Slojo

Just a bit of banter.

Ziyech is more creative than Havertz and has a better final ball, I wouldn't write him off just yet, or Havertz. But if I had to go with a player to start, I would go Ziyech at the moment.

I loved Essien, but Essien after 2010 just was like a different player. It was knee surgery wasn't it? Then he pulled up again the season after and that was that for his Chelsea career. Kante is probably the closest player we have resembling Essien though.

Containing Salah is a difficult job, but I wouldn't say Chilwell did his job well defensively. Watch Salah when he played that ball into Mane, realistically Mane should've buried that, Pools best chance of the game. Chilwell allowed Salah to cut in, then he did it again exactly a few minutes later and almost played in Curtis Jones for a one v one. This might be pretty brutal, but I thought he was one of the weak links yesterday, him and Ziyech were the only two who I thought could've done a lot better.

I actually thought he was poor, ruined the few attacking opportunities that he had, defensively not great, allowed Salah to cut in very easily twice that almost lead to Mane/Jones free on separate occasions. I still think he's got ways to go.

Just look at Arsenal, form didn't matter, they were utterly and unbelievably sh*t and won the game. Our players couldn't raise to the occasion, in big games, you have to. Some games are like that, no matter how sh*t Arsenal or Spurs are, they'll always turn up against one another.

To be fair Val, neither do I. I just find it funny because Kurt Zouma is the last person I would expect watching Cartoons on the plane every week. I just pictued Chilwell and Mason pissing themselves behind him, I thought it was a great bit of fun they were all in on.

We are the 2nd best team in the league when it comes to possession, so we don't lose it as much as people think we do. I know it's not entertaining, and it can give you a panic attack at any minute, but we are really good at playing it out from the back imo, it's one of our best attributes. I can understand the criticism with not wanting to play that way, and criticism with other areas on the pitch, but our ability to play it out from the back I won't understand, because we are very good at it.

It's nerve wrecking and you brick it, especially when Mendy is on the ball, he's almost had a few slip ups as it is. But it really is an effective tactic, and I don't think we as fans give the players enough credit for it. Sometimes in the matchday thread I see complaints about how poor we are playing it from the back and I just don't understand, if you think this is poor, go watch another team try it, they can't do it as well as we do, not even Arsenal, only City are better. I still remember how annoyed Bruno Fernandes was against us the game before, he was constantly chasing shadows and he eventually got fed up and stopped running around the 70th minute.

No first big test jokes? I'm disappointed. Anyway, defensively we look excellent. But got to get producing again, I wouldn't mind seeing Ziyech playing this game. He's definitely not a fan favourite at the moment but I think we need a more attacking approach. Everton aren't exactly Southampton but we have to take the game to them and win this one. Get CHO back at RWB, and I would go for the Jorginho-Kovacic in the middle for this one.

He did play a few decent passes in but that was it, most of them poor, you expect better from him. If you rate Ziyech, I think you can agree with the fact that he isn't a big game player, he just lacks the intensity when it comes to a big clash of heads. It's similar to Ozil and Pogba, they play well in big games when there team is already coasting the game and doing well, when it's a tight game, they're useless and become a liability. I couldn't tell you how many times Ozil was Arsenal's worst player whenever I watched a big game. I still think Ziyech can be a very good signing, I'm hoping we see those past glimpses of him that we saw when he was first introduced. Against the lower-tier teams when he has more service and isn't playing in an intense game, I think he's going to be very useful. In that Burnley game he created about 6/7 chances, something ridiculous like that, he's going to be useful in games like that.

I think we're very underrated when it comes to playing it out from the back. Besides City we are comfortably one of the best sides at doing it, have been for a while.

That's a great observation that Imran. This season I've seen a great improvement, even the Twitter trolls aren't giving him abuse anymore. He made Thiago's life very difficult that game, played in some great balls towards Chilwell and Werner, what he does best though is carry the ball. Still areas he needs to improve on in his attacking play, but overall, great performance. Especially when you put into context that our own youth player who cost nothing is out performing the 200-300 million we've spent on attackers.

Yeah one thing for sure, I don't think Mount would've been at this level if it wasn't for Frank. He was good for Derby, but he never looked Chelsea material just yet, still had ways to go. People on here were surprised at first with how often he was playing to start with. We expected the likes of Abraham, CHO and Reece to play.

Not Tuchel's fault though imo, I can't blame him for prioritising defence at the minute. Every best attacker we've got has been out of form for months. So I don't think it's Tuchel being negative. (Besides the Southampton game, really should've gave that a go)