TRon

What midfield?

Sky commentary team totally overlooking our missing midfield. They really are shite at their job.

Worst possible timing as well.

I don' think there'll be much expected from him re influencing the game today, if he can help stop Chelsea playing, it will be job done for him.

Yeah he's class. I hope he doesn't end up at Man U. Always had a soft spot for him since he revealed he would have been interested in the job at Newcastle even when we were a joke club under Ashley.

The team line ups still haven't been shown on Sky yet, it's still the Woe is Chelsea show.

I know he's better off on loan, but this game would have been perfect for him to come off the bench.

Well if you know one thing about Almiron it's that he won't be found wanting for effort. He'll run from the first minute to the last.

Sky not really talking football much yet, it's all about Chelsea's future as a mighty CL club.

I'm writing it off tbh, only plus for me is if we are going to be decimated by injuries, might as well be this game rather than Thursday. Although no guarantees we'll have the players back by then.

Got to feel for Tuchel a bit having to fend off questions about the politics.

Could be a clue as to why PIF appointed Beheddie Howe.

Yeah but it's still a kick in the nackers. I suppose this game is one we probably wouldn't have got a win from anyway, even a point would have been a good result.

Wow, the entire midfield which has been in form during that fantastic run has been replaced.

Both probably belong in the chat forum tbh.

Whatever we think of their society, the main thing is they don't try and impose their values on us, and on that score they have been very respectful. I think that's as much as we can ask of PIF, who are an investment firm at the end of the day, I don't think they have much influence on the penal code in Saudi Arabia.

Very good breakdown of Bruce's relentless stupidity. I particularly liked how you highlighted his cringey attempt at humour re Livermore.

I don't think we'll play particularly well, just too many of our best players missing to expect a good performance, but if we can defend resolutely like we have been doing for the past couple of months, we can still snatch something. For all the shitstorm which is surrounding Chelsea, they are still one of the best teams in the world, a result would be massive.

Probably the most sensible approach. Take the Eddie Howe approach, this isn't something we have control over, we are just here to follow our football club as fans.

FWIW, Saudi Arabia didn't start executing criminals yesterday, they have a medieval justice system since their inception back in the 1900s or whenever the state was created. PIF have followed other dubious owners into British football because we encouraged it. We've won Champions league trophies on the back of the wealth pumped into British football on the back of this money. That's just how it is, by all means I can understand if people don't like it, but it's the reality of football for the last 20 years. It didn't just happen yesterday.

It seems somewhat predictable that Russia invading the Ukraine is going to translate into us being the bad guys today.

Yep. I switched on Sky News for five minutes and the presenter was grilling Keith Starmer about Newcastle being owned by a Saudi investment firm. That was the actual news channel as well, not Sky Sports.

At least I'm not reduced to personal insults when I don't have an answer.

Well you should care. If you were that bothered about 81 people being executed you should welcome swapping owners with Man U.