Vesper

https://statistics.soccerstreams100.io/league/eng-1

Wolverhampton – Ipswich Town England. Premier League / 14 December at 16:00 Newcastle United – Leicester City England. Premier League / 14 December at 16:00 Liverpool – Fulham England. Premier League / 14 December at 16:00 Arsenal – Everton England. Premier League / 14 December at 16:00

BBC pundits deliver Samuel Rak-Sakyi verdict as Chelsea youngster impresses vs Astana https://tbrfootball.com/bbc-pundit-delivers-samuel-rak-sakyi-verdict-as-Chelsea-youngster-impresses-vs-astana/ Lucy Ward says Samuel Rak-Sakyi “looked really comfortable” during Chelsea vs Astana Lucy Ward was full of praise for Rak-Sakyi for how he fared in a Chelsea shirt against Astana. Ward said via BBC Sport: “Samuel Rak-Sakyi just deals with the ball really well. Everything he does is really simple and that’s exactly what you need from that position.” “He is another of the Chelsea youngsters who has looked really comfortable out there today.” The young central midfielder looked like a seasoned campaigner in midfield, showcasing his technical quality, making wise decisions in possession and being seemingly fearless to get on the ball. Enzo Maresca would have been delighted with Rak-Sakyi’s latest performance. Firstly, the fact that Rak-Sakyi was confident enough to get on the ball to the extent that he had 100 touches speaks volumes of his seeming self-assuredness. Furthermore, managing to misplace just one out of 88 passes goes to show how reliable Rak-Sakyi is in possession, which is a valuable trait for a midfielder to possess if they aspire to play in Maresca’s ball-dominant system. It seems like Chelsea have a young talent on their disposal who has the technical ability and composed temperament to be regarded as a quality midfielder at senior level one day. As long as Rak-Sakyi continues to impress Enzo Maresca in training and on the pitch, he could very well become a key cog in their first-team squad one day. Rak-Sakyi stats for Chelsea against Astana MINUTES PLAYED 89 TOUCHES 100 ACCURATE PASSES 87/88 (99%) KEY PASSES 1 AERIAL DUELS WON 1/1 TACKLES 2 via Sofascore

Al-Ahly's lineup: Essam El-Hadary, Ashraf Amin, Shady Mohamed, Wael Gomaa, Saeed Abdel Aziz, Hossam Ghaly, Hady Khashaba, Ahmed Abu Muslim, Mohamed Gouda, Khaled Bebo, Alaa Ibrahim roflmaoooooooooooooooooooooooo

damn, should have scored there

Vale on for Carney

WHY did we shit away 30m quid on KDH?? maddening!!! Pool bought Mamardashvili for only £29m!!! £25million plus £4m in add-ons

KDH is shit even at this level

ffs

the gap in talent (and this is such a make-shift side for us) is stagggering

weeee Veiga

Josh Acheampong looks a real baller

Guiu on a hat trick already

woot great goal

damn, close

wind chill minus 22 C fuck that! (and I live in Stockholm!)

it was just food shopping

https://www.vipleague.pm/europa-league/fc-astana-vs-Chelsea-1-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/europa-league/fc-astana-vs-Chelsea-2-live-streaming https://stats.soccerstreams100.io/event/uefa-europa-conf/Chelsea-vs-fc-astana-live-soccer-stats/720681 Astana – Chelsea Europa Conference League / 12 December at 16:30

coming up I just got back from shopping with wifey

How Cole Palmer dominates games – whatever position he plays in https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5980716/2024/12/09/cole-palmer-Chelsea-panenka-penalty/ Considering he boasted a 100 per cent success rate from his 11 previous penalty kicks and is renowned for being completely unfazed in pressure situations, it was perhaps no surprise that Cole Palmer pulled off a Panenka from the spot in Chelsea’s 4-3 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. That goal means Palmer now has the “best” 100 per cent penalty conversion rate in the Premier League era, with all 12 converted, including his first Panenka, against Burnley in March. It also means he’s on 17 goal involvements in the top flight this season — only Mohamed Salah of Liverpool has more (21). As former England forward Paul Merson pointed out in his post-match analysis of the Spurs game on UK broadcaster Sky Sports, Palmer’s performance level this season is perhaps even more impressive than in his excellent 2023-24 debut year at Chelsea, because opponents now know about his quality, and he’s a marked man. Despite being the obvious player for their opponents to concentrate on, Palmer keeps providing decisive contributions. So, how does he do it? For Chelsea’s first game of the season, a 2-0 home defeat against his previous club Manchester City, Palmer started on the right. This wasn’t particularly successful — not only was his contribution in an attacking sense minimal, City also seemed keen to exploit the space behind him. A 2-0 loss to the champions was hardly disastrous in head coach Enzo Maresca’s first game in charge, but it prompted a re-think before Chelsea’s next match, a trip to Wolves. GO DEEPER Chelsea are no longer 'Cole Palmer FC' - his marked-man status is forcing others to step up For that game, Enzo Fernandez moved from the N0 10 position to a deeper role, Noni Madueke came into the side on the right, and Palmer was used centrally. This worked perfectly, with Palmer teeing up Madueke three times in the second half, only the fifth time the same player has assisted each goal in a Premier League hat-trick. Since then, Palmer has always been used in that central No 10 — on paper, at least. That’s the interesting thing about Palmer’s displays. Although used as a No 10, he’s barely ever played in the zones you’d expect from somebody with that role, as the heat map below from his 15 Premier League appearances this season shows. Only in one match, against Nottingham Forest on October 6, was he primarily positioned centrally, and between the lines. More regularly, he plays in an inside-right position, akin to how Martin Odegaard operates for Arsenal. His displays against Liverpool and Aston Villa are particularly notable in that respect. But often, Palmer does something completely different. Note, for example, his positioning in the ninth game of the season, against Newcastle, where he barely touches the ball on the right side of the pitch — which was the complete opposite of how he’d played against West Ham in match five. Another outlier came in the sixth game, when Palmer’s touch map is more what you would expect of a right-back than that of a No 10. This was deliberate. Against a Brighton side playing a high defensive line, he repeatedly strolled across to the right touchline, received a forward pass from the defence, and then flipped the ball over the opposition first-time for runners to get in behind. It created this situation, with three Chelsea players through on goal: And this one, where Nicolas Jackson rounded goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen but couldn’t turn the ball in: It was, of course, a pre-determined approach. “The manager had a game plan,” Palmer told the BBC afterwards. “We knew how to attack them, with first-time passes, as their line was so high.” But the extraordinary thing about Palmer’s performance was that despite effectively playing as a right-back because he was primarily charged with creating chances for others, he smashed in four goals before half-time. One was a penalty, and another was a free kick, but Palmer is capable of deciding games even when he’s playing a long way from the opposition goal. That’s another interesting thing about Palmer’s game. In terms of combined goals and assists, he is alongside Salah and Bukayo Saka of Arsenal in the top three. Usually, a key part of contributing in terms of goals and assists is receiving the ball in dangerous positions in the first place. Salah and Saka are also in the top three in the Premier League in terms of receiving Opta-defined progressive passes. GO DEEPER Cole Palmer's defensive diligence under Enzo Maresca deserves more acclaim But Palmer, in stark contrast, doesn’t make the top 50. In other words, he is not a specialist at positioning himself to receive dangerous passes. He either comes short to receive simple passes and then plays outrageous balls for team-mates, like his sublime around-the-corner ball for Pedro Neto against Newcastle, which teed up Jackson for the opener, or he lets others receive the good forward passes and receives simpler ones higher up. When Chelsea do look to play forward passes to a player between the lines, it’s often to Jackson coming short, who then feeds Palmer. This ‘goal’ against Newcastle was offside, but it showed their intentions: Therefore, Palmer is the complete opposite of someone like Mason Mount, effectively his predecessor in this role at Chelsea. Mount was sometimes criticised for not being overly creative, nor expressive with his final ball. But in 2021-22, he was joint-sixth in the Premier League in terms of combined goals and assists. Mount’s secret was not the quality of his final ball, but the fact he was so adept at positioning himself to receive progressive passes — he was seventh in the league by that measure in that season. Salah and Saka, incidentally, were the top two. But Palmer isn’t that sort of player at all. He is a No 10 on paper, but he spends most of his time coming very short, into zones where opponents aren’t inclined to follow, before playing killer passes from deep. On other occasions, he sprints into the channels to provide a goal threat, or he waits for others to collect forward passes, and then receives simple balls to feet. In a way, opponents are actually quite successful at preventing him receiving the ball between the lines — but that’s not enough to stop him dominating games.

FA to investigate object-throwing by Tottenham fans during Chelsea game https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5978951/2024/12/08/tottenham-objects-Chelsea-fa/ The FA will investigate after objects were thrown onto the pitch during Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-3 home defeat by Chelsea on Sunday. Objects were thrown multiple times from the South Stand — an area only home fans occupy — during the first half of the match, while Chelsea were attacking that end of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto were among those targeted while they took set pieces or were in action near the goal. The FA will now review referee Anthony Taylor’s report on the match and investigate. Chelsea won the game despite being 2-0 down after 11 minutes, thanks to Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski. Two goals from Palmer, as well as one each from Sancho and Fernandez, then had Chelsea 4-2 up before Son Heung-min scored a late consolation for Tottenham. Both sides return to action on Thursday, with Spurs playing Rangers away in the Europa League and Chelsea facing Astana in Kazakhstan in the Conference League. GO DEEPER The Briefing: Tottenham 3 Chelsea 4: Sancho shines as Spurs crumble and Maresca's side go second in table

Chelsea’s Josh Acheampong close to signing new contract – Enzo Maresca https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5986239/2024/12/11/Chelsea-josh-acheampong-contract/ Enzo Maresca has confirmed Chelsea academy graduate Josh Acheampong is close to signing a new contract and is set start his first senior game for the club against Astana tomorrow night. The Athletic exclusively reported in October that the 18-year-old had been frozen out of all Chelsea teams because negotiations over a new deal had broken down. But there have been increasing signs of a reconciliation in recent weeks as Acheampong trained with the senior squad ahead of their Conference League match at Heidenheim a fortnight ago. The defender also played for the Under-21 side for the first time in two months when he came on as a substitute against Derby County on November 29. Acheampong’s contract runs out in 2026 but Maresca believes an extension is nearly finalised. He said: “With Josh it is all quite clear. We all love Josh, the club loves Josh, I love Josh and we are trying to find an agreement. We are close, we are almost there. We’ll see.” GO DEEPER Do Chelsea need to upgrade in the transfer market to become title contenders? A further indication of the teenager’s improved situation is he is in line to face Astana in Chelsea’s UEFA Conference match in Kazakhstan. Maresca added: “He is in the squad and is probably going to play from the start.” Maresca also confirmed a number of senior players will be left behind so they can concentrate on preparing for the Premier League fixture at home to Brentford on Sunday. One of the players who is remaining at Cobham is winger Noni Madueke, who is expected to start at the weekend due to Pedro Neto being suspended. GO DEEPER Chelsea squad audit: Analysing the 33-player group and their roles under Enzo Maresca

this must be the longest in-season round trip Chels has had since the 2012 FWCC in Tokyo (GRRRRR) and that fucking shit American friendly match in May 2019, where RLC destroyed his achilles on edit the Boston match was not as far away as this one