Chelsea thread 2018/19

[Manc in London]

Will be surprised if Chelsea finish below either Spurs or Arsenal.

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Good performance vs Huddersfield. The issue of performing well in periods rather than the whole game persists. We were pretty average in the first half, despite being 2-0 up. Much better 2nd half - the tempo really needs to be much quicker. The move that led to the penalty had about 20 passes from back to front, but it was passed around at a pedestrian pace and teams better than Huddersfield would not just allow us to pass around slowly like that.

The team looked better instantly as soon as Hazard came on. Kovacic will also add a nice balance, as Barkley is really poor.

I can't wait for the team to look like this;

Kepa
Azpi Rudiger Luiz Emerson
Jorginho
Kante Kovacic
Willian Morata Hazard

I didn't get to see the game but still very early days with undoubtedly a very talented and exciting manager.

If the playing staff can pick up and implement his style quickly could be a very good season

 

[Vialli98]

Albeit with only highlights that can look misleading, Chelsea seem to be adapting quite quickly as far as I can see. It's not like you've got inadequate players. The writing off of Chelsea as challengers is a bit odd - last season the narrative was all about Conte having lost the team, lost focus and so on - not that the team wasn't capable.

Sarri himself said that although the 3-0 was nice, it was more due to individual brilliance rather than tactical efficiency, which he wasn't happy with. That thinking makes me happy because Conte or Jose would have taken that and claimed it to be an amazing performance, when it was anything but.

We have a good a team, but I think it will take some time for Sarri to implement his ideas. Not dissimilar to City in Pep's first season.

 

[aguero93:20]

Chelsea will be up there competing this year, and I think that is just fine. Better you guys than certain other clubs :-)

Will be surprised if Chelsea finish below either Spurs or Arsenal.

Yep, they should be top 3. Need either Morata or Giroud to start scoring more for a title challenge but they're comfortably stronger than Arse, Spurs or Rags.

 

[Vialli98]

Yep, they should be top 3. Need either Morata or Giroud to start scoring more for a title challenge but they're comfortably stronger than Arse, Spurs or Rags.

I think it's unlikely at this point that Morata will ever score more than 20 league goals for us - I'd consider 12-15 league goals a success for him. If gets that, we have a great chance of finishing 3rd.

The only sticky point is how many points we'll drop due to positional errors or defensive howlers while we're taking risks at the back without being fully used playing in this manner.

 

[aguero93:20]

I think it's unlikely at this point that Morata will ever score more than 20 league goals for us - I'd consider 12-15 league goals a success for him. If gets that, we have a great chance of finishing 3rd.

The only sticky point is how many points we'll drop due to positional errors or defensive howlers while we're taking risks at the back without being fully used playing in this manner.

15 league goals is a great return for any forward tbf, only the very elite goalscorers consistently get more than 20 (Aguero and Kane are the only current PL players who've done it year in, year out). Notwithstanding yesterday though I'm not sure Chelsea have the players in the rest of the team to carry the goalscoring burden to the level they'd need to, to really pressure us. Still ahead of the rest of the league imo although hype might push the dippers ahead of you lot, depends on their early results imo.
After reading Willian's comments on Conte recently I've changed my opinion on the effect he had on form last season.

Sarri may take a while to get his message across but I still think he'll get results, tbf in Guardiola's first season Bravo had a crisis of confidence, our squad was arguably in poorer shape than Chelsea's currently is and we had some desperately unlucky results and we still got third.

 

[Vienna_70]

Pretty much, though I think Ederson more known before City. I certainly knew who he was, whereas I had never heard of Kepa until we signed him.

I’d never heard of either of them before they were linked to their respective English clubs.

 

[Vialli98]

15 league goals is a great return for any forward tbf, only the very elite goalscorers consistently get more than 20 (Aguero and Kane are the only current PL players who've done it year in, year out). Notwithstanding yesterday though I'm not sure Chelsea have the players in the rest of the team to carry the goalscoring burden to the level they'd need to, to really pressure us. Still ahead of the rest of the league imo although hype might push the dippers ahead of you lot, depends on their early results imo.
After reading Willian's comments on Conte recently I've changed my opinion on the effect he had on form last season.

Sarri may take a while to get his message across but I still think he'll get results, tbf in Guardiola's first season Bravo had a crisis of confidence, our squad was arguably in poorer shape than Chelsea's currently is and we had some desperately unlucky results and we still got third.

I actually agree with everything there.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Good performance vs Huddersfield. The issue of performing well in periods rather than the whole game persists. We were pretty average in the first half, despite being 2-0 up. Much better 2nd half - the tempo really needs to be much quicker. The move that led to the penalty had about 20 passes from back to front, but it was passed around at a pedestrian pace and teams better than Huddersfield would not just allow us to pass around slowly like that.

The team looked better instantly as soon as Hazard came on. Kovacic will also add a nice balance, as Barkley is really poor.

I can't wait for the team to look like this;

Kepa
Azpi Rudiger Luiz Emerson
Jorginho
Kante Kovacic
Willian Morata Hazard

Amazed Morata still getting the nod up front. Looks really poor to me

 

[Easy]

Yep, they should be top 3. Need either Morata or Giroud to start scoring more for a title challenge but they're comfortably stronger than Arse, Spurs or Rags.

Have to agree. Saw most of the Huddersfield game and there were some moments of top quality link up play. The potential is there, it’s just about how long it takes to fully grasp Sarri’s methods.