I think Rudiger is the new John Terry. Keeps it simple and reads the game well. Bakayoko and Zappacosta look like the business too. Yeah, that was a crap transfer window alright!

2 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

I think Rudiger is the new John Terry. Keeps it simple and reads the game well. Bakayoko and Zappacosta look like the business too. Yeah, that was a crap transfer window alright!

Wouldn't go that far but I like him a lot for me he replaceable Garry all day, More to offer, bit unaware tactically at times. Baka looks good considering he had an operation in the summer will need to work on his passing though. 

3 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

I think Rudiger is the new John Terry. Keeps it simple and reads the game well. Bakayoko and Zappacosta look like the business too. Yeah, that was a crap transfer window alright!

Rudiger distrubution looked better than Cahill. Like the look and pace of Zappercosta when he came on took players on and looks really pacy. Bakayoko imo already looks an upgrade on the Matic of last season.

Great atmosphere made by us yesterday in the ground and in the pub before kick off.

Edited September 10, 20178 yr by Sapper245

3 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

I think Rudiger is the new John Terry. Keeps it simple and reads the game well. Bakayoko and Zappacosta look like the business too. Yeah, that was a crap transfer window alright!

We all know the pundits look for the sensational stories, and no we did not sign Messi or Ronaldo, and yeah we lost out on Llorente and Ox at the end, but I have felt all along we had an above average window. Probably one of the better ones in recent years when considering both numbers and star player(s) (namely Morata). We added players that fit in nicely, even players like Rudiger and Zappacosta. Bakayoko has a lot of potential in midfield and Drinkwater gives us depth and experience. Matic improved United (only mistake was the club he went to), but I think we are covered just fine.

Morata has the potential to be that world class player all teams desparately desire.

So, we missed out on a couple of targets. Everyone does. Did we improve the squad? Again with numbers and quality - absolutely! There does not appear to be any Cuadrados, Babas, Felipe Luis in this group. Plus all the new additions are huge improvements over Oscar, Mikel, Ramires, Ivanovic, Remy, etc.

We have improved the squad tremendously since we lifted the PL trophy May 2015 (just 28 months ago). Of the 25 or so players to get medals that day, only 6 remain on the team - Courtois, Hazard, Fabregas, Cahill, Willian and Azpilicueta.

So this window may not have been filled with big names, it did give us a lot of what we needed I believe.

Come on you Chelsea!! 

57 minutes ago, Chelsea Buzz said:

We all know the pundits look for the sensational stories, and no we did not sign Messi or Ronaldo, and yeah we lost out on Llorente and Ox at the end, but I have felt all along we had an above average window. Probably one of the better ones in recent years when considering both numbers and star player(s) (namely Morata). We added players that fit in nicely, even players like Rudiger and Zappacosta. Bakayoko has a lot of potential in midfield and Drinkwater gives us depth and experience. Matic improved United (only mistake was the club he went to), but I think we are covered just fine.

Morata has the potential to be that world class player all teams desparately desire.

So, we missed out on a couple of targets. Everyone does. Did we improve the squad? Again with numbers and quality - absolutely! There does not appear to be any Cuadrados, Babas, Felipe Luis in this group. Plus all the new additions are huge improvements over Oscar, Mikel, Ramires, Ivanovic, Remy, etc.

We have improved the squad tremendously since we lifted the PL trophy May 2015 (just 28 months ago). Of the 25 or so players to get medals that day, only 6 remain on the team - Courtois, Hazard, Fabregas, Cahill, Willian and Azpilicueta.

So this window may not have been filled with big names, it did give us a lot of what we needed I believe.

Come on you Chelsea!! 

Good post.

 

Sadly the media, and even more sadly many fans, judge the success of the 'window' by the big names a club attracts whilst forgetting that a good squad that works well together is what really matters.

 

I thought it was a very good window FWIW.

Didn't manage to see the game, and have heard a lot of praise for Bakayoko on various newspaper sites, albeit from clearly biased chelsea fans. Was he that good? 'Essien-esque' was said a few times. That would be good news if that's the direction he's heading. 

Does Gary get back in the team? Granted we conceded but I'm not sure he should. I like him and he still has a role to play but shouldn't be captain IMO. Luiz, Dave or Eden for me should have the armband. 

Finally, Morata looks absolutely mustard. All we need to do is recoup approx 50 for Costa, close the door on that sorry saga, and we can look ahead to the season with a lot of optimism. 

8 hours ago, didierforever said:

It was quite panicky towards the end. We should have finished the game before that itself.

Tibo: A great save, brilliant in the air. Should have been better while going down against vardy. Nonetheless, good performance. 6/10

Moses: Decent performance. Needs to be better in the final 3rd. 7/10

Azpi : Brilliant. Him and Morata seem to be on the same wavelength. 9/10

DL : Decent performance. Did not put a foot wrong. 8/10

Rudi: I think he was great. Great in possession and positional play seems to be perfect. 9/10

Alonso: Should have scored if pedro had squared it for him. Good peformance. 8/10

Kante: Lost the ball a couple of times in vital postion. Other than that, bossed the mid. 8/10

Bakayoko - I thought he was our MOTM. Off and specially on the ball he seemed so great. His runs are so good. We have a great payer on our hands. 9/10

Cesc - I thought he was quite average. Lost the possession, his set pieces are a shocker. 6/10

Pedro - Same as Cesc, Should do better in teh last 3rd too. 6/10

Morata - Good goal, runs were quite good, put in a shift but literally could not see him in the last 30mins. Went Awol. Needs to have a better presence. 7/10

 

Baka played decent but never a 9, kante was a lot better, only mistake I remember was losing the ball in their box almost resulted in a counter attack goal, you can see his potential but his passing is piss poor and his decisions on a few occasions are not very good.

He will become a top player I always said that if you look back, I always wanted him for his box to box capabilities.

Also have to credit him as he had an operation in the summer, more to come from him and will need to work on his passing it's really poor, but the surging runs and possession turn over him and kante will boss midfields.

I'd like to see him control the centre of the field a bit more as well he blends in a bit at times doubles up, he needs to control his zones a bit more but conte will work on that, he is not the finished article but the attributes are there. 

22 hours ago, FLYMJ said:

Fist Premier League away win in September since Arsenal in 2012 

 

22 hours ago, OverAndOut said:

Is that true? That's shocking really. No surprise the last win was against Arsenal, though. 

Is it really that shocking though when you take everything into consideration ?

There is an international break that sometimes takes up 2 weeks of September, that leaves you with maybe 1 or 2 away games in the month.

25 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

 

Is it really that shocking though when you take everything into consideration ?

There is an international break that sometimes takes up 2 weeks of September, that leaves you with maybe 1 or 2 away games in the month.

I think it was a total of 7 games since the 2012 win over Arsenal prior to yesterday's match. Four draws and three losses. Given we have won two PL titles during that stretch, it seems odd, though maybe not shocking.

For those that want to know, here are the games:

Away matches in September beginning in 2012-13:

2012-13 Sept 15th - QPR 0-0 D

2012-13 Sept. 29th - Arsenal 1-2 W

2013-14 Sept. 14th - Everton 1-0 L

2013-14 Sept. 28th - Spurs 1-1 D

2014-15 Sept. 21st - Man City 1-1 D

2015-16 Sept. 12th - Everton 3-1 L

2015-16 Sept. 26th - Newcastle 2-2 D

2016-17 Sept. 11th - Swansea 2-2 D

2016-17 Sept. 24th - Arsenal 3-0 L

2017-18 Sept. 9th - Leicester 1-2 W

 

 

Edited September 10, 20178 yr by Chelsea Buzz

2 hours ago, Tim said:

Didn't manage to see the game, and have heard a lot of praise for Bakayoko on various newspaper sites, albeit from clearly biased chelsea fans. Was he that good? 'Essien-esque' was said a few times. That would be good news if that's the direction he's heading. 

Does Gary get back in the team? Granted we conceded but I'm not sure he should. I like him and he still has a role to play but shouldn't be captain IMO. Luiz, Dave or Eden for me should have the armband. 

Finally, Morata looks absolutely mustard. All we need to do is recoup approx 50 for Costa, close the door on that sorry saga, and we can look ahead to the season with a lot of optimism. 

Bakayoko played better than he did against Spurs. To put it in a way, any time Kante hassles and harries a player on the opposing side and they lose the ball, Bakayoko would clean up and go on a run. We don't spend as much time playing sideway passes like we did with Matic.

Cahill has a lot to do imo because Rudiger has been a solid 7-8.5/10 performance since he started on the left. 

Bako is a much better defensive unit than Matic, I think that's a very fair estimation. However his distribution looked average to me last season, I'm hoping he improves that area of his game this season, we can be one dimensional if we have Kante-Bako in the midfield and 0 creativity. Luckily we can always rotate with Fabregas.

Well played match until the penalty. Good performance overall!

6 hours ago, Deino said:

Bakayoko played better than he did against Spurs. To put it in a way, any time Kante hassles and harries a player on the opposing side and they lose the ball, Bakayoko would clean up and go on a run. We don't spend as much time playing sideway passes like we did with Matic.

Cahill has a lot to do imo because Rudiger has been a solid 7-8.5/10 performance since he started on the left. 

Hmm ok thanks, sounds promising, especially if he can add a bit more forward momentum than Kante normally does. The latter is awesome and no Mikel, obviously, but this weekend's goal aside he doesn't normally do a huge amount in the final third. 

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

Bako is a much better defensive unit than Matic, I think that's a very fair estimation. However his distribution looked average to me last season, I'm hoping he improves that area of his game this season, we can be one dimensional if we have Kante-Bako in the midfield and 0 creativity. Luckily we can always rotate with Fabregas.

I agree with this, creativity could be an issue, which is why i think 3-5-2 should be a commonly used option, with cesc in midfield and Hazard up top with Morata. 

6 hours ago, Chelsea Buzz said:

I think it was a total of 7 games since the 2012 win over Arsenal prior to yesterday's match. Four draws and three losses. Given we have won two PL titles during that stretch, it seems odd, though maybe not shocking.

For those that want to know, here are the games:

Away matches in September beginning in 2012-13:

2012-13 Sept 15th - QPR 0-0 D

2012-13 Sept. 29th - Arsenal 1-2 W

2013-14 Sept. 14th - Everton 1-0 L

2013-14 Sept. 28th - Spurs 1-1 D

2014-15 Sept. 21st - Man City 1-1 D

2015-16 Sept. 12th - Everton 3-1 L

2015-16 Sept. 26th - Newcastle 2-2 D

2016-17 Sept. 11th - Swansea 2-2 D

2016-17 Sept. 24th - Arsenal 3-0 L

2017-18 Sept. 9th - Leicester 1-2 W

 

 

It's not shocking it says one thing, we start slow. 

I just looked and we're 1 point away from the top! CL followed by the Arse at home on the weekend.

KTBFFH!

Just saw the club make another statement about the morata chant again "we don't accept discrimination in any form" ok so first let's clarify, y*ddish people are a group, not a religion, so suppose it's discriminatory to that group, fair enough, but why no consistency, the frank lampard chant includes the term "pikeys" clearly discriminatory to another group, namely, gypsies? Are groups who contain jewish people more valued to the club that traveling people? Why no consistency, no gypsy pressure groups mabe? 

On 9/10/2017 at 12:37, DonAntonio said:

Wouldn't go that far but I like him a lot for me he replaceable Garry all day, More to offer, bit unaware tactically at times. Baka looks good considering he had an operation in the summer will need to work on his passing though. 

Hi passing seemed alright to me.  I liked how he won the duels, drove the ball forward and transitioned from defense to attack.  He however lacked on decisions in the final third.  Once in a good and threatening position he makes the wrong decisions or rushed ones many times.  At times he doesnt need to pass but just needs to decide to continue with his run cause defenders are already sh*tting themselves try to contain Willian, Morata, Hazard so he actually has space.  Or he just passes to the wrong player!  So his decision making in the final third needs improving - he needs to just take a second to assess all options and pick the correct pass.  

Am I the only one who sees how Kante's ball distribution, skill level, dribbling and ball control have improved tremendously this season.  I enjoy watching his feints and runs leaving opponents for dead!  He's really a good footballer this guy!  Lovely stuff.

Who is teh little blonde fella training with teh first team today?

 

 

Part of the u19 B team right?  Have googled him and his info below

No way that's a handball in the box . . . .right? 

 

 FFS

 

 

 

6 hours ago, dhidza said:

Hi passing seemed alright to me.  I liked how he won the duels, drove the ball forward and transitioned from defense to attack.  He however lacked on decisions in the final third.  Once in a good and threatening position he makes the wrong decisions or rushed ones many times.  At times he doesnt need to pass but just needs to decide to continue with his run cause defenders are already sh*tting themselves try to contain Willian, Morata, Hazard so he actually has space.  Or he just passes to the wrong player!  So his decision making in the final third needs improving - he needs to just take a second to assess all options and pick the correct pass.  

I agree. He needs to work on his long range shooting and decision-making in the final third which I reckon is something new to him since his old team had mates that were solely in charge on the offensive side of the game. Once he adds that to his game, he'll be one fine footballer.