Remy10

I think we were due a refresh anyway, right? 😅

Anyone any good at making decent header site banners? I think the players need a change up!
@Remy10

I thought we'd accepted he was out for the rest of the season so he could get proper treatment for this and be ready for pre-season - why would we rush him back for the final game, a completely meaningless fixture? Madness.

I thought we'd accepted he was out for the rest of the season so he could get proper treatment for this and be ready for pre-season - why would we rush him back for the final game, a completely meaningless fixture? Madness.

Nah, this is confirmation bias and speculation speaking. It reads like you've formed a conclusion and applied it in retrospect.
In the last ten years, we've had Silva, Rudiger, Reece James, Ashley Cole, Azpilicueta, Terry, Ivanovic...some of the best 1v1 defenders the league has ever seen, let alone Chelsea. If anything, the complete opposite is true, where we've over-relied on individual ability rather than having effective defensive systems, especially at set-pieces. We've also had to accomodate players like David Luiz, Jorginho, Obi Mikel who were great at some aspects of defending but deficient in others. 
As for City's success, it is hardly revolutionary. Just as Italian managers revived the 3-4-3/3-5-2, so too has Guardiola returned to using four defensive players at the back. The 2000s saw the rise of the attacking fullback and extinction of the first-and-foremost defender such that by the end of the decade, "defensive" fullbacks were considered a liability. 

This season's City team read like something out of a 1980s football magazine with four actual defenders across the back and an attacking tactic that is essentially getting it to the big lad upfront as quick as possible. All that is old becomes new again.

I think all his jobs have had mitigating circumstances but also that he has done way better than people give him credit for (usually)
Derby - playoff final and attracted some good young loans that he improved to supplement and already decent team.
chelsea (1) - got us 4th with a transfer ban and blooded all the players we love today. Second season was top, then struggled for a few weeks through a hard run of fixtures and was sacked (as we do to all managers) 
Everton - kept them up with a dire team, a team with 3 points in 15 games before he arrived. They then sold his best attacker and replaced them with CBs and CMs leaving him with no attacking players. They had the best defence in the league for about the first 10 games, after which it all crumbled from the lack of goals he didn’t have the players to score. 
 
chelsea 2 - we have about 400 players and everyone’s out the door or given up for the season, even pep would struggle with this lot this season
 

At this rate we'll be lucky to end up with Ted Lasso.

Honestly for me the best move this summer is to secure Mount down to a long deal. I don’t care about Nkunku or any potential signings, I just want us to keep him.
He’s going to be a key player and I hope it’s for us. Such a travesty it’s come to this point. If you asked me Mount could leave a year ago it’d be unthinkable.

If only we had some way of knowing Willian likes to cut in on his right foot and shoot

If only we had some way of knowing Willian likes to cut in on his right foot and shoot

If only we had some way of knowing Willian likes to cut in on his right foot and shoot

If only we had some way of knowing Willian likes to cut in on his right foot and shoot

I have to agree that things feel a little surreal as a fan right now. Obviously we're in a new era with new ownership, but the sacking of Tuchel hasn't helped. He won us the Champions League and was there with us through some dark days for the club, always leading the way with a combination of dignity and passion and had built a strong bond with the fans because of all that. He was backed in the transfer market and then, a half dozen games in, he's gone - even quicker than we'd have expected Roman to act! Even for a fanbase numb to the managerial revolving door it was a shock. Seeing so many fellow fans I know on social media sharing heartfelt messages, including from an ex-colleague of mine who worked with him at Chelsea, brought it home how much emotional attachment there was to the man.
It also doesn't help that we don't really have a squad of experienced winners and leaders who can help compensate until the manager finds their feet. I do believe that Potter was probably the best call at the time with an eye on getting us to be a bit more direct and another eye on the future and building something, and I also believe we have several players who could go on to form a strong spine, but it also feels like these are unprecedented times and there's a very real possibility things could fall to a new low before any of that comes to be!
All in all, I'm trying to see the positives and believe that the groundwork is being laid for a future just as full of success, albeit achieved in a different way. A performance and result from the next game will certainly go some way to calming me down, so hopefully the club take full advantage of this break to have a bit of a reset and kick off this new era properly. I started supporting the club at a time when I was never involved in any playground arguments about who was going to win the league etc. that season, surrounded by Arsenal and southern United fans. I wasn't even guaranteed bragging rights against the West Ham fan, so I'm trying to remain level-headed and not take success for granted or like some sort of right.

The goal for anyone that didn't see it, nice pace shown by Eden maybe he's still got it after all 😉

Oh yeah for sure, sorry I didn’t mean it to sound like I thought we were fully out of the race (I’ve seen enough football to know it can all change in a few games - for better as well as worse!), I was just acknowledging that even outside of that we have some big things to fight for this season, which should be exciting if this game sets the tone for 2022!  

I wouldn't be so sure that we are entirely out of the title race. We have a very "forgiving" calendar in the second part of the season playing most of the "tough" games at home (Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester, Wolves, West Ham).  To make it possible we need to beat City  in the next game and reduce deficit to 7. City looked very dodgy against Arsenal. Is there a chance that Liverpool would beat City to reduce it to 4 - absolutely yes. Is there a chance MU,Tottenham, West Ham, Wolves  could grab a point against City - i think it's possible. That deficit can be cut down to nothing provided we turned the corner and start winning all of our games. 

My set of keys. Was bound to happen 🙂 Will probably go to the match in Lille as some of my best friends live there, Lille is like my second home.

finally? we only played them last year

I just can't get behind the idea of paying big money to re-sign a player we let go years ago. The pressure and scrutiny will be huge for those reasons, and we know from experience that a Chelsea striker rarely performs under those circumstances. Add to that the pressure of him returning to the PL after a relatively dissapointing time at United. I would love to be proved wrong, however, and for this to be a great story of redemption and us finally managing to get it right with a record transfer for a striker, but I can't help but be sceptical!
I guess the optimistic spin is that under those circumstances it's "written in the stars" for him to return and win us the league, scoring a crucial goal away in his first game back at Old Trafford or something, so, y'know...there's always hope! 

I just can't get behind the idea of paying big money to re-sign a player we let go years ago. The pressure and scrutiny will be huge for those reasons, and we know from experience that a Chelsea striker rarely performs under those circumstances. Add to that the pressure of him returning to the PL after a relatively dissapointing time at United. I would love to be proved wrong, however, and for this to be a great story of redemption and us finally managing to get it right with a record transfer for a striker, but I can't help but be sceptical!
I guess the optimistic spin is that under those circumstances it's "written in the stars" for him to return and win us the league, scoring a crucial goal away in his first game back at Old Trafford or something, so, y'know...there's always hope! 

I had to zoom in, but honestly, it was all the thanks I needed! 

I had to zoom in, but honestly, it was all the thanks I needed! 

I’ve seen the debates in the match day threads, I’ll pass the honour to @Zeta, and we can see which colour Stamford will be wearing... 😂

@Remy10 when you design the banner for my socks based sub-forum remember Blue socks are the luckiest socks. 

Not as good as the old one I did with Stamford the lion.