MwanaChelsea

DEAL DONE!

Emerson Palmieri has today become the latest addition to the Chelsea squad after completing a transfer from Italian side Roma.

The 23-year-old has signed a four-and-a-half-year contract and will wear the number 33 shirt.

Upon signing for the Premier League champions, Emerson said: ‘I came here because it’s a great team with a great history. Today I am realising one of my dreams to pull on the shirt of such a great club.

‘English football is something I have been watching since I was 15 years old. It is a really beautiful game over here but it is going to be even more beautiful to play it.’

🔵🔵

Chelsea must spend big if they want to keep Eden and their star players, warns Frank Lampard

Lampard: “Chelsea have to show the ambition - if they want both of them to stay there, they have to keep adding to the squad in the right way.

“Great players such as Hazard and Courtois will always be looked at by Real Madrid, so to protect yourself you need to get them on long contracts.

“With the kind of money being spent elsewhere, Chelsea have to keep moving forward and recruiting new talent to play around them.

“The club can’t lose what they’ve got. Hazard is the main person there. He is 27 and a player of his ability has his prime years ahead of him. He will want to challenge for the Champions League but the club have to match that ambition as well.”

Antonio Conte: [Chelsea can't compete financially with Manchester clubs.]

Chelsea have focused on buying younger players with significant resale value and balancing signings with sales in recent years. Even the club-record £58m purchase of Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid last summer will be offset by the transfer fee Atletico Madrid are required to pay for Diego Costa.

Conte insisted that, viewed within this context, last season's title win was "a little miracle" and that his team are doing "a fantastic job" in the current campaign, despite the fact that they trail City by 15 points after 24 games.

"For me, this is already a good season," said Conte. "Because we are doing 120 percent. I'm doing a fantastic job, the same for my players. It's not important if you reach the final [of a competition] or win a trophy or win the league. The most important thing is to see if the coach and players are working very hard and very well. This, for me, is a successful season.

"Last season I think we did a fantastic job and did a little miracle. This season is showing this. In this moment there are two teams in this league who are 'top.' They stay there. The others have to fight for a place in the Champions League [next season].

"Now it's not simple to think about [finishing above them] because these big teams continue to improve and invest a lot of money. Then if you continue to have this type of gap... it's not only here in England. These two big clubs can become seriously dangerous for other teams in the world.

"These two teams are very strong already and want to invest. It's the same, not only for Alexis Sanchez. Only one or two clubs can pay this type of salary. Also, if you want a player, you are faced with this reality. We never were in this race [to sign Sanchez]. Ever. One of the reasons was this amount of salary."

Ian Walton/EMPICS Sport
Conte's attempts to manage expectations may not go down well at Chelsea where, in the Roman Abramovich era, only Jose Mourinho in 2013-14 has kept his job as manager after a season without winning silverware. But Conte insisted that it will take time to build a team to match the Manchester giants.

"The past can be one way, the present can be in another way, the future can be in another way," said Conte. "The situation changes. What happened three years, 10 years or eight years ago was totally different. Now I think that we have to fight with our work.

"I think last season we won the league and reached the FA Cup final and we finished with a profit of £50m in the transfer market. In the past, this had never happened. For this reason, the situation changed. When the situation changes, you have to fight to try to give all of yourself for Chelsea.

"Now I think Manchester United and Manchester City stay there [at the top], and we have to try and build something important to create a basis, and then make success with our work. Not with money. With work.

"We need to improve this team, improve the squad, to create this basis. Don't forget, in the last couple of years, we lost a lot of old players who wrote the history of this club. There is -- I don't like this word -- 'transition' but sometimes you have to stop yourself and see the truth.

"I trust in my work. And I think that, if I stay here [beyond this season], it'll be because the club trusts in my work. And not only the money. You can do two types of football: Only with money and you pay a lot and take the best players; the other way is to try and put a bit of money in and then hard work. We are in the middle. We are working and trying to do our best during the transfer market."

N'Golo Kanté in 2017:

Premier League winner
PFA Players' Player of the Year
Premier League Player of the Season
Premier League PFA Team of the Year
FWA Footballer of the Year
Chelsea's Player of the Year
8th in the Ballon d'Or
France Footballer of the Year

Dennis Wise: “Chelsea need not only a centre-forward but a goal-scoring central midfield player”

“I look at Kante and Bakayoko – they’re very similar. When can one of them really break into the box and score a goal? Kante is great at what he does – he breaks everything up and Bakayoko is a bit like him.”

“That’s what I think also Chelsea also need (in January - a goal scoring centre midfielder). Frank Lampard did it for years and Frank hasn’t been replaced yet. You want to see more goals from your midfield two.”

On point*

Report: Chelsea 1 Swansea City 0 Toni Rudiger’s first Premier League goal was sufficient to overcome a stubborn Swansea side and extended our unbeaten run in the competition to seven games...

CONTE: Balancing act Antonio Conte expects to name Victor Moses on the bench at Anfield tomorrow...

Conference Call: Continuity and confidence Antonio Conte felt we played with control during this evening’s win at Bournemouth and that meant the final outcome was a deserved one...

Conte: “Tonight I saw a lot of positive things - the young players' performance. Charly Musonda, Kenedy, Ampadu - he is only 17 years old - they all played a very good game.

'It is important to trust in these players and I am happy because I had a good answer, the answer I was waiting for. The other good news was to see Danny Drinkwater.

'I think that in these type of games the young players are improving - to see Ampadu tonight is important because we know we have many young players we can improve and give them opportunities.

'These young players want to improve and work and to see them doing the training session, I am very happy.'

“It was a good performance - it's not simple after conceding in the last minute of the first half and then to go down in the first part of the second half. At that moment our confidence was low.”

“But my players showed me great desire to fight and change the situation. The commitment is right and now we have to recover quickly (N'Golo) Kante, (Danny) Drinkwater and (Victor) Moses.”

-Conte 🔵🔵