Beigl

Good times.

Seems like our board didn't do bad this summer did they? Especially considering no CL football for us.

LOL. Those were the times. With a 34 year old Lampard and Mikel as our pivot, Oscar and Moses our AM' s and last but not least Torres upfront. And RdM/Benitez as coach. I think we had as much creativity as Burnley back then.

I think Shevchenko was a bit more expensive like £36. No one saw that coming. I don't know if DL improved much playing in France, but it will be seen if he is disciplined enough to play under Conte.

Kalou at least had somewhat an impact on games whereas Pedro..

Bosingwa or bust!

I am a fan. For 30mio€ he would be a good deadline day signing. I mean we won't get Koulibaly and from what I have heard Lindelof is a good player, so we should hurry up, considering that all other CB options like Maksimovic are highly unlikely to get.

Would add that 0-5 away against Schalke to that list. Maybe our most dominant CL away game ever.

What I really like about Hazard so far is that he actually runs towards goal with speed like today. In the past he often waited for players to support him or slowed down the game which was really unnecessary at times. I don't know if Conte told him to do so or he got more hunger himself, but I just hope he keeps it up, because this is just brilliant.

Looking at this line-up I fear that we have to score two late goals again. I don't even want to imagine our Matic- Oscar midfield combo right now.

I also fancy our chances to get into the top 4, even if we don't make critical signings in the next few days, altough I have to say I am all for strengthen our squad. Both Manchester clubs will be probably out of reach, which leaves us fighting with Arsenal, Tottenham, Leicester and Liverpool for the other two Champions League spots. None of these clubs have a superior squad compared to ours on paper. Even in the horrendous last season we only lost two games from eight against them. Granted our defence is far away from solid, but it's not like Arsenals defensive line is much better is it? As Tomo mentioned Kante improved our defensive display already, which is crucial.In the first two games Ivanovic and Cahill also looked much better and solid than over long periods last year. To add to that we may have the best strikers in our team and a player like Hazard can always make a difference on a good day. In direct duels against these teams mentioned above we might have the upper hand due to Contes ability to outcoaching teams with similar quality, as we all saw at the Euros. With a little bit of luck we are certainly able to reach the top 4 this year with the current squad, but we could maximise our chances to do so in buying a good CB and LB to strengthen our defence.

Most probably a mix of both.

I judge him on his performances for Austria in the last 2-3 years and nothing he did persuaded me that he is good enough for Chelsea. Believe me he isn't better than Cahill. We can't settle for mediocrity if we want to compete at the highest level, that means we need proven players who take us a step forward like Koulibaly or great talents like Maksimovic or Romagnoli. Dragovic falls in neither of this categories.

He was very bad at the EUROs and isn't Chelsea quality at all. He is decent and all that, but we should aim higher if we want to compete with the best teams.

I hope we get Maksimovic just to completely infuriate de Laurentis. They will never get so much money for Koulibaly again.

This might do. I have never seen him play so I just quote an article from fourfourtwo.com. Read more at http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/nikola-maksimovic-torinos-new-vidic-who-could-start-manchester-tug-war#3zlgElBi9uCX5Vqw.99

He would certainly help Hazard so he isn't the main catalyst of our attacks anymore and we as a team would become much more dangerous. But I doubt he would fit Conte's system as he plans to play 3-5-2 in the long run and there is no way James could play in there as his workrate and positioning seems quite bad.

Love him already. Along with Hazard, Azpi one of the most likeable characters in our team. And his twitter account is comedy gold. [emoji23]

Despite his deficits he still offers so much more to this team than Matic and Oscar. We need him for his creativity and through balls, he makes Costa a better player. He should start the next few games.

Would love to see something like this: Courtois Ivanović - Terry - Azpi Willian - Kante - Matic - Fabregas - Hazard Costa - Batshuayi Hazard as wingback and the lack of pace from Iva and Terry might be weaknesses, but other than that it would be worth a shot in my opinion. But realistically Conte will field this team: Courtois Iva - Cahill - Terry - Azpi Kante- Matic - Oscar Willian - Costa - Hazard Like this Like this

Koulibaly is certainly not worth 60 million pounds, but do we have an option? Pogba and Higuain aren´t worth their price tags too, not to mention a handful of other players who went for crazy prices in this inflated transfer market. Another season with JT/Cahill partnering Zouma could end with another top 4 finish, which would be a disaster for Chelsea.

I would rather just keep him instead of loaning him out all the time, this is really pointless.

Most people are just desperate for any fullback we could get after Ivanovic's horrendous season last term. But yeah in overall I agree with you, he might not be as good as most people think, given there is no other top club fighting for him either.

Absolutely loved the part when he owned Carrol twice in a row, leaving him screaming in anger all over the field. [emoji1]

Yes, that trio was amazing except in 2010/10. I don't actually know if Bats can play there, as I haven't really heard of him before he went to us. Considering his great technique its entirely possible that he would do a good job on the wing in a 4-3-3, altough I see him more as an CF tbh. If the last few minutes of the game are anything to go by we might use a 2 striker system from time to time so Michy could get enough chances in the first team.