Season opener, hoping for a good match, and get a view of Sarri's methods in what normally is a competitive game.
Just leaving home to have pub grub on the harrow road and then on to see how we have progressed . Looking forward to seeing our change in style and hopefully young Hudson If he gives me as much joy as Alan did i wont be to upset at paying £5.90 a pint to those robbing bastards at Wembley
Just approaching Crewe We have a banana blueberry muffin and a britvic orange in 1st class this morning Awaiting the coffee trolley
Line-ups Chelsea 1Caballero 28Azpilicueta 2Rüdiger 30Luiz Moreira Marinho 3Alonso 4Fàbregas 5Frello Filho 8Barkley 11Rodríguez Ledesma 29Morata 20Hudson-Odoi Substitutes 6Drinkwater 15Moses 19Abraham 21Zappacosta 22Willian 27Christensen 59Bulka Man City 1Bravo 2Walker 5Stones 14Laporte 22Mendy 20Bernardo Silva 25Fernandinho 47Foden 26Mahrez 10Agüero 19Sané Substitutes 4Kompany 8Gündogan 30Otamendi 31Ederson 33Gabriel Jesus 55Diaz 81Gomes
They are all over us. Some sloppy passing especially from Barkley. He's been good at holding the ball as he's strong but his passing has been terrible. Barkley and Fab also not tracking their midfield runners. Hudson Odoi has been a bit disappointing. He's had a few chances to run at walker but he's been playing it safe about 3 or 4 times now. The passing has been off from the team though.
Glad that after the drinks break hudson odoi is trying things. Showed some nice skills and looks to be gaining confidence. Pedro looking lively but as usual he makes great runs, carries the ball well but the final pass isn't quite there. Barkley is strong, looking forward to him trying to cement a place but his passing really is poor. Needs to improve that side of things
yes, it was quite worrying. Hoping it's just pre season but i don't think we can play with the central midfield, especially in the big matches. Jorginho needs to be careful about pressing up as Barkley and Fabregas just didn't track their runners and 1 pass through and city were through our midfield. The 3 players up top lacked invention. Unlike City, are wingbacks aren't flying forward (alonso tried) and we don't have those runners from midfield which city had all game long, both wingers running in behind. Pedro tried but his end product was pretty poor (or maybe not many options to pass to). Sarri definitely has his work cut out
I give Saari 5 months if he does Cescy. Remember Nando - One player can ruin it for everyone. Cescy looks worse than Nando. Cannot wait for his contract to be up. No one will sign him
We need more legs in midfield, Kanté was probably the biggest miss today but I think we need a new centre mid to complete the 3. Barkley hasn’t got the awareness, Cesc can’t run, Bakayoko can’t pass and Drinkwater is garbage. We need a striker too, they looked so much better going forward cause they had Aguero, we had Morata... I’d try Christensen at the back too, Rudiger and Luiz looked a bit uncomfortable. Lots of work to do which has to make you wonder why we waited so long to change manager.
Chelsea were poor,what does Fabregas actually do? We looked much sharper than chelsea,i was expecting to see them press like Napoli but I thought they worked harder under conte?
T.errible performance from entire team. Back 4 were dreadful, midfield, our always archilles heel, were totally hopeless every single one. Morata is a complete failure, he will never fit in sell or give away ASAP,completely useless. Really disappointing. No one looked like premier league standard except Hudson - Odoi Get rid of Fabregas Barkley Drinkwater Bakayoko Morata Willian, Pedro They are all just taking up space and doing nothing to progress the team. None has any flair, or exceptional quality, Just a load of overrated plodders. Get in some ****ing quality. Hudson Odoi is worth 2 Willian's or Pedros. Tammy Abraham is light years ahead of Morata. We will struggle for top 8 let alone Top 4 with this dross. Sarri is doomed to failure if he thinks he can turn these overpaid slugs into a " high pressing attacking package". Truth is we have only 5 players worth their place in a PL team.
bit harsh on willian, didn't really have much time. Thought drinky was okay (although the team went to ****). Thought Hudson Odoi was just was only a little bit better than pedro (both had opportunities in good places) but he didn't lose the ball as much, partly because he was not trying to attack and decided to pass backwards. I thought Abraham was as bad as morata, his touch is definitely not there but he didn't have long enough to impose himself. At least he made a few runs into the channel though.
Think we have to remember that Sarri has been here just over 3weeks and needs time. Hopefully we are really busy in the transfer market, both incoming and outgoings. Awfully late appointment and now we're seeing the result. Just hope the bad start doesn't go on too long.