The Chelsea Thread

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This team is like me playing FIFA on pro or higher. How the **** do I score?
 
Like Mourinho's second era, I do feel Conte will only get the team he wants next season.
 
Well we are on the same number of points as United who secured all their summer targets relatively quickly and spent a world record transfer fee as Mourinho was so happily boasting in the summer. They are also managed by someone who knows this league intimately unlike Conte. Considering that, I am feeling a lot better about our start.
 
This is a Times article:
Conte demands overhaul of Chelsea squad

Matt Hughes, Deputy Football Correspondent

Antonio Conte has told Roman Abramovich that the Chelsea squad that won the Premier League two seasons ago needs to be dismantled and rebuilt because many of the surviving players are incapable of regaining their title-winning form.
It is understood that Conte and Abramovich had lunch at the club’s training ground for the third successive day yesterday, during which they discussed how to overhaul a group of players who were champions just 14 months ago.
Abramovich is believed to be sympathetic to Conte’s requests after watching Chelsea suffer comprehensive defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal in their last two Premier League matches, particularly as the new manager did not demand wholesale changes when he took charge of the club in the summer. Conte was only able to sign one player — N’Golo Kanté — from his own list of transfer targets, with Michy Batshuayi identified by sporting director Michael Emenalo, and David Luiz and Marcos Alonso recruited late in the transfer window as emergency signings.
Conte initially accepted Abramovich’s view that a talented group of players had underperformed dismally under José Mourinho last season because of a breakdown in their relationship with the manager, but eight competitive matches into his reign he appears to have altered his view.
The Italian is understood to have told Abramovich of his fear that several Chelsea players will never reproduce the form they showed for Mourinho the season before last and recommended they be phased out. Nemanja Matic, Oscar, Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill are believed to be the most vulnerable, while Cesc Fàbregas will also be made available for the right price.

Conte has also expressed concern that there is an underlying complacency in the dressing room due to a culture of player-power that has developed over several years and he is determined to stamp it out.
Despite his track record of firing managers, Abramovich remains fully supportive of Conte regardless of Chelsea’s poor start to the season and has accepted many of his findings. The Russian has demonstrated his commitment to improving Chelsea by watching their training sessions every day this week, but has not spoken to the players, preferring to talk to Conte over lunch. The owner is willing to bankroll several signings in January, with a creative central midfield player Conte’s main target, but Chelsea expect to find it difficult to do business.
 
The Italian is understood to have told Abramovich of his fear that several Chelsea players will never reproduce the form they showed for Mourinho the season before last and recommended they be phased out. Nemanja Matic, Oscar, Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill are believed to be the most vulnerable, while Cesc Fàbregas will also be made available for the right price.

I'd try to get something out of Matic and Fabregas, but the rest are average players for a long time now.
 
I'd try to get something out of Matic and Fabregas, but the rest are average players for a long time now.

Your overall defensive setup has probably been best in the league so far. Over half of goals conceded have been individual errors. Ivanovic must surely be replaced at right back. He's shocking.

Central defenders is a non issue imo. Zouma and Christensen is a 15 year partnership in the making. You can bring in a starting defender to replace Terry if he does retire room play the 3 at the back. Cahill can then be shipped out .

Defence won't be an issue from next season with those 2. It's the midfield that has issues. Matic and Fabregas haven't lit the world on fire and Oscar isn't the quality to take you to the next level.
 
Apparently 2 bookies have suspended betting on Antonio Conte being the next manager sacked, bit of a random one that.
 
apparently the suggestion that conte will leave is nonsense

Never said otherwise, I just find it strange bookies would suspend betting that means there has been serious money laid down on conte that cannot be laid off elsewhere on the exchanges. No need to be sarcastic
 
Probably the best half of the season so far. Completely dominated the game. If we continue this way, Leicester has no chance.
 
Congratulations. Now can we finally put to bed once and for all the absolute absordaties that were flying around here this summer that Leicester were for real and a new challenge to build something going forward and not just a bang average group playing well above themselves last year and having every other club decide to take the season off? Please?
 
Nothing to get carriwes away with as Leicester really are a shadow of themselves this season. Next weekends match against United will be more telling.
 
****** **** how nice it is to write something positive! For the first time this season and maybe even since Swansea away in January 2015 i think we completed a match with absolutely zero negatives!


Lets start with the formation, so much was written in the summer about 3-5-2 potentially being our formation but it wasn't thought about at all. How can we play a formation with no wingers when we have the likes of Hazard, Willian and Pedro etc hence why Conte knew it was not feasible. Now its only been 2 matches with this 3-4-3 against one poor opposition in Hull and a Leicester side who really are struggling to live up to their highs from last season. However its been 2 very encouraging performances but today we set up a little different from the victory at Hull.


Pre match Eden Hazard stated he wanted to play the #10 role and today he kind of did, he had a very free role and popped up a lot of the time through the centre and he was allowed to do that because of the rampaging performance of Marcos Alonso. Both wing-backs Alonso and Moses were exceptional today and although Moses sometimes gets caught up field with Azpilicueta playing right centre back he naturally comes across to cover for him. Today there is not one bad word i can say about any player even Cahill, Pedro and Matic but i think the two massive standouts were Hazard and of course Kante. 32 million for him is an absolute steel before the Liverpool game i heard Souness state he wasn't a massive fan of him and doesn't see what he does, IS THIS MAN BLIND!!!! To be fair a lot of pundits and media have questioned his performances for us, they quite obviously have only watched highlights of our matches and not the full game.


I cannot finish this without giving a shout out to the 3 academy kids who came on today, 5 of our 7 subs were in fact academy graduates which is something very special. However for me one of the subs for me is ready right now and that is of course Nathaniel Chalobah. His assist today for Moses was outrageous but that aside he doesn't look like a youth player when he plays for us he slots straight in. He's quick, strong, tall and obviously has technique as we saw this afternoon, he for me is earning his space in our first team squad.


So all positives the today and the possibility of Conte and this team finding its system next Sunday when we welcome "the special one" back to the Bridge its going to be a brilliant encounter. With a game full of highlights the day ended with both Spurs and Man City dropping 2 points but the most important and surprising positive today was keeping a clean sheet for the 2nd match in a row!!!


UTC!!!
 
Congratulations. Now can we finally put to bed once and for all the absolute absordaties that were flying around here this summer that Leicester were for real and a new challenge to build something going forward and not just a bang average group playing well above themselves last year and having every other club decide to take the season off? Please?

Since I watched them against Arsenal this season (in the past one I didn't watch a single one), I've thought Leicester will be battling against relegation this season. Whether they were already average-ish past season or it's the effect of losing some of their big players / stagnation of system (they had a poor end of past season IIRC) I don't know.

P.S. - I'm usually a jinx when I state openly my predictions, so this means probably they'll be far from relegation now that I've said they'd be there.
 
We have played well against nearly all of the non-elite teams we faced this season. However, we will still need to pick points off the elite teams if we are to have a shot at Top 4.

Found Moses' and Alonso's performance extremely encouraging. Both talented players who were flying under the radar at midtable clubs that we bought cheaply. Finally given a platform to shine, they are working their socks off for the club. This is the way forward for Chelsea until we get a new stadium with the odd superstar signing thrown in every now and then.
 
We have played well against nearly all of the non-elite teams we faced this season. However, we will still need to pick points off the elite teams if we are to have a shot at Top 4.

Found Moses' and Alonso's performance extremely encouraging. Both talented players who were flying under the radar at midtable clubs that we bought cheaply. Finally given a platform to shine, they are working their socks off for the club. This is the way forward for Chelsea until we get a new stadium with the odd superstar signing thrown in every now and then.

A lot to be said about finding hungry players like Alonso who fit huh as opposed to just dropping x amount of stupid money on a name?
 
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