Fall

All in all he still had 100% win percentage record. Such a ledge! I think it's definitely time for a foreigner manager in charge, the fact that someone like Pardew is even mentioned is simply ridiculous...

No, as things stand, there is no chance whatsoever of Simeone coming to Chelsea, not anytime soon anyway. As he said so himself, he would be interested in the Inter job, if it becomes available - it's a bit too soon to tell what De Boer will do with them, but if a title challenge won't be mounted in these next 2 years. I reckon they'll bring in Simeone, as it coincides with his contract expiry date as well. As for Conte - I really think we are at a point in time where the issues are far deeper than what name we have on the bench or what system we use on the pitch. Cahill's mistakes these past few games - we don't need Conte to tell him to handle the ball properly and not faff about uselessly - or for Hazard to track back properly and to run at players when he has the ball - or for Costa (like 1st part of last season) to be in good positions and make the runs inside the box, like Tammy Abraham does so well at Bristol this year. Some of them can be corrected in training, true. But a lot of the times it is a case of instinct and confidence. These kind of things should be somewhat obvious and I find it hard to believe that Conte hasn't worked with Cahill and all the others in training. But when it comes to certain players being receptive and having the right mentality to put them in practice - that's something else. Some might disagree, but I don't think our current situation is a Conte problem, but more of a club problem and no matter who would be in charge - some of the issues would still be there. We're kinda nowhere at the moment - for a few years we seemed eager to build a squad that would mimic the atractiveness of Barcelona - Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Marin, De Bruyne, Salah, Cuadrado etc. That worked for a while and then it didn't. After we thought we had a long-term vision with Mourinho - a more structured, a more defensively rigurous team - worked wonders, won a title. After, just a disaster. A long-term plan cut short by an atrocious season. Now we're starting again with Conte, who in his mindset and player type preference is kind of a stretch from what we wanted to do at first. Regardless, I think he's the man who can give us a new identity very much different than any other team in the PL that nowadays has a kink with 4-2-3-1 ... like most teams in Europe for that matter. Perhaps it would've been easier for us if we would've got Pep when Abramovic wanted him a few years ago... that squad seemed built just for someone like him to take over - similar to City's squad now - still, with Pep you only get 3 years, which is ridiculous when you think Mourinho wanted to give us the next 10 years of his life and more. I'm not sure if what I'm trying to say is coming across clearly - the main gist is that the club's policy is all over the place. It's been a case of 'what they want' vs 'what they actually can achieve'. We're suffering now because we're trying to shift away from this somewhat incoherent past without actually fully comitting. If they chose Conte and had faith in him, then we need to go all in and allow him to put his idea of football in practice and give him 1-2 years to see what comes of it. It'll be exciting and hope it happens. P.S. Every time I look at our youth teams playing. I see the kind of football that was intended for the first team years ago and boy is it a fun and by the looks of it successful football to watch. The moment that kind of mentality and spirit raises through the ranks and into the first team - that's the moment when all us Chelsea fans will stop worrying about what the future will bring us. It's muddied water right now, I just hope some light will shine through soon enough...

That does seem to be the case most of the time after a poor result. Oh, hell - where is that Torres thread... that guy let us down yet again. Damn it!

That right there is the attitude we need to eradicate from our squad. This whole policy of managers coming and going has harmed us in the past and it still does now. Anyone who saw Italy at the Euro's or Juventus knows that when the players play Conte's way, the team is fearless and relentless in their pursuit of a win. But let's be honest, a lot of our players don't have anywhere near that mentality, far from it. Not sure a few wins against mediocre teams would help us greatly. Fair enough, things have improved on one aspect from last season - in the second half the team's desire pushes through and we obtain points - at least that's what happened in the previous games. Much more work still needs to be done. Personally, I want to see Conte's other side. The one we hear about from his former players - the one where if you don't go along with his ideas and the team, you - as an individual player, regardless of talent or 'price' - will be dropped. The sooner it happens the better. From the start he has been quite accommodating and rightly so - in his system, with some players and his desire to give them confidence by playing them week in, week out. But I hope this will soon change. At the moment we have all the right 'ingredients' to repeat last season's horrorshow. And I think only strong actions will prevent that from happening. After all, he's the man that chose Eder and Giaccherini over Insigne and El Shaarawy because of their tireless work and attitude. I'm sure he'll begin to do the same from now on with Chelsea. And I think Moses might just be one of the candidates for that. At the moment I'm not sure 'tinkering' with something that doesn't really work will be of much help. We haven't even met City, Spurs, United... or even Everton and we're 8th or something. I'm a bit worried. Still, I don't think there's anyone better out there than Conte that can create a proper team spirit and atmosphere in this band of misfits. So let's hope for the best!

Matic has been awfully dreadful today. Not connected to the game at all...

HAZARD! 2 to go!

Glad to see us hold out in the end, would've preferred a third but this will do. Glad to see Oscar in such form this season, began to have doubts about him in the second half of last season where... let's just say he didn't shine. Fabregas has been tremendous again for us. Such a top player. Unbeaten and marching on; GO ON BLUES!

Of course this had to happen. Hate it when I see us close down shop so early in the game... after that city loss this was a good chance to take some distance from them..

DROGBA! The KING is back in style!

HAZARD!

It's these kind of points won, that will let us stay in 1st place, glad to see two beauts from Oscar and Fabragas and a solid display for most of the game. Lacked some concentration in the last minutes but we pulled it off.

A bit of tiki-taka doesn't hurt, great goal with some sound combinations. Fabregas!

3-0. Great improvement from last year

Huh, seems that Costa is the first player since Adrian Mutu to have scored in all of his 3 home matches. Interesting I guess...

COSTA, GOAL MACHINE!