Reddish-Blue

To be fair to Arsenal, ever since Mourinho left, they seem to fancy their chances against us. I just wish we had another creative winger/inside forward type player in the squad. Someone that is capable of changing the game (i.e. Mahrez or even James would have been a brilliant pickup) Let's just compare our options to our rivals: Chelsea (Hazard, Willian, Pedro) City (Sterling, Sane, Bernardo, David Silva, De Bruyne) United (Miki, Mata, Lingard, Pogba, Martial, Fellaini) Spurs (Alli, Eriksen, Son) Basically we have no depth in attack.

It's a shame about Llorente, would have been perfect backup for Morata. Now we're stuck with Michy, who is a decent player but he seems to care more about Twitter than actually improving himself.

Would love to see Musonda get a chance every now and then...

Surprisingly we've played better team football away from home this season. At Wembley, At Leicester, At Stoke, Against Atletico...we've looked capable of creating chances. Hopefully we keep both Silva's quiet and earn at least a point.

They tried but City's attacking talent was just too much. 2-0 to Man City FT. Hopefully we can match City in the next match..

I don't think anyone wanted Fabregas to replace Matic in the starting XI. If we want to dominate decent to good opposition, the 2 CM's have to be Bakayoko and Kante. Either bring Fabregas off the bench or play him slightly higher up the pitch where his lack of defensive ability can be covered up..

IMO, he's our highest rated youngster...hopefully we give him the chance to develop

I'm glad that you can see the bigger picture. So far this season none of our wins have been convincing (like last season) against mostly mid-table opposition (tottenham being the exception). Hopefully Hazard starts firing on all cylinders...as our next lot of fixtures look quite rough on paper.

Can you blame people for criticizing his team selection? Fabregas against a dynamic midfield? Cahill against a pacey front-three? The lineup he selected was like handing Wenger the keys to his car and asking him to drive. Credit to Arsenal though, they showed up for a fight. As for our attack, these are the types of games where you realize how far Chelsea are from Europe's elite. A top side would have humiliated Arsenal (just watch Mourinho and Pep do it to them later on this season) Defensively we're fine, in midfield we should be fine once Drinkwater gets up and running, but in attack, we lack X-factor.

This has draw written all over it....unless we score first and break them!

If he does well with Swansea, maybe we should keep him there for another season? Would hate to see him warming the bench like Ake did last season (after a productive loan spell at Bournemouth)

Overpaying isn't the solution. City can probably match or beat our wages player for player. When you think about it, a top player joins a new club for one of three reasons: 1) Win trophies 2) Play a certain brand of football 3) Play under a certain manager, get 'guaranteed' first team opportunities The problem for Chelsea is the fact that our three rivals are all more 'attractive' destinations....whether that be based on reputation (Mourinho, Guardiola) or just attractive football (Klopp). Compared to Mourinho, Guardiola and Klopp, Conte is like a bland-vanilla flavor.

His record is 1-1 against Wenger. I don't count the FA Cup final/Community Shield as serious matches. Hopefully we break them like Liverpool did. Start another crisis

HAHA you can add: Chamberlain first game for Arsenal: That famous 8-2 loss to United

If Chalobah was more than capable of holding his own, why would the club/manager want to loan him out after the sale of Matic? The kid has skill but he's better off trying to hone his skill at a mid-table side.

He has been more dynamic in his role for Palace. The one thing that has stood out for me so far: his willingness to take on the game. He's not always trying to play the safe sideways pass or backpass to a CB, he's looking to get the ball forward, whether it be driving through midfield or trying his luck with longer-range passing. As for what Mourinho said, RLC knows how to cover ground for the team (i've seen him do it in england age-group games), he just needs to learn discipline, which is something players learn with age & regular game-time.

I wouldn't agree with that. At Palace, RLC is already showing signs of becoming a premier league midfielder. Only time will tell if he's a Pogba (developed his career away from United) or a Ravel Morrison (looked a class above for 6-7 games at West Ham, then the hype got to his head and everything went south). At Chelsea, he was effectively the poster boy from the academy.

But that's different. Van Dijk wants to move to a top-4 premier league/UCL team. Sandro is already at a top-4 european side, with consistent UCL football.

Based on what I saw on all the deadline day analysis shows, the pundits were saying that either Ross would prefer to wait until he's fully fit before moving clubs (in this case January) or he would prefer a move to Tottenham where they have a core of english guys in the first team.

If I remember correctly, didn't Matic leave because of Bakayoko? He didn't want to 'share' a midfield role, he wanted to be a starter and jumped at the chance to reunite with Jose. It's a shame we had to sell him to a direct rival...but at the end of the day, we got younger as a team and added two fresh faces to the midfield.

There's a reason why no-one signed him. Arsenal could have had him, even Spurs could have had him but in the end, no-one wanted to pay 45 million for him. Leicester scared everyone off after rejecting Roma's 31.8 million (which is a fair price for a purely attacking player).

I'm guessing not many other players were keen on playing the 'squad' role for Chelsea in midfield. Everyone keeps comparing Matic to Drinkwater...when Baka is supposed to be Matic's replacement. Drinkwater is like an upgrade on Chalobah as he should be able to come in and hit the ground running. He meets the criteria: Homegrown? Yes Winning mentality? Yes Happy to fight for place? I would assume so Already has an understanding of Kante's game.

Costa isn't really a Chelsea player as he won't be pulling on the Chelsea jersey anytime soon. The question is: will Atletico sign him now or wait till January. As for Van Dijk, I have total respect for the Southampton board after this saga. They said they would not sell him to Liverpool after the tapping up and they stuck by their word. As for Alexis Sanchez, I feel sorry for the guy. He wants to win trophies, he wants to play with the best and now he's stuck at Arsenal for another 6 to 12 months.

Who actually refused us? Ox was a Liverpool fan growing up, even said he wanted to be the next Gerrard after Arsenal's fa cup victory. Lukaku went to United because he wanted to play with his best mate and they offered more money to Everton anyway. Barkley is the only one who actually rejected us for no apparent reason.

Roman will just say: 'thanks for the seasono' and speed dial Hiddink