nullabletype

Good one.

West Ham apply the slightest bit of pressure and we just start passing back.

Is this a joke post? He can't play the ball with his hand...

I wouldn't have Hazard anywhere near this team. He's a lazy bollocks.

Right, let's sack him.Who do you bring in?

You mean to tell me that players with years of experience at club and international level can't strike a ball because the training has them scared to do so? Behave.

If our squad had an ounce of finishing ability we could have won that game at a canter. Still, the usual borebags will come on here and cry about Mourinho. What's he to do, strike the ball for them?

State of this post...I've not heard what he said but he has a right to be upset with the lack of pen and whilst sill not there, we improved tonight. Thought you were away to bed anyway?

Think tonight we look similar to the tail end of last season, not inspiring but better decision making and a final ball away from being half decent.

There is no perfect team sheet, mate. Just read the match day threads, everybody and their dog posts a different starting 11.And there is genuinely no point in conversing in this thread anymore because any comment that doesn't amount to "José out" or "we were utter shite today" is met with bewilderment. As has been said by others already; he played Baba, he played RLC, he put Dave in his natural position, he played Matic after his supposed dig the other week. We never looked uncomfortable, we won and we kept a clean sheet. But still, the usual clowns moan because we didn't come out and tear them to bits -- as if a team trying to get out of a slump were ever going to. Any positives are waved away as luck. Clean sheet? Villa can't attack. Goals? Villa mistakes -- as if the ball was passed straight to Willian's foot and Costa didn't have to finish or that the only way you can touch for a deflection is to be in the area knocking on the door in the first place. Nobody expects everybody on here to think the performance was great. Nobody thinks this win means we're back to the old ways. But this game had a squad shake up and a well needed clean sheet and a few goals. That's exactly what we needed in this moment and hopefully the team can kick on from here. Folks on here need to seriously wind their necks in.

I'd wager RLC probably goes home tonight buzzing that he started and played 45 minutes in a much needed Chelsea league win. Meanwhile the UEFA Pro Licensed coaches of TC and Twitter will shake their fists squealing that he wasn't given enough time.

It's absurd. They cry when the kids don't get a go, then RLC gets 45 minutes and they cry it isn't enough. So José is snookered either way.Before today RLC had played what, 5-10 Premier League minutes or something? He's not going to give him a full 90. 45 here and there is plenty until he's well established and then he can get his full games. Also, you'd think listening to people on here that RLC was crucial today.

It's got nothing to do with humour, it's a "if your granny had bollocks she'd be your granda" situation.The first mistake was capitalised on by Willian who saw it and pounced. The second came from being in and around the area and trying to attack. They aren't great goals and nobody is going to remember this game, but we scored two goals because we were having a go. It's not like the keeper just turned round and tapped them in to his own net.

Take away the goals and Man City aren't top of the league...

Can't think of a top side with worse passing ability or ball retention as ourselves.

Objectively speaking that was a poor half of football. It's as well Villa are woeful. Hope we can hang on to it for a change.

The way some people on this forum get on you would think the Premier League was a popularity contest. Would the José out squad be loving life if we were 16th only instead we had a Brendan Rogers type, deludedly talking about how great we are and getting his arse licked by the press?What is the end goal for the group of fans who are more concerned about PR than winning? What other football fans genuinely like big successful clubs? What would we gain from being squeeky clean and oh so dignified? Christ, we're a club with an outspoken manager that papers producing the sports equivalent to Heat magazine write stories about, not the national socialist party.

You're as bad as anybody.Everybody knows José can talk rubbish. Everybody knows he's provocative. Everybody knows he's a stirrer and everybody knows he's the champion of hyperbole. But his core points are by and large spot on. He has demonstrated on multiple occasions now that his comments are treated differently to that of other managers. There's not really an argument there, he's right. You don't have to like Mourinho, but hand waving away any defense of him and declaring bias doesn't serve your argument.

I agree it was the wrong comment to make at the time because it wasn't a penalty whilst the Southampton ones were. Whether he saw it or not or genuinely disagrees only Mourinho knows. I don't know that it was a deflection tactic though as his following rant went in to great detail about he and the squad being in a bad place, I think he was open about that. I think his overarching point was fair but ultimately devalued by the timing. I do agree with him in general though, I think referees try their best to put their mark on our games, not out of a bias but just to show who's boss. However, that means when they make a wrong decision, and they make plenty, it sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm also sympathetic towards his feelings on the FA because as it has been pointed out, Wenger's comments after our game went unpunished. José is a serial offender but that's irrelevant, the FA need to be consistent or rightly called out. His comments don't do us any favours but I don't think they have a particularly negative effect either. He gets fined, the papers write about it, the FA pat themselves on the back and the world moves on.

I guess he's referring to the complaints José was making all of last season. Didn't we have some ridiculous stat about the longest premier league run without a penalty and the most penalties not given or some such?

What? That piece that was about 10% relevant content wrapped in 90% fluff talking about the beyond flesh and blood transcendental nature of a football club? Yeah, we were going to ignore it. It might read well to the romantics but it wasn't nearly as deep as he thought it was. We know clubs are institutions that will long outlive their managers and squads, that isn't news to anybody. It's not overly relevant to the present stability of the club though. He talks about Barcelona being stable because of their identity and that certainly helps, sure. But of all the clubs he chooses to knock, it's Arsenal. Arsenal are a team who, if nothing else, are pure identity. People often meet statements like "the West Ham way" or "the Tottenham way" with a degree confusion, but "the Arsenal way"? Not so much. They might have changed over the years but it certainly wasn't an identity crisis that got them where they are now. As a side, Barcelona's core principles may have been in place prior to Pep, but it's hardly a dynasty. It's not even been a decade since Pep got the first team job. United under Ferguson epitomized stability and even had a bit of identity in there for good measure, but I don't think it was that identity that kept Ferguson in a job for 23 odd years. It wasn't long disappearing if it was... And it isn't the constant firing of Chelsea managers that's the problem? Well at very least I'm sure it doesn't help. If, as is suggested, it's simply just a matter of getting in coaches who "have something to do with each other" then Liverpool would still be winning titles and United post Ferguson would have kicked on without missing a beat. Anyway, we all know the opposite sides aren't going to agree because there have been enough well thought out arguments on this site to win over anybody who was able to be won. All that matters is that the club, for the first time, have publicly backed the manager. A great manager, and that's all that matter to me.

Seems on this forum that many of the people who are craving stability are the same people calling for Mourinho's head. Our first real wobble since his return, off the back of a double no less, and they want him gone... Stability indeed. Makes you wonder how much time any new manager would be afforded. Klopp to pick a popular name, would he also be under intense scrutiny if he were in the same position? Is a period of instability all it takes to declare a potential long term project a failure and so on to the next one? Stability means taking the rough with the smooth and since José came back this is the only really rough period we've had.

True enough.But for me that's why I'd like to put the trust in the manager for now. If it continues then we can draw a line under it and say enough is enough, it didn't work. You don't need to do an Arsenal and give him nearly two decades. But sack José after a double winning season, 8 games in? Ridiculous.

Don't necessarily agree with that list of players but the approach is exactly what I want to see. Holding the ball is useless if nobody is going to do anything. Week in week out we watch teams just pick up the ball and run at us, that's what wee need to do. Just have a go. Our turnover from defence to attack is painfully slow and just allows the opposition to casually stroll back in to shape. It's useless.

Where do you get the first bit of that statement? How often after a good result does José pat himself on the back? He always praises his squad. Even when they're shit and we can all see it he praises most of them and blames individual errors.When things are bad he loves and excuse, no doubt, but in typical fashion when he does blame himself, which he has done recently, it's ignored. There in lies the absurdity of football. The players aren't getting any better so sack the manager. That's not to say the manager is blameless but when they're on the pitch it is the players who need to play.Time and time again clubs sack managers, the new guy comes in and there is a spell of good results only for the poor form to return. Rinse and repeat. Players get away with far too much.