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We just need to sort our midfield out. Get control of the middle and the rest will fall into place.

I'm starting to think that our result against Atletico wasn't because we were so good, but because they are actually quite bad this season.

We haven't actually looked that bad considering we are the away team. However if we have ambitions to be a top tier club we need to look the part home and away, which at the moment we don't.

This 1000 times. I keep reading on a few forums that we went to a back 4. At no time during the match did we revert to 4 at the back. It was always a back 3/5.

Well we made hard work of this one didn't we. Our issues today wasn't so much our defence (I know it really looked like it), but more to do with our lightweight midfield. In losing the midfield battles we put more and more pressure on the defence, and as we all know by now, all you have to do to beat our defence is to press press press! We seriously need more reinforcements in midfield during the January transfer window if we are to stand any chance of competing on all fronts during the second half of the season.

In my opinion the problem is two fold. Firstly, some of our defenders are not great passers, I'm including Courtois in that too. The opposition players know now to press our defenders quickly (especially when Tibo has the ball) and they tend to make a mistake. By doing this it really nullified the effectiveness of our wing backs as they where not receiving the ball to transition the play forward. Rectifying this is not easy. You either hope that our current crop of defenders will eventually get better at passing, or you invest in defenders who are already accomplished passers. Neither solution in going to work immediately as there is no guaranty that our current crop of defenders can get better at passing, nor is it a given that an accomplished passing defender is going to be any good at defending. The second problem is our midfield. However great Kante is at wining the ball back, he is not the transitional type midfielder we need. Bakayoko is still really young and has a lot to learn, which shows in his play. His awareness of what is around him is terrible, and his thought process is too slow to be playing in the midfield for a team aiming for titles and trophy's. I know I'm being harsh on Baka, and I'm not saying he hasn't got the ability to be a great player, just that he's not there yet. And then there is Cesc Fabregas. He really isn't the player we need in our midfield in this formation. He's a luxury player, who at his age should only be playing in the number 10 role with no defensive responsibility's, which will not work with the current formations we deploy. Maybe Danny Drinkwater will be the short term solution to the issues we're having in midfield at the moment, but he is not the long term answer. If Antonio is going to stick with these formations, we need to invest in the players to fit his style.

The media as a whole, and other parts of the football industry, are trying to squeeze as much out of football as possible, to the point now where we're getting a football overload. Youth football on the Tele, womens football on the Tele, more teams in the Euros, more teams in the World cup, pre-season games being played all over the world, (which is even more annoying now games are no longer on Chelsea TV). Money makes the world go around, but it is also ruining football.

I think the answer to that (BIB) is obvious, they have the ambition to be the best club in the world! How do you achieve that? By having the best players in the world. And by having the best back up players for those best players in the world. Now the reasons for Sanchez wanting to go to City...... Money and trophy's! With him there I'm sure they will achieve at least the league and come very close to the Champions League. And they will pay him handsomely for it too!

Which is why I believe he will end up leaving us soon. Probably end up at Real Madrid. Good luck to him, it's his life and he aloud to live it how he wishes. However, the club needs to decide on what it wants to be! Is Chelsea aiming to be in the top tier of elite clubs? In which case the boards need to start chasing the top tier players, regardless of cost. Is the club aiming to be self sufficient? That will only happen if the club is challenging on a regular basis for top biggest trophy's. Otherwise cash revenues start to dry up. The club might also want to start bringing through some of the amazing youth products that we have been producing other the past few years. But are the fans and the board ready to be patient and forgo winning the league and maybe not making the Champions League for a while?

One of Hazards biggest problems is simply that he is Eden Hazard! Most teams know at the moment that one step to stopping Chelsea play is to stop Hazard playing. If you do that effectively then you have a great chance of getting a result against us. To counter this you need other players to take up the slack left by teams marking Hazard out of the game, which simply isn't happening at the moment. Morata goes so far in giving us another target man, but when he's out of the team no-one else steps up. City are by far the best example this year in how to deal with this problem, by having so many talented players in midfield and up front, there is no way you can target one player to affect how they play. If you mark Jesus, Silva will be left free to do his bit. Mark Silva? Well Aguero will just smash 2 past you instead! So what's the answer? I think it's obvious what we do depending on what your expectations are. But I'll let you answer that yourselves.

To be completely honest, I very rarely contribute to fans forums any more, and only visit for a bit of schadenfreude. I learned a long time ago not to take football so personally. If your mood is affected by by something you have absolutely no control over then you need to remove yourself from that thing emotionally. Football fans in general make me laugh so much now, just visiting other teams forums is sometimes hysterical! Nearly all fans on all forums believe that their fans are the classiest and all other teams fans are, "racist", "classless", "pickeys", "chaves", "rentboys"........ so on and so forth. The truth be told, all teams fans have the same elements, all football fans are just as diverse as their fellow fans from other teams. No team has better fans than any other team. As for the media, when it comes to sport, they only cater for what's going to pull in the views/readers. Hence the supposedly Manchester/Liverpool bias. They simply have far more support than us, so it's only natural that the media is going to direct more positivity towards those clubs as that is where they are going to make most of their money. However, the belief that they don't get any negative press is bull, as they get pulled apart by the press when they deserve it just like every other team does. Does media bias bother me? Simply no! Why would it bother me that someone else has a different opinion to me! All that matters is what I get out of supporting my team. At the moment, the media have us in a crisis, which is just the media over blowing the truth, as it usually does. However it is true that we are not the best team in the league after 8 games and it is looking less likely than last year that we will win the league this year. It is also true that the teams that are going to do well in the Champions League are those who have spent mega bucks during the summer (City/PSG). That's not to say that we or any other team won't win it, just that them two teams have raised the bar somewhat, which has made it far more difficult for the rest of us.

It was actually seen by some before he deleted the tweet. Long before the above report was seen

Can't have 'em all. The unfortunate thing about this transfer is that it addresses one of the problems that Liverpool have had for the past few years. Couple that with their attacking play and they could be a force next season.

The kids has scored 26 goals this season, including 6 in the champions league helping his team to the semis. Also he has 8 league assists. Not bad for an 18 year old. Normally I'd say the best thing for young player's like Kylian is to stay at his current club and develop for another couple of years. However in the current football climate of 'buy now before your rivals do' we have no choice but to jump in for him now before he's snapped up by City or United. Maybe the best we could do is buy him and loan him back to Monaco.

I have read plenty thank you. So what you're saying is, we shouldn't bid for Mbappe just in case he's hounded out by the press?!

Well if you choose to give a sh*t about what the media say that's your problem. That is no excuse for not buying a player. As long as we keep filling the trophy cabinet, what the media think is irrelevant.

Why is it that every other teams football forum who are in for Mbappe is full of fans relishing the prospect of signing him for however much their team will pay. But on here and the other Chelsea forum you're all worried about how much he'll cost! Are you lot flippin' serious????

Surely they must hate us more than the Gooners now. The amount of pain we've inflicted on them over the years, especially when you add to the fact that we completely bolloxed them up in 2012, ended their title ambitions last year and beat them to it this year. Oh how I love being Chelsea!

I've got one... ... I think we've seen the best that Hazard has got to offer. I just don't think he'll progress staying in this league. The main problem for him now, is that teams know that all you have to do to nullify him is mark him out of the game. We've seen it more and more over the last few games, and will probably see it a lot more next season.

I would say the same about you!

I agree with you that we are not on par with Juve just yet, however with one or two additional signings on top of a replacement for Costa, I believe we won't be far behind them. I cannot however agree with your assessment of Mbappe. Just because he didn't score against Juve in one match, (who probably have the best defensive record in football at the moment) does not mean he isn't good enough for us. He's scored against pretty much all he's come up against for crying out loud!

S So what you're saying is, don't buy him just in case it doesn't work out? Firstly isn't it a risk buying any player regardless of their experience, as there is no guarantee that any player will succeed. Secondly, Mbappe has already proven himself at the highest level, with inferior players around him (unless you believe Monaco are better than us across the park)!

eh!?

I'm not against getting someone along the lines of Morata or Lukaku. But if we are to compete against the best we need the best players. Mbappe has the potential to be better than both the previously mentioned players. If we don't get him now he will be snapped up by one of our rivals.

Two points: Firstly, the problem we have is that if we don't go for this guy now the chances are he will be snapped up by someone else such is his profile at the moment. The only way around it if you wish to give him time to develop is to buy him and lone him back to Monaco. However this will still mean we have to pay top dollar for him. Secondly, you say that people thought paying £30m for Jesus was mad. Well City have payed that for him and he looks a great prospect. We need to make sure we get players like Mbappe and are not left shopping around for "Grade C Eggs". What's more important? What we spend on players or the titles we win?