ozboy

Pair of good goals that worth getting up for.

No team except Huddersfield is a pushover, but we really should win this. Forget about talent from here to the end of the season it’s character and effort.

We really lack a proper motivated captain. Someone that can impose his character on the team. Clearly the team and Sarri are not completely together. That said no manager has ever made Luiz perform consistently and he was awful with his distribution tonight. And why he is allowed to take those attacking free kicks is a mystery. I can only remember one success. Palmeris use of the ball was poor failing to make the quick forward pass when it was needed on several occasions, instead going back and confine us to that terrible to watch passing play around our penalty area. I’d like to see ampadu get a run in central defence while rudiger is injured CHO will make plenty of mistakes but he will get better if allowed to relax on the pitch and not feel he has to score in the first 30 seconds. Cho, RLC, and ampadu won’t win us the league or even ensure 4th. But they could be the basis of the next gen along with rudigier, Christensen and pulisic. ‘Despite season long problems which are getting worse and not better there is still a lot to play for this season. Like him or not there is no plan b for the rest of this season, so let’s get onboard with the plan a. It was disgraceful to hear the boos for Jorginho. Quite undeserved.

Cant really expect to beat Liverpool at their ground and given where we are in the table this season. That said we were much more competitive against them earlier on in the season. We've stood still or gone backwards and they've improved. Keita and Fabinho have improved their midfield heaps. Without being critical this game showed to me that neither RLC or CHO aren't quite ready for the big games yet. That's more on RLC who is further along than CHO. Mostly I prefer RLC now but for this game I honestly think Kovacic might have been a better choice and yes losing Rudigier didn't help. Top 4 is a challenge but still much more than a mathematical possibility. The analysis that showed how badly we've done against the top sides away is great data although I'm not sure what the conclusion is. Its probably that we'd be better off playing Kante in the holding role in those games and that would let us use RLC and Kovacic/Barkely Other than Hazard and sometimes Willian our attack is completely useless this season CHO improves it but not yet sufficiently to get on top in really big games. The team needed a complete rebuild and basically was screwed, with the benefit of hindsight by a combination of: 1. Mourinho getting rid of De Bruyne and Salah. I'll never completely forgive that especially De Bruyne 2 Not adequately replacing Costa 3 Losing Emelano who with the benefit of hindsight can be seen as the person who was associated with much of the talent brought into the club up until he left 4 Abramovitch not being in england much. For me the judgement on Sarri is mixed. I agree with a lot of the criticism particularly refusing to use Kante in his best position at least sometimes. That's just dumb. On the other hand he's been brave and tried a new way of football which looked pretty good at the start of the season and he had no pre season and he's inherited a seemingly dysfunctional squad. Luiz, Higuain, Giroud , Pedro could no longer go to a top class club. All are cast offs although France won the world cup with Giroud even if Arsenal won nothing. Kovacic wasn't starting at Real, Palmeri wasn't starting in Italy In the stockbroking terms I am used to Chelsea look like a sell right now. All that said we can still get into the Champions League next season...Anyhow postmortems after losses are rarely much fun.

Good read alright, but Mourinhoi is just a pastiche of his former self. He no longer get players to believe.

The Prague team makes it likely RLC and cho will start. Willian could legitimately push cho but cho’s youthful self belief and pace is good for the team. Kovacic played brilliantly against them early in the season but doesn’t look the same recently. We will have to be pragmatic, sit deep and hit them on the counter. Salah and mane will cut luiz to shreds pace wise. The best Chelsea can compete with man c and these guys, on a bad day we could lose 4 blot. I hope for a win but would settle for a draw here. As was said earlier they will be desperate.

William has been fine as has Barkley We just aren’t doing well against the high press and the attack lacks pace and precision on the fast break. We should be n]better in h2

Pedro looked so slow in that half. CHO so much more on the right. Kovacic also not out of bed yet.

Cant blame Hazard for going. But he’ll be missed. 3rd for now.

Emerson is very good defensively tonight.

CHO has been pants tonight

Keppa Azpi Ruigier Luiz Emerson/Alonso (I'm indifferent to those two) Kante RLC Barkely CHO/Willian Higuain Hazard I'm over Jorginho being an automatic starter, its not necessarily his fault but the team needs a different approach in the midfield, Kante provides that. RLC and Barkely provide more attacking thrust than Kovacic CHO deserves a start, not necessarily better than Willian this season but provides a changeup that we need.

Sarri has to use his brain and change things up properly. Higuain looks hopeless in the "defensive phase" but I personally thought his link up play and "almost" play around the penalty area was ok. Jorginho on the other hand is just not the right player for that position. Kante or as second choice Kovacic so much better. In Australia that game started at midnight and ended at 2:00 am and after the first hour you start to really beat up on yourself for staying up at the start of the work week to watch complete garbage. It looked like a pre season game in the first half. Dire passing, players strolling round the pitch. Really hopeless. Ah well we got the 3 points. Onwards and perhaps upwards.

Alonso’s touch and passing has been great tonight. Fantastic assist for Girouds second. RLC strong but could use another yard of pace.

Lots of pressure for a tough but winnable game where we will be favourite but far from a certainty. I still would like to see RLC ad CHO getting 30 minutes. They sparkle up and otherwise somewhat predictable team. Alonso looks to be running back into form and in truth the Kiev game wasn’t that taxing.