The footballing philosophy is simple

You win against the teams below you, and you do not lose against the teams around you.

Saying that, our recent record against arsenal is played 4 won 4, goals for 10, goals against 0 . So we cant be playing that badly.

We were unlucky not to win the early season games against city and united, who scraped a consolation draw in the last seconds.

It is ridiculous how people forget that strategy and tactics play a big part of the game. We could have gone hell for leather all season and won games by three or four goals, or lost by that margin. (look at united vs leicester). sure its good for the neutral but it doesnt win you the league.

No one complains about the style of football when ALL the english teams in europe when playing away play for the draw (or not to lose). the press dont mind the tactic of "get them back to anfield and have a go at them".

Chelsea also have a problem of teams parking the bus against us. The teams below us know they shouldnt be able to win, and so park the bus and play for a 0-0 draw. That fact gets completely ignored.

Other teams know that arsenal, united and lfc have a weak defence and so go at them, and such of course the games are better to watch.

Not quite, it's P4 W3 D1. Still pretty good though.

Is anyone else confused by the Cresswell rumours? He's 25 and not even close to Bertrand who we let go earlier in the season. Ake has played well at left back when called on as well.
Surely we should just promote one of the kids if we're just looking for cover. Will be pretty aggrieved if we end up shelling out for him. He's also older and worse than van Aanholt who we also let go last season. Just wish we could take stock of all the kids and loanees we have and map their futures and abilities before buying yet another player.

Cresswell is also worryingly short for a defender

Rumours are normally that (more so when its Chelsea) just Rumours

But IF true I don't think we can promote too many kids (even for cover).

I watched the first leg of the Youth Cup (Beat City 3-1) and one thing that stuck me right away was the lack of competitive edge in the game. It was City Vs Chelsea in a semi final and it was very nice for the most part. As a defender coming into the premiership its not the best experience even coming in as cover.

For me the whole youth team set up is not competitive enough and is not really benefiting the players for when they come into a competitive dressing room and going on to a pitch. Yes it teaching the technical skills and ensuring they fit enough and intelligent enough to handle football at the top end but they still lacking vital skills.

We have a injury in defence in the next couple of weeks and a "youth" team player steps into the first team in the games against CP or Leicester and they will be kicked off the pitch.

I know it's just paper talk but the idea of Cresswell having a price tag of £20m-£25m is completely absurd.

The problem is when do we give them a chance? Ake made a few appearances when Rafa was here, and looked quite promising, but has barely had a look-in since and is now on loan at Reading. Kalas came in and had a good game at Anfield last season, he certainly wasn't kicked off the pitch. Bamford has just been voted player of the season in the Championship, does he get a chance next season or does he have to spend more time out on loan? Sooner or later we have to start taking a gamble with one or two of them. I agree we can't pitch several in at once, but at the moment we're not really giving any of them an opportunity.

The Cresswell price tag is England tax, but he's had one semi-good PL season (still not sure what the fuss has been about with him as he's not been amazing) and is a massive risk. Bertrand has had a better season in a better team and a CL medal with us. If Cresswell is worth more than we sold Bertrand for the world has gone mad. If we had an idea we would need a left back for next season we shouldn't have sold Bertrand in January.
I hope its all rumours but this one seems to have legs and West Ham have indicated something is going on.

We should have kept Bertrand and not signed Luis really. I remember questioning the £15.8m price-tag for him last summer considering his age, and that was when I thought he was being brought in as a first choice left-back. That he's only been a back-up to Azpi makes it even more questionable.

Zouma got the chance this season and think it will be either Ake or Loftus-Cheek next (Loftus-Cheek being my choice).

If Middlesbrough go up I think Bamford would benefit more from another season with them.

Zouma was a £12m signing, you'd expect him to get a chance when he's cost that much to be fair.

Loftus-Cheek hasn't spent any time out on loan yet, so why would you consider him more ready than players that have, out of interest? He certainly has the potential to make the grade though, that's for sure.

One thing these last few years have taught me is to ignore price tag when it comes to players.

Watching Loftus-Cheek play etc, seen him interviewed etc he seems very mature and would benefit from being in the dressing room and training day to day with the first team IMO, there just seems to be something there


Bamford I would not take back from loan yet as he has been a vital player for a team and to take him from that to a fringe player would for me be damaging. Where as if they go up staying in the premiership they will need to use a squad more and bring in better players so while he still will be a important player he might have less time in team so he is prepared better or he takes to the league like a duck to water either is good for us long term

Bamford's future with us is not assured and I can see him being sold on for a good fee like Lukaku. To play for us he would need to be better than Costa and there would be no allowances made for his age as Lukaku found out. It might be worth the risk to play him as second striker if Costa gets injured next season, but dropping him to a fringe role would be bad for his development and price tag if we sell him on later. We'd be best off loaning him to a mid table PL side next year and seeing how he gets on.
Off the top of my head Omeruo, Kakuta, Romeu, Piazon, Kane, Chalobah and MacEachran will not break into our first team and most will not bring in lots of sell on cash. It's not even about age as Oscar, Hazard, Courtois and Zouma have all been trusted as young players. We should be more clinical about clearing out players who will not make it with us rather than let them see out their contracts playing for other clubs.

The other issue is that most them are earning far too much money for their age and status.

Very true. It's little wonder the likes of McEachran and Kakuta are just seeing out their contracts with us.

I agree, it makes no sense at all to go for Cresswell. Unless its just to annoy Man City who have also (allegedly) shown an interest..though, goodness knows why they'd want him either, they have two two top quality LB's already.

It was only a few days ago that Chelsea were reportedly set to launch a bid for Fabio Coentrao this summer as he is likely to leave Real Madrid. Now that would make more sense. His appearances this season have been limited, but he was one of the best LB's in the world. He's still only 27 and had a good relationship with Jose. Rumours say he could be avaiable for £10-15m. Better value than the ridiculous prices being quoted for Creswelll who is only 2 years younger and just a decent average player.

With Bamford, I think it depends what we decide to do in the summer. If we go out and buy another experienced striker, I agree with you..leave Bamford on loan with Middlesborough, hopefully to get some PL experience.
But if we're sticking with Remy as our number 2, I think we should bring him back to compete for that second slot. Bamford will be 22 in September, so hes at an age when he should be looking for a place in our team if he's going to make it. He's done extremely well in the Championship which is a tough league, probably a lot tougher than the leagues some of our other loan players are in.

But who knows what will happen ? I've been reading that we've had a £100m bid for Bale and Varane rejected. Then another story says we are interested in signing Falcao !
I think it's safe to predict that this summer window could well turn out to be the craziest ever for rumours.

Sunday 26th April, 4.00 p.m.

As with the Man Utd game, all the pressure is on Arsenal. They HAVE to win, while we can comfortably afford a draw. JM will get the team prepared for a win having said that, and as mentioned before, if the title can be wrapped up early, it would be nice to see a few academy players getting some much needed match time. Minutes on the pitch as Fergie the master used to say.

Loftus Cheek and Solanke are future first teamers according to JM.

Come on the Chels'!

RB, I agree. Bamford is no kid, he's played in arguably the toughest, most physical league in the world and won the player of the year award. That is worth a place in the Chelsea squad imo, as long as he gets playing time and there's some rotation there. This season showed that automatically playing Costa for every available game doesn't work after a while. The opposition shackle him and know his moves. Some rotation needed.

Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta, Matic, Fabregas, Ramires, Oscar, Willian, Hazard

Cech, Filipe Luis, Zouma, Mikel, Loftus-Cheek, Cuadrado, Drogba

Cesc up top then?

Play for 0-0!!

I'm surprised that we haven't got either Brown or Solanke on the bench.

Yep. No point at all having Mikel on the bench when we already have Zouma.

Alexis Sanchez is their one player I wish we'd gone for, he looks a handful every time he has the ball.