Chelsea (H) - Sat 25th Jan, 17:30 | PL | Pre-Match Thread

Match Result Prediction?

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Beating the Belgians on Wednesday must be our priority, so I would not be disappointed to see Haaland, Foden and KDB starting from the bench today. Give our Egyptian warrior the opportunity to shine.
 
sh249 said:
————————Ederson———-
Khusanov-Stones-Gvardiol-Akanji
——Bernardo-Kovacic-Grealish
Foden———-Haaland——--Marmoush

Mix it up at the back - as Gvardiol is the only one who looks capable of staying properly fit, give him a run at centre half.

Midfield is still shite. Personally, I’d give O’Reilly a go, but that isn’t happening. Don’t really care on Kovacic or Gundogan - both hopeless as a 6 on their own, but might be ok with a couple of other players fairly close to them.

Toss up between Ederson and Ortega as well. But we need to pick one and stick with them.
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Like the look of that, obviosly means 2 hitting the ground running, which can happen

No room for inconsistent players today so Sav and Doku on bench, Nunes by the transfer phone with his bag packed!
 
Listening to Pep’s press conference he mentioned a lot about how we don’t keep the ball well enough. I’d assume surely that means personnel changes in the middle? You can’t keep picking the same 3 players and except something to change. I wonder if Grealish and Stones come back into the middle today.
 
lionheart said:
Beating the Belgians on Wednesday must be our priority, so I would not be disappointed to see Haaland, Foden and KDB starting from the bench today. Give our Egyptian warrior the opportunity to shine.
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Nah, this game is just as important.

Both winnable.

Lose today and could lose "em both
 
DMA's said:
If you wanna keep the ball you don’t want kovacic. Bernardo is better suited to that imo. Also Lewis over nunes
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Playing Lewis against Chelsea's wingers would be like letting him get publicly destroyed. Nunes is a better option for the FB positions. The question is whether Khusanov is ready to feature and how many minutes Stones can play. Can he play 60 minutes or so?
 
could be a shit round if we dont win.
Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle all play relegation fight teams and highly likely getting all points vs Ipswich, Soton, Wolves.
one of Bournemouth/Forest also winning I assume.

lose this 6 pointer vs Chelsea and its a horrible round for us. we cannot lose and give more and more belief to others fighting top4. especially not with up next will be Arsenal away who I am sure want to pay back for Haaland's stay humble comments from last game.
I mean if we cant beat Chelsea at home who have quite a few injuries themselves and has a bit rubbish form than what are our chances to Arsenal away?

midfield today need some control and workrate and hold onto the ball when pressed. I am worried if KDB, Kovacic, Bernardo all starts not even 72 hours after PSG game. but something like a Gundogan/Lewis midfield worries me more lol.
 
Probably the same as most Blues I have absolutely no idea how this game will go. I thought after Ipswich we'd turned a corner then we had that collapse against PSG after being 2-0 up. Our mentality atm is frightening once we concede. Hopefully our new signings hit the ground running.
 
We will start cautiously, then start giving the ball away.

Palmer will run us ragged

We will huff and puff but I think they will be too much for us.

3.1 Chelski
 
lionheart said:
Beating the Belgians on Wednesday must be our priority, so I would not be disappointed to see Haaland, Foden and KDB starting from the bench today. Give our Egyptian warrior the opportunity to shine.
Click to expand...
Being in the CL must be the priority and, unless you think we can win it this year, winning league games is a higher priority imo
 
lionheart said:
Beating the Belgians on Wednesday must be our priority, so I would not be disappointed to see Haaland, Foden and KDB starting from the bench today. Give our Egyptian warrior the opportunity to shine.
Click to expand...
While I undrestand to a certain extent the financial importance of going further in the CL we have very very little chance of winning it due to the fact that we are nowhere near the standard required....

Slightly longer term, getting into the top 4 in the league is much more important financially and for the following seasons. We wont be able to attract the top players during the summer if we are not qualified for champs league and that is severely in doubt with the way we are playing at present - Chelsea are one of our direct rivals for those other top 3 positions (forget about top spot - we are nowhere near it)

For me the league is the priority - therefore full strength as much as possible - no Rico, no Gundogan and I think we will have to play one of the new centre halves at least with the injury issues (no Dias and obviously no walker)

Ortega

Nunes Akanji Khusonov Gvardiol

Kovacic Stones (if fit)
KDB
Foden Haaland Marmoush

Im not sure about throwing Marmoush in there but it may be worth it...bernardo has look knackered and Marmoush is an unknown to a little extent and could give us (and the crown who need to be up for it) a bit of a psychological bounce.
You could argue Foden being replaced by Bernardo if you want to bit more defensively or Grealish on one side if you just want to slow the game down - but that decreases creativity if Grealish is on there
 
blue b4 the moon said:
Love to see Jack start but can't see Pep playing him in the middle.

As for posters going on about O'Reilly & McAtee realistically we all know there's no chance of them starting and very little chance of them even coming off the bench today.
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I know there is no chance of it but I think people are just suggesting something different.

I think McAtee doesnt have the mind set yet to step up (no question of ability - he has it) and I think thats where the doubt rests.
O'Reilly has that physicality we desperately need but he is very inexperienced and ideally if it had been a normal season I think we would have seen a number of cameos in games where we were comfortable....we just havent had those games - but I would also love to see him in our midfield as he has that power we are so desperately missing.
 
Marmoush was in hot form for Frankfurt so throw him in and let him get on with it. He has to be a greater goal threat than Savinho, Bernardo, Kovacic, Grealish and Gundogan. Has there ever been a more talented and more goal-shy midfield!?
 
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