Flinkers

Exponentially…

Harvey Vale has to be the most likely candidate. Been in and around the first team all season, at the right age and seems to be good on the ball.

Or Lewandowski goes to Barcelona, Werner reunites with Nagelsmann at Bayern, we buy Martinez and Dybala signs for Inter on a free. Lots of dominoes but could be possible! And that way I think everyone is happy. With the possible exception of xCELERYx! 😆

Everything we do just seems so telegraphed

It works for Brentford - whether it works for a club in the top 6? Who knows!

Which is why I thought Lewandowski would have been the smarter centre forward signing last year. I know some have doubts but I still think he’d be the best fit for our style of play.

Is this really all we have..?

Finally..! Looks like we know our ratio now. 25 shots for each goal

What do we have to do to score? 21 shots, 3 on target and a stick on penalty saved. Useless…

Kante gives it away again. Goes off about 20 minutes too late

Lord Coe is with the Broughton bid.

As an aside, we can't sell tickets on general sale but do we still have to provide an away allocation for our games?

In section 4 and 6 it sounds to me like we could still theoretically sign Saul as well as recoup money from any purchase obligations/options we had existing prior to today. That money would go on to the books but is ring-fenced until the sanctions are lifted. Player contracts run until June 30th apparently, so contract renewals could be agreed in advance, signed on June 1 and still be legitimate. Assuming the asset freeze is not extended past May 31. Section 9 only applies if Roman Abramovich was looking to benefit personally from the sale, which has already been addressed in his last statement. Any possible sale still comes under Section 6.3 and 7 in my opinion.

Happy Birthday to the big man

True, which is why I'm not too cut up about him missing - thought he'd at least get it on net but these things happen when you're last in line.

I think he's a better keeper than most give him credit for, but I don't think he's good enough for us. There just seem to be too many things fundamentally 'wrong', IMO. Having said that, I think his ability to read the penalty taker is streets ahead of Mendy's and he seems to get a strong arm to the shots he saves (as opposed to the flappy wrist he tends to show when fielding a shot from open play). That in part comes from his routine where he likes to get in the taker's face early and it was striking to me that the referee didn't allow that yesterday, almost as if he'd been briefed to that effect. I'd still prefer to have him in goal for a shootout than Mendy who, to me, just seems clueless when it comes to anything to do with penalties. Regarding his PK, yes it was poor. I think when you're that far down the pecking order, the only objective should be to hit the net and not be cute about where you put the ball.

He's fairly agile so he might have had a good chance at pulling off the double save - if he'd got to the first shot. On the other hand, his footwork is fairly poor, he's short for a modern keeper and Mendy was at full stretch to get to Keita's hit. The referee was also far stricter with what Kepa could and couldn't do during the shootout (kept telling him to move back, took the ball away from him etc.) so I don't think he could mentally prepare like he usually does. Disappointed he didn't save one but I'd be looking at others before him if I was looking for a scapegoat.

Has he gifted the club to the Chelsea Foundation or just given temporary control to them?

I see we're guilty by association as usual.

Perhaps if they started playing him in earlier, he wouldn't need to point so much!

And of course, first chance they get, yellow for us!

Sorry, that’s at least worth a yellow. Would definitely be one for us the other way round

I hate this part of the season

I agree it was a good performance, but it showed up what we‘re lacking. A reliable threat on goal.

If we had anyone who could hit the back of the net on a regular basis, that’s at worst a 5-1 game. If there’s bonuses for goals, I’d dock them for blatant misses too.