carefreeluke

Viva Grealish

Mount was fantastic against Spurs and perhaps has benefited from the break. It's a shame he has been overused by Lampard so far this season but hopefully, he'll get more rest in the remainder of the campaign to help get the best out of him. Some fans had started to get on his back but he has been carrying injuries and has played a lot of minutes for a player who gets through a lot of running. For me, he was our best player in the first half of the season, then he had a couple of months of bad form, will be interesting to see how he fairs in the remaining part of the season.

Great pictures Stan. I personally (a very unpopular opinion perhaps) dislike Madrid and Barcelona for a few reasons. @Pyfish Dublin, on the other hand, I'm a big a fan of, a class city for a weekend away.

Was just speaking to my mate who’s a big Ajax fan and he says Ziyech has been their best player over the last 3 years.

@Panna King what’s your opinion of him?

Great thread.

That's about average there. It gets quite cold in the north of Spain mate which people don't always expect, would definitely take a jacket. I'm acclimatised to the weather here in the south so it would seem colder to me anyway. I went to Barcelona in Feb last year, I went up in a big coat whilst my mates (all coming from London) took nothing warm at all but some of them ended up buying jumpers and that. It will be warm during the day (t-shirt weather for us back home in the UK whilst the Spaniards will be in big coats and scarves) but as soon as that sun goes in, it will be cold even for us Brits. I'm actually heading up north (near Madrid) next weekend, I'll let you know. Are you going to Madrid then?

It will be cold at night mate. 24 degrees here in the south, went up to the roof earlier and thought it was summer for a second.

Will need to improve defensively but yeah I agree.

As Cicero said he needs a break. He's been overplayed and perhaps mismanaged a bit by Lampard and it was revealed recently that he's been playing with injuries. The first couple of months of the season he was very good (perhaps our player of the season up to a certain point) but he's been poor or hot and cold since then. I rate him but he needs to be managed a little better. I also think he suits certain games better than others and there's also a theory that some of his best performances have come from the left-hand side where he hasn't been used since earlier in the season. In truth, you could say in general most of our youth players this season can blow hot or cold.

Fair enough mate. He is miles better than Barkley and has a very unique skill set which will be very useful for Chelsea and England. Let's see.

There's a group that make up England's better players in my opinion and he's in it. My belief is based on what I've seen him do for Chelsea over the years, England and Palace. Yes, he hasn't had many seasons at all of consistent playing time and the players you mentioned you would put ahead of him due to that but I honestly think the sky is the limit for Loftus-Cheek. I'll stick my neck out and say he's going to be a great player, he already is but he'll get even better. People can come back to this post in the future if it doesn't work out and I'll admit I got it wrong, no problem. The only thing that will stop him is injuries and with that, we can only wait and see.

Really hope the injury doesn't affect him and he's able to get everything in his game back. Also, praying injuries don't hinder his career anymore, genuinely one of England's best players if he can stay fit and healthy.

Centre backs go completely out the picture as well. Zouma was ever present until Rudiger returned, Zouma was dropped out of nowhere when he was performing well.

Some random thoughts. If we're struggling to create and break teams down why put a right-footed player at left-back who also offers nothing going forward. Azpilicueta's playing time should be reduced. I still think he's useful, he has a big performance in him but I don't see why he gets so many minutes. His performances have dropped notably since Sarri came in when our style of football changed. Play players that suit the style, even if the alternatives are Emerson and Alonso. It would be a big decision to drop Azpilicueta but for me, it's a no brainer if we want to improve offensively. We need more quality in attacking areas, that has to be our priority as I've said countless times in recent months. The youth players should be allowed the opportunity to grow over the next few years and continue getting playing time but that doesn't mean we can't strengthen those attacking areas. The youth players in attacking areas, Mount and Hudson-Odoi can blow hot and cold, Pulisic as well but that has to be expected to a certain extent. That consistency will either come in a couple of years or not, we'll see but in the meantime, we have to bring in some players with better quality and that doesn't have to come at the expense of the youth players. Willian has had his good moments this season (perhaps him being in the final year of his contract plays a part) and in a way put himself back in the good books with a lot of Chelsea fans but if we continue to rely on him as we are doing, we'll continue getting Europa League standard or thereabouts. The arrival of attacking players should reduce his role and if he's not happy with a reduced role, ship him. Ship Pedro and Giroud as well which looks like it's going to happen anyway. I too think Kanté in certain games should be dropped to allow us more attacking threat. Wrap him in cotton wool and save him for the bigger games, he doesn't have to start every game anymore.

I'm a big Grealish fan. Barkley shouldn't be anywhere near the squad but Southgate seems to like him. Mount does a lot of those things that tend to go unnoticed in football, he'd work better in the bigger games where we'd have less of the ball.

It has really started to get difficult to do anything here in Spain on a social and legal level, things like accessing healthcare and dealing with the state and social system. The effects or potential effects of Brexit are really starting to hit home.

I don't believe too much in luck with football but we were definitely fortunate (for lack of a better word) to come away with the three points against Arsenal. In saying that this season we don't tend to play badly and still win games, so I guess it's good in that regard. The win had a bit of a smash and grab feel about it, we were fortunate that Leno made the mistake which helped our confidence. I've been saying in our recent home games that if we score one, then that would help our confidence and momentum and we'd be a lot more likely to score a second. We still lacked a lot of creativity and ideas against Arsenal and for me, that's our main problem. In the next few transfer windows, strengthening attacking areas has to be our main priority. It's likely left-back will have to be addressed as well but the priority has to be further up the pitch. Interestingly Lampard after the game alluded to the fact that attack seems to be our weakest area. If you're to believe the trusted Chelsea sources on Twitter, it's looking like Sancho is going to be a real possibility.