Rusty-Man

Compared to the rest of the team, Pedro and Alonso are the weak areas. I also think Traore can be world class, something Pedro cant develop into.

Next season he shouod be competing with Pedro for that RW spot. No offence to Pedro but its a clear area of weakness in this formation.

Seems like United are his destination. I really wanted us to sign him too.

Definitely a weak spot in our team at the moment. Nothing wrong with him just not as good as the rest of them. it's pretty clear what positionshould need upgrading. LWB RFW LCB

Reportedly target numero uno in January. Would like him playing in Pedro's position.

Just want to bump this thread. With England's u17 side being considered a special bunch, are there any Chelsea guys in there with some major talent?

Went for Matic today. Offered a bit more in midfield then Kante yesterday. Hazard a very close second. Best Matic game for a very long time for me.

That was completely cancelled out when he gave up last season. The long term affects of last season could potentially be more lasting then the title winning season. He seriously nearly left the club in a Liverpool like state where we are struggling to get back into the top 4. Fortunately Conte has saved his arse. It will take a lot longer then a couple of games for me to forget that. Don't get me wrong, Costa, Fabregas, Matic and Courtois are all equally in my bad books. The rest are either over the hill, average to begin with or actually performed well all things considered. I'm absolutely delighted that Fabregas has been shut out the way he has been. It's all he deserves for last season and also his lack of effort is like a disease in midfield. Matic is in a similar position to Hazard, although he isn't half as talented so his drop in form wasn't as great as Hazards, meaning I don't judge him as harshly. Courtois I could not give a sh*t about. Sell or keep I'm not bothered, he will never live up to Cech in my opinion. Costa is a complete dick for what he did with Mourinho and I stand by that completely. I'm a bit softer on Costa because he has performed magnificently since the turn of the year and was a big part of us getting out of our rut. He has also been our standout player this season too and has been the reason why we are one point off the top far more then Hazard has.

I don't know how anybody could actually like a player who went from player of the season to not scoring in over 30 games with the click of a finger. The fact that for a year he was willingly letting the club fall into the relegation places makes me really not like him. It will take a long time for him to redeem himself in my eyes. That season will be hard to forget.

Great game. Tough results where we could've had 4 goals. Their only chances were headers because of their giants. Great game.

We are really sloppy on the ball today. Need more composure. When we have space we are making the wrong choices.

Still can't stand him. If Real comes in with a load of money I would be very happy to sell. Can't trust him one bit.

Normal service resumes

I say sell him with a buy back clause on it.

Much prefer him centrally. Should get goals into the 20's now.

As a Part 2 I am comparing the top 2 sides win record and points total against the 4th placed team from the last 6 seasons. La Liga 1st W9 D2 L1 GF28 GA9 GD+21 Pts29 2nd W7 D2 L3 GF30 GA15 GD+15 Pts23 Premier League 1st W7 D4 L1 GF24 GA12 GD+12 Pts25 2nd W7 D2 L3 GF24 GA15 GD+9 Pts23 Bundesliga 1st W7 D3 L2 GF23 GA10 GD+13 Pts25 2nd W5 D2 L5 GF25 GA19 GD+6 Pts17

Considering the points difference between them and Barcelona is around the same as between the top teams in the Premier League and the bottom teams here, this suggests that they aren't worse then the bottom teams in the Premier league. Unless you are saying Barcelona are not head and shoulders above any team in our league (Which their CL dominance suggests). The big disparity is between the top 2 and the 4th placed team in the 3 league's. There is clearly a bigger gap between the top 2 and the 4th placed team in La Liga and Bundesliga compared to the Premier League. The rest is about equal. This suggests that these two league's best teams perform equally as well with the Premier League against the mid table and bottom half teams but outperform them against the teams competing for top 4. The question is whether this is due to the top teams being better or the teams just below being worse. In my opinion, it's both. These league's top teams are better but so are our teams from 4th to 6th. So really, it evens itself out all things considered. Also shows that no, the quality of the bottom teams isn't better in our league. I might work out some more stats on this.

Not sure where to put this so here it is. Comparing the points per game average of these league's from the last six seasons (2010/11 to 2015/16). Just to see how they stack up and whether certain rhetorics are true. 1st Place Team La Liga: 2.503 p/g Premier League: 2.23 p/g Bundesliga: 2.44 p/g 2nd Place Team La Liga: 2.355 p/g Premier League: 2.083 p/g Bundesliga: 2.103 p/g 4th Place Team La Liga: 1.74 p/g Premier League: 1.87p/g Bundesliga: 1.72 p/g 10th Place Team La Liga: 1.25 p/g Premier League: 1.26 p/g Bundesliga: 1.255 p/g 17th Place Team La Liga: 1.033 p/g Premier League: 1.005 p/g Bundesliga: 1.043 p/g Make of these what you will.

One of the best in the world in his position. Won't mind for a couple of years.

Zouma doesn't have to play. Quite the opposite actually. He is coming off a major injury and may not be as good as he was before for a little while. I would rather not put all our eggs in a potentially broken basket.

Fabregas is too much of a liability really. Can't play well when pressed and can't defend not run. He has no place in this team.

A very underrated player who is going under the radar and bit with this loan. Playing very well.

Lewis Baker is a more developed player. Definitely a loan should be on the cards for him. Minutes is what he needs and maybe a change of culture in a different country. All experience is good experience.

One is taking their chances, the other didn't.

He is flourishing under Conte who is a similar character to Simeone. I don't think it was anything more than a heat of the moment bit of passion from two passionate guys. Sure Conte will sort it out if there is any lingering problems and he probably liked that from Costa anyways.