Stats

Your a utter clown if you reckon Kagawa is better than Mata. What has Kagawa done since coming to the prem? Can't believe people are making assumptions on one game. When they have their proper WB playing, RVP comes back from injury and actualy centre backs you will see a more organised team. Mata started slowly at United last season but ended well. It is just the start. They have things to work on but I think he will come good. The PL is played over 38 games, not 1. Jesus Christ. Some of the fickle opinions I see on here really pisses me of. It will take one or 2 games for people to change their minds and think he is a quality player again.

I am not saying that he will not be off but it seems people have assumed he is off way too quickly. 10 years is a landmark so even if Courtois was not here he probably would have tweeted that anyway. He has not indicated that he will be moving on to pastures new. He is saying he is looking forward to another 10 years. That may be elsewhere or may be at us. Think some people have jumped to conclusions way too quickly. Would be funny if he ends up starting and people will be made to eat their words But seriously he has reached a landmark at his time of the club so he has declared how much of those 10 years he has enjoyed and how he hopes the next one will be as "exciting". That for me does not indicate he is leaving.

They see Torres upfront and realise there is no point of doing a through ball because as usual he probably will do anything but score. His own teammates know he is that bad they are not bothered to even attempt a through ball to him

Preferably I would like Luis to start against Burnley as there is no reason why he should not. On paper we are better than Burnley on every angle. It would delight me to see him start. I just have a feeling that Mourinho's choice will be to play Luis for the Leicester game and go with Azpi at LB for the Burnley game.

No he is not. He will start a lot games. He is not the first name on the teamsheet. When we play 4-3-3 he probably will start a lot. When we have games against the bigger teams he probably will start for tactical reasons but he will be a sub a few times as well. For instance when we play Leicester at home I would expect Jose to go something similar to: Fabregas-Matic Willian Oscar Hazard Costa You get the picture. I assume from the CM to strikers position the oly guaranteed starters are Fabregas, Matic, Costa and Hazard. Willian and Oscar are not certain starters but it is just an example of how we may line up when we don't need Ramires. Ramires is a very useful squad player but we don't need him in every game. Especially now that we have Fabregas. I don't get how you think he is a certain starter. He has certain qualities but we don't necessarily need him for games where teams are not really going to attack us.

If we are playing 4-3-3 Oscar is not going to start on the RW. It is that simple. Ramires has more chance of starting RW than Oscar.

Those saying we don't need him will be saying a totally different thing during some point this season when they realise another quality CB would do us the world of good with all the games we have. When Terry retires it is likely that we will go out and buy a big name CB anyway if we don't sign Benatia now. I am all for signing Benatia. Terry and Cahill need to know they have a quality CB ready to step in if one of their performances are not up to scratch. And Benatia would be a good rotation option as I don't think Terry will be starting every single game, even though he is still a quality CB.

They are both different players but the reason I would prefer Bony is because I reckon against these teams that like to play deep he would be more effective. Remy has never played for any major teams and since he moved to England has played for Newcastle and QPR who got relegated. Remy has got pace and is effective when he has space but like the problem we have found before and people said the same with Lukaku, when we play these defensive minded teams I think he will find it hard. He won't be able to utilize his pace effectively. I reckon he is better than Ba however when Ba was at Newcastle many people would probably have said Ba. Bony is not as fast but what he does have imo is the ability to score a goal out of anything. His technique is excellent. Brilliant hold up play. His shooting is fantastic so if he is playing against these teams they will have to think twice. Because in games last season (s) teams no our strikers don't pose a threat from long range. Bony does. His technique is better than Remy and even Costa. His ability in the air is fantastic as well. Something which Remy is not as good and I also think his ability to drop deep and create chances is fantastic. To sum up 27 goals in his first season is simply fantastic. 16 of those being in the league. Perfect second choice striker for me.

Just... NO, NO, NO. Let's not go there

That sums up Costa for you. I am sure managers talk to him about his quick temper and his antics but when he plays and gets wound up it seems he is uncontrollable. Because the last thing we need is a 3 game suspension or even more for his misconduct. I like his aggressive style but he needs to know the limit and understand football is a contact sport but it is not a street fight. Even in UFC headbutts are not permitted but he seems to do it a lot. The incident with Sissoko last season makes me laugh and I don't know why I find it so funny. Sissoko's reaction for a start and then when Costa doesn't get his way he literally tries to throttle Sissoko

They look like they are getting Raul Jimenez. A striker who plays for Club America. He is a Mexican and so are you. You should know this

Time will tell but I would not make conclusions on him based on not featuring in the WC. Sakho and Varane started over Koscielny even though Koscielny had a better season than both. Luis was not called up to the Brazil squad quite astonishingly. Sometimes managers have their own preferences. The price is way OTT but it was an area City felt needed strengthening and because of his age and early reports they paid a large amount for him. Same way Willian is not worth £30m but Jose felt his addition was needed for the team.

He has. He has watched him play and had numerous reports of how good he has been for the last few seasons in Spain. He probably was the best LB in Europe last season. That alone is enough to win Mourinho's trust and that is why he bought him for the particular fee. I can see Luis possibly being on the bench for the first game but sooner rather than later he will become the undisputed starting LB. I am sure of it.

Let's not forget his sublime assist for Salah as well. What a pass!

Hazard had a very good season last season but I just want to see more repeats of that Sunderland game last season where he simply takes over the game and goes solo. He was simply unstoppable that night. Probably is best ever performance in a Chelsea shirt.

We did not spend over £15m on him to be a back up/rotation. The first game or so Mourinho might go with his normal back 4 but gradually, Luis will definitely be the number 1 left back for sure. It is an area of the team we needed to strengthen despite Azpi's excellent performances in that position last season.

I want Courtois as our no.1 as I believe he is as good as Cech if not better and is the future of the club, however one of the other factors why i want him as no.1 is that it will show that there is actually some evidence where our loan system has worked with us loaning him out and him, successfully becoming integrated into the first team rather than selling every single player we loan out. Sturridge can somewhat be considered as someone it worked with because we loaned him out to Bolton, then the next season he earned his place in our team and scored but ultimately we made a horrendous mistake in selling him so I hope with Courtois that if he becomes no.1 here he is the keeper for the forseaable future and then yes guys, we actually have proof that one of the players in our team proved the loan system is not all about selling them for profit

The slating of him is way OTT like wow. This just came out of no where. He might of not done a lot stats wise but I think people underrate his contribution to the team. People are just looking at the transfer fee and judging that he is a flop. I was impressed with him last season despite the stats. I think we will see more goals and assists this season. To compare him to SWP is laughable. Willian has came of his first season which I thought he done well. If anyone is using his stats as a way to say he was poor, I completely disagree. In many games where we won, he was a contributing factor. Anyway people using stats to prove their point won't change my view on him because I know what he is capable of and that he contributes a lot for the team offensively and defensively. He just needs the stats to show. Also as with people saying Willian is no upgrade on Moses, like seriously I hope this season he adds more goals to silence some of these fickle opinions of him. As people say Mourinho is the best manager we have had and arguably the best manager in the world and I am sure he has the final word on Willian and he knows how much he rates Willian. I am sure it is more than a lot of people on here

Has indeed joined Walsall. Good luck to him http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2014/08/clifford-joins-walsall.html

Although I don't think pre-season means much, Napoli are a very good team and Messi and Neymar are still away. No shae in losing to Napoli. Bayern played a team made up of the best players in America whose fitness levels are much better than Bayern currently but while I don't think/hope the loss to Bremen will impact us in anyway it certainly shows Mourinho has things to work on because while they may have started their preperations a week or 2 before us, they are quite an inferior side to us.

I do agree with your posts sometimes but it does come across that you have an obsessive love affair with Arsenal. Everything you have said there about who to be the leading this, best player and so on is all about Arsenal apart from RVP but even he has a connection with Arsenal You also said Koscielny is the best CB in the premier league. Not that you are wrong to say that as imo he is up there but come on man, a little support for Chelsea or our players. Why Ozil POTY and not Hazard? I reckon Hazard will go up another level with the additions to the team. I can see why you would think Ozil would have the most amount of assists but once again I reckon that could easily go to a player like Hazard or Silva. Hazard had the most created chances last season and you only think now we have a clinical striker his assists stats will improve. But yes Ozil struggled without the likes of Walcott last season but this season when the likes of Walcott and Sanchez are fit you will see the best of him. Like, yeah your predictions are not outrageous or anything but it would be bloody pleasing to see you credit our team and players a bit more

Essien is a holder of a European passport. Asamoah as well. Atsu might not have a British passport but that is irrelevant as he is here and likely to move on loan to a team in England. In countries such as Italy the rules are different. Mikel right now would affect the criteria in Serie A. Seydou Keita holds a French passport so he does not take up the non-EU spot in Serie A. It is that simple. Roma wouldnt have signed him, I am sure if he did not have a French passport but because he does he does not pose any problems. So there

If you bothered to read the last page or 2 and then you might see why. Maybe to do with the fact that he does not currently have a British passport. Going back to his playing abilites I do think his long range passing is underrated.

Let's not forget that when we went to the Emirates last season and frustrated them and cut of the likes of Ozil being effective, Mikel was excellent for that. Mourinho came in with a game plan that worked and Mikel done his role brilliantly. Mikel had Ozil in his back pocket. Same when we beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield last season in a game many people expected us to lose as we played a weakened team, he was excellent and the likes of Sterling, Coutinho, Suarez and Sturridge were innefective. With the games you have mentioned and the ones I have included he has more than proved he is a very reliable player when called on. This is why I have no problem with Mikel staying and Romeu going out on loan. Mourinho knows he is a reliable player thus why he wants him for another season. He is a solid player and for one who is happy to take a more subsided role, people should be more greatful and appreciate the fact that we have a solid squad player at the club.

Look how much goals SAS scored last season and it helped that they were not in Europe. Even Sterling got 9 league goals. United are in the same position and you can see that trio sharing quite a lot of goals between themselves. So far the 3-4-1-2 formation is a perfect fit to get the best out of Mata and also have RVP and Rooney playing together.