Closed West Brom 1-1 Chelsea

[thekid9 418]

Still totally gutted , we should be 4 points clear , knowing that we would be top for at least over a week with the fa cup break!

[Beirut_Blues 306]

fukk

[haranr 485]

Luiz is not good enough in the CB position. We should sell him or start playing him regularly in the CDM position. He is not a leader and we draw this game thanks to him. If John was there we wouldn't have concede.

[TrippingStep 336]

Didn't see the match but saw that 9 of 14 shots have been from Willian and Ivanovic.

Was it a case of the opposition shutting down left and central area and letting a bit more space on the right?

Maybe it's time for Salah to have more minutes on the right if the opposition will use this tactic.

And use Cole and Azpi as fullbacks, especially if the right winger of the opposition is not a pace whore.

[The Rising Sun 696]

We were simply too slow. That is the only reason we could not win.

Oscar needs to remember what made him so good.... that closing down , chasing opponents and making hard tackles.... hasnt been doing that of late.

Ramires in general is one of those hit and miss players as apart from pace, there is ZERO technique.

It was a bad day at the office for us and there are no excuses, but it is a good wake up call for ALL the players. The title does not come because of 1 or 2 good performances.... If your level as a collective lowers and that hunger is missing, if you turn up expecting to win.... BOOM.... reality check.....

Better now than later IMO.

I expected a halftime talk by Jose though which would change the way we played but we were still too slow, almost walking the ball sometimes expecting openings to develop. There was a lack of intelligent movement, lethargy among the team.

Maybe Lampard instead of Ramires to start would have been a good move for such a game.

We need Arsenal to draw or Lose, cant stop city from winning against sunderland at home, so i'll take 2nd place for now, with the hope they drop points in the future, and we dont mess up the chance to go top and stay there again.

[ZOS 580]

• not too disappointed. We couldn't cope with their set-pieces, anyone could see the equalizer was coming. Garry's injury was also a factor
• Willian, Oscar and Branislav were great
• Hazard, Matic and GC had an OK game
• Eto'o, Azpi and Cech were poor
• Ramirez was totally shit. In my opinion he's the only player still in the club that hasn't improved under Jose
• Told you guys about the black jersey

come on united

[DoubleO 192]

• Willian, Oscar and Branislav were great

think it was his worst performance in Chelsea.

But let's not over-react. We are still the top of the league. let's see how arsenal and city do today and look where we are then. you can't always win. cmon Chels!

[Alabama 1,992]

Ramires is shitty...i pray Jose gets a player in the mould of gundogan or vidal...our cm will be tremendous...

[Alabama 1,992]

Luiz is a calamity...

[Milan 17,835]

Very frustrating. We win 6 points against City but against WBA only 2, bloody 2 points against WBA! Jose definitely needs to start rotating. It's not like we have Bertrard on the bench ready for a left flank, or Kalou etc...

[ZOS 580]

think it was his worst performance in Chelsea.

But let's not over-react. We are still the top of the league. let's see how arsenal and city do today and look where we are then. you can't always win. cmon Chels!

I thought he did good, honestly. I don't see what he didn't do of what is expected of him. In the other hand Ramirez didn't do anything of significance.

I agree, no need to over-react

[Jase 43,479]

5 yards out dude. That is how close iva could get. Letting berahino go goal side or even cross to the near post would have been far worse options.

And yet the 5 yards could be less had Ivanovic got out quicker! I know you don't think Ivanovic is at fault here but first you said, Ivanovic couldn't close Berahino down because there was a gap between him and Cahill (Mikel and even Ramires can cover), then Ivanovic couldn't do that because it would become a 2 v 1 situation (no WBA player was near Berahino to do that) and now you're saying letting him get goal side or even cross to the near post is far worse when there is not one WBA player there and either Cahill or Mikel can clear it?!

Nobody ask Ivanovic to just charge in on Berahino and win the ball back but he needed to get out quicker and be more aggressive in closing Berahino down. The cross may still come in but at least put pressure on the ball, on the crosser and make as difficult as possible for the opposition to put a ball in, which may result in them putting an inaccurate cross. If you are just gonna stand off the player and give him time and space to cross the ball, you are basically running the risk of that player putting in a good cross and one of their teammates score it especially if somebody else in that defence makes a mistake.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

The result was frustrating, but not as much as reading this thread. Oscar is shit, Luiz is a pub team player, Ramires is not a footballer and we need to buy to replace half our team just because we dropped two points even though we have been the best team in the league in the past 6-7 weeks!

It really gets on my nerves sometimes how spoiled our fans have become..

[Jase 43,479]

Arsenal and Manchester City aside, Liverpool can close the gap on us to 4 points tonight if they beat Fulham and not to mention, the ones outside the Top 4 can also close the gap to 7 points if they win their games. Eeek!

[Jase 43,479]

[bushman 2,043]

What can I say here ?

All I can say two lost points. These points could be crucial at the end, I feel.

Who´s to blame for it ? The whole team, I believe. Once again, the chances were presented but they were not converted.

Just one question still puzzles me. Why Frank was not played last night ?

We all knew, they were going to defend only. The hoof balls by Luiz, Iva did not help much either, Samuel was in hiding, last night..

West Brom team was standing in front of their box. That´s why I thought Frank could have played, then.

After all, Frank is the only player who could actually shoot & hit the net properly, even outside the box.

Oh well, disappointed but not the end of the world.

[Special Juan 27,104]

That period of ten to fifteen minutes in the second half was what cost us, bad decision making and poor in front of goal again.

However, all is not lost we are still in a great position.

[didierforever 7,349]

And yet the 5 yards could be less had Ivanovic got out quicker! I know you don't think Ivanovic is at fault here but first you said, Ivanovic couldn't close Berahino down because there was a gap between him and Cahill (Mikel and even Ramires can cover), then Ivanovic couldn't do that because it would become a 2 v 1 situation (no WBA player was near Berahino to do that) and now you're saying letting him get goal side or even cross to the near post is far worse when there is not one WBA player there and either Cahill or Mikel can clear it?!

Nobody ask Ivanovic to just charge in on Berahino and win the ball back but he needed to get out quicker and be more aggressive in closing Berahino down. The cross may still come in but at least put pressure on the ball, on the crosser and make as difficult as possible for the opposition to put a ball in, which may result in them putting an inaccurate cross. If you are just gonna stand off the player and give him time and space to cross the ball, you are basically running the risk of that player putting in a good cross and one of their teammates score it especially if somebody else in that defence makes a mistake.

yes I said all those things cos that is what would happen when a fullback charges against a winger who had the time to take a touch and infact shift the ball to hia right feet. Look at ridgewell's (I think) run. That is how it would have 2 on 1. Look at iva's position when berahino fiest touched the ball. And it was not like iva was positioned poorly but the fact that he was running half the length of the field. if Gc was fit enough he would have xlosed berahino down himself. Also if berahino had got goal side anichebe would have madr that run for sure.

And in place of all this iva simply let berahino lob the ball in the box, which should have been dealt by luiz.