Gary Neville: "#Chelsea will be in the top four or five, no problem. But their centre forwards, centre backs and goalkeepers aren't good enough to be title winners."

(Sky Sports)

Palmer RW. Gusto RB. Enzo, Moi, Reece in the midfield should be the way forward till the others develop their game. we win most games with this

◇The rawness and average quality from some of our players is genuinely worrying. The inconsistency at the back has become a real problem.Badiashile’s injury issues and Tosin’s shaky form have forced a defensive pairing that clearly isn’t working. Credit to Chalobah, he’s trying to hold things together, but it’s not enough.

◇We looked defensively solid in recent matches, but that stability has vanished. Leeds completely overwhelmed us from minute one with their intensity, and even after having a fresh squad, we couldn’t respond. The absence of Lavia and Caicedo is already showing there’s no physicality or control in midfield, and that will hurt us even more in the games ahead.

◇Up front, João Pedro and Delap just aren’t the answer against low blocks. They look far too raw in front of goal, lacking the killer edge you need in tight matches. This isn’t the same João Pedro who shined in the Club World Cup.Right now there’s almost no real threat.

◇At this point, the objective is simple: hang on to the top four through this brutal fixture schedule and hope key players return before the situation worsens.

If you still think Palmer is better as a 10 than as a RW then you don’t want the best for the club. His biggest ever season he was the main RW. His biggest ever game vs PSG he played RW. Thread soon on this

Chelsea have won just 25% of their Premier League games when Moisés Caicedo hasn’t been in the starting XI (2/8) compared to 52% when he has been a starter for them (43/82). 🟥
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
FT: Leeds 3-1 Chelsea

Daniel Farke has won a Premier League game against Chelsea for the first time. 💪

Tosin played today because of Calvert Lewin’s physicality. it was just a bad game no need to be so abusive to him. the season is still long

FireSide

#BottomLine

One game, One loss and people are panicking. Suddenly we all know where Maresca needs to play who where? We should cut the crap and swallow the emotions.

Maresca must have the ability to choose different players in different matches and see players abilities and cut out those he deems unable.

And today we just lacked stability almost everywhere.

We couldn't control the mid (remember we play James and Caicedo there. Today it was as good as Santos alone).

That defence was as good as any worst championship team.

The attackers are toothless and that Satpayev kid will walk in this attack so easily if they we continue seeing the crap we see upfront.

It's a loss. Swallow it and move on.

We will cut all dead wood at the end of the season as we did with Jackson and Madueke.
But we must try the deadwood out first

FireSide

#AfterThought

How exactly is Maresca supposed to navigate this congested period if not by giving the weakest of our players game time against the weakest of the opponents in the league?

Wouldn't we be the first to throw stones at Maresca if he fields the key players consecutively and they get injured?

It's these players who should take the chances availed to them and fight for the clubs badges, for their fans but above all THEY MUST FIGHT FOR THEIR NAMES.

Or BE SHIPPED OUT

Trevoh Chalobah had 136 touches vs Leeds, the highest total in any Premier League match this season. ✨

[Via Who Scored]

Have we improved this season?

The eye test would suggest yes... but the numbers...

Position after 14 games: 2nd (24/25) vs 4th (25/26)
Points: 28 vs 24
Points off top: 7 vs 9
Wins: 8 vs 7
Goal difference: 16 vs 10
Shots p/game: 15.7 vs 14.1
XG p/game: 1.9 vs 1.9

I think we've had a solid season especially given Colwill and Palmer's injuries...

But it's certainly not been the leap forward many were talking about.

This season the only player to score a goal playing as a striker in the league in Chelsea is 1, by Joao Pedro at Spurs, The world’s biggest strikers now are all struggling for impact from Isak, Delap, Sesko, Zirkzee, Kolo Muani, Gyokeres, Ekitike’s last goal was in September. The striker role is the hardest to play in, I don’t count Haaland because he’s not a normal human being like us. We need to give those strikers TIME

Sell Tosin and bring Guehi on a free transfer next summer.

Who says NO❓️

Looks like we’ll be seeing plenty more of Josh Acheampong from here on. Good to see Enzo actually stepping up in all this. #CFC

Enzo Maresca:

“One of the regrets I have after the [Leeds] game is that I didn't play with Josh. The reason why we played with Trevoh, Benoit and Tosin was because we saw long balls to their strikers, but even that, we lost most of them.”

So i’m actually right like always😆

Wow, Interesting