Dion

Cesc 2/30 assists in the season.

Mourinho must tell Oscar to move while in possession. It's pissing me off that every time he gets the ball he just stops moving to think and in the end does an easy pass. ps: this is just too easy. Another goal.

I know, right?! We saw those kind of passes all the time last season. Really average, any player can pick a pass like that and think that fast. I admit I didn't even see Schürrle running until the moment Fabregas made the pass.

I better not ever read you imply that Fabregas vision/creativity is or may be below Mata's again

Oh Fabregas, stop it. It's becoming too hard not to love you.

1 is done. Only 24 more to go.

Yeah Costa. Bring it on, beast!

Shit...

Weird that Schürrle tried such a bad cross just after a wonderful corner and cross.

I really don't like when someone throws the word "race" to describe a human being. Because it is the sort of thinking that brings racism - the separation of people in one group or another, this is specially stupid when every person is so similar to one another. It should be avoided - especially the usage of the word race, on account of every barbaric thing that has been done in the name of superiority of one "race" upon another. In Brazil people will usually try to avoid categorizing others by race nowadays. The term ethnicity or similar would be more palatable.

It's really true that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Whilst browsing Redcafe I found people who rate Oscar a lot higher than Kagawa and very close to Mata. They think Hazard will definitely be at the bare minimum a player of Ribery's and Robben's caliber, if not Messi/Ronaldo level. They're truly scared of Costa, Hazard, Oscar, Schürrle, Willian, Fabregas and Matic. And they also think we'll win the league comfortably, with a few games to spare Relevant: "It just hit me, and I don't know why I'm late to the party here...but Chelsea are going to dominate this season aren't they? They've improved their team brilliantly this summer." - "Don't think they'll 'walk' it but I think they'll win, and pretty comfortably, with like a couple of games to spare. I think having Matic completely settled alongside Fabregas in midfield, with Hazard, Oscar and Schürrle in front of them and a competent CF (I don't rate Diego Costa that highly, but I think he'll be fine for them with the formation they play, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Drogba still doing a job when called upon) makes them a really strong unit. Cahill/Terry is a strong partnership, not the best in European football but very solid, their fullbacks are good and they've got a top keeper, and Mourinho will be extremely focused. I think last year, there was a bit of unrest with all the Mata stuff during the first half and José seeming less motivated in the second part of the season, and yet they still fared well. I think this season they'll be even more competitive." - "It was only preseason, yes, but it doesn't look as though Costa is going to flop and struggle to adapt to his new team like the vast majority thought does it? Everyone saw that he had the physique and skill set to fit the PL like a glove but people are/were still wondering if he'd keep up his scoring form. I've seen highlights of his preseason and he got 4 goals and 2 assists and looks like he's been playing with their team for years. Already looks totally settled. Hazard was the most creative player in the league last season statistically I believe and now with Fabregas, a LB who actually gets forward, and Willian and Schürrle with a seasons experience under their belts their attack should be frightening and scoring goals against parked buses shouldn't be a problem." :eyebrows: :eyebrows: ps: a bit off-topic, I'm sorry.

Honestly I think Mata is better. But it's not miles apart. They're quite close actually. I can see why people would rate Kagawa higher though. He's more of an all around player than Mata.

I know! It's so stupid that you can't have more than 3 players from the same team though... I feel like I'm not going to gather as many points as I could because the fanboy inside of me won't let me play without the trio of Fabregas, Hazard and Costa on my team.

Worried about the players who may not start.

His general passing isn't that good?! Wow, just wow. I can't even... He is slow, his general passing isn't that good and his dribbling, whilst not bad, isn't spectacular either. I'm thinking we may just have spent 30m on a slightly improved Mikel, silly board. If not his passing, what does he offer then?

Costa should have passed to Hazard just now though.

United Liverpool Spurs All of them have annoying fans in my view, but United tops it because they are helped by the refs very often - especially when Ferguson was their manager - the Fergie-time in itself was an abomination.

I know some people have talked about captaincy but you quoted me so I'll just leave it here that I never said such a thing. In addition to that, there are some players who are so good that you will just like them no matter where they are playing. And I have a weak spot for great midfielders, if we signed Pirlo, for instance, he'd be my favorite player from day one. I don't think favorite player is as tied to playing and winning for Chelsea as captaincy. I'm a football fan first and foremost - and I only came to be one because of players like Lampard, Fabregas, Zidane, Ronaldo... Also I just don't give as much importance to players featuring for another clubs as some here do, that's why whilst not particularly pleased with Lampard playing for Shitty, I'm not overly concerned about it either. I just accept football transfers as what they are, business - particularly in this day and age. So I don't hold it against Fabregas his time playing for Arsenal or Barcelona. I find it many times worse when a player says something bad directed at our club, but even then many people didn't mind Eto'o signing for us at all - especially when he began scoring. As long as the player performs and wins matches for us, even the "but he played for arsenal" people will shut up and support him. And I don't have much of a doubt that he will perform.

Anyone not excited about his signing must have short memory or is a big Arse hater because this guy is one of the best midfielders to ever play in the EPL. I'm not surprised in the least with his performances. It will only get better and better as he adapts to our players and EPL again.

I don't like Ramires very much because he has a tendency to misplace passes every now and then - and I like good passers - but I don't think it was his fault that we failed to produce. Actually I blame it more on Fabregas for the second game, I think he was the one who should be advancing and orchestrating the attack there, but for the most part of those 45 minutes he didn't (unless Mourinho gave Ramires the job of being that man, which I don't think makes sense unless we're counter attacking - in that situation Fabregas should initiate with a pass while Ramires would be the one to join the attack with his speed). Other possibility would be akin to what you suggested, either Hazard or Willian roaming to the middle behind Costa while either Ramires, Cesc or one of the fullbacks took their place wide, but I reckon this isn't something that just happens, it has to be trained and instructed. That's why I said it all felt like it had not be trained before, everything was just too predictable - everyone in their fixed positions, no overlapping, no element of surprise, nothing. And our midfield looked like as if there were 3 holding midfielders, because none of them wanted to take risks going forward. As some have said, it was somewhat reminiscent of our problems from last season, but I still thought the amount of control we've shown against Besiktas surpassed many of the matches when we failed to create last season, that's a positive we can take.

Don't you mean unorthodox? Orthodox is conventional, usual - unorthodox is the opposite - unconventional, uncommon, original, avant-garde

I feel we're just a few tweaks away of being good to go. We rarely ever looked in danger of conceding. That last corner was unfortunate, Cech failed and JT also missed the timing to clear it.

The game vs. Fenerbahce is exactly how I'd like to see us play - the pressing and the movement/overlapping was sharp, Hazard drifting to the middle, Oscar and Cesc interchanging positions, Costa and Oscar pressing high, Schurrle and Hazard being very direct and impactful, everything seemed fluid. On the other hand, the 4-3-3 vs. Besiktas seemed like it had never been trained before and despite keeping possession we rarely ever looked dangerous. I'm not discarding it yet, but it seems Mourinho hasn't trained that before - the midfield looked a bit confused about who should do what attacking wise.

I think we can now safely say the formation in the first half is the way to go.

I think we can now safely say the formation in the first half is the way to go.