CFCCAN

Expect to see a Jose masterclass - stifle the game by smothering the midfield, sit deep and hit on the counter attack. But like he once said in an interview with Richard Keyes and I think still true today..'when you have the ball you can control the game ,Chelsea like to have possession of the ball, but they move the ball slowly, so without the ball the opponent controls the game'. We do play slowly out of the back, sideways and back passes just for the sake of possession hopefully we can change that. Score early, or at least score the first goal to get them to change their game plan.

The defensive side of our game got ragged in the end and we nearly paid the price...great header from Giroud emphasizing again why Frank needs something different off the bench if plan A or B doesn't work...still 3 points should all but seal our place in the last 16.

Good solid first half despite a couple of scary moments and Rennes coming back in the game towards the end of the half...should be 2 up, but taking 3 points is all that matters.

I watched the first half again...didn't have time for the 2nd half - Based on when we had ball moving forward and the player receiving the ball, James made 11 forward passes against Chillwell's 23, James made 23 back passes against Chillwell's 18, both made 7 sideways passes. While seemingly it appeared James was forced to play the ball back on several occasions, many times he had the opportunity to play the ball forward but chose the safe option thereby slowing down the flow of us moving forward; many of these back passes were in the oppositions half. Anyway will be interesting to see how

I have no agenda, he's a great young player I get it, but he constantly plays the safe ball and its always backwards even though we are attacking and the forwards are charging to get up the pitch...busting their gut only to find the ball being played backwards where they have just sprinted from...maybe there is nothing ahead of him at times, but IMO he needs to be more forward thinking beyond his 2 or 3 crosses a game...as I said Chillwell is always looking to play forward, whereas James does not.

City haven't looked good for a couple of seasons now, not feared any longer...perhaps Pep's time has come and its time for new blood....Poch waiting in the wings

If you'd have watched the game, more or less every time James gets the ball, regardless of whether he is in the opponent's half the ball goes backwards, Chillwell on the other hand constantly tries to move the ball forward. Rewatch the game and you'll see what I mean.

Get James off for CHO.....56789 touches of the ball, 56787 of them backward passes....frustrating as f**k

Mount must be knackered....should have been on the bench...if we get a good start it should be a breeze, but I'm not sure the energy levels will there there today...on paper its 3 points, but on the pitch we just may drop a couple.

This England side is toothless, no one to score goals except Kane, really need to play with at least two up top...this is boring football from England, every game since the WC has been about not losing rather than play decent football.

Well there's two ways of looking at it...(a) the anxiety and excitement is over and done early and if we win it makes the weekend better (a) late kick off, or Sunday / Monday KO means the anxiety grows all over the weekend and screws it up.......BUT there again if we lose in the early game your weekend is screwed anyway

Apart from the brain-fart early on, a solid performance all round, looking good as we go forward.

That's why Werner has to play down the middle

great ball in , good header..

If he's hit it clean, likely wouldn't go in.