Closed Southampton 1-1 Chelsea

[OneMoSalah 8,611]

Felt like shit after the game, but at least Burnley saved the day.

Hazard and Cesc were class, but it's dissapointing to see that Chelsea could not exploit that right wing more.

Targett is inexperienced and should have been the key to this match. A more direct player would have tore him apart. Man this team screams for a Robben/Bale type of player.

No time to cry though. WHL in a few days and that game is a must win. Pretty sure Sunderland won't bail us out again, like Burnley did today.

Mo Salah? Left footed on the right. He could have been useful and coming inside would of gave Ivanovic much more room. Not the same level but to say we need a winger who comes in on his stronger foot to attack spaces is ridiculous considering we have one in Salah who in all honesty needs a chance.

[Starman60 1,343]

Very unlucky to come away with only one point today, but Burnley taking a point at City really made my day. Southampton is a tough place to go, and after a below average first half display I thought we played superbly in the second half.........up to the 18 yard box. Beyond that we were a little lacking to say the least, but hey, these things happen, and we are not going to win every match. A win at the Spuds and this game will be a distant memory and maybe even a good point gained come the end of the season.

But my gripe about today is that I dont like Mikel in the starting line-up. he's a liability in my book.And if you look you will see he was involved in their goal. Harsh on my behalf? maybe!!! But I think Ramires would have been a better choice for this match. I think we payed them too much respect by playing two defensive midfielders. I guessed correctly that Schurrle would start instead of Willian, but he was poor and failed to justify his selection. And finally, I think we are being harshly judged for previous diving antics, as Fabregas had a"nailed on" penalty turned down and he got booked into the bargain. WTF was the linesman watching? He would have had a perfect view of the incident but failed (miserably) to do the right thing. I wonder will we hear as much this as we did about Ivanovich's dive against West Ham? I dont think so.........

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Frustrating game.

I have to say I much prefer Fabregas in the pivot against in the forward 3, influences the game far more effectively there. And in the F3, we were vastly ineffective - Hazard probably put in 60% effort, Cesc 35, 3rd winger 5%. Whether Schurrle or Willian, they are both clearly currently underperforming, either that or they simply needs to be replaced, even if the chances are Reus is going to Madrid, this will have to be addressed in the summer, keeping Salah or Willian/Schurrle as a back up (my personal candidate would be Salah, as a left footed winger would be more useful because Hazard can move onto the right. He also, in my opinion, has more potential.)

On a side note, where the flying fuck has Remy been? He's so out of favour, even though he would be far more suited to the no 10 role than Drogba, who ended up destroying the midfield as well as the already doomed width. Costa simply wasn't being serviced, and Mikel and Ivan were invisible for the most part of the game, with Ivan being more of a liability on the field - Usually, Dave would be behind Terry in case of what unfolded before - This time, he was not there to save him, and to be blunt, Azpi would be better off being at RB, on his stronger foot he would also be more attacking than usual anyway. Mikel was okay, but he simply just got walked over and dispossessed by So'ton whenever he got the ball.

Can Remy play on the wing? If so we should definitely try him, that way we can increase his game time.

I can see why Mou brought on Drog though - He's far more effective in set pieces than pretty much any other of our player apart from maybe JT.

It's a good thing Burnley bailed us out, otherwise we'd be truly in the shit, Frankie had mercy this time round...

On a side note, did anybody watch the City game? Is it worth watching the highights?

[MichaelDance 552]

That cue ball cunt, Anthony Taylor cost us 2pts... Hazard was getting fouled repeatedly and no calls. If that wasn't bad enough a fucking clear penalty not awarded!! And then he has the audacity to book Cesc for diving!! What a fucking prick...

Plays the advantage and when they we win the ball back he stops play for nothing. He's starting to become my least favourite referee mainly because he is so incompetent! Just do your fucking job and trying to make up for your the fact that no one gave two shits about you while you were growing you bald cunt! Pathetic excuse for a human being.

That ref is trying to be the next Phil Dowd

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Mo Salah? Left footed on the right. He could have been useful and coming inside would of gave Ivanovic much more room. Not the same level but to say we need a winger who comes in on his stronger foot to attack spaces is ridiculous considering we have one in Salah who in all honesty needs a chance.

Salah is more of a Downing type of player and in this case I'd rather have Willian or Schurrle on the right wing. No disrespect to Salah, dude is ok, wish him all the best, but he is no Chelsea material. Him on the pitch today would not have made any difference to be honest.

Robben, Bale, they are explosive players, they kill you with pace and they can always bail you out with a long range shot. Remember Salah's long range effort at Shrewsbury? I think it hit some dude waiting for the bus here in Bucharest...

I get that he's had little to no time this season, but those five or six games he's had, you have to take your chances. So far he hasn't showed he could have been the man to infulence a game like this one today.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

It's the most frustrating thing about us, and it's the ultimate test of character too, to be able to keep your head and step it up a level against the clock. We were panicky against Newcastle in similar moments, passes were not being strung together in the same way.

Isn't that a positive, though, in a weird way? Shows we still have room to mature and grow - meaning we'll improve between now and the end of the season. I had been concerned we'd "peaked too early" as the expression goes; but clearly we can improve on our consistency in general but also our incisiveness in the final third. We were lucky to get a point today considering we had one serious attempt all game, so I can't complain too much. Southampton deserved their point.

[OneMoSalah 8,611]

Salah is more of a Downing type of player and in this case I'd rather have Willian or Schurrle on the right wing. No disrespect to Salah, dude is ok, wish him all the best, but he is no Chelsea material. Him on the pitch today would not have made any difference to be honest.

Robben, Bale, they are explosive players, they kill you with pace and they can always bail you out with a long range shot. Remember Salah's long range effort at Shrewsbury? I think it hit some dude waiting for the bus here in Bucharest...

I get that he's had little to no time this season, but those five or six games he's had, you have to take your chances. So far he hasn't showed he could have been the man to infulence a game like this one today.

Sorry but Salah isn't an explosive and pacey player then I have no idea what he is because he is one of the fastest players in our squad if not the PL.

[mannyfreshh 164]

I'm not bothered because I believe if we won, city would have won as well.

Agree 100% ..... We were very lucky today.

[mannyfreshh 164]

Sorry but Salah isn't an explosive and pacey player then I have no idea what he is because he is one of the fastest players in our squad if not the PL.

Idk what it takes to give salah a chance??? He absolutely destroyed us in the champions league, now he is not good enough to get a game??? Are Shirley and Willian that much better than him?? He needs to be given a chance

[akandeel13 34]

Mo Salah? Left footed on the right. He could have been useful and coming inside would of gave Ivanovic much more room. Not the same level but to say we need a winger who comes in on his stronger foot to attack spaces is ridiculous considering we have one in Salah who in all honesty needs a chance.

Couldn't have said it better. Give him a chance or sell him.

[supporter 3,088]

I'm sure we all just wanted to win today ... But I admit that is impossible to win every match and this point of today, this small point which we won today can give us the title.

In this type of stadiums and in these types of games is where leagues are won.

Ok, we have drawn, but still top of the league and we just have to worry about us. Are the other teams that they have to look us.

Now we think about the next game!

[Barbara 15,149]

Fuck yeah, city dropped points. This game really stands as a wake up call now, if we are going to rotate we'll have to do it smartly next time. I would advocate in bringing in another winger in at january, and offload Salah because clearly he's not in José's plans anymore. Schürrle is kinda useless also.

unfortunately we can't rotate better because seriously, everyone who isn't in the starting lineup except Zouma and maybe Luís - depending on the kind of match we have ahead - are in way worse form than the ones starting. Schurrle, Ramires, Mikel, Salah are all out of form and worse than Hazard, Oscar, Willian and Cesc. So how do we rotate when we don't have anyone playing well in the bench? Someone said it's because we haven't rotated enough. Well Zouma is playing even better than Cahill imo and he hasn't had that many more chances than some others. Some were ill, injured and whatnot, which made it harder for them to get more playing time. So not we're between a hard and tough place. We need to give them more minutes, so they recover form, but at the same time we aren't playing Palace, Burnley (LOL CITY), WBA in sequence,so we can't afford to have players far from their best form jeopardizing important results, like Schurrle did today. So yeah, we have a good squad, but we also have many players out of form, which sucks.

And as I had to drive five hours from my mom's house just after the match I missed the meltdown, but it's funny to see how the tone changed after City drew against fucking Burnley after leading 2-0. Reality check for some people here. And we played great football in the second - just like we played against West Ham, just like we played the first three months of the league. We struggled in December, because it was packed and clearly our squad players aren't bringing much to the table. But we were flawless in November - which used to be our achilles heel. So how about we just stop overreacting. The team is struggling at some moments, but we're still playing better than anyone else in the league in general. City have been scrapping some results, and that's what champions do, but it's one thing to scrap a result against Leicester or with a penalty given by the referee and another to go to Stoke, Newcastle, play most away games against top teams and even West Ham and Southampton while they are playing with big confidence.

But I had a laugh reading through this thread, lol.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

I'm not bothered because I believe if we won, city would have won as well.

Lol, so true. Strange things happened.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

It would be easy to mock this thread considering what a turbulent afternoon it was but I won't because football is all about emotion, even if it is overreaction. The passion is good and it's what makes football what it is.. No need for 'I told you so' or quoting extreme views.

Can we stop this FA corruption shit - you sound like 4yr olds.

We were shit, and 3 weeks worth of diving came back to bite us. City's fixtures don't have anything to do with our situation now.

This is a stand-out post. I don't for one minute think there's some FA campaign against us, if there was a legitimate penalty claim denied then see the post I quoted next. Perception is everything and if Ivanovic and Cahill have been proved to be divers then that's part of the package. It's "the boy who cried wolf" story.

The diving of ivanovic and cahill cost us 3 pts today

It's the most frustrating thing about us, and it's the ultimate test of character too, to be able to keep your head and step it up a level against the clock. We were panicky against Newcastle in similar moments, passes were not being strung together in the same way.

Term I agree for the most part. But then again, you have to look at the performance v Stoke and West Ham. They were disciplined and tactically astute.. I can't comment much on today because I haven't watched the game, but remember this squad is evolving, those characters are being built and we're still on fine form despite today and Newcastle. We do have to learn how to win games in the dying stages for sure, and that's why I've criticised Hazard recently because he has to step up to that level of grabbing the game by it's neck like Ronaldo etc do. That's not me giving him the burden of the job either, it's just an example.

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

Crap day turned into a surprise party thanks to Burnley.

If not for the crappy turf, we might have had another one sneak in, but too many guys falling when needed. We definitely struggle breaking down teams that park the bus. We just get everyone packed in tight as possible and try to walk in the superb, world class pass for the open look after breaking down the defense. City tends to back off and allow the pitch to get spread out and then make runs from the wings to breakdown the defense, which typically works for them. We are going to see a lot more of this, just like clubs did last year as we wore into March and April.

Beat Spurs Thursday and it has been a successful stretch with 10 out of 12 points over 11 days.

Come on you Chelsea!! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

[hdpeak 29]

http://www.matchdrama.com/match-day-motd-281214-watch-online-free-football-video/

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Sorry but Salah isn't an explosive and pacey player then I have no idea what he is because he is one of the fastest players in our squad if not the PL.

Tell this to Mourinho then, it must be a reason why Salah can't even make the bench.

And that is not because he is a bit introverted or fasting on Ramadan, he is simply not good enough for this level I think.

And don't get me wrong, I would be glad for him to be given opportunities and why not consolidate his place in the first team line-up, but for now I just can't see it coming.

[Fernando 6,375]

After having the watch the game after a second time I have to say the draw was the correct result.

The Saints where awesome at the back that it cut of our shots on target.

Now I will say that this is concerned for us though.

How can a team with that much possession have one 1 shot on target?

To me it's simple, we are doing the same mistake of Arsenal of trying to make a million passes in making the perfect goal then taking a clear shot.