Barbara

amazing shot by Aké. Unlucky with the good goalkeeping

GOAL

no, I don't like too much commentating over my sports. It bothers me even in Portuguese, English and Spanish that I can understand. The guy just won't shut up. It's a thousand words a minute with only small stops of 2 seconds to take a new breath.

English stream pls? Can't stand Arabic narration. They just don't EVER stop talking. It bothers the heck out of me.

even when we meet the likes of Arsenal like we did in the 4th round last year I find the early stages of League Cup very boring. It still beats international football by 1000

Chelsea FC ‏@chelseafc 13s Chelsea line-up v Bolton: Cech ©; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Cahill, Filipe Luis; Mikel, Ake; Salah, Oscar, Schurrle; Remy. #CFC

so unlucky. it almost makes me cry, I really like the kid

We still have five points ahead of them, Pellegrino is already pilling up the excuses for not being able to retain the title. They have to play in our turf. I think all in all, this early in the season, we're doing well.

You take one of them away - any - and it'll impact us negatively. Willian despite having similar dribbling abilities to Hazard (although Hazard is better by a fair lead) has even a worse decision making than Hazard does. Hazard is improving on that, and he'll start shooting more and be even better. We don't have a player in the squad that can be as creative as Cesc in terms of pass. Oscar - when at the top of his form, as well as Matic when inspired can make it, but they don't make it often enough and they don't have such a good vision. Rèmy is probably a great striker (haven't seen enough of him), but I'm convinced Costa is very much one of kind because he offers a lot of things and has an attitude that makes him all that much better. He leads the team. So if we miss any of them for one reason or the other, we'll feel the negative impact. I also believe we don't have a Matic replacement in the team, but to keep this conversation only about the attack, those three compliment and complement each other in a great way, they offer three completely different things, and our attack has been this successful because now we have all the pieces we needed. Hazard's impact was limited last season because he didn't have someone to link up with him or a striker that had a good understanding with him as well as good enough to keep capitalizing the chances he created. Now he has a favorable scenario for him to flourish even more. Not only he has players that will capitalize what he creates, but he also has players that will take some of the pressure off of him and that will share the burden. He was overloaded last season, which is why imo he wasn't able to lead us to win a title. We were asking too much from him, especially given his age. We didn't offer him the conditions for him to be as important as he's been this season. Now he has players by his side as well as ahead of him. He has more freedom because there aren't 2-3 or even 4 opponents in charge of stopping him. If they try to stop him with numbers, they're leaving space for Costa, Cesc and others, so he either has more space and freedom or he gives the team more space and freedom. If the officiating is fair, he'll start dragging red cards too because we saw City stopping us with fouls - some that Dean called, some he didn't - and as someone suggested he can even lead us to have more penalties called or even free kicks in dangerous areas. In Cesc we have a set-piece specialist and in their days Oscar and Schurrle can also do something about it. At the end of the day Hazard the three of them make the other look better. I believe we could cope with a match without one of them against most opponents, but they're vital for our success. We don't need to pick one player to be the most important when the reality is the three of them work together as a team. If Cesc doesn't have a good striker ahead of him, his clear chances created won't be converted into assists. If Hazard doesn't have someone to link up he can't be as creative as he is capable of, if Costa doesn't have Cesc or Hazard giving him the balls when he's positioning himself at the right spot to score, he won't get enough service. Last season to stop our attack all the opposition had to do was neutralize Hazard normally with a lot of players deployed to mark him. this season they have to stop three players... which gives more space and chances for the other AMs for Ramires or Matic to come from the midfield with a long distance shot, etc... What I'm saying in addition to that is that Chelsea have a good chance of having three players at the poll to decide the player of the season and end up with a top2 or even top3 because not only they're great, but they make each other look even better.

as he should. Who wants to go there anyway? I really feel bad for him Also I don't care at all about endearing the likes of you (kidding, ofc)

Every time I see the chances created stats I look to my signature and smirk. Biggest lie out there in terms of stats, but I do think 64 is fair. we scored 17 goals, which is 1/4 of those chances created, I do believe we had at least another 4 shots on goal or blocked or dangerous every match we played - with the exception maybe of City, where I remember only Costa's woodwork.

Only now I watched Pelegrino's interview to Sky. What a bitter loser he is. He has a big complex towards José. He kept saying 'everyone is going to play like that to us and it'll make it difficult for us to defend the title'. He's already making up all kind of excuses for not winning the title. I don't think teams changed how they play against City at all, if anything this year they're trying to capitalize more because clearly his team in the pitch hasn't reached the heights of the team from last season, despite the few changes and the addition of Mangala (was really impressed with him tbh). Another piece of bullshit he said more than once was that what matters for him is to play football, because the fans want to see a team that plays football and what the sport is about. Okay, piece of crap, go play your shitty football and finish the season without a (relevant) title to see what the fans will tell you. He's so bitter, jealous and intended to play mind games with Mou that is not even funny! Loser.

Terry praising Fàbregas and saying he's part of the family Chelsea captain John Terry hails Cesc Fabregas impact

No. Khedira isn't the same after those two lengthy injuries last season. Also with all his flaws, a player like Ramires is hard to find, if not used to EPL football, they might take a while to adapt and Ramires is the ultimate versatile, useful squad member - whether he's in the starting lineup or coming from the bench

Hazard is the kind of player you keep in the pitch even when he's not having a good match because out of nowhere he can create magic in a burst as you called it. He has the talent and power to do that stuff.

I'm saying I'm ambivalent about him. At one hand he's the best we have supporting the attack, but at the same time he's been sloppy in defense. I hasn't paid close attention to his mistakes, but after someone pointed them out, I've checked them. He's been a little sloppy and it has little to do with with him being caught out of position attacking. He was caught a few times in this situation and somehow we handled. It were the times we were actually in the back that he came short. Also I admitted jumping into the bandwagon, so if anything, I'm admitting a previous mistake. I'm a bit more sober about him now.

Good thing we actually won't remove Costa and Cesc from the team to let Hazard literally carry it all by himself though. Had enough of that last season. I'm happy Hazard doesn't have to endure that and I think one of the reasons he's flourishing now is because the pressure is off. Instead of running from the responsibility - as I thought he maybe could based on that interview before the Swansea game - he's actually capitalizing on it and letting his talent take over without the pressure of HAVING to win us the matches. If he fails there are others that have been stepping up, if he doesn't have a good day in the office, there are others that could compensate, if he's marked by two-three players, there are others that will take advantage of that. Actually that's a conversation that is actually interesting to have and that we pointed out would happen before the season started, but that we haven't discussed much since it actually did. Hazard hasn't been marked by too many opponents now last season because Costa and Cesc actually drag some opponents with them. Do you guys feel like he has a little more space and freedom now? Of course, sometimes opponents gang up on him, especially in a match like yesterday where our attackers were too isolated, but in general, it feels like teams haven't been deploying 2, 3 and sometimes even 4 players surrounding him like we saw many times last season. They have other players to also worry about now and I think that's one of the factors that has been helping him the most. Am I the only one to feel a difference about it?

I'm going to remove myself from the conversation, as the Cesc-lover. I'll come back when I re-watch all the highlights, but if I must say so, this discussion is stupid and we should just end it. They're working together, as an unit, as it should and it's been helping us to win matches. Who gives an actual fuck which on was more influential in this or that match? On another note though, Hazard's thread is the most bewildering, bipolar, weird place on this forum. It's incredible how he's incredibly underrated and overrated all the time, but rarely a fair assessment is made of his contributions. I've been on the underrating and overrating sides of it many times, I'm not saying I'm the one being fair (normally The Skipper is), but I don't get why everything he does need to be magnified or disregarded... I love Hazard, I really do, he's been my fave player for most of last season, he's in general my favorite Chelsea player, but there's a reason why I rarely bring myself to this thread. This place is weird. Many times I had to underrate him to bring people down from making him the best thing since sliced bread (a few of us have - literally - an inside joke about how he gets at least 10 MOTM votes at all matches, regardless if he played for more than 5 minutes or not, as long as his name is in the list, there's a minimal amount of votes he'll get, what he actually did to the match indifferent or irrelevant), in many others I felt like overrating him and some of his doings just so people would give him time and understanding for his shortcomings. Every time we try to make a fair criticism about him, it's seems like we're throwing rocks on Jesus' cross (not saying we haven't been unfair on criticism towards him before, I did and so many others). This thread really is annoying as hell. But I'll come back to answer properly the question that has been made twice towards me, even if Daniel just before me seems to disagree about it. I want to have my own perception about it. My memory really isn't my best trait. edit: Burnley match. Ivanovic and Cesc were running the show all by themselves. We were trying to create but we haven't been very successful until they made their magic. Hazard had an important role in the second goal and that was about it, if we consider really important actions in the match, whether they resulted on goals or not. He's been involved in play like others had, but he really made something special only then. He wasn't at all the one who's fired the match up, he didn't dictate things, he wasn't nearly as influential as Iva and Cesc. Again, I'm doing this for the sake of answering you @remains of the day, as it doesn't matter to me if he's the one who turned the match around all by himself or not, what really matters is that we won our first match of the season. Leicester match. We were dull and harmless in the first. In the second it was a repeat of the Burnley match. Iva and Cesc fired the team up and were dangerous, their own attempts or creations stopping at their goalie. At that point even Oscar was more influential than Hazard (I'll be crucified for this comment for nine lives). It wasn't only the through ball for the first goal, he's created chances, hit the wood, was actually active. Then Hazard scored the second goal - which was wonderful, but that was after we were already dominating completely the match and after our first goal completely killed Leicester. I'll stop here because I feel really stupid doing it. But there you go, matches where Costa and/or Fabregas or others actually stepped up before Hazard did. I don't know why it's so important to prove or restate Hazard has been instrumental for us - he has. I don't know why we have to highlight his actions (when Iva for example had much more of them in the first two matches) to make others look less impressive or important. I don't get why someone has to come and say he carries our team all by himself and others have to come and prove he doesn't. This has been silly and this is one of the most stupid posts I've written here... and I really have said stupid things before, sometimes one's judgment is clouded by emotions or they're riled up by others or have to go out of their way to antagonize extreme fanboy-ish/biased views or extreme hateful views and stupid things sprout. So I admit I've said stupid things before, but this come to a top10... the day I had to prove one of our players wasn't the first one in the team to step up when we've been scoring galore. I feel silly.

Hazard has been quite praised for his change of attitude the past two weeks. Maybe you haven't read enough or thought it wasn't expressive enough, but a lot of people, me included, has been praising him for stepping up his game both in the pitch but mainly his attitude. He's been more determined ever since the Swansea match. I remember Hazard had one quiet match this season, don't know which. I'll answer to you when I actually remember it. If you want to return the favor and remind me of matches were both Costa and Cesc had no influence until Hazard fired the team up. That seemed to be the case from the Swansea match on. The previous three matches I either felt like they were working in sync or that one among the other two (if not both) took matters into hands before Hazard as directly involved in anything relevant in the match. I admitted to my love for Cesc more than once... I don't mind admitting I'm crushing on him as a footballer. What does that have to do with agreeing with someone that said it's an exaggeration and unfair to say Hazard has been carrying this team this season fails me... Again, I don't get why we need to have a winner. Why does it have to Cesc OR Hazard OR Costa? Why can't it be our attack force that is carrying the team? This is such a nonsense argument. and I don't get how am I the one creating it if I took part - late as usual - of an ongoing discussion between you and Daniel... i've stated in all three posts here that I think it's fair to have the three of them equally responsible for our attack success, I'm not the one that kept saying one of them is above the other two... I'll rewatch highlights to refresh my memory and will come back to you, either agreeing that Hazard has been instrumental whereas the other two were on sleep mode or not.

don't have it, sorry, mate

doesn't work overseas Thanks anyway, Ron.

sorry, I forgot my duties

links to the MOTD pls? Preferably to watch online - I don't like to download I want to laugh at all our 'rivals'. Thanks in advance.

he was fouled many times, and in many others he was absolutely horrifying passing the ball. He conceded turnovers in plays that he messed up all by himself. It was a subpar performance imo, although he did put himself in those positions in the first place so he deserves credit for that. If only he could add more vision and end product to his flair, he would be a hell of player. He just keeps proving he doesn't think things through, that his vision can be very limited (it is most times). We could have made 1x0 in the first half when he commanded one of our counter attacks. Ramires penetrated City's defense all by himself, at the edge of the box. Willian was just a meter or two behind Rami who was running, all he had to do was make a basic pass and boom, Ramires would be 1x1 with Hard inside the box (and we all know how deadly Ramires can be in those situations). Instead Willian took 5 seconds to think what he would do with the ball and then passed it to Ivanovic who was in the sidelines. I cursed three generations of his family in that play. That's not even about vision as Ramires was literally in front of him, that's just being very limited at end product (and to be honest, this time I'll call it stupid, he was stupid in this play). I remember a few other times in the midfield when we were about to start our attack that he's passed to no one, and misplaced some passes that would ashame even Ramires on his bad days...

not only involved, his dribble and pass to Hazard were pivotal for that goal. Without his quality playing Hazard in that play we would have never scored.