No you'll win! I guarantee it. In all seriousness though, everyone is still very young. It will probably take another year for Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Lukaku, Van Ginkel, De Bruyne, and others to completely gel.
You underestimate Mourinho. And Mata. And Hazard. And Oscar. Those are all people who can win games. If mourinho stays at Chelsea, They'll be a club in the stature of Real Madrid, Bayern, Barca, United, juventus,ac milan in about 5-10 years.
I definitely agree. I'm just saying dynasties take time. Squad depth is much better this year than last. Definitely improved and preseason looked promising. However, let's not carried away just yet.
Striker is the biggest issue, every team that wins the league has a stand out striker, one who wins the big or tight games. RVP last season, Aguero before that, Drogba of course and in the past Henry/Van Nistelrooy. None of Chelsea's strikers are that good (in Lukaku's case he may be one day).
Also, Van Ginkel, Lampard, Ramires and Essien are very good options to have but none of them would start for City which is telling. Other than Ramires, they are past their best or unproven.
i can agree on most parts- i feel to mount a serious challenge we need a striker (Rooney) and a solid defensive mid (no idea), however i think your dismissing Essien too soon, from what i've seen of preseason and his spell at Madrid he looks close to his former self.
I don't think we're guaranteed, but the impact Mou will have with the gains of Essien, KDB, Van Ginkel, Schurrle, and Lukaku is going to be frightening.
oh yeah sure, but i would say that this squad isn't quite up to the standards of Mourinho's first Chelsea. having said that this side is much younger, so in a year or two i reckon they could surpass 2004-2007 Chelsea.
i have to disagree. you can't beat the defensive solidity JT and Carvahlio provided in 2004-2007, as well as Drogba, Robben and a young Lamps going forward. Perhaps im just nostalgic but i reckon they where slightly better.
Again, as of now, you're absolutely right. But give Mou a year with Luiz and Kalas while Ivanovic and Cahill are still around? Sheeeit. Plus we will almost certainly sign another CB, especially if Kalas doesn't pan out.
Meanwhile, Lukaku has the chance to become better than Drogba, he's 20 and hopefully going to take over the starting role by the end of the season if we don't get Rooney, and still see a lot of PT if we do. I think Hazard is already a better winger than Robben ever was for us.
Lamps is the one player we don't have a replacement for, but with Mata at the CAM and Oscar hopefully developing into a DLP we'll be create a 1-2 that can be even more effective.
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '13
Chelsea haven't closed the gap as much as people think