Closed Swindon 0-2 Chelsea

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Willian beginning to look suspect but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Badboy 1,526]

Willian beginning to look suspect but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Did you have cow dung smeared on your screen at home ?

[zolayes 14,489]

Shut up dude, go find someone else to pick up on!

Such a miserable old guy...

seems you deleted your homophobic comment ,,IT WAS STILL MADE

[Rmpr 8,977]

seems you deleted your homophobic comment ,,IT WAS STILL MADE

It was not a homophobic comment asshole, it was a joke between Harry and I and you have nothing to do about it!

You have 70 something years old and you look worse than some 15yo members in here. I feel sorry for you...

I have only been here for a year and I have seen you picking up fights with more people than I can count (specially teenagers). Grow up, because you are a bit late to do that.

Give it up, leave people alone!

[Jase 43,479]

@Rmpr and @zolayes, please, seriously stop it! If you wanna argue with one another, do so over the PM. Don't derail the place here.

[OneMoSalah 8,619]

Hard for players like De Bruyne and van Ginkel to build on their performances when they are playing 90 minutes every 3 weeks...

[Tomo 21,685]

Jody Morris (wiki him - I'm sure you've never heard of him) said he watched an U21 game with Jose and said he made some very positive comments about Baker. Baker was selected to train with the seniors and was part of the squad. That's a young English kid developed by the club - not some 5m signing from Brazil being forced on the manager - but somebody the manager has seen and taken an interest in.

Poor Lewis Baker, indeed.

Wouldn't bother styles, there could be a video recording of Jose talking to Baker telling him about his plans for the lad and there will still be some trying completely ignoring that video or pretending it's fake, then continuing with the same tired myth's.

[Tomo 21,685]

The amount of abuse that poor Fernando has had over the years it's pathetic he put it all behind him and really gave 100% and deserves credit

That's simply not true. Chelsea fans have supported him like no other, still he gets the loudest cheer in the stadium ahead of club legend's, Lampard's goal vs Sunderland was greeted with groans by the MH faithful when they found out it was him and not Torres that scored (from the MHL it looked like Torres scored off the crossbar at the time, got undying support through 14 months were he gave us 5 goals and a 24 game goal drought. He got cheered through shit match after shit match while Sturridge and Kalou were getting dogs abuse despite looking like Pele in comparison to Nando.

Look at how Eto'o is getting doubted after 3 games, then go back to after Torres played 3 for us, the comparison in support is so different it's stupid.

Not a dig at you, i think your a good member, but Torres has had it easy from the supporters in general, especially in match days, if his abuse is bad like you suggest, then i would hate to think the word of Drogba's at the start of his Chelsea career (and he was 10 times better than Torres ever has been with us).

Also he admitted to not caring about results last year, now imagine if any other player said that? they would have probably needed extra security on match days.

No one hates him, but you can't say he hasn't deserved his critics at Chelsea, surely?

[English Freak 456]

Wouldn't bother styles, there could be a video recording of Jose talking to Baker telling him about his plans for the lad and there will still be some trying completely ignoring that video or pretending it's fake, then continuing with the same tired myth's.

It doesn't matter if there was a video recording of Jose talking to Baker...

In the long-run, I don't see Baker making it at Chelsea.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Surely Lewis himself is delighted to have made the team at all, the fact he didn't get some minutes on the pitch was just bad luck.

Ryan had a very good game, offensively he did in 15-20 minutes what Cole hasn't done since the season started. He deserves a chance in the bigger games, Cole shouldn't be an untouchable anymore.

[YouNameIt 1,511]

When Torres plays well, folks here will find some faults with him. When he plays shitty people snivel here.

To me, he should be in the line-up on Saturday.

Because he performed average against a team like Swindon? Makes sense..

[the Blues 11 19]

Good workmanlike effort and, hopefully, a nice kick start going forward.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Surely Lewis himself is delighted to have made the team at all, the fact he didn't get some minutes on the pitch was just bad luck.

Ryan had a very good game, offensively he did in 15-20 minutes what Cole hasn't done since the season started. He deserves a chance in the bigger games, Cole shouldn't be an untouchable anymore.

Cole does nothing in attack, and then gets killed by every decently quick player, unacceptable.

[Azpinator 2,325]

Y'all praising Torres but the way I see it is that he plays better with Mata around. They have great connection. That being said, he still misses sitters which isn't good at all.

KDB was the worst player on the pitch, others at least tried, Willian was quiet but unlucky not to score.

Hmmm I think Willian was the worst, had more minutes but it was mostly him being fast an all.. and it looks like he doesn't know how to make a proper cross and don't get me started on his finishing. KDB has some problems of getting past defenders but his passing is still good, he made an accurate final pass to Torres which was wasted and had a really dangerous volley. Bertrand was better than Willian. I know it's early but I wish we kept Moses instead of paying that amount for Willian.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Why is making a critique so attacked here?

It doesn't matter if it's 'just' Swindon with a 'B team'. This 'B' team has guys who were A-team last season like Mata, Luiz, Torres, Azpilicueta etc. It's not like they've just come into the squad not knowing who anyone is. The fact that it's Swindon doesn't make an ounce of difference when we're discussing how poor the finishing was tonight and other justified criticisms.

Yes, Torres was the best player on the pitch tonight, but that doesn't mean you can disregard the sitters he missed tonight. This is the most positive we've seen him play for a while and perhaps if we weren't playing Tottenham you could make a case that he does need a run of games. I personally think he shouldn't play against Tottenham because we can't afford the luxury of having him get into those positions and not finding the net.

Essien was a positive too, he was disciplined and showed there's still something in his worn out legs to carry us forward at times, but he didn't do enough to play against Spurs either IMO. It's a shame Ramires got injured because he and Mikel would have been a shoe in to be starting on Saturday, hopefully Lampard will be up for it because Ramires and MGV won't be playing.

Mata and KDB weren't impressive. Those two, however, I think it's fair to put blame on match fitness.. They haven't played much and it really did show tonight.

That being said, thankfully there weren't that many lapses in concentration and so I'm quite content with this result and subsequent performance. I just hope the tempo will be raised on Saturday, with the equal/extended concentration applied.

[TrippingStep 336]

I'm slightly worried about the players' fitness to be honest. Not physically, but technically. Too many of them playing sub-par. Of course it could come down to a motivation problem - but then I have a problem with them... they're professionals, fighting for positions should be a natural process to them.

But of course they're only human and maybe can't help how they feel. Either way I'm very disappointed with Mata, Kev and Luiz*. All of them could have done better, should have done better, but they were disappointing.

Mata had a few moments, but I feel not remotely enough to put a doubt on Mourinho's head. Kev was awful. And Luiz had one of those displays that make people so unsure about him. Too eager to go forward (before he was in the pivot), a little flustered in the defense, but his case isn't lost because Cahill was even worse. Usual Cahill mistakes that from time to time he does. So between the two of them I'd pick Terry

As for the match itself, I'm happy with it. We won, it wasn't as good as I expected, but Swindon played quite the decent match - especially defensively. I've seen worse defending by Wigan and Villa in City and Spurs goals.

If I were Mourinho I would add another hour to their daily training schedule just to the whole team could work on their finishing. It's hideous. At some point those many wasted chances will start to cause damage (more than it already did against Everton and Basel) and it's something I can only see improving with a lot of practicing...

Willian was also below par, but at least in his case we can understand as he hasn't play any match in 45 days prior to joining us, but still some mistakes he had there (especially in the goal chances) had little to do with fitness and more with sharpness.

Except the fitness aspect where I don't know what they have done, I think the simple explanation is that our attacking midfielders are struggling because of the slow build-up and lack of connection and clear patterns between our players. Not enough quick one touch passes in the build up and 1-2-3 moves in the final third.

[bushman 2,043]

Because he performed average against a team like Swindon? Makes sense..

Perhaps, you have not seen him well ?

The game against Swindon, there was nothing that indicated the team is playing well. Where is Jose´s project, if I may ask ?

Players that played last night are not in form. Some might say, they had a chance to show their stuff, but...

On Saturday, most likely none will play against the Spurs. Personally, I am worried whether Chelsea even score one goal, then.

[Stingray 9,441]

Except the fitness aspect where I don't know what they have done, I think the simple explanation is that our attacking midfielders are struggling because of the slow build-up and lack of connection and clear patterns between our players. Not enough quick one touch passes in the build up and 1-2-3 moves in the final third.

Yeah, but the lack of initiative, daring to do stuff, simple misplaced passes indicate low confidence levels as well, as I see it.