i think is blessing in disguise. haha. Rmb Nainggolan? We wanted him at first, offered 40M I think, Roma wanted more, lucky we didn't meet the demand and go for Kante instead.

me too. his personality sure will lit up the dressing room. I guess I'll have to trust conte on this.

luiz is better as joker i think. 

JT macam injured after FT.. maybe Cahill + Luiz

Yep. Should play Moses more. He looks quite good, somemore HG for us. Big and strong too can hold the ball

imo, with matic and kante as double pivot is too much. by using this system, the creativity is on the oscar shoulder alone.

now with fabregas replacing matic, oscar could do his job which is box to box midfielder. same as lampard before this. arrive late at opponent penalty box.

We are in dire need of creativity at the middle of the park. And we need to capitalise on the set pieces. Game can be won if we can benefit from the set pieces.

plus, cortouis need to step up. he shouldnt be too comfortable as begovic for me is too good to be a backup gk.

Most shocking is tibo kortua rating...

Even higher than hazard.....

In chelsea meh...

I didnt recall him saving any spectacular shots

So anyway,just wanted to wait a few hours before giving my thoughts. I dont think there's any doubt we're in a bad patch but to be fair its still early in the season and those previous victories (although last minute,etc) at least means we're able to string some good wins together,even against decent opposition.

What we need to address is the fact that we've already far exceeded our quota for absolutely bloody hilarious comical goals this season, and its all down to our so called senior defender(s). I'd suggest quickly getting zouma back into the team once he's fit,and just make a courtesy call to christensen. tell him we desperately need him for the coming season, so please don't pull a 'courtois' by spouting rubbish to the media and we’ll give you a handsome contract when you return. (inserting a £70 million release clause while we're at it.)

Another thing we need to look at is the lack of leadership in that squad. When that first goal went in,collectively our heads dropped and nobody really had that fire in their bellies to rally everyone else. Conte needs to strip that vice captaincy off ivanovic,pronto. If anything diego deserves it more through his performance and personality. When your vice captain is constantly making poor crosses and silly mistakes,everyone else will be silently shaking their heads and above all, I don't think I observed Iva actually trying to get any sort of message to the team? Not even once? Let's stop this seniority nonsense because its making things worse imo.The fact that we still need to rely solely on a 35 year old JT who's on his last legs is just sad. Conte needs to install our future leaders a.s.a.p.

Well let's try and look for some positives from that train wreck,shall we? For starters we kept a clean sheet in the second half. Although they had like two semi clear cut chances, one of it via walcott,courtois saved well (for a change,lol) and we were pouring forward trying to reduce the deficit anyway. Somehow we still managed two great chances via pedro (what a tackle from bellerin) and michy (should've buried that).  I also liked how conte just decided to throw in alonso and use our fullbacks properly. Almost immediately we looked more dangerous and both of them proved how good early crosses can instantly change our attacking dynamic. I'm personally sick and tired of watching azpi having to cut back on to his stronger foot before crossing the damn ball. It slows down our attack and gives defenders a chance to make a tackle. It worked for about a season and a half. Let's just move on from that.

So overall,let's not get too downbeat about the result,as pool and arsenal are on top form at the moment. Crazy as it sounds, we just have to look at our previous game for a decent performance and comeback,albeit against leicester's somewhat second string team. No doubt comical defending was still there,but at least we managed a victory.

I still think once we sort out the defence we will look a hundred times better, in all areas of the pitch. That day won't be long now as zouma nears full fitness and conte slowly introduces alonso to the first team,while Iva / cahill / both get accustomed to the bench. Iva did well deceiving us for a couple of games in the league but I think conte has had enough. Next match couldn't come soon enough!

ya, always no1 in the box or striker isolated by himself

2nd that. But sometimes it's frustrating to see when we can try to make a pass but instead we back pass. Need to sort the defense asap. If we can deliver ball to costa, might as well do like what manson did, shoot outside the box