12:30pm local time in the UK, which means 7:30am on the East Coast and half past bastard o'clock for those out West. TV: Yes Radio: Yes Morse Code: Dash Dot Dash Dash Dash Suspensions (Chelsea): None Suspensions (Geordies): Don't care Injuries (Chelsea): Bats, Luiz Injuries (Geordies): I told you, I really don't care Form (Chelsea): Good Form (Geordies): Why are you still reading these ones? Starting Eleven (Chelsea): Yes. Chelsea will almost certainly be starting eleven players. Prospects (Chelsea): Good Prospects (Geordies): "At least we aren't Mackems" Beer Pairings: Anything but Newkie Brown. Final thoughts: Look, it's f***ing early in the morning to kick off, I'm barely going to be conscious and my track record of match threads is 100% so don't screw it up.
It's regular nbcsn. Think Y is saying it was gold on Wed and now it's early AF. Neither great this week.
And Kevin Friend is an idiot if he thinks that’s not a penalty. Same with the commentators who think it’s “natural justice.”
Natural justice would have been getting the penalty after the use of the hand to control the ball for their goal.
Drinkwater hasn't had a great game so far. Pretty anonymous and probably needs to be given a more central role to be useful.
Also frustrating that I went to put a bet on at 1-0 and I was about to submit, we scored and the odds changed!
Hazard hitting his stride at the right time. Huge group of games coming up for us against mediocre clubs where we can smash and grab and hopefully solidify our top 3 or, better yet, make a run at the top if City slip up. Our squad is finally fully fit, sans Luiz. Moses and Zappa are rotating nicely. Bakayoko is fighting to find a place in the 11 (which is good). Drinkwater is even showing well. Not that we're a selling club, but we're witnessing a player who is increasing his value tenfold each time he steps out on the pitch - that's Christensen. Had we upgraded in the Willian/Pedro area this summer with an elite level player, we'd be a point within the race. Shame.
He improved as the game went on. However he's not as good of a fit in the 3-5-2 as he is in the 3-4-3. The 3-5-2 finds him in wider and more advanced areas than he's likely use to. He's still shaking off the rust tho. Baka is the better fit for the 3-5-2 but he just makes too many mistakes that cost us for him to be starting right now. Hopefully he can develop some and take the next step cause the potential is certainly there. Drinkwater will be a useful place holder while we wait for that to happen.
He did improve certainly. I think he found more space with Newcastle on the back foot. Tbh, even though it wasn' a world class effort I would still see him in over the passenger who subtracts more than he adds. I'm glad DD grew into the game and he had some nice link up play in the second half.