Leif

You see. A fraud, with a professional attitude no better than Bats and nowhere near Fabinho.

Nobody comes to mind, but if there's anyone 'technically' or tactically better than Conte, they no doubt have less titles + experience. All the other managers with relative titles + experience are either really old and employ boring, yesteryear football, or, are Guardiola.

He wasn't good, and that's being said after the game. Good. But the idea along the lines of, 'How come Hazard always escapes fire when we play shit!?!?!?' is stupid. If a player is generally your best player for 7 or 8 out of 10 games, you don't give him the same smacking as the players who go missing 8 out of 10 games, do you? Why would you do that? It isn't 'fair'.

I'm reading he's not even a good striker?

I thought this was a photoshopped image with Arsene in it.

It's something other clubs don't suffer from. It's almost as if Chelsea are exclusive in suffering from a source other than the manager & players.

My last post was so negative that I decided not to post my pre-match thoughts, but now that we're down, it's easier to get lost amongst the noise. You don't start a game you want to win, with Willian, if Pedro is available. You don't rely on a striker, which you do your best to avoid at all other times. And if a club isn't cancerous, it doesn't exude an energy that pushes the manager into playing Cahill despite him lacking the ability every other defender on our books does. I expected & expect nothing of today, because from the moment the transfer window closed it has been clear, that we're no longer a precious baby to Roman, but a nephew he's relatively fond of, amongst other nephews.

It shows a lot, how many CFC supporters on Twitter saying they 'understand his frustration, but don't understand why he vented that way.' (It shows how damn dumb, marmite & politically correct so many want to be. This isn't rocket science. Why would a young player post on social media? Get Einstein in here!) You don't understand why young, not-yet fully emotionally-mature people who feel voiceless, share their deepest pains with their supporters? You don't understand instinct, helplessness, struggle, confusion? You don't play by the rules flawlessly for the rest of your life when you're only 20 - you barely even understand the rules. Him being happy & avoiding mental health issues (I'd wager our youth players suffer from such more than any other club) is important. If you're neglected by your bosses, your peers, and on top of that, told not to say anything about it, you're a hurting dog, a starving dog, and you're going to bark. Otherwise, you'd feel even worse in the long run for not barking, thinking you didn't do your all to give yourself the best chance. You can only respect Musonda. The only player at the club, only player, who says, and shows, how much he wants to play for us. Hazard doesn't say it, the wingers don't show it, the midfield are capable footballers but they're not exactly crying after goals and feeling emotionally disturbed over us. Cancerous club which I wish I could remove from my brain.

If he leaves, it's time to stop being passive observers and finally, as a collective fanbase, many in person, officially protest. Until then, the board & Roman are laughing at us donkeys, if they can even hear our internet posts in the first place (doubtful). In 2002, banners & chants would sort this out. In 2017, the majority will think forum & Twitter posts are doing something, and won't bring any energy to any other part of the game to trigger the change needed. Sad affairs. The fans fault as much as the board's IMHO.

I wonder why it is that the majority of Ancelotti's peers, as in those who were also 'top' managers in 2005-2011, are absolutely clueless now - totally lost when it comes to modern tactics & man management. I include Jose in that. Ancelotti keeps up though, seemingly. A true test to confirm that would be Roma or Milan.

You find players like Hazard once every 10 years. You find players like De Bruyne once every 20. But, I'd rather have Hazard, even if De Bruyne's rarer. It's like I'd rather have a Mewtwo card, even if a shiny Charizard's rarer.

Man City had their worst defence of their modern era last season, while United had their worst attacking output of their modern era last season. Arsenal perhaps had their worst season of the modern era last season, full stop. It was just us and Tottenham; little Tottenham; and they played the better football too. If United didn't bend over, and Man City weren't shambolic at the back, we'd end the season level with Tottenham, them with the better goal difference. This is more a sign of failure from others, than a success of ours. Winning the title while scoring less goals than, and playing worse football than the next best, is like winning a boxing match by default due to the opponent revealing a severe arthritis in round 10, saying he can't go on, after having you beat every single round beforehand. You walk away with the title, not because you're great. But because, at the end, the opponent was in a poor state. A title's a title, but this one feels more hollow than the rest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Premier League and its top dogs have never been weaker. Otherwise, they wouldn't lose the title to Chelsea, with the new manager, with barely any new players, following a shambolic season of their own, relying on 1 striker. Not forgetting, these same apparently-not-poor teams, missed out to damn Leicester the season before, and that was without having to deal with us. Man City could make it 3 seasons without a significant trophy this time. I can't remember United's last PL title win. Tottenham are bottlers and will probably never win it. And these teams remain toothless in Europe, too. So it's not like we beat an on-form Atletico Madrid, Juventus and PSG to the title last season. We must be more critical when we measure how much quality we actually have. And we can't measure ourselves against the muts around us. Measure us against the pure-breds elsewhere in Europe.

Us winning the league last season was like when a boxer comes out of retirement & isn't expected to do anything significant due to his age. Yet, he ends up winning a title belt, because the quality of opponents have dropped so dramatically since he was in his prime. But that's not a measure of how good that title-winning boxer is; it's a measure of how bad the general competition has become at that point. That was our scenario. Now our scenario is different. It's more dangerous. The quality of opponent has returned to normal, but the old boxer still considers himself good enough since he just won a belt last season. Well, the big boys aren't fighting while sick anymore, and the rookies are no longer rookies. He'll be losing that belt. It's also like being a boxer second-in-line for a title shot, but the guy first-in-line for that title shot, Mike Tyson, ended up getting malaria. So, he was weak all year, and we became the new #1 contender in his place, the new favourite, without earning it, simply because the real showstopper wasn't at full strength.

'No Leif, you're an asshole, Batshuayi's a great goalscorer, look at his Marseille record, I can't wait to see him leading our line ' 'Fool, the guy's a creator, and all of his better attributes paint that picture. You play him alongside the goalscorer. I don't want him here; he lacks presence as a sole striker.' 'Stop trolling. How can i put Leif on ignore?' 'Yeah i need to do that too.' Now people say the same damn diddly shit I did. If you want to see the future, find my old posts re: Rudiger.

What other sports are exciting right now?

He has the composure of an overused gym sock, and that's been the case for his entire Monaco career it seems. It's like he plays each game on 5 shots of coffee. The main reason I wanted Fabinho over here instead of this transfer was because of the mental game; because I'd had enough braindead Chelsea players who can't see the game 2, 3 plays from now, nevermind lacking the ability to execute the right move anyway. Ludicrous to even once consider comparing him to Yaya Toure, who funnily enough was far more in the ilk of Fabinho. On their best days, they both shoot very well, pass very well, run for the full 90 minutes, and top all that off with composed, leadership-like examples. But Bakayoko? I don't see what he has which Fellaini doesn't; the only differences being Fellaini has a gangly run, and he'll score every 7 or so games. He is a good player though. Good. Good. If we just want to be good, we've done great.

I think it's as simple as bench options. If you have a solid 2nd-striker to bring off the bench, you feel no worry in putting him on early in the game as Morata comes off. But Bats has shown he isn't full-game in the Premier League material. He's an out of depth option for this. So we reshuffled into a lineup that i'm unsure if we've used before, because there's no other striker in our whole damn squad that the coach likes, and that new lineup was with another out of depth player coming into the conversation, Willian. I think only 1 of the bench options was good enough to be in our squad, if we want to be better than we've been, and that's Zappacosta. Le board.

The concept of Cahill and Rudiger pinging it back and forth between them just inches from City forwards makes my asshole clench

At the end of the day Guardiola's jacket is the perfect length.

If Willian doesn't think i'll cry over this he's wrong

Wow the shade

Finally, a big game for our real striker.

If we win today I'm happy to exchange beating Arsenal for beating Man City. It's a lot less frustrating having a small bogey team, than not being the top dog.

This game is all about wing backs.

Alonso's become twice the player he was in Italy, but he's still only half of what our stature demands.