Slojo

So one manager has an amazing record of finals while the other has a shocking one, oh dear...

It will be awful to lose to United, but it would be great to beat them. The only issue I have is Conte's tactics, I really hope he doesn't go defensive if we go 1-0 up against United, that'll just massively backfire. Time for us to save this horrible season and get something out of it.

It's got to a point where we praise him for not making a mistake, that's a very bad road to go down. It's an absolute crime how Drinkwater can't get a game because of him, this type of stuff would break even Zlatan's Ibrahimovic's confidence if you were being picked behind Bakayoko.

I'm worried, did you even watch him? If that's a step in the right direction we should go sign Steve Sidwell.

Definitely not, Lukaku does have a poor first touch, first touch % is misleading, it only counts when you give the ball away, you can easily make a bad touch and not give the ball away.

I think it's illegal for Herrera to get a yellow card.

Arsenal are getting this favourable underdog treatment lately. This is by far one of the worst squads ever under Arsene Wenger and I keep hearing about how good they are and how dangerous they can be. They're 6th for a reason... Never in a million years did people ever think Spurs would surpass Arsenal, yet they have, and by quite a distance I believe. I can see Spurs finishing above Arsenal for years from now on.

Apologies for some reason I saw Drogba instead of Costa. And I strongly disagree, Morata in the earlier part of the season showed excellent hold-up play, he was actually very good yesterday despite his misses. The United match he had the defenders on strings, we have seen a good player in him, but if we can't see that player consistently then he's never going to make it here.

I loved Costa's confidence and how he would score in a game with hardly getting a chance at goal. But at the same time I remember how bad of a player he was, he would ruin every single counter attack as soon as he got the ball. I don't think Morata is anywhere near as bad on the ball as Costa was, Costa looked like a Championship player at times with his back to goal. I also think Morata has better movement and gets himself in better positions, it's why he's scored a lot more headers when Costa scored about 4 headers the whole time he was here. And when I saw people comparing this situation with Torres then I knew for definite people are getting way in over their heads.

Jesus Christ I'm not being that literal, I'm not saying you post 100% negative posts, I'm saying you are overly negative when it's not necessary. Do you think calling Conte a bald c**t is mature? You said that when we were losing to Southampton, that's the type of behaviour I expect from trolls on twitter. Don't get me wrong I understand that it's a terrible season and I can't expect you to pretend that nothing bad is happening, but I don't go in every thread talking about Conte. The constant digs at the same players and manager is just getting tiresome, offer constructive criticism, not name-calling and silly comments. Conte's decisions this season have pissed me off, playing Cesc in the two-man midfield when we have Drinkwater who doesn't play (something we've agreed on here) but it's pointless repeating it all the time, most of the forum are aware of it and if you haven't noticed Conte has a lot of people who aren't his fans anymore. Just go on his thread and look for yourself, people who I thought would never dislike Conte now dislike Conte.

I don't think Drogba was a great goal scorer actually, great in big games, but most of all he was an excellent complete forward. He brought players into the game, when Drogba played the likes of Malouda, Anelka, Kalou & Lampard would score double figures a season. Drogba was better with his back to goal than he was facing the goal, I think that's also the case with Morata. But no I do agree I think Drogba is a better goal scorer than Morata, no question. But Drogba at 24/25 was also struggling just as much as Morata is now, same age. Like I said, give him another season and we'll see where it goes. But this time I want to see Batman get his chance.

@Nibs You might want to see his tweet. I don't think any Chelsea fan can be unhappy with that response. Fair play.

As good as he is sometimes I still think it's best for all of us if he's one of the players out of the door in the summer. He's been far too inconsistent and hasn't turned up enough when it mattered. It's a shame we didn't sign him a year or two earlier actually, he's a fantastic player, last season he was magical.

Well yeah, but he was horrifically bad and he was terrible before we signed him. Unfortunately, the only good game he had before we signed him was against us but we were losing 3-0 to Sunderland at home then so we were even worse at that time. If I remember correctly we didn't win 1 game of football in November under Carlo Ancelotti in his 2nd season, something ridiculous like that. But the reason I brought up Bakayoko earlier is that if you believe Bakayoko can turn it around next season, why not Morata? I don't see the difference. If anything I would be more confident in Morata because he has at least shown glimpses. If Juve comes in and offer the same amount of money we paid for him, then fair enough I can understand if a lot of people were for selling him, it makes sense. But sell him for half that price because he had one bad season just seems silly to me, we may as well give him another run at it. But that's not to say we rely on him, same with Bakayoko, don't put all our eggs in one basket, make sure we signed other options. With Morata hopefully, we can bring in Michy and give Michy more game time. And that's fine with me, if you behaved like this regularly I wouldn't have an issue with you, but you don't make that very clear. A lot of your posts come across aggressive and full of knee jerks you need to understand why people can get frustrated with seeing you on multiple threads saying the same things. Not saying I'm perfect but I try my best to stay on topic and be positive when need be, I don't care about being right, I want whats best for my team.

When I watched Bakayoko playing in the Champions League I wasn't impressed, it's why I wasn't fussed on the idea of bringing him here. He looked like a passenger and not really an improvement on Matic. I looked over the statistics and he had better defensive stats than Matic, interceptions, tackles, covering ground (although this is Ligue 1 compared to PL which is very different) however he had worse stats in the offensive area, pass completion, assists & forward passing was less. That alone always concerned me, and when I watched him in both legs against Juve was it? He kept giving the ball away and just looked very sloppy. So I've never had a great deal of confidence in him, I thought he was okay in the Spurs match, I thought he was VERY good when he came on against Arsenal, should have started that game actually. But since then he declined, but you can tell he's suffering from confidence, however, you can't really make those excuses, can you make those excuses for Morata? No, they're pro footballers, they have to suck it up with the money they earn. I'm all for giving him another season don't get me wrong, but I'll be furious if he starts as many games next season as he has done this season, his quality does not warrant his game time whatsoever.

The problem is though, he seems incapable of doing better. I guess we'll find out next season, as for now though I would play Giroud.

His first touch was shocking for a majority part of the game. Cahill's diving header and his touch afterwards summed him up for me. Sadly I don't see a good player in him at all, I think he lacks the football IQ to ever make it at top level here. The biggest thing you notice with Bakayoko though is confidence, the United match (which I don't think he played particularly well in like so many others do) he did take on players with ease and get himself in good positions, however, sadly gave the ball away afterwards. But regardless he was confident in that match and we saw a different player, since then we haven't seen that confidence. His best three games of the season where he's actually been good are Atletico away (his best performance for me), Arsenal home (when he was subbed on) and Huddersfield Town (scored and played a good game). But even when he's confident he still lacks the quality to impact the game, so that's where I give up with him as a player. When you've got somebody like Kante playing next to him, it's just not fair to have him partnered with a player like Bakayoko, we need to take advantage of Kante's potential and get him a solid midfield partner and I truly believe we can stay at the top elite level of football for years.

Yes and I was wrong, Giroud has done better than I expected him to. If I didn't change my opinions then I would simply be in denial now wouldn't I? I'm a fan of Morata so of course I'm a little bias, but I'm not going to make excuses for his performances or attitude. I just don't understand how people (i.e. you) can compare him to Torres and want him gone after one season. Torres was much worse and people were happy to give him another season (including myself at the time, but I was sceptical about his slow pace and worrying injury scare). Just like I was scared about signing Demba Ba because of his dodgy knee, but he turned out to be a good signing and wasn't utilised enough, when Ba played he scored. Giroud seems to have a similar mentality and I like it, do I see a starter in Giroud though? I don't sadly, but I think he would make for a great squad player.

Sadly we have downgraded, it looks like Conte was confident in his signings in Morata, Bakayoko. Who were two vital replacements in key areas and just haven't performed or filled that void, out of the full bunch this season only Kante has performed better than last season. To give Conte credit, he did a great job last season, especially his transformation of Victor Moses who also had a very good game yesterday and was fantastic last season. The back 3 worked excellently with David Luiz playing a key role, Alonso another brilliant signing for me who nobody really expected to be. But the man who got everything right last season has gotten it all wrong this season, you could argue we've made 2 good signings this season, that's it, 2 out of 8 have performed up to standard. Perhaps 3 with Palmeri who looked very good yesterday. That's still appalling and just shouldn't be happening. And as for Salah at Liverpool, Salah was excellent at Roma, he was brilliant as soon as he left. Salah actually showed good glimpses at Chelsea I don't know why so many people want to forget that, his first 6 months he was good whenever he played, it was just the latter 6 months where he didn't play. However, that was probably due to being shoved into Reserve games.

You know it's possible to praise a player just by his performance without having to put somebody else down while you're doing it.

Is this your attempt at a "I TOLD YA SO!" ? Well, my post is pretty self-explanatory, and if you saw my comments in the Oliver Giroud thread you would know that I would prefer Giroud to start at this moment in time. I still want to give him another season because I don't like writing players off unless they've shown absolutely no signs of being a good footballer. (Bakayoko perfect example who you strangely want to give another season, I would say that's bias just by given the lack of inconsistency). I don't throw my toys out of the pram when I see a player badly perform, some footballers need more time than others, and if he doesn't improve next season then, by all means, he should be sold.

Please don't quote me with your drivel mate, if I want a 2-year-olds opinion on something I'll let you know.

Exactly how I feel.

One of the worst strikers I've seen at 1 v 1's which is f**king embarrassing. The thing is we haven't been clinical at all this season and he's mainly responsible for that. A shocking season when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net, I can't remember another one like it, we should've been in the top 4 with all the chances we create.

It’s not until 2028 anyway.