RichUT

I was in the stands the first time he came in and played mop up duty. One of his first drives ended with him throwing a pick and the fan base was so enamored with him that they still gave him a warm round of applause as he jogged off the field. It was almost like a “Great first try buddy! You’ll get em next time!” sort of thing. Little did everyone know that he’d end up making that something of a habit.

He’s better than Quinn at deep balls but definitely worse at swings and wheels that require more touch. I’m hoping he picks up some of Quinn’s deftness on those throws before Quinn leaves for the league.

He overthrew a post to Juan Davis and a wheel to Blue. Not sure on the other.

Is that good? It seems good.

A point behind City and Arsenal after 6 matches played? I'd have taken that in a heartbeat before the season started. Nice to see the pieces starting to fit together.

I mean….this is certainly something. Hard to call it a respectable soccer match, but it ain’t dull.

Get Sanchez out of the fucking match. He’s apparently on another planet today. Jesus Christ.

What was the announcer saying about Palmer starting slow? Gorgeous.

This game is wide open AF.

That’s more like it. Jackson may actually be turning a corner. Showed a lot of discipline to lay that off vs trying to force a shot.

Wtf was that? Have to score.

We look like hammered dog shit, even if you overlook Sanchez losing his got damned mind. The boys may be doing that thing where they are over confident and so far it’s biting them in the ass.

Revamped passing.

I didn't wake up early enough to watch it live. Good to see Jackson respond after all the whispers about Nkunku maybe moving in on his start spot. Here is a quick from The Athletic on the boys trending up: Are Chelsea… good? It’s probably time to start separating Chelsea the football team, the collection of players and coaches that go out onto the pitch every week, from Chelsea the organisation, the corporate entity, which exists in a completely different reality. The latter seems chaotic, with the various individuals involved seemingly briefing the media against each other, arguing over who the coach should be, buying players seemingly at random and selling hotels to themselves. The former, however, seems… well, actually quite good. Since the middle of February, Chelsea have only lost two out of 20 Premier League games, the only two teams to beat them being… Arsenal and Manchester City. They have taken 42 points from those 20 games, the only teams with more being… Arsenal and Manchester City. In this nascent season, they lost to City on the opening day when they weren’t even particularly bad, the game slightly overshadowed by the curious situation involving Raheem Sterling, a situation at least in part caused by the other part of the club, the ownership. Since then, they have thrashed Wolves, were admittedly not brilliant in drawing with Crystal Palace, ground their way past Bournemouth and, most recently, made very short work of West Ham. So… are they… actually good? If not good, the team led by Enzo Maresca — in his first Premier League job and thrown into a cauldron of chaos — is doing much better than you might expect them to be doing given everything that is happening around them. Nicolas Jackson is scoring goals, Cole Palmer continues to be excellent and Moises Caicedo is finally starting to look like the player they thought they were signing. The other problems are still such that it will take a while for the idea of Chelsea’s competence to fully cut through to the broader consciousness, but in terms of purely the football, things are looking up.

We're lucky to have Arch on our team. We're even luckier than he's clearly our 2nd best QB. Just enjoy it.

3 points away from home. Job done. Wasn’t especially pretty and we’re fortunate to have kept a clean sheet. Sancho looked pretty solid on his debut, and picked up an assist on the match winning goal. It’ll be interesting to see how Baby Pep manages the rotation across the wingers.

Are you worried about the numbers?

What stands out to me through the first two games is the progress he’s made on ball placement/accuracy and the timing of his throws. He’s always thrown a very catchable ball, which I’ve felt is an under appreciated asset. He has a ton of arm strength but he doesn’t throw lasers. His ability to throw a highly catchable ball, on time, and with accuracy is a beautiful thing to watch. He had several against Michigan that were inch perfect. The dot to Bond on the first drive, the TD pass to Golden, a crosser to Helm in the 2nd half, and the TD to Blue are just a few that stand out to me. Watching him carve up defenses the rest of the year is going to be fun to watch.

Wynn’s up next?

Fuckin A right.

What position? You can absolutely set a depth chart and they work. But the depth chart includes sub-positions (third down RB, Rush ends, etc.) and that can cause some weird player usage if you don’t have them set up right.

That 2nd half was complete shite. We were sloppy and generally disinterested until about the 88th minute. We let Palace boss the midfield and at times it almost felt like we were playing a man down. For all the money we’ve spent on the middle of pitch we look positively average there.

You did this shit after multiple games last year. I think your go to excuse after enough people called you out was that you had too much to drink during the game. Are we going with that again or do you have a new one?

And no Osimhen. I swear to god. I cannot fathom why this club cannot figure out the striker position to save their lives. It’s been one of our two most pressing needs for 4+ years running.

Sure sounds like Sancho is trending to become a Blue. Loan with an obligation to buy. And thank god. We’re dangerously thing in wingers. 🙄 I really want to see us figure out this Osimhen deal. I’m just not very confident we will.