Jonty

I think too many posters in this thread are overlooking the hilarity of Pep being subject to an abysmal refereeing performance. Tis a f**king disgrace, one might say.

Honestly Pep, Aguero et al. have become such unbearable w**kers (compared to previously when they were slightly more bearable w**kers) to the point that i'd rather Liverpool win the title. At least Klopp, Salah, Mane and most of their key players seem like genuinely decent people, rather than the entitled princesses at the Etihad.

Just quietly, and with the caveat it was his first game back in a while, but I think with Kante coming back in for Jorginho on the weekend our midfield looked worse. A sentence I never thought I would type or even read this time last year. Granted this certainly wouldn't be the case against more lively opposition, but still, it's going to be tough to leave one of our midfield 3 out each game.

We really can't play him against good teams, or even average teams with decent attacking players like United.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/oct/03/chelsea-christian-pulisic-callum-hudson-odoi Interesting point - i'd almost forgotten about Pulisic with Mason and Hudson Odoi coming through ahead of him. Feel like there's a good chance this is Pedro's last season here, and that Pulisic perhaps deserves to at least be getting that 20 minute substitute role ahead of him.

Already emerging as a strong contender for player of the year for me.

Would love to see him used at RB in a back four, think he was a bit uncertain of where he needed to be at times, but made a few tidy tackles and is clearly very athletic.

His hold up play, first touch and ability to lay off balls thumped at him with just about any part of his body to an on-rushing teammate is superb. He's already almost as good as Giroud at those elements of the game, but is also a more clinical finisher. Looks a completely different player to the United game where he couldn't get anything to stick.

Leicester look like the real deal, and as much of a caricature as he is, Rodgers has proven to be a top coach, and with Vardy, Maddison, Ndidi and Schmeichel, they have a top quality spine. I think there's a legitimate chance they take one of the top 4 spots with Liverpool and City, with us and Arsenal fighting for the other spot. I think i'd happily take 4th at this point in time.

Arguably the only player in the Premier League era to have a legitimate claim to being the greatest of all time at his position, other than Ronaldo.

It's one thing to say "sell, sell, sell", it's another to find a club willing to maintain Drinkwater's insane salary. In reality this cap will mean a few extra expensive outcasts loitering around the fringe of the squad until their contracts run out.

Callum probably has the highest ceiling of any of them, I think Ruben also has huge potential but seems unlikely he'll ever stay healthy enough. Haven't seen enough of Reece to comment.

Thought he played well other than the penalty, which at least was struck with conviction rather than the limp penalty we saw from Tammy against Liverpool. Still shouldn't be in the starting line-up often once Kante, RLC and CHO are back.

Strange substitutions tonight, clearly were under a bit of pressure and needed to lock the game up, and he pulls off Kovacic who had been one of our better players and brings on an 18 year old debutant who is too scared or nervous to compete for the ball, or make a simple pass. Will be interesting to see how long he perseveres with Dave at RB. Either way some more entertaining football and good to see Tammy and Mount continue to play well. Again we really missed a few of the injured lads so expect us to improve.

Beginning to look a bit like the last year or two of Ivanovic, doesn't seem to have the legs to stick tight enough to his man. Time and time again he's either gotten done, or has sat off the winger enough to allow them to get a free cross in this short season thus far.