shall we say 1 3 then or will they surprise us

Looks like we will find out if Conte has changed and whether he's willing to try something new. Conte knows Roman will not sack him because he will have to pay all that compensation. Conte knows that if he resigns he won't get the compensation.  It's a stalemate .. Will he change? I doubt it but we shall see. No Bakayoko, Fabregas, Luiz or Cahill. . If we see either Luiz, Fabregas or Cahill, I will not fancy our chances. I'm sick of saying it but.....COME ON YOU BLUES !!!

Will Conte be the third Chelsea manager to get sacked after we play West Brom? We will find out later.

4 hours ago, Erdal1905 said:

Tibo

Dave Christensen Cahill

Moses  Kante Drinkwater Alonso

Willian Hazard

Giroud

 

Nearly got it right. No Cahill but Rudiger. That is the team I'd play.

3 hours ago, Famous CFC said:

Am I in the unpopular opinion thread? Alonso getting slated. Oh dear. The man has been a gem for us. Take his goals out and we'd be in even bigger sh*t than we already are. Love me some Marcos Alonso. 

 

That's what I was thinking. Alonso has been outstanding at times this season but he still gets stick.

Fabregas has scored 2 goals in 33 appearances. and has 4 assists in 33 appearances. LOL. Dave and Willian have more assists than Fabregas. He's too old and doesn't add much to this team. Last season he hardly played and we won the title at a canter. All the matches we have won by big scores this season, FAbregas hasn't played. It's not rocket science.

17 minutes ago, TheBluesBrother said:

 

That's what I was thinking. Alonso has been outstanding at times this season but he still gets stick.

Of all the players to give sh*t too, he's the last in the list. Looking forward to his return tonight. 

No matter what's been happening I still look forward to the next with hope. Losing tonight is too painful to contemplate.

As much as we are not playing great right now, I think we are giving WBA a bit too much credit. Rodriguez apart they are exactly where they should be giving the talent on that team. Sturridge isn't playing well at all, he slows games down way too much. 

26 minutes ago, TheBluesBrother said:

 

Nearly got it right. No Cahill but Rudiger. That is the team I'd play.

Cahill can give moral support from the stands 

9 minutes ago, ScrubsLaneCFC said:

Cahill can give moral support from the stands 

 

LOL.

I would go:

Courtois

Emerson
Rudiger
Christensen
Zappacosta

Kante
Drinkwater
Fabregas

Hazard
Giroud
Hudson-Odoi

15 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I would go:

Courtois

Emerson
Rudiger
Christensen
Zappacosta

Kante
Drinkwater
Fabregas

Hazard
Giroud
Hudson-Odoi

Change Fabregas for Ampadu and I would be very happy with that formation.

If we play a 343, I'd like Rudiger, Christensen, Azpi, Alonso/Emerson, Kante, Ampadu, Zappacosta, Hazard, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi.

Morata & Christensen are fit for tonight's game.

Giroud is now fully fit and ready to start.

2-0 Chelsea.

1 hour ago, TheBluesBrother said:

Fabregas has scored 2 goals in 33 appearances. and has 4 assists in 33 appearances. LOL. Dave and Willian have more assists than Fabregas. He's too old and doesn't add much to this team. Last season he hardly played and we won the title at a canter. All the matches we have won by big scores this season, FAbregas hasn't played. It's not rocket science.

Fabregas has had a really poor season. Even when he isn't having a good game, you could rely on him to pull off a few good passes, but even that has disappeared this season. Either Fabregas has reached his limit at this level, or he's going through a bad patch. The only top quality performance i have seen from him this season was against United. 

I will say this though, i think you are being unfair on him when talking about last season. He got the most assists for us last season, to say he was "hardly played" is incorrect. He didn't play every week, but he still got a lot of game time and Conte managed him perfectly. We should have used him the same way this season, maybe then Fabregas would have been more effective.

Surely,,   Surely,,,,, a home win tonight by at least a couple of goals,, this mob are totally useless,,, cum on u blues ,,,, 

2 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

He does score a lot of goals and people think about the free kicks but for a wingback I don't think he is that great. You need players who can get up and down the pitch, get past players to attack and cross, tbh Alonso doesn't really do a lot within the game then he pops up with a free kick. In Chelsea's formation the wingbacks need to be very good, there a weak part of Chelsea's team and it's one of the reasons I think they should change to a back 4.

I agree and i think people are being overly defensive when others bring up these weaknesses in Alonso's game. Nobody is saying we don't appreciate what Alonso has done for us with his goalscoring, but it's not the reason why you want him in the squad, it's a bonus but shouldn't be the most important part of his game. 

Alonso has really struggled this season. He's struggled to link up attack, he's struggled defensively, he can't find any space to run into, he's often isolated and doesn't have the pace and flexibility to get himself out of a tight situation. His footwork is bang on, but it's not enough. When you play with 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, the wing backs are probably the most crucial part of the formation, if they don't work then the formation doesn't work.

I'm not suddenly going to stop noticing these things because he has scored a few freekicks. If i did then that would mean his goalscoring is blinding my view of his overall game.

If we don’t win this we can forget top4.

really need to turn this around 

courtois 

azbi christensen rudiger

moses kante drinkwater Alonso 

willian giroud hazard 

I used to be so optimistic even during bad spell's but if we use the system framework we will struggle again tonight

15 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I agree and i think people are being overly defensive when others bring up these weaknesses in Alonso's game. Nobody is saying we don't appreciate what Alonso has done for us with his goalscoring, but it's not the reason why you want him in the squad, it's a bonus but shouldn't be the most important part of his game. 

Alonso has really struggled this season. He's struggled to link up attack, he's struggled defensively, he can't find any space to run into, he's often isolated and doesn't have the pace and flexibility to get himself out of a tight situation. His footwork is bang on, but it's not enough. When you play with 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, the wing backs are probably the most crucial part of the formation, if they don't work then the formation doesn't work.

I'm not suddenly going to stop noticing these things because he has scored a few freekicks. If i did then that would mean his goalscoring is blinding my view of his overall game.

 

But what you fail to understand Scott is that Alonso has played so many games that he's dead on his feet. Being a wing back is draining on the energy levels  running up and down the wing, having to defend, having to link up play. Alonso has nobody to fill in for him. Now we have Palmieri things might change. Despite all of that Alonso has put in many good performances this season

In lieu of Morata's welcome announcement...

Tibo 

Dave Christensen Rudiger 

Moses Kante Ampudu Palmeiri 

Hudson Odoi Morata Hazard 

59 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I agree and i think people are being overly defensive when others bring up these weaknesses in Alonso's game. Nobody is saying we don't appreciate what Alonso has done for us with his goalscoring, but it's not the reason why you want him in the squad, it's a bonus but shouldn't be the most important part of his game. 

Alonso has really struggled this season. He's struggled to link up attack, he's struggled defensively, he can't find any space to run into, he's often isolated and doesn't have the pace and flexibility to get himself out of a tight situation. His footwork is bang on, but it's not enough. When you play with 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, the wing backs are probably the most crucial part of the formation, if they don't work then the formation doesn't work.

I'm not suddenly going to stop noticing these things because he has scored a few freekicks. If i did then that would mean his goalscoring is blinding my view of his overall game.

While I agree that Alonso has his drawbacks - primarily not being fast and being mediocre defensively - we should mention that he has been playing since the beginning of last season, continuously, without a proper backup. I reckon he is tired...
Anyway, this is a crucial game. In light of United's defeat, a win will stir things up in the race for a spot in the Champions League.

honestly, this is our last hope

A win and a far,far better performance than last Monday night please Chelsea.

Conte has only won 20% of his last ten games. That's sacking material. Ancelotti, Nourinho, Di Matteo and AVB had far higher win percentages when they were sacked.