Closed Chelsea 1-2 Basel

[yuvala 2,167]

Chelsea FC ‏@chelseafc21s

Mourinho: 'Basel scored in our best period, when we had more space to play and we had hit the bar.' #CFC

Really? that is Jose's excuse for losing? "we hit the crossbar" ? really?

Still 100% behind him, but he's got to sort shit out.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Won't even try to to read the overreactions here. Basel played a superb game, especially in the first half and deserved the points. Our finishing at 1-0 cost us the game. We had 3-4 chances to kill it off but didn't.

Our performance wasn't as bad as everyone is making out; Basel were just very good. The papers will talk about a crisis tomorrow, but this kind of result is expected with the in experience of the squad and all the new players that have not fit in yet.

Just need the Fulham game to come as quickly as possible, now.

[Barbara 15,149]

Taking Willian off changed the whole outlook of the match, it was a typical Mourinho grind out win until then.

Bringing out Mata was the mistake. Sort of. He had three options 1) Kevin for Willian (the best of them) or Hazard; 2) Mata for Oscar - but that didn't make any sense as Oscar was by far our best player in the pitch; 3) Mata for Willian or Hazard.

There are two problems with the Mata sub 1) Mata has been poor this season. We were winning only 1-0 and we were doing well when he was brought in, so there was no need for that 2) If he wants to play Mata he has to take Oscar off. The two of them together is counter-productive as neither of them produce well in the wings. Last season we didn't have better options for the wing, this year we have tons of them. I hope Mourinho learned this lesson. For Mata to play he has to play where Oscar has been playing - no where else. Oscar can't perform at the wing at all, he should never be played there.

As for Hazard... well, he's playing bad, frustrating, but Mourinho won't touch him and as I said in the live match thread it's not like our other wings are playing much better than him. André has been doing more, but I don't know if he's much better than him. Anyway, he won't see the bench - although he deserves.

[zolayes 14,489]

I would have voted Torres higher than Hazard tonight,,,yet 2 votes he got

[Goemaere 131]

Some of these players need to fucking learn how to attack or take a chance. It is fucking pointless if we create 20 chances but put 1 away. Then there is that shit defending.

Lol, we created like 2 chances. We were shit, jose's subs were shit, basel was the shit.

[nono 791]

All the lack of proper investments is now biting us in the ass. We needed a striker, a CM and a centre back to start the season. Mourinho looks lost. Three defeats in a row.

[oxfordblues 299]

well i didn`t see that result coming.fulham will be looking forward to saturday for sure

[zolayes 14,489]

Well that's what you get when you spend your money on useless signings like Willian, Eto'o and Schürrle while ignoring De Bruyne, Van Ginkel, Lukaku and Moses who were outstanding in pre-season. A pre-season is to raise the chemistry level between your players, not to give players you'll be sending on loan playtime.

the 3 you mention were imo no way the poorest tonight ...Hazard got 2 votes as MOM and he did less than Torres

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

I have no idea which match you've watched, I'm positive it wasn't the one the rest of the world did. Mata destroyed the team and was good for nothing. Not ONE good play from him, but I can remember many times losing possession and looking useless. Absolutely useless. Composure? Sorry, no way in hell. He showed a lot of lack of it if anything.

Obviously its hard for Mata to influence a game when he's rusty due a lack of game time, hes only going to get back to his best if he plays which means someone will have to miss out. Out of all the players we have Mata is the best, I don't get Mourinho not giving him starts against certain teams. Sure Bayern and United I understand but not Basel or Everton, ridiculous selection at times. Maybe it would be better for Mata if he were to leave and go to a team where he might be more appreciated by his manager (got a hunch for sure that Jose doesn't want him now for sure). One start in 6 games? Ridiculous. Even if Mata could get minutes with the u21s team or whatever like Marin did last year, would keep him fresh so when we take him on he can make an impact.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Oscar MOTM, Hazard needs to wake the fuck up! No he wasn't the worst player, but I expect so much more of him. Luiz had a decent game, tbf and so did Iva. No idea where MVG and Frank were for the first goal and the marking was just shambolic for the second.

[Azpinator 2,325]

You guys are overreacting, we played well actually and that's more important than the 3 points.

- Mourinho is responsible for all this mess, but I hope he finds the right formula that will make us a winning team.
- Hazard needs a rest and we keep missing what Kevin is capable of.
- We need Azpi's pace, Brana should be CB.
- Mata needs to be a starter.

- Eto'o has no passion for this club, he even said in his first interview that the reason he joined was Mourinho. So I'm not expecting much out of him, at least Lukaku - loves playing for Chelsea.

- Don't over-hype Oscar, after that wonderful shot he was underwhelming.

[LayZ 201]

Has Ashley Cole lost it all of a sudden?How did Salah keep getting acres of space behind him all night?

[The_Flash 1,144]

Sadly that was just what I feared, we were absolutely rubbish. I cannot believe how terrible we played. I was so hopeful this season but we were rotten. Terrible passing, very few chances. We have not good strikers, Eto'o wss terrible again, never looked like scoring then Demba never looked like scoring. Van Ginkel was totally anonymous and should have been taken off earlier. Willian did alright but I don't know what Hazard was doing I wish he would stop wasting chances by skying them into the air.

I couldn't believe we just didnt look like scoring. It is very worrying. At this rate as I actually said earlier today Jose will back out and we'll be lucky to be top four.

The only people who really played well was Frank, David and Oscar.

It was woeful so gutted to lose, I couldn't believe it, gutted. I don't even know what to say

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

I am someone who is against overreacting to single results but we're now what, 5, 6 games into the season and we have looked poor in all of them. I am struggling to think why a team with so many attacking weapons is so feeble going forward. (Really, only Oscar, Lampard, and Ivanovic have been somewhat consistently dangerous offensively I think Cole clearly needs a break. He has bad ankles and can't play twice a week, every week. Van Ginkel was really poor not that at is says anything about his future. It's just one bad game. (And it has the positive of stopping people thinking that he was an elite player rather than a project) We saw the good and the bad of Luiz again. His excellent pass to Lampard helped set up the goal but he was once again completely out of position a number of times. Also, not sure what planet Hazard was on during the game. Tried to dribble 6 players at once, not tracking back at all, diving multiple times. Awful.

This is the second straight game where I found Mourinho's subs baffling. Mikel for Van Ginkel made sense. MVG was poor and on a yellow. But Ba for Lampard? Lampard was one of our only offensive weapons and it completely once again imbalanced the team. If Mourinho thought Lampard should come off, why not De Bruyne who is a much more natural fit? (Also the second game where I thought Eto'o should have come off and didn't) It's incredibly frustrating. Willian was OK but he strikes me as another one of the same. An attacking midfielder who likes to drift into the middle. We have five of those already! Our lack of width and poor spacing and poor movement in the attacking midfield was a massive issue last year and doesn't seem to have changed.

There is obviously a problem with either Mourinho getting his message to sink in or players not being able to execute it. Things will get better. We have too much talent for them not to, but this is just awful right now.

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Xabi Alonso or De Rossi sounds like a great idea right about now

[Hutcho 8,443]

Lol. Are those 2 people being ironic or is their love of hazard that deep.

Don't get me wrong I think he is amazing and on form probably our best player. But he isn't showing it right now.

[nono 791]

You guys are overreacting, we played well actually and that's more important than the 3 points.

- Mourinho is responsible for all this mess, but I hope he finds the right formula that will make us a winning team.

- Hazard needs a rest and we keep missing what Kevin is capable of.

- We need Azpi's pace, Brana should be CB.

- Mata needs to be a starter.

- Eto'o has no passion for this club, he even said in his first interview that the reason he joined was Mourinho. So I'm not expecting much out of him, at least Lukaku - loves playing for Chelsea.

- Don't over-hype Oscar, after that wonderful shot he was underwhelming.

We have lost three consecutive games. Lost at home to the worst team in the group. When you're living in cloud cuckoo land even the mildest criticism is an overreaction I guess.

[zolayes 14,489]

Chelsea FC ‏@chelseafc42s

Mourinho: 'Basel's second goal is very hard to accept because three of our players made a mistake.' #CFC

we are improving ..against Everton there were about FIVE to blame