Start of the Season

[pajero]

Agree with you aindro regarding Maresca publicly calling out Estevo. Other players have made mistakes especially sanchez and he hasn’t said anything nor about the number of chances missed.

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[Rover]

Jackson not going to accept 3rd choice striker, so no point in keeping him, if either Delap or Pedro are injured than we have to revert to a false no. 9 or play with only one striker which we will probably do in any event for most games. Imo we still not strong enough to keep a title challenge going till the end of the season. Lacking a creative central midfielder and suspect at the back including both keepers.

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[aindro]

While I don’t think we are good enough to be a challenger for the Premier League title, look at what are happening with big teams except Arsenal. Man City lost and from the small part of the 2nd period that I watched: Spurs were the better team. Liverpool, both matches they were lucky. Had Newcastle had Isak, or any striker I can say, they would have buried Liverpool since the first period. Newcastle are still having no striker problem, with Isak’s future still undecided. So we are not that bad, considering.

Palmer looks to be out until after the international, not a good news, but the team should be able to function without him. Seeing how Enzo Fernandez has developed, I would not replace him with any creative central midfielder (Simons, Fermin Lopez, etc with whom we are linked). Joao Pedro looks to be creative enough and I am now favouring the transfer of Garnacho to add to our creativity as Gittens doesn’t seem to be that good.

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[Ed de Goey]

I can’t see us challenging with Sanchez in goal, and what I would consider a weak central defence when compared to City and Arsenal, though to a lesser extent Liverpool who are shipping goals. Top 4/5 will be a dogfight this year – Tottenham looking good under Frank, Arsenal might finally win the title, City & Liverpool will be up there. Newcastle have been burned a bit by the Isak saga. Forest could be another outsider and who knows about United…

Fulham at the weekend – that will be a tough match. United looked good in the first 15 mins but then Fulham were more than a match and could have won.

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[aindro]

Fulham will be a tough match indeed. I saw 2nd half against Utd and I think Fulham were the better team. They defend tight and they can score: Raul, Muniz, Smith-Rowe, Iwobi.

My team would be more or less the same one as last weekend:
Sanchez – James,Tosin,Chalobah,Cucurella – Caicedo,Enzo – Neto,Joao Pedro,Estevao – Delap

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[Ed de Goey]

Delap off with a hamstring injury and we’re playing George up front.

This match has draw written all over it, or a narrow Fulham win.

Same pattern as the first game – we play up the wings, check back and then pass to the central defence.

The 5-1 victory against West Ham flattered to deceive – West Ham are awful and everyone should be beating them.

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[Ed de Goey]

Very lucky with that VAR call. There’s no way we would have come back from that. Doubtful we will even from this point onwards.

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[aindro]

Very lucky once again with the penalty. Joao Pedro seemed to me to have handled the ball albeit involuntarily. Now with Delap’s hamstring injury, and Palmmer’s injury? it looks to be more and more a mistake to loan out Jackson

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[Ed de Goey]

AS I said, we got lucky with that first VAR call. The same VAR ref got pulled from the Sunday matches as a result of it. 2nd VAR call was a toss up. Either way, we can’t rely on VAR to win us matches all season.

One positive I have drawn from pre-season and the first 3 matches is that we seem far more organised when it comes to attacking corners. The ball is regularly delivered into the same dangerous areas, without letting the keeper come to claim. Cucurella comes to the near post, either as a dummy to draw defenders with him, or to flick on into the 6 yard box. I think the club hired a set piece coach a little while ago so maybe this is bearing some fruit.

Meanwhile, up front is a total disaster with Delap’s injury. Seems Pedro is not seen as an out and out striker than can fill that role, which means the plan must have been Delap & fingers crossed he doesn’t get injured.

Jackson seems to have downed tools and is being backed by a loudmouth, arrogant agent who is probably worried about his lost commission more than anything.

Guiu is being recalled – poor kid getting pulled left, right and centre. Probably only until January when he will get loaned out again.

Far too late now to bring in a decent striker, even if Bayern agreed to a permanent deal now.

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[Rover]

Im afraid the striker cirse is still hanging around from 3 decent strikers down to almost none as Pedro can’t be expected to carry that responsibility for too long. Too many games, too much pressure plus not exactly a very creative midfield. Its suddenly become a mess.

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[Rover]

Im afraid the striker curse is still hanging around from 3 decent strikers down to almost none as Pedro can’t be expected to carry that responsibility for too long. Too many games, too much pressure plus not exactly a very creative midfield. Its suddenly become a huge mess upfront and at centre back to a lesser extent.

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[Blaze]

Wow 3 ex United managers sacked in the same week. Its a cut throat business but results driven.

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[aindro]

Guiu did not have a lot of opportunities at Sunderland. If he can prove to be useful during Delap’s absence, he may cement his place at Chelsea to compete with Delap for the no:9 spot. I just hope Maresca will give him chances.

Injuries will come. The players didn’t have much rest in the summer

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[Rover]

Aindro hope im wrong but from what I seen of Guiu he is about on par with Jackson so I dont particularly think his going to he a huge success. With the current injury scenario we are in a bit of a pickle in that area having to rely on Juan Pedro too much.

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[Ed de Goey]

Agree Rover – I don’t see Guiu setting the world alight, he’s much more raw than even Jackson was when he arrived.

I also don’t see Pedro has an out and out Centre Forward. Drogba/Costa didn’t double up as attacking midfielders or wide players; they were target men that could score out of nothing and occupy multiple defenders – that’s what we need. Don’t get me wrong, I like Pedro, but he’s not cut from the same cloth as those types of forward.

Regarding Sterling/Disasi, there’s still a possibility they can be offloaded to the Saudi League apparently. I also read that Andrey Santos might go there as well, but I find that odd. He’s a decent player.

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[aindro]

For sure Guiu is raw, probably even still very far from Jackson’s class. But this is an opportunity for him to develop. We have Joao Pedro, Delap and Guiu upfront as it is already better than last season with Jackson only and Guiu as his backup where he was injured when Jackson wasn’t available. Joao Pedro even though he is not a pure no:9, he was recruited to play no:9 as we played mainly with 1 striker since long time. So I expect him to still perform. And when he is played as no:10, I think he will make Guiu look better.

Any news about Cole Palmer’s injury? Is he (groin) gonna be out for long, like Delap (hamstring)? Maresca will have a difficulty to fit the three Palmer, Pedro & Delap together in the starting 11 when all those three will be fit.

Look at Liverpool, Isak, Ekitike, Wirtz: expensive players. Or Arsenal with Gyokeres & Zubimendi. We are not in same category as them. I don’t expect us to challenge for the top 2. But very probably we are in the mix for the battle for 3rd – 5th spot again.

Disasi, I say just sell him for whatever price. It seems to me that he rejected to go to Bournemouth deadline day (rumour, can’t confirm if it’s true or not). Sterling, sell him for free. Or terminate his contract

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[Blaze]

Wouldn’t say his far from Jackson’s level. Most pundits can’t even understand Bayern paying all that money for a loan who will be on their bench for most games. Anyway I think he will do ok in that league as its much weaker than the epl. As for Guiu the jury still out on him. I think his ok as a squad player, when Delap is back he may not even make the bench. Can’t understand how so many young players pull muscles nowadays.

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[aindro]

Blaze: Bayern lost Musiala to injury and Coman left to Saudi Arabia. So I think Jackson will play as winger there as Harry Kane is their no:9. And same thing from my side, I think he will do ok there and Bayern will pay a lot of money to us at the end of the season as there’s an obligation to buy.

Guiu back, it’s already more that we can expect. I hope the kid will get some chances and will prove that he can play no:9 and score. Estevao and Joao Pedro both started for Brazil and the former scored his first goal. I am hoping to see Estevao scoring goals also for Chelsea.

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[Ed de Goey]

Aindro – you’re most likely correct about Jackson. They will play him as a left winger who cuts in onto his right foot, much how I was suggesting we use him. I would see him being more effective in that role than Gittens for example. On that topic, I expect Garnacho to start for us out on the left going forwards.

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[Rover]

I will be interested to see what exactly Garnacho and other new players will bring to the team, from what I seen and read neither Garnacho and although his gone neither Jackson are dribblers which I think are a wingers main ingredient with a good cross.

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