Barbara

Today during the match something happened with the forum while using Firefox (sorry, I hate Chrome). For Chrome I still have all features, but for Firefox some features such as multiquote and that panel that opens when I click over the notifications icon - without opening the CP notifications page - doesn't work anymore, when I click on the bell, it goes to the notifications page - which I hate because the main reason I click there is so the red notifications alert at the bottom of the page disappears, although, of course, I also want to check if someone quoted me or mentioned me so I can answer them. So far I've only noticed those two features, but maybe even more were disabled when using Firefox...

this picture is AMAZING

as long as we keep outscoring our defense people won't see how risky that is. It's one thing to be a bit less solid and stable because you have a more offensive approach than we did last year, but it's another completely different to overlook poor performances and we had that, but tbh he wasn't alone. Cesc and Matic failed in the same things he did, at least he has the athleticism the other two don't, but we completely lost the midfield today and that allowed Everton to have at some point in the second 73% of possession. We aren't playing Bayern and Barcelona at their prime, we were playing Everton... while they're a decent side, they're nothing exceptional and our midfield could have compromised our win today. Those things should be noticed and pointed out now so people won't call it 'scapegoating' when he plays the same someday and we lose and people blame him. As I said, he's as guilty as Cesc and Matic were, but their contributions in the attack made up for the liabilities they created. If we keep outscoring our defense, I don't have a big problem with it, but the thing is we may not outscore our defense every single time. I read some criticism towards Cahill today, but I don't remember him compromising, I remember him as well as the other three being left completely exposed. There were moments that Cesc simply didn't move, he barely walked, let alone run... that's unacceptable imo and should be corrected by Mourinho to an extension. I totally expect us to look less reliable defensively though, it's nearly mathematical, if you commit more people in the attack and expect that to be their main contribution, you can't defend as you used to, but there's a long distance between some burden that comes from attacking more and what we've watched today. My own assessment of Ramires is that he was our best midfielder, despite of the Hyde and Jekyll performance. He was poor off the ball, but he made it up with assists and a goal. That's always going to be positive, so I can only say he had a positive match today and was decisive in us winning. Way more decisive than Cesc and Matic - who also contributed directly to goals. For Ramires' goal, the pass came from Matic, which means our two more defensive players were in the box linking up. There's a price to pay for that, there's no way to offer cover to defense playing so high and that I accept, what it's hard to accept is how soft they were all around. The good parts of Ramires' presentation definitely surpassed the bad ones, by a mile in all honesty.

And to make his absence worse, none of the our midfielders had a good day in the office when pressing, defending and marking. Yes, they had assists and scored, but they were also poor. I don't know how much of their poor performance is because Oscar wasn't there to provide stability and how much it was just them being bad. I'll check their passing stats and defensive stats, but sometimes they don't tell the whole story and the starting trio were awfully weak without the possession and even worse trying to recover it. So Oscar was missed helping to dictate the tempo and hold the ball in possession and even more missed harassing the opposition. In both matches this season many times we saw Oscar doubling when someone else was tacking the opposition. So not only he has his own tackles stats, but he supports his teammates tackling and pressing, helping their tackling stats as well. So we either drill those three that played today better or we play with those three, plus Oscar for Willian (but I'd rather Schurrle in the team tbh)

Something I've noticed throughout the whole match is how this guy leads the rest of the team, especially the guys from the pivot and up. Our defenders have always had a lot of balls and positive attitude, it was our midfielders and attackers that were too soft, lenient, not bothered and whats not at some points. Then this guy starts to literally scream with them during the match. He's a leader in the area of the pitch Cech, Iva and Terry's leadership sometimes couldn't reach. I've lost count of how many times he was yelling with Hazard, Willian, Ramires, Cesc and hopefully nobody will resent him for that, but it was amazing. He's fired up and he isn't content with only that, he wants everyone around him fired up as well. I wish someone made gifs or a video compilation of these many moments I'm referring to. I'm positive it'll make a whole difference for us. And you know, there are the goals too

well, literally may be something different, but metaphorically - which is what I meant I've always thought it was something horrible (not that a bunch of teens wanking in group doesn't look like something horrible, it certainly does)

am I the only one highly amused by Azpili's facial and body expression in that Howard gif? It's priceless, lol

let me see if I can find Everton's, but I have the bunch by Chelsea and the celebrations and a few extras. bonus:

Let's see what I can come up with now. I think we have a problem in our midfield - and today was the first match I think Cesc was underwhelming there, but to be fair, so were Matic and Ramires. We were raped by Everton in the midfield - and that only exposed our defense further. I can't choose between Cesc, Ramires and Matic who had a worse match (talking about their midfield performance, not goals, assists, etc). There was no stability, we were easily bypassed, outmuscled, too many misplaced passes, it was a wank fest. I think our defenders had a good match tbh. The defense - as a system - is incredibly shaky and I feel like we've missed Oscar more than anything. Maybe we wouldn't be up 2-0 under 4 minutes if he was here, but I feel like we were so unstable and exposed our defense so much that it's not even funny... that's the balance I keep saying he brings and maybe it has nothing to do with his absence, but it seems like a big coincidence when he isn't playing we didn't have any stability in the midfield at all. We need to be better organized, but it's still early days, as I said in the live match thread, I'll give a month for the team to settle, but we need to drill our midfield better or maybe we just need our midfielders to have better individual performances. It's amazing to have them been involved in all 6 goals, but it sucks they were a liability in two goals and many Everton attacks. I'm quite happy we won, we've scored so many goals and I even welcome losing some defense stability because of our more attacking minded team, but we've made some rookie mistakes there combined with awful performances by Cesc, Matic and Ramires when Everton had the ball. Costa is everything we could have asked for and some more and maybe I'm biased, but I feel like both yellows he's got so far had been unfair and I'll start growing suspicious if he keeps getting undeserved yellows by those cunt of referees. But it feels amazing, magical even, to finally have a striker and then I remember Torres is not part of this club anymore and I'm beyond elated. This weekend has been amazing, the only thing that spoiled it a bit is how weak and poor our midfield was when we didn't have the ball (and because there was no stability, that's why we had a mediocre possession percentage. They didn't hold the ball at all and were dispossessed easily...). And the most important thing from this match is our mentality. An incredible contrast to some matches last season and the first half against Leicester. Hopefully they'll keep it up against the smaller sides.

exactly, he does the hard and struggles with the easy. He had ups and downs in the match, but I won't crucify him at all. I think his contributions in the attack were huge and he made up for his poor performance in the midfield... So all in all, it was positive from him.

When I find my sanity I come back here and post something that hopefully will make sense. Right now I'm high on football and sort of feeling light headed hahahahahaha somehow my heart survived until the 4-3 though

so it was Mikel after all and I wasn't crazy? Okay, even better, so my previous post stands lol, this match is affecting my brains. It's crazy

three game through and Chelsea has the best attack in the league with ELEVEN goals. Almost four average. Yes, it's a new season and I can finally breathe. I want to read our rivals forums now.

when Mikel gives a backheel assist like that, you know this is a crazy match. AMAZING by Mikel and perfect by Diego. edit: my bad it was DIDIER!!!!! Sorry, I'm barely looking at the TV< lol

if it was the opposite, Ramires on Everton player, that would have been a foul for them, but it's Everton player on Ramires, the ref gives fucking nothing. The story of this match... in addition to the crazy goal galore.

That's Ramires for you...

I'll leave the room. My heart can't handle this fuckery

Please, just bring FT already I can't survive another 10+ minutes of this craziness

come on, Chels, LET'S DEFEND NOW!!!!!

I STAND CORRECTED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHOULD I KEEP IT UP?

Ramires has been AWFUL

this game is crazy. Can it finish already?

I STAND FUCKING CORRECTED!!!!!!!

should bring Luis for Matic instead of Mikel in all honesty...

are you fucking kidding me? We've been pathetic defending at some moments this season...