lithium

This is only for 2018/2019, it doesn't count the transfer ban or Hazard sale Also my god. Europa League gives almost no money. We won the thing and got less money than some teams that left CL in group stage

Supporting our team in victory and defeat was always a huge help, in dark periods having a schedule of our next games always gave me some sense of routine, sometimes as far as reminding me which day of the week it was. Following team news, transfers, chatting online with other fans always help to keep my head filled too.

I think neither Sarri or Lampard (yet) had any idea of how to extract the best of Kovacic, Kanté and Jorginho Those are three players that are pretty great at doing a few things, a bit fragile at other aspects, and they simply don't compliment each other very well It's probably because those players are weird. Jorginho has world class distribution, dictates our play but he is frail in defense, slow, can't assist or score Kovacic dribbles like a winger, passes like a 10, but plays way more deeper, almost never scores, assists or even shoots, but contributes better in defense than Jorgi, might be the most balanced Kanté defends like Makelele, but he is fantastic at pressing super high in the pitch like wingers generally do (like Pool wingers, way better than our wingers btw), leaving space behind. He worked fantastically with Matic protecting him in Conte's system, with Leicester defensive tweaks and when Conte in his final season played a 3-5-2 with a extra guy to cover his space - tactic that got us a victory against Atletico, a good match against Barca and a FA Cup trophy So they don't click. None of them scores or assist enough (compare it to Ballack, Lamps, Essien), none are them are too physical, only Kanté is great at defending and he's generally too high on the pitch to protect the defense in this system (especially in 4-3-3). Ruben would be massive for us, he was giving this mid balance last season. I also I am not against a more traditional midfield destroyer, CDM, like Matic and Mikel were for us

Gabriel Jesus wasn't 1/3 of the player he was in Brazilian League and found success in Premier League Oscar wasn't 1/10 the player both Gabriels were and was a starter for us for years Gabigol would be a young, interesting, cheap beat, he scored tons of goals this year, won everything, every individual award too, but Matt Law just said we are not interested

Those points we missed at home will come back to bite us in the ass

I think Bats is a decent finisher but not technical enough for PL. Has no clue on how to make runs from behind, bad passing, bad hold up play, neglates team work and he is also not fast. In a league with more spaces he can use his good finishing better (he was good in Germany), but it's no coincidence that both Conte and Sarri snubbed him, Lamps probably plays him because he has younger legs than Giroud (who is not particuarly good too, apart from an amazing run in Europa for us)

Nothing hurts more than that 1-1 against Barca for me, not even the 08 CL final

Chelsea obsessed here, massive fan since after the 2006 World Cup. Started following in the season we lost the title to United in the "chin up" Mou reaction, but won two cups, the first in that absurdly violent banter match against Arse, the other the remarkable 1-0 over United. Then it came the painful season with Jose's firing, three 2nd places, JT penalty... then brazilian manager Scolari came along and I was the first to suspect since I knew for years his arrogance and sh*thouse tactics, and then all the usual rollercoaster. I started and wrote for a couple of years for Chelsea Brasil (that was recgonized by Chelsea.com as a official fanbase or something like that), but sports writing is not really for me. At least I had the chance to wrote the post match of the 1-1 Munich final. Arguably one of the 5 best days of my life! Then time passed, I distanced a bit from the brazilian fanbase (the enviroment was a bit too adolescent and negative for me), was a bit active on reddit, then on we ain't got no history. I had the chance to live in London for a while and went to see our 2-0 victory over WBA (Costa and Hazard scored), in our 2014-15 title campaign... I also was in London for a little bit in 2016, couldn't get tickets but wore a shirt in the matchday we beat West ham 2-1 in the opening match for Conte's season (later people told me that in England it's negative to wear football t-shirts outside of sports enviorment ? something that is super normal in Brazil). Still, last two seasons we won the league, I was in London at least for a while, I need to come back to bring back luck to the boys! Anyways, Chelsea is massive of my life. In periods of heavy depression, Chelsea saved me many times, coming back from the ashes to inspire me or at least give me some joy. The most difficult period of my life I literally couldn't get out of bed and Conte made that team that finished bottom table past year win easily a league that was claimed to be Pep vs Jose. While my fav season was 2011-12, and Jose teams were machines, my fav Chelsea team to watch was definitely 2009-10. My favourite players naturally Drogba, Lamps, Cech and Terry, but the one that was much fun to watch was definitely Eden. Sometimes I had the feeling I was turning the TV on just to see him. Sad to see him go, but we have enough young talent to replicate that! Also I really hate all of Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona, United... I didn't hate City a lot since they weren't big at the start and not involved in big title races or cup confronts with us yet, but I hate Pep for his Barca's connection and smug, so it counts it. Last year I wanted to die after the Liverpool-Spurs final was confirmed. I quietly supported Liverpool, very nauseous, because Spurs winning the CL would be just too much for me, but I hate Liverpool with all my heart as well. I find it a bit of weird that we have some supporters that are a big sympathetic with them, I'm forever pissed by those 2000s confronts and their fanbase. But to each its own I guess Anyway I talked too much already, I hope to be a valuable member of this community ;)