MrExcalibur100

We're in trouble

It's hard to imagine Owen has played the game at such a high level and is so football illiterate. What a loser.

Bentalib? Chadli, Owen you blind fuck. How does this guy get paid to make a fool out of himself?

Owen on BT? Christ, he's horrible.

Think again.

Love already lost. I'll repost a comment I left elsewhere here. Lampard is a fucking joke, man. I never thought I'll say that or feel that way but the man has now destroyed whatever legacy he has here. What's his excuse for remaining at City or even going there in the 1st place? This man is no legend, just a money grubbing cunt. And some people were talking about giving him a statue. Fuck Frank and I hope the club keep its distance from him after his career is done. He's no Osgood, Harris, Dixon, Zola, Terry or Drogba. Just another football player who worships money and attention. I can't believe I was deceived by this fraud for 13 odd years. Those might sound like harsh words until you realize the ramifications his goals will have on potentially denying us the title. We'll then have to win the Champions league and we know how difficult that is to do. If not Mourinho could be sacked and some of our star players might start to look at other clubs. It's the worst case scenario but we have to prepare mentally for such an eventuality. And City should be bothered how much they're relying on him as well. Legends don't sign to direct rivals to compete directly against the club they are legends in. And he's had to opportunities to reconsider. First, by not rejecting Man City's loan move. Now even worse, by extending his stay. Legends and people who love us don't do that. Only money lovers and attention seekers do. Let's see how longer Lampard is "still a legend" for as he continues to score vital goals for Man City. Goals that could get Jose sacked by the way.

Lampard is a fucking joke, man. I never thought I'll say that or feel that way but the man has now destroyed whatever legacy he has here. What's his excuse for remaining at City or even going there in the 1st place? This man is no legend, just a money grubbing cunt. And some people were talking about giving him a statue. Fuck Frank and I hope the club keep its distance from him after his career is done. He's no Osgood, Harris, Dixon, Zola, Terry or Drogba. Just another football player who worships money and attention. I can't believe I was deceived by this fraud for 13 odd years. Those might sound like harsh words until you realize the ramifications his goals will have on potentially denying us the title. We'll then have to win the Champions league and we know how difficult that is to do. If not Mourinho could be sacked and some of our star players might start to look at other clubs. It's the worst case scenario but we have to prepare mentally for such an eventuality. And City should be bothered how much they're relying on him as well.

He could cost Mourinho his job. Think about that. What a fucking piece of trash.

this shit is getting out of hand.

Really surprised by that. Lamps could go fuck himself. Seriously. He's put himself in a position that could deny us winning an all important Premier League. After all this club did for his career. He's a grown man, if he didn't want to extend it, he wouldn't have done.

I want to see this line-up vs Spurs: We need to take the game to them, defensively, they're average. I'm sick and tired of the Matic/Mikel pivot already. Time for Oscar to return to the XI.

And those players are also at the top of the created chances/key passes table. Generally. They also play for high scoring sides, which helps

(1) If you read my post again, I never said it did. I was only comparing the value of some assists and if anything, the example I cited should be called a Pre-assist. (2) This is a very good point, Barbara, but can't you see how the same also holds true for actual assists? Remy scored and the assist was credited to Oscar but the person who did the dirty work of carrying the ball from midfield and unsettling Swansea's backline was Hazard. I remember something similar with Oscar and Ivanovic for a Costa goal vs Leicester. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuJeyx9XSzM Ok, Brana did a nice cut-back but that goal was "created" by Oscar. If anything, it shows how underrated some "pre-assists" are in football. This article does a very good job of explaining the value of created chances over an assist and how created chances are reflective of the actual best playmakers in the league. Look, Gerrard had 13 assists in the PL last season but 11 of them came from set pieces. Hazard on the other hand created 92 chances for his team and only had 7 assists. It's silly. Or Ricky Lambert having more assists than Eriksen, Silva and Hazard. Yeah, right. https://www.bsports.com/extratime/premier-league-2013-14-creativity-gerrard-hazard-nasri-silva#.VKQg4CvF-Sp And comparing Hazard to himself in his first two seasons here, the assist stat suggests he was more creative in his first season here, but it fails to take into account such things as style of play and the fact Hazard could play off Juan Mata. http://www.squawka.com/comparison-matrix#premier_league/2013/2014/eden_hazard/126/64/454/0/p|premier_league/2012/2013/eden_hazard/126/2/454/0/p#chances_created/key_passes/assists#avg

Ultimately, it's only 1 defeat in the entire first half of the season and even more wins than in 2004/2005, so in theory, it's Chelsea's best ever PL start to a season and probably best ever start, period. What's even more amazing is that from memory, I could be wrong, but we've never looked 2nd best in any game this season. We've never been in trouble or in danger of losing, even in the 1 game we lost vs Newcastle, we were the better side. That's perhaps what has impressed me most about this team. Unfortunately, looking at the table, it seems our top of the league clash vs Man City will be sandwiched between our two-legged league cup tie vs Liverpool. They'll have at least 10 days of rest, we'll have far less. Hopefully, we can finish the job at Anfield.

I agree but away from home is away from home in the PL. 80% of those games listed are against difficult teams or/and at difficult grounds. My problem with our away performances in the PL are not so much the goals conceded but the conservative nature of our play. We tend to respect the opposition too much. At home, we express ourselves very well (okay most of our home fixtures have not been vs the current top 10 I think) but away, we don't play with as much freedom. Maybe we'll see better away performances when we face easier opposition in the 2nd half of the season.

I just don't want to see the ultra conservative Mikel-Matic pivot combined with Azpilicueta at LB. We need a more expansive line-up ; To go back to what has served us well, which is Oscar in the 10 role and Fabregas next to Matic.

It's funny how a player (Hazard for example vs Swansea) can beat 3-4 players then lay it off to another player (Oscar in the same game) who makes a simple pass that even I can do, to Remy to score and so on, and that's an assist. It's safe to say there are assists and there are ASSISTS in football. They are also dependent on if the recipient can score among many other things i.e attacking/scoring proficiency of the team in question. To me it's one of the most overrated stats in football (and also in other sports like basketball, but that's another story) , it should never be in the same sentence as goals. It should be goals and created chances not goals & assists. That's just me anyway.

Of the 1710 mins of Premier League football this season, Hazard has played 1671 mins. That's far too excessive for my liking. Looking at the list of PL midfielders and forwards on Whoscored.com, http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/4311/Stages/9155/PlayerStatistics/England-Premier-League-2014-2015, no other Champions League team has players in those positions that have accumulated so many minutes. The same is also true for Fabregas. We should have rotated both of them more, especially during the Christmas fixtures. I just hope they don't break down when we need them the most at the business end. It's happened to Hazard twice already.

His starting role is on the left but he plays in a free role and is even more advanced than Benzema most of the time. He's not a real winger. How difficult is that hard to understand?

Ronaldo hasn't been a real winger since 2006/2007. I'm surprised he is still called a winger.

Wow, that's a pretty extensive post for a player we're not even linked with. Is he your brother or something? Seriously, Kurzawa is the fullback that really impresses me in Monaco but he plays on the left. Aurier in the French league as well who is an absolute tank. PSG bought him and barely even play him. Can't understand that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFh0MMqOld8 One of my fav young players playing for my fav La Liga team. He has 10 goals in 13 La liga starts in his first season in Europe and his all round quality is very impressive indeed. Definitely possesses world class talent/potential.

The way Remy's been treated this season is very bizarre. He couldn't even get a sniff during the busy Christmas period.

Sometimes, it's not even about that. I doubt Jose had that at the forefront of his thoughts. He just gave an honest opinion on an unacceptable situation.

With Fabregas playing as well as he does in the number 10 role, we should consider going for another player to partner Matic, maybe a Pogba or someone. He just offers so much more creativity, nimbleness and guile than Oscar in that role, especially away from home. He also loses the ball much less. If we can't get Pogba then maybe a cheaper option.