Wigan 1-1 Chelsea

[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.

[middleoftheshed 388]

Thank god I missed the coach...

[Kojo 4,676]

I agree 100% with Steve, Andre Villas Boas's tactics were an absolute shambles. This Manager has consistently made wrong decisions when it comes to tactics since he has joined. The players themselves had to readjust the high line last week without permission from Boas and today they were told to go defensive at 1-0 when he brought Obi on and Sturridge and Mata off. I don't care about the mistake from Cech that has nothing to do with it. AVB consistently puts us under pressure and if it was not for the heroics of Mata and Sturridge this season we would be in huge huge trouble.

I agree, I'm getting really concerned about him, he constantly makes the wrong decisions, and i always hate his subs because they always end up wrong.

[Kojo 4,676]

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.

You're an idiot wanting torres to play, Torres can only play if you give him chances and make them 90 percent for him, drogba sits deep and works, we can't play him till we get a better team, a winger and a playmaker, because at the moment he will come on and run around like a headless chicken.

[pyut898 14]

AVB should win manager of the year trophy

[Hd123 5]

AVB should win manager of the year trophy

Agreed. Just as long as Malouda recieves his deserved Ballon D'or

[nullabletype 987]

Today's match, evidently, was piss poor for a multitude of reasons. A combination of poor individual / team performance(s) and some strange managerial decisions (According to me, an non-tactical minded never to be football manager).

The squad as a whole didn't wow me at any point during the game. As individuals most of them were less than impressive. In my opinion Ivanovic, Meireles, Lampard and Drogba all had a woeful day, the rest bar Sturridge were lackluster at very best.

I've seen points for and against AVBs substitution decisions on here, so here's my take on them (I'm no expert, I know, I'm modest. So excuse me if I talk rubbish). Removing a DM for an attacking player, to then remove an attacking player for a DM, to then remove another attacking player for a lesser one is beyond me. The second change with the first in mind made AVB come across as indecisive which doesn't fill me with confidence. Removing our goal scorer and arguably best player this season at all, given the situation was crazy. The players he chose to play made those decisions even more mind boggling. If he wanted to change up tactics, I believe the players he had on the pitch were more than capable of carrying out the job, no need to even replace them with the sub-power players he did. Perhaps it was to keep the players he removed fresh for the upcoming fixtures? Maybe. I've personally never bought in to this idea that players at this level, guys in peak physical condition, can't perform at their best multiple times a week. No need to rest players for a game five days away in my opinion. I genuinely think AVBs mind just went blank. Oops.

Got to talk about Torres. What would a Chelsea game be without it? Fernando must not be doing the job in training otherwise he would be getting on. Now, I assume there's not much hope for the guy to get back to his best unless he's provided with some much needed game time. I know he hasn't proven himself worthy of it, but he can't even begin to do so if he doesn't get any whatsoever. Why then, when we have games like today, were Drogba offers absolutely nothing do we not give him a go? What have we to lose? If he comes out and plays rubbish, we're no worse off than we were with a struggling Didier. I'm all up for playing whoever before Torres if they can do the job. Drogba's inclusion in the last few games has been spot on since he's been on form. But if he comes out and gives a performance like today's, then it only seems fair to give our 50Million bench warmer a run out, and perhaps save him a few fresh splinters in his arse.

All in all a disappointing day. The only plus is we didn't get beat, which, by the way, we deserved to.

[Hysteria 159]

After Newcastle and Man City victories i was getting a little optimist...until now. Fuck this.

[Hd123 5]

Today's match, evidently, was piss poor for a multitude of reasons. A combination of poor individual / team performance(s) and some strange managerial decisions (According to me, an non-tactical minded never to be football manager).

The squad as a whole didn't wow me at any point during the game. As individuals most of them were less than impressive. In my opinion Ivanovic, Meireles, Lampard and Drogba all had a woeful day, the rest bar Sturridge were lackluster at very best.

I've seen points for and against AVBs substitution decisions on here, so here's my take on them (I'm no expert, I know, I'm modest. So excuse me if I talk rubbish). Removing a DM for an attacking player, to then remove an attacking player for a DM, to then remove another attacking player for a lesser one is beyond me. The second change with the first in mind made AVB come across as indecisive which doesn't fill me with confidence. Removing our goal scorer and arguably best player this season at all, given the situation was crazy. The players he chose to play made those decisions even more mind boggling. If he wanted to change up tactics, I believe the players he had on the pitch were more than capable of carrying out the job, no need to even replace them with the sub-power players he did. Perhaps it was to keep the players he removed fresh for the upcoming fixtures? Maybe. I've personally never bought in to this idea that players at this level, guys in peak physical condition, can't perform at their best multiple times a week. No need to rest players for a game five days away in my opinion. I genuinely think AVBs mind just went blank. Oops.

Got to talk about Torres. What would a Chelsea game be without it? Fernando must not be doing the job in training otherwise he would be getting on. Now, I assume there's not much hope for the guy to get back to his best unless he's provided with some much needed game time. I know he hasn't proven himself worthy of it, but he can't even begin to do so if he doesn't get any whatsoever. Why then, when we have games like today, were Drogba offers absolutely nothing do we not give him a go? What have we to lose? If he comes out and plays rubbish, we're no worse off than we were with a struggling Didier. I'm all up for playing whoever before Torres if they can do the job. Drogba's inclusion in the last few games has been spot on since he's been on form. But if he comes out and gives a performance like today's, then it only seems fair to give our 50Million bench warmer a run out, and perhaps save him a few fresh splinters in his arse.

All in all a disappointing day. The only plus is we didn't get beat, which, by the way, we deserved to.

If I could type a lengthy post without any swearing, threatening or with class this would be it. Very spot on IMO. From the first minute on it looked like none of the players cared, but in my opinion the first defining moment was when Kalou came on. No, it's not about Kalou being useless or that it was wrong to bring him on. It's about taking off Romeu, and while he is a defensive midfielder, offered far more than the below par Meireles and Lampard. The pair have contributed nothing throughout the 90 minutes along with Drogba and Mata. They just gave the ball away, with absolutely 0 penetration. The Malouda sub was by far the worst, very idiotic indeed. It's almost as if AVB was trying his hardest to lose the match.