Reddish-Blue

That was always going to be the case. I've never seen a team sign so many new faces in back to back transfer windows and expect them to click from day 1. Just look at the teams ahead of us, City/Arsenal/Liverpool generally had settled squads as a core with specific signings coming in to bolster their XI (e.g. Declan Rice, Havertz, Doku, MacAllister, Endo, Gapko etc). Spurs ran out of steam as usual in the business end of the season. The big question will be, can the players kick on next season as majority of the side will be similar, the only changes I'm expecting are at GK (as Sanchez/Petrovic aren't #1 choices as of right now), CB (someone to fill the Silva gap) and the midfield makeup (*depending upon Lavia's fitness). Selling Sterling would help but I don't see many buyers out there for a washed up winger, maybe West Ham will take him as they seem to like ex-Chelsea players (Zouma, Emerson etc).

It would take more than 20 million to convince Palace to take on Sterling's contract.

Santos needs another loan before playing first team at Chelsea. Our team isn't anywhere near WC level. Even with Conor's flaws, he's still helped us get to a decent position this season and it's not a bad thing to have an academy player in the first team.

Just to clarify, I meant going out and attacking against this type of opposition as they can easily concede 2-3 quick goals. Against solid teams, absolutely we need more control in midfield.

The only question with Reece is going to be how he deals with those niggling injuries as he's built like a tank. RLC had those ongoing issues as well, mentioning that he couldn't train half the time due to the lower back injuries, thankfully he seems to have found a bit of consistent football in Italy. Quality wise, he's on another level. Him & Tino (who's at Newcastle now) were on another level from the academy days, was hoping at least one of them would go on and play regularly for the first team.

Forget about 70% possession, how about actually trying to attack teams like Forest, Burnley with pace, dribbling on the wide flanks. That's how you get at these types of teams who like to score and then go compact or deep just to frustrate you. I would have expected 70% possession if we had a Jorginho/Kovacic/Fabregas type to recycle possession but we don't as the only one remotely close to them hasn't been seen all season (*Lavia*).

So we'll be stuck paying this guy's wages again next season?

Even if Amorim/De Zerbi walked through the doors at Stamford Bridge, there is every chance that we regress next season. It's unfortunate but there's no high level manager out there that can come in and make us compete for top 4 next season. Plenty of questions heading into next season with Thiago's leadership gone and we still don't have a first choice GK, wonder if we stick with Kepa?

Let's see if we can finish the season on a high and get some more wins. The positive is that we are winning those games, would have been easy for the players heads to drop after Arsenal walked all over us like it was nothing.

To be fair, what was he doing at Everton in the first place? Even at Napoli, they change managers every 18 months or so. For Ancelotti, I'll always see him as the AC Milan Don, then he had his vacations in England and Germany and then eventually became the legend at Madrid.

Even if the club did make a change, how do we know that Amorim would come in and instantly make this side better? It's interesting how all the stats were pointing to Alonso/Amorim taking over Liverpool and Liverpool interviewed Amorim and yet they chose Slot... The club would be better off getting in a proper medical team to assess the concerns of Nkunku/Lavia/James/Fofana. If we can get all of those guys fit to play at least some part of next season, that will help massively with our lack of technical quality all over the pitch!

We won the league with Obi Mikel in midfield back in the day and I don't recall him making too many forward runs. I agree with the point but our first goal should be trying to be competitive and becoming a top 4 side again before worrying about 'winning' the league. Gallagher's scores will likely be higher as he has goals/assists to his name. I've seen quite a few of those statistical websites and they tend to skew in favor of midfielders that score the odd goal and get the odd assist in games....like let's say the midfielder has a generally poor game, losing the ball quite a bit, losing his duels/tackles etc but he pops up with a goal/assist and suddenly that 6.0 performance becomes 7.2 or higher.

That 2014 Germany side didn't have 11 elite players and the same can be said about Argentina's world cup win as well. You just need enough quality in key positions, which is what Belgium didn't have.

He hasn't played PL football yet, don't see why he would need massive money at this stage.

*checks upcoming fixtures* We have to play Forest and Bournemouth in the last 4, both of those sides will get at least a point.....and then there's West Ham and their set piece wizard.

From memory, I think that's the sort of role he played at Getafe as well (in previous seasons).

If the offer was high enough for Gallagher, he probably wouldn't be here either.

"Tammy Abraham levels"....almost like Tammy Abraham isn't better than our current attack combined (exception being Palmer). You say that but just because a player isn't picked doesn't mean they aren't good enough for the side. If Mudryk, Cucurella among others were bought for their actual market value, they would probably be bench players at Chelsea but the price tag will always give them additional chances to show their worth. Also in Maatsen's case, he did decline that move to Burnley at the end of the window when the owners were actively shopping any player in the name of FFP Profit (Chalobah was as good as gone till they realised he was injured).

Another unknown talent, just what we need at the club. He might be super talented but looking at our defense and no Thiago Silva next season, we should go out and sign a first team CB as soon as possible as Disasi/Badiashile isn't the answer.

So is Mudryk but we're stuck with him. Maatsen was barely given a chance and he was one of the better talents coming through.

Aren't most of their players internationals? Other than Maguire, Mainoo, Rashford, McTominay This isn't the United squad of old that had an English spine with Ferdinand, Giggs, Scholes, Rooney, Neville among others

That's a horrible signing, I wouldn't take any strikers from relegation level clubs. This is the same guy who was asked to leave Newcastle and now they have Isak leading the line (the difference in quality is laughable)

Kompany will be back in the Championship by the end of the season, I think PL management came too soon for him.

Surely there should be an investigation into the medical department at Chelsea? I don't think any player in the starting XI has been fit all season and that's pathetic considering we're not in European competition.

Headline after game: James and Nkunku are out with hamstring injuries for the season 😆