Such a shame

The team didn't perform particularly great yesterday, opposition were dreadful.
Same as against Burnley with Ivanovic in the side which In my opinion was the better performance.

To have a better gauge/perspective of how effective players are in back three formation need to play better opposition that are actually a threat in attack.
We'll have the opportunity to see in next few weeks after international break, when we're up against Leicester, United, Southampton, Everton, City, Spurs.

If we can win comprehensively and keep clean-sheets in some of above matches then that's a sign of progress.

Having watched the tempo of the Spurs v City game I imagine we will have very difficult games agst these two teams.............we just don't play at anywhere near the tempo of those teams

If we're going to continue with 3 at the back, Ivanovic will still be required.

Why do you think so?

Ivanovic has been awful for a more than a season now - when your time is up, it's up! Cahill should be following him out of that door too. But what it does show is how we only won the league a couple of seasons back because Hazard was on fire. A midfield with Cesc and Matic looked so strong then - now even with Kante and Matic, we are easy to overrun. WTF is happening?

comment by Eric_Draven (U20260)
posted 50 minutes ago
Ivanovic has been awful for a more than a season now - when your time is up, it's up! Cahill should be following him out of that door too. But what it does show is how we only won the league a couple of seasons back because Hazard was on fire. A midfield with Cesc and Matic looked so strong then - now even with Kante and Matic, we are easy to overrun. WTF is happening?
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Conveniently forgetting we had a strong defensive base when we won the league, which included Ivanovic but you know lets not get facts in the way of a narrative, right?

Part of the reason why we get swamped in midfield is because intensity/press from front not good enough. Didn't happen against Hull though as they were submissive and lack quality.

look I like Brana, he's been a good servant but anyone that thinks he should be in the team still is being overly sentimental IMO
From the back end of the title winning season til now he has been cack, slow, ponderous, woeful crossing etc etc
I assume we all want Chelsea to be successful and to do that we need the team to be picked as part of a meritocracy not based on past endeavours

I agree Ivanovic shouldn't be in the side, but some pretend like Burnley match which we kept a clean-sheet (performing better overall than against Hull) and title winning season with Ivanovic part of solid base didn't exist.

Courtois
Zouma Terry Luiz
Willian/Azpi Kante Chalobah Alonso
Fabregas Hazard
Costa

That for me should be the lineup with everyone available for selection.