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He's doing a good job and has surprised me too. Don't get this pochettino momentum thing at all - to me we play very differently to the way we did last season. It's hard to compare them because pochettino had a harder job with the injuries and having all of these players new to the club after a disastrous season. But if we were to look purely at the football, I'd say it's night and day. IMO you could probably name 3 of our worst 5 performances in the last 20 years from last season. Even our run of good form at the end didn't pass the eye test to me. Absolutely destroyed at arsenal, a farcical draw against 10 men at Sheffield United. Yeah we edged out some better results but it was all off the cuff from a team pressing incredibly aggressively and at the same time quite ineffectively. I've definitely got a few quibbles or queries about some of marescas decisions (most identified by others), but stepping back, we look convincingly like a good (but not great) team with a clear and working style of play. That is definitely progress given how far backwards the ownership has taken us.

What's clear is that while we're going to be in the hunt for the top four, we can forget about putting real pressure on the very top sides. Judged against the very best there remain too many question marks, both on the pitch and in the dugout. This is progress, but it also tells you how far backwards the ownership have taken us. P. S. There's no doubt maresca will be begging for a new keeper in private, regardless of what he says in public. That he doesn't think jorgensen is good enough raises (more) big question marks about our recruitment.

At the very least his good start should be a reminder that pre season is pre season.

He had equal rights when it comes to decision making, so his being a minority owner isn't the most relevant thing here. I. E. No one should be deceived by his current (or forthcoming) attempt to minimise his role in the many, many mistakes the club has made in little over two years of ownership.

Remember: every decision the club has taken has been signed off by both boehly and clearlake. We'll get a lot of: "I didn't want to sack tuchel and hire potter, but I am the guy who wanted palmer" disseminated through their chosen media mouthpieces. The truth is this, they are jointly responsible for taking the club backwards.

I don't like that at all, this isn't how to treat players. I get he and the club have to encourage players to leave, but these are players who have been professional, some of them have served the club with distinction, and they've been signed or handed new contracts by the ownership. Think of what the club told sterling when they signed him, when they were selling them their 'project'. If you can stomach that, think of what they told Ben Chilwell or trevoh Chalobah when they were handed new contracts.

we're two matches in mate, and some of those players have played little more than a game against the champions. palmer has had no pre-season. if you're being fair its way too early for this.

I think being better than mudryk is a given, but aren't you worried about the injuries? I've always thought he's shown flashes here and there but that's all. But I suppose when you've got a large squad made up almost entirely of potential it's very difficult to stand out the way cole and malo have.

This sterling thing is another good example of the club being badly run above him. Clearly the club have decided he isn't worth his wages, and that is actually totally fair enough. What is far from ideal is that it's obvious that they've made this call very late. So now you have a player who expected to be involved this season (leaving aside his statement and the timing of it, which we can all agree wasn't right) being told just before the season by the coach he isn't in his plans shortly after the same coach has told him he would be. You have a coach who was planning his season with the player expected to be part of that, and acting accordingly. Then, probably late last week someone tells the coach that actually we want to get rid because he is costing us too much each week - no doubt the same reason our best keeper, kepa, is persona non grata. But the decision with kepa was obviously taken before maresca even was appointed (as it should have been), because it's a financial decision not a sporting one. Why then have the sporting directors taken this decision so late in the day, and why are they forcing their own newly appointed head coach to deal with the problems they have created? Why make him say the decision is a sporting one, which only undermines his credibility when you compare sterling (who has played well under a stylistically similar coach) to mudryk who appears to be still in the process of learning some of the basics? It's like why would you hire graham potter, then hire a completely different type of manager in pochettino, only to swing back to maresca? What is the point of having these guys running the club if they can't do the absolute basics of coach and squad recruitment?

Forced him out of the club he loves, treated him like a pure commodity, then pump out a video to pretend the give a sh*t. And let's get it right about that contract offer. You do not offer a one year extension to a 24 year old if you want to keep them. You offer it so that if they accept it gives you an extra year to sell them rather than avoiding losing them on a free, and if they reject it you can get your client journalists to say "see? He wanted to leave after all" in the hope of duping the support. They did it with mount and they did it again with Gallagher. Totally transparent.

I don't see what you seem to see in carney, just. He looks to me an obviously promising and talented player but I don't see him as especially standing out among his generation of young players. To me he's a good player who ideally would be loaned out rather than sold, but i dont see him being a player like say lavia who is destined to be a starter at a top top side. What am I missing here?

There is no realistic chance of finishing higher than fourth, but if the squad is trimmed to a manageable level it shouldn't be finishing lower than seventh.

Would say I agree about 30%. Largely, the players deserve our support still, they finished last season well and are a random collection of young players assembled in a slap dash manner. Maresca deserves time, he's one game into his spell here. I'm sympathetic to calls to get the ball forward faster, take a shot from range etc but ultimately I don't agree with it. Doing low percentage things to give the impression of caring is exactly what this team needs machined out of it. No successful football team at the top level plays like that, and though it feels counter intuitive, it is proven that playing patiently and trying to work fewer high percentage chances is a better route to sustainable success. Those clips posted above are instructive. The ball isn't being moved forward (or at all) because colwill / sanchez are waiting for the players ahead of them to move into position before the move can start. Whether maresca is a good enough coach to make it work remains to be seen - no one, including Leicester fans, can be totally sure if he is at this point. Where I do agree is that the jury is most definitely in on the ownership and quite probably on the sporting directors acting on their behalf. These lot are vindictive idiots, and it is they who ultimately are responsible for the discontent their actions have provoked. The Chelsea support is not a customer base, regardless of what the ownership thinks, and deserves to be able to voice it's disapproval. How to seperate that from the players and coaches isn't easy, to be fair.

Leaving aside his summer 'misadventures', he was sold as a midfielder who can do everything. At the moment he looks like a player who can't do anything.

I don't really agree that it is the same tbh. Certain fundamentals in top football have changed and that includes building out from the back, so in that regard there is more homogeneity, but what maresca wants is I think quite clearly different from what pochettino wants (for better and for worse). In any case I don't think it is fair to judge him on what previous managers have done, and I don't think it is fair to judge him on stuff that hasn't yet happened either!

By the same token there's going to be no better time to play us either - early on in the development of the team and squad, some players undercooked after summer etc etc. I think we have to put aside whether you like the style of football (because it is what it is) - in terms of execution it wasn't bad as a start, considering the factors I mentioned. We made a few chances and conceded a few (but not a lot), and we kept the ball fairly well against a well organised pressing side. A lot of people have been worried about marescas possible lack of pragmatism but we saw some of that today. Obviously there's a hundred questions that remain unanswered but like I said, I thought it was a reasonable start.

Felt that was a reasonably good start in terms of performance given the opposition, though I can see fernandez becoming an albatross for him (and us) if he feels obliged to keep him in the team.

His performances have not justified him being one of our best paid players, but, independent of that, I still think he has a quite a bit to offer simply by dint of how good his movement is. I'd sooner lose mudryk if that was the choice.

What you don't understand is that as grandmothers are home grown they go down as pure profit.

Without restating why I think you are wrong, the club itself said it would use this as an opportunity to educate and that it does not tolerate discrimination. Turns out that was pure corporate-speak. Who would have thought it. What's your favourite clearlakeism? Until now my favourite was "we want someone we can collaborate with", but i think "we will use this as an opportunity to educate" is a real contender. Signals active pedagogical intent while committing to absolutely nothing specific, delivered in a haughty and self-congratulatory manner.

Understand the club ended up taking no action and apparently he's now set to be named vice captain.

This is the key thing isn't it. Tuchel was sacked, cech and gravovskaia left, and these new sporting directors came in amidst a lot of excitable talk about alignment and being joined up. The benefit of actually doing that is you can build a squad for a general style and you can hire coaches according to that approach. Putting aside the ridiculous speculation on young players in and outside of the first team squad, we've signed players like disasi and badiashile who cannot pass the ball out of defence, 3 midfielders for close to £300m who are best playing behind the ball (meaning they'll probably never naturally fit into the same starting 11), a series of average keepers, at least one of which who cannot pass the ball out of defence, players who struggle to press etc etc. Each manager we've hired (maybe aside from potter) has had a style entirely contrary to the one they have succeeded. How does any of this make sense? Remember these guys came in and said of a club that had just won the champions league and the world club Cup "Chelsea were not well run on the football or business side". We've hired a coach who may or may not be good, but like lamps, he is a relative novice. What's for sure is that the decisions taken by those above him will make his job harder rather than easier.

It is pre season so I don't really think we should be too critical of anyone based on their performances in pre season alone, but am I alone in thinking this guy isn't a footballer? I don't mean from a physical or even technical standpoint, but I struggle to recall a Chelsea player with less game understanding. When and where to run. When to take a man on, when to combine or keep the ball. He seems like all of this is totally alien to him. It's like watching a YouTuber put into 11 a side football. I think we're very close to being in a position where the best we can hope for is to cut our losses. He has a hell of a lot to learn that most wingers know by the age of 19. Either working with a very detail driven coach like maresca will help him catch up, or he's probably finished at club - I think the stakes are that high for him.

The way the club have treated him and trevoh is an absolute disgrace. Yes, PSR rules need to be changed not to incentivise clubs to sell off their own academy products, but the rules are no excuse for the way the ownership has conducted itself. These are arrogant, small minded, asset stripping capitalists and nothing more.

Or at least were two of our best. I don't think a role that might be slightly physically less demanding would necessarily be bad for reece tbh. Re his Leicester season, I'm not going to put much stall by that, and personally I think this best ever championship squad stuff is slightly overstated. They were and are a ridiculously overpaid squad relative to their quality, but I don't really buy this whole premier league side playing in the championship narrative. They deserved to go down. He deserves just as much of a shake from the fans as any new manager, and that means more than a couple of friendlies.