MANoWAR

He's been sh*t, not just poor. He's comfortably the worst defender in their backline. And even in his good form his defensive lapses will be far less forgiven at Chelsea than at Leicester. It's not as if we have any top end CBs to cover for him as well, do we? He's also a big confidence player, will play well when we're doing well but see some of the same sh*t as this season and we're gonna have even bigger complaints than about Alonso. Questionable signing in my eyes.

Literally. Then we saw that Rudiger disappointed too. Would be ridiculous if we don't go for a more established CB.

For next season I think we'd need to breeze through group stages of ucl (provided we don't get something like Juventus/Barca etc) and comfortable top 4 (making sure we're not 33 points below), reducing our total goals conceded to at the very least 43 or so -- or at the very least not be so below our xG conceded, and making the (semi-)final of the fa cup/LC. We're gonna have the best transfer window of our (maybe) entire history and the world for the next seasn, we can't find the same f**kups we've seen.

The director, Voller, has stated any terms with regards to Havertz' sale will not exclude the compulsion of him playing until their Europa league campaign is over. They are a shoe-in against Rangers, so we would need Conte to do a job on them afterwards. Failing that, and if not, he would definitely miss a chunk of our pre-season. I think we may be waiting for the transfer window and perhaps their campaign.

Btw on a separate point.. if we take the amount spent as anything, then these days it doesn't necessarily have to amount to anything. Arsenal's gross is about 400m over the past few years with a higher net spend than Chelsea but they've amounted to nothing compared to us with an overall very mediocre squad. Liverpool's net spend it pitiful compared to the other teams round us compared to what they've won since Klopp game in (92m net spend over the past few years?) yet maybe one or two teams in the world have a better XI than them? (Bayern / RM). We've spent a lot of money on duds / mediocrity over the past few years (200m+ in 17/18...).

Again this is not a comparison of who had better transfers or spent more money... yes no sh*t to do well you usually buy better players which they've done this season. I'm speaking of the general attitude about other rivals like United that Chelsea fans haven't had to worry about them when they've established a very formidable side from the get-go. You see it very often here i.e the post from the previous page that they falter against better sides... I don't know if Chelsea have had more out but I don't think it's significant enough to be used in a discussion of positions. United have had Pogba / Bailly out for most of the season, Matic / Shaw about a third of it, Rashford missed about 13 games, McTominay about 12 games, Martial a little bit less (all together) compared to Pulisic. Not exactly a bright situation. And, yes we're ahead by a few points, great, never disputed we're ahead of 'em, but the only table that matters is the one at the end of the season, esp. as we've a harder run-in. I mean in the goals faced aspect - I guess xGA is the term used there (statsbomb use xG e.g. xG conceded within the context).

If by restraints you're referring to injuries then Chelsea are not alone in that regard... if you're alluding to referees, then well... Transfer window wise yes, but that's not the point when looking at quality. Bruno was signed in January for example when we could sign players And also, nobody is saying that Chelsea haven't done very well esp. with many young players, but there is a lot of this idea that United are just some mediocre team when there are definitely arguments to be had that many parts of their squad are better than us. Conceded less, better in the xG department etc. They've got a stupidly easy schedule coming up (because they've played the strongest sides early on)

United haven’t lost in 14, and they've scored 36 and conceded 4 in that time. Played City twice, Chelsea away, Wolves, spurs away. Everton away and Sheffield United away. Your better sides comment looks wrong when compared to the table -- they've statistically done the best against the top 6. They're a very formidable side who lots of people tend to underrate here -- disregarding next season's signings I would take their current attack and defense over what we have atm

I wouldn't say he's bottom 5 but yeah I think no club in the world around our level has a keeper of his level -- he's definitely in his own (low) tier in that regard.

My concern is that Ornstein (Correspondent -- The Athletic / ex-BBC) has said we haven't been in contact with any entourages since January -- United and to a lesser extent Liverpool have -- which is not too long before we confirmed the Ziyech signing. He's nothing short of an exceptional player, but Sancho is a top 3 youth talent, having the potential to be a top five forward in the world as barely anybody has achieved the kind of prowess he's shown at his age, so it'd be disappointing if we decided to go for one or the other, when really having both would elevate us back to we've often been, and fixing the winger position for general firepower.

Boy what the f**k is that team -- they should be going down. Constantly sh*t play - chelsea aside

the vid is long but is goes through pretty much everything

The goal is annoying. Had Kante been in Emerson's position he would have been able to help if he couldn't clear the ball. Kante's error/slip is irrelevant in the context of things -- there was no reason he should've been 2 vs. 1 on a corner for the first goal when you're already leading 1-0

Hopefully they board have sourced many of their targets through this window, who are unattainable for transfer now, so that we can quickly wrap them up in the summer and have them get a proper pre-season.

Three glorious predictions of either: 1-1, 1-0 to Chelsea or 1-2 to Arsenal. Cannot see so many goals this game.

Every time James puts a golden cross in, Bats outward transfer fee goes down by 500,000

I will admit that Sarri's work did help make the transition to Lampard's style easier but there's no chance that I would've wanted him to stay.

Lol I know I'm still disappointed we didn't manage to beat Ajax with 9 men -- but at least goals looked like they were coming from somewhere in both those games. Can't see it at all here

Haha the 15/16 season seems like a distant memory... almost forgot how bad that was. Hated Conte's last season as well but it's more because he was a prick than us not knowing what to do

f**king sh*t. We seemed to have forgotten how to play since West Ham beat us. I haven't seen a seen a series of performances this insipid in a long while for Chelsea. Also, as useful as Abraham has been for us, and I'm aware he's often isolated, his skills outside of goalscoring need a lot of improvement -- technical ability and general reading of the game. f**k we really do need to add to our squad

I wish wish wish he wasn't as petulant as he was, but I also wish that we had a proper DoF with the club to help guide the required vision that we had/Conte had, which included guidance with transfer targets that might have been questionable. Recognising that Candreva has some qualities that Conte may have liked, but then suggesting a player who might have had those characteristics and much more too. 2.5 years ago we were BETTER than Liverpool and pretty much equivalent with Man City. We should be similar to where they are, not several tiers in difference .

My preference is Gaya > Grimaldo > Telles.

Just checking our fixture list, and through end of Jan to Feb we have Arsenal Home, Leicester City Away, Man United Home and Spurs Home. WHAT THE FUCK? Best hope we don't have a poor run of games here as bad momentum might lessen our top four chances. Can only hope the defense situation is sorted out by then

double post

Tomori certainly can play with the ball at his feet but he's quite risky in his play esp against pressure -- consequently puts a lot of pressure on the others within our defence and midfield.