Closed Sunderland 3-4 Chelsea

[Clevemayer 764]

who said mata had a bad game... WTF are you serious?

This was our most creative best offensive display so far and one of the greatest after that bridge-night against barca in 2004/05 CL, and that time it was a perfect athletic game, with crisp and fast passing, but last night ALL THREE creative players were out of this world... and thats what we're missing when Juan DOESN'T play... he faded away after 70 Mins though but I think it was mainly because of that cunt Dossenas tackle, right before the break, before that him and Eden were unbeliveable, after that he still was great but willian and Hazard were better.

But defensively it was a shocker...

[oxfordblues 299]

when the sky presenter said its a cracker,i never expected that wow what a game and i never knew the score as was my 5 a side night so did`nt want to know the score,what a cracker it was

[Strike 7,295]

Would love Witsel.

Witsel, Ramires, Witsel, Lamps (would play well most games if he is used in a lesser role) and Mikel would get us through until Van Ginkel gets back.

everyone would love Witsel i think. he can do it all in midfield. he will cost more than the 32million pounds Zenit paid for him though.

[The only place to be 11,313]

how on earth willian was excellent? i cant remember one good action by him. always played the ball back to the defender or to our DM. he really couldnt create anything the whole game and drifted in to the centre far too often. he has no clue how to play with our team at the moment.

So you're criticising our central attacking midfielder for drifting into the centre far too often?

Quality observations there Toli.

Not too sure if the criticisms of Cahill are fair. You could argue that he should be tighter to O'Shea for the second goal but I'm not sure why he was singled out by some. JT simply gets the wrong side of Altidore for their first goal (not the worst thing in the world, and you'd expect Altidore to move the ball onto his right foot not his left) and the third goal is just a mess. Mikel misses a clearance, then Ba isn't tight enough on Bardsley.

There's nothing systematically wrong about the goals we conceded - they just look sloppy. We aren't failing to pick up players in the box, but we're not getting tight enough.

[bushman 2,043]

Yesterday, Hazard rose to the task. The best game I ever saw him, last night.

A massive 3 points. Personally, I do not care about the level of performance from Chelsea. All I want is a Chelsea win & 3 important points!

Chelsea made the game difficult. Defending, Torres not converting on two clear occasions to kill the game off, but Chelsea dug in when needed & won it. That´s all matter to me, for now.

[Special Juan 27,517]

When the OG went in......"is there a fire drill"

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Hazard was the man of the match, but it wasn't as clear as some people make it out to be. Super Frank was, indeed, super last night - so he gets my vote for scoring his 208th Chelsea goal. The man is a living legend. Granted he has been very inconsistent this season - that is down to reasons I have documented on multiple occasions, i.e. old age and a lack of options in the CDM role, etc., so I won't re-emphasise those points again - but when he is good, boy, he's damned good. Easily his best display of the season.

We were a little fortunate yesterday though. The scoreline makes Sunderland look a lot better than they really were - we controlled the game for large periods, but that is precisely my concern. How can a team so dominant concede three set-piece goals to a team like Sunderland?! It's not as if the deliveries were fantastic crosses that you can do nothing about; all three goals came about because we failed to sufficiently defend those situations. In the end, we somewhat stumbled over the line - we were indebted to a moment of madness from Bardsley, ultimately, and then ended up having to hold on for dear life against the side that is rooted, quite firmly, to the bottom of the league.

Whilst I am happy - nay, thrilled - without our attacking display last night (indeed, Hazard and Lampard were simply magnificent, Ba was excellent - again - when he came on (surely he is worth a start up against the bully-boys of Stoke?), Mata and Willian were tireless and Ramires, though his passing in the final third was poor, was as industrious as ever and worked very hard for the team defensively, which is, of course, his primary function.

But this performance underlines the fact we need defensive reinforcements in January. Ivanovic had an off game, and not for the first time this season. Even John Terry looked out of sorts; the way he allowed Altidore to turn for their opener was quite uncharacteristic. With every passing game it seems more and more like Cahill is in over his depth - which is a painful realisation when you consider he is, by some distance in my opinion, the more-suited of he and Luiz to Mourinho's defensive set-up, and even Athy-Pilly-Kweta was caught out a number of times against a side who, let's be fair, aren't exactly the most dynamic attacking outfit in the league. Whilst they hardly posed us any problems in open play, the fact we were caught out in an area where we are traditionally very strong is a worry for me. They were three very sloppy goals to concede; the players simply weren't tight enough to the men they should be marking. Granted we miss a kick here or there to make it look sloppier than it was, but the bottom line is we let in three terrible, terrible goals.

So whilst I am buzzing with the result - a win is a win, and boy, we needed one last night with Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Tottenham all winning - I'm a little concerned with the fact that we've conceded 14 goals in as many league matches this year. That isn't the defensive record of a side capable of winning the Premier League, in my opinion. People say we need a striker - and you can argue that we most definitely do - but right now, as far as I'm concerned, we're scoring enough goals, BUT our issue is we're letting far too many in. 1 clean sheet in 9 league matches (and just four all season) is, quite frankly, abysmal.

[JamesGodfrey 87]

What a night that was, forget the defensive shambles aside it was all about the hazard show.

It was an Incredible performance!

Away support was fantastic and noisy as always

My view from last night

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bushman 2,043]

Yes, Chelsea conceded 14 goals, a bit concern here. However, several unfortunate errors should be attributed to it.

Oh well, just win the remaining games in December, buy a DM in January & keep on winning, then.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

We've created so many chances in our last 3 EPL matches and thats a great sign. Just remaining to sort out our individual errors in defense that has cost us 14goals in 14 matches

[MHL 47 378]

Multiquote or Quote isn't working for me right now:

@Jamesgodfrey - Great view, been up there myself and it gets a bit fresh that high up. It was far better at Sunderland when they gave us behind the goal at the opposite end.

@kellzfresh - Creating lots of chances, Mata playing for the majority of those two games, coincidence??

A bit poor at set pieces, Jose will sort that out.

Only watched on MOTD but we looked fluent enough. Pat Nevin was giving Dowd a going over on the Chelsea TV live commentary, for being inconsistent. Namely, giving free-kicks to Sunderland for certain things and not giving us free-kicks when similar things were happening to us. I'd disagree, Dowd is very consistent in doing that to us, particularly harsh on JT usually.

Hazard looked excellent last night, I've thought he's been a bit below last seasons standard generally this season. Although his overall goal tally isn't bad. Lampard looked decent on the highlights and Ramires looked his usual 'run twice as far as anyone else' self.

[Special Juan 27,517]

Still salivating over that little pass into Frank and the ball back to him for the goal.

Fucking class!!

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Yes, Chelsea conceded 14 goals, a bit concern here. However, several unfortunate errors should be attributed to it.

Oh well, just win the remaining games in December, buy a DM in January & keep on winning, then.

I'd love to win every game 4-3! But it does worry me that we've been letting in a lot of (sloppy or otherwise) goals this season. But a win is a win, as I said on the first page of this thread, and I'm delighted with that fact. But people almost seem to not care about the fact we shipped three poor goals. That's a major concern for me. It's not just the quantity of goals we've let in that concerns me (although, in fairness, only Southampton, Arsenal and Everton have let in less), but the manner of them; many of them are down to general brain-farts. If we don't stop making stupid school-boy mistakes, eventually we'll be punished by a more clinical side, such as the three named above.

[Special Juan 27,517]

The goals were so sloppy it was annoying, but it's easy fixed, a little more focus and organization and all will be good.

What worried me more about last night is the pace the fucking bar maids worked at........I am a seasoned drinker and they had me waiting the bitches

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Read my match report!

NO!

[Sidzeret 2,257]

It goes to show it's never easy to get 3 points against any PL side this season.

If like to see a bit more domination in the coming games especially against Stoke.

Not more defensive discipline and presence of mind and we're gonna be perfect.

[Special Juan 27,517]

Sunderland ended up running us close due to our stupid mistakes, simple as that, they were utter crap most of the game and void of ideas.

[Strike 7,295]

the setpiece defending yesterday reminded of Carlo's 2nd season here. Can't be so sloppy

it could be a good thing though because the team will put more focus on defending setpieces before Stoke