Closed Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace

[Weckerz 3,781]

hazard - lost the ball about 10-15 times in the match. never tracked back, got into brilliant positions just to slow the game down and then make some awful decisions/passes. playing him and mata on the wings is a mistake for me as they play best when they combine. right now, the only way we are making chances is by hazard running and beating his man or willian running and beating his man. there is no actual play going on.7/10

Lost it 5 times. agree with the rest though, his decisionmaking was a bit off. Still our best player behind Willian

[pgleo 90]

There were some moments in the game where Crystal Palace players could drive a truck through the midfield without touching any Chelsea players today. ​ Seriously, it was so easy for them to move the ball forward and what's with poor set piece defending lately.

On positives, we are grinding results and that's what matters at the end. Also Willian is one very good consistent player. Better performance next match please Chelsea !! :blue scalf:

[robsblubot 3,529]

DL - u know u were poor when u get nut-megged twice by jerome. has to take his share of blame for the goal for yet again abondaning his position and trying to win the ball and in the end was hopelessly out of position. DL vs GC debate would again get red-hot but the main problem is the consistency with which the opposition is being let run at our defence with no cover from the mid. 6/10

JT - kept us in the game. saved luiz's asses both the times he got nut-megged by jerome, a brilliant on the line save and in general was brilliant. 8/10

Agree that he wasn't special, but hardly thought he would be after a month away. However, that's his job: he chases up the field - and gets occasionally nut-megged, but then Terry is supposed be in the second line and cover him like he did. This is far better defending than having both players on the same line for example, in which case if you beat one, you've beaten them both.

Perhaps this style of defending is indeed unusual in England, but I've honestly seen this setup many times before...

[Nero 1,847]

shit match....but a win is a win.

[The Mak 4,459]

Like I said

Cech out Courtois in

Luiz out Mangala in

Lampard out Witsel in

Eto'o, Torres and Ba out Suarez/Costa/Falcao and Lukaku in

Well it works for Man City and got us where we are today so...

I'm sorry, but could you please stop with your absolute bullshit posts. In the match thread you said "Pellegrini > Mourinho right now" and now you come up with this shit.

I'm pretty sure Mourinho would be top of the league with players like Toure, Fernadinho, Aguero, Negredo & Dzeko instead of Mikel, Lampard, Essien, Torres, Ba & Eto'o.

If it really was "Pellegrini > Mourinho" they'd at least be above us in the table with their amazing squad, but they're fucking not.

[Peppen 934]

Torres was so bad, apart from the goal. Hazard was ok, not spectacular but alright. Willian clearly MOTM.

[Alan Partridge 1,124]

Who's playing Ivan at RB? who can easily tell Luiz to stop the BS long balls?

We waste easy chances, that's not his fault. But the constantly giving the ball to Ivanovic to be our outlet is beyond ridiculous now.

And he has done nothing to change this since the beginning of the season.

That I still don't understand. He even called out Ivan on his crossing during a post match interview.

Cole must be fucking shite if a RB is keeping him out.

[bushman 2,043]

90% of your posts are about signing x or y player, fucking hell

Well, if in doubt just visit Roman, get on your knees & beg for more money to sign players = the Chelsea´s way.

[_007M_ 26]

Vote to hazard

& Also very happy to ses MATA in SQUAD

Great chance for us to catch top of the table next weak in case of spurs gave new year gift for us tomorrow & at least pulled liverpool down in DRAW at least

[nate91 36]

It's a fucking mystery how we are second and could possibly be first come Christmas when we look so shit.

This Chelsea squad may look like shit now but we can beat any squad on any given day. We have always played to the oppositions level and I don't see that trend stopping now.

[Ollie 4,400]

We were awful but we won. Arsenal will rip us a new arse hole in 9 days because we're all over the place. Thank fuck we aint playing City away any time soon.

[didierforever 7,349]

Lost it 5 times. agree with the rest though, his decisionmaking was a bit off. Still our best player behind Willian

willian and JT

[The Mak 4,459]

All I can say is thank fuck Ivanovic is finally getting benched for a game.

[Henrique 9,133]

-Luiz 5: I don't know if he played a worse match, but he was horrendous. Lost all challenges, all. Made few interceptions, and was an easy prey for Palace attackers.

-Terry 6: Chamakh scored a goal in his face.

-Ivanovic 6: very good at the defense, but few people in the world are better in the art of killing an attack opportunity.

-Azi 7: very good performance, knows how to defende and how to attack.

-Essien 5: every time he plays he convince us that his career as a world class DM is long gone.

-Ramires 7: should have scored the 3rd in the 2nd half, but is easily our man of the season in terms in consistence.

-Mata 6: a shadow of the player he used to be, looks sad on the pitch, but helped the team with his intelligence and his passes.

-Willian 7: got tired in the 2nd half, motm for his performance until he had the gas. He should be more incisive, try more shoots and dribbles.

-Hazard 6: another Hazard average performance, he had the ball on his feet for so many times but few were created, just his old " dribbling from left to right to right to the left" thing, and unlike

Ronald and Messi (people like to compare Hazard with both) sometimes he just look selfish without result. But the truth is even his average performances are good ones.

-Torres 5: scored a goal that even Kalou would have scored, the rest of the match was the usual Torres.

-Oscar 5: poor

-Schurlle/Ba 5: barely touched the ball, added nothing.

Mourinho 3: Horrendous. Looked like Scolari in his last days, or AVB. When the team went down in the 2nd half he waited too long before removing the tired Willian, decided to play Hazard in the right wing (???), replacing Mata for Oscar was really unnecessary, the team still looks vulnerable for 90 minutes (again).

[Pizy 18,419]

We were awful but we won. Arsenal will rip us a new arse hole in 9 days because we're all over the place. Thank fuck we aint playing City away any time soon.

Actually, knowing us we'll beat Arsenal like Jose usually does and then turn around and lose to Swansea the next game.

Our players seem to always be up for the big sides but look abysmal against weak opposition like we have the last 3 matches.

[Beigl 1,387]

We are lacking a gameplan..

[Special Juan 27,439]

We are poor right now but one look at the table and we are second. Not fucking bad at all.

Right I am off to get pissed, happy Saturday chaps.

[Ollie 4,400]

Actually, knowing us we'll beat Arsenal like Jose usually does and then turn around and lose to Swansea the next game.

Our players seem to always be up for the big sides but look abysmal against weak opposition like we have the last 3 matches.

I can't see this Chelsea team beating Arsenal away. Even Jose doesn't want these players, you can see how pissed off he was during the game. Even though Arsenal conceded 6, they still coulda scored 6. Against us, they might.