JDY

I liked Chiesa a lot but obviously his injury has affected things. Rafael Leao is also very talented but probably impossible to get. Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford imo has the potential to be a Mane-like signing for any top team that gets him. We have Werner who should be this type of player, except he cant shoot, pass, dribble, anything. 😩

Broja hasn't been scoring recently but his skillset is extremely unique compared to most strikers out there at the moment. Tall, but rapid with good dribbling. I think he can become really really good. Like if he went to Dortmund next season he'd become one of the most coveted strikers in football. My ideal scenario is to bring him back as strong competition with Havertz, and sign a great winger who can also operate as a striker if need be. Kind of like a Son-esque player.

Kind of ironic that the most natural Rudiger replacement, in terms of his main attributes (speed and aggression), is someone we sold for peanuts to Milan with no sort of buyback clause and probably no hope of getting back. Unless we reincarnate R.Madrid Pepe with added pace or somehow manage to bring back Tomori, anyone we get won't be anywhere near as good as Rudiger. Which leads me to think we simply can't make the same mistake with Colwill if he's as good as everyone is saying. Might not be experienced enough or good enough yet but I'd hate to see history continue to repeat itself by signing another expensive defender who might (in his head) block his path and make him consider his options. I've seen Bremer on a couple occasions and he looks a class player allbeit a little lacking in terms of acceleration off the mark. I can't see him playing as an outer CB in a 3 but as direct competition with Silva who we all know can't play every game at his age. I'd bring him in and take the risk on Colwill in a prominent role, and pray.

We didn't play too badly. I only remember them creating two good chances all game, the Salah one in the opening minutes and their first goal. The commentary/crowd might convince people that they were amazing but in all honestly they had a very good 10 minutes after the break and that's it. When you're at the top you always seem to get the luck. 1 in 100 goal vs us again (after Sturridge earlier) and teams not taking clear chances against them. They were extremely lucky not to lose to Spurs aswell.

Kante, Jorginho, & Ruben in midfield is a must. If we start with either Kovacic or Barkley we might aswell take the loss now. The same team vs West Ham should start, only change I can see happening is if we play Hazard as striker and Willian coming in on one wing. Giroud & Higuain have been equally as bad recently so wouldn't be shocked to see Eden there. I enjoy playing these lot. Out of all the top 6 teams I find myself most confident of a result vs them.

That was awful. Truly awful. Haven't seen for a long time a group of supposedly high level players misplacing passes and losing the ball under no pressure ALL game. This is all I could picture while watching:

I don't come here that often but when I do all I see is your extremely riled up posts. I don't even know if it's an ongoing gag of some sort or you genuinely despise the bloke this much You are consistent to be fair

Christ, Sarri really can’t say anything without getting slaughtered by some here. I guess if the whole press conference is basically about CHO then there’s bound to be one thing you can have a pop at. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. Any manager would understand Kepa wanting to stay on, but actually refusing to come off and staying on? That's a different story & unacceptable. It's just a shame after a completely unexpected and great performance that this is what will be talked about for god knows how long.

I think most managers would have lost it in that situation. I took him walking off as a way of calming himself down before returning to the bench. The commentator instantly suggesting that he was 'walking away from Chelsea'. Obviously you can interpret it however you want.

The difference is that Emery sets up his teams with the opponents team in mind. Pep and Sarri set up their way regardless of what the opponent does, everyone has to react to them and not the other way around (the exception being Liverpool away for City when they were far more defensive). An Emery comparison would make far less sense than the other two. You can exclude the managers anyway, that wasn't the basis of what was trying to be said & in no way an attempt to push our failings under the rug. It was more a look at City's on pitch problems compared to ours and how similar they were at this stage.

A few interesting soundbites from City's first season under Pep. Drawing 1-1 at home to Southampton "But there were signs of the home support becoming frustrated with his team's build-from-the-back approach, not least when many could be heard jeering their team off at the break after Stones' error. City lacked aggression and tempo in the opening 45 minutes, allowing an organised Southampton side to contain them and then burst forward on the break." Losing 4-0 to Everton. Sounds a lot like Wednesday night, replacing Sagna with Kovacic's chance. "The Toffees willingly soaked up 71% of City possession but restricted Guardiola's side to few chances and scored with four of just six attempts at goal. City lacked cutting edge throughout, though had Davies not headed a looping Bacary Sagna header off the line before half-time, they may not have gone on to suffer a fifth league defeat of the season." Losing 4-2 away to Leicester. "For all their possession, they did not have their first shot on target until Kolarov scored a well-placed free-kick in the 82nd minute, and only salvaged further respectability when Nolito tapped in the Serb's low cross late on." "Kolarov was supposed to be playing as a third centre-half but he played so far forward, he left Stones isolated. Zabaleta was playing in a weird in-between position and it didn't look like he knew what he was doing. "Kevin de Bruyne appeared to be at left-wing-back. The communication and lack of line was pretty bad. Kolarov was playing his own game going forward so often. They gave Leicester so many opportunities to attack them. It could have been more. "Fifty changes, they've made this season. It's nice to build relationships and have some familiarity. You can't keep changing players." Ironically it was the reverse for Pep where he was heavily criticized for changing too many players. Even after beating West Ham 0-4 away, there was still critics. Sounds familiar to.. "I think if Manchester City play the team they did tonight away from home against other teams, they will be found out. They are far too open. Yaya Toure, as the holding midfielder, won't get around enough against decent teams." ------------- In short, I think if you want to revolutionize the way you play then you need the time to do it. There will be hiccups along the way and the parallels to Pep's first year are all too familiar. I'm not saying we will become as good as City but I believe we can get to the point where we are also one of the most feared teams in Europe (in terms of being on the front foot). Sarri must show he can adapt like Pep did but more importantly to play a precise system we have to bring in the correct players.

A few reoccurring themes: - We keep having 15-20 minute spells where we are absolutely awful & forget how to play. This is where we usually get punished. Today, Arsenal, Tottenham, Wolves. They all scored a couple of goals in quick fashion and we couldn't recover. - Every team is parking the bus against us, even the bigger teams. It's not easy to break teams down when they do this, we should all know from experience. Leicester are one of the first teams I've seen park the bus against Liverpool this season (surprisingly) and they couldn't find the winner. Newcastle the same last night against City and they looked as impotent as us. The difference is that City usually have a number of players that can score from nothing and we don't. I don't think it's as simple as 'play it quicker! up the tempo!'. Our midfield has no goals and our only winger that's played regularly and likes to shoot is Pedro.

Assuming Hazard leaves, what is more likely to happen from knowing how the club/board works over the years: - We give assurances to CHO that he will be a key figure, effectively replacing Eden - We try to replace Hazard by going out and splashing £60m+ on another winger, giving CHO another reason to want out I can only see the latter happening unfortunately but can understand why they would choose that. CHO/Pulisic/Pedro/Willian doesn't exactly fill you with great confidence at this very moment.

The most disappointing thing is that he's been at the club since he was 8 and seems like he has zero patience & intention to fight for a place in the team despite being here for so long. He should've started in all of the EL games he was fit for, but honestly would that have made much of a difference? Think his people have been in his ear for while. Shame to see.

That's the point. The Leicester that played against us was set up completely different to the one that faced Wolves. They even had only two defenders back at points in the game. Btw I have no problem with you picking Neves over Jorginho, I'm just saying it's hard to judge the full extent of Neves' passing range when he doesn't have to face teams that park the bus every week.

Bit harsh to compare Jorginho and Neves in terms of passing for me. We play against teams that park the bus every game & Wolves don't. Jorginho would also have a field day against that sort of defence from Leicester. Completely open.

Here's a stream: http://sportvstream.live/2017/07/29/chelsea-vs-inter-milan-live-stream/ Not the best quality but can't find any others

He was spectacular last season. One of the few players I remember to get a standing ovation at the Bridge. For £30-35m I wouldn't say no

That was sublime. Honestly can't remember the last time I've been to a game that we've played so well. Even when we were beating teams 7/8-0 under Carlo it didn't feel as complete as that performance.

Perfect 2nd half. This Southampton team have given everyone trouble and we completely shut them down. Every player was good just like our last 4 games.

Attackers must hate playing against him. He's so damn aggressive when pressing trying to tackle/intercept, I love it. Dare I say even better at CB than he was on the flanks

Just turned it on, has assisted the Betis goal. Nice cross

No idea, I'd like to watch to if anyone knows how to.

http://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/245294-their-striker/&page=1 Sounds promising. He always looked a handful for our youth team but you never know if that's just youth football & whether it will translate to the seniors.