Jase

No, you're still missing the point and not looking from a bigger perspective. Yes, players suffer dip in form and Costa is no different but this isn't just about his form. It's also about his attitude, his behavior and his mindset. We can excuse Costa's poor form if he's still contributing to the team, trying to help the team in a different way etc. But what has he done or is doing to try and regain his form? He's more like the bad Costa in recent weeks - fighting with opposing players, trying to con the referee into giving fouls (no wonder we don't get many decisions), more interested in creating headlines for the wrong reasons than the right ones. Costa is a key part to our attacking game and given that we're currently having a wobble, we can't afford to be playing with 10 men, with Costa more interested in doing the things that he shouldn't be doing out there on the pitch. And here's more on why people are beyond frustrated with Costa and want him gone. As for the comparison with Torres, it sounds silly but if you put the goalscoring feat aside, is Costa really doing any better now than Torres when he was here? One was extremely frustrating. The other is frustrating fans till no end right now. One was a liability, was doing next to nothing on the pitch and was making us playing like with 10 men. The other is doing all those right now with his bad attitude, behavior (to put it kindly).

Pedro at Leicester and Wolves.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/apr/18/chelsea-partly-blame-virus-for-off-colour-display-against-manchester-united

Luiz always seems to have nightmare-ish performances at Old Trafford. Maybe he is carrying an injury but yesterday wasn't the first bad performance he's had at United.

Felt painful watching that but good analysis. If Luiz is seriously carrying an injury, then Conte has to maybe think about dropping him. It's bad enough we're playing with a liability upfront. We don't need another one at the back. Right now, we can't keep clean sheets and we're finding goals a bit hard to come by.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/apr/17/chelsea-thibaut-courtois-fa-cup-semi-final-spurs-conte?CMP=share_btn_tw Courtois set to return. Conte wasn't happy with injury.

Brighton promoted to the Premier League. Gonna be funny if Newcastle end up in the playoff spots.

This is funny. We've won only ONE of our last 4 home games against Southampton (and that was in 2013/14) and people keep writing them off like they're nothing.

Whatever happens this season (oh god!), I don't think we'll even entertain the idea of selling him this summer. We already a serious job as it is of trying to revamp the squad for next season.

As frustrating as that is, he's always said the same thing. He's been doing that for years. Nothing new. We all want players to stay loyal but at the same time, you can't blame them either for trying to keep their options open.

All he said was that he might want to play for a different club (which could be us!) in response to the media always talking about Real and PSG. It's just a normal quote, one which no one else is losing their mind over.

You're overreacting, Pizy. Nothing he said there is a different to what he said in the past.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/apr/17/jose-mourinho-tactics-chelsea-manchester-united-old-trafford?CMP=share_btn_tw

A downside of Conte 'playing the game emotionally'? His demeanor was certainly weird yesterday, very similar to the one we saw at Arsenal.

I don't disagree but to be fair and I know it's easy to say this, it's hard for any player to gain any sort of form when he's not playing much. Both Pedro and Willian have their strengths and weaknesses and should be used accordingly and I just think yesterday, away from home against one of the bigger sides, Willian would have been much more effective.

Looking back at the game, not sure how we lost that only 2-1. Could have easily lost it by 5 or 6 that day.

If you think this is all about Costa's form in the last two months, then you're sorely mistaken. When a striker isn't scoring the goals, the least you want to see is him putting in the effort, helping the team to win matches etc. But Costa is doing neither of them - he isn't scoring goals (only 3 in the league in 2017, compared to 14 in the first half of the season) and he isn't contributing to our goals or our play in general - he can't make simple passes, he's making the wrong decisions etc. If that wasn't bad enough - this is what frustrates people most - Costa has reverted to his petulant behavior. Rather than trying to rediscover his goalscoring form, his performances, he's gone back to being more interested in fighting with players, drawing attention to negative attention to himself and the team on the pitch. And this isn't something we see happening all of a sudden. It's the same thing that we saw in 2014/15 and 2015/16. Are we really just going to sit down here and indulge in this behavior? Are we going to be okay with Costa turning up in the first half of the season and then going AWOL in the second (it's happened in previous seasons too)? Is this what we've reduced ourselves to? Isn't this what people did with Torres? When he wasn't scoring the goals, people resorted to praising him for doing the smallest of things well, just like what you did with Costa. We are a top club going for titles, not some lesser teams being okay with mid table positions. How can you genuinely be okay with him just winning free kicks etc? You said it's bad that people want him gone because of two months of poor form but isn't it bad too that you're using the Bournemouth game - where he totally mishit the shot for the first goal and won just a free kick - to justify your reasoning of why he shouldn't be sold? It's almost the 'clutching at straws' argument people used for Torres when he was here.

He's been largely impressive this season but lately, he's been playing like the frustrating and error-prone Luiz we've come to know over the years. Why did he decide to drop in and play Rashford onside was beyond me. It's the same blunder he made against Hernandez 6 years ago at United.

Pedro really shouldn't be playing in the away games against the big teams, especially when we're gonna play on the counter. Better off using Willian, who's better at dribbling, protecting the ball, bringing it out from deep areas and turning defence into offense. In fact, we're probably better off playing Pedro in home games and Willian in the away games.

Don't want to criticize Zouma because he was thrown into the deep end late on at United but after his performance yesterday and I've said this before, he just looks lost and unsuited as the centre back in a back 3. Awkward, cumbersome and doesn't have the ability to help to build our attacks from the back. And his stepover in the second half was just plain hilarious and embarrassing.