25 minutes ago, General said:

He’s (RB) only ineligible for this round of the FA Cup, IF we progress tomorrow he’s able to play in the next round 

expect another tight game, at least the tie will be settled one way or another 

Ampadu & Bats to start, expect big Willy in goal and hopefully little Willy & Pedro and we play 4-3-3 

 

 

Thanks for confirming. I assumed it was the whole competition. I won't be surprised if it is another tight game tomorrow. Hopefully a few of the youngsters get a runout though.

58 minutes ago, General said:

He’s (RB) only ineligible for this round of the FA Cup, IF we progress tomorrow he’s able to play in the next round 

expect another tight game, at least the tie will be settled one way or another 

Ampadu & Bats to start, expect big Willy in goal and hopefully little Willy & Pedro and we play 4-3-3 

 

 

Fabregas & Cahill are injured and won't be playing. Good thing or a bad thing ?

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by ChelseaFanBoy

8 hours ago, Slojo said:

How about a nice 3 clean sheets and zero goals? Ring any bells? 

Have we just suddenly forgot how good Luiz was? Defensively & offensively he was arguably the best CB in the league last year. 

And now we're going to assume that Luiz is a liability at the back despite being solid as a rock last season? are we also going to hold Azpilicueta accountable who went through a pretty rough patch at the start of the season? And Azpilicueta is one of the most consistent players I've ever seen. It happens, our organisation was all over the place, Roma game was a fine example, plenty of injuries in a fragile system, Fabregas in a pivot is a disaster waiting to happen but we had no choice. 

Get Luiz back and play Christensen in the side. 

So us not scoring a goal in 3 games is down to luiz not playing, rather than hazard and cesc looking on their last breath, morata doing a picture perfect torres impression, willian/pedro just not being good enough? Well that makes perfect sense to me!!!

Last seasons count for ZILCH. Costa is out despite winning us games single handedly. As is matic who was a main stay. THIS SEASON, luiz has been pathetic. No 2 ways about it and he deserves exactly what he is getting currently. Rudiger and GC have been way better than him. AC has been one of our best defenders. No need to change whats not broken. If we have a problem in attack, then get an attacker who is not andy carrol rather than trying to change the personnel in defence to somehow help in attack. Like i said in the previous post, luiz should stay exactly where he is, on the bench.

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by didierforever

Gaffa's Pre match press conference

 

Ok, all the first teamers are tired and need a three month break I hear, so let's give it a go with the kids anyway. Would love to advance to the next round in this competition, but I would not start with more than 2 or 3 regulars. I rest Hazard, Christensen, Azplicueta, Kante, Courtois, Morata, Fabegas (injured), Alonso, Moses. It is Norwich. It is at the Bridge. Fear not the Canaries. 

Come on you Chelsea!!

A kind of think we need a win right now. 

With this in mind would go for the strongest side we can with minimal changes. No problem resting Hazard yet would suggest only resting one of Azpi and Alonso not both.

It's ok making lots of changes we might win yet if we don't we just might lose a manager.

I'm pretty confident we can win this one, had we played the ET that day, we'd probably lost. A completely new game at home, should have the class to win this, won't be pretty through. It's about time the likes of Pedro, Batshuayi, Zapacosta etc step up, sure you guys should have played more, how about deliver something and give the manager a reason to pick you more regularly.

I would prefer Morata, I think he needs a goal more than a rest.

Assuming we are comfortably in front then take him off, remember the last thing we need is extra time.

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by Strider6003

56 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

I would prefer Morata, I think he needs a goal more than a rest.

Assuming we are comfortably in front then take him off, remember the last thing we need is extra time.

would a goal against a championship team boost his confidence though?

Match day,whatever the team.....COME ON YOU BLUES !

We have to get our attack sorted. 

Norwich defenders would hate to see Willian Pedro Hazard and Morata on together.

 

                Tibo

Dave Andreas Rudi Alonso

               Kante 

 Willian    Barkley    Pedro

           Hazard

                   Morata

               

Come on Chelsea.

Game day.

3 hours ago, grandia said:

would a goal against a championship team boost his confidence though?

For sure when your confidence is down, a toe poke a mish*t or whatever it boosts the player's confidence.  That's what ex-striker pundits say and makes sense to me.

What I would like to see:

Cabellero

Rudiger
Ampadu
Luiz

Zappacosta
Drinkwater
Fabregas
Sterling

Pedro
Batshayuai
Musonda
 

 

3 minutes ago, Zeta said:

What I would like to see:

Cabellero

Rudiger
Ampadu
Luiz

Zappacosta
Drinkwater
Fabregas
Sterling

Pedro
Batshayuai
Musonda
 

 

Fab's not going to play at all. He's got a hammy issue.

I would be very happy for both Morata AND Hazard to start this one. There is no way there is a risk of Hazard getting tired. He is subbed so often that he must be pretty fresh and Morata needs a goal or two to boost his confidence.

It's live on BBC1 tonight. I'm not sure I'm pleased 

1 minute ago, Valerie said:

It's live on BBC1 tonight. I'm not sure I'm pleased 

BBC1? I'm surprised they even have live matches these days. What an awful channel.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Valerie said:

It's live on BBC1 tonight. I'm not sure I'm pleased 

I am. It'll be one of the very few games in a season I can watch with no buffering, no stream cutting out, no foreign commentary.

14 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I am. It'll be one of the very few games in a season I can watch with no buffering, no stream cutting out, no foreign commentary.

If Martin Keown or Danny Murphy are on commentary I think I'd prefer foreign commentary.

24 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

BBC1? I'm surprised they even have live matches these days. What an awful channel.

 

 

I used to watch the BBC a lot, as it was much better than Dutch tv. But now It's one Cooking on Ice show after another  

45 minutes ago, Valerie said:

I used to watch the BBC a lot, as it was much better than Dutch tv. But now It's one Cooking on Ice show after another  

Channel four not much better. Come dine with four in a bed sounds like fun, till you see it.

14 hours ago, didierforever said:

So us not scoring a goal in 3 games is down to luiz not playing, rather than hazard and cesc looking on their last breath, morata doing a picture perfect torres impression, willian/pedro just not being good enough? Well that makes perfect sense to me!!!

Last seasons count for ZILCH. Costa is out despite winning us games single handedly. As is matic who was a main stay. THIS SEASON, luiz has been pathetic. No 2 ways about it and he deserves exactly what he is getting currently. Rudiger and GC have been way better than him. AC has been one of our best defenders. No need to change whats not broken. If we have a problem in attack, then get an attacker who is not andy carrol rather than trying to change the personnel in defence to somehow help in attack. Like i said in the previous post, luiz should stay exactly where he is, on the bench.

You’re completely missing the point here, and in an essence yes, David Luiz dictates the tempo like no other centre back can.

Do you think Edison has had no great impact on the way City play now? A goalkeeper? He has made a massive impact because of his distribution alone, teams just can’t get the ball. I love Christensen by the way, I think he’s actually our most solid defender, but when he’s the main 3 his distribution is not very good. Traditionally it’s not a centre backs job, but the sport has evolved and we’ve seen how ball playing centrebacks are a key to an attacking oriented team.

Keeping hold of the ball and putting pressure on the opposition will always increase our chances of winning the game, we’ve been far too sloppy in the last 3 matches that I wouldn’t even celebrate a clean sheet. We need to go back to the way things were last season when we could outplay teams, counter-attack teams and pressure them for 80 minutes.

 

"All we are saying"

"Just give us a goal"

 

 

Chelsea team tonight: Caballero; Azpilicueta (c), David Luiz, Ampadu; Zappacosta, Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Kenedy; Willian, Batshuayi, Pedro.

 

Chelsea subs: Eduardo, Christensen, Sterling, Kante, Musonda, Hazard, Morata