playing Kante on one leg, and we massively run the risk of a similar situation come the world cup for these two.

The problem was Morata. We'd only just paid £50-60m on a new striker in the summer. Giroud was a cost-effective solution to support him at the time and to be fair to Giroud, he ended up being well worth the money we paid for him. But I agree, in hindsight Aubameyang should have been the target around that period (no idea why he wasn't looked at in the summer instead of Morata).

I think sometimes you have to put context on the situation. The atmosphere was electric and intense and the referee was one of the worst I've seen for a very long time and was very trigger happy with his cards. I thought in the second half it was a hugely mature performance, particularly making use of the fact that Kova and Jorginho when given space will just keep ball and not give it away. We gave them absolutely no opportunity to feed off the crowd and gave the referee no chances to even up the game or be affected in his decision making by the atmosphere. We didn't have to go gung ho, we just had to be controlled and take the game away from Milan but I felt it was done in a way which was pleasing on the eye with a lot of triangles, one touch passing, quickening things up before slowing it back down again. Very composed and confident, and not huge energy reserves being taken out of us when we're in the midst of a manic period of games coming thick and fast.

At times I find his part in the build up play can be a bit sloppy with a mis control or a bad pass. Strange really because he's clearly a good enough, capable player technically to play that role, but he's also still adapting to new players too. But you're spot on, and it was part of the reason I saw no real issues with him signing here as a short-term solution. Even under Arteta last season, his work rate off the ball with regards to pressures, sprints, etc was still strong despite him clearly being demotivated, and his all-round stats were strong in the 6 months at Barca. He offers the side a genuine threat of a bona fide striker leading the line and running in behind, without as you said, leaving us a man down when things aren't going well. He's actually currently proving to be the perfect complement to Broja who is getting minutes to develop and play but without the pressures and burden that come with being a striker because Auba is carrying that currently. I just hope he puts that flip celebration away for good now as knowing our luck with injuries, he'll be on absolute fire and end up ripping his hamstring or knee ligaments on one of those celebrations.

My personal opinion is that they will go back in for Michael Edwards. Reports suggest he was there first choice in the summer and that he was personally very impressed with the pitch but wanted a sabbatical. I think having come out of last summer, you wouldn't expect huge work done in the January window and seemingly with the new Technical Director coming in, alongside the new manager and his own recruitment/scouting advisor there are at least some pieces now in place that we perhaps didn't have in the summer. I mentioned it too at the time and stand by it that Boehly and Eghbali will be far better served in the future for having had to step in during the summer to fulfil that sporting director/recruitment role. It will have been a real crash course test for them but will have helped them gain a far greater understanding of the mechanics involved with transfer deals, and developed relationships with other clubs, agents, etc that wouldn't have been there. They themselves will have a much better understanding of the role of a sporting director and what steps they can make in the future to ensure that whomever it ends up being to take that role is supported in the best way possible to thrive in that position at Chelsea. I think if they could get a commitment from Edwards to perhaps start at some point next year then they'd go with that.

The noises out of Germany seem to suggest he's very highly rated. In a similar way to Potter, it feels like rather than something tried and trusted at the top level, the ownership group want people who are highly rated, seemingly on an upward trajectory in their career and just needing that first opportunity afforded to them at the highest level. Hopefully the recruitment on the playing side will follow suit too. If it were to start with Nkunku and Gvardiol the signs are very promising.

Granted he wasn't aided by Milan's approach to the game which seemed to be almost entirely a damage control exercise but I still would have expected him to try and do more. I go back to Hazard who had very little appetite to defend and track back for the team but in times where the team were struggling he would always try to drift around to get on the ball and make things happen. Leao seemed content with staying wide and if the ball didn't reach him then too bad.

This guy is unreal. He's still our best centre back option and a genuine world class player at 38 years old! I know there could be that drop off at some point eventually, but I wouldn't put it past him earning another year contract. I know the World Cup was the goal for him to make and so this Chelsea move was just as beneficial to him from that perspective to continue playing at the highest level, and maybe that will be his call to then go back to play in Brazil for the last year or two of his career but I'd love to see him stay and finish his career here.

I think it was telling the time the team spent out on the pitch after the Palace game and then again last night to clap and celebrate with the fans. You're right it had felt probably since the start of the sanctions that there was a bit of a disconnect there and that just had not improved this season with the poor start. Last night did feel like a bit of a turning point in the club as a whole, fans included, facing and moving in the same and right direction. 2 wins in the space of 5 days hopefully starts building that momentum for a good run now up to the World Cup break. If we can get through this group and we're comfortably in and around the top 4 race going into that break, then I think that's a huge positive to come back to after the World Cup.

Was far from impressed with Leao last night. Don't get me wrong, he clearly has talent and he's a big lad, someone I don't think that would get bullied physically in the Premier League. But his general attitude, demeanour, work rate off the ball were beyond shambolic. There are times you can carry one player somewhat if they are producing the goods, I know this was the case with Hazard previously but Leao isn't Eden Hazard level and Hazard was an extremely humble player who played for the team, would happily carry the burden of the team on his back. Once Reece got stuck into him after half time, Leao wilted and hid away. Maybe there's additional levels to his game to come over time, and he'll show up more at the San Siro next week but I just don't think currently the talent justifies the attitude I saw on the pitch last night and whilst they're not necessarily the same profile of player, if you're giving me the option of a new attacking signing next summer out of Nkunku and Leao, it's Nkunku for me even at the same price let alone Leao likely being significantly more expensive.

We have always found much more success with buying players and them developing into world class and rated talents here than trying to buy the ready-made product. Even going back to Roman's early days the likes of Cech, Carvalho, Drogba proved significantly safer and more successful than the likes of Crespo and Veron. We experienced the same with Hazard, Kante, Courtois, etc - buying players on an upward trajectory. When we've tried to short cut things it's gone horribly wrong. Leave the likes of Madrid, Barca, United to buy those sorts of players. I'm happy to plug gaps from time to time with smart, experienced signings (Thiago Silva for example) but the key at the club has to be to identify those players who with the right coaching and platform, could well become world class here at the club.

So in our current set up where do you think Nkunku fits?

I'd be surprised if Havertz left unless he specified that he wanted to and everything that you see with him he seems to be well settled in England and gets on well in particular with the younger crop of players at the club, even after Werner and Rudiger moved on. He might not have hit the heights expected of him, but he's in a completely different position to Werner and Pulisic who struggle(d) getting into the side and have clearly lost a lot of their transfer value due to their struggles here. But Havertz plays regularly (Potter for Tuchel doesn't seem to suggest he's now on the periphery) and is still highly regarded in Germany and starting regularly for the national team. I don't see a situation where Chelsea is prepared to sell at a loss on him, so it would almost certainly boil down to Bayern being prepared to spend £60-80m on him and him wanting to leave.

Seems to be a bit of a theme with German clubs, but they seem to prefer to come to an agreement with players to give another year or two loyalty and then be sold on at a more than fair price based on the market. To be honest, it's probably a strong selling point for teams like Dortmund, Leipzig, Leverkusen, etc to attract some of these top young talents to join. Not only a platform to showcase their talents but also being prepared to let players move on when the time is right.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I watch lots of football outside of the Prem and European games. From clips, videos and limited full games I have seen I do think Nkunku benefits in a similar way to Werner from a lot more teams playing with higher lines in the Bundesliga compared to the Premier League. Having said that, he looks significantly more talented on the ball, creative, comfortable with both feet, working tight pockets of space, etc. I think clearly for the price being touted for his release clause; he looks to be undervalued in that regard making it an extremely attractive deal. We do need to make sure however that we have a proper plan for how to utilise him. I feel too many times in the past we've bought players for the deal on the table rather than the fit for the team and that's part of the reason why we've suffered so much and had such an imbalanced squad for a sustained period of time. If there's a plan to get the most out of his talents though he could be a seriously good pick up.