Closed Man City 2-1 Chelsea

[CHOULO19 24,332]

"When Torres was in, Chelsea was winning 1-0, now as soon as he's stepped off, City's scored 2 goals. I'm just saying."

— ESPN Commentator

Back to the drawing board rdm...

Still have faith in you Robbie

What does that have to do with anything? How would have Torres prevented any of the goals? Its like saying: "My dad closed the window when we were 1-0 up. My is to blame for us loosing"!

My MOTM is mikel. Was excellent in the middle, made some great interceptions, and even covered for bosingwa's (head-less chicken) forward runs.

[chandler 1]

really still disappointed..we didnt play well, but city were very desperate and their handball ends so far from our goal...till essiens fault..it was really his fault, because when you blocking shoots at this area you have to put your hands behind you, you are really responsible for this..

[Jase 43,479]

Our crossing yesterday was just simply awful. Only 1 of the 19 crosses attempted was successful!

[magicrico 175]

It's pretty simple when it comes to the reason we lost - The tactics we employed. We could of went all out for this win, but playing Ramiers on the right, we lacked natural width, the idea was obviously to do what we almost did - defend well smash and grab a goal, then defend some more. While i don't sit there and think they were the right tactics, I think it wasn't a bad idea because it almost work, although after they scored the peon, you knew they would go on to win. The problem is not the result, it's 4th place. Arsenal are now flying in 4th, Spurs have an easy run-in. We have the hardest run in out of the 3, with Liverpool and Arsenal to travel too. Thats going to be ridiculously hard. We have to beat Spurs or it's Europa, and even if we do, we aren't going to be in the top 4.

I just feel like if we set up to win this game, we would have done. We didn't though and we got what we deserved. Nothing. Fair play to City, when you make subs and have Tevez,Aguero,Dzeko on the pitch and you took Balotelli off, you see the depth they have. So much more than us.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I'm not disheartened after that. City perhaps deserved to win but our defensive performance suggests we should have had something to show for our endeavours. Torres looked lively again, against much better opposition this time round, which is very encouraging. We played quite well - in fact, if we perform like that against Tottenham, we'll win.

[Madmax 9,219]

Is there a video of Torres vs City?

[francozola 2,040]

It's pretty simple when it comes to the reason we lost - The tactics we employed. We could of went all out for this win, but playing Ramiers on the right, we lacked natural width, the idea was obviously to do what we almost did - defend well smash and grab a goal, then defend some more. While i don't sit there and think they were the right tactics, I think it wasn't a bad idea because it almost work, although after they scored the peon, you knew they would go on to win. The problem is not the result, it's 4th place. Arsenal are now flying in 4th, Spurs have an easy run-in. We have the hardest run in out of the 3, with Liverpool and Arsenal to travel too. Thats going to be ridiculously hard. We have to beat Spurs or it's Europa, and even if we do, we aren't going to be in the top 4.

I just feel like if we set up to win this game, we would have done. We didn't though and we got what we deserved. Nothing. Fair play to City, when you make subs and have Tevez,Aguero,Dzeko on the pitch and you took Balotelli off, you see the depth they have. So much more than us.

If we played more attacking, man city woulda thrashed us. Our attackers are USELESS. Torres, Drogba, lampard, Meireles, Ramires all struggle in one way or another. Every time we went forward yesterday, one of those players fucked a good counter attack up.

I thought the initial tactics were spot on by RDM except I would have played Sturridge at RW. Don't agree with his substitutions tho

[Strike 7,533]

If we played more attacking, man city woulda thrashed us. Our attackers are USELESS. Torres, Drogba, lampard, Meireles, Ramires all struggle in one way or another. Every time we went forward yesterday, one of those players fucked a good counter attack up.

I thought the initial tactics were spot on by RDM except I would have played Sturridge at RW. Don't agree with his substitutions tho

We started with a horror defence and now we are ending the season with attacking problems.......

squad overhaul for next season?

[magicrico 175]

If we played more attacking, man city woulda thrashed us. Our attackers are USELESS. Torres, Drogba, lampard, Meireles, Ramires all struggle in one way or another. Every time we went forward yesterday, one of those players fucked a good counter attack up.

I thought the initial tactics were spot on by RDM except I would have played Sturridge at RW. Don't agree with his substitutions tho

Yeah no doubt, but I still think I would have liked to have seen us go for it at some point. It was obvious they were gonna score. We just tried to sit back and soak it up which was wasn't wrong but in the end wasn't enough. Sturridge would have been fired up for this one, and rinsed Clichy when we played them at the bridge. On the counter he could have been an outlet.

[GodZola 630]

If we played more attacking, man city woulda thrashed us. Our attackers are USELESS. Torres, Drogba, lampard, Meireles, Ramires all struggle in one way or another. Every time we went forward yesterday, one of those players fucked a good counter attack up.

I thought the initial tactics were spot on by RDM except I would have played Sturridge at RW. Don't agree with his substitutions tho

Don't agree, the reason we lost the game was because of the negative tactics of parking the bus for most of the game but we just sat on our box as soon as we scored & that just invited trouble, we beat them at the Bridge by attacking them so didn't really understand RDM's team selection or tactics - City have been on a poor run of form & were suffering with a lack of confidence so for me were there for the taking. I do concur with you on subs & especially Sturridge not starting though.

[kingofchelseadom 41]

I really hate this kit:

All bad things happened in this kit :/ HATE IT!!! It was the greatest mistake this night! We shoud play in white or blue kit!

No I actually like the design. have the long sleeve. Feels good. bad luck they never win in it.

[Mceachran 109]

I still really think we can keep this positive moment going but that game last night has left me with some venting to do:

1.

Is there a video of Torres vs City?

Exactly; or at least, I'm going to assume you're thinking the same thing I was that we were playing fine in the attack with Torres.

2.

We started with a horror defence and now we are ending the season with attacking problems.......

squad overhaul for next season?

We are only "ending" the season with attacking problems? news to me....

3. I just read Giles Smith's Thursday Thoughts on the chelseafc.com and his cry-baby complaints about Essien's handball. IT WAS A PENALTY, GET OVER IT!

4. That last goal is something that you only see players like silva, nasri, and every other player in the Barcelona Midfield do. They lurk outside the box, pick out a wall pass and somehow RAMIRES, CAHILL, AND LAMPARD, just let Nasri waltz in. WTF?????

[LDN Blue 7,903]

This man and his supporters would disagree.

We got a penalty in the reverse fixture for the same thing, if you remember correctly.

[kwylino 329]

Well it sucks we did lose, obvious big sign we probably will need a overhaul in the summer,If mourinho returned id defo take routing madrid for Alonso Higuain and Ronaldo, if not ronaldo maybe Albiol

Though as bad as it is of me to say, least we didn't drop to arsenal or tottenham, I am hoping city wins it this year rather than united again, so yeah

[Beirut_Blues 306]

Well our defense was our strong-point and it was what gave us the upper hand over those Manchester CUNTS last night....that's until the genius Essien stepped in and stuck his magical hand out.

Essien is such a powerful force in out midfield and so essential to our team, but he has a habit of fukking up at times when we cant afford to fukk up..

[Strike 7,533]

I still really think we can keep this positive moment going but that game last night has left me with some venting to do:

1. Exactly; or at least, I'm going to assume you're thinking the same thing I was that we were playing fine in the attack with Torres.

2. We are only "ending" the season with attacking problems? news to me....

3. I just read Giles Smith's Thursday Thoughts on the chelseafc.com and his cry-baby complaints about Essien's handball. IT WAS A PENALTY, GET OVER IT!

4. That last goal is something that you only see players like silva, nasri, and every other player in the Barcelona Midfield do. They lurk outside the box, pick out a wall pass and somehow RAMIRES, CAHILL, AND LAMPARD, just let Nasri waltz in. WTF?????

You r quite right bt

At the start of the season, the attack ws ignord while everyone bashd the defence...now gradually the lack of creativity shit is croppin up....earlier on 5 gols vs genk and bolton shut the critics abt our attack...also d 5-3 vs asnl, critics bashd only d dfens...

Now, comin to think of it, d attack was shyte all season.....just getin highlighted now

[Sheva. 5,373]

Our defensive organization was very good, we played like how Stoke did against us a couple weeks ago lol.

And i can't blame RDM for sitting back tbh, even with that they had good chances to score, what would have happened had we went all out?

All in all, i'm not that disappointed, i thought we did well enough to frustrate them and we found a way to steal a goal out of nothing. Without Essien taking matters into his own hands ( ) we would have at least come out of that with a point.

As for MOTM - David Luiz! He was a freaking rock at the back. Mikel 2nd, very happy with his performance against a top side.

[manpe 10,861]

I don't know why Ramires finished the game, he was bad.

[francozola 2,040]

Don't agree, the reason we lost the game was because of the negative tactics of parking the bus for most of the game but we just sat on our box as soon as we scored & that just invited trouble, we beat them at the Bridge by attacking them so didn't really understand RDM's team selection or tactics - City have been on a poor run of form & were suffering with a lack of confidence so for me were there for the taking. I do concur with you on subs & especially Sturridge not starting though.

I dont think that was what we wanted to do. City were extremely dominant with possession. We tried but couldn't hold on to the ball. Painful to see, really, the gulf in class. Their final ball was just poor but they were in completely control of the ball due to 1) they were at home so they had the initiative 2) they were losing and they could not afford to lose the match 3) everytime we tried to counter, someone fucked it up. I.E. our players simply not good enough.

This is why not playing Sturridge or even including him as a substitute was such a HUGE mistake. He can run with the ball, he would pin their leftback back, he would relieve some pressure of the defense. Ramires was failing miserably. He might even come up with a moment of magic that we were lacking. Bad call.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Good news is its only a niggling injury that's preventing him from starting..he'll be back soon.

Well that is good news, I just hope that it is the case, he has been on the bench 1 or 2 times since that game, I really hope it is injury that is keeping him out rather than him falling out of favour because he is clearly a top talent and should certainly be ahead of Essien and Mikel in the pecking order.