Bloo

No worries. Many thanks for the update. 👍

Calm down for chrissakes! My 63 year old memory is not as good as it was especially when remembering events from nigh on 15 years ago. You are, of course, correct, my figure was the away goals conceded; but you already know that so a simple correction by you would've sufficed. My apologies for raising your blood pressure and I can assure you I will say 3 Hail Marys tonight whilst wearing a horsehair shirt as punishment.

Pathetic player - way out of his depth. And to think we once went a season in the EPL with only 9 goals conceded.

An utterly stupid decision (Billy for Kovacic) from a very intelligent guy - wake up Frank. Four games in and dissent is starting to show (here and on The Shed).

Poor sub's from Frank - great player, nice guy but a long way from being a top manager. Stupid substitution taking Kovacic off for the kid. 2-1 down, 10 minutes to go, attack has fizzled out - just shore up the frigging defence and see it out. Crazy, crazy decisions. And as for Zouma - words fail me - an utter clod of a player.

Miles better this week. V.nice humble guy in the post-match BT interview. Please keep it up!

Would almost certainly be a lot easier for Frank if we had a true leader on the pitch - the sort of guy that commands respect and calls out those not sticking to the plan or simply not thinking on their feet. The only Chelsea man at the ground yesterday (apart from Frank) that could do this was wearing a flat grey cap and spectating. A strong Captain has to be a priority for Frank - not one of these 'token' Captains that get the 'band due to longevity at the club. That's fine as a club Captain but on-pitch you need a real leader and they seem hard to come by since JT left us.

I'm simply saying that if RLC and CHO are two of our best players then we have fallen way off the pace. I don't really see that as being mutually exclusive with exciting and full of hope.

If we are including CHO & RLC as three of our best players awaiting return then we really have sunk to a recent low. RLC still has a lot to prove and CHO even more so. It's not too many seasons back that we were regularly in the top 3-5 position in the EUEFA club co-efficient tables and were feared across Europe - I doubt many teams fear us in the EPL let alone Europe these days. What a mess the Board have made of the club over the last few years. Yes, we have a great trophy haul but we are maybe 5 years or so away from being a true European powerhouse again. A long slog lies ahead for Frank & Co - and that's assuming the Board quickly get their collective arses into gear.

We're not exactly dealing with a football virgin here - he's 21 ie a man not a kid, in 2017/18 he had the equivalent of 19 full matches playing time in the Premier League and in 2018/19 he had the equivalent of 38 full matches played in the Championship. Source: Footystats. Time to get over any nerves and time to look a good deal better than he has so far imo. As an aside I wonder if we aren't *issing in the wind with the classic lump it up/cross it to to the Number 9 position instead of favouring 3 highly mobile strikers across the front that attack/defend with the rest of the team as required.

Not understanding the excitement around this lad - looks way out of his depth. If we had a quality striker and decent backup he'd be our League Cup (or whatever it is called) run out at best. For all the noise surrounding him the last couple of years I was expecting to be wowed - at least in glimpses. Sadly not the case.

Is this forum moderated? Reading like a Fighting Cock thread.

Frank - needs to react a lot earlier when we started to become overwhelmed at the back end of the first half. Poor show tactically on his part. I know this is heresy on here: but Abraham; seriously? I've seen very little from him in the first three games of the season. Can hardly win a ball in the air even with his height advantage - he is a million miles away from being our answer and don't ever see him being our saviour. I think we rode our luck there to keep it level and sadly we have already lost touch with the league's pacesetters - early doors but 5 points is a big ask for our transitional team to close down. Not massively disappointed yet as I've no big expectations in terms of our overall performance this season.

VAR supporter here - anything that makes final results more accurate gets my vote. VAR will never be 100% accurate but it will improve the level of accuracy. How we would all have wished for VAR when Ovebro mishandled that infamous match - or are we saying that some fans were happy with the outcome because the game flowed quickly, spontaneous excitement/outrage wasn't stifled and there was plenty to debate in the pub afterwards? *** Re the handball yesterday: too bad if it would not have been spotted if VAR was not in action. Surely that is one facet of VAR that we would all welcome - it makes the game fairer surely? I see that KDB is confused by the new rules - this despite every club manager and captain was briefed fully in the pre-season and ditto many journalists/pundits for that matter so I'm not sure why most parties that really matter are confused. *** I'm comfortable with the new rule and tbh I don't see why the rule has to be the same for attackers and defenders. The two situations are entirely different and as a general rule I'd wager that a goal from an 'accidental' handball by an attacker, a rare occurrence in itself, is more likely to be skewed towards foul play than a defender who stops a shot on target with an accidental handball - the latter often being a by-product of the, not uncommon, arms tucked in body block that is used in defensive situations where the defender simply cannot move their arm out of the ball's flight-path quick enough.

3rd place - at least we are ahead of the Mighty Spurs!

Utterly useless striker.

Stunning result and very well played Spurs. A really exciting watch,

Agreed - in spades! 100% what our team currently lacks.

Humble Pie time: Not a big fan at all until yesterday - he played superbly. Hope his back issue gets sorted (and he plays like this most of the time) as it's nice to have a big marauding lump in the middle as opposed to our current midgets.

You are correct but please don't have a heart attack and miss us winning the CL next year! ?

So what (?) - he's paid enough to shine for 20 minutes. Needs to take his chances when he gets them. Looked like he was auditioning for a Zombie movie - if he is Chelsea's future then we may as well give up.

Awful today - no hunger whatsoever.

Utterly pitiful performance from GH - clearly does not understand the offside rule. Dross of the first order.

Higuan - how on earth did he stay on for 98 minutes. Hopeless. Atkinson - dreadful too.

Well, last night Pedro scored 2.5 (haha) goals and an assist whereas during his cameo CHO looked like he was auditioning for the latest Zombie-fest movie (and he wasn't much better vs LFC at the weekend).