MikelBlue

You're spot on. What is true in my own view is Diego is not happy that a competing striker is coming in which definitely means that his playing time will go down - a big concern going into a world cup year. Again, we haven't heard from Conte but it seems to me like Diego is trying to force his way out which is not exactly the same as saying "I was told to leave". Because he has not been told to leave. If we get Lukaku, Conte obviously cannot and will not guarantee Diego that he will be the number 1 striker. That will never happen and rightly so. Diego is being his usual petulant self when things aren't to his liking.

Thanks West Ham! Massive slippage by Spurs tonight.

Massive win . Kudos to Matic on the once in a lifetime strike to seal the win. Hopefully we get the psychological edge from this win to outlast spurs down the stretch of the league title run .

We're one man short in midfield which means pedro needs to be sacrificed for fabregas

Personally, I was surprised and quite pleased to see the tactical adjustment at halftime. Kudos to my son for calling it mins before the change (Matic on for Zouma). With Spurs not showing any signs of letting up soon, this is squeaky bum time. Expect more of same in future games: get our nose in front, then sit /soak up pressure. Minimal to risk averse strategy. Its all about the 3pts from here on. Kudos to the team for last nights big win!

Perhaps I misunderstood. You said "We start cautiously and remain cautious until we go a goal down or we get to 65 mins and are still even". To me, that suggests a slow start which isn't the case given we've done a good job this season usually scoring first and mostly in the first half.

the fact that we outscored the opposition 16-5 within the first 30mins doesn't support your angle.

In fairness, once we score or take a lead, we usually go into counter attacking mode. Given that we take the lead more often than not, that suggests lots of opportunity for counter attacking which is the case. But what the critics disregard (and the same was true of Italy in the last Euros) is we generally start games on the front foot looking to take that lead. In summary, we attack until we take a lead then counter. Depending on who's looking at the glass cup, its either half full or half empty. Either way, I don't care as long as the results keep rolling in.

A bit tough to 'play football' (Conte's phrase that is synonymous with 'flair') when the opposition's preferred tactic is to continually foul both of our leading goal scorers (Hazard and Costa) knowing fully well that their chances of seeing a red card is super slim! In that situation, what are you left with? Keep in mind that the #1 objective is to win the league.

It was much closer to 433 or 4231 than 424 given RLC practically operated from CM positions the entire time he was on with Diego continuing as the long striker. There seemed like more space in the middle partly because RLC is more of an attacker than a defender and I thought he played the role beautifully and really should have scored today.

Excuse me?

Jose fan boys must be proud.

Huge 3pts. Classic smash and grab on a day where smash and grab was the only option. Ref wasn't giving Diego anything. The guys had to dig in and find away in an environment where seemingly all except CFC fans where rooting for us. Lovely stuff. Kudos to Conte and the lads. 13pts clear and now beginning to see the light at the other side of the tunnel. Keep pushing guys. You're almost there. 3pts or bust!

That whole play was all on Luiz who took an ill advised angle, kinda like the Luiz of old. Conte has cleaned up his game real good but alas old habits sometimes die hard. As for Moses, ironically, I feel his defending has become better than his attacking which is a bit of a concern when we need to stretch teams and create gaps for attackers to exploit. But defensively, Moses has been one of our best defenders this season. He rarely gets beat and I don't recall him getting beat last night either. Cahill as well has been solid so long as he doesn't stray too far from his comfort zone. That's not much of a criticism given same can be said about most if the CFC players.

Is Jose the only legend that has left Chelsea? But he surely is the only legend of recent memory to keep running his mouth taking obvious digs against the club. Yet CFC fans are expected to take it up the backside with smiling faces and remain classy. Where's Jose's class? Only folks who are blindly loyal to Jose or simply choose to be naïve for whatever reason will criticize CFC fans. If a person choses to repeatedly act in a silly manner that is unbecoming of a legend, they can sure expect responses from those who get fed up with it. He keeps waving his three fingers like we're supposed to be forever indebted to him regardless of how much of a jack arse he choses to be while conveniently forgetting that in between other managers actually won bigger glory and yet quietly rode into the sunset like Di Matteo (CL) and Ancelotti (League Title/ FA Cup double) ... feats that Jose never achieved at Chelsea. Is Jose our entire history? This guy couldn't wait to belittle the club, yet some chose to pull wool over their eyes. To each their own.