Chelsea have lost consecutive Premier League games by a margin of 3+ goals for the first time since October 1995 (1-4 vs Man Utd and 0-3 vs Blackburn).

 

Didn't see another drubbing for Chelsea again.

I doubt our poor form has anything to do with Mourinho and his mind games. I think it's more about the constant media pressure surrounding Conte, constantly being talked about as 'heading for the sack', particularly this month with him rumoured to be returning to the Italy job.

 

That said I think that is his best move now. I don't want him to go, but at the same time I think he's been found out tactically in the Premier League and isn't getting the board's backing in the transfer market which has been massively clear since the summer.

If you want a true 'fall from grace', look no further than their defence in the 2015/16 season.

There must be something ingrained into the mentality of Chelsea that causes them to lose determination whenever they are the defending champions. It's really strange how this seems to happen frequently to them.

I don't think the mind games have helped, but Chelsea's problems are more poor down to piss poor recruitment more than anything else. Whoever has bee in charge of transfers for them this year needs to be sacked, awful signings bar 1-2. Letting Costa go in the summer was a massive mistake.

 

They will still be OK, just in a bad run of form at the moment. Great for everyone else though, heck they are even giving Arsenal a chance!

According to BBC Sport West Ham are set to sign Patrice Evra on a free transfer. I'm not sure how I feel about this seeing as he's an ex Man United player!

According to BBC Sport West Ham are set to sign Patrice Evra on a free transfer. I'm not sure how I feel about this seeing as he's an ex Man United player!

 

Pretty bizarre, but then that seems to be West Ham's transfer policy.

What age is he now - 37?

The whose who of United cast offs moving to West Ham. At least it gives Everton a little break.

 

Funny thing about this is Evra was quite outspokenly insubordinate when Moyes failed at United

 

 

 

 

I don’t think Jose has gotten to him, I just think they bought poorly. Although United played an absolute blinder on Chelsea this summer

Chelsea bought poorly in the summer and possibly in the winter.

The FA are said to be considering introducing a mud-season break. The proposal seems to be to start it after the first weekend in January, i.e. after the FA Cup third round. If they do that, I hope they don't use it as an excuse to do away with replays. I would prefer them to have any replays the following weekend (assuming the Football League also has a break) even though that means some teams wouldn't get the full break.

The FA are said to be considering introducing a mud-season break. The proposal seems to be to start it after the first weekend in January, i.e. after the FA Cup third round. If they do that, I hope they don't use it as an excuse to do away with replays. I would prefer them to have any replays the following weekend (assuming the Football League also has a break) even though that means some teams wouldn't get the full break.

 

I'm fairly sure they are getting rid of replays after the 5th round, I am sure I have read that. Or they might already do it?

 

I can't see them scrapping 3rd or 4th round replays, mainly because of the benefits for the lower leagues.

 

Be interesting to see come early next week if there is going to be a winter break. You would figure the FA/Premier League would announce it before anything came out via the TV rights. If I am honest something does need to be done to stop fixture congestion at this point, but the fixtures still have to be played.. it does seem bizarre we play so many games between (Nov-Jan) and then after that they are quite static. The simple solution for me is less international friendlies...

If they want to reduce the number of fixtures they should scrap the League Cup (or whatever it's called this year).

Alexander Lacazette's confidence has gone, missing those golden opportunities and his body language showed that. Aubameyang will decline as well at Arsenal I think. Arsenal are in a similar situation to us last season but the difference is that they wont win the Europa League and there aren't much encouraging signs from them.

Edited February 10, 20187 yr by Evil Houdini

Alexander Lacazette's confidence has gone, missing those golden opportunities and his body language showed that. Aubameyang will decline as well at Arsenal I think. Arsenal are in a similar situation to us last season but the difference is that they wont win the Europa League and there aren't much encouraging signs from them.

 

Well they won't win the Europa League because it's about three times harder to win this year than last year for starters!

 

On their day Arsenal can beat anybody, right now they're a good cup side but they just can't find the consistency. Saying that, this Spurs team is really good so getting beat by them when they're at home is not all that bad. They were second best but they still had chances to either catch a draw or win the game.

If they want to reduce the number of fixtures they should scrap the League Cup (or whatever it's called this year).

One idea would be to take the teams in European competitions out of the League Cup, as they've got six more games than everyone else during the autumn anyway. Then again, given the gulf between the top 6 and rest I'm not sure that's the way forward.

Amazing how can Bournemouth win 3-0 at Chelsea and then lose 4-1 at Huddersfield?! Crazy Premier League strikes again.

Probably got a bit cocky with the good run they've been having and expected to just stroll to victory today against a team who hadn't even picked up a point in 2018 prior!

Top 4 race is wide open now - I doubt Arsenal will sneak back in, but you have 4 teams looking for 3 places.

 

Just goes to show really most of the teams bar Man City are having a bit of shit season.

Hopefully that will go to the final day in regards to 2nd and 5th. One manager will be disappointed come the final day.