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Morata and Hazard to rest. Alonso too? And hopefully a start for Musonda. Kante and Fabregas to start to control things in the middle. I suspect Willian will start too. Back three is tricky. Might change to rest players, might want stability.

Probably very close to the truth. Only change I can think of would be if Conte has one eye on the Qarabag game and wants to start Fabregas in that one instead, possibly starting Bakayoko against Leicester instead.

Of course it's possible we'll challenge. I'm not saying it's likely we'll win either, but the chance isn't 0 like you seem to claim.

He could just have said no to everyone else, would have been easier.

Well, I was nervous from January and onwards because I thought Costa was pretty bad from then on. In that sense I'm actually less nervous now because I believe Morata will at least try. And Bats I think has shown that he does know how to score goals, something I wasn't too sure about before either. And then there's always January one can cling to as one last hope.

You sound very sure about that. I would like to know how much Atletico is willing to pay first, if they want him at all. Or how low would you go if you were in charge? If Atletico bought him now they would have to pay his wages till January. Right now no one has to pay him any wages.

Nice to see quite a few balanced posts on this subject. So, finally back to football again. Who do we play against this weekend?

You said ACL tear, not more games. I can't see our squad being sufficient for the next 10 months either. If one wants to be positive Bats has had one more year to develop and is maybe a better player now.

Remind me who we had as a backup to Costa.

Bats? Quite a few clubs playing one up front have one good/decent backup striker.

And thanks Ross for leaving some time for us to find a replacement.

Good. Fits the profile of the recent signings. Good age, good engine.

Maybe Rudiger, Morata and Bakayoko were done months ago.

Who will cover for Alonso? Zappacosta looks pretty right footed. And Kenedy... Assuming we get Zappacosta and Drinkwater will be signed LWB is the gaping hole what I can see.

Juve asked about Bellerin today. Would hope the Sandro deal was still on but Bellerin plays on the right doesn't he?