Wigan 1-1 Chelsea

[Kieran. 6,317]

People are forgetting Torres' horrible miss against Blackburn, which seemed to have turned Andre completely off towards him.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Romeu should have never gone off in the first place given Meireles and Lampard being on. We played this game with 9 men.

Im assuming the reasoning behind that is that Romeu is naturally a holding midfield player and perhaps AVN felt he wouldn't have been as comfortable playing in a midfield 2 which would have played higher up the pitch than he is used to, also taking off Romeu meant it was an easier and more natural switch once we went 1-0 up to bring on Mikel and create the midfield 3 again, whereas had Romeu stayed on then it likely would have been McEachran (our only other recognised central midfielder on the bench) to come on.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

You made a post trying to show how idiot are people blaming the manager for the result when in fact it was Cech's fault. If we werent suffering pressure in the end GK wouldnt made such a mistake, or perhaps if we were winning 2-0 that mistake would means nothing.

Don't play that card!

Your criticisms of André are fine to debate, but I know you are of the same opinion it was an unforced error by Cech that shouldn't have happened no matter the situation.

Edited December 17, 2011 by RZA

[The Big Drog 1,110]

I am not defending Torres, i know he's been poor the last couple of games (when he played more than 10 minutes), but Drogba was poor as well a month or so ago. To be honest Torres was looking good before he got that sending off against Swansea.

What i was trying to say is that we shouldn't just write him off and say that he is automatically going to play bad, therefore we shouldn't play him.

I felt he played poor and he was ineffective.

My point is that we shouldn't automatically say he's not going to play well, he could've played well, especially since Wigan was chasing the game.

5 defenders, playing deep, and the least creative Chelsea performance of the season, I feel pretty safe saying it wouldn't have been pretty.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Don't play that card!

Your criticisms of André are fine to debate, but I know you are of the same opinion it was an unforced error by Cech.

You are forgetting that beneath Petr's helmet there is an aerial which picks up on signals sent via a a controller which Andre Villas-Boas works on the sidelines.

[bababoom 4,478]

5 defenders, playing deep, and the least creative Chelsea performance of the season, I feel pretty safe saying it wouldn't have been pretty.

Once we were 1-0 up they took one defender off, and started chasing the game. That's when Torres should of came on in my opinion. Drogba was offering nothing. But instead we decided to bring on Mikel and just sit back, and let them attack us.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Once we were 1-0 up they took one defender off, and started chasing the game. That's when Torres should of came on in my opinion. Drogba was offering nothing.

If you think so mate but given the service Drogba got (even when there was 4 defenders) and Torres's new found ability to fade into the background, I don't think it would have made a positive impact, imo.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I don't think Didier did nothing, he was up against 3 centre backs on his own and some of his link up play was very clever and we did see one trademark Drogba move and header which narrowly missed. Obviously AVB wants to stick with him, and Torres will get his chance to justify himself as a Chelsea player come the ACON.

Drogba was well off his game today. You could just see it from the opening 10 minutes.

Not really his fault though, he should not be playing so many minutes as far as i'm concerned.

[bababoom 4,478]

If you think so mate but given the service Drogba got (even when there was 4 defenders) and Torres's new found ability to fade into the background, I don't think it would have made a positive impact, imo.

We shouldn't of gone so defensive once we were 1-0 up, why did we bring on Mikel? we were against Wigan not Man city. Torres should of at least got some minutes.

[Hd123 5]

If you think so mate but given the service Drogba got (even when there was 4 defenders) and Torres's new found ability to fade into the background, I don't think it would have made a positive impact, imo.

Drogba is older than Sturridge, he is more tired as the game goes on

Malouda is crap in possession

Torres would be completely full of energy and would attack tired centrebacks

I'm not saying it would have worked. But it would sure be 100% better than Malouda being on. And no, Sturridge minor knock was not that big a deal

[The Big Drog 1,110]

We shouldn't of gone so defensive once we were 1-0 up, why did we bring on Mikel? we were against Wigan not Man city. Torres should of at least got some minutes.

Why? Cos after we scored Wigan had a couple of attempts on our goal and looked threatening and neither Meireles or Lampard are that defensively secure so the decision to bring on Mikel was a logical one.

[Hd123 5]

Im assuming the reasoning behind that is that Romeu is naturally a holding midfield player and perhaps AVN felt he wouldn't have been as comfortable playing in a midfield 2 which would have played higher up the pitch than he is used to, also taking off Romeu meant it was an easier and more natural switch once we went 1-0 up to bring on Mikel and create the midfield 3 again, whereas had Romeu stayed on then it likely would have been McEachran (our only other recognised central midfielder on the bench) to come on.

Mata could have been moved into midfield with Kalou out wide.

This:

-----Romeu----

--m/l------Mata

Dan---------kalou

--------drog------

Is better than

---------mikel---

-Meireles---lampard

[eldo 868]

It was a good time to sit tight, Wigan were playing too defensive to break through again.

This. We never had a chance to make it 2-0.

Why? Cos after we scored Wigan had a couple of attempts on our goal and looked threatening and neither Meireles or Lampard are that defensively secure so the decision to bring on Mikel was a logical one.

It made sense they brought Di Santo and Rodallega on.

[Stamford Heart 16]

Is it Romeu ?

this boy is the most important player ..

but wigan's game reminds me of the last season , the same probs showed up ..

cuz AVB pushed Kalouda up + Drog = nothing at all

same mistakes of Acelotti's last season

[eldo 868]

Mata will want out next season, players of that caliber belong at competitive clubs.

Then go and support Napoli.

[Wavy Crockett 190]

I'm quite surprised by the reaction from AVB on the game

and not in a good way..first of all I believe he downplays today's result and the effort from our team. Maybe I've been naive up till this point but I have no hopes for the league or CL what so ever..if we could finish 3rd that would be great.

All in all extremely disappointed by how we played as a unit and by individual performances..there were perhaps a handful of players who had brief spells of decentness, and that's being generous..

Whatever tactics AVB used they obviously didnt fair very well..

I think putting on Kalou was a reasonable move, even though Romeo was solid we needed more up front. On the few occassions where Kalou had the ball he managed some good runs and helped create maybe a chance or two, think he had a (wasteful) shot as well...Taking Mata off was the right thing as well but Mikel and Malouda added nothing to the game really.

Drogba was another player who didnt see much of the ball but I think we can conclude anyway that this was not his day at all, couldnt believe AVB didnt put on Torres after our first goal. Sitting back like we did and get pressurised by Wigan was just atrocious to watch

all in all today left me as a fan very disappointed and frustrated. Will hope for the best against Spurs but my mindset for the rest of the season will just be to rejoice at every win and try not to care about matches where things dont go our way.. No way we're catching City or even United

[Hd123 5]

This is by far the worst performance in terms of desire, workrate, determination I have ever seen in a football match. I just cannot comprehend what you can say to the squad so they play like that. Fine, we were pretty bad against Arsenal, Liverpool, etc. But in no way were those matches devoid of any effort like this one.

Not even going to mention the piss poor subs.

[eldo 868]

Don't you know that 1 goal advantage is not good enough?

Do you not know the pressure that mounts on the defending team?

We could have won this game before the 80th minute, but alas the tactical substitutions were wank, and so we are left with 1 point

Never in a 1000 years could we get another. Not even with Mata and Sturridge.

[HRiver 1,512]

Those three substitutions from Villas Boas deserve to be nominated for 'three most pointless and silly transfers made this season'. He is clearly in love with Malouda. Kalou was abysmal, yet again, and brining Mikel on was just stupid. Why not Torres?

But in all honesty, the draw was a fair result in the end. We should be pleased with one point considering the way we played, although conceding in the last minutes is heart breaking. Wigan was probably better than us in general. But they're such a boring team and the stadium, atmosphere and everything was extremely depressing.

A game I really wish I didn't see.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Someone made this post during the game "And Lampard wonders why he doesn't start regularly" (something alone those lines)

Don't remember who it was, but i totally second that lol.