The Chels

Mourinho knew that going into the season though. If he wanted more mobile CBs he'd have bought them.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/01/frank-lampard-manchester-city-next-season-manuel-pellegrini-mls-new-york-city?CMP=share_btn_tw Haha people call us fans bitter but Lampard is probably the most bitter individual of all. We didn't give him his £200k per week to sit on the bench, so he wants to win the title for City at our expense and will inevitably stay on next season if that's what is required.

The only way we'd have got something from the game was if we came out in the second half with great purpose and intensity. Sadly we were slow and lacklustre. Take a look at this goal Atletico scored in their last game - they're losing 1-0 at half time and playing badly against a very strong opponent (much better than Spurs) and hostile crowd. The intensity with which they came out in the second half was unbelievable and they ended up winning 4-1. We needed that kind of character today.

The game was finished at 4-1 (probably 3-1). We don't have the character or quality to come back from 2-3 goals down, sadly. Taking Matic off would have been suicide - would have conceded 6+ probably.

Hope we get our revenge in the Capital One Cup final!

How has it taken so long for opposition managers to figure this out? Huge weakness of ours.

Ivanovic is clumsly and nonchalant wherever he plays. The first game he played at CB in ages was against Derby and he was responsible for us conceding a goal.

When Matic performs poorly it means our defenders have to defend for themselves, which they are completely incapable of doing (except Azpi but even he got skimmed a few times).

He also scored against Southampton and Hull to kill them off. Those teams may well have got something out of the game otherwise.

Does anyone actually believe Lampard will leave City at the end of the season? He's going to re-sign for them if they don't win the league this year.

God Sunderland just don't learn do they? Stop sitting back against them ffs.

Shots from outside the box to break a bus. If only we could do that. Sunderland were asking for that though.

Agreed. Catenaccio tends not to be very effective against City. You have to press high and attack them. The way Sunderland are defending I expect Lampard will come on and score.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sjk6sa

Ivanovic is chosen in lots of teams of the (half) season because his marauding runs are very obvious but his mistakes are not. People think that because he's part of Chelsea's defence he must be amazing defensively but he is a liability imo. I remember against United away this season, Gary Neville was commentating and he mentioned that he didn't like how Ivanovic had his hands behind his back and kept backing off. He seemed genuinely surprised that Ivanovic would do that because like most people who don't watch him closely every game, he seems to be under the illusion that Ivanovic is a great defender. Also do you remember that clever corner routine Southampton had in the first half against us? The only reason we didn't concede was because Terry maintained his concentration at the back post. I would expect Luis, Azpi and probably Cahill to do the same but Ivanovic would almost certainly switch off in that situation, as past experience dictates. I've been wanting to see Azpi at RB and Luis at LB in the PL for a long time but that won't happen unless Ivanovic is suspended or injured.

These kind of opporunities mostly fall to Willian but his shooting is rubbish.

No chance of that happening in this game, sadly. We'll probably see it on Sunday against Watford though.

We were definitely 2nd best in the City game. There was absolutely no chance of us winning that game when it was 11v11 and we still didn't win against 10 men.

The thing is is we're more likely to beat the likes of United and Southampton than QPR/Villa/WBA. It feels like déjà vu - before the Villa game last year everyone was talking about how easy our remaining fixtures were and how we'd stroll to the title but ignored the fact that we are generally better against the big teams and struggle away to the smaller sides.

There is almost an inevitability when we keep missing chances that we will concede but that hasn't actually happened too many times this season. The Newcastle game was one example - the game became stretched as we became more desperate looking for a goal and conceded on the break. In the vast majority of cases, however, we've conceded in a normal phase of the game where we should still have defensive stability (Burnley, Everton, Liverpool, Southampton) or when we've tried to shut up shop (Palace, City, United). It is very concerning and imo our defensive system just isn't that good as we allow the opposition near our box, where individual errors are costly, too easily and too often.

Hope we have Anthony Taylor for the City game as he may well be subconsciously biased towards us after this episode.

Mourinho's obsession with Ivanovic is also hindering Azpi's development. He has the potential to become a complete and truly world class FB (which Ivanovic is not despite all the plaudits he somehow receives) who excels at defending and attacking but he will never reach the heights he can if he continues playing at LB, as his attacking abilities are heavily restricted. Azpi's ceiling as a RB is so much higher than Ivanovic's imo.

They did a twitter poll to decide two positions which they didn't agree on - Cahill vs. Fonte, and Cesc vs. Schneiderlin. Arsenal fans (who are always obsessed with twitter polls, the only thing they win lol) voted en masse for Fonte and Schneiderlin in particular.

The biggest issue imo is our inability to keep clean sheets away from home - 2 out of 10 is really poor. A rather simplified breakdown: Burnley - set piece, Terry individual error: failing to play offside trap Everton - midfield porous and disorganised pressing Palace - Filipe Luis individual error - lunging in when 1v1 City - Schurrle & Ivanovic individual errors - failure to track opponent's run United - set piece, Ivanovic and arguably Zouma individual errors Liverpool - midfield porous, disorganised pressing, defence unwilling to step up Newcastle - individual errors from Cahill and Mikel Southampton - Terry individual error: failing to play offside trap Tactical and individual errors are inevitable because footballers (and Jose) are human after all but we tend to make a major one in every away game.

This reminds me of the Ramires penalty incident vs. United in the CL a few years ago - the official behind the goal said it was a penalty but the referee overruled him.