Southampton vs Chelsea (PL) Wednesday 4th December 24 19:30 GMT

[Scott]

7 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

I believe Neto is 1 yellow away from suspension as well.

Correct.

[petre ispirescu]

Can't risk ruining the moment we are currently in. We looked very solid against Villa. Need more of the same against Southampton. Another solid win and a professional performance, we must go into the Spurs match riding a positive wave.

Plus we play on Wed and Spurs play one day later, that means an extra day of rest for us, so fitness should not be a problem. If Spurs don't rotate at Bournemouth, which they should not as Bournemouth away has become a difficult ground, it would be the 4th straight match in 12 days that they use the starting players. Against us it would be their 5th one in 15 days, so the ones worried about tired legs should be them, not us. 

[axman2526]

3 hours ago, Scott said:

Correct.

Maybe then the only changes should be Neto and Jackson. Save them for Spurs, Neto is used to 1 game a week anyways. Oh and the injured Fofana

That would leave us with:

 

Sanchez

 

Caicedo 

Tosin

Colwill

Cucurella

 

Lavia

Enzo

 

Sancho

Palmer

Felix

 

Nkunku

 

[axman2526]

Regardless of who plays, and I think I said this vs Leicester, we better bloomin win. No excuses not to beat them.

They play out from the back, and are bad at it, slow to move forward, cannot play hoof ball and are missing their best player, best defender and best keeper.

No excuses, will be embarrassing if we fail to win this and we will rightly deserve a bucket load of stick.

[Sconnie Blue]

Spurs play Thursday. 

[dansubrosa]

We’ll fookin smash them whoever plays up front.

It would be a good game for Nkunku to start. Give him a chance to show us what he can do against a premier league side.

Maybe give one of the midfielders a rest, one of Lavia or Caicedo imo. Can’t risk losing them for Spurs game.

[erskblue]

Match Day!

Come On Chelsea!!

[Simplymo]

Southampton trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling all serve a one-match ban on Wednesday for accumulating five bookings this season.

Loanee Lesley Ugochukwu is ineligible to face his parent club but Jan Bednarek returns after missing the last two games, while Paul Onuachu could also be fit.

 

The question is will Maresca play the Cup team or mix it up, and play a few from here and there.

It's matchday and even after a few days of thinking about this, I still have this feeling it will be mostly the cup team.

Regardless...looking forward to this.

KTBFFH

[Mod]

Just updated the fixtures for December, fair few games we've got this month, blimey!

[guddy69]

5 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Southampton trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling all serve a one-match ban on Wednesday for accumulating five bookings this season.

Loanee Lesley Ugochukwu is ineligible to face his parent club but Jan Bednarek returns after missing the last two games, while Paul Onuachu could also be fit.

 

The question is will Maresca play the Cup team or mix it up, and play a few from here and there.

It's matchday and even after a few days of thinking about this, I still have this feeling it will be mostly the cup team.

Regardless...looking forward to this.

KTBFFH

If it is the cup team I'm not sure we will win. 

Spurs had trouble again their side. 

It would be silly to give this game away just so we can win the next one.. The cup team Aren't very good. 

[The Rising Sun]

5 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Southampton trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling all serve a one-match ban on Wednesday for accumulating five bookings this season.

Loanee Lesley Ugochukwu is ineligible to face his parent club but Jan Bednarek returns after missing the last two games, while Paul Onuachu could also be fit.

 

The question is will Maresca play the Cup team or mix it up, and play a few from here and there.

It's matchday and even after a few days of thinking about this, I still have this feeling it will be mostly the cup team.

Regardless...looking forward to this.

KTBF

 

It's the sort of game that is all too familiar to me ...an expected easy win that turns out to be an awful defeat .

I'm dreading it tbh !

I'm glad Maresca pointed out how difficult this game is at his press conference yesterday.

Come on you BLUES!

 

 

 

 

[Scott]

There are no easy wins.

 

Well except Spurs 

[axman2526]

1 minute ago, Scott said:

There are no easy wins.

 

Well except Spurs 

Oh bold to put that out ahead of Sunday Scott... ;)

[Ukraine Bolt]

Jorgensen

Gusto  Tosin  Colwill  Cucurella

Caicedo  Enzo

Madueke  Palmer  Sancho

Jackson

[axman2526]

9 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Jorgensen

Gusto  Tosin  Colwill  Cucurella

Caicedo  Enzo

Madueke  Palmer  Sancho

Jackson

Gusto has not looked the same player since Maresca wanted him to be both a RB and a number 10. Hopefully that experiment is over as it made him poorer at the back and he is woeful going forward. Even Disasi looks better going forward.

[POCH OUT]

8 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Southampton trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling all serve a one-match ban on Wednesday for accumulating five bookings this season.

Loanee Lesley Ugochukwu is ineligible to face his parent club but Jan Bednarek returns after missing the last two games, while Paul Onuachu could also be fit.

 

The question is will Maresca play the Cup team or mix it up, and play a few from here and there.

It's matchday and even after a few days of thinking about this, I still have this feeling it will be mostly the cup team.

Regardless...looking forward to this.

KTBFFH

why shouldn't we play our strongest team? Spurs play tomorrow and im sure they will play their strongest team

[POCH OUT]

the only change should be Tosin or Badashile in place of Forfana, But i reckon he will play Gusto and drop Lavia

[Sconnie Blue]

7 minutes ago, POCH OUT said:

why shouldn't we play our strongest team? Spurs play tomorrow and im sure they will play their strongest team

We have a lot of football this month. 

[POCH OUT]

8 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We have a lot of football this month. 

and imo we have the strongest SQUAD in the PL

[El regreso]

21 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Regardless of who plays, and I think I said this vs Leicester, we better bloomin win. No excuses not to beat them.

They play out from the back, and are bad at it, slow to move forward, cannot play hoof ball and are missing their best player, best defender and best keeper.

No excuses, will be embarrassing if we fail to win this and we will rightly deserve a bucket load of stick.

O here we go again 😂😂😂

Charity FC !!

[Sconnie Blue]

3 minutes ago, POCH OUT said:

and imo we have the strongest SQUAD in the PL

Which is why we should probably rotate a little today. 

[axman2526]

4 minutes ago, El regreso said:

O here we go again 😂😂😂

Charity FC !!

We are all fearing they come back.

[POCH OUT]

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Which is why we should probably rotate a little today. 

i hope he doesnt get to carried away, there are certain players who are not good enough for the PL

[The Rising Sun]

2 hours ago, Scott said:

There are no easy wins.

 

Well except Spurs 

Scott !

Don't jinx the Sunday game mate ! 🤣

[axman2526]

I would prefer if we don't rotate too much at all.

Fofana is out so we have one enforced change.

Neto and Lavia are the two players who started Sunday who the manager has previously said we are managing their minutes accordingly, Fofana another but he is out.

So 3 changes is all I would like to see Maresca make. He already spoke about this being a "bad game" for us as he knows the mentality is at risk of being "oh its Southampton, they are sh*t, this will be easy". Lot more likely to happen to younger players than experienced ones.

So pick whoever is best to cover at RCB, keep Colwill as the middle defender and let Cucurella inverts.

Caicedo moves forward to replace Lavia, then pick between Nkunku, Felix, Mudryk or Madueke to replace Neto.

Though I would be happy to see Caicedo remain RB, I just don't know who replaces Lavia. Maybe KDH against a Championship team could do ok?

Edited December 4, 2024 by axman2526