Davey Baby

He got a straight red.

The proof is in the pudding, we're 5 points clear of the team in 5th place, and only 4 points off City in 2nd spot. Any of us would have taken that at the start of the season. We're also in the semis of the LC and we won our EL group handsomely. It hasn't been perfect but it's been damn good. At Palace yesterday only Kepa and Jorginho from our starting XI were new arrivals. All the rest were here under Conte yet we dominated possession and showed that we have completely transformed the way we play. It's very hard to criticise the manager, especially given the fact as far as I'm concerned only Kante and Hazard are truly top-level performers. We have so little going forward, and that's not the manager's fault. We are completely reliant on Hazard, as we have been almost during his entire time here. I would like to see Tammy brought back during the window, and I would like to see CHO given a chance. With Cahill, Moses and Drinkwater seemingly off, hopefully this means Ampadu, Christensen, Ruben, Tammy and CHO all get a chance as the season progresses and the games come thick and fast if we stay in all competitions. Sarri seems very reluctant to play the youth. His line-ups in the EL particularly have been very disappointing. He also seems very reluctant to drop underperforming players, especially Alonso. These are quibbles however because you can't complain with where we stand, especially given it's all new to him. Bring back Tammy and sell Morata. If we sold Drinkwater, Cahill and Moses, we'd be going into the new year with a squad of 20 outfield players, and that would hopefully mean everybody was given games.

I'll send you a picture of my wife.

Sorry to quote myself from 6 weeks ago but the video I posted provides a perfect example of what I'm talking about, when I say he's not getting the recognition he deserves or people are too fixed in the way they see him. In that video he creates 3 clear cut chances in our goalless draw against West Ham, which at the time was our most disappointing performance of the season. 3 clear cut chances, against a packed defence, away from home. That's a lot of clear cut chances for one man to provide. Now go on the West Ham match thread and see what people are saying about him. That will tell you an awful lot.

I think we're all aware of Willian's limitations. He'll never be a great player. He's having a bloody good season though. Some of you have an idea that you can't shake off and it doesn't allow you to see things for what they are. He's having a good season. I would say Pedro, Willian and Hazard are all having good seasons and are all improved under Sarri. We're doing way better than expected, remember that.

I disagree with you Nibs. It was hardly a howler. Maybe he should have saved it, yes, but a howler? No. Alisson yesterday was a howler. That's a howler, in case you're wondering what a howler looks like. Wolves' first goal was from close range, hard and low. He could have done better. There are going to be goals where the keeper could have done better, but a howler? You're being harsh. Kepa's been excellent in my opinion. World record transfer, new country, the Prem's a lot more physical and he's young. I think we've signed a very good keeper. The signs are very very good. There'll be a lot more to come. I think we all have to be very encouraged. It's a big move for him and he's taken it in his stride. He's gone under the radar a little bit, maybe because of Allison, but he looks a very safe pair of hands, very agile, calm, confident, excellent with his feet, even if he has misplaced the odd pass, that's always going to happen the way he is being asked to play. Courtois underwhelmed me, given his reputation, although he was undoubtedly a top keeper he was never quite as good as I'd have hoped. He was terrible with his feet. His biggest strength for me was in the air and this is Kepa's weakness, given he is quite small and fairly slight in frame, but as he gets used to the Prem he'll improve. Edit: I'd rather he was a bit taller but there you go, you can't have everything. I like him. I like him a lot.

Let's not piss about, Kovacic is a good player, perhaps not a great one but he's very very good. Technical, disciplined, hard working. Sarri wants control, with players like Kovacic you get control. He may be less dynamic and give us less of an attacking edge than Barkley or Loftus-Cheek, but we probably keep a better shape and play with more control with him there. I'd like to hope he can offer us more with time but I'd also like to hope Barkley or Loftus-Cheek can break through. I'm quietly impressed. He's a good player, it's a debut season in the Prem, in the cut and thrust of midfield. We've got quality depth in midfield and that makes a welcome change. Jorginho, Barkley, Loftus-Cheek and Kovacic are basically all new players compared to last season. It's incredible to think last season we had only Fabregas, Kante, Drinkwater and Bakayoko, if we disregard Barkley. Given how sh*t Bakayoko was, we really were very very thin in midfield.

It's noticeable how our opponents are targeting Alonso. Our left flank has definitely been identified as a weakness.

He's been very poor of late, that's true, and he's lucky to be still in the team. Having said that, nearly scored a great goal, but those sort of moments don't make up for the general paucity of his defending. Thought he was lucky not to get carded when he struck the guy with his arm on the touchline, and thought he was very lucky not to get red when he only got yellow at the end. Having said that, it has to be a clear goalscoring opportunity, so if it's not clear to the ref he's right to veer on the side of caution. Even if he had got sent off, that was a foul worth making, and probably won us two points.

If you were a Brighton fan you'd want them to be a lot more aggressive, as Wolves were. Kick a few of our boys up in the air, get close to us, not that I'm complaining, it's been a stroll so far. Alonso's had a poor half, he's been very poor for a while now, but everyone else has been good, especially the magic man, obvs. Come on Chelsea.

Liam you're going to have the mother of all hangovers tomorrow.

I don't care if it was a penalty or not. Would you give him the benefit of the doubt if you were a ref? The guy falls over so easily. He's just a great big softie. I'm trying to put it as politely as possible. I know there are kids watching. He has to score from that. The defender just wanted it more. If he had shown half as much determination as the defender, or half as much courage, we'd have been 2-0 up and we'd have won. It's that simple. I can't believe I defended this guy. I truly am sick and tired of him. He simply hasn't got what it takes.

We will see now what the FA do about Klopp. His celebration was not okay, and it was right in front of the away supporters. That is incendiary. Imagine if Everton had scored in the last minute in the same fashion, and the Everton manager had run on the pitch at Anfield, there would have been a riot, and he would have had the book thrown at him. Imagine if Mourinho did it at Anfield. You cannot encroach the pitch, simple as. If Klopp gets away with it, we could have managers doing it every week. They have to punish him but they won't. Edit: It can't be one rule for the home manager and another for the away manager. The media will let him off as well, watch and see.

^ Understood. Edit: In response to Argo's previous post.

I'd also like to see more of Emerson but it won't happen unless injury or suspension forces Sarri's hand.

I would rather Sarri won the first major trophy of his career.

There's a load of sh*t written about his time at Chelsea, as I tried to explain during the summer, when I said we should have kept him. I was utterly dismayed we loaned him out. At the start of last season he was still a teenager. Consider that. He scored 1 goal in 5 for the Swans, in his debut season in the PL, with many of those games as sub, in a struggling side. We had people on these boards saying they had watched him at Swansea and they had watched him in pre-season and he hadn't impressed. We had people saying he'd never make the grade. These people are know-nothings. It is way too early to tell but he has every chance, because he has been exceptional at youth level and in his first season as a professional at Bristol City. Exceptional. Because he didn't bang in 20 goals for Swansea people write him off. They don't take into account his age and the fact the PL is a massive step up in level. It takes time. Lampard was 23 when he joined us and he was nothing special in his first season or two believe me. It's way too early to be making a judgement. All I know is he is an outstanding prospect and anyone who doesn't understand that is an idiot. We have people on here now saying the Championship will be his level. What? You know this how? Because you're an idiot. I would suggest so. I said he'd be our number two striker by the time the season was out. I said he would get plenty of game-time, especially as we only have 2 strikers in the squad. He needs games to develop but I felt he would get sufficient games and over the course of the season he would climb up the pecking order. For me, going back to the Championship is a massive error. Yes he gets to play at a big club, yes he gets to score goals and boost his confidence, but he really didn't have a poor season last term. We know Cardiff wanted him this season and I'm sure there were other PL clubs. We may have been worried he wouldn't get sufficient game-time but for me the choice was between keeping him or loaning him out to a PL club, with the option of recalling him in Jan if he wasn't getting games. We're crap at nurturing kids, probably the worst in the world. We have no idea how to do it. RLC more or less wasted 2 years of his career before his loan last term, and he's wasting another year of his career this term, and he was superb at youth level, seriously impressive, but you have to cut young players some slack and you need to give them games. Ampadu is another being wasted. He's clearly ready. He doesn't need a loan. He should be in the starting XI right now. He's outstanding. The reason JT became a legend was because we gave him games. He was good enough and we played him, and he became better, through playing. Well we have some outstanding youngsters at our club but they'll never become half the players they could be if they don't play. Tammy's done the Championship, kept Bristol City up single-handedly. We're stifling his development with this loan. He did the PL last season. It wasn't great but it really wasn't bad. We had no right to expect anything more when you factor in everything. It was a healthy step in his development. It represented progress, progress from which we needed to build. Instead we've gone backwards because we're clueless. Edit: Absolutely pathetic.

Bang on the f**king money.

Like you, I'm a Luiz fan, but I'm struggling to forgive him for yesterday. I think you're being kind when you call them "errors". They weren't errors. Errors I can forgive. That second goal, that wasn't an error, that was a dereliction of duty. That was pure cowardice. That was disgraceful, against any team let alone Tottenham. He just wasn't focused throughout the game. That third goal, we're still in the game but we can't afford to concede a third. It was embarrassing. You don't try and tackle, you stop the forward's momentum, you shepherd him away from goal, you don't commit yourself, and what a weak lily-livered attempt it was, exactly the same tackle that lead to their first goal, when he was penalised, but he didn't learn his lesson. Unforgivable for such an experienced defender. Drop him and bring in Ampadu, but it won't happen and I'm beginning to think this is Sarri's fatal flaw. Too many players know they're safe, including Jorginho as you say. Both have to be dropped, along with Kovacic. Edit: I very much doubt it will happen.

He's seldom cold this season, if at all. Today he was very good but he was taken off at just the wrong time, when we were really starting to exert our authority and a goal felt inevitable. Sadly he had a golden opportunity and he should have squared it to Morata, who was all alone. It's this lack of awareness or composure that will often let him down. As I said in my long post above, a good player, not a top one.

Sarri's substitutions were strange. We had them on the ropes, we were having an incredible spell, and he takes off Jorginho and Willian, and we faded. Obviously Jorginho and Willian have clocked up a lot of minutes so he was thinking of that, but he has to learn his lessons. The first lesson is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The second lesson is, if you don't want your best players clocking up so many minutes, don't play them against sh*t sides in the Europa League. That is all.

Morata goes down way too easily. Three times today he did it, and it works against him, like the boy who cried wolf. The one which might have been a penalty, where he was grabbed at the far post, that was a great opportunity to score, or win a definite pen, if only he's stronger and makes a genuine attempt to hit it home.

When somebody says such-and-such would be a great signing, as they do all the time, they are stating their opinion. If I say Messi would be a great signing and would bang in 30 goals a season, that is an opinion. If I say Messi scored 30 goals last season, then I'm playing it as a fact. And that's a fact. Quite literally.

Against Derby Willian was our best player. I say this firstly because it's true and secondly because he drew a lot of criticism on these boards after that game, which showed me that people's perceptions are skewed. He was excellent against Derby. People banged on about RLC but Willian was far better. There's a reason he starts every game under Sarri, or has started the last 11 or 12 games. He's not so good you need to rest him for the lesser games, like Hazard, but he's not so bad you can leave him out of the games that matter. Until we have someone better he plays, and he'll play against Everton on Sunday. Go on a Derby forum, take a look at what they made of him after their game against us. They were the better side they deserved to win player for player they were better than us, but they're all raving about Willian, saying he was the only player that looked a cut above theirs. They just don't get to see that level of quality against their side. I was amazed that he drew criticism for that game. Some of his plays were excellent. For my money he doesn't do it enough against the big sides. Against small sides he often excels because he's a cut above their level, but against stronger players he doesn't shine in the same way. Sometimes he does, obviously, but not often enough. If he played like he did against Barcelona last season, home and away, consistently, he'd be a great player. When he hits a purple patch, he looks a great player, but he's not a great player because he doesn't do it often enough, he can't produce the sparkle reliably, and that's what you need if you want to be a top side. You need consistent performers. Drogba, Terry, Lampard, Cole, Cech, Ivanovic, these were great players because they were utterly consistent. Sure, they had periods of poor form, like all players, but on the whole they were top performers every week, as Hazard is. Hazard is a great player Willian isn't, we all know that, but when he's on his game, like he was for a brief spell last season, he looks almost as good as Hazard. Now, if you're a creative, or a winger, it's far harder to be consistent. Top wingers are few and far between, really top wingers. I was dismayed we didn't go after Mahrez these last two seasons but people on these boards regularly bemoaned his inconsistency. Magical players that turn it on every week are a rare breed and attract crazy money, because they are the players that change a club's fortunes. Obviously we'd all like that player on the right hand side but good luck getting him. Salah looks to be one unfortunately bit it's taken him a while to get there. Willian will never get there, he'll never have that cutting edge, he'll never have that killer instinct, but he's a good player. He really is a good player. Look at Dembele and Malcom at Barca. They want to sell them. It's easy to say sign this player or that player but you might quickly get frustrated with any new purchase. For me the obvious replacement was Mahrez but I was in a minority. Willian has done well since he's come to Chelsea. On the whole he's done very well. He isn't what we'd all hoped for but he's a lot better than he could have been. I understand the frustration with him but I think he gets a bad press on these boards generally. He's a good player, and he's having a good season, despite what some of you think. He's having a really good season. Not Hazard levels, obviously, but he's playing his part. We're having a good season and he's playing his part. Since he joined us he's played for Mourinho and Conte, two defensive managers, if I can call them that. Pragmatic, cautious managers, shall we say. They don't allow a lot of freedom. Sarri is letting Willian fly a little bit more. I think some of you are fixed in the way you see him and you can't see he's having a good season. He's impressing under a new manager with a different idea of how to play the game. Firstly, Sarri likes possession. If you want possession you need players who can control the ball. Willian gives you that. You get control with him, the problem has always been attacking edge, the problem has always been a killer instinct, the key pass. Sarri demands that too. He wants the ball moved forward quickly and penetratively. He wants decisive attacking football. For me, Willian has done well on that score so far this season, not spectacularly but well and people need to see it. We're only a quarter way through the season and this video was made a few weeks ago, before Derby, where he played excellently, before Palace, where he had a good goal disallowed, before Utd, where he hit the corner from which Rudiger scored, before Burnley where he scored an excellent goal. A game we won 4-0 by the way, without Hazard. He's making runs in behind, he's beating players, he's getting to the touchline and crossing, he's linking well, he's scoring and assisting. He's having a good season folks. It's about time he got his dues. We're undefeated, just in case any of you were unsure.

He was literally giving his opinion.