Qaz

what's up with the classic sponsorless shirts? I love it

got another, 3 nil now

He was good enough last season. He definitely seems to be one of those players whose best when the team is playing well as opposed to someone who makes the team play well, if that makes sense.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that we have somewhere between the 3rd to 6th best squad in the league (probably closer to 6th than 3rd). If we could wipe from history some of the mistakes we've made in the transfer market (Salah, De Bruyne, Costa, etc) we'd be much closer to the Manchester clubs. But alas what's done is done. Truth is, last season was a confluence of good luck. 5th isn't far off our level.

Short memory? He took us from 10th to 1st in the league with (at best) the 3rd best squad. And lead a change in tactics in half the teams in the league. He's definitely got his problems and letting him go is the right thing to do (at the end of the season at least). But let's not whitewash history. Last season was still a huge achievement

If PSG (or another club) comes in and takes Conte away from us, then Chelsea don't have to pay out his contract. That's probably the only reason he's still at Chelsea as his constant complaining has well and truly soured the relationship by now.

Rewind 2 years when we in the bottom half of the table.... If you'd told me then (in 2 years time) we will be 4th and in the knock-out stages of the champions league (after winning the league the previous year).... Short memories....

Let's remember we finished 10th the season before Conte took over. We then went on to win a league against substantial odds. We can't compete with the budgets of the Manchester clubs. Ok, we aren't in great form, but 3rd/5th with run in a cup is realistically about our level.

and he only got his chance because of an injury crisis

If i'm wrong i'll be the first to put my hand up and admit it. But I'm maybe 80% confident he'll be sold by the end of January

He's definitely on the way out of Chelsea...... I heard a rumour (from a guy on the Chelsea Football FanCast) saying he had a big falling out with Conte where he accused the Italian of being racist against Brazilians. I suspected given how certain he was that he was right but figured depending on whether he played or not, would confirm or disprove the rumour. Looks like it's confirmed.

The new voyeur

Caesar Assist-pilacueta

I sense that without Hazard, Willian feels an obligation to be the team's main creative outlet and it leads to him "overplaying" on the ball a bit. Truth be told, we look a far far better side with Hazard than without. He seems to bring out the best in both Willian and Pedro. I can't help but think both Willian and Pedro tend to be at their best when looking for spaces and making off the ball runs vs Hazard who tends to be at his most creative on the ball. Hence when played together, Willian and Pedro both underperform. That's just my opinion though...

There was a good "presentation?" (i don't know what you'd call it) on one of the Chelsea podcasts this week (i think "the Chels" but might have been "London is blue"). It was looking at the performances of the Chelsea back 3 against Arsenal on the weekend statistically and arguably Cahill was the best. Highlights for him included winning all his aerial duels and giving away zero fouls. I'm a little bemused by some of the stick he got for the game really. We kept a clean sheet and his issues on the ball were more about our midfield not performing than his inadequacies. With Azpi and Luiz bo