Thor

Haha Aussie term. It means best on ground. MOTM. 🙂

Completely agree. He is consistently BOG for me. He is becoming a Kante lite in that midfield. I’m loving the transformation. He is so composed and tighter on the ball now.

Deadset idiot if you thought Jackson wasn’t good. A small blip doesn’t make a player. We have a gem on our hands. enjoying this game from an Irish pub in Florence. Mwah. Superb.

I was on a flight and missed the game. Are Mudryk and Caceido injured?

Nah. We got this. I think we get a comfy 3-1 win. People don’t view that Villa loss well, but they created nothing in the game prior to us being down to 10. We will come good.

The hand brake is off homie!!! 😄

Hey mate, I booked Ars vs Chels tickets through Go Sport Travel as they were listed as an authorised re-seller on the Chelsea website. https://www.gosporttravel.com/en/football/Chelsea/67326 This is a link to the Brentford game. Seems as if a ticket is available for 260ish Euro. Hope that helps.

I just watched the extended highlights - obviously not watching the whole game my view could be distorted but: - A lot of the highlights had our good/great chances starting with Mudryk. Was he really that poor like some suggest if he was the one creating clear cut chances again? I understand he cost a tonne, but at least he is impacting at this point, and he looks more confident. The consistency and rest of game will come. Also - a lot of the good chances actually came off the back of his defensive work to try and win the ball back, which prior I had been disappointed with. - Palmer looks silky. Has a poise to his game. Think he should be getting starts more often. - Can anyone comment on Maatsen? Didn't see him pop up much in the highlights aside from the goal involvement. - Was Jackson's second goal really offside? Looked on to me. - Broja one obviously onside. - I think we look more direct and quicker with Silva out...

Sanchez Cucu Disasi Colwill Maatsen Enzo Caicedo Sterling Palmer Mudryk Washington

I saw Palmer, Mudryk and Jackson all over the highlights - so I assume they all had a decent game? Though I do see people saying Mudryk was meh? Was Maatsen okay? I'd like to see more of him. If Chilly is injured, we may just see him at LB, as hopefully Poch is stopping Levi there and giving Silva some rest too.

We will buy him, then he won't score due to the fact we are in a transition period, then I will be told its because the club has gone and bought another unproven player with only 1 or 2 decent seasons.

This is what it hinged on. We were playing with a handbrake on with no shirt sponsor. Now we have been unlocked.

Yeah agreed - Brighton are a tough watch.

I don't care too much about this. We look better than when Potter was here.

I'd love to see the below line up... or do Gusto and Jackson serve suspensions over this comp as well? Regardless just swap them out with some youngsters - eg Broja. ----- Sanchez ----- Gusto-Disasi-Levi-Maatsen -----Caicedo--Enzo----- Sterling---Palmer---Mudryk ----------Jackson----------

Honestly find this backlash weird after he has been improving and was clearly our most dangerous attacker last game...

Just isn't true. Lets stop pretending there are 19 teams better than us in terms of talent. There isn't even 8. RJ and Gusto are top class. Our CB options are fine and better than 90% of the league. We don't concede goals, so this isn't up for debate. LB - we have plenty of options, and aren't in need of an upgrade. Enzo is a WC winner and is clearly class. The eye test is enough. Caceido is class. Gallagher has done it at other clubs, was wanted by WHU and Spurs - he is good enough to be on the team. Sterling can bang in goals - and he isn't past it. Say what you want about Mudryk and Jackson - fine, they might be average or below average - the rest of the team on paper, and based on their achievements are clearly very good. Our keeper isn't making or breaking the team. He is stopping shots and we have a good defence statistically. It is a confidence and cohesion (and a whole lot more) issue, and not a personnel one. Why? Because no matter which way you slice it - this team isn't worse than Villas. We aren't worse than Nottingham Forest. We aren't worse than WHU. This team is plenty fine enough to win games based on talent and who is there on paper. I dare anyone with a straight face to say they would swap our entire starting 11 for Tottenham's against Arsenal this weekend. No one wanted Brennan Johnson when he was being talked about as an option. Am I going to sit here and pretend we should have got him now that he is on a winning team?

I think this is really a cop out excuse given results so far. Reality is - people said Enzo and Caceido would transform our team. We got massive targets we wanted, we have experience, and there is quality there. People are seeing the results as is, and act like we haven't got a team worth jack. It just isn't the case. If we want to look at things properly, we were in massive decline for a while now. Go look at our results, scoring, and league finishes since our last title. Roman got out at a great time from a saving his narrative perspective. We had some horrible transfer windows to finish things off. This lot has made their mistakes, but rectified it pretty quickly. Overspent on some? Sure. But they ended up getting the massive targets most wanted on here - and did the best job I've seen of getting rid of deadwood. This is almost inarguable. Is it a big change with lots of hurt along the way? Seems so. But sometimes its better to pull the bandaid off fast, feel the pain, and recover quicker after that. It really isn't all doom and gloom like some make it out to be here. I'm guilty of it too when our games are on and we're struggling, but a few things fined tuned and we're going to be on a better path. I'm just not going to sit here and pretend we don't have quality and experience. RJ, Silva, BC, Enzo, Sterling, etc have all won the biggest competitions in world football. Caceido and Gallagher are experience PL footballers. Disasi is an experienced footballer. Fickle, fickle fans who have been spoilt rotten, and we've been fortunate to have won that CL title two years ago that smoothed over and made things look better than they were from a club heading downwards perspective. We deserved the title, but what I'm saying is, we were't close to winnings leagues, and were suited to being a cup team that could make it happen on the day. If you don't believe me about the fickle fans, and that includes all of us btw, not singling out - look at all the people that were happy with the signings, didn't want Felix and Vlahovic, and are now saying - can't believe we didn't sign them. Its damned if you do, damned if you don't. Fans never take the time to look at causation/correlation type shit. They just look at the end result and scream bloody murder. Ownership is the least of the problem. They've come in and invested. They've shown they want to keep investing if they do make a mistake. What the current situation tells me is we were going rotten a while back with shitty transfers, being on the downslope, and being poorly managed, and its all come to a head. City and Barca have had the best model of continued success and they have done it with multi club models and creating consistency in style of play between youth and senior. That takes some time, but ownership look to be doing that on an even grander scale. We were fortunate we had shitty play at times masked by nice results, where as now its transitioning the other way. Talks of relegation are asinine btw. We'll be fine. There is so much quality on the pitch.

Great take. I completely agree. We have the quality on the field, it is just at that tipping point. Fans are fickle, as most will be in here. I let my emotions get the best of me during games, but I can go back and see what I watched and realised it isn't doom and gloom, but rather close. I don't want to see Poch sacked. I think our play has gotten better over the games. Great teams find a way to win when they don't play well. We don't have that just yet. My only issue with this current slump is player harmony and confidence. That'll be even worse if they get rid of Poch, because the players will think its a pisstake, and they can just lull their way through a season and have the manager blamed every time. It isn't an experience thing. It isn't a player quality thing. Fans on here are kidding themselves with cope. We have a world cup winner in Enzo. Thiago Silva. Chilly who has won a CL. Caicedo has PL experience and is one of the best midfielders in the game statistically. Sterling is a multiple time PL winner. This team is top 4 quality - just not getting the results right now. Players people are complaining we didn't get now were meh last season, or were meh when they were here - Felix and Dusan. They're just on teams where things are actually clicking. Only difference.

I don't think this is such a big issue. Roman used to do it too. Its only an issue because we lose.

----- Sanchez ----- Gusto-Disasi-Levi-Chilwell -----Caicedo--Enzo----- Sterling---Palmer---Mudryk ----------Jackson---------- Am I crazy for thinking that it is so simple, and just play this team?

Thought he was our best player in terms of making something happen and from impacting the game offensively. Statistically he was okay the week before as well, but I actually thought he was good all around yesterday. Something to build on.

I think we aren't as far off as people are making. Most of us here are emotional wrecks because we love the club so much. But it really isn't as dire (outside of the results). We are at the tipping point IMO, where things start falling where they should. It isn't a case of changing 50% of it all. It is about tweaking and fine tuning. We won't be winning it all, but this side is a few tweaks and some consistency away from challenging for top 4-6. TBH - People complaining about not getting Felix and Dusan are the same ones that didn't want them before the season started. It isn't a squad/player problem. We can score goals - just like any other team can. Brighton don't have a "proven" goalscorer, and neither do plenty of other teams, so the excuse is just bollocks. We lack consistency and confidence. Poch needs to set up an attacking side and let the cards play out how they may.

He created two chances that should have been put away. Hardly rubbish.

I legitimately felt we were far better prior to the sending off than the last couple of games. I thought we actually looked likely to score.