Closed Man City v Chelsea

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

I have my concerns about Cesc and Diego at this point. Neither are tuned up and running smooth. I realize Diego is due to his hamstring. Cesc? No idea what has happened. He looks so confused out there at times.

Are we better with Zouma in midfield hounding Toure as someone suggested previously? It may be a better decision than Cesc. It could be similar to strategy two years ago with Luiz at City.

Unfortunately no real options to replace Ivanovic for this one.

I expect Jose to play to score and attack first half, tied or ahead in second half and we park the double decker.

Come on you Chelsea!! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

Diego looked fantastic, what are you talking about, he should have won us a pen and he ran them ragged.

[bluephoenix 1,125]

3-0 Man City. Mourinho gets fired after the game.

I think that would be madness !

Even if we have terrible run of results wouldn't want Mourinho to be sacked ( we have no place else to go ) I stand by the players and manager but also reserve the right to criticize and mock them

[iseah100 5,612]

Costa and hazard to get Zabaleta sent off

[Thor 2,128]

It really is cringe worthy reading some of these posts this early on in the season. Yeah, we didn't do well in the first game based on result, but many will agree we played well outside of our backline.

Guess what? We're trying to get that situation sorted. Baba and Stones are both being bid for.

A lot of you are saying "just pay the money", but then you're the same ones that complain when we pay too much and they have a bad performance every now and then.

Be patient. One game in. Barca looked like shit early on in last season, and they ended up having a pretty damn good year. We're good enough to do the same.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Zouma is not quicker than Ivanovic. Putting Zouma at RB would be ludicrous imo. I think Montero would have done the same to any of our FB. Possibly even Azpi. I would definitely keep Ivanovic in at RB for City. He had a poor game yesterday but as we have no alternate LB he has to play there really.

Zouma is our fastest defender.

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

Diego looked fantastic, what are you talking about, he should have won us a pen and he ran them ragged.

He just doesn't quite look like he is 100% in my opinion. He had a couple of chances that early last year he would have gotten loose from the defender for a better effort. I feel he is about 80-85% of last year at this time. And I feel there is a huge difference in Diego at 100% and him at 80%. He is terrific with a boomer on a rebound, etc but he does not have he dribbling skills of other top flight players.

I agree with you that he should have gotten a couple of calls, etc. But we all know that is par for the course for the PL officiating.

My concern with Diego is health. My concern for Cesc is different.

Come on you Chelsea!! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

[Tomo 21,681]

I can't see past a City win here, maybe a draw if we are extremely lucky and our goal keeper wins MOTM again (which was a common theme from January to May of last season) Even If we park the bus, we won't win here because we haven't actually been efficient and hard to beat in the games where we parked the bus last season which defeats the very purpose of such tactics. We have looked shambolic defensively, giving away too many chances to our opponents despite sitting very deep. even if we do manage to score, can anyone bet on us maintaining the lead for full 90 minutes?

With our form since the second half of last season and the way we have been defending coupled with the lack of creativity and movement , It is not logical to predict a Chelsea win or draw here. I don't get those that are confident we will get a result in this game either. I mean what signs have you seen thus far to suggest the result will favor us. Fabregas is always shambolic in this type of games and hasn't started the season well, hazard hasn't been in good form either and looks unfit (that's a huge chunk of our creativity gone) Then there's ivanovic and the team's overall defending.

Now while I'm not too confident off a result here either, you saying the oppo were creating loads of chances when we "parked the bus" isn't true.

The only two games was PSG and Anfield where we were very lucky not to be on the wrong end of a hiding, other games like City away, Arsenal away, United home, City home, even Spurs at Wembley the opponents barely created anything. I can count the serious chances in those games on my left hand for the oppo (Rooneys side net, Falcao chance, Aguero shot Tibo saved, Lamps and Silvas goals, not much more aside from that).

[LAM09 6,552]

I would like us to go for the win, but we all know Mou will be more worries about no losing. The importance of this match will be bigger if City win against West Brom.

[thekid9 418]

I'm trying to think of a way that we can possibly come out of this with 3 points, and I just can't the last time we won a game was Sunderland on the last game of the season!

Normally you look at the team playing badly and rely on JT AZPI and MATIC carrying the team...but right now, they look lost too!

If our defence play like they have been aagainst city's attack of silva Aguero Sterling etc they will get torn a new one!

Fabregas, JT, Eden and Costa will all need to fire on all cylinders for the first time in a long time if we want anything out of this game!

[Stats 6,982]

Zouma is our fastest defender.

Not like it is conclusive but FIFA seem to rate Azpi as our fastest defender then have Cahill and Zouma next who are both listed at the same speed Maybe I have been oblivious to Zouma's pace. I remember the great recovery he done for Sterling and just seen that Mourinho siad he has a lot of pace but tbj I just have never been too aware of seeing him use his pace on a consistent basis. Anyway, that bodes well for the future then. Especially if things turn out the way it should on paper and we have Stones, in a few years time we may have one of the best CB pairing and one of the fastest too who will be able to complement each other quite well.

[Thor 2,128]

I'm hoping Oscar gets the nod again, and plays like he did against Swansea. Saying that though he does seem to struggle against more physical opponents, and City are top notch at bullying other teams with their size and strength. Yaya alone bosses our midfield most times. Hopefully Oscar can step it up once again, since the first half against Swansea was the best football I've ever seen him play.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Show some balls Jose and bench Cesc. 4-3-3 with Oscar as creator and Willian as b2b. Moses on right wing. With this line-up we can win.

Would hate to see Oscar getting sacrificed for Ramires again. Ramires in for Fabregas in our usual 4-2-3-1 would work. The rest of the team just picks itself.

Not too sure about Moses though, especially when Cuadrado's around.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,742]

City have not even played yet.

Will be taking a lot of notes tonight since I didnt see any of their preseason matches.

[Laylabelle 9,300]

No reason why can't win this.be crap to loose a game so early just depends what team turns up..

[ice-boy 165]

No reason why can't win this.be crap to loose a game so early just depends what team turns up..

Agree 100%. We looked very very good against Swansea till the penalty. We battered them there 2 seasons ago and why not now that we have much better team. so let's be more positive.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

Begovic

Ivanovic Cahill/Zouma Terry Azpilicueta

Matic Oscar

Moses/Remy Willian Hazard

Costa

Cesc has been shocking for quite a while and doesn't deserve a starting position in a big game and I wouldn't put Ivanovic in there if there was literally no other options at the moment.

Willian can do what Ramires usually does and more, Oscar is a lot more useful at the moment than Cesc and Moses/Remy gives that extra bit of sharpness that Willian cannot provide in the attacking third.

Up the Chels!

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

JM is very adverse to just putting our best XI against another top teams best XI and hoping our players are just better on the day like Pellers and Le Voyeur do for every big-game. And i get why he doesn't do it. (Not that I always agree with that mindset)

But for this game, I would play same line-up from Saturday. Too much offensive quality is lost when Oscar is replaced with Rambo, or any other changes are made. We've seen it time and time again.

If JM is worried about Cesc getting over-run in midfield its just a risk you gotta take. The lack of transfer activity for a Witsel/Koke type of CM has ensured the lack of options we have for these big games.

As for Ivanovic vs Sterling. Its another risk that can be attributed soley to JM's loyalty to him. All we can do is pray he performs better.

[ParNolio7 285]

This game is coming at a very bad time for us. I'm afraid we're gonna get butchered if I'm honest.