Vesper

first home league goal conceded since December by the dippers

nice!! 1 1 Diop

if he starts scoring like he does for the Netherlands national team, there will not be team on the planet who can touch them, grrrrr

1 nil already Wijnaldum lolol this could get ugly

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Mourinho’s back five failed against one that was more natural and cohesive https://theathletic.com/1627084/2020/02/23/tottenham-chelsea-mourinho-back-three-negative/ When Tottenham were beaten 2-0 by Chelsea just before Christmas, Frank Lampard scored a tactical victory over his former manager. To the surprise of almost everyone, Lampard switched to a back three and, in so doing, exposed Serge Aurier and Jan Vertonghen down the flanks. Chelsea dominated against Tottenham’s 4-2-3-1 formation and ran out comfortable winners. Come Saturday, Jose Mourinho was desperate to avoid a repeat. He told The Athletic in Friday’s press conference that Lampard would revert to a 3-4-3 and decided to match it by selecting a back three himself. It should be pointed out that Lampard had the benefit of almost a full week to work with his players but, where Chelsea looked as though they had a clear plan and an understanding of the system, Tottenham resembled a side with little concept of how to make it work or much idea of exactly what it was they were supposed to be doing. Mourinho has generally been a reactive manager during his career but, as his side slumped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat to fall four points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, it felt like he had been too preoccupied by what Tottenham’s opposition were doing. Having been overrun on the flanks by Chelsea in December, Mourinho doubled down at Stamford Bridge. The back three was most often a back five, with the wing-backs — and that term must be used in the loosest possible sense — Ben Davies and Japhet Tanganga instructed to play extremely conservatively. As early as the fifth minute, Mourinho was out of the dugout telling Tanganga, who is naturally a centre-back, to hold his position. But despite Davies and Tanganga’s conservatism, they still couldn’t get a handle on Marcos Alonso and Reece James. Alonso ended the game with a goal, three shots and two key passes to his name, while James contributed two shots and two key passes. Tottenham’s wing-backs, by contrast, mustered zero for all of those metrics, underlining the gulf between the effectiveness of the two teams on the flanks. James also put in seven crosses to Tanganga and Davies’ combined zero. The one time Tanganga did venture forward, Chelsea appeared so surprised that they failed to track his run. Had his touch been better, Tanganga would have had a tap-in after knocking the ball beyond Willy Caballero. Davies, though, resisted going forward until the very final stages and looked uncertain all afternoon. He gave the ball away 25 times — more than anyone else on the pitch — and his 54 per cent pass accuracy was the worst beside Caballero. Alonso consistently bombed forward down the Chelsea left His opposite number Davies barely got forward despite Spurs trailing for 75 minutes Having five defenders sitting so deep also created problems for Tottenham in central areas. If the system was designed to protect Spurs out wide then, like a game of whack-a-mole, all it did was mean others issues popped up elsewhere. An extra defender meant one fewer midfielder and the gap between the Spurs centre-backs and midfield of Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele was cavernous at times. This allowed Ross Barkley and Mason Mount to occupy the half-spaces and create problems for the Spurs defence. Mount broke into the box unchallenged for an early chance saved by Hugo Lloris while, in the closing stages, he drifted into an inside-right position and easily beat Vertonghen before crossing for Tammy Abraham. Again, it was only Lloris’s sharp reflexes that saved Spurs from conceding. Tottenham’s inability to get a handle on Mount and Barkley was summarised by Chelsea’s second goal. After collecting Olivier Giroud’s header, Mount beat Vertonghen and played the ball inside for the similarly free Barkley. His pass then found Alonso, charging forward from left wing-back to double Chelsea’s lead. It was the perfect exhibition of how to make a system with wing-backs work from an attacking perspective. Likewise, Spurs showed how not to defend with a back three as their defenders were dragged out of position and their two central midfielders were left chasing shadows. Tottenham’s defenders are dragged into the middle as Ndombele and Winks are caught out of position Barkley ended up registering four shots to add to his two key passes and one assist, while Mount enjoyed his most influential game since being granted the freedom of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December. Starting in a similar role for Spurs, Giovani Lo Celso struggled to get into the game and was extremely fortunate to stay on the pitch after a dangerous tackle on Cesar Azpilicueta. As with any match at the moment, there are mitigating circumstances for Tottenham. Clearly, it is extremely difficult without the injured Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Moussa Sissoko. But it was still alarming to see them defend so poorly, especially given Mourinho had picked a team designed to frustrate. It was this fixture back in 2004 that prompted Mourinho to say of Jacques Santini’s Spurs: “Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal.” But at least Santini was successful that day — grinding out a 0-0 — whereas Tottenham could easily have conceded another one or two goals on Saturday. And the ones they did let in were deflating. We’ve been over the second already, but the first came from Giroud running in behind Tottenham’s back five, which is a pretty damning indictment of any defence. Giroud has many qualities but pace is not one of them. One had more sympathy for Tottenham’s attacking players. Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura showed some clever touches in the first half and Erik Lamela was excellent when he came on in the second but Tottenham are desperately missing Kane and Son’s cutting edge. Their absence made Dele Alli being benched until the 78th minute all the stranger, even if he has played a lot of football of late. His reaction to being substituted against RB Leipzig on Wednesday may also have been a factor. Dele barely touched the ball after coming on and, for most of the afternoon, Spurs’ forwards were starved of service. The shakiness of their back five’s distribution was a contributing factor here, just as it had been against Leipzig. Davies and Vertonghen were especially guilty of either hoofing the ball hopefully or taking too long and being closed down. After the game, Mourinho suggested there was little his side could have done given the circumstances. “I don’t think any club, in the situation we are in now, can do better than we do,” he told beINSports. Perhaps, but on Saturday, his opposite number showed how much a team can improve when they adopt a system that their players are comfortable with and are well suited to. Chelsea were hardly in sparkling form themselves, remember, having failed to win any of their last four Premier League games — and were without N’Golo Kante, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic. Mourinho’s Spurs meanwhile reminded us that when teams are selected more out of hope than expectation, things rarely end well. Mourinho acknowledged this afterwards but claimed in mitigation: “We have strange game plans but we need to have them because there’s not another way.” Expect more trial and error in the coming weeks as Spurs strive to find a solution to their striker crisis.

More shots on target than Batshuayi managed in 15 games. How Giroud thrived https://theathletic.com/1626641/2020/02/23/giroud-batshuayi-chelsea-olivier-france/ Olivier Giroud jogged brightly on to the Stamford Bridge pitch at full time, bouncing past Tottenham players marching with heads bowed towards the tunnel, the ice pack clutched in his right hand the only evidence of his first significant exertion in almost three months. As he shouted and pumped his fist in front of the Matthew Harding Stand, it was clear the Frenchman’s joy sprang from more than a win that has breathed fresh life into Chelsea’s temporarily faltering Premier League season. These last three months, as Giroud would later admit in his post-match media duties, have been the most difficult of his career. December was spent on the bench or in the stands, waiting for the transfer window to open. But January, which built up his hopes of a move away from Stamford Bridge only to crush them in the final days, was the real killer. In the middle of last month, Giroud was very close to joining Inter. His agent, Michael Manuello, was pictured in Milan for talks and Chelsea, both publicly and privately, indicated that they were open to letting him leave even if they could not sign a striker. That stance changed in the final week of the window, after Tammy Abraham injured his ankle in a 2-2 draw against Arsenal. Giroud held out hope until the end, even as Chelsea’s striker search fizzled out in the final days of January. Tottenham expressed interest, but strengthening a top-four rival without acquiring a high-level replacement was out of the question. He was devastated when the window closed, even if he didn’t show it at Cobham. It wasn’t really a move that he wanted though – only a chance to play. Once the decision to hold him to the final six months of his contract was endorsed by Frank Lampard, Giroud channelled his frustration towards convincing his manager to give him that chance. Three weeks later, in Chelsea’s most pressurised match of the season so far against a team that badly needed what he can provide, he got it and seized it with both hands. “He’s always been engaged, even when he’s not played regularly,” Lampard said of Giroud after the game. “I said it during the window. He’s been absolutely fantastic from start to now with me, and that’s why he can put in those performances when he comes in. He’s got personality in the dressing room, personality on the pitch, quality to finish, selfless in his ways. He’s our player now. In January that might have changed, but it didn’t. I’m happy with that and we move on.” Giroud’s performance against Tottenham underlined the folly of Lampard’s striker pecking order below Abraham in recent months. In 71 minutes on the pitch he mustered as many shots on target (two) as Michy Batshuayi has managed in 15 Premier League appearances and completed almost twice as many passes (20) as the Belgian managed in 68 minutes against Manchester United (11). Giroud’s pass map in Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Spurs (Opta) Lampard’s tactical system demands constant motion from his striker — to attack space when Chelsea have the ball, to press high and hard when they do not. Giroud does not fit the required athletic profile as Abraham and Batshuayi do. He does, however, offer constant involvement, in the form of the hold-up and link-up play that prompted Eden Hazard to describe him as “the best target man in the world” only two years ago. Giroud touched the ball 40 times against Tottenham. Just three of those were inside the opposition penalty area and two came in the same move: one touch to control Ross Barkley’s shot which had bounced back of Hugo Lloris’ post in the 15th minute, another to fire it beyond his fellow World Cup winner and into the bottom corner. Giroud’s touch map against Spurs on Saturday (Opta) The rest of his contributions ranged widely across the pitch. There were 15 in his own half, including one header to clear a Tottenham corner from his own six-yard box, as well as seven in the centre circle, as he frequently dropped deeper to collect lofted balls out of the Chelsea defence and relieve pressure on his side. There were also 10 on the right wing, including the deft flick-on that found Mason Mount in stride and led, ultimately, to Marcos Alonso lashing in the second goal. Speaking on beIN Sports ahead of the match, Arsene Wenger made an interesting observation of his former striker’s attacking instincts. “Giroud is better on the crosses from the right than from the left,” he said. “I don’t know why, but when the cross comes from the left he’s tempted always to go too far out, and then he’s too outside the goal. From the right he has a bit more patience and he’s more dangerous when the crosses come in.” There were signs of Chelsea adapting to Giroud’s particular skill set against Tottenham. Build-up play was funnelled to the right flank, where Reece James delivered three of the team’s six crosses. Alonso delivered just one from the opposite side. Lampard also surrounded his striker with energy, if not quite searing speed; Mount and Barkley both worked tirelessly, drifting into pockets of space. Eight of Giroud’s 10 successful passes in the opposition half were to the men either side of him. “We had two very energetic forwards around him,” Lampard added. “With Oli, if we have to sometimes adapt because what he brings is different from Tammy and Michy, then we adapt. The way the team worked helped Oli, and Oli helped the team. That’s how we can look forward, and to have competition of strikers who are scoring goals is what we’ve been lacking — not just among the strikers, but across the front. This feels good.” Lampard did not adequately explain why he has disregarded Giroud for the best part of three months, particularly as Chelsea have struggled mightily to break down teams happy to defend deep, funnel them wide and encourage a barrage of crosses — precisely the kind of situation in which his relative lack of mobility is less of an issue and his aerial prowess becomes potentially decisive. It is true that the 33-year-old’s last Premier League start, in a 1-0 home loss to West Ham on November 30, did not show his best qualities. He touched the ball just 21 times, completed eight passes (see graphic below) and had just two shots in 71 minutes on the pitch, before being substituted for a winger in Callum Hudson-Odoi as Chelsea switched to a false nine system. Giroud’s pass map against West Ham United (Opta) However in the weeks that have followed, Batshuayi has been granted far more opportunities to play through his ineffective days, even if 14 of his 15 Premier League appearances have come as a substitute. Giroud believed months ago that there would come a point in the season when he would be required, when Lampard’s youth movement would hit a physical or mental wall — but then his relegation to third in the pecking order made that scenario much less likely. Now he has an opportunity, just as in the previous two seasons under Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri, to remind everyone of his enduring quality in the games that matter most to Chelsea. Abraham will remain first choice when fit, but Giroud finally has reason to be optimistic that Lampard will turn to him more regularly between now and May. Part of his joy at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, you suspect, is that he finally feels in control of his destiny again.

laughable (NOT you, Lyon) they can fuck right off

1 1 Cavani with his 200th goal for PSG wicked header

the EPL does have pitchside monitors, but they are almost never used, which is madness

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Chelsea's Rudiger on December Tottenham incident: 'Racism has won' https://www.espn.co.uk/football/chelsea/story/4058932/ Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has slammed football's governing body's inaction over his claim that he was racially abused by Tottenham Hotspur fans earlier this season, and said that "racism has won." Rudiger, 26, reported the alleged abuse in Chelsea's 2-0 win at Spurs in December, but the investigation has now closed after the north London club found no evidence of racial abuse toward the defender. Speaking to Sky in Germany after his side's 2-1 home victory over Spurs in the return Premier League fixture on Saturday, Rudiger said that he feels "alone" in his fight to end racism in football. "Racism has won! It shows that these people have won, because they are able to keep coming back to the stadium," Rudiger said. "They won't be punished, and at the end of the day I'm the bogeyman. It's not that I'm giving up or not speaking up. I will always speak up on this, but I'm alone in that regard. "It's a catastrophe. I had a kid on Thursday. As long as society remains as it is today, my child is ultimately very likely to suffer in the same way. snip

I hate hearing that sterile shithole Emirates all loud and happy and singing

jammy cunts Arse

damn and another header missed right after grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Everton playing like us

FUCK inches wide, grrrrrrr

Salah would be proud

Video: New angle suggestions Bruno Fernandes may have dived for penalty vs Watford https://www.caughtoffside.com/2020/02/23/video-new-angle-suggestions-bruno-fernandes-may-have-dived-for-penalty-vs-watford/

Chelsea fans noticed what Bruno Fernandes did before scoring for Man United against Watford The Manchester United midfielder scored his first ever goal for the club in the Premier League win against Everton, but the manner of his penalty caused a stir https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/bruno-fernandes-chelsea-man-united-17799518

nice symbolism!!

Kepa Arrizabalaga will know his Chelsea fate by the Bayern kickoff https://theprideoflondon.com/2020/02/23/kepa-arrizabalaga-will-know-chelsea-fate-bayern-kickoff/ Willy Caballero has started over Kepa Arrizabalaga for several games now. If it happens again for Bayern Munich, his Chelsea future is all but laid out. The Sword of Damocles basically means the imminent threat over someone in a position of power. Kepa Arrizabalaga had been looking up at his as it got closer and closer all season before finally coming down. Willy Caballero has started the last four matches with three in a row being Premier League matches. Even Arrizabalaga’s punishment last year was not that long (just one match). In fact, the last season Caballero started three Premier League games in one season was Antonio Conte’s last. The last time he started three in a row? His last year at Manchester City as Pep Guardiola flipped flopped between keepers. snip

ffs walk away and the goonas score in first minute of half

Pickford is just as shite as Leno thank fuck we did not spend the insane £80m Everton wanted for his dodgy shit arse Southgate is mad as ass if he uses Pickford for Euro 2020

so so many utterly shit keepers in the big 5 leagues it is crazy how poor the overall state is unfortunately, we have 2 of them, of and one is the world's most expensive keeper to date FML