Chelsea Banter Mobile

06 Dec 2025 17:50:21
Arsenal are looking wobbly, only 2 points from their last 3 away games and as a poster pointed out the other day you can't blame it on not having your first choice 11 on the pitch. City under Pep will hunt them down I think and that Emery is a brilliant manager at Villa and surely if Arsenal had kept him they would of won the league a few times by now? As for us a top 4 battle is on and it just shows how hard this league is, no easy games at all and anyone can beat anyone on the day.

I have the game but I heard Robert Sanchez was simply brilliant and saved us time after time? at least that is a positive. Other than that a pretty poor start to December as per previous seasons going back many years.

06 Dec 2025 17:11:37
RPD, yes Sanchez was ok again and Fofana was solid.

Sounds like the Delap injury will keep him out for a while but Cole got about 60 mins under his belt so that’s a big plus.

Big midweek game coming up followed by the usual very tough weekend premiership game. I love it.

06 Dec 2025 18:37:01
Fair play to Leeds, came back against Man City, beat us and get a draw tonight against Liverpool having been 2 nil down. I have said it many times, this is a very hard league to win, anyone can beat anyone.

06 Dec 2025 09:04:29
Any opposing manager will have seen our we struggle against five at the back. That why having watched Leeds play City and play well in the second half with five at the back it was obvious it would be there preferred shape against us. They also pushed their wing backs up to support the press.

As far as I know Bournemouth don’t go with five at the back but they do let the ball go wide and then overload the press. They also sometimes miss out the midfield and go long to there star player.

I fancy us to win but as most people know there are no easy games in the premiership that’s another reason why most of us love it.

COME ON MY MIGHTY BLUES.

05 Dec 2025 06:32:48
I don't recall anyone on this site posting "we are title contenders" and I do attend a lot of ST get togethers and I don't remember anyone at those events in the last X amount of years seeing us as premiership winners.

I think some pundits need to give their head a wobble!

Just for good order, I do think we will win the Premiership next season. 🤞🤣😇.

05 Dec 2025 07:23:10
At no stage have I thought we were serious contenders for the title nor has anybody at SB suggested it.
As things stand, I don’t see a time in the near future where we will be serious contenders.

05 Dec 2025 09:19:18
Tom, you are correct, I don't think I have seen one poster say we will win the league this season and although a couple in my group did think we might go close that all changed after wednesday.

That said, we are very very close to mounting a title challenge, our best 11 is a match for anyone and would of blown Leeds apart, we have a young coach who is learning all the time and has the tactical nous to put a title challenge together, we have a young squad who are only going better and better for the experience they are gaining game by game and we have owners who have deep pockets and know the only way to hugely increase their investment is by winning championships and cups so they will be very motivated to plug the gaps in our squad.

I expect quite a bit of movement in the summer transfer window, we have a winger coming in from Portugal who was wanted by a lot of the biggest clubs in europe, we are linked with the notts forest centre back and also linked with a number of strikers. The owners won't let up until we win the premier league and like you, I see us going toe to toe with those around us next season.

05 Dec 2025 11:23:39
We also have a striker and a CH supposedly coming back to us from loans next season.

If we are looking outdid for a CH I would like us to sign the lad from Forest. I asked Ed01 about him a few weeks ago and he rates him. When he agrees with me he is a good judge. 😂🤞😇.

05 Dec 2025 11:33:39
Quote from Gary Neville. “Let’s stop talking about Chelsea as title contenders. ” The only people talking about it are you and your fecking.

05 Dec 2025 11:36:34
Sorry, sent to soon.

A quote from Gary Neville. “Let’s stop talking about Chelsea as title contenders. ”
The only persons talking this Shyt is you and your fecking pundit mates.

05 Dec 2025 13:39:35
Greenaway, what an excuse” our best 11 would have blown Leeds away”. The PL is a squad game that’s the kind of game excuse I’d expect from Artita. We are nowhere close to a proper title challenge. Maresca is not “young coach “ he is an inexperienced one: he is 45.

By the time Mourinho came to us he was 40. He had already won 2 Portuguese titles, the Champions League and the European Super Cup with an unfancied team.

05 Dec 2025 14:01:48
At least a year too early but in the next year or two we will be contending if not winning although we need Delap to improve quickly which I think he will and no injuries to major players.

05 Dec 2025 15:59:51
I am some sympathy for pundits scratching around looking for contenders for the title. Perhaps they’re like me: any team but Arsenal.

05 Dec 2025 16:13:14
Jimbo, if that's what believe then fine, you are entitled to your opinion just as everyone is on this site. Seymns2, I 100% agree with you, a top striker will make a huge difference.

05 Dec 2025 16:27:18
Seymns, spot on mate!

06 Dec 2025 05:59:51
Pundits need to sell the dream of a great EPL title race, even if it looks like Arsenal are going to run away with it. They need to do their best to keep your nutural fan interested and, more importantly, paying those subscriptions.

06 Dec 2025 08:54:41
“J” I guess you are right and maybe I’m I’m being a bit harsh but why is that virtually every single one of them is a total tw@t? If we are honest we all have biased opinions but we are not paid to be neutral. The Gob Shyte and Keown are two of the worst but Neville isn’t far behind.

06 Dec 2025 17:23:53
Personally, I like Ally McCoist not really a pundit more a co-commentator but he talks a lot of sense and not up his own behind.

06 Dec 2025 19:37:33
Seymin if by next transfer window Chelsea fail to sign a proven experience in striker and cbs, we will still not be in title challenge. If they had done that last summer we would have been in title contention this season.

We tend to praise the board for buying kids for the sake of it but they are not looking to challenge for the title. We will soon graduate to arsenal being consistent in second place waiting for a strong team to win while they wait with the excise they are in transition. Maresca will be getting all knocks when our inconsistencies are exposed but obviously he's doing his best with the inexperienced kids.

Reasons osihmen wasn't signed I will never understand. It's been speculated about murilo from forest, so the attention seeking hypocrite is at it again. Heard rudigar is out of contract at Madrid dis summer, I would bring him back.

He's inspirational and didn't like how he even left because of boely policy for kids.
Boely and Co are only interested in things that will benefit them financially but not what will make the club successful. I chose the later as a fan.

04 Dec 2025 18:55:11
Still fecked off after last night. Roll on the cherries and hammer them.

04 Dec 2025 18:37:46
Greenaway, Caicedo is still out, won't happen, Bournemouth are far better than Leeds and they destroyed us.

04 Dec 2025 19:35:58
We will destroy Bournemouth. James will play and so will Fofana.

04 Dec 2025 20:10:46
Bill, why are you always so unhappy with all things Chelsea?

04 Dec 2025 20:25:35
They should have played last night Tom, poor, poor decision making by Maresca.

04 Dec 2025 20:32:23
Bill, I disagree, both players past injury issues have to be managed.

However I would be critical of the manager for not picking Josh.

05 Dec 2025 12:47:10
Greenaway

My moan is that the Leeds game should have been a 3 point banker, poor team selection and tactics and when it was not working, nobody changed the way we played.

When coaches who were struggling in the past, the likes of Terry, Lampard and others managed the games, that did not happen on Wednesday.

Tom,

I come back to the point if we have players who can't play 2-3 games in a row, then we should get rid. There is no way we can carry passengers if we are to progress. Yes they are good players but not when they are not on the pitch.

This is not me being negative just highlighting the flaws we have in our club at present and is why we won't be challenging anytime soon.

05 Dec 2025 16:26:05
Bill, I have no way of knowing if the players we are managing through there historic injury issues will gradually be able to perform on a regular basis given time. I can only assume that you do?

We have three players we currently having to injury manage.

Lavia in my opinion will prove to be a class act. I would prefer that to be at Chelsea. James playing two out of every three games at any time is good enough for me. When fit Fofana is a big plus for us, it wouldn’t be clever to see him playing for another team.

Getting “rid” of these three players would be a massive mistake in my opinion.

05 Dec 2025 16:56:13
Tom

I like your optimising but but I doubt that Lavia will move away from his abysmal injury record, I also think a lot of it is in his head.

Fofana might improve but I also have my doubts.

On both i would be more than happy to be proven wrong, if that is the case we will have 2 excellent players.

05 Dec 2025 17:15:28
I’m not a doctor/medical expert. I’m just saying when they are fit you want them playing for Chelsea. If that means they play two out of every three games that’s still ok with me.

That would be approx 40 games per Chelsea season. Happy days.

05 Dec 2025 20:14:37
Bill, I was at the game and the tactics did change in the 2nd half but I guess you didn't notice if watching on TV? You are of course entitled to your opinion but it doesn't mean you are right just as others including myself are entitled to our opinions even if we are not right, that is what makes this page so much fun.

Last season you said we would finish 10th and not win a cup, we finished 4th and won 2 cups. It is all fun mate and I enjoy your contribution to this page. I look forward to the banter carrying on mate. What is your prediction for tomorrow v Bournemouth?

06 Dec 2025 07:56:06
Greenaway

I'm always happy to be proven wrong and I have said that about Sanchez's recent form.

I still don't beleive rotating a number of players works as you lose player understanding.

You may be right about the play changing but with relegation haunted Leeds all over us, nothing really changed.

I beleive another poster said we were worse off at this stage of the season compared to last, to me that is not progress.

I was happy to win trophies last season but let's be honest with our squad, we had to win the ECL and although winning the CWC was nice, it really is not a major trophy, nothing compared to the CL.

Injuries this season have had a major affect which is why I'm saying we can't rely on Lavia and Fofana, yes they are excellent when they play but since both signed, the DoDo bird would have played more games for us.

06 Dec 2025 09:00:19
Bill, you along with others would have sacked the manager mid last season. We then finished in a Champions League spot, won the conference cup and finished it off by winning the Club World Cup and becoming the only club to “have won it all. ” That by most fans was seen as progress.

In my opinion the end of the season will be the time the judge if we have made further progress.

Let’s also add up the games players have played at the end of the season.

06 Dec 2025 12:23:31
Fair enough Tom

But that should not stop us applauding or critiquing the coach or injuries if things are not going well.

Should we also kick rhe FOS down the road for another season or do we moan about that issue now?

06 Dec 2025 12:42:36
Bill, I have not stopped being critical of our performance against Leeds. I have also been critical of our managers tactical performance after a few games but it’s the season that counts.

I’m not what the FOS sponsor has got do with this thread but if we don’t get one at some
stage this season, I will be critical of the owners.

04 Dec 2025 08:02:41
We all know how long in can take for a player to settle into a team and a league. We have seen it many times, some players just hit the ground running, same take a few games and some can take a season. Of course some never make it at that particular club.

So far this season and with “maybe” one exception non of our summer signings have hit the ground running. It’s a concern but no more than that at the moment. It happens at a lot of clubs, they sign what look to be better players but the team performance drops off or shows a lack of consistency.

I’m personally a fan of doing things gradually. So, I’m always looking to keep changes to a minimum. Of course sometimes events and emotions make my preferred slow build process redundant. If that makes sense?

04 Dec 2025 08:19:49
Hopefully a transfer ban will help with that Tom and we have a settled squad fir a few seasons.

04 Dec 2025 09:43:16
Tom I'm with you on ot liking what has seemed to be a big churning turnover of players each summer window in recent times. I do think though that we have been creeping towards Vision 2030 aims of competitive - in EPL and Champions League which are the real tests - side among which some players have by now gained considerable EPL experience and benefited from confidence winning CWC win.

I think Garnacho has done pretty well for us from the off this season and Estevao has shone on quite a few occasions though possibly better off the bench in second half in EPL as I'd have liked him to be last night - with Garnacho starting on one side up front and Neto on the other as said before the game. Had thought Maresca had handled Estevao well up to and including Barcelona game but EPL different and reckon for now he may be better second half player - when physically tough CBs etc beginning to get tired and game opening up and allowing Estevao more space to work his magic in - than first half one. Also a matter of him having played whole game v Barcelona as well as half v Arsenal and he looked wired but pretty tired and frustrated last night.

Might have given Guiu a start ahead of Delap cos Guiu more mobile and perhaps with more guile in style of play. But Delap does need game time and I certainly haven't given up on him yet and he must surely get better if only again to standard he achieved at Ipswich and flashes he showed in some CWC games.

Yes after his first ten games for us I thought Morata was the real bees knees deal. But then he seemed to fall away and indeed fall down too often under tackles. I thought Drogba did ok in his first season for us and looked physically perfect for striker role and showed a fair bit of skill plus power in the air. But it did take time of course to be sure just how good and important he was for us.

04 Dec 2025 10:48:48
The last thing we need is a transfer ban Bill, that would really stop our progress. We are in desperate need of a proper 15 to 20 goal a season striker and a rock solid centre back who can play out from the back.

04 Dec 2025 11:19:49
Agreed with you RPD about CB and striker and though Sanchez much improved we could do with a quality keeper as competition. I still have the feeling at times that Sanchez not the complete article in terms of calm distribution when under pressure though his shot stopping impressive. He is also up there with best and command of area in terms of the high ball though seems to get in a flap in crowded corner or long thorw in situations which Maresca has found some solutions to by putting players out near half way line for possible break and dragging opposition CBs back out there too.

04 Dec 2025 13:01:11
RPD

I agree totally with you on the experienced CB and ST but let's be honest, no matter how many windows we have, the SD's will only raid nurseries and foreign ones at that.

04 Dec 2025 13:28:12
JBS, the Sanchez debate will just rumble on until he makes a mistake and then it will be the same old, same old. Let’s be grateful that he has improved.

I have only seen our young lad at Strasbourg a few times and he looks good, particularly with the ball at his feet. I have a feeling with him that he might stay out on loan for another season.

04 Dec 2025 14:47:08
It's about time we all got behind Sanchez, he has been very good this season.

04 Dec 2025 15:25:59
Greenaway, I couldn’t agree more but you and I both know it’s not going to happen.

At an annual Christmas ST bash there were a lot of the attendees saying he was our most improved player.

04 Dec 2025 15:43:22
I agree with both you and Greenaway Tom, i think Sanchez has improved this season.

The worry for me is that we lose Caicedo and we fall apart. I did think we would struggle without him which is why I was amazed when Hames did not play.

04 Dec 2025 16:10:54
I’m a massive fan of Caicedo and been singing his praises from day one. James is different gravy in any position he plays.

We have a squad that should be capable of coving these player losses. For that poor performance last night was about what’s between the ears! Win the individual battles and the right to play, expect aggression and a team that is prepare press hard. To me it looked as if some of our players were caught in the headlights.

04 Dec 2025 17:41:15
And that Tom is a worry that the coaches could not alter what was happening.

04 Dec 2025 18:52:05
Bill, I’m no more worried this season than last season about our coaches.

Some wanted the manager and the coaches sacked during last seasons campaign. Others wanted the SD’s sacked and one or two blamed the owners.

Very few ever admitted they were wrong but they have carried that dislike into this season. I sometimes believe that there are group of fans who just lurk, waiting for a bad team result or bad player performance just to say “I told you so. ”

If you look at other teams sites this is nothing unusual but it does my head in. We win a few games and everything is brilliant, we lose a few games and we are crap. The tw@t TV pundits are just as bad.

My opinion hasn’t changed, we have top four players and a reasonable coach. If we don’t qualify for the champions league, he may well be sacked, deemed a failure by the fans and owners. If we finish in the top four and maybe wins a pot, he will be our manager for the start of next season.

04 Dec 2025 20:29:44
He is certainly not helping himself with his tinkering, perhaps he wants to go, who knows, I still have nightmares with the way Conti engineered his way out of Chelsea with a huge payday.

04 Dec 2025 20:54:10
I would suggest we wait until the end of the season before we judge how the policy of rotation has or hasn’t worked.
Of course we have to remember the players exertions in the CWC.

04 Dec 2025 20:56:00
Tom, you are right about the lurkers who come out and post the minute we lose a game but we don't actually know if they are genuine fans or trolls who enjoy winding up other clubs fans. Likewise we have posters across all the sites who never have a good word to say about "their club".

I take the view there are all sorts of reasons people are nothing but negative and it is quite often that they have no friends or family with whom to let off steam so come on these sort of platforms as a release.

05 Dec 2025 07:42:14
I will never be convinced by Sanchez: he is nowhere near the level of keeper we need to step up a level, He has clearly been instructed to hoof the ball forward because of his weaknesses which invariably leads to us losing possession. Although Leed’s third goal was down to Tosin a decent keeper would have smothered the ball.

05 Dec 2025 11:26:54
I think Sanchez has been instructed to move the ball quicker. His long ball passing has improved and so has willingness to throw the ball as well.

I’m not convinced but I applaud his improvement.