Closed Chelsea 1-0 Steaua Bucharest

[bushman 2,043]

its not like all we are doing is putting in unconvincing wins.

whu - 3-0, one of the best performances this season

soton - 3-1, should be 3-0 without the first 10 seconds and another brilliant performance.

sunderland - 4-3, brilliant attacking display countered with hopeless set-piece liability.

stoke - 2-3, brilliant football but hopless defending.

after recent performances, we needed a steady display rather than a flamboyant one. after conceding 6 goals to 2 of the worst attacking teams in the PL, we needed to go back to the basics and do what was need-ful. this match was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Well, the above teams are not the teams I would consider as strong teams. Those games the team like Chelsea must be winning, I feel. Then you continue about " steady display " when was the last time we have seen it, apart from a few sputters here & there ?

Yesterday´s match was what the doc ordered ? LOL.

[didierforever 7,349]

Well, the above teams are not the teams I would consider as strong teams. Those games the team like Chelsea must be winning, I feel. Then you continue about " steady display " when was the last time we have seen it, apart from a few sputters here & there ?

Yesterday´s match was what the doc ordered ? LOL.

strong teams like city? arsenal? well we won both our matches and we wiped the floor with schalke who were our main opponents in the group stage. so what are u cribbing about?

the doctor ordered a win, winning the group and a clean sheet. i saw all the 3 things happening, unfortunately people need to find fault in everything.

[WilsonMay 12]

Cole physical is not as good as before i can see, we really have to find a replace of that role. I would prefer AZP play as RB.

[bushman 2,043]

strong teams like city? arsenal? well we won both our matches and we wiped the floor with schalke who were our main opponents in the group stage. so what are u cribbing about?

the doctor ordered a win, winning the group and a clean sheet. i saw all the 3 things happening, unfortunately people need to find fault in everything.

Against Citeh = lucky win, Arsenal = not the strongest line-ups on both teams, Schalke = not the strongest team...not convinced here. Last night´s game, just a shitty team from Romania.

I am not looking for faults here. Perhaps, you & I have completely different view on Chelsea as to what this team should be all about. Personally, I feel there are 6 or 7 players on this team who are not performing well, at all. I would like to see them playing as Hazard had in recent games. These guys are paid well, but most of them are playing dick.

[Tomo 21,684]

1-0 win, not a great performance but a relatively comfortable win. If we could have done that more often in the league we would probably be top.

An average but comfortable 2-0 win against Palace would make my weekend. Give me that over a you score, we score 4-3 any day.

[didierforever 7,349]

Against Citeh = lucky win, Arsenal = not the strongest line-ups on both teams, Schalke = not the strongest team...not convinced here. Last night´s game, just a shitty team from Romania.

I am not looking for faults here. Perhaps, you & I have completely different view on Chelsea as to what this team should be all about. Personally, I feel there are 6 or 7 players on this team who are not performing well, at all. I would like to see them playing as Hazard had in recent games. These guys are paid well, but most of them are playing dick.

so citeh = WIN, arsenal = WIN. chelsea's main obejective is not to get fans convinced about themselves. we are joined 2nd in PL, topped the group in CL, QF of COC and we would have played a lot of good teams on the way to get where we are.

last night, there was just one person who dint play well - MIKEL. rest put in average performance. tell me one reason why we should have gone full throttle in this match. we have arsenal, pool, swansea, soton in this month but u want our players to complicate things by trying to attack and score 5 goals or somethin. infact i dont even know what u want out of this team.

like i said, last night all i wanted was a WIN, to top the group, clean sheet, and i got all of that with relative ease. i feel this team would go into every match with some expectations and tactics and all of them worked well last night.

[Jase 43,479]

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

And play who instead?

I'm getting tired of people bashing him when we lack other options. Last night wasn't a vintage performance by any means, but it was measured and controlled. He's still the only one of our midfielders who can play the occasional ball forward and provide some attacking impetus from that position.

Every player was muted last night, but at least he didn't fuck up like Mikel did. How he gets caught in possession and nearly gifts Steaua a goal from nothing I don't know because the one thing he's supposed to be good at is 'shielding' the ball. Thank god we're being linked with Matic because this might signal the end of his Chelsea career.

All in all it was a shit game to be at. No-one seemed up for it and once again the lack of quality in key positions was evident. Happy for Schwarzer to get a game because he deserves it after a great career, nice to see Luiz back in the team and put in a mistake-free performance under no pressure whatsoever, nice for Ashley to get back into the swing of things and grow into the game and that's about it.

Not quite sure why Willian is getting so many plaudits because I thought he was pretty ordinary and wanted to see De Bruyne come on for more than 10 minutes. So we're through as probably the worst group winners in the competition bar United.

Lampard had a 95% passing rate last night. He shot too much in the first half but overall was fine. Like you, I am sick of people attacking him when he's ordinary when everyone else is also ordinary. Like you, I also don't get the love for Willian's game yesterday. He played very well for a while but then was really poor for a long while too and gave the ball away really carelessly a number of times. Our attacking midfield has gotten away with getting almost no blame for a couple years no matter what happens. When they don't track back, the central midfield gets the blame for being overrun. When they don't create, strikers get the blame, when they don't move properly, the central midfield and RB/LB get the blame, etc...and yesterday was a perfect example for me. They were absolutely ordinary. Their spacing was poor, their movement was atrocious (there was one moment later in the game when Luiz had the ball at the centre line as looking to go forward for about 10 seconds and there was just nothing so he turned and passed to Terry which summed it up.) and they didn't really create very many chances against what was a very poor side.Yes, Ba missed a great chance, but how many times did we get the ball into him in dangerous areas? Once? Twice? Ba had 2 shots all game. Against a team like that, he should have been getting 5 or 6 good chances. And you can't blame the central midfield because our attacking midfielders had the ball constantly. It wasn't a case of not getting the ball to them. It was a case of them having the same attack plan which was to try to dribble the ball past the entire defence.

[y10edn 185]

There is definately a problem that goes beyond `JOM with the team, there is no connection between the back and the attackers: I can't remember a worse game than yesterdays. When the keeper tried huffing it Ba was out muscled, there was no creativity for most part of the game, despite having over 12 corner kicks. Mikel should not be the one seeing most of the ball in a game we had close to 65% possession at home. we lack a play maker that can pick the ball consistently and draw 3 opposition players to create room for the team like Silva for MUFC anytime we initiate an attack Oscar is front tucked on the left or right with his height disadvantage, Hazard with all the flicks and leg overs lacks the finish consistently. this disconnection has been on going for a couple of seasons now but never worse than the last few games how we are still well position in all competition beats me.

[bushman 2,043]

so citeh = WIN, arsenal = WIN. chelsea's main obejective is not to get fans convinced about themselves. we are joined 2nd in PL, topped the group in CL, QF of COC and we would have played a lot of good teams on the way to get where we are.

last night, there was just one person who dint play well - MIKEL. rest put in average performance. tell me one reason why we should have gone full throttle in this match. we have arsenal, pool, swansea, soton in this month but u want our players to complicate things by trying to attack and score 5 goals or somethin. infact i dont even know what u want out of this team.

like i said, last night all i wanted was a WIN, to top the group, clean sheet, and i got all of that with relative ease. i feel this team would go into every match with some expectations and tactics and all of them worked well last night.

Why Chelsea should have gone a full throttle...lol ? when was the last time Chelsea had done it ?

I do not need to see Chelsea scoring 5 goals per game. I want to see them playing football & not some erratic passing, struggling to penetrate..& missing on clear chances, that´s all.

[Special Juan 27,105]

Did enough but far from convincing. What was massively noticeable to me was how poor 90% of our teams first touch is. It takes us two touches before the ball is set from the player and allow him to move it on. Watching Bayern on Tuesday was a lesson in one touch control regardless of the finishing the result, the technique was sublime.

Also our poor pass selection is something that needs huge work. We countered a few times last night with Oscar and Hazard and the player who had the ball had easy out-balls to slide someone in and either chose to take the man on when the easier option was there, or, make the wrong pass to someone in a poor position. Finishing again was poor IMO, I really don't know why our cutting edge is so poor.

A win is a win but a lot of work to do.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Lets play crap and keep grinding out results. Would love to swap an attacking midfielder for a striker of note.

Don't complain. That's what good teams do. Last year we'd play crap and get thrashed.

[bushman 2,043]

Did enough but far from convincing. What was massively noticeable to me was how poor 90% of our teams first touch is. It takes us two touches before the ball is set from the player and allow him to move it on. Watching Bayern on Tuesday was a lesson in one touch control regardless of the finishing the result, the technique was sublime.

Also our poor pass selection is something that needs huge work. We countered a few times last night with Oscar and Hazard and the player who had the ball had easy out-balls to slide someone in and either chose to take the man on when the easier option was there, or, make the wrong pass to someone in a poor position. Finishing again was poor IMO, I really don't know why our cutting edge is so poor.

A win is a win but a lot of work to do.

Once again in Juan we trust ?

Well said. If any other Chelsea fan feels this team is ready to challenge for a major trophy, he ought to review all Chelsea´s games again, I feel. There is no comparison to the top teams like Bayern, Real, even Atletico plays much better.

[didierforever 7,349]

Why Chelsea should have gone a full throttle...lol ? when was the last time Chelsea had done it ?

I do not need to see Chelsea scoring 5 goals per game. I want to see them playing football & not some erratic passing, struggling to penetrate..& missing on clear chances, that´s all.

full throttle like whu, soton, stoke game!!! that would be full throttle attacking performances. LOL!!!

well this is the difference between us. u have a guideline of nots that chelsea should do (erratic passing, struggling to penetrate etc)... while i just wanted us to get back to winning ways after the energy sapping match against stoke.

[bushman 2,043]

full throttle like whu, soton, stoke game!!! that would be full throttle attacking performances. LOL!!!

well this is the difference between us. u have a guideline of nots that chelsea should do (erratic passing, struggling to penetrate etc)... while i just wanted us to get back to winning ways after the energy sapping match against stoke.

Well, I too want Chelsea to get into winning ways, but somehow it appears to me the team was more lucky, struggled than playing convincingly. Wouldn´t you rather see Chelsea playing well, passing crisply, scoring goals on clear chances ? I would.

I just feel the way this team is performing lately is not good enough to beat the top teams like Bayern, Real, PSG, Atletico, etc.

No team can be lucky forever.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Don't complain. That's what good teams do. Last year we'd play crap and get thrashed.

Worse, last year we'd play great but still not get the win.

[bushman 2,043]

Worse, last year we'd play great but still not get the win.

Is the team playing better this year ? You know, the most amazing thing about it, Chelsea is playing better than an average football, but are only a few points off the 1st place in the PL, won their group in the CL too. It just puzzles me a bit.

[didierforever 7,349]

Well, I too want Chelsea to get into winning ways, but somehow it appears to me the team was more lucky, struggled than playing convincingly. Wouldn´t you rather see Chelsea playing well, passing crisply, scoring goals on clear chances ? I would.

I just feel the way this team is performing lately is not good enough to beat the top teams like Bayern, Real, PSG, Atletico, etc.

No team can be lucky forever.

first things first, i dont think we were lucky. the amount of half chances we had, if we were lucky we would have scored 3 atleast.

i would like to see chelsea playing awesome football and all that but not if it directly interferes with our result. we are playing a 35 year old CM as a DM and his partner in the pivot was mikel who was hopeless last night. when we play the free-flowing game, our midfield tends to lose control of the match and we tend to concede some goals. yesterday was not a match to take any chances. it was to get back to the basics and just win.

as for top teams, we played one name in that list and literally gave them hell. we were 1 scond away from beating them. the difference in class is not much. infact i feel the only difference would be in consistency rather than the actual class.