Going forward looked very good, although Batshuayi's finishing still looks suspect especially 1 on 1. Hazard closer to the striker looks very effective though. Come the PL, it's going to be very tight through the middle and we need width. I'm still going with Cuadrado and Moses. A lot of backward and poor passing from Willian, and the opposition know all his moves now.

Defensively suspect, and as said before we need that world class CB. Aina when he came on looked better than Ivanovic as well, also as said before.

Conte needs to take some bold decisions. Otherwise it could be a shaky start with panic buying late August.

Oscar scored a very good goal, and he always ups his game when he might be sold. After the threat has gone, he downs it again.

He's fine.

He posted on Instagram last night he was taken off for just for a precaution as he had a knock to the head.

This ^^

It's a real concern. They have had all summer to strengthen the defence but as was seen last summer, panic buying seems on the cards.

Yep, this is the most pessimistic I've felt in a long time going into a new season. Batshuayi and Kante are useful additions but the lack of defensive signings so far really doesn't bode well at all.

no team has made goo defensive signings, in fact arsenal are a lot weaker!

At least we have signed a dynamo that will offer protection, and i hope matic gets back to his best.

Zouma will be like "a new signing" too

But absolutely, our signings have stalled a bit, and no deadwood moved on yet

At the end of the Euro's I was sure Conte would last the season not so sure now.

A poorly arranged pre-season and players looking no fitter then we did last pre-season. A team such as us should not be saying Victor Moses looks good.

Yes we needed to bring defenders in but there are not that many realistically available. Think we could have got away with that with some luck as a manager like Conte should be able to drill the current players to do a job until we found decent replacements.

We have not learnt from our mistakes going back as far as Carlo's last season.

Conte is not to blame for what happens but once again the manager has not been given the tools he has needed and that falls onto the boards shoulders.

He is the right manager at the right time but sadly at the moment its not looking fantastic. We don't get it right this season what with Liverpool,Spurs for sure two teams who can maintain a challenge for Champions League places and Leicester West Ham sniffing around maybe in a season or two we have to get at least 8/10 decisions correct and at the moment I not sure we getting 6/10 right.

I agree, we are making too many bad decisions over a period of years - its lucky that 12 months ago we were champions!

There are only two glimmers of hope. It does seem that conte is a good manager, and could be a great fit for us.

And although we are a 6 out of ten, the other clubs around us are once again not pulling up trees.

City have spent money everywhere bar where they really need it at the back.
Spurs have not done anything, and their star player looks burnt out.
Arsenal have gone backwards as usual, with no defence at all.
Leicester have given us their best player, their new signing looks great
West ham have to do a LOT to convince, the new stadium could be an albatross
Liverpool are a rank average team, weak at the back, sturridge made of glass
United are awful at the back, it will be basketball football for them - Mou could win it or wreck it!

But what other teams do is not really important.

We have to get our own house in order first before we start looking at the work the neighbors are doing.

Conte finish's outside the top 4 he is gone,Finish's inside the top 4 and finishes double figures behind 1st he will be on the edge and I can see him going early the season after.

I don't see Liverpool changing manager even if they finish outside the top 4, I don't think Spurs will as well, Leicester 100% won't. Wenger goes Arsenal will invest massively and I think Jose is pretty secure at the moment and so is Pepe. They can afford to make bad decisions I not sure we can afford to do the same.

I dont think its true that Conte finishes outside the top 4 and he is gone. No manager, be it pep or jose can guarantee finishing top 4 this season.

After last years blip (and we know the cause), i still feel we have a strong team. Yes id like a top striker alongside costa but we got Batshuayi instead

We needed a midfielder to do the donkey work, pogba would have been nice but we got kante and kept the extra £95,000,000 it would have cost on top!

It is a shame that we are yet to sign a strong central defender, if we had signed bonnuchi we would have had a good window. There is still time.

Thank goodness we didnt waste £50,000,000 on stones like city are about to.

If you think given the history of Roman and Chelsea that we will keep Conte after finishing outside the top 4 then fine but the actual evidence at hand looks to disprove that. The statements coming out of the club and Conte make it unlikely as well. If we do a Harchester Utd and all the players die in a coach crash then yes he will stay but if the players don't perform again then he is in trouble

If the reason "we all know" why we finished outside the top 4 the actual reason or more of this personal stuff due to someone's current employers and a personal dislike? If its the real actual reason that the players did not perform at any point of the season at even 25% of their ability then yes we do know why, Any other reason and no we don't ALL know why. A blip is something over a small amount of time, A blip is not something that lasts from August to May

Do you really have to fill every post having a go at other teams or managers? We are talking about Chelsea.

All im trying to say, is that all top PL teams are in the same position, in that none of them can guarantee a top 4 finish, and they havent really strengthened where they most needed it.

I think conte is here for 2 years at least.

pep has spent over 100million, jose 200 million, the pressure is on them, not us.

So you think Roman will not put Conte under pressure because of what is going on at City? Since when has that actually happened?

Look at the history of Roman, When has the Chelsea manager not been under massive pressure regardless of what is going on at other clubs?

We have the weakest back four I can remember since before the Abramovich era.
We have six fit players for 4 positions, and two of those are 19 year old Aina and the untried Hector. So we're likely to start with Ivanovic (who looked finished as a RB last season) the distinctly average Cahill, JT who only appeared to be kept on as a afterthought and Azpil.
Numerically we'll still be short even when Zouma returns, in fact you could say a full back is a greater priority. It's ridiculous to be in this position with just a week to go before the start of the season !

He hasn't managed a single game yet, he is not under pressure. I dont think he could do any worse than what happened last season. Its onwards and upwards.

In hazard, on form, we have a game changer, the best player in the league. Im looking forward to a great season from him. Play him floating off costa, not out wide.

how about kenedy?

or 3 at the back?

Kenedy was not taken on the last pre-season game, Would take that (if he was not injured) as a sign he is not part of Conte's plan more so before the game he was talking about now he would be forming the squad

Kenedy is widely expected to be sent out on loan, Conte barely used him in pre-season.
But he was only used as an emergency stop-gap in the LB position last season. A pity because I think he has potential further forward.

Three at the back ? Have you got a death wish or something, we'd get mullered with our current options.

Every Chelsea manager under Roman is under extreme pressure. Yes others are too this season but none more so than Conte. Abramovich has fired successful managers, never mind ones that dont do that well. It the price we pay for the success he has brought. You are certainly argue whether its good or bad but there is no point pretending it doesn't exist. On the plus side Conte will be under no illusion about what is required.

Last season was such a shock (even to Roman I expect) that Conte might have a bit more leeway than previous managers. Top four would be considered a success (of sorts) which hasn't been the case for other managers during Roman's rule. Outside the top four ?..that's anyone's guess, but 5th or 6th and I think he'd get another season.

A Chelsea manager not under pressure? Of course he is under pressure. I would expect any Chelsea manager to be under enormus pressure every season that's even without a owner like Roman. He has to be under pressure. Its part of the job, We have seen that every single season Roman has been there. The Chelsea manager was even under pressure before Roman bought us. It was bad in those days but would be a walk in the park while stopping to play pokaman go compared to now.

If you don't think we could be any worse then last season then its naivety at its very worst. Things could be an awful lot worse, Its just as likely looking at the evidence we have today then a massive improvement is

If we had the distraction of cup football I could see a case for him being under slightly less pressure and if we was in that waste of time that is the Europa cup even less pressure but with no distractions? Then I not sure Roman feels the same was you do

The trouble is another season outside the top 4 and its looking more like a pattern then a shock.

We need to remember it was not that long ago we finished 6th and was only in the Champions League the season after because of a rule change. So a recent history of 6th,3rd,3rd,1st,10th and 5th or 6th things are not looking like blips or shocks but could tell a very different story.

Players like T.C and Eden will not stay and it will be next to impossible to attract suitable replacements without Champions League again and with money not being a issue for any of our rivals more so with some of them being an awful lot further along ground improvements then we will be and with the investment Roman is putting into that I not sure he will be willing to add on massive amounts to possible transfers to help us out. Also our recent sponsorship deals would take a hit. Utd could afford hits like that for a season or two but us?

is it a pattern for united too?

of course not, they are favourites for the league!

Again we are talking about Chelsea not your obsession with Utd.

Yes I know you don't like them but they are not relevant to what we do.

I don't care if Utd are not in the Champion's League.

But finishing outside the top 4 three times in recent times would be a pattern

we had an off year, for reasons we do not agree on.

the year before we won the league!

It is not a pattern

Ok we had an off season

If we finish outside the top 4 this season what happened in the other two seasons we finished outside the top 4? More of "off years"

Again look at the history 6th,3rd,3rd,1st,10th and then 5th or 6th. 3 decent seasons and 3 bad seasons. Lets drill down into the facts

Season A 25 points behind the league league leaders
Season B 14 points behind the league leaders
Season C 4 points behind the league leaders
Season D we win it
Season E 31 points behind the league leaders

We finish 5th or 6th next season and I am willing to bet that teams coming 5th have prob finished at least 15 points behind the league leaders in recent times

There seems to be a lot of "off" seasons there.

For a team with our resources and our expectations season C should be a bad season.

Yes we won the title but that seems to be more of a one off then anything else.