MGuerreiro

On 12 June 2014, English Premier League team Chelsea signed Fàbregas on a five-year contract for a fee of around £30 million. Fàbregas said that Arsenal were given the first option to buy him back, but they turned him down. He also said that he had "unfinished business" in the Premier League. The former Arsenal captain joined their London rivals despite claiming in 2011 that he would never sign for another English club.
Fàbregas made his competitive debut for Chelsea on 18 August as the team began their league season away to Burnley; he played the full 90 minutes of a 3–1 victory, providing two assists. He was a nominee for the Premier League Player of the Month in August 2014, with the accolade going instead to another new Chelsea signing, Diego Costa. On 13 September 2014, after providing two assists in Chelsea's 4–2 victory over Swansea City, Fàbregas became the first player ever in Premier League history to record at least one assist in six successive games; four under Chelsea and two under Arsenal during the 2010–11 season. Four days later he scored his first goal for the club, opening a 1–1 draw at home against Schalke 04 in Chelsea's first match of the Champions League group stage.
His first league goal for Chelsea gave them a 2–1 win at Crystal Palace on 18 October, capping off a 19-pass move. Fàbregas also completed 123 passes, the most by any player on either side.[84] On 10 December, with Chelsea already through to the knockout stage as group winners, Fàbregas scored an eighth-minute penalty to open a 3–1 Champions League victory over Sporting Lisbon. Twelve days later he scored a second league goal, set up by Eden Hazard and concluding a 2–0 win away to Stoke.
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By a "replacement for luis" do you mean
A. Centre Back
B. Midfielder
C. A bench warmer
if you picked A.We have a few,
if you picked B. We have a few
and if you picked C. We have plenty.
If we needed Luiz, there is no way we would have sold him. If we do end up getting 50 million for him, it will go down as the best 50 million we've ever made.

67 days until the season starts and we still haven't wrapped this up. Awful business yet again Chelsea......................

Deluded

Penis hardening...

I don't understand why anyone needs the opinion of a Barcelona fan to validate or challenge their own opinion on Fabregas, he's played in the PL for 7/8 years so we witnessed first hand what sort of player he is.
Barcelona fans will tell you that players like Ibrahimovic, Eto'o in his prime, and even current players like Sanchez or Neymar even aren't good enough for them or their system and I'd welcome almost every single one of them here.
This guy is coming off an average season but still managed to grab 13 goals and 17 assists for them. Spoilt bunch.
Fabregas has never fitted the Barcelona system anyway, he's way too direct for their setup.

Great character, always smiling and happy, played with his soul and heart for this football club. As a supporter I will always love and respect that. Thanks for everything David !

He did what every player should do in that situation...

So disappointing that he didn't play this epic match. He needed it.
Of course I'm saddened about his absence in the next few matches, but this match and how it played out was much more important than whether we win, draw or lose against Swansea and Sunderland. It's the kind of match that marks your career and makes you take several steps in the development curve (mentally wise).
Also we've proved twice in a row that we can play without him (the Stoke match was one of the best we played this year - 2014 - and he wasn't missed in the pitch tonight either) which is great for us and for him. It means we aren't an one-man-team and that there isn't way too much pressure on the kid's shoulders. That said, it's much easier when he's around and he will become our match-winner sooner or later. It's not a dig on him.
I'm very sad he's missed it, but I'm sure they'll be new opportunities, maybe the next one is even in two weeks and three weeks from now - if he's healthy. Hopefully he'll be there and will written some history by himself too.

plucked stuffed and ready for roasting

Ita almost like thia forum goes thru phases. Add to that the band wagon of opinion and it just gets silly and frustrating.
I remember at the start of the season he was our no.1 striker, who was single handedly supposed to take us to a different footballing level.
When he was loaned, it was supposedly a horrid mistake and the jose out chants were on. When he was banging goals for fun at the start, every member including me and every pundit said that chelsea made a mistake.
Now, injured for 2 weeks and with etoo playing well, suddenly people think that one of the best prosoects in the world to be sold. I mean what the fucking hell!!!

Our entire midfield vs City was from Benfica. Thank you!

Exactly the opposite. Players like Salah and Schurrle are poorly suited for games when teams play super-defensively. When there is no space behind the defenders, people who rely on speed don't have space to use it and so are neutralized.What good is speed when there's nowhere to run? These sorts of players, in fact, almost all of our team, is best suited to playing counter-attack. Players who can get into space with quickness, dribble past a defender, and shoot. Oscar is not ideal for this game but is still better suited because he can create a beautiful goal out of nothing on occasion.

It's true, a game like that would have fitted Mata perfectly. However, as someone ^ posted, Mata wants to play more than just the west hams of this world and he deserves that. Unfortunately you can't play a high pressing game with Mata as a focal point.
As has been said countless times, without Mata we are 3 points off the top compared to struggling for top 4. I'd much rather a strong footballing vision than basing a team around one player with the quality of Mata. He's a great player but as was debated with Rafa at the helm - what top European club would base their team around a player only as good as Mata? Barca? Real Madrid? Their two are out of this world and Bayern, Dortmund and Juve all have philosophies they follow.
I've been reading red cafe recently and sure a front 3 of Mata, Rooney, And RVP is mouthwatering on paper... But whats the philosophy? People are suggesting a 4-3-1-2 with overlapping FB's to provide width. Would need one hell of a central midfield to accomodate for the defensive frailties of that team.
Yes Mata is an amazing player and I'm grateful for his time here but I don't think you can field a player of his quality and have the strongest team in Europe. Individually, he's not on the level of the Messi's and Ronaldo's of this world nor is he physically sound enough to slot into the high pressing styles of the Bayern Munichs or Dortmunds. And that style, I believe, is the most effective way to play football at this current time.

Jesus fucking Christ. Be-au-ti-ful.

Yes he does need to prove to Jose he can do it. Jose wants a certain make up from a player, that being one that works back, works incredibly hard and also operates at both ends of the field in a way he wants. This isn't Juan Mata FC, it's Chelsea FC with one of the greatest managers around in charge and people are questioning Jose and saying things like "He's clueless" etc, please listen to what Jose is saying when he address's questions about Juan Mata, it really isn't difficult.
Oscar right now is nigh on the perfect player, he operates up and down the field, tracking back, going forward, creating chances and scoring goals, that's a perfect player for me and it looks like Jose agrees. In all this I am not saying Mata is shite as most of you will probably jump on the band wagon and say, just look at my profile etc I love the bloke, but let's look at the big picture, firstly what Jose wants and secondly at what Mata is up against in terms of Oscar and what he has to offer.
I've bitten my tongue on this for days after reading this thread and come to one opinion that people do not want to know what Jose wants and also are so blinded by past achievements of Mata that he can do no wrong. Mata was sublime last two seasons, two seasons yes, but now we have a different manager that wants a different system and certain players to change and adapt. Nobody's place is guaranteed right now, possibly only Oscar's, this team is being steered by a new sailor, if the crew on board aren't ready to work the crew will be thrown over board.
Either adapt to what he wants, fight for the place because it wont be handed on a plate to you.

I love KDB, but rate Wilshere higher as a player. Wilshere is also probably England's best player whenever he does play for the NT, so this "KDB is the best player for Belgium therefore he's better than Wilshere" argument doesn't really add up in my opinion. In his breakthrough season at Arsenal he was excellent. Injuries have stopped his progress a bit but he's the only player I'd take from Arsenal.
When people say "what has Wilshere done". What has KDB exactly done as well in that case? That's not the case at all with both players. You just need to watch both players play and make your own opinion up about them, not justify how good they are because of what they have/haven't achieved yet. They're both very young still.
Of course that's just my personal opinion. I'm not saying KDB is bad at all, I really rate him and it's fantastic that we have him, but I rate Wilshere just a bit higher.

You'd take Ramsey over him? Then you're insane. Wilshire is a tremendous talent. He doesn't score because he plays central midfield and takes one shot every two games which is almost always from a distance out. If his finishing were better, maybe he'd score 2 or 3 goals a year. His job is not to score. If he'd be at Chelsea, he'd be our #1 central midfielder in a second. What's he done? He was on the PFA team of the year when he was a teenager. He's still younger than say Oscar or Hazard and is only 6 months older than De Bruyne. Since then he hasn't done that much because he's been injured and recovering for 90% of that time. Yeah, he's overhyped by some people but take a look at this thread or any number of threads and you'll see that every single Chelsea youngster is overhyped by our fans as well. I hate having to defend Wilshire because he's a prick as a person, but he is a very good player. It's really annoying to see every Premier League player mentioned, even obviously class ones, on other clubs dismissed as crap. (Which is in stark contrast to young players who come from other leagues who are all going to be world class players.)

Jack Wilshire is a starting midfielder for one of the better teams in the world. He was one of the best midfielders in a top league before he got hurt. Josh had a decent year in the Championship. He probably should go on loan back to the Championship unless Chelsea can find a good fit in the bottom of the Premier League. It's not that Wilshire is better, it's that they are on different planets in terms of where they are right now.

Are you basing this off 2 pre season performances or? Before his injury last season, Hazard was Chelsea's in form player. In the 2nd half of the season he was better than Mata. This is a ridiculous thing to say. Can't believe people genuinely wouldn't start Hazard because of two meaningless games. Absolutely shocking.

I don't think there's a single team in the world that wouldn't play an in full form Hazard

Precaution: Watch it on mute, it's much more enjoyable.

I would personally say Hazard vs Schurrle on the left, KDB vs. Oscar in the middle and Mata vs. Moses on the right.

I don't know if people are being selective on Mata and seemingly chosen to focus more on his weaknesses rather than positives. Yes, there is no doubt that Mata's main weaknesses now are his tame physical strength and poor defensive work off the ball BUT these are aspects that he can still improve on, yet I can't understand why the way people have been talking is as if he can't do that. It's not like he has some attitude problem and shown that he can't be helped anymore! Additionally, the thought of some people saying the form Mata shown us last season was his best and he can never get better feels somewhat hilarious. Last season might arguably be his best season ever in his career but is that the best he can offer? No. What he has shown is his astonishing consistency in producing quality assists and attacking play in the final third but there is still more to his locker in that attacking play aspect.
What Mata did for us last season was great especially when you consider we can't even retain possession to save our lives and constantly retreated to defend first and when he did get on the back, we saw how great it can be. Imagine if we can fix our midfield problems, keep the ball like 80% of the time in match especially against the lesser sides and be more aggressive on the ball, what can kind of crazy damage can Mata do on the opposition working with the likes of Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar, KDB etc? You have people banging about how Mourinho's return will improve this player, improve that player but when it comes to somebody like Mata, it's suddenly all negative thinking and having thought he won't get any better than what he has shown so far. Hilarious.
And seriously, I don't know if people have been well and truly spoilt by watching too much of Hazard or players like him who is flashy on the ball, has the flicks and tricks that has caused some people to seemingly devalue Mata all of a sudden and this is a similar situation with Oscar. Granted Mata may not be like Hazard when he's on the ball, the ability to run at pace with the ball at oppositions' players, dribble past people etc but there seem to be an issue of people not appreciating the brilliance in simplicity sometimes.