Closed West Brom 1-1 Chelsea

[AndersonBLUE 819]

All is not lost obviously, West Brom love playing against us. We are still in a good position

[manpe 10,861]

@Hutcho, you have by far the best avatar.

And we obviously lacked proper offensive full-backs in this game. Dave offers nothing at left back offensively and Ivanovic, despite his good displays against better teams, is a centre back being played out of position. We don't stretch those teams enough who defend deep and compactively. Also Ramires is not a big help playing like that, he needs space to attack with pace, he's never gonna be the creative midfielder orchestrating our transitions. People may say we lack a proper striker, but against such teams I'd rather have tireless offensive wing-backs and an orchestrator along with Matic.

[Las7 951]

Salah is the most dangerous player we have on our bench - possibly Lampard.

Can't bring Torres or Ba on expecting anything other than them falling on their arse a few times and loosing the ball

Schurrle I sometimes forget we even have him

[CHOULO19 24,332]

That's the most frustrating thing. We go into matches like City, Liverpool, United, Newcastle and the like a bit nervy and not expecting an easy match, but when we come up against SHIT relegation candidate sides like West Ham and West Brom we just don't seem bothered or have so few ideas. We should be entering into matches like this expecting to blow teams like this out of the water with the talent we throw out there compared to theirs.

But this isn't La Liga or Ligue 1, there are no shit teams. Every single team in the EPL has players that can defend and keep their discipline for 90 minutes and have the quality to hurt you on the attack. We have at times blown teams away like Newcastle last week and Westham away, but we just don't have the consistency yet to do that every week.

Tonight, WBA were very disciplined and kept their shape in the fist half. We were lucky that they lost their concentration in the final seconds. In the second half we had much more space and got into the right areas to create chances and score goals but we just weren't clinical enough. Then around the 75 minutes, we made a few mistakes at the back with tiredness playing a role and Iva prefering to argue with the ref rather than actually defende playing a role as well and we gave them a few chances in a row and they got the belief and momentum and put us under pressure. Our players lacked the experience and the leadership in defense to hold on and we were always going to concede.

[lionsden 4,689]

Can someone give me a logical explanation why we always try to sit on a narrow victory to see the game out when it's been proven time and again to be a very dangerous and risky strategy. why did we stop pressing them high up the pitch in the 2nd half and genuinely try to control the game and push for the killer second goal. why invite unnecessary pressure to yourself by sitting back deep.

Makes no sense at all to me. the equalizer was inevitable, if you invite so much pressure , one moment of lapse in concentration or mistake is all it takes and you get punished.

[The only place to be 11,313]

If, in every one of our PL matches, the opposition were to sit back I doubt we would even make the top 4. We have become so dependent on the counter-attacking system that we are beyond clueless when trying to break down a team's defence when they 'park the bus'. Ramires lacks a footballing brain and any technical ability; our £85m trio of AMs cannot pick out a final ball to save their lives; losing the JT-Cahill partnership really destabilises our defence; and it doesn't help when we don't have a striker capable of holding up play. Sadly we are likely to see more performances and scorelines like this as our remaining fixtures are predominantly against teams in the bottom half of the table who don't play to our system. I actually reckon we have a better chance in the Champions League since we can play counter-attacking but we need to learn how to play with possession too!

I would say this is a copy and paste from a post you made a couple of weeks ago, but I can't see you bemoaning the selection of Ivanovic.

[Blue Traveler 256]

We were surrounding to them at the last 10 mins of the match like we were 1 man down against Real Madrid in Santiago!!!

[Pizy 18,918]

Its the attitude in the past coming into games like this playing either like its a walk in the park or its already won before even kicked off.

Just rage inducing for me when we drop silly points against sides who don't have a single player who'd even make our bench. Knowing we can possibly create a small gap at the top and put massive pressure on our rivals the player should've been starving to make a statement win. Instead, we just stopped playing and offered West Brom a point on a plate.

Should've killed that game. Dropping points to Everton next week I could've accepted. Not West Brom. With City and Liverppol having bankers in their next matches we MUST beat Everton now.

[Barbara 15,149]

haven't watched one sec of the match - not even followed the comments on internet, except one single comment saying they had 8-9 players inside their box.

I've been saying it for a while. We don't know how to play against teams that park the bus, but maybe that wasn't the problem, as we had a lead and let them draw.

I'm disappointed, but then again, the team isn't ready... we all know (or should know) that.

[Jase 43,479]

Clearly the cursed black away kit is at fault here...

After performing well in the last 1 1/2 months or so, a drop in performance level like this is bound to happen, frustrating as it is. Didn't play well at all but had chance to kill the game off with that counter attack chance we got in the second half. Hazard seem to take yonks to get to the ball and put in a simple low cross into the 6-yard box. The lack of decisiveness and ruthlessness were evident there.

As for West Brom's goal, I'm putting the blame on Ivanovic. Once again, he stood off the crosser and didn't even bother closing Berahino in this case and put pressure on him. Utterly pathetic! And the goal was coming as we seem to have lost it especially Ivanovic had a silly argument with Cech and Cahill picking up an injury. The team suddenly looked all over the place and even Cech suddenly look lost when West Brom put crosses or balls into the box.

It's just .

[Beepu 1,714]

If, in every one of our PL matches, the opposition were to sit back I doubt we would even make the top 4. We have become so dependent on the counter-attacking system that we are beyond clueless when trying to break down a team's defence when they 'park the bus'. Ramires lacks a footballing brain and any technical ability; our £85m trio of AMs cannot pick out a final ball to save their lives; losing the JT-Cahill partnership really destabilises our defence; and it doesn't help when we don't have a striker capable of holding up play. Sadly we are likely to see more performances and scorelines like this as our remaining fixtures are predominantly against teams in the bottom half of the table who don't play to our system. I actually reckon we have a better chance in the Champions League since we can play counter-attacking but we need to learn how to play with possession too!

And yet we are still fighting for the title, even with all these deficiencies. Just excites me to see this young team as it matures more and gain more experience playing together, and of course the necessary reinforcements in the transfer window.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Can someone give me a logical explanation why we always try to sit on a narrow victory to see the game out when it's been proven time and again to be a very dangerous and risky strategy. why did we stop pressing them high up the pitch in the 2nd half and genuinely try to control the game and push for the killer goal. why invite unnecessary pressure to yourself by sitting back deep.

Makes no sense at all to me.

Because it's a very tiring tactic and we had a game on Saturday.

Why didn't the tactic work? Because Anichebe got free from his marker.

[Cech's helmet 220]

Man, cant we stay on top at least for a week ffs

[The only place to be 11,313]

haven't watched one sec of the match - not even followed the comments on internet, except one single comment saying they had 8-9 players inside their box.

I've been saying it for a while. We don't know how to play against teams that park the bus, but maybe that wasn't the problem, as we had a lead and let them draw.

I'm disappointed, but then again, the team isn't ready... we all know (or should know) that.

They didn't park the bus. They defended well but we scored from a corner and it wasn't against the run of play. They actually left a lot of space in the second half and we should've scored, but they managed ONE SHOT ON TARGET and scored from it.

[NiclasCFC 2,582]

Come on Poyet, produce some magic tommorow! And then we have....Moyes.... yeah just do..... whatever you do with your team.... Just get that bloody point!

[calculatingInfinity 1,472]

Come on Poyet, produce some magic tommorow! And then we have....Moyes.... yeah just do..... whatever you do with your team.... Just get that bloody point!

Moyes do whatever he does with the team? That's bad advice. Will probably be 100 crosses and 0 goals for them.

[iseah100 5,612]

Yea, we shouldn't have sat back, but we did. We dropped 2 points but we'll still be in the hunt till the end. Young team, and in the CL and FA Cup we'll be better cause we're facing top teams. Chelsea is a team on the rise. Another example of how EPL is the best league in the world.

[steve_n17 31]

if man city lose tomorrow it will only make this result worse

[Weckerz 3,781]

if man city lose tomorrow it will only make this result worse

cus fuck logic

[dee25 1,044]

Shame. A chance missed. I probably would have left Eto'o on, especially with us sitting back. Torres is just returning from injury and even when fit, he's not particularly good at holding up the ball to relieve pressure whereas that's one of Eto's strength. The times when we did manage to get the ball to Hazard, the moment it was played to Torres, he turned over possession. Kinda hard not to sit deep if the attacking players are unable to hold onto the ball.

Ramires should have stayed on the pitch, even though he (once again) had a poor game. I would have moved him right, Willian in the middle and brought on Frank to sit alongside Matic. With a midfield of Frank, Matic, Willian Ramires, Hazard....... I really don't think we would have been under such intense pressure as we were in the last 20 or so mins.

Anyway, take it on the chin and move on. Just such a shame for the players and coaching staff. All the hard work they put in last month only to stumble at such a crucial time.