1 minute ago, Slojo said:

We should've went with Kovacic-Jorginho midfield, the Kante and Jorginho pivot has looked awful. I don't know why Lampard won't drop Kante, he's been out of form lately and he could do with a rest. 

Interesting lineup. Don't agree on Kante, he always needs to play with Jorginho to cover his appalling lack of pace off the ball. Personally if we are to play a double pivot it needs to be Kovacic and Kante. Jorginho only works in a three in my view. 

Just now, Spiller86 said:

Interesting lineup. Don't agree on Kante, he always needs to play with Jorginho to cover his appalling lack of pace off the ball. Personally if we are to play a double pivot it needs to be Kovacic and Kante. Jorginho only works in a three in my view. 

Were you asleep when we were smashing teams in September to November? We were outplaying teams comfortably with the Jorginho-Kovacic pivot. 

I think whenever I see these stats I often know what comes next but a still remaining positive

Why did you post that Brutos? Nailed on loss now isn’t it!

Anyone see the upcoming fixtures we have at the end of this month up 'til end of Feb? 

We got Arsenal at home, Leicester away, then Man Utd at home, then Spurs at home, then Bayern at home, In that order. Last two weeks of January until the end of February is going to be an extremely trying period for us. 

Edited January 1, 20206 yr by enigma

Why did you post that Brutos? Nailed on loss now isn’t it!

[emoji23][emoji23] I saw it on Twitter thought I would share it, I blame the premier league for posting it first LOL

Interesting we've never lost or drawn to Brighton in a league match, whether it's home or away. We did draw and lose to them once in the FA Cup.

Away League Record vs Brighton

• September 3 1983 = Brighton 1-2 Chelsea
• March 15 1989 = Brighton 0-1 Chelsea
• January 20 2018 = Brighton 0-4 Chelsea
• December 16 2018 = Brighton 1-2 Chelsea

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Were you asleep when we were smashing teams in September to November? We were outplaying teams comfortably with the Jorginho-Kovacic pivot.

We also outplayed teams with a Matic-Fabregas pivot for about the same period in 2014-15. For the next 18 months, Fabregas' lack of pace and  was a disaster.

The last 6 weeks also suggests to me that Jorginho is an issue against teams that sit deep and then break through our stretched midfield.

Just now, Brutos said:

I saw it on Twitter thought I would share it, I blame the premier league for posting it first LOL

In future please cut all ties with the outside world and lock yourself away in a dark room until the match is over. I’ll be blaming you 100% after the match if we lose it!

Just now, Spiller86 said:

We also outplayed teams with a Matic-Fabregas pivot for about the same period in 2014-15. For the next 18 months, Fabregas' lack of pace and  was a disaster.

The last 6 weeks also suggests to me that Jorginho is an issue against teams that sit deep and then break through our stretched midfield.

Jorginho is faster and has much better positional awareness and tackling than Fabregas ever did, plus Jorginho sits back more and commands the players. With Kante we've lost more games than we've won with him in the side, I'm not blaming December on him by any means, but he has been underwhelming, we were playing a lot better with Jorginho and Kovacic in the midfield and moving the ball around faster. 

Remember a game last over 90 minutes, and the last 10 mins are the most crucial, apart from the league leaders, no team has a better last 10 than us this season. So if we make our usual slow start, remember not to make any stupid comments that will come back to bite you.

Just now, coco said:

Remember a game last over 90 minutes, and the last 10 mins are the most crucial, apart from the league leaders, no team has a better last 10 than us this season. So if we make our usual slow start, remember not to make any stupid comments that will come back to bite you.

Very true, but also remember that we have lost every game when going behind until the Arsenal game, so it wasn't unusual for people to write the last game off. 

I'm expecting a hard game though, but ultimately we should win this, Brighton are not very good. 

Kovacic has been our best midfielder by far this year, he offers a bit of steel and drives forward...and he is sat on the bench....scratching my head here

2 minutes ago, coco said:

So if we make our usual slow start, remember not to make any stupid comments that will come back to bite you.

Please ignore this statement as I enjoy taking the piss out of all you knee jerkers!

Just now, Slojo said:

Very true, but also remember that we have lost every game when going behind until the Arsenal game, so it wasn't unusual for people to write the last game off. 

Weve won 70% of our away games, people should remember that.

If we win, and comfortably, you're all welcome to take the piss out of me! 

also a bit disappointed Kova isn’t starting. Thought this match had kova-Jorghy pivot written all over it. OTOH,  I’m sure Frank has his reasons so I have to defer. Also, as I’ve said elsewhere, we don’t have a first 11 as such and that’s not a bad thing. 

17 minutes ago, coco said:

Remember a game last over 90 minutes, and the last 10 mins are the most crucial, apart from the league leaders, no team has a better last 10 than us this season. So if we make our usual slow start, remember not to make any stupid comments that will come back to bite you.

Good advice in general, and would cut the traffic in here by half.

Happy New Year everyone, hopefully we'll get 2020 off to a flyer.

Come on Chelsea!!!  

COME ON CHELSEA!

A win to start the new decade would be perfect!

No blue socks. We're doomed 

24 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Jorginho is faster and has much better positional awareness and tackling than Fabregas ever did, plus Jorginho sits back more and commands the players. With Kante we've lost more games than we've won with him in the side, I'm not blaming December on him by any means, but he has been underwhelming, we were playing a lot better with Jorginho and Kovacic in the midfield and moving the ball around faster. 

Totally agree. Kovacic makes it a solid 2 because he stays deep and protects with Jorginho. He only drives foward when he is dribbling with the ball from deep. The problem with Kante is that Sarri and lampard have unleashed the attacking aspect of Kantes game and ask him to enter the oppositions box even without the ball. When this happens and we lose possession  we are left with an immobile jorginho protecting our back 4. All we need is for lampard to make kante stay deep and actually form a midfield patnership with jorginho and not play box to box

Come on Chelsea! 

Abraham scored the last league goal of the decade for Chelsea, but who scored the first league goal of the decade for Chelsea ?