football is about opinion, its my opinion that ddg has only has one good season - please note that this does NOT mean that he has had two other terrible seasons, that would be an incorrect inference.

Its my opinion that if he keeps his form up for a couple of season, he would be a great keeper.

Its my opinion, its not terribly antagonistic in any way whatsoever. It may not be your opinion, but im hardly slagging him off or way wide of the mark here - unless of course the person reading it infers the incorrect logic.

In another thread, i posted that i felt howard webb was not a fantastic ref. Within a few minutes i get sarcasm suggesting that HW must not have awarded a debatable chelsea throw-in.

It gets boring, and makes the forum less fum for me, that people follow me around with negative comments.

Anyway, this is not the correct forum to discuss that.

Lets get back on topic and discuss the 20+ goals i think costa will get for the mighty blues next season!

I don't think even Chelsea supporters are 100% certain about Costa, especially after the World Cup. But the £32m seems a reasonable gamble to take for someone who has scored that number of goals at the highest level. If he was coming from a lesser league I would certainly be cautious, but I'm fairly optimistic.
My worry is lack of back-up if he picks up an injury or gets suspended (quite likely from his past record)..we don't match the other top teams in terms of choices up front.

Completely agree.

£32m isn't extortionate, in today's market. Torres and Drogba are questionable back-up, at best. Maybe push Schurrle or Fabregas up?

Schurrle and cesc are our backups, and its a good way of getting everyone in the team.

Great goal scored by Costa tonight

He could not have started his Chelsea career better. I hope he gets one against burnley, and there is no reason why he should not.

http://gfycat.com/SpotlessAgedInchworm

Nice.

Cost as goal now being called a wonder goal!

It's a shame we lost the next game by one goal. Costa is proving a real positive.

Just one week to go!

Yes, that really was a bit special.
I see we started with a line-up almost identical to codeblue's prediction, only difference was Cech and Ivanovic ? Obviously on the same wave length as Jose.

Just wish I could find a decent streaming site, never seems to work for me. How did we look over the two games ?

The game on Tuesday is being shown free on the website I think

Oh, ok...thanks.

If only there was a legal way of watching all the games your team play in a season - bar moving to France or the us!

We have to hit the ground running next weekend, I think it's the most important game of the season.

If Costa scores a brace, his confidence increases and the media pressure is lessoned.

If he misses a clear chance, which ANY striker can, then he will be the new Torres and a waste of money I the media, and the pressure will mount.

I have every confidence that Costa will score over 20'this season.

Am sure I read it on one the many nonsense emails sent me.

All the games have been on the website (not sure how much it costs)

The match on Tuesday is free, but you have to have a login to the Chelsea website, that's all.
For all the highlights and other games it costs £5.99 a month for a fan plus subscription for full access to Chelsea TV on the website.
There are free news snippets on there occasionally, same as you see on the Chelsea youtube channel.

Costa is looking the business. He seems incredibly self confident and has settled in very quickly. I'm now terrified he'll get injured especially after Alves went for him yesterday. To go back to being reliant on Torres would be heartbreaking.

myp2p has been pretty good for all the friendlies. Just need a good adblocker to make it watchable.

Great goal from Costa there, can't wait to see him in action for real. I am worried that if he gets injured we only have Torres and Drogba, doesn't inspire confidence and id be surprised if either of them score more than 10 goals. Costa does look like a 20+ goal a season striker though which is what we have sorely lacked.

Fabregas looks to be a strong signing too, appears to be settling in well and he is a very versatile player, knows the premier league inside out, will be a good signing IMO. More than worthy replacement for Lampard.

The league will be really interesting next season, all of the top 4 have strengthened, with perhaps only Liverpool going backwards losing Suarez - i cant see them repeating last seasons run of form. I expect Man Utd to be top 4 again but don't think they will win the league. Its between us and City realistically, but Arsenal may be up there too.

Its going to be very very weird to see Lampard in City colours, does feel like a really weird loan deal. Couldn't he have spent another 6 months with us to maintain fitness?

I'm worried about Costa's temperament - even in pre-season there are times where he looks like he wants to kill someone for knocking him. I wouldn't back Torres and Drogba to get 10 goals between them in the league this season, so if we lose Costa we are screwed.

True, he does look like he has a lot of fight in him and although thats a good thing, he does look prone to be getting winded up by opposing players, might be a factor in some of the big games.

Our starting 11 is now pretty difficult to predict, we have a very strong squad now.

Id go with:

Courtois
Ivan Terry Cahill Luis
Matic Fabregas
Schrulle Oscar Hazard
Costa

Even that is hard to pick, Willian perhaps over Schurrle or Oscar but we would still have a ridiculously strong bench too.

Mourinho: 'My opinion is that Fabregas is the right player to occupy the central position in midfield.'

Courtois
Ivan Terry Cahill Azpil
Matic Fabregas
Willian Hazard Schurrle
Costa

....to start with. I hope Oscar can work his way back in, but after last season he has a lot of work to do.

For me Costa's temperament is another reason I wanted him.

He squared up to JT in the Champions League and wont take any s*it from anyone and I think thats what we need. With JT coming up to his last year or so as a first team player sooner rather then later we need someone with the winning mentality and not "play nice". He is the sort of player who will fight for a win and to often in the last season or so (more so the season before) we seem to have given up at times

He has not really picked up that many red cards, Picks up his fair share of yellow's I admit but still nothing I would be overly worried about.

Marin having a medical at Florentina, for a loan move. Gotta wonder why we even bought him. 25 surely loan moves wont be too benefical for his development by now!

Unfortunately not much choice if no-one will take him in a permanent deal at the moment. Apparently there's an option for them to sign him for £4.2m at the end of it. No doubt he's another one who we're paying too high a wage to.

Rumours about Eto going to Liverpool.
That would mean replacing Suarez with Eto and Lambert.

Drog injured already/ Remy in ?