carefreeluke

My guess would be that Bakayoko is being saved for Tuesday.

We've been wasteful in front of goal of late but I'd say in general we've been quite clinical since Conte took charge.

Haha Moses was class today. Morata really can be a mixed bag but when he's good, he looks very good. Fabregas has improved recently as well which I think is mostly down to the change in the players he's playing alongside and better management from Conte.

Which says a lot about Moses. I agree though, he's been slightly better than Moses in the crossing department, will be easier to judge him though at the end of the season. One of the worse I can remember with regards to crossing (who Cicero alluded to somewhere recently) was Bosingwa who initially looked a very good signing for us in the first few months under Scolari who used a system that relied a lot on the full backs, Bosingwa then completely lost it as time went on.

Just watched the Swansea game as I missed it due to work. Thought we were good just failed to kill the game. Willian was decent, improved, didn't give the ball away constantly, retained possession well, looked dangerous but also did his off the ball duties and pressed well and didn't looked half arsed running about as he has done previously. And Zappacosta can't cross.

Very sad news, R.I.P

Eden Hazard Very interesting interview here: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/eden-hazard-does-not-give-everything-in-chelsea-training-after-rivals-attacks-a3702471.html Him being hacked is becoming more of a concern, it was border line assault at times against West Brom and the Liverpool players seemed to take it turns especially in the first half.

Somehow managed to look the worse player on the pitch against a ten men Qarabag.

I agree with Conte's recent comments and any other manager that mentions the problem with fixtures and scheduling, it's poor. I genuinely don't think Conte is looking for excuses either, he makes a point, that is worth making. Regardless, I never remember (from a personal view) worrying this much about the schedule with previous squads we had in the Roman era which is perhaps more a sign of how much stronger those squads were in terms of quality and depth compared to the current one we have now.

Perhaps can see why we were now after Barkley in the summer with this formation change, has some key attributes to play the role Bakayoko plays. The Barkley move is also a big middle finger to Ruben who could also play that role as well. What the two English men lack though is the ability to get up and down the pitch, within that midfield three there's a lot of rotation, sometimes you see Kante as the furthest man forward which means Bakayoko and Fabgreas have to be tactically aware, Ruben and Barkley come up short on this tactical aspect, as well as the defensive side of the game. They could learn the role no doubt but it would take a lot of bedding in. Barkley is better off going to Tottenham, would be the better move for his development.

Liverpool game comes at a bad time for us, fear it's going to be like the Man City one previously where we came back from Madrid in the Champions League. Whatever is going on with Luiz at the moment, Conte needs to make good use of him this week, I'd be playing him midfield definitely at some point in the two games.

'Teacher's pet' 'Azpilicueta' Knew that was going to be the answer straight away.

Morata's doing well so far but I'll reserve my full judgment until the end of the season, same with the other new signings. Morata's movement is a lot better than Costa's and he's more of a poacher I think than Costa was. However, not forgetting Costa was the best player in the league until January last season and then he completely went off the boil, it's going to to be interesting to see what opinion we have of Morata come the end of the season.

Person B mate! Sly from them to be honest, how often had you talked about the original 30 quid out of interest? Sounds like a strange bloke, did he get away with not paying the dealers as well then?

Yeah, you can improve your crossing for example but you can’t really teach that type of composure he lacks, at his age, you either have it or you don’t.

I'd say the 'back 5' have all had their bad moments really this season, with Alonso being the worst (but he's always been bad) and Moses being the best this season.

He's featuring more than many Chelsea fans expected and Conte's next choice of starting eleven is going to be interesting as Christensen is slowly earning a regular starting place in the team. It's rare for someone young to be trusted this much at our club but then again he's had a lot of experience already in Germany. Performance wise, not as flawless or as good as some Chelsea fans would suggest but he's doing very well. As I've mentioned before, if he doesn't make it here, he'll only make it at a top club elsewhere.

I'll agree with you on Christensen mate to be fair, the chance where he let Fellaini in at the end was a big mistake in my eyes and if it was anyone else from the back line barring maybe Azpi it would have been highlighted a lot more. Despite this, I'm sure he's going to have a great career and would like to see him get an extended run in the team.

Yeah mate, I'm sure he'll have a decent career (wherever that is we'll have to see). The next two years are important for him.

To dig something up from 2014 on Andreas Christensen: I understand the doubts people have about him physically but he needs an extended run in the team and with that hopefully he'll improve otherwise he'll just end up being successful somewhere else like De Bruyne, Lukaku, Salah or whoever.

Berizzo brought a lot of excitement to them at the beginning of the season but I looked at their team on paper and I was never that impressed. Navas and Nolito look like they're well past it, Muriel is frustrating and needs to improve and apart from that I fail to see where the excitement comes from player wise, their business over the summer was poor in my eyes and players like Escudero (as his mistake confirms tonight) have regressed massively. The likes of Banega, N'Zonzi and Sarabia provide some quality but I fail to see the player that makes a massive difference for them. I think Berizzo needs another summer to bring quality in.

One of the few times I'm unsure on how I'd line up for tomorrow.

This was underrated.