Quite right too In the days of SAF only United possibly could have mounted a late challenge but not now....
Remy maybe, the Drogba of 5 years ago defo, the 36 year old version? nah. The point about being reliant on Costa is a sound one, as without him you'll be considerably weaker, as the back up is not on the same level. The greatest surprise for me this season is not Costa's goals it's how brittle you've become at the other end.
Take away costa and chelsea look like a frail side who lack goals. Now of course if costa is out, i suspect jose plays more reserved. Plays for the 1-0 rather than a game of you score we score. Whats costas injury record like?
Not too bad really, though in the last year he seems to be getting slight hamstring niggles, they usually don't keep him out for longer than a week or two, the fact that it keeps popping up though is a slight concern.
Jury is still out. Hes started well though. Id hes lucky he might be tge 3rd best player in tye league this season.
Re Costa, we all know everyone would miss their top striker. However people quickly forgetting the impact Matic and particularly Fabregas are having now. Take out Costa and as long as Fab is still in the side with Hazard we'll create chances that Remy for instance is more than capable of finishing. The Defence is a slight concern but probably just a case of we've been playing 'weaker' teams so are happy to try and out score them. Last year we threw away far too many points against such sides. This is hopefully a sign of things to come. We'll certainly still play tight v the top sides and our record against such sides was unrivalled last year, and that was without Costa, Fab or Matic (pre Jan).
You look great with the ball and vunerable without it and that's in no small part down to the change in personnel as there's less rigidity in the central areas and your backline is much easier to get at as a result. If Mourinho dusts of the Routemaster then I'm not sure the current set up will be able to carry it out with the same efficiency.
The routemaster is in for a service. Had a tough run last season and broke down in 3rd gear. Should be back on the road soon. Going nowhere.
Even if that turns out to be the case, I have 100% faith in Jose to put that right come January. He isn't a stubborn ****bucket like Arsene Wenger.
Take away the striker and the only real change in personnel is Fabregas in place of Lampard. Lamps was better defensively than Fabregas but by no means a top line defensive mid so shouldn't make that much difference. The main difference is the licence they've been given, kind of proven by Ivanovic playing as practically a second striker at times on Saturday! Put Ramires alongside Matic and push Cesc further forward and you've got plenty of bus parking potential!
This If we lost Costa, stick Remy in, push Fab up to a No.10 between Hazard and Schurrle, stick Ramires and Matic behind them in the middle in a 4-2-3-1 and voila! formatione de Routemasteur!
Emphasis on not conceding takes preference over goals goals goals. Unlike liverpool last season, you wont **** up a goals goals goals season. You have a quality side and have got off to a flyer.
Probably right I suppose. I wonder if Roman has let the tyres down on the Routemaster and hidden the key?
Possibly! He was certainly enjoying the goals fest at the weekend! I think we carry a bit more fear factor going forward this year so far so I expect even the bigger sides to be more wary of us going forward; so I can't see such games being exactly like last year. Us v City will be very interesting. We can still lose and be above them which is nice.
Brendan made 2 massive errors last year. Forcing the issue v us at Anfield when a draw would have been a great result and chasing goals when 3-0 v Palace and ended up drawing the game. It's entertaining but wildly naïve.
I thought you lot looked good. Fabregas is simply tremendous. Feel slight animosity we seemingly didn't bother going for him..
