Hybrid Angel

With Courtois in goal have I have never felt safer when watching our team defend set pieces . The way he commands his area is unreal. Best in the world in this department by a mile imo.

Like someone already said, our best players are allowed to have bad games (I don't think he was that bad against West Ham anyway) once in a while. People need to relax. This guy is doing great.

Alonso is absolutely fucking atrocious, and Zappacosta somehow manages to be worse.

Cesc will always have my greatest respect for the professional he is. His commitment and level of performances last season despite limited playing time was outstanding. He's charismatic, a winner, leader, and a great person to have in the dressing room. The captain's armband on him wouldn't look out of place whatsoever. Who would have thought we'd be saying this a decade ago when he was at Arsenal? But here we are. Football is fucking unbelievable.

Masuaku today caught my attention against City. His close control while dribbling and ability to beat the press single-handedly was very impressive, something I can never expect Alonso to do. We should sign him in January because we don't have anyone to rotate with Alonso anyway (He's better than Alonso) and downgrade him to the bench next season with hopefully a top class lwb.

Kante, Bakayoko, and Fabregas Vs Henderson, Wijnaldum, and Coutinho. We have such a big advantage in the middle of the park. We should take the game to them like we did vs Atleti and United. Their backline is there to be got at at and we should (FWIW) win the midfield battle. I'm quite looking forward to this one.

First half: https://weshare.me/42110d59da0cfbe0/wba_che_1st_half_eng.mp4 Second: https://weshare.me/a4919d5c6f7631e3/wba_che_2nd_half_eng.mp4

"Conte doesn't have a plan B" they said. The 3-5-2 has been superb. Bakayoko's movement and dynamism occupies a lot of space in attack leaving Hazard and Fabregas with more to do. In many ways I'd argue we're actually playing with a midfielder diamond with Hazard dropping back. Good to know that Conte has realized we were having a very diffucult time controlling the middle of the pitch. Win against Liverpool and the next 8 fixtures or so all look winnable as well. Starting to look good for the 'chaos' team.

And that hides a lot of Delph's weaknesses, but also showcases the stronger areas of his game. Exactly the opposite of Ruben being played in the front three.

I have no idea what Hodgson is thinking playing him on the right side of a 4-4-2. Almost as bad as Antonio playing him in the front three.

Hasn't had the greatest start to his Chelsea career, but you can tell greatness is there. I think his potential is enormous. Ability to carry the ball, good technique, proactive defending, etc. He can be sloppy at times, but none of his flaws seem like a long term problem. He has potential to be as good as Dembele for Tottenham, but even better because of his ability to get into goal-scoring positions.

Nabil Fekir.

I like Cahill when he keeps it simple and plays passes quickly. Sometimes I feel he's too scared of the opposition to the point that he freezes in his spot and dwells over 20 million options. We all know his limitations, and I think we can all agree that he's much better when he just keeps it simple. Hopefully he keeps his fine recent form going.

Defending aside, I think the biggest advantage this guy provides over Luiz is his short passing. Sure, Luiz can play a fifty yard long ball (he can also have 20 diabolical attempts at it in a game) but Christensen is much better when it comes to short passing. That is not just necessarily the accuracy of his passes in terms of placement, Luiz can also be good at passing between the lines and is a good ball playing center back overall, but he sometimes slams it into his teammate's feet or just plays the ball very carelessly. Christensen on the other hand puts the perfect amount of weight on each and every pass. When passing to feet, he makes sure that the ball is away from the defender pressing the player receiving the ball. Sometimes he even notices spaces surrounding the player he aims to pass towards, plays the ball there and his teammate picks it up in space. This aspect of his short passing is great for some of our players who do not have the greatest awareness on the pitch. All these factors help those around him play much better. That is the sign of a true top player. We saw it with Kante and Christensen on Sunday, both made their teammates play much much better. He certainly deserves a starting spot from now on, if he didn't already.

By this point I'd rather lose the title to these guys(we probably don't have a chance to win it anyway) than lose this match. Mourinho shushed at the camera after he beat Spurs, could you imagine the absolute shitshow that would arise if he beats us at the bridge? God almighty, we'd never hear the end of that. Please just win. Can't be arsed to watch Mourinho celebrate on the touchline at the bridge.

He's certainly good for his age, but I just don't see his ceiling as anywhere near starting material for Chelsea. Hope I'm proven wrong.

Don't think I agree tbh. I don't think the problem is necessarily physical fitness, but rather match fitness. He needs more minutes to sharpen his all-round game. Besides, I can never trust Batshuayi as a starter.

It's crazy I even have to say this since we're playing Watford, but for the love of god press high and don't let them dominate the match. Results aside, what's been most disgraceful is that we've been outplayed by sides that are clearly below us in terms of quality, and that is totally down to our lack of will or instructions to press.

I feel terrible for wanting him to stay with us despite having to play with a lot of donkeys. But that's football, I am a Chelsea fan first and foremost. Credit to him for staying for so long. Could have been at Madrid 3 years ago.

Needs a rest. Play Ruediger for 2/3 games, it's the only position we have depth in ffs.

Marco Silva's team like to press, are good at keeping the ball, and in great form. We're shambolic against pressing sides who are any decent at keeping possession. Terrible form as well. Not looking forward to this one whatsoever.

The utterly simple thing here is that at the moment we're a terrible footballing side. It's honestly that simple and the root of every problem we have. It mainly comes from the fact that Conte seems to have forgotten what pressing is. We're playing at home ffs! Where's the intensity of last season, where we would press from our front three and in case of any long ball being played, our center backs would work perfectly at the half way line to win the ball back and start the attack again? We're too deep, too reactive, and terrible on the break. A side that doesn't press is absolutely horrible to watch. You'd think it'd be a viable strategy for us since we're terrible under pressure and it'd give us a chance to be on the front foot. But no, the same consistent sitting back rubbish every game, regardless of the level of the opposition. Fucking dire.

Never mind the result, the football we're playing right now is a fucking disgrace. Simple as.

Hindsight is 10/10 and all, but reading the past few pages of this thread and all the comparisons with Oscar (!) are just pure comedy. I would kill to have this guy in our team. Magnificent player. Spain won't miss Iniesta with Isco in their team.

It's really a shame. An extremely talented player(and that's not an exaggeration by any means) let down by his brain in the final third. This is not as big of a problem against bigger teams since he's much better than Pedro in transition, but against mid-bottom table sides Pedro should be starting.