Closed Sunderland 3-4 Chelsea

[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 27,106]

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 27,106]

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 6,980]

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

[The_Flash 1,144]

God, i don't know if that was an amazing game or an awful one.

It was hard going, i was knackered and I wasn't playing.

We did play well, particularly Eden obviously running the show, some great goals.

However the back was terrible, we let them have some s*** easy goals. It was hard to watch.

We got the three points which is vital but we can't do that every week, particularly against bigger teams. I don't know what we are going to do against LIverpool with Suarez scoring like that.

But on the good news, Utd lost

[bushman 2,043]

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.

I agree. However, sometimes a few mistakes, bad bounces & it´s in.

As you said, it could be punished by better teams, but who actually is considered better, Manures, Arsenal, Liverpool..? Lol.

The only team, that´s awesome at it, I see Citeh. Slowly, Chelsea & Citeh are climbing the ladder. Somehow, the goons are still on the top. Some folks say, Arsenal have not played against strong opposition. I say, they are much more consistent, than last year.

[Barbara 15,149]

Eden Hazard... sublime, can't find another word to describe the kid.
He's 22 and I don't have a problem with his consistency fluctuating for now, although of course I wish he played more often like this. I know at some point he will be playing like this every single match and had an odd bad match. I'm waiting that day patiently (although I do think it's time for me to already start showing improvement in 'starting' the season earlier, I expect him to have a better start next season). that's the man I keep saying is the best talent in our team, the Balon d'Oro material (for the future, the only player in our team that could run for that) and if I had been demanding from him lately is because I know that's what he can deliver. I'm going to be softer on a player I know there's only so much of a roof on their current form. If I'm harsher on Eden (and I'm not that harsh on him honestly) is because he can deliver matches likes yesterday much more often. It's just me trying to push him somehow (almost like pleading) to play like this more often. We need it.

I feel like I jinxed Willian one of the few comments I had in the live match thread was about his flair and how imo in the last month I should be him and two more players instead of discussing if Mata or Oscar should be #10. From that moment on (when I commentated) he dropped some of his level. But it's still undeniable that we don't have another player like him in the team. He has class that reminds of Mata's class. He works hard as much as Oscar does. His touch and control ball is second to absolutely no one in our team. He thinks fast like Mata and simple like Oscar and he can do runs like Hazard (although he's clearly slower). We need to develop this guy, to give him confidence and minutes. He's been having those glimpses of class football because he's still adapting - just like Eden and Oscar were last year. Of course, based on yesterday this team should be Hazard + 10 other players, but I do feel like Willian should be starting much more matches for us. We need to build his momentum because he can offer us something none of our other 5 AMs can.

Lampard had a magic game and I think as an unit we worked amazingly well. They were a good side against us yesterday. They didn't play as the bottom team of the table, but we worked very well to prevent them from doing anything in that match (except for distributing them goals for no reason.

Our defense: Terry and Ivanovic are tired. Luiz needs to recover from injury asap simply because we need rotation. JT is by far our best defender this season, we shouldn't burn him out. He's had injury problems in the latest seasons and we should protect our most reliable defender, not wear him down. As bad as Cahill + Luiz can be I hope we get to play them at least against Crystal and Sunderland, not because I'm pointing my finger on JTs mistakes today (and last match too), but the guy is no kid anymore and we should protect him physically.

I'm not going to overreact about the overall defense. We've been alternating some good and bad moments there. Brain-farts everywhere and Luiz isn't even playing. While those things are concerning, I don't think there's anything to do except ask those guys to keep concentration at all times. It used to be a problem only Luiz had and people crucify him for that. We had the same problem in the last three matches we've played from different players. What we do need is rotation, Cahill has been decent enough and I'm sure Luiz can match his level. We only have three CBs ready to play the first team (Ivanovic's been wore out in the LB, I can't count him as a CB too), we must rotate them because now it's Luiz who's injured, next we don't know...

Hopefully the poor set-piece defending was an isolated event last night... I remember us being quite consistent on it so far... We've conceded a thousand corners against Basel and we were pretty consistent defending them. I think last night was a mix of bad lucky, poor decisions and mainly tiredness. We're just starting December, I hope Luiz is fit next match and the three of them are able to keep themselves our of injury for the rest of the season. It's Luiz's injury that is causing us problems now as our defenders are clearly tired.

Oh and one more thing: I'm happy we've coped between four lines with being behind the scoreline. It's great we have a guy like Mourinho at the dugout who can fix things in the interval, through pep talk or hair dryer treatment, or who can come with tactics that leave our opponents confused, lost and unresponsive. But given the squad we have, the players starting matches for us every week we should be able to turn things around with those players doing it on themselves. They have quality to beat Sunderland and Southampton as they showed. It's great Mourinho can come and rescue us, but I was so happy we were able to react on our own, quite quickly, yesterday. It gives them confidence and honestly, makes me more confident too and relieved.

[Sheva. 5,373]

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.

We defend well for most parts, then concede weird goals. Has been the case all season.

[The_Flash 1,144]

I really think Ashley Cole should be on

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

I feel like I jinxed Willian one of the few comments I had in the live match thread was about his flair and how imo in the last month I should be him and two more players instead of discussing if Mata or Oscar should be #10. From that moment on (when I commentated) he dropped some of his level. But it's still undeniable that we don't have another player like him in the team. He has class that reminds of Mata's class. He works hard as much as Oscar does. His touch and control ball is second to absolutely no one in our team. He thinks fast like Mata and simple like Oscar and he can do runs like Hazard (although he's clearly slower). We need to develop this guy, to give him confidence and minutes. He's been having those glimpses of class football because he's still adapting - just like Eden and Oscar were last year. Of course, based on yesterday this team should be Hazard + 10 other players, but I do feel like Willian should be starting much more matches for us. We need to build his momentum because he can offer us something none of our other 5 AMs can.

I feel like Willian had a very odd game. He looked great on the break and some really nice plays and played really well for long stretches, but he made some really weird choices I don't know if I've ever seen a player hold on to the ball so much in a long time. Every time he got the ball, he'd start running with it (sometimes in weird directions) it or stand still with it for a few seconds. He needs to learn to move it quicker sometimes. That said, still very early in his career at Chelsea and he does show a lot of skill. It was nice to see that when we did move to a 4-3-3 at the end, we actually played with the proper players for it (1 defensive midfielder, 2 central midfielders, 2 wingers, and 1 striker).

[Pacquiao 1,834]

if you didnt vote for Hazard please give yourself a slap, thanks

[Shakez 755]

Find it funny people are complaining about Mata and Willian while this was one of our best creative performances in a LONG time. They both had there moments in the first half, and created an incredible chance just before the Eden Hazard show. Although Eden was on a class of his own, just imagine if all 3 where on fire! Willian and Mata still don't have the same match rythm as Eden, + it's still the first PL season for Willian with no pre-season and an almost wasted 6 months at Anzhi.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

if you didnt vote for Hazard voted torres please give yourself a slap, thanks

Fixed

[Billy. 2,739]

corner defence work is a must,

Hazard was different gravy last night

[bluesman2610 1,232]

Mata nowhere to be seen again.

I wonder when people are going to realize the manager has nothing personal against the guy, he just doesn't fit the style of football that we're playing...

disagree thought the connection of mata hazard and willian was very good...Hazard being the undisputed best of the three last night though

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

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.

Hear, hear. This is not a championship worthy back 5. We need to either change things up or go in and buy again.