Reddish-Blue

The key for that match was Matic. He may not have been dominating like the 2014/15 season but on his day, Matic can produce special performances. I'll never understand why we sold such a crucial player to a title rival without signing a fit and ready replacement.

Cuadrado, Begovic, RLC, Chalobah, Matic, Aina, Zouma, Traore. From my count, it's 8 players who were part of the first team squad at Chelsea (last season or previous seasons). People crying out for depth...we had depth (Chalobah for CM/DM, Cuadrado for RW/RWB, Traore for ST/Wing) but the club preferred not to keep these players.

Arsenal were never looking for a technical director, it was a like smokescreen to give Wenger time and space.

Can't really blame anyone for writing off Chelsea. 2 key players lost, leadership lost in dressing room, young replacements (with no premier league experience), no first choice striker, best player injured for a while. Hopefully Conte works his magic and manages to keep Chelsea on the right track until Hazard's return Expecting a 2-1 win for Chelsea.

It only makes sense IF Conte wasn't impressed by him throughout pre season. Musonda, Boga and Christensen seem to be 'part' of the first team and they were all mentioned by Conte at least once during pre season....as for Baker, I don't really recall him being mentioned.

Honestly, Pato wouldn't be a bad signing as 4th striker/backup attacking midfielder...considering we have no depth.

Hopefully one of our attackers step up...as I'm not sure if we can break down a bus without Hazard

It'll be more like: Some unknown wingback, Drinkwater, Barkley and Llorente on deadline day.

Agree with the quote. Conte helped Chelsea win the title and he just lost two key players (both of them would fit into any other EPL side) in the same transfer window. Either back him in the transfer market or watch him walk away.

Hopefully Morata scores early on in the season...otherwise the media will have a field day with Torres 2.0

That sounds great in theory. But in reality, Bale has already said multiple times that he would never ruin his history with Tottenham by moving to a rival.

The club has never cared about 'creativity'...thats why natural talents like KdB & Mata were sold off in favor of the 'hard-working' type e.g. Oscar and Willian. I really wish we had gone after someone like James Rodriguez as we need a second player capable of creating goals out of nothing. Bayern already have 4-5 of the creative type yet they wasted no time adding to their firepower up front.

The worst thing is, most of the quality players have already moved clubs. Not many quality fullbacks (within a decent price range) available and as for the midfield, I really hope we don't end up with Ross Barkley.

Chalobah's case is very interesting as the player himself and his agent came out and said that they moved to Watford to avoid another loan spell.. Surely that means one of 2 things. Either 1) Conte didn't rate Chalobah as a backup DM or 2) Chalobah wasn't convinced by the amount of playing time he would get, even with the Matic sale and he chose to leave in order to potentially put his hand up for a spot in future England squads.

Tammy is better off at Swansea, Aina needed first team football & Loftus-Cheek could polish his skills at Palace. Ake was sold because he wanted to be first option and Chalobah was fed up of waiting for first team opportunities. At least he seems to be keeping Christensen, Musonda and Boga as backups this season...

I'm not sure what Bonucci has to do with this...he's never played in midfield in his entire career. As for Luiz, no one suggested that he would be made into a permanent midfielder...but it's good to have another option in midfield (especially one who has been successful for both Chelsea and PSG in that role)...as right now we only have Kante and Bakayoko in the CM/DM role.

You might get mad...but it seems like the only logical explanation as to why we're spending 50+ million on a CB....when our key problem is wingbacks & midfield. If you sign Van Dijk...then you could have: Van Dijk/Cahill - Azpi - Rudiger/Christensen for the three CB roles and free up Luiz to play CB or fill in the midfield

Maybe he got a squad number because no one else wants to sign him after that social media outburst.. Hopefully we sign a proper LWB as competition for Alonso as Kenedy definitely isn't ready

We'll never end up like Arsenal. They are run like a top-6 club. They have a safety net knowing that Wenger won't win you the title but he gets enough out of his players to all but guarantee at least a Europa League place. For Chelsea...there is no safety net...if something goes seriously wrong, there will no top 4. However, if everything clicks in place, the winning mentality is there, so we're likely to challenge for the title.

It seems like our board only wants to do something if the club is in crisis mode. I remember most of the pundits on BT Sport/ BBC MOTD saying that we needed to strengthen the 14/15 title winning squad..otherwise there was a big risk of us falling out of the top 4 the following season and look what happened in 15/16. I hope Conte can keep us in the conversation for a top 4 place as our current squad is 1-2 injuries away from serious issues! We're taking a gamble on Morata (has had injury issues/never faced the pressure of being the #1 option), Bakayoko (still recovering) and Rudiger (recovering from ACL), hope it pays off

Moses has always shown flashes of potential on the wing (at both Crystal Palace and Wigan)...but unfortunately, he was never able to add decent finishing to his skill set. We should have just saved our money and kept Bertrand Traore (he knows how to score goals and he would have been a nice winger/striker option off the bench this season)

LOL Jason, I didn't expect this type of reply from you.. 1) City and Arsenal were never rivals...there was never 'hate' between the clubs apart from the whole Adebayor celebration. 2) A 30 year old striker is not a bright talent...so I'm not sure what you mean. There is a difference between signing a 23 year old homegrown youngster who can play a key role for 10 years...and a 30 year with 1-2 years left in the tank. 3) Cech to Arsenal wasn't a major transfer, he was a great goalkeeper past his peak who preferred to stay in London for his family... If we didn't have an equally-good keeper waiting in the wings, then maybe it would have been a major transfer.. Anyway, back to the topic at hand...hopefully we can sign someone capable of challenging/displacing Moses from that RWB role.

Well Nasri never moved to a direct rival...he just chose money (just like Adebayor, Hleb, Song, Cesc). As for Van Persie, he wasn't a bright talent, he was a often-injured 30 year old looking to win a title. I'd be shocked if Arsenal let the Ox move to Chelsea...as our last major transfer with them was 11 years ago!

Arsenal won't sell one of their brightest talents to us. We'll probably end up paying for Ryan Bertrand to be Alonso's competition at LWB.

This is the problem for every manager in charge of Chelsea. Do you trust the youngster and play him (& risk being fired) or do you loan him out and hope he develops into something special (e.g. Courtois, Christensen, even Lukaku / De Bruyne to some extent)?