Closed Chelsea 2-1 Aston Villa

[zolayes 14,489]

They were the better side at 1-1 and creating more chances when we should have had a man sent off. They would probably had scored had the ref made the right call. Then that same man goes and scores the winner from an offside position. And he should have been sent off again after the goal for a second yellow but the ref booked Benteke instead for taking a kick to the head.

Performance wise, Villa were the better side apart from the opening 10 mins. They defended much better and they created more than we did. They had 4-5 clear goal scoring opportunities and we were lucky that Cech made three excellent saves (and that three of those chances didn't fall to a striker). On the other hand, we scored from an own goal and an offside. I can't remember us creating a single chance other than those two in the first 80 mins. Only in the last 10-15 mins when Villa pushed for an equalizer and left spaces at the back did we manage to create something and even those were only half chances.

It was a terrible performance, there are no two ways about it, and in a normal game where we do not get as much luck as we did last night, we'd most probably lose.

check the match stats ,,,I trust them more than your subjective judgement

[CHOULO19 24,332]

check the match stats ,,,I trust them more than your subjective judgement

A shot on target can be a goal, or a shot from 30 yards that barely reached the keeper. Yes we had 6 shots on target in all, but can you point out a single clear chance we had in the opening 75 mins other than the OG and the offside goal?

[Matt Napier 8]

Few points here.

Iva- had a good game, don't know why he is being slated. Dealt solidly with Abghonlahor and scored the winner.

Ramires- most under rated player and MOTM for me. Real workhorse, should really be paired with Mikel/Essien to allow him to push up rather than lamps.

Defence- generally solid and good in the air, we don't have much height in the middle of the park.

Ba- offside lots, neither pace nor power, doesnt do a lot off the ball. Lakaku, can hold the ball up, lay it off to Hazard at all, can track back- sub made a huge difference, although it was the obv choice.

Schurle- impressed- v.direct. first half there was wasted wide space and a lack of direct play.

[Stef 15]

I already asked this before, no reply yet. How can I upload an image. For you guys that's simple as fuck, but not for me it isn't

[Special Juan 27,429]

I already asked this before, no reply yet. How can I upload an image. For you guys that's simple as fuck, but not for me it isn't

http://tinypic.com/

Click that, then upload image from your computer by copy and pasting the link it gives you for forums etc.

[Stef 15]

Way too much spare time, I know

[The_Flash 1,144]

It was three points which is always good however. I am slightly concerned if we don't play alot better than that we will get beaten by Utd. I think there was alot of positives, one being my favourite 'striker' Ivanovic scored again. Great goal too.

The team played well, Oscar, Mata, Hazard, all good. Frank, John, Cole, great. I am just worried about striking?

All that nonsense that Lambert and his Villa players did throughout the game was pretty sad. I just loved Jose looking over at him like

"...who the **** are you?" hehe, classic

I mean Villa first game get two penalities and an opposition player sent off. I thought neither were penalities, and I thought there was a few occasions we could have had a penalty and some pretty bad tackles in both our games ignored. That Benteke (sp?) was really trying to get Branislav send off, and I just had to agree with the commentators he got hit like in the neck if anything so why was he grabbing his face?

I thought Villa just parked the bus most of the game, there just didnt seem to be a way through the whole Villa team in their box. We did have some good attempts but occasionally i wasn't sure if we had the right amount of people on the park, as we areas looked empty at times.

I think it was an ok performance, but must do better. We do need a guaranteed striker and I wish we would stop wasting our time on Rooney he isnt the answer, i am not sure who is, but Wayne? What great love or affiliation does he have for Chelsea.

I think when David Luiz returns he will really add to the team as he did last year, and maybe like Branislav he might just get some goals too.

Come on Chelsea, we can do this...

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Jose will use a win like this to start building the siege mentality that everyone is against us and that people don't wanna see us as Champions.

It's a win, it's 3 points and I'm happy about it. Too many times last season we dropped points in similar games to these...

And whoa, Benteke is a bloody beast

Ba was really bad, while I have no other mentions for other players except praises for Ramires, Hazard, Oscar and Ivanovic for their hard work.

The feeling of seeing Jose on our touchline talking and smiling at the opposition manager is very hard to describe I'm just so happy to see him

Couldn't agree more with this highlighted section. Whether it were AVB, RDM or FSW we would've come out of a game like this last year with a loss.

I don't think Ba was bad he tested their backline but got the timing wrong, his movement was good. I thought the service to him was extremely poor and is part of the reason i thought Lamps had a poor game. It was clear the tactic early was to try to get in behind the high line, we had a hard time with it mainly because Lamps and to some extent Hazard were poor with their long ball deliveries. I have no idea why DeBruyne wasn't playing if that truly was the tactic because his long ball delivery is very accurate.

[Jase 43,479]

[Tomo 21,733]

They were the better side at 1-1 and creating more chances when we should have had a man sent off. They would probably had scored had the ref made the right call. Then that same man goes and scores the winner from an offside position. And he should have been sent off again after the goal for a second yellow but the ref booked Benteke instead for taking a kick to the head.

Performance wise, Villa were the better side apart from the opening 10 mins. They defended much better and they created more than we did. They had 4-5 clear goal scoring opportunities and we were lucky that Cech made three excellent saves (and that three of those chances didn't fall to a striker). On the other hand, we scored from an own goal and an offside. I can't remember us creating a single chance other than those two in the first 80 mins. Only in the last 10-15 mins when Villa pushed for an equalizer and left spaces at the back did we manage to create something and even those were only half chances.

It was a terrible performance, there are no two ways about it, and in a normal game where we do not get as much luck as we did last night, we'd most probably lose.

Cech is part of the defense, so if he made excellent saves, then he makes excellent saves.

Teams with world class keepers tend to get more "luck", it's not a coincidence.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

They were the better side at 1-1 and creating more chances when we should have had a man sent off. They would probably had scored had the ref made the right call. Then that same man goes and scores the winner from an offside position. And he should have been sent off again after the goal for a second yellow but the ref booked Benteke instead for taking a kick to the head.

Performance wise, Villa were the better side apart from the opening 10 mins. They defended much better and they created more than we did. They had 4-5 clear goal scoring opportunities and we were lucky that Cech made three excellent saves (and that three of those chances didn't fall to a striker). On the other hand, we scored from an own goal and an offside. I can't remember us creating a single chance other than those two in the first 80 mins. Only in the last 10-15 mins when Villa pushed for an equalizer and left spaces at the back did we manage to create something and even those were only half chances.

It was a terrible performance, there are no two ways about it, and in a normal game where we do not get as much luck as we did last night, we'd most probably lose.

Yikes. Thats a bit of a mouthful. I thought they were good but not better than us. We dominated the possession and also dealt with their counter extremely well. They had maybe three or four goal scoring opportunities (Benteke's goal, Weimann back post which was half a chance really there was no angle, Weimann inside the box, and Agbonlahor's shot outside the box) Aside from that we dealt with very well.

On Ivanovic's high boot Benteke actually elbowed him FIRST before the high boot. Brana didn't elbow him either they were jockeying for position, it was a war but I couldn't see a reason for Brana to see red.

And for the record we are a counter attacking team. If teams sit deep(like Villa) and then lump it up the field to their target man the game will be very similar to the one we saw yesterday. We couldn't press them and they had 10 men behind the ball while defending. If the team doesn't come out and play us it'll be tough for us to exploit the small gaps. That's what I saw anyway.

[Pizy 18,370]

Anyone else find the number of long balls we play annoying? We have all of these flair and possession keeping players, yet we still heave the ball up to an offside Ba over and over again.

When Luiz plays we see it even more. We just bypass our awesome midfield and more often than not just give the ball away.

Guess this is one of the main reasons Jose wants Rooney so badly. Can get the ball deeper and play closer to the midfield instead of isolated on an island up top like Ba and Torres are.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Anyone else find the number of long balls we play? We have all of these flair and possession keeping players, yet we still heave the ball up to an offside Ba over and over again.

When Luiz plays we see it even more. We just bypass our awesome midfield and more often than not just give the ball away.

Guess this is one of the main reasons Jose wants Rooney so badly. Can get the ball deeper and play closer to the midfield instead of isolated on an island up top like Ba and Torres are.

We didn't play that way against Hull or in the preseason. It was a tactic employed in the early part of the game because they were playing a high line. Had Ba got his timing right and had Lamps been Lamps we would've been fine with it. I don't want to see that tactic employed often though

[Stef 15]

I know deep inside Mourinho would love a strong physical attacker such as benteke or others that would fit that profile

[Jase 43,479]

We didn't play that way against Hull or in the preseason. It was a tactic employed in the early part of the game because they were playing a high line. Had Ba got his timing right and had Lamps been Lamps we would've been fine with it. I don't want to see that tactic employed often though

Another reason for that approach play is likely because the attacking 3 behind Ba wasn't able to create anything of note and nothing came from the pivot either. And we sort of then just jumped it forward. The tragic thing was Villa played a high line yesterday and we hardly even exploited it. Just awful.

[Milan 17,857]

[Ankit 3,176]

LOL, dafuq Jose?

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Cech is part of the defense, so if he made excellent saves, then he makes excellent saves.

Teams with world class keepers tend to get more "luck", it's not a coincidence.

He was also a bit lucky the shots were straight at his feet, especially the Lowton chance; had that fell to a striker it would have probably ended in the back of the net.

Yikes. Thats a bit of a mouthful. I thought they were good but not better than us. We dominated the possession and also dealt with their counter extremely well. They had maybe three or four goal scoring opportunities (Benteke's goal, Weimann back post which was half a chance really there was no angle, Weimann inside the box, and Agbonlahor's shot outside the box) Aside from that we dealt with very well.

On Ivanovic's high boot Benteke actually elbowed him FIRST before the high boot. Brana didn't elbow him either they were jockeying for position, it was a war but I couldn't see a reason for Brana to see red.

And for the record we are a counter attacking team. If teams sit deep(like Villa) and then lump it up the field to their target man the game will be very similar to the one we saw yesterday. We couldn't press them and they had 10 men behind the ball while defending. If the team doesn't come out and play us it'll be tough for us to exploit the small gaps. That's what I saw anyway.

Possession accounts for nothing if you do nothing with it. Swansea had something like 65% possession in their 4-1 defeat to united. And it's not like Villa were fighting us for possession. They were more than happy to let us have possession around the half way line. Villa had four goal scoring chances, but we created next to nothing. Apart from the goals, one of which was an OG and the other an offside, we created nothing.

Villa executed their game plan much better than we did.I think they out performed us.