Closed Chelsea 2-0 West Brom

[CHOULO19 24,332]

There was no controversy, no goals conceded and no real bad performances. There's not a whole lot to discuss or debate that hasn't been said already.

Here's a positive point to discuss for a change:

Jose alluded to this in his post match conference and I honestly don't think he was exaggerating. Were the first 20-30 minutes the best football played by Chelsea for a long while?

For me, it really was the best I've seen us play since 2010. The movement was impeccable, the pressing was good, the passing was quick and purposeful. WBA weren't actually bad, but we made them look poor by how well we played. They set up with a perfect 4-4-2 looking to stay compact and leave no spaces between the lines but we tore them open with perfect movement off the ball, especially by Iva and Azpi who made the very wide. Then the midfielders were able to create space in the middle by quickly changing from one side to the other.

Honestly, if we play like that for 90 minutes week in week out and we're probably the best side in Europe, imo. Of course that is easier said than done, and the finishing and final decision still needs work from most of our attackers, but nonetheless it was a real joy to watch. Maybe a glimpse of the future? I really hope so!

[manpe 10,855]

You don't win leagues by being the top scorers in the league.

Man City of 2011/12 would disagree.

[Barbara 15,149]

I just said that because we won against wba and some people are making it look like we won against real or sth...

Im more than happy that we are unbeaten and we play well etc, but we all know Fabregas and others dominate small teams, but when more agrresive opponent comes, some of our players are invisible. Thats all I was saying.

Lets take things slowly. We are progressing quite fantastic, but real test(s) are comming in next months.

who said anything that could even remotely imply we beat RM?

People are actually very contained in their reactions. Some of us just said we played magical football in the first half. Is that the notion that gives you that idea? People complain we don't play beautiful nice football then we go there and play and then they look hard to find something else to complain.

Whatever shit you want us to believe, there no big team to have beaten us in the last two seasons in the league, so why don't you wait for it to happen before you came her spout this? So City, United, Liverpool and Everton away weren't tests, it's coming the next months. I wonder who that is... Arsenal and Spurs away?

Sorry, mate, you make no sense whatsoever.

For people who asking or wondering about Costa's goal was offside or not :

It is definitely not offside

can't see it, can you post a direct link pls?

Thanks

Man City of 2011/12 would disagree.

in that case unless the Saints really keep it up for 38 rounds, we have a 7-goal advantage over our 'closest' rival for the title. We have one over Southampton too, not to mention four points.

And how many times has the league been decided on GD?

[Viper22 2,418]

Man City of 2011/12 would disagree.

You've not really understood this have you....

I'm saying that being top scorers does not give you the title. It's the most points scored. And they are not always the same teams. Take the 08/09 season:

Man Utd (68 goals scored) - 1st.

Liverpool (77 goals scored) - 2nd.

Chelsea (68 goals scored) - 3rd.

Arsenal (68 goals scored) - 4th.

And that wasn't close, there was an 18 point gap between 1st and 4th.

[Styles 9,790]

Comfortable win and no injuries. Played some good stuff in the first half. This was essentially the perfect game heading into an away fixture in the Champions League.

[Jase 43,479]

There was no controversy, no goals conceded and no real bad performances. There's not a whole lot to discuss or debate that hasn't been said already.

Bait taken.

[Jase 43,479]

Have to say, West Brom surprised me somewhat with their approach. Thought they were sit back, defend deep and play on the break like they have done in the last few games. Instead, they defended a tad higher up and actually even tried to press us, which made it slightly easy for us.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

People complaining about us talking the foot off the pedal with a 2 goal lead vs a 10 man team don't have a clue about football. We have a very difficult match vs Schalke on Tuesday. The game was over in the 1st half. Injuries and bad tackles are a reality in football and can occur at many times. It's why Hazard for example wasn't making any slaloming dribbling runs but was happy to stand off and make simple passes.

No one was trying to force the issue and get hurt going into the congested amount of fixtures in the Christmas period. You wanted Hazard to get injured by trying to force a run in a match we've already won and then he gets injured? C'mon, these guys are not stupid, they're professional footballers. A West Brom player could have carried out his frustration on one of ours, they had nothing to lose in a lost game.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Have to say, West Brom surprised me somewhat with their approach. Thought they were sit back, defend deep and play on the break like they have done in the last few games. Instead, they defended a tad higher up and actually even tried to press us, which made it slightly easy for us.

I could have sworn they did the former. They did sit back, defend deep and play on the break. If anything, it was our quality of play and individual quality all over the pitch that moved them from side to side and eventually opened them up.

[Jase 43,479]

MrExcalibur100, on 23 Nov 2014 - 9:49 PM, said:

I could have sworn they did the former. They did sit back, defend deep and play on the break. If anything, it was our quality of play and individual quality all over the pitch that moved them from side to side and eventually opened them up.

Not really. In the last few games, they sat back and only pressed us when we got to certain distance of the goal. Yesterday, they tried to do that a bit higher up the pitch, like on the 18-yard line. There were number of times we nearly got in behind their defence with just a simple long ball or got caught offside, two things that, as far as I remember, didn't happen a lot in the previous meetings. Not taking anything our quality of play though because we did really play well, mind.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Never really understood the notion that pounding a minnow who lost a man early sends a statement out. You send a statement when you go to a rivals pitch and play them off it...

West Brom never once threatened and we were more than comfortable seeing out a routine win. On to Schalke fellas...

[zolayes 14,489]

What I think sent out a message was THE QUALITY of our football when it was 11 against 11,

most of the media even were impressed

[jeronimo 130]

Wow some fans are never happy.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

my bad, wrong thread

[Special Juan 27,093]

Wow some fans are never happy.

There is no pleasing some people.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Wow some fans are never happy.

WTF is this shit? We're not Arsenal or Liverpool to have a shit fans TV. Kill it. Kill it NOW

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

That channel is SOOOO embarrassing.

In one of the interviews the guy said "This is the type of game that defines a season" while saying we didn't score enough.... Are you fucking kidding me? 2-0 win at home to 10 man West Brom defines a season? what about the games against our rivals? LOL

This guy doesn't represent Chelsea, he needs to stop embarrassing himself and shut this shit down... So awful

[Tomo 21,681]

That channel is SOOOO embarrassing.

In one of the interviews the guy said "This is the type of game that defines a season" while saying we didn't score enough.... Are you fucking kidding me? 2-0 win at home to 10 man West Brom defines a season? what about the games against our rivals? LOL

This guy doesn't represent Chelsea, he needs to stop embarrassing himself and shut this shit down... So awful

In another video he asked David Baddiel if Jose is the man to calm Diego Costa down and suggested Rafa might be the one to do so

Baddiel didn't know whether to laugh or cringe.