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Agreed. I get Boehly is the owner but little concerned when we buy players with little input from the manager. Because buying all these big names is all good but if there is no ideal philosophy in fitting them in, then just defeats the object. Bellingham and Enzo will be good in games where we want to dominate the ball but then there will be games as seen several times this season, where we got overrun on the counter attack and there are so many gaps.

Did everything tonight but score unfortunately. That being said, a lot of positives and I am confident going into the second leg with more players coming back and being more match sharp.

Who are you referring to? Are you aware of what you just wrote because that is an utterly stupid and racist comment to make... 🤦‍♂️

He bossed that game. Completely dominated Odegaard and co in there. Finally an Arsenal loss. Long time coming. I am still gobsmacked at Pep letting Cancelo go. Obviously a rift but just think that is a huge player to lose in this title race. Yes, he has been a sub recently but his quality would have been needed in their packed schedule.

I bought the shirt this season and yes I absolutely love it.

Just keep Ziyech ffs if we can't sell him. He has actually carried his world cup form into us. Has put in some delightful balls in virtually every match he has played in 2023. Keep him on board would be my suggestion. Offers something different to likes of Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke and Pulisic too.

Talent wise, Bellingham is better than all of them. Tchouameni starts in the DM role, but Bellingham is definitely starting in that future midfield as you would say he is better than both Valverde and Camavinga who are very talented. Either way, all of them would get decent amount of minutes anyway. City seems a realistic choice also. Wouldn't surprise me to see them go after Fernandez as alternative though if we don't sign him in January.

Yes, agreed, which is why it was frustrating when I kept hearing people bang on the same thing about us making a mistake letting Lamptey go. We played Brighton last season and Lamptey caused us all sorts of problems and commentators kept saying the same old nonsense about us letting him go, when we did not have a choice. It was either keep him and then lose him on a free. With the 4atb, yes Brighton are using that more but even at early stages of season, they were playing with wing backs and would play March at RWB instead of Lamptey and even Zerbi the odd time he has used the wing backs has started March on the RWB too.

Only way Ziyech is agreeing to that is there is a small fee release clause if they go down. Even then, I think he may not be interested in moving. Let's see.

Ironically, Lamptey is being linked with going to Lyon as possible replacement for Gusto if he comes to us. Ironic as Lamptey is a player who came through our academy and had many fans questioning why we let him go as he was a real livewire when he burst on to scene for Brighton. This season, I think he has managed 1 league start which is really strange. Seemed to have fallen out of favour under Potter and now Zerbi too. Seems the injuries he picked up before have set him back as Brighton prefer playing a CM at RB instead of him.

We bought Badiashile who hopefully is a decent recruit. Colwill is waiting in the wings and looks brilliant and won rave reviews after his performance against Liverpool last week. Hopefully Fofana gets back to his best when he gets back and hopefully stays fit. Silva still has at least another year in him judging by his performances. We should not be overspending on Gvardiol when we have such talented players in his position. Especially if long term goal is to go to 4 at the back, we need to not spend excessively on players where we already have gems from our academy who are tailor made for that position. Save the money and spend elsewhere.

I am not surprised. The team Pep picked is astonishing. Cancelo, Walker, Silva, KDB, Foden all on bench. Almost like he wants to Arteta a favour.

We should be all over this. Top keeper. Brilliant technically, has outstanding reflexes and commands his box wonderfully. Has single-handedly saved Brentford in several matches. He is not a massive presence in terms of height but everytime I see him for Brentford he looks top class.

And that goes to shove it to the Arsenal fans and co who said he went for money. The truth is he cares about football and I understand why he wanted to move to the Gunners initially. They messed about and thought they could low-ball Shakhtar and undermined them in the process and he got sold. If it was about money, he would have pressed for a lot more. Arsenal's failure to get him was there piure dilly-dallying about which allowed us to pounce. Love this.

He got booed towards the end of the game because Palace fans felt he was timewasting. He went down when Palace were looking to resume play and took a while to come up which irritated Palace players who got quite aggressive with him, which was strange considering all the players involved were ones he was with last season and most notably Guehi picked him up quite aggressively then shoved him and both of them grew up together in the same academy for a lot of years. That is when he got booed. Before that they gave him a kind reception. One point he went to take a corner at their end and they were giving him an applause.

He did what he needed to do and made one really good save from Olise I think it was but it is a stretch giving him MOTM. Should have gone to Silva imo. Even Badiashille, Hall and Gallagher imo had solid games and were more deserving. Our defence pretty much kept them at bay.

I feel we are crying out for another explosive winger type player so I am content with the signing but think the price is way too high and risky, but time will tell. If he ends up being like Hazard then worth the money. However, now happy about the constant other players we are being linked with. Madueke option should be binned now we have agreement for Mudryk. He isn't needed for that amount of money and then what message does it send out to likes of Hudson-Odoi if we are going for players of similar age bracket. Just feels we are being linked with all young players around the globe. I just hope there is some kind of strategy. Assuming this Mudryk deal is signed and sealed, he most likely goes straight in the team for Liverpool game.

Yep, I think we should give this a pass. There's no smoke without fire and I have heard too many allegations for me to think that there is reasons to be suspicious. It is a shame this goes on as there are other players I am sure have got away with this.

Mendy made mistakes last season however we can't say categorically that Pope was better than him. A lot of the names you mentioned are not even playing for Newcastle. Isak only scored 6 league goals last season. Wilson is good but again injury prone and has inconsistent patches himself. Basically what is getting Newcastle where they are is not individual quality (bar Almiron asides) but a team spirit.

I get your point. Disagree about Trippier. He was always a good RB but not better than James. The rest would of been players our team would have laughed at. I get his point. You are putting their current players in form but had we bid for these players start of season, bar Guimares and possibly Botman, I don't think most fans would be content. ASM isn't even in their best team right now and this has been the case for majority of season. Their favoured 11 for past few weeks/months has been: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Longstaff, Guimares, Willock, Almiron, Wilson, Joelinton. Targett has not been favoured all season. Burn has been their LB. At beginning of season, there is not one player from that team you are putting into the Chelsea team. Guimaraes possibly and that is about it. But yeah I agree that they have had great pickups but then had we made some of those transfers, ironically our fanbase would criticise us for not being ambitious. Similar to United when they went for Arnautovic only for their fanbase to stop the move. I personally thought Newcastle were going to invest heavily in summer and no way did I expect likes of Willock and Longstaff to be regulars in their team but credit to them.

Yep, as I said, I do like him but spending £50m right now is crazy. He has just joined Southampton and has looked good but also picked up an injury that had kept him out for a while. Southampton, I would like to stay up as always had a little soft spot for them, but may well go down this season would surely not be able to demand £50m next season and unless we have a direct plan for him, no point spending out that money imo. Both prices were well inflated imo, but I was referring to Lavia. Enzo was with a view to immediately start, while I doubt Lavia would be.

Just no, no, no. He is a very exciting youngster but to spend this money on a player who moved for peanuts in summer is crazy. Especially that Southampton may well go down this year. Also need to stop panic buying because we haven't got plan A. Wait till summer please and then assess our options.

Those commentators on BBC are the biggest dickheads I have witnessed. Biased pricks who clearly don't like Chelsea. Absolutely pathetic.

Auba isnt doing it right now at all and is on the decline. Havertz is too inconsistent. Broja is injured for the season. I would take him and he would be relatively cheap also.

We are now looking into possibility of signing Marcus Thuram in January. He is free agent in the summer and there is a lot of interest but I would take him. Fast, powerful and tall also. Let's see how this pans out.