Kovacic deserves a lot of praise for the first goal. Seems to have gone unnoticed, the role he played. He dictated that whole move. Swiftly turned away from Martinelli, which is a trademark move of his before passing it into Lukaku and receiving the ball back from Lukaku and laid a superb weighted ball to James who passed it into Lukaku.

3 hours ago, STATS said:

Kovacic deserves a lot of praise for the first goal. Seems to have gone unnoticed, the role he played. He dictated that whole move. Swiftly turned away from Martinelli, which is a trademark move of his before passing it into Lukaku and receiving the ball back from Lukaku and laid a superb weighted ball to James who passed it into Lukaku.

The whole point is to make the right decision at the right time and clearly Kovacic has that quality, he doesn't get the assist but he and Lukaku made the most of that whole sequence without really having much time to work together in training. It shows just how well Kovacic understands the game and I say that despite being negative towards him in the past where I didn't think he had the final ball in him.

It's just a pity that we can't field Kova/Jorgi and Kanté at the same time. Would be an incredible midfield.

replay was never shown

 

Sat and watched the game in the Arsenal end. Whilst it was a bit awkward not being able to show my full excitement during the game. It was equally enjoyable listening to them moan and discuss how good we are, and how bad they were. Lukaku looked unreal, hard not to get very excited as Chelsea fan right now. If we’re unbeaten and top by the end of Sep I think we will be strong favourites for the league. 

I'm surprised no one has posted the compulsory link to AFTV... 

9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I think the only thing we were lucky with was that Holding missed that sitter of a free header. Has to score that.

First half we passed well, moved the ball quickly and were clinical. 

Second half we went through the motions, got real lucky on that header and should have scored more.

Lenos save from Lukaku was outstanding, however Havertz and Ziyech had glorious opportunities and wasted them.

Glad to finally get another win over them and a good performance. Lukaku played very well, probably man of the match.

Yes I thought you saw the going through the motions without the ball in particular. Lots of people talking about Jorginho struggling after halftime, but for me that's not the real story. We know that he struggles when forces to turn or step out of position. The problem was the lack of pressure from the forwards. No pressure and allnof a sudden Arsenal have time to pick passes into areas we don't want them playing in.

I think a challenge that hasn't been talked about enough with the switch from Werner to Lukaku is going to be our forward pressure. It's a strength of Werner's - Lukaku has some Hasselbaink like qualities without the ball 😄.

4 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The whole point is to make the right decision at the right time and clearly Kovacic has that quality, he doesn't get the assist but he and Lukaku made the most of that whole sequence without really having much time to work together in training. It shows just how well Kovacic understands the game and I say that despite being negative towards him in the past where I didn't think he had the final ball in him.

Me neither. I think that's the best pass he has played in a Chelsea shirt. For a second I thought Tony Kroos had stolen his shirt!

3 hours ago, weetee said:

It's just a pity that we can't field Kova/Jorgi and Kanté at the same time. Would be an incredible midfield.

What about...

James-Kovacic-Kante-Jorginho-Chilwell and then Mount/Havertz playing off Lukaku? Could be an option in big games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, BenCFC19 said:

What about...

James-Kovacic-Kante-Jorginho-Chilwell and then Mount/Havertz playing off Lukaku? Could be an option in big game.

So a 352? I personally don't really see it, except maybe for the last 10mins in some high profile do-or-die game to secure a narrow lead. We'd lack some serious goal threat that way. I mean I'd be genuinely curious how that'd work out and would like to see it but even if we could get a 433 or 442 going we'd still have the pragmatic problem that we just don't have any real midfield options as back-ups.

 

 

Remember when the gooner fans would laud it over us through the Graham/early Wenger years.

Wonder how that's going?

2 things I liked about what tuchel said after the match.

1) That's lukaku without real direction or input. Just attended the training and he let the big man play his game.

Imagine what's to come with ideas and tweaks added to his game play.

2) reece, still isn't confident enough in going forward. He can be much better....

Granted some decisions he made were the wrong ones but it's exciting to see how much more that kid will grow.

LONDON IS BLUE!

Fantastic return debut for Lukaku, capped off with a great goal. His hold up and link up play was outstanding, and goes to show the improvements he made when he was at Inter.

James and Lukaku made a good pairing. Didn't always come off, but those two were very dangerous going forward.

Havertz was my MOTM. Deserved a goal towards the end of the game.

Couldn't have asked for a better start to the season, with a big test this week against Liverpool.