Blue Armour

Its another 5 days until the Arsenal game

Already put the wolves game behind me, just like I did for the Everton one. We lost a couple of dodgy away games., so be it. Earlier in the season everyone was mocking United while we were cruising, and now they have a chance to go ahead Expect chaos to hit the other teams as well. Nothing is set. Let's win our next game.

I really hope that those mind games come back to bite both of them in their arses.

We took a gamble on Havertz and it failed. Don't get me wrong., I'm not complaining that we signed we him. We definitely needed a player of his profile and potential. But to think he was ready to become a regular member of the starting 11 and sending the likes of Barkley/RLC away on loan was a gamble that has paid off poorly so far IMO. He was unlucky with the covid infection, but there are so many times this season where he just doesn't know what to do with the ball and just ends up conceding possession. Looks like he is one of those players that needs to be slowly worked into the team and the league, unlike the likes of Hazard/Pulisic who were far more mature with their decision making, at the time of their debut

I couldn't see the Wolves game live, but watching the highlights, the game seemed symptomatic of our worst games from last season. Fail to put the game to bed, put more pressure on ourselves, and crumble when the opposition attacks. Even with improvement in defensive personnel, we are clearly subject to the same problems. Hopefully Ziyech makes a return, because he is crucial to the wing play we employ. Not enough attacking threat from the middle of the park...looking at Mount/Havertz/Kovacic. Said it before, but in hindsight we should have retained one of Barkley/RLC, if we were going to play 4-3-3.

Come on man, not Kante. He's probably the most crucial piece in our midfield. Why not Wily Caballero?

Question though.. At the start of the season, gauging all the top teams, I would have hands down agreed with you even with our investment in the transfer window. But with Liverpool and City the way they are, and Tottenham of all teams on top of the league, would you consider it acceptable not to at least challenge? Even if we were to disregard comparisons to other teams, you only have to compare us to Chelsea of the previous season and see how different the points total is. You would expect us to be ahead and not below. This team should be capable of a lot better., and that's why even after the past 2 shitty results, I'm not ruling us out entirely. On a side note....fucking Klopp seems to have jinxed us with his comments about being the PL title favorites. I think he knew what he was doing and it might have swayed the mood in our camp. Till that point we were just happily taking it game by game. The positive note is that I suspect we will remain within touching distance of at least one of Spurs or Liverpool even after midweek and next weekends fixtures. A win for Spurs tomorrow might be problematic, however. All Jose needs is a win over the closest challenger to seal his title charge.

Games against Southampton, West Brom, the first fixture against Seville, United and Liverpool dont count. The team lineup was only shaping up then and the switch to 433 happened midway through the first Krasnodar fixture, which we won. Bringing up the second Krasnodar is also unwarranted, because we played with a 3rd string squad for the match. The only poor performance is against Everton., and that game is completely different from the rest of the examples you mentioned

How convenient for City if that happens.

Wouldn't mind a 3-4-3 considering our lack of natural wide players. Take a leaf out of Everton's book. It would mean that Timo & Havertz can play a lot more central and rely on James, Chillwell to provide the width. Basically have our James and Chillwell push into midfield as wingbacks, keep Kante/Azpi/Silva/Zouma as the defensive shield. That being said, still favor 4-3-3 and I think that's what Lampard will start with again on Tue.

If you're okay with playing Havertz out wide again, that is. And if Pulisic is not fit., that's not going to happen

Hazard's mental attitude is still notches above. He arrived at the club at the same age, and while he had underwhelming performances in some matches, he almost never put on a "bad" performance. Anyway, not all players are the same. Havertz clearly has to mature as a player. As people have mentioned previously, with the 20+ yr old players in our squad, its likely that quite a few of them will go through rough patches like this before they become consistent. Today his head wasn't in the game.

Have a feeling that Lampard intended Werner to be our 4th winger. If you think about it, rotating between CHO/Ziyech/Pulisic/Werner especially when you can accommodate Tammy/Giroud/Werner in CF, and have Havertz as a spare,....that's not bad at all. Its just our freaky luck that all 3 of CHO, Ziyech and Pulisic became injured simultaneously. Can't make this up. Especially with CHO, who has been relatively unused this season. Best chance for him to start a few games, and he's out. That being said, we are fucked if Pulisic is not available for the Wolves game.

Before this game, a lot of us agreed that we needed to get results in fixtures against Everton, W Ham and Wolves in order to take advantage where others such as Liverpool, Tottenham and City could not. In retrospect, I expect we'll see the other teams also drop points in away fixtures now that crowds are returning to some of these grounds.

Where else would you have played him, and who else would you have played out wide?

Fucking game. Definitely one where you knew nothing was going to come out of it after hitting the posts with all the good shots. Mendy mistake. Everton sit deep and defend with 3 CBs. No Ziyech or Pulisic to unlock their defense. Weak minds like Havertz to screw things up. Both our full backs, especially Chillwell were pegged back. Our play from the left flank was non existent. Everything had to go through James. Feel a bit bad for Werner..,he was played out of position again but he did not do himself any favors. This game was set to be a loss. The only comfort I can take is that it took a combination of fuck ups for us to not get a result here.

Should take advantage again especially with their best full backs out of commission. They are the best contributors to their attack., and their absence is the main reason for their makeshift defense

Interesting stats...Grealish reminds me of Hazard at times because of his ability to draw fouls. Kind of like Hazard but with less end product and flair, albeit being Villa's best chance creator last season. I'll admit that this season he has really gone up a notch and those numbers are not for this season are not a surprise.

Good point. Looking back at Mourinho's PL title wins, there were not many teams in contention for the title race. Also, despite this being December, we are only 11 games in., meaning another 3/4 of the season to go. Therefore, even their current position at the top doesn't mean much. And speaking of fixture lists, any idea why some teams still have a game in hand without any official dates announced for these? You would expect them to play before the midway point in order to preserve the integrity of the competion.

It was expected that at any time, one of our fullbacks would have to hang back to watch their runners. Shame that we didn't have Pulisic fully fit to start the game. I feel his play could have helped unlock their defense even without full-backs supporting.

We'll see. You have a point, and I've seen some fans claim this, but I think a lot of people jumped on the wagon after their win over Pep and city. I'll give credit to JM and Spurs for coming through relatively unscathed, after a tough list of fixtures in the PL in the past 3 weeks.

The annoying thing is the number of bandwagon fans that have jumped on the Spurs bus parade in recent weeks simply because they are leading by goal difference atm. I don't want to be hypocritical, because we've utilized the same style of play to get results in recent seasons, but we supported it because it helped Chelsea win. I can understand if Spurs fans are okay with it, but for mainstream football fans to claim that this is a new found football philosophy and display of tactical genius that trumps others, is a bit much for me.

Yeah, what a looney strategy. Thought he could take the game to them like he's some kind of MF. ... Should have given JM a taste of his own medicine. Putting Arsenal aside though,...more teams should look at our performance against Spurs and do better at cutting out that link between Kane and Son...Especially by swamping Kane. Do that and you nullify nearly 50% of their scoring chances IMO.

We need to take advantage in fixtures where sides like Tottenham, Liverpool, United and City have come up short this season....Everton, Wolves, West Ham.

Bah...Tottenham tries to be so annoying! They've literally played Darude-Sandstorm for all the goals they've scored in their stadium this year.