I'd have to go for Kante. But they're both complimenting each other beautifully right now.
Kante is the best ball winner I've seen at Chelsea since Makelele. Tackling is an under rated part of the game in my opinion, and watching Kante it's amazing how many times he comes away with the ball in one-on-one situations. It's early to say it, but with his other attributes going foward he might even turn out to be better than Makelele !
Having said that, Matic back to the form of the first 12+ months he was with us would be something special as well. I think he was just given too much to do, playing in a 4-2-3-1 with Fabregas as the other player in the pivot would probably have been too much for anyone eventually.

Yep, Kante to me looks so good. Technically excellent. Mentally completely in control. Looks for the ball all the time and makes tackles..., also looks to advance the play... complete opposite of Mikel, who has been playing in that role for you for so long...

Matic, two seasons ago looked great. Potentially could play further forward? I haven't seen exactly where he's been playing this season.

I think Chalobah would be fine alongside either Kante or Matic. If both are out though then we are in big trouble but hopefully it never comes to that. When Mikel came back from the Olympics I remember reading an interview with him saying he's been allowed to talk to clubs in the January window and I think the fact that he hasn't made the bench all season suggests he's on his way out soon. Will probably go to China


Kante definitely but loving the way Matic is playing these days. He wins the ball mid pitch a lot and starts so many of our attacks (see our first goal against Everton).

Interestingly Matic already has 6 assists in the league this season. That's more than anyone else for us. Pedro is next with 5.

Matic is actually very good getting forward

Yes, and against Everton he finished the game with a pass completion rate of 92% from 86 passes. For a big powerhouse of a player (6ft 4ins) he's surprisingly skilful with the ball at his feet. On his Wiki page, it says he started as a kind of midfield playmaker..I didn't know that.

Matic flick-on to Costa at the back post during corners is actually becoming a bit of a weapon

He was always that player, but was told by our previous manager to be a DM which didnt really suit him.

When he had to stay back to nurse cesc, it went to pieces.

Of course that is not really correct as it was at Benfica he started playing more regularly in a more defensive position but I am guessing due to that manager not at the moment working for a rival we should ignore that

All very predictable.

Matic was a more atracking midfielder, quite dynamic. That's where he is best. When paired with a poor defensive midfield partner, matic had to stay back and do twice the work.a problem Jose never addressed.

Now with Kante beside him, we suddenly have the best midfield partnership in the league.

Good to see we have made a stand for safe standing in the recent meeting for Premiership club.

Its something really with the new ground hopefully going though soon we can take a real lead in and be really be pro-active in bringing in.

Good results for us today, we need to beat the boro to take advantage

Could've done without Yaya scoring the winner late on for City but everything else was good. Liverpool have a much easier fixture list going into the festive period so we need those 3 points tomorrow.

Good first half. It took a little time to impose ourself, but we could have had a couple more goals with better finishing. Have to hand it to Middlesborough though, they look dangerous on the break. Their young Traore had electric pace !

Not the best we've played in our current winning run, but we did play some good stuff at times and that defensive resilience was there yet again. A good, deserved win against tricky opposition. 6 wins on the bounce, 6 clean sheets, top of the league, great stuff.

Good win though missed far too many chances for my liking. Although not really hanging on the game should of been wrapped up long ago.

Was expecting a tight game, They no push offers and would have spent most of the international break working on a game plan for this game (and with most of their players).

The massive scoring games wont dictate where we end up at the end of the season it will be the last 15/20 minutes of games like this

Think that was the most shaky our defence has looked since our first game with this formation against Hull. Nice to see us not crumble under pressure and Luiz was good again. Won so many balls in the air which helped us a lot.

Yes, we really needed that second goal. Pedro was so unlucky in the second half with that shot that hit the underside of the crossbar, it would have been a contender for goal of the season.
Now we have Spurs at home, then Man City away. Six points from those two and I'll really start to believe we can win the title this season.

What a turn around from the 3-0 loss at Arsenal and it looked like the pressure was being put on Conte. The switch to 3-5-2 has been great. Really impressed with Alonso and Moses who aren't world class players but are excelling in this new system.

The fact we can shift between 5-4-1 and 3-4-3 is really impressive and its causing teams all sorts of trouble. Moses and Alonso give us extra width which is rare in the modern game(old school wingers pretty much a thing of the past), and create space for Hazard and Pedro to get on the ball and perform. Costa also looks renewed with all the extra chances hes getting provided from the wingbacks and Hazard/Pedro.

Although the most suprising thing is probably the fact we haven't conceded. Luiz looks absolutely solid and with Azpi/Cahill to bail him out if he makes a mistake, he looks like a fantastic defender for a change. I think Cahill is the weakest of the three and im surprised JT hasnt been put back in(perhaps hes too slow now for it to work, but id still rather him over Cahill). Ivanovic is also frozen out which would have been surprising a few seasons ago but we have barely missed him.

I guess Azpi could play either wing back if needed(if alonso/moses get injured)

Lets hope we keep it up but it think the true test against Man City and Tottenham coming up will show whether we are real title challengers or not.

Yes, I agree. I think we're starting with a 3-4-3 at present, and it's working far better than anyone could have expected. What impresses me most is how each member of the team appears to know exactly what is expected of them in any given situation. It must have taken endless hours of training to perfect that.
As you say, the surprises have been Moses, Alonso, and to a lesser extent, Luiz. Moses has turned into a vital member of the team. I thought Alonso was a panic buy, but he's fitted into the team like he's been with us for years ! And Luiz appears to be relishing his role as a kind of sweeper. We always knew he was a very good player, but he appears to have matured and no longer makes those rash challenges and wild surges foward that left us exposed.
My only worry is that we have a few players who are key to the way we've been playing.
Hazard and Costa obviously, and Costa is only one yellow card away from a ban. It's difficult to see who could adequately replace Kante, Matic or the above mentioned Luiz as well. I mean, we could get by, but not without being considerably weaker if it was for any length of time.

Some big names playing in today's development game (JT,Zouma,Cesc and Bat's). Good to see us playing the first teams formation so they can get use to it (more so Bat's as Costa is going to pick up a yellow sooner or later)

I think we all did. In some ways it reminds me of when we signed Azpilicueta, I didn't know much about him and assumed he would just be making up the numbers rather than becoming a regular fixture in the side. It's great when signings exceed your expectations.



4 bookings in the first 6 games for Costa, 0 in the next 6. It's amazing how restrained he's being from doing anything silly ever since clocking up that 4th card. Hope it continues.

Thanks for the heads-up about that, I wouldn't have known it was on if you hadn't mentioned it. I see we won 3-2, with goals from Batshuayi (2) and Van Ginkel.
I'd forgotten about Van Ginkel, the guy was plagued with injuries wasn't he ? Any idea how he's been playing, there were high hopes for him when he joined us ?

Not heard much regarding him.

From watching the game Zouma is slowly getting back to match fitness (still a long way off from his tackling and passing) and I think having JT along side him helped (must have done from a mental POV alone). Bat's looked like he was slowly settling into the new role which will a great benefit for us.

Not sure if we have done this before to the same extent but it's something we should have done before. Yes the standards are as far as you can get in terms of the game but its a massive help to the sub's bench to ensure they stay fit and get use to the managers system. Most of the training during the week quite rightly will be used to work on the first team players. Also its good for the players to work with some of the players further down the pecking order.

Solonke also played and showed me nothing apart from thinking him and his agent has been smoking some seriously good stuff if the rumor's are correct with regards to wages he was asking for