askpang

What an emotional rollercoaster - a few observations in no particular order:
1. Jorginho is on a great run of form, and i'm wondering if Kante not playing next to him somehow brings out the best in him (hopefully not the case). Either way he's grown on me and hopefully a lot of other fans after some of the flak he was copping on our dire midseason run of form. Kepa, Dave and Luiz (goal excluded) were also great.
2. RLC is so bloody good. If he can sort out his back and his fitness he's going to be one of the top midfielders in world football. His skillset is somewhat similar to Pogba's, however fortunately he doesn't share his attitude problem.
3. Despite how good RLC was in the first half, he was clearly struggling in the second. The home fans were fantastic tonight but the booing of the substitution really wasn't warranted, especially when Barkley has always given his all on the field.
4. The Frankfurt fans are some of the best i've seen anywhere in Europe, almost felt sorry for them in the end. As for their team - a truck load of effort but not on the same level in terms of quality. For all the hype around Jovic and granted he did score two goals, he was near-invisible for the rest of both games and don't think he's what we need. That being said there seems to be a drought of top tier strikers in Europe at the moment, so we could also do much worse (eg. Higuain).
5. I like Kovacic, he clearly leaves it all out on the field and is tidy on the ball, but don't think we should be bringing him back unless it's to solely be an understudy to Jorginho. We shouldn't be playing both of them together, and Jorginho is better.
6. Lastly my thoughts on Sarri, who was a hot topic of discussion in this thread. He's taken on a squad which last season was clearly in need of revival - the only additional resources he was given were Jorginho, and Kovacic on loan (not counting Kepa who was a like-for-like for Courtois). He's then taken on an ambitious project to change us from a pragmatic, defence-first team (which we have been at least since 2011), to a free-flowing attacking team. He's taken this project on a number of years after City, Liverpool and Spurs did similar, under arguably the 3 best managers currently managing. The result was two cup finals (and potentially a win), plus a jump from 5th to 3rd. There were some serious issues around January when we looked lost, but in the initial few months, and in the closing weeks of the season there has been ample evidence that we are improving. The glaring issue remains the absence of a reliable goal scorer - if we can rectify this, I think  we can look forward to an even stronger run next season. The crucial thing is that we don't eject the manager half way through the job - we've seen how City/Pool/Spuds have benefited by putting some faith in their manager, and it's time for us to do the same.
A beautiful SB farewell for likely leavers Hazard, Giroud, Higuain, Kovacic and potentially also Luiz. KTBFFH.
edit: one final, final point - I thought Zappacosta was one of the worst players we've had in the squad in recent years, but was solid tonight so fair play to him. In his previous appearances it's looked like he's trying to come on and do too much to make an impression, if he settles down he's much better.

Hello Chelsea mates! Watched all of this one and Watford victory, but have not had a chance to post.
I really thought everyone gave solid effort tonight, but seemed to just miss on the final pass by a hair on several scoring opportunities inside the penalty area. We appeared a tad off on those passes. Could have been due to being worn out late on. Giroud missed on some open chances and there were a few loose balls in the 6-yard box that we had no one near the rebound.
I noticed many noted a poor performance tonight. Obviously did not play our best, but it was not a case of lack of interest as we have seen in some games in recent years, where the players seem indifferent.
Loftus-Cheek has really grown up this year, huh? His confidence really shows and his physicality is difficult for the opposition to handle. He shrugs people off of him with his strength and maintains possession. Shows what patience by the club can do. Hudson-Odoi is raw but we need to be patient for him to harness his quickness and grow into a finisher.
You could tell what this match meant to the players when Eden sealed it. It may be the secondary European trophy, but it was a very exciting win and the players engagement made it that much better.
So happy for Kepa. Really huge stops. How many of you thought, "oh, well, what else did I expect" when Dave missed? Kepa brought us back into it. He seemed genuinely excited after the match during the celebrations.  
Luiz's play off the line was game saving and awesome as was Zappa's header. Zappa showed a lot of mental strength when he was just suddenly put on the pitch having very little playing time since January.
Not sure which makes a win in the Final better: (1) lifting another European trophy or (2) denying the Gooners from lifting one!!  
How unique to have Liverpool-Spurs in Madrid for the UCL Final and Chelsea-Arsenal in Baku for the UEL Final. Do not forget the two winners match up August 14th in Istanbul for the Super Cup. Could they get a few of these a little more central in Europe instead of the middle east? 
Speaking of the UCL, really do not want either to win, but for me, its more about we cannot have Tottenham lifting the UCL trophy on June 1st. I mean, come on, they are in the bottom four record wise in the PL the past 11 weeks (3-1-7, 10 out of 33 possible points) and have lost 13 games! We could do anything they have done this year. And do not give me Kane has been injured, bot for that entire stretch. 11 weeks ago they were 5 points out of first, now the are about 25! Plus we split 4 matches with them year. We-hate-Tottenham! clap clap-clap-clap-clap We-hate-Tottenham! But enough about Spuds.
Though we are not finishing like a rocket, we have regrouped and somehow will finish third or fourth in the PL and play in a Final with a chance at decent silverware. We are 11-4-2 in our last 17 in all competitions. Not great, but acceptable, with the losses vs. United in FA Cup and at Liverpool.
Would love to win Sunday to finish third, above Arsenal AND Tottenham. Though I have to believe the players will be incredibly tired after all of the minutes tonight. Good thing we already have Top 4 locked up otherwise I would be concerned. Who do we even start for that match? Better yet, who do we even play on May 15th in the States vs New England in a friendly? The Under 21 team?
It has been a fun and exciting finish to the year. Enjoy this one mates and hope we have a great performance Sunday! Have a Blue weekend everyone!
Come on you Chelsea!!