Must destroy the fat Spanish waiter. 

Newcastle are only slightly better than Swansea but I'd be going near full strength here.

Tbo

Azp Luiz Rudiger

Moses Drinkwater Bakayoko Alonso

Pedro Morata Hazard

 

I'd keep Christensen, Cesc, Kante fresh for Ateltico.

We could spring Willian from the bench for a bit of pace late on.

 

I'm sure Hazard and Azpi will be back for this game, will be tougher than Swansea so I reckon Conte was right to rest them 2 nights ago. We weren't that bad last time around, but Hazard starting should give us the lift to put a few goals past them.

We got like 7 games against teams in the bottom half this month, I'm going to be greedy and say we need to win them all to keep in distance with the 2 Manchester teams. I wouldn't worry about the Atletcio game, not saying we should play the youth team and hand them the win, but we have qualified and we will get a tough team next up whether we win the group or not, so rest Morata or Hazard for all I care. The league is completely the opposite, we drop a game and all the sudden we are chasing the top 4 instead of the 2 leaders.

Edited December 1, 20178 yr by icecoolguy22

Geordie in peace here. 

Couple of things;

First off, re: the tickets, the club didn't take the full allocation (for whatever reason) so the fans bought every ticket that was available. https://www.nufc.co.uk/news/latest-news/chelsea-a-ticket-news-17-18. Seems daft to have a dig at Newcastle's travelling support when we travel in numbers, more often than not this season they've been shifted for the tv cameras, and it's not like they're short away journeys. 

And secondly you should win this one fairly easily. We're not playing well, we're missing our captain and best defender in Lascelles and an alright wide threat in Atsu. Joselu can't score but Benitez doesn't fancy Mitrovic, we look shaky at the back and Shelvey isn't pulling up any trees in the centre. We'll probably switch back from the 442 that saw us lose to Burnley, Bournemouth, Man Utd, and Watford. So we'll likely set up 4-2-3-1 and try and frustrate you, keep you to chances from outside the box. Luckily you've nobody that can score from distance... right?

I'd put money on Chelsea -1, and to keep a clean sheet.

Also morata needs, 

to put his chances away, seems to be missing sitters in front of goal. 

I can see that Newcastle, will put up a fight and make it difficult.

hope hazard will start as he will be vital to unlock the opposition. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Jezq8 said:

Also morata needs, 

to put his chances away, seems to be missing sitters in front of goal. 

I can see that Newcastle, will put up a fight and make it difficult.

hope hazard will start as he will be vital to unlock the opposition. 

 

 

This, Morata has to start doing more, hes only scoring in patches at the moment, I'd prefer a guy to score 1 goal for 4 or 5 games in a row, then a CF who scores 3 in 1 game and doesnt score then for another month. I love Morata and in time I think he'll be a beast for us but hes started well, faded away and hes only been decent since his injury against Man City. Theres a top quality CF in there, we just need to bring it out in him more reguarly. A goal or two against Newcastle would be a great start to December.

Edited December 1, 20178 yr by Delnino

3 hours ago, Blueblur said:

Luckily their striker Joselu is incredibly wasteful in front of goal

I'd have Mitrovic over him all day long. He can be a real hand full but is also likely to get sent off!

Gaffer's pre-match press conference

 

Will the 'Mentallist' all be on here, countering and foaming if a ref makes a decision that could lead to our relegation

12 hours ago, chi blue said:

Please don't tell me they are not bringing full allocation? It's a joke really, Geordies fans this, Geordie fans that, another set of overated fans, like the dippers who come to bridge, I can't remember when they last bought a proper noisy following to our place.

They were still on sale this morning!

7 hours ago, The Fish said:

Geordie in peace here. 

Couple of things;

First off, re: the tickets, the club didn't take the full allocation (for whatever reason) so the fans bought every ticket that was available. https://www.nufc.co.uk/news/latest-news/chelsea-a-ticket-news-17-18. Seems daft to have a dig at Newcastle's travelling support when we travel in numbers, more often than not this season they've been shifted for the tv cameras, and it's not like they're short away journeys.

I’m not having a pop, I’m grateful otherwise I’d have to watch it on the tele. I just know how hard it is to get tickets to an away match for Chelsea (no matter who it is) so when other teams don’t take their full allocations against us I find it odd. I’m sure there would be Newcastle fans who live down south would have grabbed them given half a chance. 

10 hours ago, Zeta said:

Must destroy the fat Spanish waiter. 

Show some respek . He won us the Europa league to make us the only English team to have won all 3 European competitions .

UCL

European Cup winners cup

Europa league / Uefa Cup 

6 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

Show some respek .

Nah.

Hoping for Musonda to start and a cushy win. We have a match every 3 days. Time to use what little squad depth we have. 

2 hours ago, Stim said:

Nah.

SHAME.

 I guess you can be with the MINORITY

I'd be tempted to play Willian, though I don't think it will happen, I think we'll play 352.

 

Willy's played well of late, against Qarabag he scored two and won two penalties, against Liverpool he came on and scored a vital goal, albeit flukey, and against Swansea he was very good. There comes a point where you have to reward a player for good performances, and Willian has worked himself into a bit of form, he's taken his chance when it's come along and now that he's gained a bit of confidence and doesn't look quite so sullen I think it would be foolhardy not to capitalise on it, as his enthusiasm may leave him forever at Chelsea if he thinks he has zero chance of becoming a regular whatever he does.

 

I know he can be frustrating and I know there are valid criticisms but the point is he's a man in form and he should be rewarded. The other point is I think some people mistake the type of player he is. We all want an attacker with bags of end product but I think he's more of a playmaker and a link-man, a link between the midfield and attack, although he's showing more of an attacking threat of late, he's got 3 in his last 3, plus 2 assists, and he set up at least two golden opportunities on Wednesday.

 

T-bo, Zappacosta, Alonso, Christensen, Cahill, Dave, Kante, Fab, Morata, Hazard, Willian

 

Subs: Willy, Rudi, Moses, Ampadu, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Pedro

I feel fab should be rested and maybe Morata as well, maybe Alonso. 

Courtois

moses rudigier chririenson cahill dave

kante Danny baka

willian hazard 

 

Edited December 2, 20178 yr by ozboy

On 29/11/2017 at 21:46, coco said:

We've got to start with the strongest team possible. We have got to win every league game now. Get a few goals then bring players off to rest. 'C O Y Bluuuuuuuuz.'

Match day.I would like to see Rudiger,Drinkwater and Willian all start.Not sure if Moses is quite ready yet.One game at a time.....COME ON YOU BLUES !

The incredibly frantic schedule is upon us. How we do and where we stand after this period will be a deciding factor for whether we have a chance to retain our title. As it stands City are undefeated and I'm really hoping they will slip up sooner rather than later.

The pressure's on us and we need to deliver each and every game.

Alot of people on this thread got the Swansea match completely wrong. It certainly wasn't easy and Alfie Mawson and the Swansea defense were magnificent. They coped with everything we threw at them. I daresay Benitez watched that match and will  use the same tactics. This is going to be difficiult I reckon. If we can nick that first goal then they will have to open up. Let's hope we can do it. COME ON YOU BLUES !!!

11 hours ago, Stim said:

Nah.

I hope we humiliate the fat wazzok, he deserves nothing but contempt.

I hope we don't boo Benitez tbh. His poor comments at Liverpool were somewhat cancelled out by winning us a couple of trophies. So I think he has earned the right to no acknowledgement! 

I'd go with a strong team, get the game won and then rest players. 

Courtois 

azpilicueta christiensen rudiger

Moses kante fabregas alonso

Willian morata hazard

We have the league cup game in 10 days time, when we can rest kante and alonso.

Moses needs games, he was absolutely abysmal in his cameo on Wednesday, it looked like he was playing a different sport, (possibly the same sport as renato sanches). 

 

12 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Show some respek . He won us the Europa league to make us the only English team to have won all 3 European competitions .

UCL

European Cup winners cup

Europa league / Uefa Cup 

Winning the Europa League clouded his failings that season. His coaching cost us a lot of Premier League points, a chance at another league cup final and a World Club Championship win. He always set us up not to lose, he never set us up to win. Even when we were chasing a win, his choice of a sub was a RB. Us winning the Europa League was great, but considering the opposition we had, it would have been a major cock up if we had not won it. Any of those teams we faced would have been an expected easy win if it was a Champions League game.

He also tried to force Terry into an early retirement by saying things like Terry couldn't play more than one game a week anymore. He refused to apologise for past comments made at the club and it's fans and he also refused to back us when Suarez sunk his teeth into Ivanovic. 

Benitez never even tried to get on the right side of us Chelsea fans. He used us as a way to spark some life into his managerial career. He doesn't deserve our respect, he never did enough to earn it.

i see this as a repeat of the swansea game, just hope we can break this lot down quicker as with arsenal possibly taking points of manure, it could be a very good 3 points !! newcastle are one of those teams that could well throw their recent form out of the window, and am i right in thinking that benitez has a decent record against chelsea?

50 minutes ago, luckywerthers said:

i see this as a repeat of the swansea game, just hope we can break this lot down quicker as with arsenal possibly taking points of manure, it could be a very good 3 points !! newcastle are one of those teams that could well throw their recent form out of the window, and am i right in thinking that benitez has a decent record against chelsea?

Not at Stamford bridge, and Newcastle have an awful record here aswell.