Closed Chelsea 2-0 Newcastle

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Sign of champions, and all that...

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Tell you what though, Zouma was beasty. Deserves another start. What's ridiculous is, he's only 20, and he's already outperforming one of England's first choice CBs!

I have to say though, with JT I think the reason he gets played on the left because Azpi helps cover for his lack of pace. If Azpi does move to the right then I think JT will change sides as well, with Zouma and Luis on the left.

On a side note, we got denied another penalty. 4th in 5, isn't it?

[Barbara 15,149]

TBH Nasri is a fantastic little player, I'd have him over Willian,Schurrle etc all day long.

and how long did it take for him to find the notorious consistency?

He used to be one of the most inconsistent players around.

It's so easy to mention guys at their prime years and compare them to guys in development and with few years on EPL. Nasri took a long while to become the player he is. As usual patience isn't the forte between supporters. Willian might be on his peak, but he only got one season under his belt.

If Nasri was playing here when he came to EPL you guys saying he's better than we have wouldn't say, because you wouldn't wait for it to happen.

I need to first preface this by saying that there're probably a handful of teams I follow as closely as I do Chelsea and City is one of them. I watch all of their games (watching their match against Everton right now). I think you raised a couple of fair points and I generally agree with you that City do have an advantage over us in the title race but it isn't necessarily because they have more talent than we do. Appraising a squad's talent is very subjective but really aside from Aguero, Toure and Silva I urge you to name me one attacking player from City's squad who will come into our team and take us up a level, because I'm reading your comment and I'm struggling to think of one City player (aside from the three I mentioned) who I've watched play and thought...."yes we'd definitely win the league if we had him." I highly doubt that you (or anyone here) would be more contempt and satisfied if we had Milner, Nasri and Navas instead of Willian, Schurrle and Oscar. I'd be willing to bet that you'd still have the same complaints about there not being enough genuine quality options in attack.

What though gives City the edge in the title race over us (in my opinion) is that their truly exceptional talent (Aguero, Toure and Silva) vs our exceptional talent (Costa, Hazard and Cesc) have been playing together longer, have more experience in challenging for the league and have more 'know-how' when it comes to making an impact and winning games on their own. Imo that's what tips this race in City's direction, not because they have players like Nasri, Navas, Dzeko, Fernando etc. But to each his own I suppose.

I agree with almost everything you said.

I'm just not sure they have this small edge you said... I mean, this is an edge, but I think it's completely even out by their much more difficult schedule in 2015 compared to ours. Also both Silva and Aguero are very injury prone and Toure will miss a couple of games (most definitely against us I suppose, don't know the schedule for AFCON or chances each NT has to advance). So while their decisive players have more chemistry, they have more difficult matches that they may rely on them or not because there are high chances they'll miss way more matches than our top3 players if history is an indication (although Touré is fact).

United played like shit soooo many times in their title-winning seasons under Fergie. It's natural to have awful display sometimes, because no team can entertain for 90 mins every single game.

I was going to say that. We need to start winning those matches, when we play like bollocks and find a way to get three points. How many of those City won last month (without the refs help, because that is clear we won't ever have).

[LAB 1,030]

Zouma was good indeed. Turning out to be a nice competition between Gary and him for the starting spot.

Cech and Costa close for MOTM, I'm voting Cech because I'm biased, plus when will I ever have the chance to do it again?

[Blue Armour 4,164]

One major concern though - we have suddenly looked extremely vulnerable against pacey and direct players. Not that we have not seen our defenders struggle against such players before but it has happened far too often in recent games. Not to mention, some of the attempted challenges to stop these kind of players have been been pathetic. So many half-hearted tackles and hardly any committed ones. If the players are going to do that, then they might as well not bother putting in the challenges at all.

Yeah, really noticed that when Shola Ameobi came on. I think out of our entire defensive line, only Cesar seems to be bold enough to make the challenges that are required. And of course, Ameobi chose to attack on Ivanovic's side (even if Cesar wasn't present)

[Henrique 9,133]

Great game. Oscar was my motm. Costa was good as usual. Very good performance in the 2nd half.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

One major concern though - we have suddenly looked extremely vulnerable against pacey and direct players. Not that we have not seen our defenders struggle against such players before but it has happened far too often in recent games. Not to mention, some of the attempted challenges to stop these kind of players have been been pathetic. So many half-hearted tackles and hardly any committed ones. If the players are going to do that, then they might as well not bother putting in the challenges at all.

I think a lot of that comes down to amount of times we've been giving the ball away in dangerous counter attacking areas and also the fact that Matic, Oscar and Fab haven't been very good in the high press recently

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Tell you what though, Zouma was beasty. Deserves another start. What's ridiculous is, he's only 20, and he's already outperforming one of England's first choice CBs!

I have to say though, with JT I think the reason he gets played on the left because Azpi helps cover for his lack of pace. If Azpi does move to the right then I think JT will change sides as well, with Zouma and Luis on the left.

On a side note, we got denied another penalty. 4th in 5, isn't it?

I thought he was good not drool worthy.

[Jase 43,479]

Yeah, really noticed that when Shola Ameobi came on. I think out of our entire defensive line, only Cesar seems to be bold enough to make the challenges that are required. And of course, Ameobi chose to attack on Ivanovic's side (even if Cesar wasn't present)

It wasn't only Ameobi though. Cabella, Sissoko ran us pretty ragged in the first half as well. Had their final deliveries been better, they would have easily scored 2-3 goals since we didn't even bother putting in committed challenges. Of all the defenders we have, I'm only most confident in Azpilicueta to deal with quick and direct players effectively. The rest of them are too reactive when faced with such problems.

I think a lot of that comes down to amount of times we've been giving the ball away in dangerous counter attacking areas and also the fact that Matic, Oscar and Fab haven't been very good in the high press recently

It's not only about the pressing. It's about being committed in the tackles/challenges. There were numerous occasions where Matic, Terry etc just stuck out a foot half-heartedly to try and bring down Cabella (for instance) rather taking him out completely (of course not in a rash way). In the end, Cabella (and 1-2 others) just ran past our players like they weren't even there. This problem was evident against Spurs too.