Ilya

I do not get this metaphor. I mean, I assume you meant "Beatles", but don't get it either way. I think we should replace Elvis with AC/DC. And Guns Roses playing in domestic cups.

You had us all at "creaming their Levis over another team".

This keeps coming up everywhere - striker thread, Morata thread, etc: "where oh where will the goals come from?". We are joint 2nd for goals scored. They seem to be coming from somewhere. And the benefit of not being over-reliant for goals on a couple of players is aptly demonstrated by the fact that both Liverpool and Spurs have score fewer goals. A player's form dips a bit - and suddenly the whole team is f**ked. We may be (potentially) over-reliant on Hazard for general creativity, but specifically goals are nicely spread around. Which is not to say that I wouldn't like a striker who converts more chances. :) But we are doing alright overall.

You can just start calling him "Ruby" - no one's gonna judge.

What if a team of 11 Kovacices played a team of 11 Barkleys 38 times? What would be the total point tally?

I know Sarri has converted players before and that it does occasionally happen in general in top football, but it still has such an amusing uni football feel to it. Yesterday we were talking about trying Moses as a striker, today it's RLC. :) Giroud would make a decent center back I think. And Morata could suddenly flourish as a children's TV presenter.

How would we know? It can't tell us how it does it, can it - it's a f**king cat.

Ha-ha-ha, this is very good. Also we need to get back to playing three central defenders. Aspilicueta is so much better as a CM. Also bring back Moses. Also get Hazard to track back more. He's been ignoring his defensive responsibilities.

Sounds like perfect moment to jump in with support for his opinion. :) I'd like to see how this year plays out. But if things stay roughly how they are at the moment - it's about resource allocation. Is Kante useful to have in the squad? Of course. If you have infinite money to buy players - should you sell him? Of course not. If he is worth, as a classical defensive midfielder (protector of defence and destroyer of opposition attacks) significantly more than he is as a box-to-box "engine" (whatever that means) and we are not using him in his most valuable capacity - should we sell him for f**k load of money and buy a top player for one of the positions we actually do need to upgrade? I dunno. Kante for a top-top striker? And just play Jorginho, Kovacic and Barkley in midfield? Does it change the team for the worse so obviously that anyone who proposes this as an option is clearly a bell-end? Or Kante for a top-class different kind of a midfielder. Say, Pogba. I know I'm gonna get vitriol for this because Pogba is a dick, but football-wise - would that make the team worse?

Yes, amazing. So casual - and yet it's within a couple of inches from the post every time.

Let's just say that you could write the same article about any club bar City - not the whole manager pattern thing, which is just bollocks, but the pessimistic prognosis and overly negative assessment of the team's play. And the way he somehow had a go at the fans at the end and dragged the yoof thing in as if it as if it had anything to do with anything - I mean, was the overall subject of this article "all the bad things I can think of to say about Chelsea"? Should have finished it with: "And lets face it - blue is not a very nice colour, is it?"

As crass as it is to turn this into a conversation about money - but he would do Chelsea a huge favour by signing a deal just a tad longer than current one - even if he does want to go. There's a difference between losing Hazard for 50-60M (buys you a Morata as a replacement) and losing him for 150M - which, paired with qualification for CL, would give us some recruitment options.

I don't think it's black and white. I said "exaggerated" not "wrong". Also "magic" can mean different things to different managers. To Mourinho magic - is being 6 foot 5, 14 stone, and tracking back a lot. Also De Bruyne reportedly had some major attitude issues and Salah's last season will be his only impressive one in his career. He'd had plenty of minutes during many seasons before Chelsea and after Chelsea without showing anything spectacular. Literally no one saw last year coming.

Ordinarily I would be a bit pessimistic about our game against ManU. At a better moment in his career Mourinho would be the best guy to undo a team that is dogmatic about an attacking-posession style and a little shaky defensively. His whole managerial essence is about winning these kinds of games 1:0. But they were a mess yesterday. Even in the second half, even while scoring 3 goals - it wasn't discipline and structure, it was hysterical, desperate, send-your-goaley-up-for-a-corner, last ditch effort. It worked against Newcastle, but it won't work against a better team.

I think this idea that because a player hasn't had a lot of minutes we just don't know how amazing they could be - is somewhat exaggerated. Managers see them in training, they have a pretty decent idea. Yes, the games are the ultimate test, and some will fail under pressure - but if you are not producing magic in training, it's not going to suddenly materialize in a game.

This might be the case. I don't feel I know yet - one way or the other. And in a complicated balancing act between prioritizing winning games now and prioritizing player development I tend to lean towards games now. But it's a personal preference. I also think it's worth noting that of you list of players - none have conquered the world "once away from Chelsea". England call up - yes. Real Madrid call up - not so much... :)

He may or may not deserve/warrant more minutes, but getting him into the national team is not our main objective. It's probably not even his main objective.

The problem is - we seem to have two players doing a decent Allen and no one doing a Hamsik... (And I appreciate that I am being fairly frivolous with this comparison just because it's amusing, but the point that we don't have a Hamsik-equivalent still stands.)

I wonder what kind of a club this next club might be. I can't imagine any of the top giants going for him these days. And would he accept something along the lines of 3rd/4th team in Italy? Fighting for CL places at best, not being given money to buy the best players on the market? Might be the right moment to coach Portugal for a few years. He might even do OK with them.

He's done so much for us and is such nice guy, that it feels horrible to say so, but with the current system he is not worth to us as much as he would to another club in need of a good old-school protector for defence. Let's see how this season goes, but if Sarri is here to stay - may be some market activity that results in Kante going and us getting a genuine world class goal-scoring midfielder, wouldn't be such a bad thing for all involved. Kante for Pogba? :))

Let's go boys...

For Chelsea? It will be a tight contest, but Morata will edge it. Just about.

Yes, there is a slight possibility that he is.... :))

What I don't get is the "Abramovitch will get bored of you lot, sell Chelsea - and then you are getting relegated within a year" narrative. He stopped pumping money into the club years ago. Chelsea have been balancing books much better than a lot of other clubs for years. Clubs (apart from Newcastle may be) do not get bought to be stripped of assets and driven down the hole. If - and it's a huge if - he ever does sell, who is to say that that will have a detrimental affect?

It's not so much about the current level - this many points, this cup knocked out from, etc - as it is about the trajectory. There was a point a couple of weeks ago, when he clearly made an effort to not sound bitter, angry, moody, vindictive, etc, etc And everyone expected the mood at the club to perk up after that. But now he is back to publicly dissing his players - and that can't be good for anyone. If they can do something to stop the rot - he'll be fine. He's not good enough any more to actually win anything of significance, but he's not gonna do so bad as to get sacked mid-season. But if they can't - anything can happen. They could lose to WH, to Newcaste, to us ... Not get out of the CL group...