Closed Chelsea 3-1 Southampton

[Sidzeret 2,257]

I need that Mata's flat footed scissor pass on the volley to Hazard which opened up the Saints gif. It was bloddy brilliant!

and that cross to Torres just outside the 6 yard line which was saved by Boruc was pretty awesome as well. Most players wouldn't even get to make a touch there, but crossing in that fashion is a different level of skill.

[remains of the day 564]

My stream kept lagging, but actually didn't think the performance in the first half was bad. I thought Essien was dragging down the team a bit and left Ramires to do too much on his own but regardless chances were still created and the pressing was good. Second half we were excellent. Good performance overall; of course this result means nothing if we go on to lose against Sunderland.

[Ankit 3,176]

Mourinho: 'Essien subbed as 45 mins in his position with a yellow card, against a team who counter-attack, is a long time to play.' #CFC

Jose Mourinho: 'The Southampton goal was like a knife in the back, but in the first half we played well, with no panic.' #CFC

Mourinho: 'In the second half we played 4-4-2 and gave Southampton what they didn't expect. Mata gave us what we needed.' #CFC

Mourinho: 'Southampton like to play from the back but by us playing two strikers pressing, it didn't allow that.' #CFC

Mourinho: 'Everybody makes mistakes, and Essien was trying to play when he made his, but he also played his part in our stability.' #CFC

Mourinho on winning the title: "The boys have to cope with the responsibility of being there [being involved in a race]."

[Ankit 3,176]

Double Post

[darrus 422]

Any place to rewatch the second half?

[NiclasCFC 2,582]

Great result from a hard match. Team responded magnificently in the second half and Mourinho bringing on Ba to play up front together with Torres worked wonders.

Sunderland, Stoke and Crystal Palace coming up next. If we win all three we'll most likely be on top by the time we face Arsenal because at least some of our rivals are guaranteed to lose points when they play each other. Arsenal have Hull, Everton and Manchester City as their next three league fixtures and Hull showed today against Liverpool that they won't just bend over and accept defeat when a big team comes to visit.

My thoughts exactly.

Hull unfortunately have Curtis Davies suspended for the Arsenal match

[NiclasCFC 2,582]

A lot of players deserve MOTM. Ba changed the game and was excellent throughout and deserved his goal. Rami was just everywhere and made 10 tackles, I read! Mata practically won us the game with two classy deliveries, something we have missed badly in recent game. Azpi was excellent once again despite being out of position and JT continued his incredible form this season. Even Cahill had a great game. But I had to go with Iva for MOTM. I've gave a lot of stick this season, but today he was just perfect throughout the match. Just didn't put a wrong foot in all match.

Is that you Bushman?

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Is that you Bushman?

He's rubbing off on me!

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I knew I saw Dani Osvaldo somewhere else before!

Was thinking the very same thing.

Osvaldo was not only real shit but man did he complain a lot to the ref... I kept wanting to yell "shut the fuck up you fake ass Drogo!"

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

everyone worked their ass off. ivanovic in particular was a rock at the back

3 points. 2nd place. couldn't be happier

Absolutely OWNED Luke Shaw.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

essien motm for me

J.Mourinho: 'Everybody makes

mistakes, and Essien was trying

to play when he made his, but

he also played his part in our

stability.'

One mistake big deal

[The_Flash 1,144]

When they got that goal literally 13 seconds in, I thought WTF!!!

As the game went on, it was hard to watch. I couldn't believe it. I could see the glory hunters with their 'Jose Out' signs.

The ref was a joke again letting so many tackles go.

Luckily the performance improved dramatically after half time. Some good goals by Gary and John and Ba.

When they were asking Gary what happened with the first goal. It reminded me of this Rangers game where a very similar thing happened, our captain at the time Davie Weir simply said "...we weren't ready..". It would have been a fitting explanation again today.

[Billy. 2,742]

Love the guy but Essien is finished. dont want to see him near the first team anymore

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Massive performance in the second half. Ridiculous goal to give away, the gap between Ivanovic and Cahill was insane, you could park 50 buses in that space, Cahill and Ivanovic really struggle playing together at the right side of the defence since Cahill can't cover Ivanovic and Ivanovic is usually so far up/really wide and obviously Essien's pass was incredibly bad...... if he were a Southampton player then it would be incredible haha. Kept plugging away, wasn't particularly impressed in the first half but the second half Torres, Ramires, Ivanovic, Mata, Azpi and Hazard were all excellent I thought. Ba came on and his presence made a difference against Lovren and Fonte... he took his goal well. Hopefully Mata will get more minutes, he put in a real shift. Buzzing to see him playing again.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Mourinho has to play one of Mata and Oscar. Not both.

Based on what exactly? I thought both were great today

[didierforever 7,349]

i normally rate the players on their performance but to do so, there should be some consistency. today we saw 2 halves been played by the same team in 2 of the most contrasting ways possible. the level of shit we were in the first half is unattainable. it was barely a professional performance and we were lucky that southampton dint want to press their advantage and that they barely tried to play. on the other hand the 2nd half was something different altogether. we pressed the ball, actually ran on the pitch rather than hoping that the ball and the opposition players would actually come right to the feet. we actually showed some passion for the game, the club and the fans.

here is what i think of the players :

cech - dint have much to do except for picking the ball from the goal in the 15th second. very unlucky not to get a clean sheet. 7/10

iva - good crosses, even in the 1st half. i expected him to be the one who would be the most lost and the weakest point of our defence in this match but iva was simply brilliant. he keeps blowing hot and cold in consecutive games. was really solid today with his defending and even his attacking contribution. 7/10

JT-GC - the trend to couple them together continues. i can safely say this again, both were solid, both were good in the air, decisive on the ground and both scored a long overdue goal for us. it is shocking that we dont score more goals from setpieces given that we have these 2 and iva in the box. 8.5/10

azpi - was pretty decent. dint do much in the attack but a lot of that has to be blamed on hazard. defensively he was decent too and dint put a foot wrong. 7/10

essien - any squad in the world has some deadwood and this should tell us exactly who that is for us. i loved the "BISON". essien in my mind will always be the guy who scored screamers, literally bulldozed past players, bullied the other teams' midfielders but this is not that guy. this is not 10% of that guy. it is time we sold him, be it for 1mil or 500K but that is what should be done. players like AKE deserve a chance more than essien does and free-loaders like him who are earning 100k/week are threatening the development of those players. time for the us to move on from him. he will never be even the shadow of the player he was. 0/10

ramires - tried to do a lot in the first half but due to no support from any1 else in the mid, he was just tackling AIR. was a completely different player in the 2nd half when he played like the player he is. 8/10

hazard - was he on the pitch for 90 minutes? seriously!!! i actually dint see much of him for LARGE portions of the match. today i saw some1 actually get outmuscled by JAMES WARD PROWSE. i mean WTF!!! is that even possible. that too, not just once but many times. very disappointing performance. 5/10

mata - another proof that MAZACAR must not play together. they were pathetic in the first half together and the only time we sparked was when oscar got injured and subbed. there is no fucking point in playing mata and oscar together specially when u have wingers like schurrle and willian. it makes no bloody sense. as for mata's performance it was a decent one. could not assert himself in the first half as the deep midfielders simply could not provide the ball to him and we dint have the aerial ability to win first and 2nd balls. but literally controlled the 2nd half. also its not suprising that we scored from set-pieces today. the last time i remember that we scored from a set-piece was against tottenham which was another mata free-kick. the quality of his set-pieces itself makes him a "can not miss" player. 8/10

oscar - another "tired performance". dint look threatening at all and his injury might have been a gift in disguise. could not provide the link-up between the am's , strikers and deep-mids. got bullied by wanyama too easily. 6/10

torres - another good performance. won some aerial duels, took defenders on, tried to close down defenders with no apparent help from the mid-fielders. probably even deserved a goal but i just hope he continues to play this way. 8/10

subs :

lampard - i dreaded the moment when lamps took the field but was quite influential today. changed the tempo of the game with his passing and change of plays. good performance. 7.5/10

BA - MOTM for me. CHANGED THE GAME. was the catalyst. ran his heart out, chased everything down, a constant threat to the defenders as he was always running behind him. time and again he has shown that he is not here just to make up the numbers.well taken goal and brilliant general play. 9/10

mikel - not much to do.

JOSE - poor tactics, pathetic team selection to start with. i dont know if jose has a "problem" with schurrle but i cant for the life of me understand how schurrle is not starting games for us. today was the game tailor-made for him. as soon as we took the attack to southampton, they crumbled and that is exactly what schurrle would have done. starting essien against a team that presses the ball better than any team in the PL right now was a BLUNDER. even if u take out the goal, essien actually conceded the possession 90% of times he got it. this makes us thing about his situation with mikel.

he did get the subs right and eventually, we won and are 2nd and all the jazz, but it is not the first time he has got the starting 11 wrong and somehow has had to make up with the subs and change in tactics and falling to plan B. 5/10

[Mustafa 885]

Cech - Barely troubled. Couldn't do anything about the goal.

Ivanovic - Once again he was asleep and let his man in for Southampton's goal. Had a good second half and played a big part in our first goal.

Cahill - Great determination for his goal. Was pretty solid.

Terry - Osvaldo didn't gave him a challenge all game but he came out on top for the most part. Brilliantly taken goal on his 400th

Azpi - Keeping Cole out of the side. Didn't do anything wrong.

Essien - I felt bad for the lad when his pass gifted Southampton their goal. Subbed off at half time after a shocking first half

Ramires - IMMENSE all game long !! Terrific stuff for Ba's goal. He's one in a million

Oscar - Came off injured

Hazard - I expect a lot better from him. Poor decision making. Had his moments when he was involved in the game but another disappointing performance from him

Mata - He was excellent all night ! Heavily involved in all of our best moments throughout the game. My Man of the Match.

Torres - Put in a shift. Good to see that he's trying to keep up the form he showed before his injury !

Subs:

Lampard - Seemed like a strange move by Jose to put him on rather than an actual winger when Oscar came off injured but he wasn't bad at all. Played an important part in John Terry's goal

Ba - Bold move from Jose to bring him on for Essien, but it paid dividends as he was terrific off the bench. Missed a clear chance, but he made up for it with a great poachers goal.

Mikel - Got a few minutes towards the end of the game under his belt.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

People saying Essien is done will be eating their words come the end of the season. Far from done, just not the same player... He'll have a role to play with us relax, one mistake that early on doesn't mean you're done, it means you haven't played a lot of football.

[Thendo 1,088]

People saying Essien is done will be eating their words come the end of the season. Far from done, just not the same player... He'll have a role to play with us relax, one mistake that early on doesn't mean you're done, it means you haven't played a lot of football.

I agree, it's easy to judge him from that mistake and after a half game with poor overall team performance. I think he is good enough to chip in and start games here and there and provide more alternatives for our midfield.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I agree, it's easy to judge him from that mistake and after a half game with poor overall team performance. I think he is good enough to chip in and start games here and there and provide alternatives for our midfield.

Of course he is!

The tandem made sense today but how many times has Ramires and Ess actually played together? its a factor. I don't think Essien was half as bad as people say he was after the mistake. He nearly scored and I don't remember Southampton getting another kick in the first half. Jose said it best J.Mourinho: 'Everybody makes mistakes, and Essien was trying to play when he made his, but he also played his part in our stability.'