Jase

Only yesterday Mourinho was talking about having Mata in the team... http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/16/jose-mourinho-chelsea-fernando-torres

16th July's Blues News. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epkJVbwE1_Q

Mourinho on Mata (when speaking about formations)... http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/16/jose-mourinho-chelsea-fernando-torres

Really? It has always worked fine for me whenever I use it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/16/jose-mourinho-chelsea-fernando-torres?mobile-redirect=false

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2366176/Jose-Mourinho-faith-John-Terry.html You...jumped...the...gun.

Wayne Rooney would offer Chelsea a massive risk along with potentially great reward

An extra day rest wouldn't kill if they can help it. If anything, the training would probably just be a light one on Sunday.

http://www.marca.com/2013/07/16/en/football/spanish_football/1374003527.html

He has joined Trabzonspor today...

Not sure if the team will be flying back to UK after the Asia tour because don't forget, we still got the US tour. As you pointed out, our last match in Asia is on the 25th and our first match in US is on 1st August, which is only 1 week apart and it will only cause tiredness if they fly over long distance so many times. Think the Confederations Cup lads will join up with the rest in US.

Premier League gains blocking order on illegal streams: High Court judgment forces six main UK-based ISPs to block First Row Sports

Returning to training on a Sunday? Seems unlikely. If anything, it will be Monday.

Merged with the old thread. Please use the search feature to look if there's already a same thread created.

Not Chelsea-related topic. Moving to the Football Banter section...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2365531/Roberto-Di-Matteo-returning-management-Roman-Abramovich.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-chelseamail&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=socialnet-twitter-chelseamail&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Not sure why some people keep on banging on the notion that our squad is suited for the 4-3-3 formation. Barring 2-3 players, all the other players are capable of playing 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 or other formations for that matter. Moreover regarding the 4-3-3, it's not just about the midfield players we have but also the strikers. Torres is not suited to such formation. Ba can possibly function in it considering he used to play there for Newcastle on numerous times. And we still don't know if Lukaku can really play there right now. He has always played in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 at West Brom. As for him being weak against Barcelona, well, that game was never suited to him in the first place give our approach/strategy then. He did alright based on what was asked of him. Against Bayern, don't think it helped him again with a similar approach. We practically just sat back and invited pressure in that game. Hardly any pressing done from the entire team.

Sorry @Tomo. Had to merge that piece to this Emenalo thread. Didn't think it was extensive or contain enough in-depth reasons/analysis as to why you said Emenalo has done a great job. You basically only mentioned one point, which was overhauling an aging squad. Hope you understand.

More from Hazard... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10181423/Manchester-Uniteds-Wayne-Rooney-would-be-perfect-signing-for-Chelsea-claims-Eden-Hazard.html

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/chelsea-jose-mourinho-won-new-2055845

Hazard on Mourinho, his 1st season in England and potential new signings... http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/chelsea-jose-mourinho-won-new-2055845

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAstj8v0xSg Today's Blues News. Longer version than the one NiclasCFC posted above.

That's like those BS stories saying Cavani will sign in the next 48 hours...and it never happened.

There are more pictures of the lads in the link below... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2364045/Jose-Mourinho-cone-head-Chelsea-stars-splash-pool.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

True but the thing now is, managers, coaches, football staffs, players are much more adaptable in England in regards to tactics and formations as compared to last time when people stuck rigidly to 4-4-2 and allowed Mourinho to cash in on that. The issue now is about introducting a new formation to surprise people or be one step ahead of the the opposition but establish a system(or systems) that can bring out the best in our players in an attempt to be a dominant force in England, like we were last time under Mourinho.