themightyblue

I was trying to be as realistic as possible. Romeu isn't in the frame whatsoever at the moment so thought there's no need to include him

Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Bertrand Essien Meireles Ramires Oscar Hazard Torres Bring on Danny at some point and Ferriera if we're comfortable

http://www.spazionapoli.it/2012/gazzetta-dello-sport-il-chelsea-offre-35-milioni-per-cavani/88608 We bid 35m euros for Cavani, but Napoli want 50m euros according to this

He gave Cole and Ivanovic the run around for a lot of the game once he settled

This where the need for someone like Modric, Sahin comes in. Need to control possession

Oscar met the players only two days ago and i've already said about Sturridge. We only have two strikers in the whole squad, we need a sub

Yeah but there's another side to this. He said he wants to play as a striker this season, his work rate on the right is also poor. Bertrand was a winger before he got converted to a LB and so knows how to play there and will work more for the team. Complain if we had Marin available but Robbie decided to just go with Bertrand, not when we have a lack of options up there due to injuries

We have no other options. Sturridge is a striker

Yeah only just thought about that haha Maybe even Mata right, Hazard central and Bertrand left

Bertrand on the right wing. Oscar only started training with the team 2 days ago and Robbie doesn't like Sturridge on the right

Chelsea TV have said that Ramires won't take part today due to illness

http://www.marca.com/2012/08/19/en/football/real_madrid/1345360783.html Says Levy is prepared to sell Modric to Chelsea for 35m

'Abramovich, however, want to close with a loud bang on the Chelsea Market and JoJo just tops the list of preferences of Mr. Di Matteo.' http://www.diggita.it/v.php?id=1018415&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#

Guillem Balague ‏@GuillemBalague Chelsea have made an approach for Modric, willing to offer 40m+. Levy delying deal with Madrid after agreeing fee. Modric wants 2 go 2 Real Go on Roman

Hulk doesn't want Zenit though

You just know that Moses is going to have the game of his life

Hulk publicly admitting that he wants to leave has been the game changer in this transfer I think

Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Cole Essien Lampard Marin Mata Hazard Torres

I think he's the first player that we've had at chelsea in a long time where we can say we've got a 'special' player on our hands. He's going to make a lot of defenders look silly this season

Di Matteo has already mentioned something like this, but we don't have our full squad available/fit so he's had to play these games. Also after the game, City fans at the ground were bumming him and saying how we have such a good player on our hands. And yes one of them even compared him to Messi

Very very shocked at the majority of the reactions here and some our pretty embarrassing. I'm not going to try and make out that what I'm saying is all correct but I think I'm being fair in what I'm about to say. Anyway, I went into the match thinking that this was going to be an absolute demolishing after our horrific defending in pre season, however I've left that game with a smile on my face. I've seen a lot of criticising about the double pivot and I have to say Mikel was shocking BUT when it was 11 vs 11 in the first half, how many clear cut chances did City ACTUALLY make? Like where we were just cut open? I can barely count 2 if any. We were very organised and you can tell Rdm has been working on this in training. City played nice one two's but we matched them in the first half and got a goal. I don't think it's fair to judge the 2nd half because there wasn't much we could do. Of course we were going to get exposed, they had an extra man FFS. It was a valiant effort from the boys that we didn't let city run riot. In terms of individually I would say Torres was the best player and Sturridge looked good when he came on. I don't get the slating of Hazard either, he did well imo. He caused there defence problems and used the ball very intelligently. I'd also like to add that with the first goal Ramires did his damage from the centre.......not the right. For games like this Ramires is fine playing on the right, but we need play him centrally most of the time where he is dangerous. Going back to the pivot as much as people are wanting to criticise it, the fact is despite some lapses in concentration, they weren't too bad when it was 11 vs 11. In an ideal world we'll strengthen there but we can definitely make do with it this season. Looking to the season overall, after seeing us in a mildly competitive game I definitely think we'll make the top 4 no doubt. You can see the potential of the team is there and I'll guarantee we'll rip some teams apart, but this overreaction after losses really should stop as it gets people worked up and leads to uneccesary arguments. Good day out at Villa Park and now I can't wait till the season starts

We've actually done fairly well. You wouldn't think that after reading this thread

Would love Piazon to get on the pitch. Interesting that Essien isn't on the bench

Pantilimon - Zabaleta Kompany Savic Clichy - Milner De Jong YToure - Nasri - Aguero Tevez

It's on the BBC site and SSN