🗣 Arne Slot: "I expected them [Chelsea] to be a threat this season because at Anfield they were better than us.

They were so close to us. It was a complete surprise to me that we are now 19 points clear of them or something like that. I didn’t feel that at all when we played them."

Palmer’s floor is your favourite player’s ceiling 🤷‍♂️

Would you like Chelsea to permanently sign Jadon Sancho? Drop opinions 👇

🗣 Enzo Fernandez: "It’s the first time I’ve scored a goal that quickly in my whole career.

The manager told me to get into that position, Pedro was there, it was a great ball and a good finish.
I’m so happy with my numbers. Being a box-to-box midfielder, it’s a really good number of goals and assists."

~ ChelseaFC

FireSide

Vicious Circle

These are the consequences of Lavia's absence in any of our line ups:-

✓ Palmer plays a little deeper. He is designated the role of ball carrying from midfield. This makes him more tired and already heavily marked by the time he is getting to attacking areas. This makes him more toothless.

✓ Caicedo cannot carry the ball frequently out of fear and caution as any loss of the ball (with him being the last cover) would leave the team in danger. So he resorts to passing at every opportunity.

✓ Enzo cannot find the extra space to initiate attacking moves therefore resorting to plenty of sideways passing. Lavia ball holding drags opponents into trying to win the ball, this breaks their shape and leaves spaces behind for Enzo and Palmer to exploit.

✓ Cucurella in a bid to try to strengthen the defensive midfield through invert leaves the left side exposed. Containment of Salah wasn't just because Caicedo was inverted instead, but because Cucu was fully with him. Compactness.

Lavia absence is a vicious circle that leaves the defence porous and attack toothless unless you have a ball playing CB like Fofana who could try to alleviate this problem. Santos can try to fill this role in case of Lavia absentia next season, but it's also crucial that we get a good ball playing CB in case shit hits again.

I’ve Watched Estevao Willian several times and i’d admit he would need TIME to settle. it would be unfair to put so much expectation on that kid in his first year out of Brazil at 18, he’s still very raw in some passages. i hope this fanbase gives him time. Some people are saying Madueke needs to be sold for him. When would we learn?