carefreeluke

I said this after you beat us on this day last season. You've made some great progress since then...

@Carnivore Chris get yourself down to Andalucía in the future as well..

Hudson-Odoi has failed to impress this season it's true after the excitement of him coming back and despite him looking good in his first few games this season. For me, he was one of our better players towards the end of last season so we'll see how he develops over the next few years. His form at the moment is a long way off justifying the talk around him and Bayern Munich earlier this year. The first touch is appearing to be a problem but also the fact that he's becoming very predictable. Perhaps some confidence issues there after a difficult injury. Ruben's process as well will be a worry, hopefully, he'll get back to everything he had before.

What a beautiful passage that sums up the general British mentality when it comes to football.

Yeah mate although we’ve been bad at them for a couple of years now.

Regarding that belief where the youth players wouldn't have been given as much of a chance hadn't there been a transfer ban.

We haven't had a striker score at the rate he has for a good while now, you'd perhaps have to go back to Costa to get stats at least close to what Abraham is achieving at the moment. His hold up play, for the most part, has been decent. There's perhaps doubt developing about his effectiveness against better opposition but I only think we can judge him in this area after he's led the line for us at least a season or two. This belief about giving him more time to make full judgment can be said about a lot of our players at the moment and Lampard and the team in general really, I don't think we can become too conclusive until after a season or two has passed. Kepa, on the other hand, is coming up to nearly 2 years with us now and we're perhaps in a better position to judge. We'll see how he finishes the season but you could probably say overall he's been a little underwhelming, last season he had good periods where his price tag looked justified and other periods where you couldn't help but think he performed below expectations. Inconsistent is hence perhaps a word you could use. Anyway, we'll see what the rest of the season has in store for him.

Kepa has been our most disappointing performer this season, surprised it hasn't got more attention.

@The Liquidator Yes mate, I imagine they were a lot better back in those days. My Dad has told me a fair bit on what they used to be like. I’ve sadly in my match going time though noticed a difference even in the last ten years.

Willian was indeed magnificent yesterday, it's going to be interesting to see how he performs for the rest of the season as in my opinion history tell us he has the odd 1-2 months of good form, then his performances drop. Regarding your comment about Abraham, Chelsea fans seem to have a special relationship or expectations with their strikers. It's, in my opinion, the most difficult position on the pitch but can come under the greatest scrutiny and the biggest groans of discontent you'll get at Stamford Bridge is if the striker is having a poor game, particularly in terms of hold up play. Even the most respected or successful strikers we've had over the years haven't been immune from criticism in this area. Ironically Torres' hold up play was one of the worst we've seen in recent times at the club but he was the most loved and the fans would turn against him a lot less. While on the topic of Torres, he was absolutely adored by our fans, I still remember his first goal against West Ham and the celebrations were class, the atmosphere that day was brilliant in a London derby. That was nearly ten years ago now, I swear the London derbies have lost their buzz over the years, I remember the hostile atmospheres when the likes of West Ham, Arsenal, Spurs used to come.

The last game against Ajax was a prime example of our defensive problems. Looking at the goals conceded, both Azpilicueta and Alonso give away needless free-kicks, Ajax go on to score two from two set-pieces. Alonso's and Azpilicueta's individual mistakes lead to the free kicks, Abraham fails to clear one, Kepa should have done better with the other although it was a bit of a freak goal. Two goals full of individual mistakes and that involve set pieces. Another Ajax goal due to Azpilicueta not stepping up, a poor individual mistake. The other we concede against the run of play when we're chasing the game which normally wouldn't happen. Defensively set pieces are still a big problem for us but also poor individual mistakes are costing us rather than anything systematically or collectively. Our shape in transition is a lot better but we seem to struggle with concentration and individual mistakes. The season so far is full of examples. We concede two against Man United, Rashford scores a one in a million goal from a set-piece, Alonso gives away a very sloppy foul in the box to give them a penalty. Zouma had a poor start to the season but has improved massively over the last month or so, Tomori has been solid and reliable since coming in. I wouldn't put it down to them two. If you're looking at anyone individually in defence it would be Azpilicueta and Alonso. Azpi started the season poorly, has had 3-4 games recently where he's looked class, then he went and performed like that defensively against Ajax on Tuesday night. Alonso is Alonso. At the start of the season, we struggled defensively as a team in transition and our shape was all over the place defensively as a team that for the last month or so has been sorted out.

Yeah, I got that impression as well. He also said he would have rested Jorginho and Kovacic if we had others available. Poor game from us which lacked the intensity, rhythm, and movement of the previous games. Not that Lampard had many options but the midfield three didn't seem to work at all.

Different vibe with this song and Noel singing..

Regarding Alonso, I thought about 5 minutes before his goal that 'he's been poor today, then again this is the typical sort of moment he goes on to score a goal.' Give him time like that in the box and he will take advantage of it, despite his flaws he does occupy some good attacking positions and as I've mentioned a few times now he's a bit of a clutch player.

I think Lampard is partly easing him in but I think there's more to it than that. He needs to get used to Lampard's demands, Lampard likes his wider players to press well. Pulisic has been the least productive in this area compared to the others in his position, he needs to work harder off the ball. Also, the fact that he struggles to retain the ball at times and sometimes get muscled out of situations which is something he needs to improve on. Compared to Mount, Willian, Hudson-Odoi, and Pedro, Pulisic is the least tactically suited at this moment in time and he hence has to make some improvements to areas of his game to suit the style of play. There's also the fact that Willian, Mount, and Hudson-Odoi are playing well at the moment which means there are naturally fewer chances for him. I wouldn't say he's struggling, just the fact that he needs to be patient and that he needs to work on a few things. Performance-wise, overall he's been a bit of a mixed bag so far. Unless something big or unexpected happens, it's very unlikely he'll be sold in the summer.

He'll make his name in the next couple of years mate injuries depending.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has to be seriously in contention as well but it will depend on how he returns from injury and if he can stay fit and healthy.

Tomori has been amazing since coming in, our best centre back at the moment. I'm also actually quite happy with Willian at the moment. On the ball, he can be frustrating but his level of work rate so far this season is perhaps the highest it's been since the Mourinho days. I will always take the view that if a player's productivity is hit and miss but they are working hard and giving their all, then that's OK. Of course, you should prefer the player that is likely to offer more productivity perhaps in the long run as long as the work rate is acceptable as well and a player shouldn't start a game solely because 'they work hard' but in Willian's case I think it's a good sign. Part of the reason I've got annoyed with him post-Mourinho is that for me he's always seemed a bit lazy. For the time being, he's probably justifying his starting position. On Alonso as well, his crossing has been decent (for his previous standards) the last couple of games but it's also twice in a couple of games where's he's been dangerously beaten in the air from a set-piece. If that Brighton chance had gone in, we would have found ourselves in deep water in a game that we completely dominated and where we should have scored 3-5 goals.