The only place to be

It was always a point of pride that this man held such a position within the club. A fine actor, a great director and an absolute gentleman whose importance to this club's history cannot be understated. RIP.

He's homegrown, a decent keeper and would probably cost us with Courtois than we currently pay Cech and Courtois. We don't need him at the moment but next summer he'd be a decent purchase.

He's a good player but in what world is he worth that much? Oh right, in a world where Luke Shaw earns £100k p/w and Fellaini costs £27 million. He's not Bale, he's not Ronaldo but he's available and that seems to be the only criteria on which United's signings are made nowadays. They could've had Matic, Fabregas and Hazard for roughly what they're spending on Di Maria and they'd walk the league. Gourlay is owed another cigar.

Ed Woodward.....legend.

Put simply, this is the type of game we were dropping points in last season but a combination of creativity in midfield and a proper poacher in the box took us over the line. We look a bit more shakey in defence but that'll happen when we push forward. For all the discussion about Courtois, he's absolutely an upgrade in that position. For the first hour though it did feel like it could be another one of those days, where their keeper plays out of his skin and we struggle but it may well be that the changes we've made are exactly what we needed. Onwards and upwards.

I'm sure Jose would've liked to have eased him in after 60 minutes but we simply weren't in a position to do that. Azpi will play at Everton so it's not the worst thing in the world for him get these minutes, and Luis will get minutes down the line. Azpi actually had a decent game yesterday, much improved from his Burnley performance so it's not guaranteed that this guy will lock down that position.

He's a massively impressive player and so secure at the back. I'll be honest, I haven't felt this way about Cech for a while now but this guy produced a match-changing save. He was as integral to the 3 points yesterday as Costa was and the way he claims crosses is as good as ANYONE I've ever seen. The ball just sticks to him and he makes the choice to come for it early and anything in his way is getting moved. Rock.

Was my MOTM last week and he is again this week. Gets into the box well, his crossing is finding it's targets (targets he hasn't had for the last two seasons) and he's solid at the back. Got plenty of stick last season but deserves even more credit so far.

Not read the whole thread but he was no poorer than most of the other players in the first half to be quite honest, but that ball for Ivanovic for the opener was everything I've wanted to see from him. It was incisive, perfectly weighted and if it was Cesc then everyone would be gushing over it. The lad was unlucky not to score with the shot that hit the post and also put in at least one excellent tackle to stop a Leicester break. I said before that he's playing a new role and what we needed to see was progression and I think we got just that. He's got to keep it going.

JT's form has picked up though. He has to continue on from last year, whereas you're really looking for Cech to rediscover form of about 18 months ago. He might not have had nightmares about crosses but he's a perfectionist so I guarantee they were playing on his mind, which actually becomes an issue in and of itself because you start overthinking things. Oh and the tutoring thing wasn't i response to you. A few people have brought it up and I still have no idea what exactly it means in real terms.

Honestly if he went out on loan and we used Boga off the bench then I wouldn't be that fussed, but he'll be useful when we start playing more games per week.

First home match of the season, weather looks decent, butterflies and excitement not just for football being back but to see just what this Chelsea team can do. A progression from the Burnley game and a decent win and I'll be happy. Come on Chels!

You're right that he was solid and not excellent (calm down people), but it was in a new role and that's why he deserves some leeway. If he was still putting in the same shit performances he did for half of last season at 10 then he'd deserve some stick but no-one wants him to fail. He just set the bar high with his debut and has struggled to reach that level since then. For me he starts today though because he needs to build that rapport with Fabregas and Matic. That triangle looked fabulous at times, but their spacing was iffy and that made us narrow occasionally. That's something they need minutes together to develop. My hope now is that rather than becoming the next Kaka, he follows the career path of Modric and goes from being an all out AM to a link-up/DLP/busy little bee of a midfielder.

Which ones are hilarious? Cech did look dodgier than ever last year, although he's still better than 99% of goalkeepers around. But can you honestly say that his form hasn't declined since 2012? I also don't get what 'tutoring' means in a practical, real way.

And you get ze Passport in ze October and zen vee are marrying, yiss?

Spurs wanted to play him alongside Erik Lamela, Chadli and Soldado didn't they. Deadly. The best thing about Willian is his workrate, followed by the song we made up about him hating Spurs. £30 million well spent.

He could go out on a short-term loan and then come back when Mikel fucks off (hopefully permanently) to Africa for the ACON in January. In our new system he actually seems to be the type of midfielder we need to come in for Oscar or Fabregas and I think he could thrive in that system. Would still like to keep him around and give him minutes but he's probably fifth choice behind Ramires and the three who started against Burnley at the moment.

In my opinion he gave the exact answer the club would've wanted him to say, but we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Clearly you have a different experience of media relations to me.

You do realise that players receive media training and he just gave the EXACT answer he would have been coached to say right? I think some people have spent far too long reading Lukaku's fumbled attempted at talking to the media and have become unaccustomed with standard filler answers. But of course there are people who take any quotes at face value, which is why players are taught to regurgitate them.

Goes to Cech's page. Right click. Mentor Courtois. That's what people are suggesting we do right? Petr Cech, a goalkeeper whose form has declined for the last two years is going to act as mentor to the second-best goalkeeper in Europe. Personally, if I was Courtois I'd perhaps be fine with not having Cech mentor me but having some of that £100,000 he gets each week to tell me how to come for crosses. I love Cech and all but I absolutely hate being patronised. I'm fairly certain if I asked for what specifically Courtois could learn from Cech, it would be something to do with his meticulous planning before matches in particular his attention to penalties as evidenced by his performance in the CL Final in 2012 (not his Super Cup performances three and a half months later, definitely not that one where he went the wrong way for 3 out of the 5 penalties and DEFINITELY should've saved the last one). But is there any evidence whatsoever that Courtois doesn't do the same, that he won't receive the same analysis of opponents from our world-class coaches?

We created 28 chances in that match. We had decent chances but Swansea got their tactics right. What I think is myopic is to try and extrapolate too much from one game, with a dodgy midfield, a poor goalkeeper and a poor manager and apply it to the future performances of a couple of defenders. I really shouldn't continue this discussion because we simply won't agree. I think Cahill is good on the ball (in fact he's always been fairly well-regarded in that aspect of his play by a number of coaches) and in the current system I'd be fine with him an Ivanovic.

And who in that game was supposed to drop off and pick the ball up from the back four? The goals came from uncharacteristic errors from Ivanovic but the problems lied (as usual) in the pivot. Building from the back sounds great but that ball has to go through the midfield too and theres' a reason Ramires and Luiz weren't picked often in midfield - they're shit distributors of the ball. Their movement is poor and they don't provide options for any of the back four defenders. It's why we played Lamps in the EL Final. Despite that we actually created a lot of chances in that match.

In goal for that game was Turnball. In midfield we had Ramires and Luiz, and then Mata, Hazard and Oscar ahead of them. A scratch back-four is always going to struggle especially with that type of protection. Give those two time to gel, under a proper manager in a decent system and they'd be fine much like they were in the Europa League Final.

Only a proper mug with an agenda would think that, so he's incredibly humble. Glad he's started the season strong as well, running at players and taking the initiative in matches.

I can only assume Roman lost him in a game of poker. Or some of the rumours about him are true and we're getting him far, far, far away from here.