Dion

LOL Boateng.

Nice pass from Willian. I like this formation.

We look so eager to win from the very beginning today. Awesome.

Holy shit Hazard to Fabregas, the magic happening.

And great effort from Iva not letting it be a throw in.

It looks like Luis wants to earn his place in the starting eleven.

Oscar played more offensively on saturday. Until the moment Ramires came on, Fabregas was playing mostly deep and Oscar ahead with little if any interchangeability. You may remember that Oscar had a few shots on goal against Swansea and was generally playing around the box, which he had not been doing as frequently in the other games. I think Brazilian commentators mentioned it during the game too, I could be remembering it wrong though. I prefer the Oscar that appears everywhere he's needed on the pitch, I think that's one of his biggest qualities, I don't like it when he seems too focused on trying to score.

Matic has made very very similar mistakes against Everton. I've watched us against Everton with Barbara and there were a few times when Matic left the player he should be marking to chase the ball just like Fabregas did in that analysis. The whole system of pressing is malfunctioning right now, a lot of times players are chasing the ball when they should be holding position. It was even worse there because there were times Matic would do it and other times Fabregas would do it, so they had unmarked players and spaces all the freaking time. Our midfield against Everton was even more of a mess than against Swansea as it seems Matic was a little bit more disciplined in the latter, maybe Mourinho has already spoken to them about it and is trying to fix it.

Don't get me wrong mate, but Dion was clearly the better player

But I've been around, dear. It's just I'm more active in match days or immediately after the games. There's not much to do afterwards to be honest, just pointless rumours or people from the media trying to find silly stories about our players - Diego Costa "punched" someone.. should he have seen a red? Fabregas, defensive liability? Etc. Besides, I've been busy this weekend. I'll make a post about it in the pub so we don't derail this thread. And then Choulo won't have to move the posts (that even Jason was okay with) for derailment

Well, I did say the pivot was slow, as in both of them

Problem with slow defenders is that they rely too much on positioning. Once someone misplaces a pass when they're transitioning to an attacking stance or once they're caught in a fast counter they can't do much. That's precisely why Matic should avoid misplacing passes, our pivot and cbs are slow and Matic is usually the midfielder who is deeper, if he loses possession it's like there are only ours cbs and fullbacks to defend and huge spaces for them to cover with limited pace.

Despite being slow as shit, Pirlo can still give you a good defensive shift based on positioning alone. It's no wonder he's the epitome of the regista / deep-lying playmaker. His defensive stats are crazy for someone that slow. Go check them out. Last season he got 1.4 tackles and 1.3 interceptions per game (Serie A) and it was a bad season defensively by his own standards. The guy is a monster. If Fabregas can reach Pirlo level of defensive performances he's going to be crazy good.

Fabregas is playing the role of the deep-lying playmaker. He's not weak defensively for that role. His defensive stats are about on par with Modric's so far in this season - they both have 1 tackle in average per game and Modric has 0.4 more interceptions per game, but Fabregas has 0.3 clearances over Modric, so it evens out. The only thing Fabregas has struggled with is avoiding being dribbled. He has been dribbled 2.3 times per game, in that aspect he should improve. And we didn't even find the correct balance or chemistry in the midfield. Those stats can only improve over time.

Add to that the fibonacci sequence - 1, 1, 2, 3... (those were the number of goals he scored in each game)... next are 5, 8, 13... Man City prepare your anus. Illuminatis confirmed.

Well, that makes a lot of sense.

You can tell he's a former Arsenal player

I think this is exactly what everyone could ever possibly want. This hunger to kill the game, to prove he wants to contend for best player in the world. In all honesty the only reason I didn't give him MOTM was because of Costa's hat-trick. Had Costa scored only two I'd probably have given it to Eden. If he puts performances like this one in at least half of the remaining games of this season there's no way we're letting this title slip from our hands. And if he can produce numbers along with it he may have a shot somewhere in the top 3 of the world this year.

I'm actually angrier now than at the time. I didn't think he was this good before so I didn't bother too much whether he would choose Brazil or Spain, but holy shit now that I know what we have been missing in our NT I'm kinda pissed that we didn't give him a proper shot and lost him to Spain. Fucking hell.

Granted I started watching the match from 30 minutes onward, I never felt like we would lose the game. We were in absolute control the entire time I've been in front of my tv.

If we beat City we'll have such a lead over every other big team it won't even be funny. The title will be ours to lose.

Costa - 7 goals, 4 matches. Fabregas - 6 assists, 4 matches. Chelsea - 12 points, 4 matches. Costa MOTM for those 3 beauties, beast. Hazard runner up. Good to know we actually have two viable strikers right now. Bring City so we can pull even more ahead.

We're the only team yet to drop points in the league. Must admit it feels good.

If we had to concede it could have been Sigurdsson. Need those fantasy points ffs.

You can tell he knows that. Look how badly he wanted it in the last goal. There's still time.