Closed Chelsea 3-1 Southampton

[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. 2,739]

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

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

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.'

[didierforever 7,349]

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.

dont see why we need essien for that. ake can do that too and definitely better than what essien did today.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

It was a great game to watch honestly. We played really well in the 2nd half.

And Essien looked good to me apart from the backpass. I'm happy he started, he is loyal and will always put in a good shift when he is called upon. He was working very hard in that first half.

[Tomo 21,684]

We were never not winning that, was one of those games were it was pretty obvious it was a matter of when not if we hauled ourself's back into it, a bit like the 5-1 against Bolton in 2005.

[Thendo 1,088]

dont see why we need essien for that. ake can do that too and definitely better than what essien did today.

As I said, it's easy to judge him only based on the mistake he made, he was fairly decent overall but then again no one was impressive except for maybe Torres during the first 45. And you have to remember that his only start this season was vs Arsenal in the league cup where he actually did a good job. I don't think it's needed for us to call up Ake when I assume we go for a new CM in january. But if we don't then I actually would like to see Ake or maybe even Josh get some minutes.

[didierforever 7,349]

As I said, it's easy to judge him only based on the mistake he made, he was fairly decent overall but then again no one was impressive except for maybe Torres during the first 45. And you have to remember that his only start this season was vs Arsenal in the league cup where he actually did a good job. I don't think it's needed for us to call up Ake when I assume we go for a new CM in january. But if we don't then I actually would like to see Ake or maybe even Josh get some minutes.

he was good? he lost the ball/he threw away the ball/he gifted the ball about 5 times in the first half.

we have a player in mikel who is a decent DM and can do what essien must have done today. i simply cant see the use of essien in this squad except for taking some valuable minutes away from our youth.