Closed Chelsea 2-3 Man City

[BlueSanti 290]

Few really bad things happed in this match. Our loss was mainly caused because of Ivanovic's fault, IMO. John Terry was horrible, first and second goal are his faults, what the hack was he doing when Tevez was shooting? Ivanovic's failure was really stupid but again, he is defender and it is his first red card as Chelsea player. Defenders are going to get red cards sometimes, that's football.

Our midfield was crap. I do not get why there is no Essien on the bench when he was our best player in pre-season. If he was there he would surely be substitued for Mikel. Mikel was horrible IMHO, horrible. Allways one step late. Bad positioning also.

Wouldn't judge Hazard so hard, it was his fucking debute in England. Give him a time, not everyone is like Mata, some needs time.

We've seen Ramires is useless at right wing, yet again. Also he can't be at right back against opposition like this.

Torres was certaintly our best player today, glad to say that. Bertrand and Sturridge also looked sharp.

And we lost by one goal against ManCity while one man down. Not that disgracefull. A least we have shown some passion for the game and some mental strenght. I'll much rather see red card sometimes because the passion in the game than the shit we played in EPL last year. Give it a time and things will sort out. And one last thing, current EPL champions lost in same match last year, by same result.

[vergil_sparda 26]

To make things better...

Some City fans with tickets went to Wembley.

HAHAHA ...

[Milan 17,956]

As I said, I would LOVE to win the trophy today but out of seven trophies we are fighting for, this has the slightest meaning. The game showed also our weak areas. Now it's time to remedy that.

[Laylabelle 9,535]

To make things better...

Some City fans with tickets went to Wembley.

Really?!?! Oh dear!!!

[JDY 1,290]

There will always be worrying signs at the start of the season. We haven't had the best of pre seasons and with the quality City have, it comes as no surprise that they punished us. Despite spending a lot of money, people forget that we are still a team in transition. Drastic changes won't happen overnight, personnel has changed, players are adapting to new roles.

I wish people would be a little more understanding and patient. Some of the overreactions are reminisce of a few bad results and wanting the manager to get the chop.

By the way, starting to know how Arsenal fans felt with Drogba. Damn you Tevez!

[blue_swaggin_96 96]

a right back! and decent striker! SCHURRLE IS NICE

[Eluwande Yomi 15]

Check this forum later... I'm too pissed right now to upload.

Check this forum later... I'm too pissed right now to upload.

I hear you mate! Everyone is pissed

[Kojo 4,676]

I ain't going to fucking shut up for no one, especially not you. I do what all the time? What I'm trying to say is that in the double pivot there is a shared responsibility for defensive work. Lampard, Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic and Cole are all responsible for the goals conceded, yet everything is being put on Mikel. If Mikel was SO bad as you describe in your post how come RDM didn't yank him off?

Mikel didn't lose the ball 50 times either. Must've been watching a different game.

Can't believe people are giving so much stick to Mikel, 75% of the team were poor. It would've been a different game if Ivanovic wasn't sent off.

Whatever though, let's all just make Mikel the scapegoat for the loss right? It's all his fault.

People might see me as a stern Mikel supporter, it's not even that but whatever. I just think it isn't right to basically blame Mikel for the loss. Especially when there were other players who didn't exactly play well either.

These are the same stupid excuses you use all the time, just accept the fact that Mikel is shit. He does nothing on the pitch.

Simply not good enough, but no keep going with your excuses, and RDM mate like what a substitution in the 80th minute, when we had 10 men from 40 minutes in the game, which was very stupid. Mikel is garbage enough said, and he did lose the ball constantly, he lost it about 5 times within 30 minutes it was laughable.

But yeah because the other players played bad that gives him the reason to play shit too, and it's not just that he does it every game, fair enough the one odd game.

[marsh 0]

I'm not reading much into the second half with a player down I'll focus on the first half

1. City were not brilliant they were also in pre season mode

2. Our central midfield is the main problem I think they make our defense look worser than it is.

3. luiz was impetuous but mikel and terry were very poor

4. we still dont know how to use ramires effectively and he cannot play RW without a proper RB.

5. mata is better than hazard and both combined as well as they could for their first match together.

6. Oscar will walk into our central midfield

7.we need a sandro tiote de jong type ball winner alongside oscar.

8. and obviously a proper RB.

9. i'm satisfied with torres annd sturridge upfront as other areas need strengthening first.

10. It is very very important that we win atleast one trophy this season can be the supercup or the club world cup to have the winning attitude and not become arsenal.

[TrippingStep 336]

I've been around long enough to know you react to Chelsea the way a 6 year old reacts to not getting what he/she wanted for Christmas. Let's talk about the game now though, that's what the forum is for and nobody else cares about arguments.

Encouraged today that we looked like a team capable of Top Four, which should be our main goal. I think we would have gone and won the thing had Savic been sent off instead of Ivanovic.

I don't understand how the ref could give the fault to Torres. It was a blatant obstruction as he cuts across Torres and not going to the ball.

[Nando 106]

I'm counting down the minutes to the Atletico game. A trophy in the early stages of the season will lift up the squad's spirit (and the forum's too haha).

Let's just have a good start in the Prem, which I'm sure we will, and then win our first silverware for the season, much more prestigious than the shield.

[bloody 209]

I hear you mate! Everyone is pissed

no, i'm not pissed.

[Blue Traveler 256]

I don't say we were excellet today but we could have won the game if it was't for that stupid decision! But still a lot of work to do especially from defensive point of view!

[Eluwande Yomi 15]

no, i'm not pissed.

no, i'm not pissed.

What were the positives you saw in the match?

(i was unable to watch)

[Justin_3d 1,140]

It would not be surprising if City get the same fate as United got last season.

Won the CS and then won nothing the whole season.

Despite them beating us, I still think the team to beat is United.

United just lost the league on goal avg....sort of like when United lost to us with Carlo first season.

United usually bounce back hard, so they will be number one tittle contenders.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

If City are the main threat, then we coped quite well with them, considering we still need to 'wake up'. Only after Ivanovic's red card we were bloody shites.

If nothing changes, we simply should get used to playing against the ref.IMO we should bring as much technology as useful. NO matter if it disrupts play, the sense of a judging system is to be just, referees simply can't warrant that. I watch football very much i can tell u aout 13-17% of all games played on the highest level (top 5 leagues and major, cl, cl international tournaments(olypmics, continental championships, wc) are starkly affected by referee decisions.

[AfricanBlue 104]

I blame Villa Park, if we'd played at our second home Wembley we'd of won.

[themightyblue 443]

Very very shocked at the majority of the reactions here and some our pretty embarrassing. I'm not going to try and make out that what I'm saying is all correct but I think I'm being fair in what I'm about to say. Anyway, I went into the match thinking that this was going to be an absolute demolishing after our horrific defending in pre season, however I've left that game with a smile on my face. I've seen a lot of criticising about the double pivot and I have to say Mikel was shocking BUT when it was 11 vs 11 in the first half, how many clear cut chances did City ACTUALLY make? Like where we were just cut open? I can barely count 2 if any. We were very organised and you can tell Rdm has been working on this in training. City played nice one two's but we matched them in the first half and got a goal.

I don't think it's fair to judge the 2nd half because there wasn't much we could do. Of course we were going to get exposed, they had an extra man FFS. It was a valiant effort from the boys that we didn't let city run riot. In terms of individually I would say Torres was the best player and Sturridge looked good when he came on. I don't get the slating of Hazard either, he did well imo. He caused there defence problems and used the ball very intelligently. I'd also like to add that with the first goal Ramires did his damage from the centre.......not the right. For games like this Ramires is fine playing on the right, but we need play him centrally most of the time where he is dangerous.

Going back to the pivot as much as people are wanting to criticise it, the fact is despite some lapses in concentration, they weren't too bad when it was 11 vs 11. In an ideal world we'll strengthen there but we can definitely make do with it this season.

Looking to the season overall, after seeing us in a mildly competitive game I definitely think we'll make the top 4 no doubt. You can see the potential of the team is there and I'll guarantee we'll rip some teams apart, but this overreaction after losses really should stop as it gets people worked up and leads to uneccesary arguments. Good day out at Villa Park and now I can't wait till the season starts

[capriccioso 2,545]

I blame Villa Park, if we'd played at our second home Wembley we'd of won.

11. Oscar mate, not 11. Drogba.

[JDY 1,290]

It would not be surprising if City get the same fate as United got last season.

Won the CS and then won nothing the whole season.

Despite them beating us, I still think the team to beat is United.

United just lost the league on goal avg....sort of like when United lost to us with Carlo first season.

United usually bounce back hard, so they will be number one tittle contenders.

To be fair to City, they beat United home and away, scored more goals and conceded less. If Jose had been in charge of City they would've been out of sight long before the season ended. Both teams will be strong this year, I still have my doubts about Mancini but a lot can still change before the transfer window closes.