Closed Burnley v Chelsea

[The Skipper 20,609]

Pretty confident this team will start

Courtois

Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Luis

Fabregas - Matic

Willian - Oscar - Hazard

Costa

but if Ramires wasn't suspended i think he would have started in a 4-3-3

This is the team I see as well, simply because Schurrle doesn't seem fully fit yet, so it might be better for him to come off the bench, and Brana has been class this pre season.

[Liquidator 5,176]

Think I'm right in saying the last 4 years the eventual winners of the league started the season on a Monday night

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Considering this is probably the worst team in BPL, I expect nothing other than a 3-0/dominant win from us, especially with us having a full 1st 11 to choose from with no one injured. Scraping a 2-1 or 1-0 win isn't good enough imo, the players should also be at 85-95% fit now too and most of them 100% considering they have been playing preseason for nearly 1 month now.

[Polo7 3,496]

Would rather have Willian as number 10 and Andre on the right

I agree, Oscar deserves nothing more than a sub appearance.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Considering this is probably the worst team in BPL, I expect nothing other than a 3-0/dominant win from us, especially with us having a full 1st 11 to choose from with no one injured. Scraping a 2-1 or 1-0 win isn't good enough imo, the players should also be at 85-95% fit now too and most of them 100% considering they have been playing preseason for nearly 1 month now.

You're setting yourself up for disappointment there. Promoted teams are buggers to play on the first match of the season, so you expecting a dominant win is simply giving you a reason to moan later.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

I wonder whether they will give us the ball and park the bus, waiting for an opportunity to counter attack, or try to bully and outrun us.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

You're setting yourself up for disappointment there. Promoted teams are buggers to play on the first match of the season, so you expecting a dominant win is simply giving you a reason to moan later.

Yes but they are Championship quality while we are CL quality, I don't think they have signed anyone that most of us knows or heard of? The difference should be great and we should really be able to show it.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Yes but they are Championship quality while we are CL quality, I don't think they have signed anyone that most of us knows or heard of? The difference should be great and we should really be able to show it.

If only football worked like that.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

No easy games in the Prem... None.

I think the difference in this game will come down to the manager, Jose doesn't like to lose and will have the boys RIGHT UP for this one. I'm not 100% who will start, if I'm looking to Real Sociedad for clues I'd say I'd be difficult. Real didn't really press us at all and allowed us to play our football, Burnley at home I would imagine will be very different.

What I'd like to see is this:

Courtois

Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Luis

Fab - Matic

Schurrle - Oscar - Hazard

Costa

What I think we'll see is this is:

Courtois

Ivanovic - Cahill - Terry - Azpi

Fab - Matic

Salah - Willian - Hazard

Costa

Jose will need someone to come off the bench to change it if things slow down and we're not winning, I can only think of Schurrle and Oscar as the bench players capable of changing a game. We will hope that they want to come out and play football in front of their fans and in turn expose them with our speed and passing ability.

[JDY 1,290]

Courtois

Ivanovic - Cahill - JT - Azpi

Cesc - Matic

Schurrle - Willian - Hazard

Diego Costa

Jose has basically confirmed Ivanovic will be starting, so it's either Luis or Azpi.

[ManchesterMatt 52]

Courtois

Ivanovic - Cahill - JT - Azpi

Cesc - Matic

Schurrle - Willian - Hazard

Diego Costa

Jose has basically confirmed Ivanovic will be starting, so it's either Luis or Azpi.

Where did he say/hint about Iva? Just wondering as I have Luis in the old fantasy team!

Will be up at Burnley for the match on Monday and I expect a very tough game. Hopefully Burnley will be a bit naïve in their approach to the match and will not sit back as much as they should! - Hoping for a 3-0 win but expecting a tight fought 2-1!

[JDY 1,290]

Where did he say/hint about Iva? Just wondering as I have Luis in the old fantasy team!

Will be up at Burnley for the match on Monday and I expect a very tough game. Hopefully Burnley will be a bit naïve in their approach to the match and will not sit back as much as they should! - Hoping for a 3-0 win but expecting a tight fought 2-1!

Before or after the match yesterday. Said something along the lines of the likes of Ivanovic, Terry, and Matic have been training for going on a month now, so will most likely feature.

[Saeed_BK 6]

Finally just a few days till we play in our first official game of the new season !! Playing an away game vs newly promoted side like Burnley wont be a walk in a park, they will be difficult to play against and especially to break down there defense if there not playing to open up. But in the other hand we have a squad now that can beat any team so far as we can mange to create chances and score them which im sure the likes of Costa, Hazard, Fabregas, Schurrle, and others can do it. My prediction is a 1-0 victory. Its not really important the score should be big but more important we start with 3 points ! All the best to our blues and lets hope this season we make history and win lots of trophies

[edetarod 2,155]

i can only imagine the scenes if we draw or lose and Costa doesn't score

[Special Juan 28,132]

My pal Akis on the right and Talksport's Andy Jacobs on the left. Bouncy bouncy