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Chelsea vs Crystal Palace (PL) Sunday 17th August 14:00 GMT

Strangely optimistic.

🤪
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Not questioning your judgement (it's probably better than mine)

But (like trading public markets, when everyone agrees the market is either going up or down is the most likely time for a crash/reversal), everyone being optomistic makes me think we are about to be brought down to Earth wiith a thud once we back to playing big teams with big budgets (not Brazilians or preseason friendlies) again (PSG aside of course).

 
Really really hoping we see Palmer start on the right for this, he’s so much more effective and harder to man mark/double team out the game.

If Wharton & Eze are both playing, Palace will be a serious threat going forward but should be so much more open at the back for us to exploit.

We could do bits by taking the initiative and going for it from the off.

Sanchez

Gusto Tosin Chalobah Cucu

James Caiceido

Palmer JP Estevao

Delap

Then if we go 2/3 up taking Gusto off for Essugo and moving James to RB shores us right up.
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The Prem is a different animal and youngsters like Estevao, Essugo, Andrey Santos or Hato will only provide depth, nothing more than that, at least until they get used to the league.

Maresca's tactics with the one full back that inverts means that at least one of the wingers has to be not only good in the attacking end, but a workhorse, as well and track back a lot. We saw during the last season and at the CWC that all the wingers do it, but the one that stands out is Pedro Neto and IMHO he is one of the first names on the team sheet.

The core of James, Cucurella, Tosin/Chalobah, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Palmer, Neto and Joao Pedro will be on the pitch for the majority of PL matches and the harder CL ones, as there will also be some easy ones in the CL for the first phase, where we could see some of the bench players.

Some question marks only revolve around the CB positions and the left wing, whether it will be Gittens or Garnacho, if the deal gets done, which I believe it will. Other than that the core is pretty much set.

 
"A good move by the Club

, just got e-mailed the Place match digital programme. I couldn't even read the stats info page near the back in the paper programme, the print was so tiny !

As part of your 2025/26 Season Ticket, the latest digital matchday programme for the upcoming Premier League match against

Crystal Palace is ready for you to read.

One of the many new benefits of your Season Ticket, your digital programme is packed with opposition insights, club news, exclusive interviews and more."

 
This often happens when we have pre season matches, especially against European sides that come from much slower and inferior leagues than ours. At a slow tempo with lots of space our players will look world beaters.

When Palace come out all guns blazing reality might slap us in the face pretty quickly if we don't match the intensity. Crowing about our World Champions status has been great fun but there is definitely a race now to knock the world champions of our perch.
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The thing is , despite that brilliant win again PSG , they had a few decent chances , but our keeper was outstanding on the day. Palace don't seem to need tons of chances to hurt teams. . I'm hoping we're not clinging on to a one goal lead all game. Be nice to relax and enjoy an opening game. Who did we thrash years ago first game when Poyet scored that jump and volley ? It was a promoted team because we were chanting " welcome to the premiership, welcome to the .. etc??

 
I was watching a Chelsea youtuber who said we've gone from the least optimistic (most pessimistic) fan base about the (then) upcoming season this time last year to the most optimistic in the league going into the upcoming season (according to a professional poll).

I bet we'll drop points against Palace now 😂

i joke but i am serious too. I do suspect we've gotten too optimistic and once the new season is under way will be brought back down to Earth when Gittens and Delap start slower than most expect.
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I've always been a cautious type of person. We could be in the best position we have ever been in and I still wouldn't say a win is guaranteed. I also know this game too well. Football tends to slap you back down when you get too comfortable.

The most confident I have ever been watching Chelsea was in 04-05 and 05-06. Those two seasons, you never felt like we were going to lose.

 
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Very rarely wear colours to games but I'm tempted to wear one of my old Rangers shirts to the game.

 
The thing is , despite that brilliant win again PSG , they had a few decent chances , but our keeper was outstanding on the day. Palace don't seem to need tons of chances to hurt teams. . I'm hoping we're not clinging on to a one goal lead all game. Be nice to relax and enjoy an opening game. Who did we thrash years ago first game when Poyet scored that jump and volley ? It was a promoted team because we were chanting " welcome to the premiership, welcome to the .. etc??
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Sunderland 4-0

 
I've always been a cautious type of person. We could be in the best position we have ever been in and I still wouldn't say a win is guaranteed. I also know this game too well. Football tends to slap you back down when you get too comfortable.

The most confident I have ever been watching Chelsea was in 04-05 and 05-06. Those two seasons, you never felt like we were going to lose.
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There was that period under early Mourinho 1.0 when we went like 10 games without conceeding a goal that comes to mind

The other was that short period under Ancellotti when I missed the first 10-15 minutes of a game and when I turned it on, we were already 3-0 up and the game was already (effectively) over.

 
The thing is , despite that brilliant win again PSG , they had a few decent chances , but our keeper was outstanding on the day. Palace don't seem to need tons of chances to hurt teams. . I'm hoping we're not clinging on to a one goal lead all game. Be nice to relax and enjoy an opening game. Who did we thrash years ago first game when Poyet scored that jump and volley ? It was a promoted team because we were chanting " welcome to the premiership, welcome to the .. etc??
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Sunderland 4-0

 
We are staying over in Wimbledon tonight

Its a long story

However See that the club are asking us to get to the ground early for an some sort of-presentation. Any ideas ?

 
Cant see us risking Fofana so Trev and Josh it will have to be.

I’m quite excited to see more from Josh to be honest.

 
Cant see us risking Fofana so Trev and Josh it will have to be.

I’m quite excited to see more from Josh to be honest.
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Fitting given his debut was against Palace.

Players dropping and relying on Badiashile going to be my biggest worry. Josh I can forgive making mistakes.

 
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