Thendo

Very poor from Cech.

It wasn't an amazing performance , but certainly not as bad/catastrophic as some people make it out be. I truly belive, if it wasnt for the Tibo situation, we would've won. It feels like that people take every opportunity they can get to vent out their frustration of our calm/passive transfer summer, which imo is understandable but leads to a quite unfair analysis of todays game.

Quite a clumsy tackle from him, altough poor defending from the backline led to the opportunity.

The drama... We were fine and did well until the pen + red card, heck even after that we still controlled most of the game and pushed for a win... Just saying, no need for all this panic and extreme negativity that funny enough seem to occur in every other thread here nowadays.

Flukey goals, but well deserved lead so far! Costa has been very good imo, we really missed his physicality in the community shield game. Edit: Why is there almost only negative comments on here nowadays...? We are in the lead and playing well. Its the first game of the season, of course some players wont have found their 100% sharpness yet...

Finally, proper football is back! Ktbffh

Signing of the season for sure! Now just bring us a LB!

Will miss this one aswell due to work...Good to see theres mostly bench players in the XI tonight tho. No need to risk regulars with the season starting in just 3 days.

Ramires would be my guess, or maybe Zouma. Not an optimal situation.

The overreactions on here sometimes... Sure I would've liked Oscar instead of Ramires and Zouma instead of Cahill, but it's not the end of the world etc as some people make it out to be...

Haha... Sure, Real would be willing to sell Varane for £19m.

Gus Poyet...

Will miss the game due to work...

Beasley has spoken...

All the best! Hope to see you back on here again sometime!

Zouma at Lb?

Yep.

Very entertaining first half! Hopefully not too many subs for the 2nd half.

HAZARD! MAGIC!

Also, hope to see Falcao getting 45 mins or so. Btw they haven't announced the bench or have I missed it?

I'd prefer if we gave Traore those minutes instead, he will be part of the 1st team and have only played 45 mins so far...About Kenedy, he's basically our player, been training with the team during the tour etc I doubt we would pull out of the deal if he has a bad game tonight, but I see your point tho. Still strange to suddenly start him vs Barca. Will be interesting to see how he does, hopefully he impresses José! .

I know... Just saying its quite funny and unexpected to see him suddenly start without ever being announced by the club. For all we know, he might be officialy signed and not on "trial" like Traore was. Doubt he will stay with us for next season since I suspect he might have problems getting a work permit (?), so it seems kinda odd that José is giving him minutes and not players who will be in the team next season who probably need more gametime (Traore, Cuadrado, Remy, Willian etc ) . Well, Hope he does well and suprises everyone though . Edit: Seems like he actually is on some sort of trial here, odd one !

Lol Kenedy starting without him being officially announced. Didn't see that one coming!

The game starts in 2 hours.

Tibo!