closed Chelsea 3-1 Newcastle

[Special Juan 27,103]

Hate Geordies.

[the wes 7,212]

Rafael Benitez will return to Chelsea confident he will receive a good reception after his brief cameo at Stamford Bridge.

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/newcastle-boss-rafael-benitez-expects-warm-welcome-at-stamford-bridge-36370782.html

[Leif 6,006]

I hope Rafa gets nothing but love. To come to a club which was full of supporters who'd previously, and even during your tenure there too, abused you, shows more balls than so many managers we've had. That alone deserves respect. What he did with our underperforming club deserves some love.

[Tomo 21,681]

8 hours ago, the wes said:

Rafael Benitez will return to Chelsea confident he will receive a good reception after his brief cameo at Stamford Bridge.

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/newcastle-boss-rafael-benitez-expects-warm-welcome-at-stamford-bridge-36370782.html

That's embarrassing journalism, only two comments were actually bashing him.

We had closure on his last match for us when the majority thanked what he did and wished him well. Booing him now would be totally pointless and unnecessary although i imagine there is a small section who won't let go.

[Georgy 439]

Benitez deserves respect from every single one of us. He saved our season and won us another continental cup. 

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

Some people are exaggerating Benitez' influence a bit. When he came to Chesea we were just 4 points away from top of the table and our "slump" in Premier League was very much influenced by a crap refereeing, like Clattenburg' against Manchester United. Yes, we were below of what we should be in Champions League (we still took 10 points which would send us to the next round in 4 out of 7 other groups), but we joined Europa League as a team with a far best squad, and, of course, we had a much better players than "mighties" Sparta, Steaua, Rubin and Basel that we beat on our way to the final. There was nothing incredible in what Benitez did, though I'm not taking a credit from him for Europa League win. It worth to remember that we lost to Swansea in League Cup, lost in CWC final and finished 14 points away from top of the table. Again, he deserves some credit for Europa League win, that's for sure, but he needed Chelsea more than Chelsea needed him. He came here because no one wanted him after what he did to Inter' treble-winning side, not because he was some sort of fearless hero.

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

Okay long post coming up lol

Tough game although they can be hit and miss, they’ve not been great recently result wise for them IIRC and I expect us to beat them with Alvaro getting back among the goals but it could be a deceiving fixture looking at their recent form it might not be as easy as we think, think over the last good while they’ve seemed to enjoy turning up against us when nobody would expect it and putting a shift in so who knows, although we have also scored quite a lot of goals past them in recent times too.

Quite like the look of Mikel Merino in the middle of the park for them though, looks a talented player, does a bit of everything, only 21 and from what I’ve heard from a few Newcastle fans who are mates of mines probably their best player so far. 

1 hour ago, pHaRaOn said:

Some people are exaggerating Benitez' influence a bit. When he came to Chesea we were just 4 points away from top of the table and our "slump" in Premier League was very much influenced by a crap refereeing, like Clattenburg' against Manchester United. Yes, we were below of what we should be in Champions League (we still took 10 points which would send us to the next round in 4 out of 7 other groups), but we joined Europa League as a team with a far best squad, and, of course, we had a much better players than "mighties" Sparta, Steaua, Rubin and Basel that we beat on our way to the final. There was nothing incredible in what Benitez did, though I'm not taking a credit from him for Europa League win. It worth to remember that we lost to Swansea in League Cup, lost in CWC final and finished 14 points away from top of the table. Again, he deserves some credit for Europa League win, that's for sure, but he needed Chelsea more than Chelsea needed him. He came here because no one wanted him after what he did to Inter' treble-winning side, not because he was some sort of fearless hero.

Not really, the team had no real structure, we were winning games at first so it wasn’t a major issue and even when we started conceding it didn’t matter because we were outscoring teams but it caught up to us.

After a promising start that United game showed every team in the league where our weaknesses were as they isolated our aging full backs (Ivanovic and Cole) who had no protection at all because the likes of Hazard Oscar and Mata were given a free reign and didn’t work backwards to help out as well as some individual mistakes. It took a good manager at a good team to expose this, I think Ferguson ditched his diamond formation for this match.

We also drew with Swansea, Liverpoo, got beat by West Brom as well before the game against Juventus where he looked out of ideas as well as the very poor performances against Shakhtar in both matches, can’t remember the dates, just know it was before Benitez. Shakhtar sure they were a talented team with Mkhitaryan, Willian, Luiz Adriano, Teixeira and Srna but not like we couldn’t beat them. I think the team was on a downward spiral in terms of performances before the Juventus game. The Juventus game absolutely sealed RDM’s fate. 

Not the biggest Benítez fan and I wasn’t overly impressed by his appointment but looking back at it I’d like to ask folk who said “Rafa was needing us more than we needed him”, if we didn’t get Benítez who would we have gotten? Forget the results, playing style, whatever he did, who was actually a better fit out there at that time that was available and looking for work? 

Everyone said we wanted Pep (would of been great sure).. he had no interest in coming out of his sabbatical and by the looks of it no interest in Chelsea at all. Harry Redknapp, Guus Hiddink and David Moyes we’re all of interest too apparently along with Rafa. I know out of the 4 I’d of rathered Benítez because at least we would of been a unit as opposed to 11 individuals. Sure if Pep was willing we would all of taken him every time but he wasn’t. I doubt many managers with contracts or job security like Moyes or Hiddink had at the time or many other managers would of been willing to join Chelsea who had just sacked 2 managers in the space of 17 months.

It was a win-win considering we got a reasonably experienced manager on a short term deal, won a trophy, finished 3rd and ultimately the most important thing, thank fuck we didn’t appoint that overrated, annoying cunt Harry Redknapp. 

Sure the Swansea semi finals in the League Cup and Club World Cup were poor but we also got spanked by Atletico in the Super Cup and outplayed by Shakhtar along with a few poor results in the league, it was really a season of transition and even José couldn’t turn that team into the finished product in his first season.

[Tomo 21,681]

4 hours ago, pHaRaOn said:

Some people are exaggerating Benitez' influence a bit. When he came to Chesea we were just 4 points away from top of the table and our "slump" in Premier League was very much influenced by a crap refereeing, like Clattenburg' against Manchester United. Yes, we were below of what we should be in Champions League (we still took 10 points which would send us to the next round in 4 out of 7 other groups), but we joined Europa League as a team with a far best squad, and, of course, we had a much better players than "mighties" Sparta, Steaua, Rubin and Basel that we beat on our way to the final. There was nothing incredible in what Benitez did, though I'm not taking a credit from him for Europa League win. It worth to remember that we lost to Swansea in League Cup, lost in CWC final and finished 14 points away from top of the table. Again, he deserves some credit for Europa League win, that's for sure, but he needed Chelsea more than Chelsea needed him. He came here because no one wanted him after what he did to Inter' treble-winning side, not because he was some sort of fearless hero.

After Benitez took over United won 15 out of 17 games en route to the title. Did you really expect a squad that had not one single player who was world class and in his prime to keep up with that relentless pace? And that was before we factor in the other comps we were going for. 

The only elimination I put on Rafas shoulders was the CWC, that still annoys me to this day. You can lose to City anytime and we battered Swansea and only lost because Ivan forgot who he played for on the night. 

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

 Courtois; Azpilicueta (c), Christensen, Rudiger; Moses, Kante, Drinkwater, Fabregas, Alonso; Hazard, Morata.

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Belgiannutt said:

 Courtois; Azpilicueta (c), Christensen, Rudiger; Moses, Kante, Drinkwater, Fabregas, Alonso; Hazard, Morata.

3-5-2 a tad much for a HOME game against NEWCASTLE?

[Pizy 17,860]

Good team. I hope Moses is sharper than when he came on against Swansea and gave the ball away cheaply about 5 times.

Lets push them and keep the pressure on like we did last game. It was one way traffic against Swansea in the first half. Would be perfect to put the game out of sight by the 60th minute or so and get Morata out of there but I'm predicting a tougher game than most expect.

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

[Pizy 17,860]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

3-5-2 a tad much for a HOME game against NEWCASTLE?

Better to have 3 in midfield and be safe than have Cesc in a midfield 2 against a team near the bottom who will be desperate for points, no?

[Leif 6,006]

Based on form, I'm sure this is our very best lineup. Zappa deserves to be dropped in my opinion. He's no better than Moses, ie, they're both predictable; but if you have to choose between them, you choose the one with more pace.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

11 minutes ago, Jason said:

3-5-2 a tad much for a HOME game against NEWCASTLE?

I think the 3-4-3 might be a bit too predictable at times. The 3-5-2 allows Hazard and Fabregas more freedom to move around the pitch and allows us to mix it up alot more. 

[LAM09 6,548]

Happy with the line up & we have solid bench to boot. Hope we take a few of our chances today.

[Leif 6,006]

Just half a year ago Christensen was only 20, remember that. If we want to throw the 'wonderkid' tag around, surely he's totally deserving of it, without any exaggeration.

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Belgiannutt said:

I think the 3-4-3 might be a bit too predictable at times. The 3-5-2 allows Hazard and Fabregas more freedom to move around the pitch and allows us to mix it up alot more. 

3-5-2 can be predictable as well. If Newcastle can stop Hazard and Morata and pack out of the midfield, then our only options is to go wide and we know Alonso and Moses ain't that great when it comes to producing quality in the final third.