Reddish-Blue

Apart from individual brilliance, I don't see us winning this game. They're in form, they'll be coming off a nice rest and they'll be playing without any pressure. If Watford lose: nothing happens. If Chelsea lose: the media will be licking their lips. "Crisis at Stamford Bridge" "Conte loses dressing room" etc etc

If a big offer were to come in (like Oscar), the club should consider selling him. He's done his best for the club, he tries hard most of the time, maybe he just needs a change in scenery (less-intense league) to reinvigorate himself.

I get the feeling that Atletico's goalkeeper coaching staff must be amazing. First they produce De Gea, then they help Courtois develop rapidly and now they have Oblak who looks class most of the time. As for Courtois at Chelsea, he never looked interested. It felt like he was happy to live in Spain and we 'forcefully' brought him back.

Let's not ruin the kid. He's better off playing week in week out (like Christensen) then coming back and 'waiting' for injuries like Ake last season. Surely we can find a stop-gap for a season or two...

City just have the perfect balance at the moment. Two creative maestro's in the midfield, two quality wingers, the best RB in England, a world class striker and one of Europe's elite young strikers. I wish we could address the key holes in the first team (RWB, LWB, RW) and become a dominant side.

Hope for Charly's sake, he gets some game time. The kid has more natural creativity than Pedro & Willian combined. The question is: do you stick with woefully out of form experience or do you give a kid a chance to walk to walk after the insta post?

It's hard to see a massive turnaround as he doesn't have any other options on the bench. Apart from putting Luiz in midfield and Christensen at CB, I don't see massive changes.

I'm getting the feeling that Conte doesn't have a Plan B in case of injuries and this is part of the reason why he's getting found out. He's never been known as a tactical mastermind like a Mourinho or a Pep, it's always been work hard & be disciplined on the pitch. Sometimes you need to think outside the box to get a result...as soon as I saw the lineup for the Palace match, I knew they were going to get at least 1 point out of the game. We'll be beaten again next week by Watford.

If one of the two is being over-exposed, change the tactics...using Luiz in midfield in 1-2 games isn't the worst option. You could even play Fabregas slightly higher up the pitch, which is better than watching Willian do nothing on the wing

actually city managed to score 7 goals against Stoke

How does he even get the chance to start after the woeful performance against City? This is like Ivanovic under Mourinho version 2.0 Watch Palace get a point from us today..

This is so true. Out of your original list, only 1 name will be a premier league regular. Kakuta went after easy money, Feruz did nothing, Lalkovic did nothing, McEachran hasn't done anything, Stoch isn't in a major league etc

I'm guessing the reason behind his frustration is that he can't get a game, even though the two options ahead of him on the right side of our attack are out of form/ lack natural creativity.

It all depends on how we approach the game. If we dictate the game, attack their RB/LB and create chances, there is no reason why we can't win by 3 or more goals. However, if the players get cocky and complacent on the pitch, it could lead to an embarrassing draw or loss.

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)