2019/20 Rivals - Chelsea

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WW Lynchpin
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We’ve got big problems no doubt, although we were missing several players. Luiz to Arsenal was an obvious mistake and was proven so after Zouma’s howler. Once we get Rudiger, Kante, CHO, James and Willian back we’ll be much better. That still leaves Cheek to return too. Hopefully we can get 6th and build from there once we can buy again.

I’d be concerned as a United fan though, I thought you guys looked terrible for the most part, well, before the second goal at least. Better, more stable teams than us will have a field day against that midfield.
The midfield is cause for concern, no doubt about it, but it's not quite as bad as being suggested. Periera looked like a duck out of water in there. Although he assisted Martial for the second, his overal contribution was limited at best. Pogba and Mctominay looked comfortable for the majority of the game though.

The thing about United this season is we look infinitely more comfortable at the back with AWB in place of Young and Maguire alongside Lindelof. Between them we managed to restrict Chelsea to long-range efforts for the most part. With better cover from the midfield, this team is going to be difficult to breakdown.

The attack has a goal in them at any given opportunity. The sheer pace of Martial, Rashford, James and Greenwood is going to cause problems for a lot of teams this season. With the way Spurs and Liverpool defended this weekend, I'm looking forward to facing them. City on the otherhand. Well, they're just City.
 
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charlenefan

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No chance.
Tammy Abraham isn't PL quality, so it'll take Giroud to have his greatest ever goal scoring season for Chelsea to score enough goals to finish top 6. Guarantee Chelsea will be closer to the likes of Everton than Man Utd & Arsenal
 

Dancfc

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Tammy Abraham isn't PL quality, so it'll take Giroud to have his greatest ever goal scoring season for Chelsea to score enough goals to finish top 6. Guarantee Chelsea will be closer to the likes of Everton than Man Utd & Arsenal
Who exactly are going to topple us out of the top six?

Wolves may have had an outside shot with no Europe, but frankly if they even maintain 7th with Europa distractions then manager of the year should be a one horse race.

Everton finished 18 points behind and have lost their two best players (one of which to us) while Leicester finished 20 points behind us and have lost arguably their most important player by Vardy and not replaced him.

Were in for a tough season yes, but over 38 games we will comfortably finish above any non top six side.
 

marktan

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It's a bit surreal playing against a Hazard-less Chelsea. The guys been tormenting us for years and always plays a stormer against us. Without him Chelsea look pretty toothless. Attacking wise it'd be similar to us without Pogba.
 

Dancfc

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It's a bit surreal playing against a Hazard-less Chelsea. The guys been tormenting us for years and always plays a stormer against us. Without him Chelsea look pretty toothless. Attacking wise it'd be similar to us without Pogba.
Funny thing is, we created a lot more than we did in this fixture last season with him playing.
 

charlenefan

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Who exactly are going to topple us out of the top six?

Wolves may have had an outside shot with no Europe, but frankly if they even maintain 7th with Europa distractions then manager of the year should be a one horse race.

Everton finished 18 points behind and have lost their two best players (one of which to us) while Leicester finished 20 points behind us and have lost arguably their most important player by Vardy and not replaced him.

Were in for a tough season yes, but over 38 games we will comfortably finish above any non top six side.
Chelsea scored 63 goals last season that was the lowest of the top 6, you've lost 16 of those 63 goals in Hazard meaning without Hazard you'd of been looking at 47 that's the same total that Wolves managed and less than Everton and Leicester (not to mention the likes of West Ham and Watford). Who's going to topple you out of the top 6? Any number of clubs tbh
 

duffer

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Chelsea scored 63 goals last season that was the lowest of the top 6, you've lost 16 of those 63 goals in Hazard meaning without Hazard you'd of been looking at 47 that's the same total that Wolves managed and less than Everton and Leicester (not to mention the likes of West Ham and Watford). Who's going to topple you out of the top 6? Any number of clubs tbh
Would you care to make a wager? Chelsea finish top 6, I win, Chelsea finisher 7th or lower, you win.
 

Mb194dc

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Tammy Abraham isn't PL quality, so it'll take Giroud to have his greatest ever goal scoring season for Chelsea to score enough goals to finish top 6. Guarantee Chelsea will be closer to the likes of Everton than Man Utd & Arsenal
I'm going to agree, Giroud needs to start. Personally I'd like to see Pulisic play off him centrally. Getting Willian back will be helpful, along with RLC , CHO etc. Can't expect inexperienced players to fill Hazard hole.

We also can't be relying against the kids in big games away from home. Lampard got steep learning curve, we play the kids and that open against Liverpool on Wednesday and will get ugly.
 

charlenefan

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Nothing silly, £20?
Nah, happy to do a silly tag line or a months ban from posting but not interested in loosing money in a prediction which will no doubt blow up in my face in a few weeks time :nervous:
 

Dancfc

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Chelsea scored 63 goals last season that was the lowest of the top 6, you've lost 16 of those 63 goals in Hazard meaning without Hazard you'd of been looking at 47 that's the same total that Wolves managed and less than Everton and Leicester (not to mention the likes of West Ham and Watford). Who's going to topple you out of the top 6? Any number of clubs tbh
If you play it like that you can say if you just took out CR7s goals and assists out of your hattrick of titles winning teams you would have been fighting for top four instead with the likes of Moyes's Everton, but I don't think anyone would seriously believe you would have actually been down in that position without Ronaldo.

Taking a players goals and assists out a team and adjusting the table accordingly is nothing more than a game of hypotheticals.
 

Bobski

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That was an awful capitulation after a promising start. They are not a threat for the top 4, long term this season might be of great benefit to Chelsea in developing players like Christiansen, Kepa, Mount, Abraham and co, but in the short term they will have to temper expectations, could easily finish as low as 7th/8th with that group.
 

charlenefan

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If you play it like that you can say if you just took out CR7s goals and assists out of your hattrick of titles winning teams you would have been fighting for top four instead with the likes of Moyes's Everton, but I don't think anyone would seriously believe you would have actually been down in that position without Ronaldo.

Taking a players goals and assists out a team and adjusting the table accordingly is nothing more than a game of hypotheticals.
Your comparison is actually spot on, without Ronaldo we wouldn't of won the trophies we did. What happened as soon as he left? Chelsea won the league.

In some scenarios other players step up (like Rooney did when Ronaldo left) but Chelsea let's be honest were a one man team last season and haven't been able to replace that one man.
 

Dancfc

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Your comparison is actually spot on, without Ronaldo we wouldn't of won the trophies we did. What happened as soon as he left? Chelsea won the league.

In some scenarios other players step up (like Rooney did when Ronaldo left) but Chelsea let's be honest were a one man team last season and haven't been able to replace that one man.
We won something like 21 games out of 22 without Hazard starting last season, admittedly against weak opposition for the most part but still, even against shit sides you don't have that type of ratio if you can't cope without a player, Infact we created a lot more today than we did in this fixture last season with him playing.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying he won't be a loss, he will and it will probably cost us top 4 but this notion he was single handedly preventing us dining with the likes of Watford (with respect to them) is hilarious.
 

Treble

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That was an awful capitulation after a promising start. They are not a threat for the top 4, long term this season might be of great benefit to Chelsea in developing players like Christiansen, Kepa, Mount, Abraham and co, but in the short term they will have to temper expectations, could easily finish as low as 7th/8th with that group.
Premature. They missed several players and were unlucky.
 

charlenefan

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We won something like 21 games out of 22 without Hazard starting last season, admittedly against weak opposition for the most part but still, even against shit sides you don't have that type of ratio if you can't cope without a player, Infact we created a lot more today than we did in this fixture last season with him playing.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying he won't he be a loss, he will and it will probably cost us top 4 but this notion he was single handedly preventing us dining with the likes of Watford (with respect to them) is hilarious.
This is the thing though, Chelsea were the better side today and yet you've copped a 4-0 hiding. Now Rudiger and Kante may improve the defensive side of things but they're not going to do anything about the lack of clinical finishing at the other end

Listen I'm not saying Chelsea are going to be relegation fodder or anything silly like that but right now Leicester having someone like Vardy and Chelsea not could easily be the difference between the two clubs
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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Not really taken much notice, but they've got just Abraham and Giroud as their strikers? That can't be right surely.
 

Bobski

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Premature. They missed several players and were unlucky.
Maybe, they do have quite a few to come back. Unlucky with hitting the post twice with great hits but I look at Zouma. Ludicrous panicky lunge for the pen, a silly tackle for a yellow and that beyond belief pass that set up Martial on the edge. Make those type of mistakes, and to be fair he was not the only Chelsea player with some bizarre decision making, Barkley had a shocker, and you deserve to be punished.
 

Javi

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Think they‘ll do ok which is being in the race for top 4. You can‘t be running at your opponent with that backline and Kovacic, Jorginho and Barkley in midfield. Kante in form will be great for that type of play style though. Still lacking a striker and in LB and CB to actually make top 4 imo.
 

el3mel

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They weren't bad at all bar the defense imo. Need to take their chances though.
 

TheReligion

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I think Frank was a bit silly today with the inexperience in the starting 11 opening day at OT.. They played some nice stuff whilst the game was open but when United tightened up second half they didn't have much and couldn't contain the likes of Pogba, Rashford, Marital and co.
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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Who do you think we should have bought? Oh wait!
I wasn't trying to be clever, I'm just quite shocked at what you have there.

You just never seem to have anything is reserve as a club, it always seems to be all or nothing, and for all you've spent down the years, and all the top youth teams you've had, by the look of your squad it seems like you need to spend a fortune to get back anywhere close to where to you were just a couple of years ago.
 

Terminator

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It will be very close between Chelsea and United in terms of no of points achieved by the end of the season IMO with United finishing just ahead. 4-0 was flattering to United today and I expect them to recover reasonably well.
 
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FlawlessThaw

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4-0 flattered United so it's too early to make a big assessment of Chelsea. Once you had in those key players that were missing they should be good enough for most teams in the league.

Can't see them standing a chance against Liverpool though on Wednesday.
 

Spiersey

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I said on here after the 6-0 City game that people will lose their mind over a scoreline rather than analysing performances. The same applies today.

We were a lot better than I expected for about 60 minutes today. We went to Old Trafford with a young side and out played United in my opinion. 2 goals in a minute and a late counter flattered united massively.

I personally thought we should have been winning at ht. united scored near enough all of their chances we missed a couple of big ones. I’m actually fairly optimistic after today. Zouma will Be replaces by Ruidger which solves most of the issues from today. Barkley and Mount can’t play together which will be solved by Pulisic. Striker is a big worry as Abraham is out of depth at this level I feel.

We were very naive once it went 3-0. Could maybe argue we were naive the entire game with how we set up. United struggle against a low block. Think a more experienced manager would have set us up to contain and counter better. This was a theme of lampard at Derby though, especially in away games. Hopefully he learns that there’s no need to set up openly against a strong counter side away.

Thought United were pretty poor today (performance wise anyway, they were very clinical which isn’t a bad thing), a lot of the issues from previous years still seemed to be there. Lack of any real game plan bar countering with high transitions. Mcguire looked solid, wont have much easier games than against Abraham though. Midfield looks really poor, Pogba was good though. Needs supported more.
 

GloryHunter07

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Lets not carried away, todays result was harsh on Chelsea. Im a bit worried about their defence though.
 

RooneyLegend

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Losing Hazard was bad enough. Not having thr capability to replace him has just compounded their ever existing striker issues. Tammy isnt going to cut it. The guy barely moves and in this league thats a recipe for disaster.
 

UweBein

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4-0 flattered United so it's too early to make a big assessment of Chelsea. .....
Can't see them standing a chance against Liverpool though on Wednesday.
I am frustrated. The result is very bad. We do not have a chance against Liverpool.
 

Spiersey

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Losing Hazard was bad enough. Not having thr capability to replace him has just compounded their ever existing striker issues. Tammy isnt going to cut it. The guy barely moves and in this league thats a recipe for disaster.
We signed pulisic as a hazard replacement, it was known he was leaving in the summer. I’m not sure we’d have signed another winger without the ban; especially with CHO expected to break through this season (prior to his injury). We would of course have signed a striker though.