Thought Morata looked good when he came on. Good movement, won everything in the air. Actually taller than I thought too. Once he's 100% sharp he'll be dangerous. Musdona looked lively too. 

But this squad won't win the league.

We are way too dependent on Hazard. Without him, 5th or 6th. Need another player in his class if I'm honest. We need better wing backs, we need a better CB, and we need another attacking option.

If we don't sort it, get our fitness and sharpness up to speed, then we could easily end up with 2015/16 all over again. Certainly could end up outside the top four. This side doesn't look anything like fit, motivated or strong enough. 

And it's the board to blame. 100%. 

Pedro lost his head but I dont think a straight red was correct. 

The result was deflating and the game was flat. You'd have to question the people uptop why did we went to faraway countries just to participate in meaningless friendlies. Late and short pre-season coupled with long hours of flight time cost us a lot of time wasted. 

We can't play the 343 with the squad in the current state. Fabregas can't play in a 2 and Kante can't do the work of 3 people every game. Alonso needs to sort himself out, what is wrong with him all pre-season. Moses is hit and miss, he can be great for 30min then be horrendous for 20min along with Willian and they're supposed to be at their peak lol. We need to switch back to a 4-3-3 or at least a formation that employs 3 midfielders, it's starting to show Fabregas and Kante's weaknesses. 

In hindsight, can't believe we let KdB go for Willian and Oscar

This season just has a feeling of deja-vu to it as in a repeat of 15/16 season. We come back from winning the title then lost to community shield 1-0 to Arsenal then had a awful PL season. I have already been feeling pessimistic before this game as I am not content about the transfer dealings and lack of squad depth. If Pedro is indeed suspended, we need to get busy this week in so many different departments. Look at Arsenal's offensive options for instance compared to us and this is with Sanchez and Ozil not even playing and they are still going after Lemar. This is what we need to be doing and the board's philosophy is getting really worrying.

Luiz and Kante were excellent today I thought though. Big week ahead and Conte needs the board backing because right now with the squad we have, see zero chance of us retaining title yet alone sustaining a title challenge and that is not a knee-jerk reaction. That is my genuine belief.

9 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

Thought Morata looked good when he came on. Good movement, won everything in the air. Actually taller than I thought too. Once he's 100% sharp he'll be dangerous. Musdona looked lively too. 

But this squad won't win the league.

We are way too dependent on Hazard. Without him, 5th or 6th. Need another player in his class if I'm honest. We need better wing backs, we need a better CB, and we need another attacking option.

If we don't sort it, get our fitness and sharpness up to speed, then we could easily end up with 2015/16 all over again. Certainly could end up outside the top four. This side doesn't look anything like fit, motivated or strong enough. 

And it's the board to blame. 100%. 

Are we certain the board is to blame? And at the end of last season, did many on here feel we needed 7 new signings? 

Something has definitely gone wrong with our recruitment this off season and I can’t put a finger on it. Bar City no other team seem to have brought in their targets; Utd can’t seem to sign Perisic, Arsenal have only bought Lacazette & Kolasinac, Liverpool have notably only bought Salah, and Spurs can’t seem to buy anyone. The only issue will be that we have stripped ourselves Zouma, Ake, Chalobah and Loftus Cheek. Add those to what we have already, and it doesn’t seem that bad. I feel the board like other teams have been seen spooked by the current prices in the market. It’s all well and good saying bid £70m or £100m for Sandro, but you do that and next season teams will use that figure as the benchmark. You just have to see the fee City ended up paying for Mendy because they had paid £50m for Walker a few days earlier.

I agree on the Hazard bit though, and find it weird that most fans feel we need more defensive options. Bar the top 6/7, we will face teams that sit back and want us to open them up. 

Very worrying performance. We looked off the pace, and lacked creativity. Hard to believe we're going into a new season looking a lot weaker than last season. 

Really, without Costa and Hazard we lack any threat upfront. Hazard must be so pissed that he's going to have to carry this lot for another season.

 

The fellas I was  listening to said if it's deemed violent conduct he does. Regardless we'll have to wait and see

It's Chelsea of course it will lol probs get 8 game ban for bringing the game into disrepute

2 hours ago, dkw said:

I thought arsenal were the better team the opening 15 but we got on top after that and created more chances, and deserved the lead. Pedro was maybe unlucky to see red (if it's red then so was Bellerin) but can see why the ref sent him off. Very odd penalty line up, was Conte making a point, taking the piss or just not bothered?

What was wrong with the peno lineup?

Thought today was the Bobby Madley show...made so many wrong decisions and was desperate to be the star of the show...btw does anyone else think he's carry a lot of timber for a ref? Surprised he made 90 mins himself...

Clattenberg was the resident ref for BT and he was his usual arrogant best...said that Madley's decision to give Willian a yellow for diving for absolutely right only for the arse hole to eat his own words when the replays showed that he was touched before he went down...shame he couldn't show so much courage when the Spuds were kicking lumps out of Hazard during the battle of the bridge game...but there again there wasn't the opportunity to ref a European Championship final today...glad to see that this season's standards of officiating will be it's usual sh*te best...can't wait...

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by doctorblue

3 hours ago, brakeit said:

Like we d on`t have youth like Buga, Musonda, Tumori, Kenedy and Costa, who won`t play for us ? And 2 GK in the squad. Can you even calculate ?

18 players, from which 3 are GK, and 3 are injured/suspended, one of them is Loic Remy, who is 100kg, And for the our first match we will have exactly 13 players, without the 2 reserve GK.

Great Squad, great job work.

Even sh*** team like Arsenal have a lot more depth then us. They atleast have something they can rely, while we don`t. All of our young team is send on loan.

 

My god youre boring

2 hours ago, Semper Fi said:

Pedro lost his head but I dont think a straight red was correct. 

Didn't lose his head it was a tired tackle. Thats why Conte was about to sub him,

Question is whether he'll get a ban in the league...

Yeah he does, i want to see Boga or Musonda start anyway

Just back from Wembley...what a ball ache to get home from,  and I am only living just south of Wimbledon! Anyway... 

 

.... Thought that we started the opposite of how we did in the friendly a couple of weeks ago.  We were slow and sloppy.  Tiredness? Apathy?  No idea... But it was a poor start. 

We then got a bit of a foothold in the game, but never looked like we were properly in control.  

Morata when he came on reminded me of early Torres.  Effort and good movement but lack of service and composure when it mattered. Didn't look confident..a bit worrying.  Michy didn't do much of merit either. 

A word on our fans.  I am usually the first to give a shout out to the fans,  but today I thought  we were poor.  Easily outsung by arsenal and felt like a general lack of interest. Have to admit that having tried to get some songs going over my block, all of which failed, I then gave up myself. 

Wake up Chelsea. Wake up the support. 

Come on the chelse.

Ktbffh 

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by nonotnowjim

35 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

Yeah he does, i want to see Boga or Musonda start anyway

Fair enough but what about our next fixture against spurs at wembley 

https://mobile.twitter.com/UtdOliver?ref_src=twsrc^tfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redcafe.net%2Fthreads%2F%C3%81lvaro-morata.431313%2Fpage-5

Decent game, but we definitely look like we could do with a few more weeks of pre-season. Not convinced Batshuayi spearheads a title challenging side, and Morata (and those around him) will need time to gel and bed into the squad.

The Kante-Cesc partnership leaves us vulnerable in the middle, and by the looks of it we've only one (unfit and as yet untested Bakayoko) alternative likely to displace/play alongside.

Our wing backs played well going forward but both made positional errors at the back, and going into a season with more games and still no real competition in these positions is another concern. We're actually an injury/suspension away from a real problem in quite a few positions.

Cahill and Kante were the best of an OK bunch today for me. The loss isn't a disaster but it reitirates what we need to do. Hopefully a win in league day 1 will get everything on track.

On a side note I've hated mark clattenburg for his whole career, today when I heard him in the studio, he is a very level headed quite likable guy, honestly I was surprised. 

1 minute ago, DonAntonio said:

On a side note I've hated mark clattenburg for his whole career, today when I heard him in the studio, he is a very level headed quite likable guy, honestly I was surprised. 

He is probably just a good actor. I still see him as a c**t with a big ego

Just now, The Don Antonio said:

He is probably just a good actor. I still see him as a c**t with a big ego

His voice and way he talked didn't suit what I envisioned, I was imagining a uppity little c**t from twickenham or something, instead a softly spoken Gordie, bit of a mind f**k 

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

Just back from Wembley...what a ball ache to get home from,  and I am only living just south of Wimbledon! Anyway... 

A word on our fans.  I am usually the first to give a shout out to the fans,  but today I thought  we were poor.  Easily outsung by arsenal and felt like a general lack of interest. Have to admit that having tried to get some songs going over my block, all of which failed, I then gave up myself. 

 

 

We are used to winning things like the PL and CL, for Arsenal this is a world cup final, to be expected, call it spoiled but better than a goonie w**kfest over a silver tray, btw 5 hours to get home from Wembley to South London did you drag yourself home by your eyelids 

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by DonAntonio

Did anyone see Conte just ignore most of the board post-game?
 

Just now, DonAntonio said:

We are used to winning things like the PL and CL, for Arsenal this is a world cup final, to be expected, call it spoiled but better than a goonie w**kfest over a silver tray. 

I remember their celebrations when they managed to bring a 1-0 defict against Bournemouth into a 2-2 draw!
ABSOLUTE SCENES! 

1 minute ago, TomCFC85 said:

I remember their celebrations when they managed to bring a 1-0 defict against Bournemouth into a 2-2 draw!
ABSOLUTE SCENES! 

Deffo changing room selfies and whipping each other on the bums with wet towels afterwards. Do you think Arsenal fans realise they are complete w**kers or are w**kers oblivious to that? 

3 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

Did anyone see Conte just ignore most of the board post-game?
 

No but a told you so glare would have been better