Blue Armour

On the contrary Rio hasn't said anything so far...both the quotes mentioned earlier in the thread have come from Anton in fact,not Rio... Maybe Rio knows his brother's barging up the wrong track..

Battered is too strong a word..We have just about leaked a goal every game before the Arsenal one. The fact is because of the style of play we employ, the defense and mid-field have to be constantly on their toes because of the threat of a counter-attack...Its something our back four haven't become used to/or are a bit too slow to react every single time... Arsenal were practically salivating by the end of the first half because they knew our back four were clearly not enjoying the counter attacks from the Arse's mid who could maneuver around Mikel and Ramires.. In the United match, the Manc team was on the back foot until they scored from two offside goals...Their midfield was swamped by ours before that... The real problem that I did notice in both the above mentioned matches, is that we never made the most of the early opportunities which can go a long way towards setting the tone of the match...

We've had an "arse kicking" from only one team so far, and the fact is quite a few people saw that coming with the kind of open play we've been utilizing this season...No number of extra wingers (although we really do need one more) or creative mids would have prevented them from putting 5 past us that day....

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but I think Sturridge was suffering from another "Carlo" syndrome in the Arsenal game... Only difference was this time the Italian manager he was trying to impress was Fabio Capello, to get a call-up to the England squad this month... I think his performance was affected by it...

Hmm...seems Ferdy has a history regarding this: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/7281299/Ferdinand-finds-race-row-crazy From the article: "Back in 2006, Ferdinand claimed he was racially abused by Hunt, who was banned for two matches after being found guilty of gross unsporting conduct. But Hunt denied the racism claims and following an appeal, his suspension was overturned by Uefa" Looks like something like that could happen here...

I can see where you're getting at and agree that he could make the transition to first choice, but Luiz has barely played in the Premier League this season for us, and its in that competition that we're struggling to keep a clean sheet...

Its not the tactic by iself that's the problem...Its the ability of the team to retain possession in the middle of the park and protect the back four...Arsenal were allowed to play too many passes in the final third, and despite all our effort and emphasis on attacking football both teams also had roughly the same amount of possession by the end of the math..

I agree about our frailties in defense, but even the armchair analysts sitting at home will tell you the problem is mostly because of the high defensive line.. This idiot goes on and on about...:"Cech is not the goalkeeper he was....Terry is no longer the same human being...neither is Ashley Cole.." And then: "There are major problems at Chelsea..." Really? then why are we still third just behind the two Manc clubs? If it weren't for the slip-up at QPR we could even have been second...

Maybe he takes inspiration from Pastore...

Don't agree. One of his strong points is his vision. Remember the goal the France youth team scored to win the world cup last season? I personally feel he's lost something after his injury, and the unforgiving EPL is making his recovery more difficult than ever...

You could say that about Mourinho as well...its all in the past, anyways..no point in getting starry-eyed over it..

Tbf, I don't see why we can't get bring back some of that style...we after all still have the personnel for that... I hope this defeat serves as a wake-up call for AVB...For a team which possessed such a good record in defense, I don't think its hard to bring back more defensive organization

Also a point I had made elsewhere...Another thing was the fact that our pressing game was poor in the middle of the park..You'd think with Mikel AND Ramires we would regain possession quickly but they were able to launch attacks with almost no hindrance... I hope to see more organization next time..I think the team just went wild with frenzy and effectiveness of our attack and just forgot about their defensive duties and positioning. I could see AVB seething with rage during the closing stages of the game, as Arsenal continued to waltz into our half

You know what, I really hope we get to win this cup... Its after all what started it all for Jose, and the taste of silverware is going to the squad pumped up..After all the premier league opposition we've been made to face in this tournament this cup in NO WAY should be undermined.... In fact I'd say its turned into a domestic Champions League for us...

I think we're still a bit of that...We always looked like we would score from the set-pieces today....Our pressing game was poor today, and we didn't close down the spaces quickly enough when they attacked thus leaving the back four and Cech needlessly exposed

Meh...I wouldn't give it much thought... Yossi = In the past... Time to move on....

Don't think creativity was an issue today tbf...Lampard and Mata were having a field day...

The one bright spot in all this is that these so-called disastrous results have happened so early in the season so that AVB can actually do something about it. At the same time we are not yet out of contention in any of the 4 tournaments this year. Besides the squad is almost fully fit which gives him options to tweak his tactics..

Really agree with point number five...AVB should be more cautious against teams like that, so as to avoid any unnecessary complications...

No offense to Wilson who started this topic,but I hate threads like these created after a reaction to one match.. Todays result had nothing much to do with the weakness of the squad...Hell, man for man we had a better team than Arsenal on paper but that didn't stop them from clobbering us did it?

I hope AVB stays true to his word...He's often said that the result is more important than attacking football for a club like Chelsea, but in the big games played so far we haven't seen that philosophy put into practice...

Yep...it ain't over till the fat Ballotelli sings (who knows? Maybe he did sing after that Manchester derby...) J/k.....Keep the blue flag flying high, folks! :chelsea2:

I don't want to sit on a chair in front of a PC and teach AVB tactics, but he should know by now that we are NOT Barcelona...They can afford to have a high defensive line against tough opposition because for the majority of the match, the ball will be in the opposition's half... Attacking football is fine and everything (I love watching us attack this season), but you have teams like City scoring 5's and 6's without conceding too many goals....AVB has to make a secure defense one of the topmost priorities...I don't think that's too much to ask...

I don't think Terry will be dropped so he will be always be part of any pairing... While I do believe in Luiz and hope he gains more consistency to become our first choice, I have to ask: Is the Alex-Terry partnership really done and dusted? Why not pair them up a few more times this season and see if it gets us clean sheets?

Thank God for these midweek games...can you imagine waiting a whole week to get over the disappointment?