We seem doomed at the minute, but I honestly worry for Conte. I think he's a top class coach, and he's probably the best coach we could have asked for after Jose nightmare season.

However after a decent start Liverpool and Arsenal showed our true weaknesses and we don't seem to have the confidence or even quality to finish top 4 above the likes of Liverpool, Everton or Tottenham.

I fear Conte will not be able to sort our defence out (Zouma may not be the same after knee injury.) I can't see what he can do to turn us into a consistent team.

Roman will lose patience and sack Conte by Christmas, and we're back to square one. I really hope Roman realises the squad isn't good enough, the title win season really makes Jose look like a miracle worker.

Roman, keep the faith in Conte and get your wallet out! 

Yes he can finish top four but it depends on if he can find a solution to our defensive issues.

Conte is a very talented coach, he's been bought in because he's turned around a big club in a slump before.

He might not fix us as quickly as he did Juventus but I believe there is a acknowledgement from the club that there is a rebuilding job to be done and I think Conte will be given time and backing to get us back to being competitive.

There's been a lot of knee jerk reactions following our recent losses rather than seeing it as an acknowledgment and wake up call to just how big of a job Conte has inherited.

City, United and Arsenal are surely going to get top 4 finish. That leaves just one spot that Chelsea, spurs and dippers are going to fight for.

If Conte can come up with defensive organisation that allows our attackers to do their job freely, we will get top 4.

Dippers are going to get many injuries as a result of klopp's style of play. Its spurs that are the big problem for us.

This is a question that will need answered in January, especially if we can get some players in, you can see in his face last couple of interviews he see's the size of the task, but if anyone can I'd put my trust in conte he is a born winner and a top coach. 

12 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Yes he can finish top four but it depends on if he can find a solution to our defensive issues.

Conte is a very talented coach, he's been bought in because he's turned around a big club in a slump before.

He might not fix us as quickly as he did Juventus but I believe there is a acknowledgement from the club that there is a rebuilding job to be done and I think Conte will be given time and backing to get us back to being competitive.

There's been a lot of knee jerk reactions following our recent losses rather than seeing it as an acknowledgment and wake up call to just how big of a job Conte has inherited.

Very good points, that's teh key, he needs time and I think Roman understands this. 

4 hours ago, Orpington_Blue said:

City, United and Arsenal are surely going to get top 4 finish. That leaves just one spot that Chelsea, spurs and dippers are going to fight for.

If Conte can come up with defensive organisation that allows our attackers to do their job freely, we will get top 4.

Dippers are going to get many injuries as a result of klopp's style of play. Its spurs that are the big problem for us.

Id actually swap Spurs and United.

we have  no chance  of top 4   and   will be lucky to make top 7.....the decline is deep rooted  its football when your make mistakes as we have over the last couple of seasons the crown slips..  but I like  conti   give him time... the really sad thing  is  if we had a chance to get kloop  last yr  we  have missed a trick  ......

53 minutes ago, osgood57 said:

we have  no chance  of top 4   and   will be lucky to make top 7.....the decline is deep rooted  its football when your make mistakes as we have over the last couple of seasons the crown slips..  but I like  conti   give him time... the really sad thing  is  if we had a chance to get kloop  last yr  we  have missed a trick  ......

The amount of ridiculous opinions you put across in one sentence is truly amazing.

I'm rooting for him, but i'm wondering if the news that Simeone is planning on leaving Atletico at the end of this season (I suspect he was Roman's first choice after Jose left and Pep had announced he was going to City) will prompt Roman to look as Conte as more dispensable if he doesn't turn this around quickly.

2 hours ago, Jonty said:

I'm rooting for him, but i'm wondering if the news that Simeone is planning on leaving Atletico at the end of this season (I suspect he was Roman's first choice after Jose left and Pep had announced he was going to City) will prompt Roman to look as Conte as more dispensable if he doesn't turn this around quickly.

What on God's green Earth would make Simeone want to take the job if he sees Conte get sacked after less than a season

No, as things stand, there is no chance whatsoever of Simeone coming to Chelsea, not anytime soon anyway. As he said so himself, he would be interested in the Inter job, if it becomes available - it's a bit too soon to tell what De Boer will do with them, but if a title challenge won't be mounted in these next 2 years. I reckon they'll bring in Simeone, as it coincides with his contract expiry date as well.

As for Conte - I really think we are at a point in time where the issues are far deeper than what name we have on the bench or what system we use on the pitch. Cahill's mistakes these past few games - we don't need Conte to tell him to handle the ball properly and not faff about uselessly - or for Hazard to track back properly and to run at players when he has the ball - or for Costa (like 1st part of last season) to be in good positions and make the runs inside the box, like Tammy Abraham does so well at Bristol this year. Some of them can be corrected in training, true. But a lot of the times it is a case of instinct and confidence. These kind of things should be somewhat obvious and I find it hard to believe that Conte hasn't worked with Cahill and all the others in training. But when it comes to certain players being receptive and having the right mentality to put them in practice - that's something else.  

Some might disagree, but I don't think our current situation is a Conte problem, but more of a club problem and no matter who would be in charge - some of the issues would still be there. We're kinda nowhere at the moment - for a few years we seemed eager to build a squad that would mimic the atractiveness of Barcelona - Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Marin, De Bruyne, Salah, Cuadrado etc. That worked for a while and then it didn't. After we thought we had a long-term vision with Mourinho - a more structured, a more defensively rigurous team - worked wonders, won a title. After, just a disaster. A long-term plan cut short by an atrocious season. Now we're starting again with Conte, who in his mindset and player type preference is kind of a stretch from what we wanted to do at first. Regardless, I think he's the man who can give us a new identity very much different than any other team in the PL that nowadays has a kink with 4-2-3-1 ... like most teams in Europe for that matter.

Perhaps it would've been easier for us if we would've got Pep when Abramovic wanted him a few years ago... that squad seemed built just for someone like him to take over - similar to City's squad now - still, with Pep you only get 3 years, which is ridiculous when you think Mourinho wanted to give us the next 10 years of his life and more.

I'm not sure if what I'm trying to say is coming across clearly - the main gist is that the club's policy is all over the place. It's been a case of 'what they want' vs 'what they actually can achieve'. We're suffering now because we're trying to shift away from this somewhat incoherent past without actually fully comitting. If they chose Conte and had faith in him, then we need to go all in and allow him to put his idea of football in practice and give him 1-2 years to see what comes of it. It'll be exciting and hope it happens.

P.S. Every time I look at our youth teams playing. I see the kind of football that was intended for the first team years ago and boy is it a fun and by the looks of it successful football to watch. The moment that kind of mentality and spirit raises through the ranks and into the first team - that's the moment when all us Chelsea fans will stop worrying about what the future will bring us.

It's muddied water right now, I just hope some light will shine through soon enough...

We seem doomed at the minute, but I honestly worry for Conte. I think he's a top class coach, and he's probably the best coach we could have asked for after Jose nightmare season.

However after a decent start Liverpool and Arsenal showed our true weaknesses and we don't seem to have the confidence or even quality to finish top 4 above the likes of Liverpool, Everton or Tottenham.

I fear Conte will not be able to sort our defence out (Zouma may not be the same after knee injury.) I can't see what he can do to turn us into a consistent team.

Roman will lose patience and sack Conte by Christmas, and we're back to square one. I really hope Roman realises the squad isn't good enough, the title win season really makes Jose look like a miracle worker.

Roman, keep the faith in Conte and get your wallet out! 

If we don't have the quality to finish top 4 above Tothenham, Everton and Liverpool then we have the wrong manager. Roman spending more money won't solve that because most of our players will walk straight into the starting lineup of those teams.

4 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

What on God's green Earth would make Simeone want to take the job if he sees Conte get sacked after less than a season

You could say the same thing about every manager who has come in since Roman took over the club.

25 minutes ago, wallosh said:

If we don't have the quality to finish top 4 above Tothenham, Everton and Liverpool then we have the wrong manager. Roman spending more money won't solve that because most of our players will walk straight into the starting lineup of those teams.

Would they? The only players in our squad I am totally confident are better than their alternatives in those three sides are Courtois, Azpilicueta, Hazard and Costa.

Of course Conte can get us top 4. We're 5 games into the season. He has 33 games to figure this out and get us going. With ivanovic and cahill replaced by Alonso and (eventually) Zouma our defence should tighten up and that is our biggest problem at the moment.

Rodgers said after we kept liverpool goalless that "coaching players to defend is easy", something which Mourinho laughed off at the time. Defending isn't easy. Not at all. The art of defending is criminally under-appreciated in world football at the moment and it's the main thing we need to address. Sort out our defeinding in the next 5 or 6 weeks and top 4 is up for grabs. unfortunately if we get past christmas and we keep leaking goals then i dont think we can get top 4 this year. But i still back Conte long term. Give him money and let him coach the team his way.

Success will come eventually

42 minutes ago, Jonty said:

You could say the same thing about every manager who has come in since Roman took over the club.

At least we were a Champions League regular and title-challenging club at the time of most of those appointments

I really hope he can but I think the Wizard of Oz would struggle to get a team with our defence to top 4.

Still early days, we are not far off the top four, only three points. Apart from Liverpool all the rest have European games, this can only benefit us. The fans went to panic mode as they can't bare one more 10th place from last season. Give Conte the season, changing a manager during mid season won't change anything just like it didn't change anything with Hiddink.

Would they? The only players in our squad I am totally confident are better than their alternatives in those three sides are Courtois, Azpilicueta, Hazard and Costa.

If Courtois starts in any of those teams then they are having serious goal keeping problem and they won't even stand a chance of finishing ahead of us.

I don't think this can be answered until Zouma gets back, and what we do in January. We did not do anything to improve our defence from last season, and our back four is not capable of getting to the top 4 this season. Conte needs to focus on keeping the squad motivated and in-sync, then add some reinforcements in the next window. Hopefully, Costa can keep us afloat through the first half of the season.

Its early days but from what I see so far Conte probably has the worse team we've had in 20 years. Better teams have not qualified so I don't give him much chance.

As per title. Not a  F.CKING chance with this squad.

If Conte gets a season to work with this squad, I think he can bring success. But he needs a season, and it might not be the kind of season that we want to see. It's all bit up in arms in the PL at the moment as we have just started. City look like the genuine article. I have my doubts about Arsenal, though. Sure, they bossed us, but they always screw up. I think their team is too fickle. Sanchez is a monster ... the rest are average. Liverpool looks unplayable at times, but then they slip in a banana skin at Burnley. What I will say about Klopp, though is that his teams play with ferocious intensity. I have to agree with the comment on injuries above ... Utd and Tottenham are a bit 50/50 I think. They will be up there, but they will also slip up in some gamces. 

Bottom line: Yes, we can make top four, but this is also the most equal PL we have seen in a long while, which in itself is a problem for us given our massive expectations. We need to find some consistency in the next 6-7 matches. 

I am annoyed with the situation at Chelsea because actually I think the situation is pretty simple to solve. Abrama needs to trot down to the dressing room and say two things to the team and the staff. 

1) He needs to tell the players that this is it. Conte is staying and come come hell or high water, that won't change. Basically, he needs to send a signal that this is the group he is banking on and then they need to go out and solve it. One of the key problems is that everyone at Chelsea switches off after a run of bad games, simply waiting for Roman to wield the axe. Well, if I was Roman, I would bury the axe and simply say. Nope ... I don't f'cking care if we plunge into league 1, I am not giving these spoiled kids anything. Metaphorically speaking of course ;). 

2) Following from 1), I would look the players in the eyes and ask them how they feel about the rest of the world laughing at Chelsea. Do they like it? Where is their pride? Anyone who can't put up a fight to get Chelsea back where we need to be can go in Jan transfer window. I mean why do we think our back-four is always tighter with JT. Because he is still one of the quickest and technically best defenders?! Non-sense. He just goes out there and plays like every game was a CL final. I love it. I want to see more of that. Quite simply ... shame them! If they can't take that. Well, they know where the door is. 

Now, one point I have to concede on the whole tactical/management side is that I cannot, for the f'cking life of me, understand why we're still playing the same system. I mean, one of THE biggest reasons why we're being bullied in many games is quite simply that everyone knows exactly how we set up, how we play etc. Eventually, our opponents figure it out, and when we then don't execute well ... then we have problems. Let's play two up front, let's play three in the back ... I don't know the answers, but we need to SURPRISE our opponents sometimes. 

 

No way, there are problems from the top down. We need a new owner that understands football.

31 minutes ago, stevo said:

No way, there are problems from the top down. We need a new owner that understands football.

Like who? A sheikh or an American investment group? What a strange comment, rather ungrateful and way off the mark.