TorontoChelsea

It's not about "anyone can win it", it's that its depth is much better. If you wan t to completely discount transfermarket values, you can look at # of internationals. The Premier League has by far the most. Or, you can look at the money spent. The Premier League buys by far the most. The biggest difference, and what makes the Premier League the best league, is that there are almost no easy games. Teams at the middle and bottom of other leagues, even top leagues, are dire. Levante was the #10 team in Spain. They have no players of any interest. Celta de Viigo are the same and they finished 9th. Why is this? Because Spanish teams are almost all in debt and have been forced to sell all their decent players. They also can't attract talented players from elsewhere. They also play in a league which is geared towards getting Barcelona and Real Madrid money. Teams in the same area in England are filled with internationals. Look at Newcastle. They have a bunch of internationals and not ones from poor sides, internationals from Holland and France and Ivory Coast. They are not close to a title contender in the Premier League but in a lot of other leagues, they'd be fighting for a spot in Europe. The World Cup had 105 Premier League players in it. No other league had more than 81. The top few teams in Spain and Bayern Munich could beat any English team right now, but ever single level of depth after that, the Premier League dominates and when comparing it to leagues like Switzerland, it's a different world.

Strongly disagree. The Premier League is easily the best league in the world because of its depth. Could Basel beat Burnley? Maybe but that's the range they are in. Salah was the best player in the Swiss league and he's the kind of player who would be a regular on a mid-table team (which is not an insult because that in itself takes a lot of talent). A team like QPR who is a poor team in the Premier League still has players like Remy and Taraabt that would be among the best players in the Swiss league. According to transfermarket which is only a very loose reference, Basel has a total market value of 44M Euros. That would put them only above Burnley in the Premier League. Beyond this, mid-table teams in the Premier League are so far and away better than in any other league. Teams like Swansea, Newcastle, Southampton, etc...have a lot of talent. Again, using transfermarket (you could also just look at the rosters and see the quality of players too) The #10 side, #15 side have talent worth- EPL:109M Euros, 78M Euros La Liga-59M Euros, 45M Euros Seria a- 78M Euros, 51M Euros Bundesliga-72M Euros, 52M Euros It's rough, but it's also not even close. The #15 team in the Premier league has more talent than any #10 team in any league. The Premier League spends a lot more money than any other league all the way down and therefore has a more talent than any other league

That's without counting Ramires or Fabergas who can both play in attack and Mourinho also likes using a second striker a lot with one playing as a winger. I agree with you though. I doubt Salah is going anywhere. Loaning him would leave us really vulnerable in case of an injury anywhere in the midfielde. He was bought to be a rotation player/squad depth and that's what he will be. He will get his chance to play too. It's a long season.

I agree and while it's disappointing for Oscar's individual potential, it's what is best for the team right now. I also think that despite filling his role, he is maybe the most replaceable of the starters. Willian or even Ramires (if we wanted to go more defensive) can provide the same sort of thing so Oscar needs to play well to keep getting regular starts.

72 pages for Pogba already. Ivanovic has 76. It's a curse of being a fan of a team like Chelsea in that some people will want to play FIFA with the team and buy everyone they want. These people are never satisfied with the team we have. We could win everything and they'd still be spending 50% of their time talking about who we can buy. We have a great team. Why can't people just concentrate on our actual team playing actual games that actually matter instead of their fantasy wishlist? It's like having sex with a gorgeous woman and fantasizing about other women you could maybe get that might be beautiful. It's bizarre.

Salah wasn't even on the bench in the first game and that was with Ramires out. Don't have space or need for Di Maria.

In our system, the #10 is mostly going to be Willian or Oscar, someone who works hard and puts defensive work in that allows Fabergas to go forward more. I am fine with that.

Great signing at that price. He's been around for a while so it's easy to forget he's just 24 years old. Liverpool still aren't title contenders, but it's a great pickup.

Would be insane. 35M for a defensive midfielder with almost no experience? Matic was the player of the year in Portugal with European experience and he was 21M pounds. And why? Matic and Fabergas are going to be starters and probably for years to come. 35M pounds for an unproven backup defensive midfielder? I remain highly skeptical but if this happens, it will be like the Willian situation where we deliberately overpay by a wide margin just so a rival can't get a player it wants which I think is ridiculous.

Agree that buying player just to keep him away from another team is ridiculous but we just don't need him. Where's he going to play? Instead of Fabergas? We have really nice balance in the squad right now and the only position we should look to upgrade IMO is second striker.

He definitely will not play against Chelsea no matter what.

Perfect. A comfortable win so less fatigue for the next game. Lots of players played well. Fabergas was brilliant. Not going to read too much into one game against a newly promoted side but it was an ideal start to the season,

Except Azpilicueta beat our Hazard for player of the year in a vote on here despite offering nothing offensively at all. I agree that offensive players get the more positive view but there are a lot of factors. (Newness to the team and age are generally the biggest factors I think).

Torres and Mikel are definitely ahead of him but neither plays much. Ramires I think is close Ivanovic in terms of criticism but Oscar and Willian get much less and much more praise than Ivanovic gets IMO.

Tons of people give him stick. Of our regulars, he's most likely to be blamed for anything. (From not scoring to conceding). He's a very good player. He does have his weak points but he's an integral part of Chelsea.

Wow. One of the nicest goals i've ever seen us score.

Great to get a quick goal to get back in it. Ivanovic with a great ball in that caused the goal.

Yes, but how will he do on a cold, rainy night in Stoke?

That's just not true. Something like 5-10% of all goals are scored in stoppage time. You can't ascribe to luck to what is actually extremely commonplace. In fact, the end of games is actually statistically the most likely time to score. According to this logic, you can outshoot a team 150-0 with 99.9% of possession but if you don't score until added time, you are lucky to win. If a team outplays another team and they win, it isn't luck. Even if you believe that scoring in injury time was lucky (which it isn't), it then means that not scoring during regular time was even more unlucky. Arsenal were the better team and they won. Where is the luck? Lucky is when a team is outplayed and scores a fluke goal or gets a bunch of big breaks (from referee, injuries, and so on.)

Arsenal weren't lucky. Scoring in the 92nd minute is no luckier than scoring in the 17th. The outplayed Palace. 76% possession. 14 shots to 4. Chamakh should have conceded a penalty that wasn't called, etc...They weren't lucky to win, they deserved it. I always find it funny how much people overreact to one game, especially early in the season. United won 4-1 away to open last season. Arsenal lost 3-1 at home to Villa. The year before that, the eventual champions United lost their opening game. You can't drawn any conclusions about anything from one game whether it be how a team plays or how a player plays. I know it's pointless to say this because no matter, after Monday's game it will be Costa can't score (if he doesn't) or Costa was a steal (if he does). And it won't be Costa. It will be everyone and everything. If we play well, we are going to win the Premier League. If we don't, we screwed up and have no shot. I just wish more people on here had a little more long-term perspective and fewer knee-jerk reactions.

How are they lucky? They have 75% of the possession and have outshot Palace 9-2

Just so imbalanced as a squad. Januzaj continues to be one of the most overrated players in the Premier League (being young and talented and playing for a big-name team will do that) He makes absolutely atrocious decisions. Tries to turn every single play into a goal-scoring chance and gives the ball away constantly. He had SIX turnovers today. The entire rest of the United team had 4.

Don't think United are a real serious contender anyway so don't care if they lose as much as I want say City and Arsenal too. United just have too many holes and too much imbalance to challenge this year. They need a couple of defenders at least and to offload some of their attacking players. I think they will probably be right back up there next season, but this year will be a transition year where I expect them to finish somewhere in the 4-7 range in the league.

I'm really a big fan of the spray on free kicks. Just stops some of the cheating that happened all the time..

I think this is true of all bigotry. I'll use a very common example, we men have no idea what it is like to be a woman and the difficulties they face in society. As a man, I have never been afraid of going out by myself at night, never thought about covering my drink up in bars, never had disgusting people raping me with their eyes on a daily basis, never thought I wouldn't get promoted because of my sex, Etc.. I am not saying every claim of racism or sexism is automatically true, just that I see way too many people in places of privilege telling people they are being too sensitive or overreacting. BTW, I saw a poll-Republicans think "reverse racism" is a bigger issue than racism" as if 11 white people not getting into the college of their choice is a more egregious injustiice than systemic racism which punishes millions.