DaRick

Yeah nah, that short little cameo right there explains why we can't sell him for any price. He was probably half-fit and yet he still shredded Huddersfield's defence within a small period of time. Ultimately Chelsea's most important player by a distance.

I respect your opinion; eye of the beholder, I guess. Let's hope he scores more.

Problem though is that Kovacic is the better player in most respects, including with respect to unlocking parked buses. Barkley provides a bigger goal threat but that's about it. You could possibly use them both, but you would need Kovacic to take Jorginho's place (which he could do quite well IMO given that he was at his best playing as a DM in Real Madrid). That probably won't happen often, so the other option is using a 4-2-2-2, with the mobile Hazard/Pedro acting as ersatz forwards linking up with Kovacic/Barkley. Purely theoretical, of course. Or start Barkley as one of the 3 forwards, with Kovacic playing in the centre, and replace him with the faster Willian/Pedro to provide a greater goal threat or exploit tired legs (given both are faster than Barkley). Of course, that's an unlikely prospect for various reasons, so Barkley/RLC will very likely become subs, especially since Barkley is injury prone.

A convincing win that arose from unpromising beginnings. In the first half, we got a somewhat undeserving lead because of some good play between Willian/Kante and a clumsy challenge on Alonso. Huddersfield's defence was generally stout, we struggled to penetrate and there were a few hairy moments at the other end. In the second half, Sarri clearly decided to bury the game, so we played with much more intent, were unlucky not to score a few times. The introduction of Hazard was finally too much for Huddersfield to bear, because he engaged in one of his classic mazy runs (which Willian often failed to do), drawing several defenders towards him and away from Pedro, who once again popped up with a goal after looking anonymous for much of the game. Say what you want about Pedro, but his movement has always been smart. On other notes: 1) It occurs to me that Sarri's plan may have been to wear down the Huddersfield defence with constant running from Willian/Pedro, before bringing on a half-fit Hazard to exploit tired legs. If that was it aim, it worked very well. 2) It is ironic that, for all the talk of a goal-shy midfield, that Kante and Jorginho scored two goals. Not sure about Jorginho's penalty - seemed a little tentative - but let's hope there's more. 3) Alonso played well today, albeit against weak opposition. His forays into the box won us a penalty. 4) Huddersfield were not bad for most of the first half, being undone only by a clumsy challenge and some Willian/Kante brilliance (Kante's chip shot evoked memories of Ramires at the Nou Camp TBH). However in the second half their defence strained under the pressure and eventually buckled with Hazard's introduction. There are 37 games to go, but if Huddersfield get relegated I hope Aaron Mooy leaves - he's IMO much too good for the Championship and I believe his level is with a mid-table PL side as it stands. 5) Morata tried hard, but was again bedevilled by a lack of confidence. A goal from him would have been wonderful. 6) Kepa will be glad to have kept a clean sheet just to get some of the pressure off, even though he didn't have to make a save.

It's funny how we were struggling to make inroads with Willian (who while being technically gifted tends to slow the game down) making the running while Hazard's direct mazy runs have wreaked havoc against tired legs as soon as he's gotten off the bench. Maybe that was Sarri's plan - have Willian/Pedro wear the defence down with their running, hope we can snag a goal or two and then bring on Hazard to carve them up. Seems to have worked beautifully.

Hey man, don't say things you can't take back. ...and Pedro pops up out of nowhere after looking ineffective for much of the match...haven't we heard this story before?

My general impression is that we're lucky to be 2-0 up, which came down to moments of individual brilliance by Willian/Kante and some slightly undisciplined defence by an otherwise fairly competent Huddersfield. At least we know Jorginho can take a mean penalty. Was anyone running bets on whether or not Kante/Jorginho would be the first two scorers here? What would those odds have been? It is ironic that our otherwise goal-shy midfield is keeping us in this game.

? I'm as happy to criticise Alonso the LB as much as anyone, but is this fair?

Kante, goalscorer? Against the run of play too. Hopefully Sarri can get serious and finish Huddersfield off quickly. Put Hazard on now.

Get the feeling that Hazard will be on at the 60th minute at the latest.

I figure Cesc will take Barkley's place at the rate we're going?

Match fit?

About Moses, I would only expect him to act as a super-sub winger, use his pace against tired-legs and maybe score a goal.

If you had read my post further, I was actually arguing that Zappacosta should be removed, with CHO replacing him. Do you disagree @Floyd25?

Hope springs eternal, does it not? Ah, one can dream. Or maybe a wonder free-kick will blind us all to his faults?

I'd pick Moses on the bench, who can play as a super-sub right winger and an attacking right-back, but I'd have CHO in place of Zappacosta, who doesn't drive forward as well as Moses does and who is not a winger.

Don't care for Alonso as an LB for reasons posted here already, particularly in a higher-line. The faster Emerson would be preferable (who isn't even on the bench - why? Is he unfit?). Callum Hudson-Odoi should have made the bench. His pace and trickery can burn seasoned defenders. Who better than him to go up against tired defenders on the left flank as the game draws to a close? I'd prefer Christensen over David Luiz but I'm not sure he's fully fit. At least Luiz/Azpi/Alonso can communicate with Kepa. Am somewhat surprised that Kepa's been selected. Sarri obviously thought very highly of him and so has thrown Kepa into the team in a bid to challenge Kepa to justify Sarri's faith in him. Alonso as an LB might be replaced quickly. I'd replace him with Azpi as LB, shutting down the left flank, and bringing in Moses as an attacking RB to drive forward correspondingly.

Paul Merson and Sky:

I wish Kepa many years of success at Chelsea. Hopefully he can hit the ground running, though adaptation will no doubt be an issue.

I don't usually like slagging off one of our own players, but sadly he is one of the worst purchases that I can recall us making. It's funny how it's come to this because as others have remarked he was decent until October - against Leicester early in the season he won a fair amount of praise from posters here, as he looked strong, fast, dynamic and more dangerous going forward than Matic. He also impressed against Liverpool, Man U (at home) and Atletico (away) in a 3-man formation. However, that's about as much praise as anyone can possibly give him, because over time he became more lackadaisical in defence, constantly losing concentration (also a problem at Monaco), making half-hearted challenges, getting himself sent off and generally appearing disconnected from his teammates. Even when he did drive forward, his comical finishing rendered it all for nought. His passing and first touch also seemed to worsen over time - at Monaco he generally seemed able to recycle possession under pressure, but at Chelsea he completely lost the ability to do this. I have to agree with @Ernie_blue that Bakayoko was not so much inconsistent as consistently rubbish. Hopefully he'll fare better at Milan.

I'll be honest and admit that losing a keeper of his ability is something of a blow. However, his antics will IMO have put him not too far behind the likes of Bogarde/Mutu/Gallas/Poyet in the Chelsea Hall of Shame, even though one can sympathise with someone wanting to be closer to their kids. In my view, he was excellent in his first season here (2014/15), but he was never quite as good as Cech was at his best, nor is it not clear to me that he would have fared as well in Sarri's system as he originally did with Conte/Mourinho. Courtois at his best was a brilliant shot-stopper with sure handling who could position himself superbly, but his distribution IMO was fairly average and he was never the quickest keeper around. Also, I never really believed that he could raise his performances when the rest of the team was struggling, or after he returned from injury. In 2015/16 he suffered from an injury and after he returned he seemed reluctant to come off his line, was spilling balls regularly and was constantly misplacing passes. He also wasn't that impressive last season either. Performances that stand out for mine include his heroics versus Liverpool at Anfield during the 2014/15 League Cup, which kept us in the tie, alongside his miracle save off a rasping shot from Van Aanholt at Sunderland in 2016/17. His triple save against Hull in 2014/15 was great too.

More reliable for Serie A than Ligue 1. I don't really expect this to go through because apparently Fekir is not enthused about playing in the EL and there has apparently not been any negotiations with Chelsea as a result. Still, if this went through that would be fantastic provided that he stays fit.

From what I can tell, he is good to very good at almost everything, including his distribution. The only downside to playing him as a sweeper-keeper is that he's not particularly quick from what I've seen, but for mine he has enough upside to negate such a concern. IMO he could potentially be as good as Oblak currently is. 80 million euros to purchase him seems excessive even with his upside, but if the likes of Sommer/Strakosha/Ryan/Schmeichel are unavailable then I don't see that we have much choice. The thought of Caballero being first choice makes the milk turn sour.

Just because he possesses a few qualities you'd want your #8 to have doesn't mean we can just shoehorn him in there. Crouch is big and has a good leap on him, doesn't mean we should sign him up to fix our goalkeeping issues. That's why I said at a pinch. At any rate we've made radical positional changes like that in the past with some success. Who could have predicted at the start of the 2016-17 season that Moses would make a good WB? EDIT: Not sure about the Crouch as GK analogy TBH - a box-to-box midfielder is more similar to a left back than a goalkeeper is to a striker.

If the board allows Caballero to be our #1 GK this season, then I must say that they deserve all the opprobrium they will receive, especially in light of Caballero's disastrous (and undeserved) stint as #1 GK during the WC.