carefreeluke

Easy with hindsight but I did think it was a bit risky risking Emerson and Mount on Sunday, the former coming off injured. You could make a case that Rudiger came back a little too soon as well. Of course, we don't speak to the players on a daily basis and we don't know the medical team's view as well but it's maybe worth mentioning that Lampard should manage the players' returns a little better. I think Willian has done well the past two games and is justifying a starting position at the moment. He looks hungrier than usual.

Yeah mate, mine would probably be the same. I was just looking to favour the youth players as much as possible. Tomori has been brilliant the last two games though, keeps Rudiger and the others on their toes. Also, at the same time, we all have no idea how these players are all going to develop over the next few years, so anything could happen I guess. By the way, hats off to Willian and Alonso yesterday, they had good games.

Ok I'm being a little generous with favouring youth players and some things may need re-working at centre back and in the forward positions in particular but it's not really an exaggeration to say that this could be our starting eleven soon. Maybe not every game but it's something that you could possibly see happen at some point in the future. 7 players from the academy. Almost utopian.

He has started the season quite well, his absence has gone under the radar a bit, shame really about his injury. He has looked quite fired up and motivated, let's see what the rest of the season brings for him.

He obviously didn't come to us at his peak but he was relatively very good for us the season we had him I thought and I still remember being more than impressed with the quality he showed that season we had him, great technical ability and hold up play. Congratulations on a wonderful career Samuel Eto'o.

On the defending players, my hopes for Zouma haven't necessarily gone to plan so far. Christensen for me has done well until this point and was unlucky to get dropped against Sheffield. Azpi we know his current situation. Emerson, on the other hand, has done quietly very well, I wouldn't say he has been a revelation of any kind but he's done very well and definitely makes a nice change from Alonso. As for Rudiger... Speak to any Chelsea fan about the defence at the moment and they'll mention that Rudiger's return would make a positive impact and even provide more assurance and leadership. I think some Chelsea fans are overrating him but I agree his reintroduction could be worthwhile and he's a better option at this moment in time. I imagine he would come straight back in (if match fit enough) against Wolves which is a very different game to the one against Valencia on Tuesday, both games should allow some good rotation for the centre backs and put them in games that better suit their attributes. I still maintain that the highest potential with any of our defenders at the moment is with Christensen. I think perhaps if he was playing for another top club in Europe he'd be a lot more highly rated than he is now. I hate looking at football in physical terms but his physical stature has definitely been a drawback in his game since his return to the team a few years ago but I still have high hopes for him.

I was impressed with Tomori's debut.

When everyone’s fit, there’s a big possibility as well that making up our starting eleven would be Christensen, James, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, Mount, and Abraham. That’s six players from the academy making the first team. Of course we don’t know how these boys will develop and we don’t what the next few years will entail but that would be some achievement.

He had a very good loan spell before Derby at Vitesse as well where he was their player of the year and I remember an avid Vitesse fan saying he was the best player they had ever been sent on loan. I imagine naturally things will hit a bit of rough patch for him at some point and that's going to be a test for him. He has a good mentality about him though which is visible in his work rate. I think when your game is based around that level of work rate and energy, it's a good rooting and it inspires and brings about positivity in itself.

I can't stand mosquitoes either, the most annoying thing is when you're asleep and you get one buzzing around your head and it suddenly wakes you up. Makes you shit yourself.

The thing is the south or the UK in general, isn't built for that sort of heat and of course, there's a reason for that given what it's like most of the time, so the heat can feel more than it is. I've been back in London over the summer and doing the commute in that sort of temperature is dreadful. The south of Spain has 2-4 months in the winter where it actually gets really cold (believe it or not) and the opposite is true where it feels colder than it actually is because all the cities and buildings are built to withstand the heat.

He also doesn't really press that well which isn't necessarily great either particularly taking into account the way Lampard likes his teams to play. Sarri did get more out of him in that regard and I did notice him adapting and doing more pressing under the Italian but still the levels of intensity weren't great. His relatively low work rate in terms of pressing was in part one of the reasons he was used up front at times under previous managers. It would be interesting to see Hazard work under Pep or Klopp for example because I think he would have to adapt his game, of course, a lot of players have to change but that would be an interesting watch Hazard working under them. Hazard's attacking threat though seriously outweighs anything else and there is no doubt we miss him. I think Hazard would have had a field day given some of the space, chances, and game situations we've faced so far this season and I have imagined more than once what damage he would have done. We move on though and I'm excited about the young players we have. As for slowing down play in the final third, like you said Hazard could get away with it. There is one player in the current squad who is even worse at it and that's Willian who of course doesn't have the high level of effective attacking output that Hazard had. The constant stopping or slowing down the ball to wait for the opposition player to dive in is Willian in a nutshell. Stand Willian up and he's fucked, to be honest.

@The Liquidator nice post mate. Jorginho was poor at Norwich but starting from the back end of last season I'd say he's been one of our best players and is getting through more work defensively, the game on Saturday aside.

Sorry to hear that mate, lots of love. Bloody hell. Never heard of anything like that before, cannot imagine what the bloke is going through. Was it a stray dog? Oddly (perhaps) being careful around dogs (especially stray ones) was always instilled in me by my mum growing up, I don't know why but that caution is one of those random things that have stuck with me in life.

On that topic, refreshing to finally see a pundit shed some light on the matter. Was tiresome last season listening to commentators and pundits talk about how Kanté should be playing in his best position.

Pedro has a big performance in him, despite being mostly below par last season he did have some very good performances in big games. I think in defence (player-wise) we will be alright, it's more the team shape as a whole that we will need to work on. I think most defenders would have problems if the team played the way it did at times on Sunday against Man United which left the defence exposed. We need more unity as a team defending. Our strikers do worry me as compared to some other big teams we don't have that player who's going to get us 20 + goals but we'll see maybe it will be a mutual effort and the whole team can chip in. I'm hoping Reece James can get some significant game time at right-back as I think Azpilicueta limits us at times particularly against weaker teams. Not forgetting we have 2-3 of our best players still to come back as well in Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, and Rudiger. The former two (not many people outside of Chelsea realise) are two massive players for us these days. Fingers crossed their careers don't get hampered by injuries.

Very happy with the performance last night. Some evident work done to fix the issues we saw on Sunday and a bold performance that featured a good number of youngsters.

Positive of Luiz leaving is that it means there will be a lot more game time for Christensen and Zouma. Both at the moment you would say have their drawbacks but the potential in both of them is exciting. Providing everything goes well at 23 and 24 I would like to think they could be our starting centre backs for the significant future. They need to both iron out some things in their games but with a good amount of game time, you'd hope they'd come on a lot and be able to form a decent partnership. Rudiger's still recovering so the start of the season is a good opportunity for them both to hit it off and stake a claim to be the starters for the rest of the season. The Christensen and Zouma partnership excites me and I'd prefer them both to Rudiger provided that they show improvements where necessary. This is a massive season for them.

Movement looks a lot better, I did however read that Derby struggled at times to break teams (who sat back) down last season so let's see. Need to work on defending as a unit and sort out our defending at set-pieces. The defending as a unit thing is something Sarri had problems with as well early on, took him and the team nearly half a season to sort it out. Let's hope it doesn't take that long this time around.

Monchengladbach started the game better, were more up for it and we took about 20-25 minutes to start playing. From that point, we played well though and could have had about six goals on another day. Worries still remain about our defending, hopefully, Kanté coming back will help matters.

He seems to be playing with more freedom which he’s mentioned himself. Sarri wanted him to do specific things in the role he played which I thought could potentially get the best out of him as it would help simplify his game. Lampard seems to be giving him a different role and ideas, let’s see what happens. You’d be foolish to get carried away though I guess.