Oscar to leave Chelsea for Shanghai SIPG in £60m deal in January

According to multiple reports, Oscar’s move from Chelsea to Shanghai SIPG will bring in the highest transfer fee the Blues’ have ever gotten, and the fourth-highest ever paid to a Premier League club.

“I don’t believe it’s a danger for us”, he said ahead of Spurs’ clash with Southampton next week.

It is not known whether Chelsea are one of the four London-based Premier League teams under police investigation over historic abuse. “SIPG”? Just “Shanghai”? A team just completely upended the economic structure of the biggest sport in the world and I do not know how to properly refer to them. “When you’re in the Premier League, you’re competing with the best and that means a lot more than money”. So the big obvious all-important question is, who will start instead of the two players suspended for yellow card accumulation.

He fell down the pecking order following the arrival of Antonio Conte as manager, however, and has only started one match since September.

Sounds remarkably similar to how Brazilian clubs feel about rich European Leagues picking off their best players. Conte’s 3-4-3 formation has not been suited to Oscar’s skillset and his appearances this season have been minimal.

“That defeat to Arsenal hurt us but we’ve come back stronger with the new tactics and system”, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said. “But I prefer to be the favourite on the pitch, with good results, with good performances, playing good football, keeping clean sheets, showing great passion during games”.

Costa has been on a good run of form scoring 13 goals so far this season but Howe believes that Chelsea will be just as strong.

Bournemouth will be without on-loan defender Nathan Ake, who is ineligible against his parent club.

“Those two games [against Liverpool and Arsenal] were a test of us mentally, to see whether we’d go back into that frightful rut we were in last season. They’re solid at the back and free flowing going forward, but we can go into the game with confidence and we have nothing to lose”. They play their 3 games in 9 days, with at least three days in between their games. No other West Ham player has created more than 19.

Looking at this season’s Champions League fixtures gives an idea of the toll on participating teams.