United are playing us at the wrong time.

After that Roma defeat, these group of players will be running around like they have duracell batteries stuck up their arse.

Even Tibo said they we'll fight for every ball and harder than ever before to make sure we're not out of the title race. Conte will have these muppets fired up for Jose's return and after all his comments about us in the last year, I hope we hammer them and Conte goes even more beserk than usual just to wind him up even more.

But, we as Chelsea fans know of Mourinho's strengths and these are the sort of games he thrives on.

1-1.

Season defining game for me. Reading more and more reports about Conte getting the sack, and while most likely bs, I don't think anyone on here would be surprised if it were to happen.

Confident we'll bounce back and win this one, COME ON CHELSEA!

Just pick a winning team enough said

I'd like to see a change in formation here, 3-4-3 has clearly gotten stale. I think a 4-3-3 would work for this game.

Courtois

Zappacosta - Rudiger - Christensen - Azpilicueta

Drinkwater - Luiz - Kante (Bakayoko if Kante isn't fit)

Pedro - Morata - Hazard 

 

What I expect:

Courtois

Rudiger - Luiz - Cahill

Azpilicueta - Kante (again, Bakayoko if Kante isn't fit) - Cesc - Alonso

Pedro - Morata - Hazard

 

Conte has been very stubborn recently and continues to pick players such as Alonso, Cahill and Fabregas who currently don't deserve to be in the side based on their current form and continues to use Azpilicueta at wing back even though he clearly can't play there. I hope that my expected starting lineup is wrong but if I'm right, I'm expecting a long afternoon. Comfortable 2-0 United win if Conte continues being stubborn in his team selection.

Edited November 2, 20178 yr by SAB

I still have high expectations for this one, hope Kante will be back for it. I wish Alonso had some competition for his place (Nobody dare mention Kenedy). I still reckon start Morata but if he looks anything like he has in last few games dont leave it too long to get Batman on. Our defence has been shocking but we cant let Lukaku & Co through. Time will tell but im optimistic.

This will be a very difficult game. Our confidence is shot, legs are heavy, and Man U will arrive with a lot of optimism.

Jose will set them out as he did on the previous occasion with Herrera man marking Hazard and the LB (Darmian, most likely) stuck to Pedro.

That will leave Morata isolated and not much goal threat from elsewhere. Jose will be happy to sit back and hit us on the counter. Could be the type of game that'll be decided by a set piece.

I'd go with a 3-4-3 and a high press with quick transitions. I'd also tell the front 3 to rotate positions often to throw off the man marking. Hazard, for example, could play up top for a period, which would pull Herrera to where the CB's are.

It's going to be tactical and physical, and potentially season defining

6 hours ago, YRazor said:

I still have high expectations for this one, hope Kante will be back for it. I wish Alonso had some competition for his place (Nobody dare mention Kenedy). I still reckon start Morata but if he looks anything like he has in last few games dont leave it too long to get Batman on. Our defence has been shocking but we cant let Lukaku & Co through. Time will tell but im optimistic.

Give Morata time and he will deliver. He's shown before that he is a top class striker. The injury has halted his progress though. There hasn't been one Premier League striker (and beyond) that hasn't had a barren spell, no matter how good they are. 

46 minutes ago, old git said:

Give Morata time and he will deliver. He's shown before that he is a top class striker. The injury has halted his progress though. There hasn't been one Premier League striker (and beyond) that hasn't had a barren spell, no matter how good they are. 

I think thats the issue with us. Sometimes, the pressure needs to be taken off. Morata needs time to be gelled in, does not help that we are in the state that we are, and the pressure is mounting on him to get some goals for the team.

Just beat them Chelsea. Just beat them.

16 hours ago, CFCholland said:

Season defining game for me. Reading more and more reports about Conte getting the sack, and while most likely bs, I don't think anyone on here would be surprised if it were to happen.
 

I would not trust a newspaper to tell me what day it is. The media are ridiculous.

Conte won us the League,yet all the media do is stir it with sensationalism.

On 30/10/2017 at 19:27, Nibs said:

Due to "The Mourinho Factor" and how much I dislike the bloke now, this has become the game of the season that I want us to win above all others. It has always been a big game but in the past I got more pleasure out of us beating Sp*rs, Arsenal and Liverpool, but not any more. Last season, far & away the biggest highlight for me was the 4-0 drubbing we gave them and to see Mourinho absolutely broken on the touchline. Trouble is, he will want revenge or at the very least to not lose and a game against Conte's Chelsea has probably become more of a must not lose game than any other for him, even more so than Pep's City and Wenger's Arsenal.

I can see him setting up, happy for the 0-0 but hoping they will snatch a goal and go away with all 3 points and a clean sheet. Got a feeling they might well target Alonso, who struggles against Pace so I hope we have them on the back foot like last season and we don't sit too deep. We need Kante back for this one and the likes of Hazard, Pedro and Morata to be on fire. 

I'll take any win but if we could repeat last season's performance, I'll be letting fireworks off in celebration!

 

But but but... How can you not respect our greatest manager ever?

Seriously though, I don't know how we do it but we ALWAYS seem to beat them at home (except that 1 fraud match).

4 minutes ago, ashwin said:

But but but... How can you not respect our greatest manager ever?

Seriously though, I don't know how we do it but we ALWAYS seem to beat them at home (except that 1 fraud match).

Will always respect what he achieved here. Now detest the bloke.

COME ON THE CHELS!

Lets get into these scum bags!

4 hours ago, didierforever said:

I think thats the issue with us. Sometimes, the pressure needs to be taken off. Morata needs time to be gelled in, does not help that we are in the state that we are, and the pressure is mounting on him to get some goals for the team.

Morata and Batshuayi are well capable of getting goals but they need support from midfield of course. Hazard and, to a certain extent, Pedro are the only reliable sources of invention at the moment. Alonso spends most of his time chasing back (not very rapidly) and supporting a defence and midfield that seem to be on the back foot nowadays. It's up to Conte now to freshen things up and get a positive reaction from the Roma defeat.  

10 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

This will be a very difficult game. Our confidence is shot, legs are heavy, and Man U will arrive with a lot of optimism.

Jose will set them out as he did on the previous occasion with Herrera man marking Hazard and the LB (Darmian, most likely) stuck to Pedro.

That will leave Morata isolated and not much goal threat from elsewhere. Jose will be happy to sit back and hit us on the counter. Could be the type of game that'll be decided by a set piece.

I'd go with a 3-4-3 and a high press with quick transitions. I'd also tell the front 3 to rotate positions often to throw off the man marking. Hazard, for example, could play up top for a period, which would pull Herrera to where the CB's are.

It's going to be tactical and physical, and potentially season defining

Like the way you are thinking, I think another factor is our CMs, Drinkwater and Kante don't have match fitness. How much of a bearing this will have I'm just not sure.

Man U are far from unbeatable, especially at home, anytime they face good opposition they struggle and don't look very impressive, we have good players our problems have been injury, contes big game tactics at times and players not giving it 100 %.

With those 3 metrics in mind:

1. we should have our full squad back minus Moses, is kante going to be on full power though?

2.Conte surely won't play cess in a 2 ever again and doesn't need to at this point, as long as he doesn't come up with passive tactics we should be ok in that department, for me our biggest issue is we haven't been pressing, no pressure on the ball. Lastly he needs to get teh team selection right and stop swapping round teh CB's, GC shouldn't play, no debate, we all know why, Andreas in, Rudiger at RB, to be blunt Zappa is not very good imo.

3. The player motivation shouldn't be a worry, they are top players, after the core of this team finishing 10th to dissemble again would be too embarrassing for them, can't blame 2 top class managers the season after winning the league, this time teh fall out will go to the players and teh board not the manager and Roman will come off looking naive if teh club try and lay it on the manager again. Surely we expect a reaction and we know at their best they are good payers. 

I would go:

                             Tibo

            Dave          Luiz         Andreas

Rudiger                                           Alonso

                Kante                   Baka 

                        Drinkwater

 

                Morata                Hazard

 

Bring on fab for DW later on, this team is solid and won't get over run in mid field, only issue I see is width and maybe losing a bit of creativity by sacrificing a forward.

                       

Can't say I see us winning but a draw is possible, though, in this case with city on their current form it's all about staying within touching distance till they eventually hit a bad patch. it's always been tough for us at the bridge, I think we've won twice there in 20 odd seasons? That's says all I need to know about Sunday's game.

Let's just take the Roma game as what it was, a horror day at the office for us, and they were at their best. Despite the childish defending and missed chances, I was confident we could come back in the second half with the chances we created. Then the fatigue came in and we didn't even put up a fight in the second half. Even the best of teams get beaten in the group stages, we need to move on and stop dwelling on the 'crisis', we are not. Even if we don't have Kante, we need to play another midfielder, just can't afford to have them running through us in the middle like the Roma game. Conte needs to make some tough decisions in defence, we can't play Azpi in a different position every other game, and a decision must be made on Cahill. Granted he wasn't the worst against Roma, we looked shaky everytime he's on the field. Needless to say Hazard/Morata plays better when the midfield is keeping the ball, just have to trust Morata to get his scoring touch back soon. I have no doubt we will see a much different Chelsea on Sunday, and we need to aiming for the win. As we saw in the Spurs/United game, you sit back and let the game go by, one of those hopeful long balls may just bring you down, and all the Sudden Jose is a genius again.

I feel we need to show support for Conte, so I propose on the 30th minute (Most wins we've ever had in a season thanks to Conte) We stand up and applause for a whole minute, shouting Antiono as much as we can.
Show Roman that we're supporting the manager, not the players or the board. We trust in Conte and we're sick of the sack culture. 

Edited November 3, 20178 yr by TomCFC85

8 hours ago, didierforever said:

I think thats the issue with us.

Not sure you can use the word us after putting money on Roma to win and then turning your telly off after two minutes because you didn't like the formation. It's not exactly the actions of a loyal Chelsea fan.

1 hour ago, ManXunited said:

Can't say I see us winning but a draw is possible, though, in this case with city on their current form it's all about staying within touching distance till they eventually hit a bad patch. it's always been tough for us at the bridge, I think we've won twice there in 20 odd seasons? That's says all I need to know about Sunday's game.

I think this match is impossible to call, history suggests a narrow Chelsea win or draw though CFC have a lot of problems with key players due to come back from injury and have been leaking goals.

That is why no predictions from me for this match.

2 hours ago, Donny Blue said:

Man U are far from unbeatable, especially at home, anytime they face good opposition they struggle and don't look very impressive, we have good players our problems have been injury, contes big game tactics at times and players not giving it 100 %.

With those 3 metrics in mind:

1. we should have our full squad back minus Moses, is kante going to be on full power though?

2.Conte surely won't play cess in a 2 ever again and doesn't need to at this point, as long as he doesn't come up with passive tactics we should be ok in that department, for me our biggest issue is we haven't been pressing, no pressure on the ball. Lastly he needs to get teh team selection right and stop swapping round teh CB's, GC shouldn't play, no debate, we all know why, Andreas in, Rudiger at RB, to be blunt Zappa is not very good imo.

3. The player motivation shouldn't be a worry, they are top players, after the core of this team finishing 10th to dissemble again would be too embarrassing for them, can't blame 2 top class managers the season after winning the league, this time teh fall out will go to the players and teh board not the manager and Roman will come off looking naive if teh club try and lay it on the manager again. Surely we expect a reaction and we know at their best they are good payers. 

I would go:

                             Tibo

            Dave          Luiz         Andreas

Rudiger                                           Alonso

                Kante                   Baka 

                        Drinkwater

 

                Morata                Hazard

 

Bring on fab for DW later on, this team is solid and won't get over run in mid field, only issue I see is width and maybe losing a bit of creativity by sacrificing a forward.

                       

It's interesting that you've pencilled in Rudiger at right wing back as I was thinking, when Conte kept going for a midfield duo of Fabregas and Bakayoko, that Rudiger would do a good defensive midfield job alongside Bakayoko. He's athletic, has pace, power and can tackle. Alright he can't ping the ball around like Cesc but, at this time, we need to shore things up and protect the back three.

3 hours ago, bluehaze said:

 Not sure you can use the word us after putting money on Roma to win and then turning your telly off after two minutes because you didn't like the formation. It's not exactly the actions of a loyal Chelsea fan.

I will use whatever word I like, mate. Specially given that the day light saving made it that now the late matches start at 1:15am and some of us have some personal lives. So please take your prejudice and put it on someone else. 

As for the bet. Money and emotion are 2 different entities. I understand, so don't need your judgement on my loyalty. 

The demise of the Madrid teams shows that nothing is certain at the top end. If we can do top 4, that's probably the best we can hope for this time round. You have to admire Pochettino, who has taken his time, but now looks to be delivering the goods without spending a fortune. If the board can be patient, Conte will deliver big time, just not yet.