Chelsea should enjoy watching Hazard in a blue shirt whilst they can

Chelsea fans react to their 3-0 win over West Brom, while Sturridge’s injury and Kane’s ambition are discussed in Your Says of the Day.

Chelsea back to winning ways

Better performance tonight. Wise fan most likely would reckon that Moses’s double back flip was the highlight of the night but that is him for you. The difference a front man like Geroud makes to the all round performance is clear for all to see. Pedro played better than he has for a while.

Chelsea1967

Good result last night. You could see at the start confidence was low but we grew into the game especially after we went 1-0 up. It was still alarming the couple of chances that WBA had at 1-0 but again I’ll put this down to confidence rather than what we’ve seen in recent weeks.

Giroud I thought had a decent first start and you can clearly see now why Conte wanted a striker who can hold the ball up. It allows midfielders to ping a ball into his feet, the ball being held up, allowing players to make runs off of him and receiving passes back. It was right to take him off and I felt he had given his all until the 60th min. It’s a shame he didn’t get on the score sheet but fingers crossed he can against Hull on Friday night.

Hazard. I think let’s just enjoy watching this boy in a blue shirt whilst we still can. I hope and pray he stays. He was awesome last night and I think we should be privileged that we’ve seen this lad in a blue shirt for 5 years. I hope it continues.

Christenssen. It’s like he’s been a first team regular for years. The boy is amazing and a future world beater. I know he messed up slightly when Rondon got through but other than that, he’s so calm and confident in defending and when in possession of the ball.

Azplicueta. I don’t think he ever puts a foot wrong. An amazing footballer and a professional that all youngsters should look up to. He works hard and doesn’t moan. He does his top 100% & is truly amazing.

Chelsea_Lee

Thought the team was decent enough and reasonably balanced although I did think starting Fabregas in the middle was potentially questionable

Started slowly and to a degree to be expected. Could have been different if WBA had taken the early chance from Moses wayward header and overall I did not think in the first half that WBA were that bad for a team at the bottom

However, once we scored we limited them to few chances and our confidence grew. Thought Giroud had a good game, linked up the play and considering he has not been fully fit or trained a lot with Chelsea he had enough about him in terms of experience to cause problems. Good to see Morata get a run out and a good shot late on in the game

Obviously Hazard was the focal point and what I liked about his goals was taking them early and not looking to beat half the team. Really caught the defence and their keeper out. Still feels he plays in fits and starts but maybe gets more of the ball and less of the defenders attention when he is not playing as the 9

Anyway, good result and a reasonable performance to improve the confidence so looking forward to seeing more of the same on Friday. KTBFFH

CFC1905

Understandably there was still a bit if a hangover from the poor run of form but wins will restore confidence and anther win v Hull will help with that.

Last night you could see exactly why Conte wanted to sign a player like Giroud and better still his presence allowed Hazard to play his normal game.

After Hull we face a daunting run of games including two v Barca but hopefully we are now heading in a better direction and getting our best players back from injury and on the pitch has and will be massively important.

We probably need 24 more points from the 33 available to secure a CL place for next season which is not impossible and that imo should be our major objective going forwards with this seasons CL and FA Cup just the icing on the cake.

Really pleased for Conte who must have been under enormous pressure last night and may well have gone had we lost.

nine nine nine

Ok it was a much better performance than what we have seen in the last two games. people are focusing on the target man. but i still think taking Cahill and Bakayoko off the team has helped more than the target man. there was little mistake from our game than at Watford and Bournemouth. although the mistakes were not completely eradicated out of our game. but they were less than when we had Cahill and Bakayoko. that attacking line up also helped. with Moses joining the attack and Zapacosta sitting which made our formation 4-1-4-1 at a times. and playing Cesc alongside Kante was a bonus. i had been calling for Cesc to play instead of Bakayoko. ok if Alosno returns play the same line up. Pedro was much better than he was in the last two games.

Anyway with big games coming up. will Conte have the balls to play that line up. i have my doubts. once his suspension is over Bakayoko will be drafted in, and i won’t be surprised if Rudiger is dropped for Cahill. and we will be back to cycle. one step forward and two steps backward. Give credit to where its due. Conte has done well last night.

Wise-fan

Sturridge injured again

I’m lost for words. This guy is made of paper. Maybe he should consider retiring.

shanksy

That is a shock & probably vindicates Klopp on the decision to send him on loan. He has the talent, but is just not robust enough. Unlucky Studge, thought you would score & make Klopp regret the decision. Get well soon. Ynwa

Sanj1

I don’t understand the stick he gets, you can’t will your body into not getting injuries, his body is obviously prone to these injuries. I think he should consider retirement now. Ledley King also was another great player who couldn’t play too often without breaking down. Michael ownen and Robbie Fowler career also were blighted by injuries… I think more research needs to be done regarding those whose career gets cuts short like that. Maybe being overplayed as youngsters didn’t help..? Also there goes the opportunity for Liverpool to demand the reported 30 million they were hoping for. Nobody will touch him for that now.

mwake

You could all be right however prob worth waiting till the end of the season before writing him off completely and him retiring.

Yes it doesn’t look great for him being a hamstring injury but he could come back, score a few goals and keep West Brom up.

I wouldn’t retire just yet if I was him unless the doctor advised him too but don’t think that’s the case yet.

Lukaku criticised

I must not be seeing the same matches as other people… Lukaku was really poor against Newcastle – Against a team on the lower end of the table who hadn’t won at home since October, he only had 2 shots which were both poor, made only 1 key pass and only dribbled his man twice, and those were in the same action! Only 1 accurate long ball, only 1 accurate through ball, only 1 accurate cross…. only 64.5% pass success rate…

Let’s face it, Lukaku is pants – if he wasn’t as strong as he is he’d never be a Premier League player. He’s like a lumbering giraffe when he runs and tries to do anything with the ball – he would make Andy Cole look like the most technically gifted forward ever if they both played at United right now, and Cole was ripped to shreds for his technique back in the day!

Sympathy for the Devils

When the free kick was taken, did you see the lame attempted challenge by Lukaku to win the first header? I don’t blame Lukaku, the manager has seen the number of times goals have been conceded this season, due to Lukaku defending set pieces, why hasn’t he put an end to this?
Lacazette debate rumbles on
There are far worse things to moan about than Lacazette’s attitude and “wanting him out of the club” for God’s sake- what a pointless thread. What will selling him solve? What about the lazy, careless, immobile flop Xhaka? What about the flat track bully, Ozil? How about Monreal, who spends most of his time appealing for non- existent fouls and offside, but cannot defend to save his life, or Koscielny, who has forgotten how to play Premiership football, but still does the business when he plays for France? Or Cech, who has still not learned to distribute the ball with hands or feet without giving his defenders heart attacks? Or Mustafi, who cannot tackle or do anything without diving in? Do the two central defenders know what the other is going to do? Above all, direct your ire at Wenger, the common denominator in this sorry collection of misfits.

You can criticise lack of player’s quality or a lack of tactical nous for management but when the players don’t have the right attitude even after being paid millions per year from basically the fan’s pockets then they not only deserve to be criticised,they should get lambasted.This thread is not pointless at all,it is about players showing they care to perform and win for the fans.

Ignoring the quality of players in a footballing sense,these are the players who i think that have atleast showed they care and try to act as leaders when no one else cares on the pitch.Mustafi,monreal,xhaka,wilshere,rambo,cazorla but that’s about it.These are the only players that ever show passion and desire.Again just ignore who is good enough and who is not good enough,it’s about trying to pick up an underperforming team.

I think Sanchez is hugely missed,not only his quality but his desire to win games.Simply put,these players lack desire to win games and it’s because of the mentality and low expectation Wenger has created for them.

The specialone

We have one of europes top strikers in his first season in a new league where he has not played often due to AW and he may well not be pulling up trees, but we KNOW that no one will under AW.

What i see is we have great striking options, all we need is a new friggin manager who can defend and sort the defence.

the issue are the manager and board and not much will happen until one or preferably both change, the players DO have some culpability but i still think at least at the front we are good, IF we had a better manager….

Steveosnakeeye

Why doesn’t Kane want to leave?

Harry kane at spurs has won 0 trophies.A player of his calibre,who has consistently gotten over 20 goals in the PL each season for 4 years now,surely must be wanting to win trophies.He is one of the best strikers in the world if not the best,and also is the highest scoring player in Europe’s top leagues this season.Surely he must be itching for trophies.

Alexis sanchez had been here for four years,he won 2 FA cups and 2 communiy shields yet he was desperate to leave to win trophies.

So why is the situation like this,where top players at spurs like kane,eriksen,lloris and verthongen are not winning any trophies yet have no desire to leave at all.Make no mistake about it these are players who could have easily moved on to other clubs for trophies.
Yet,at Arsenal even though we are delivering atleast some form of trophy our top players are still desperate to leave.

I’ll tell you why,it’s because of the management.Levy and pocchetinho are geniuses of the highest order,perfecting their job.Wenger and gazidis are liars who have turned us mediocre.

Truth is,spuds have finished consistently in the top four for the past 4 years,their players are playing at their best and they know even though they can’t financially match their rivals there is that hope following the example of leicester.
But at arsenal, Sanchez deep inside knows this club clearly lacks any sort of desire to win trophies,which is why he moved on.We are a pretend and mediocre club,thanks to our management for that.Bear in mind, sanchez played at barcelona. He knew the mentality of those players and how disappointed they were after defeats but from what he noticed here where players don’t look disappointed and expectations are so low he had to move on.

the specialone

Porto preview

Great to get into the knock out stages of the CL this year and I really hope we progress on again.
Porto are no pushovers whatsoever especially at home. They are in tremendous form but perhaps their confidence will make them come out a bit more and leave space in behind that we can exploit.
This could be like the Sevilla game where we can rip them apart but we are susceptible at the back too. Our in game management of the situation needs to improve, something that Rafas teams were excellent at.

I can see a team such as….
Karius, Robbo, VVD, Lovren, Gomez, Hendo, Can, Ox, Mane, Firmino, Salah.

I don’t what to expect to happen here but I’d take a score draw.

Gingerlfc

I’ve no idea what to expect here. A draw be a great result. I’d go with that team but play winji instead of ox. His old position was number ten and he can support the attack and midfield but i doubt that will happen.

all games are tough at this stage. If we play kike we can then we can certainley get a positve result. Massive game and great to be involved in these again

Sean the sailor

This line-up won’t be far off I don’t think:

Karius, Gomez, Matip, VVD, Robbo, Wij, Milner, Hendo, Mane, Bobby and Salah.

Porto haven’t lost a game this season, in fact, haven’t lost at home since the 30th April 2016. Before anyone chimes in that the Portuguese Liga is piss poor (which it is!) it still is some feat to go that length of time not losing at home.

They generally play a 442 and it’s the three African chappies that we need to take care of; Marega, Aboubakar and Brahimi.

A draw would be a sensational result, a win, well, out of this world, but I am expecting two extremely tough legs and may the best team win.

I think we will lose the first leg and win the second with no idea who will prevail at the end of it all.

Rob Fort Worth TX

Pogba a liability?

I think it’s time for the penny to finally drop for Mourinho now.Whatever the rights and wrongs it is obvious that Pogba is a liability in a midfield two,especially with Matic doing a very passable impression of a knackerbag just recently,so although Herrera has been horrific and needs to go at the end of the season for me he probably has to be picked in a midfield three for most games,particularly away from OT and in the tougher big matches.
Alexis has to play either on the right,behind Lukaku or up top instead of Lukaku not on the left wing instead of Martial.
As regards the right wing spot,if Alexis isn’t going to play there just stick Ashley Young out there because he has got great delivery,still has some pace and works his b*llocks off for the team.I’m certain that he would improve our productivity from the right flank and end up with more goals and assists than Mata ever will playing out there.Luke Shaw then comes back in at left back to replace Young.
I know it’s not a panacea by any means but it will give the team more balance and hopefully suit us better than the current mishmash crap we are seeing now.