Closed Chelsea 2-0 Leicester City

[Viper22 2,418]

If anyone missed the game today, it's being replayed in full on SNF in half an hour on Sky Sports 1.

I missed the game so I can see for myself if the Cesc-Matic pivot was really that poor today or if people are just talking bollocks (from past experience I know which one is more likely).

Also I get to watch Tibo prove why he's the 2nd best GK in the world. Lovely.

[Myself 793]

If anyone missed the game today, it's being replayed in full on SNF in half an hour on Sky Sports 1.

I missed the game so I can see for myself if the Cesc-Matic pivot was really that poor today or if people are just talking bollocks (from past experience I know which one is more likely).

Also I get to watch Tibo prove why he's the 2nd best GK in the world. Lovely.

Some dumbass I know said Ospina was better than Courtois. :|

[Viper22 2,418]

Some dumbass I know said Ospina was better than Courtois. :|

[The Mak 4,459]

I thought Oscar in particular was dog shit in the first half. Simple passes intercepted and easily dispossessed at times. Alright in the second half but I thought both Ramires and Willian offered more when they came on. Really nice to see that strength in depth.

Matic had a poor game for his standards as well. Andre couldn't seem to get going.

Fabregas was solid enough. He's never going to have as good a game as last week every single week remember.

Costa did his job.

Hazard played better. Hopefully he can kick on. I don't think he'll get as much of the ball as he did last season now with Fabregas and Costa, not to say he won't be as effective. The weight off his shoulders is only positive.

Ivan and Courtois were absolutely fantastic.

Great job overall. It felt very much like one of those games last season where we dropped silly points. Take nothing away from Leicester though, they played very well, very confident.

[Myself 793]

Not going to lie, I lost my shit.

[Billy. 2,742]

1st half slow and clueless

2nd half faster tempo, hazard and costa linked much better.

also nice to have a striker that scores

[robsblubot 3,595]

I'll have to disagree. No one is praising him for his performance, but calling it "horrible" is strange and I was responding to that. He didn't have a poor game by any stretch of imagination, unless you have unrealistic expectations. "Decent but poor by his standards"? What are those standards? Is he supposed to make 2 assists from through-balls every game to meet those standards? What the hell. It's not like he didn't make some neat passes and got an assist. Yes, it wasn't much of an assist, because Hazard had to do most of the work afterwards, but still, he was there, building our attacks, as he did the entire game. He could have gotten another assist if Iva was luckier.

It wasn't a spectacular performance by him, but it was a solid one. Only Hazard made more key passes than him in this game.

Yeah, I get it. Just to put things into perspective: David Silva made 16 through balls in the entire last season. That's 1 through ball every other game. Seems like not much, but it was actually second best result in the entire Europe last season, the first being Cesc's 24 through balls in a season. I know Cesc does a lot of through balls, but if he did 2 through balls every game like he did against Burnley, he would have over 60 through balls in a season. That's very unrealistic. So we should try managing our expectations. So far Cesc is more than on target.

Yeah disagree to disagree as I still think he was pedestrian.

For me Oscar was better than him in every aspect, especially in the key moments in the second half which actually won us the match. And yet, the 22 Oscar is constantly criticized by not providing enough key passes, goals, and assists. Should I then be satisfied with sideway passes from our 27yo maestro? I will praise him when he truly has a great game like the last one.

We did NOT play well today. A better team could've punished us for it (they were so poor though) and these type of performances is the reason we did not win the league last season.

It's nice to praise the newly promoted outfit, but they look like going right back to where they came from - no quality in the final third whatsoever.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

More of a tactical issue than a personel issue imo. You have the front 6 that's trying to press and be proactive and there's the back four sitting deep and containing. Especially Cahill, man that guy needs to grow some balls and take more risks.

That really needs to be fixed. You either soak up the pressure or you press (which means pushing the defensive line higher up). And it should be the latter imo, especially against inferior sides. Defenders should be able to defend with more space in their backs and defend proactively at this level.

Don't know if you saw the Real-Atletico game, Ramos and Varane would often cross the halfway line. I'm not saying the same must happen at Chelsea but better than they're doing now.

That won't happen here, because we have slow centerbacks,if we keep a high line we will be skinned alive by pace

[Special Juan 28,141]

Game of two halves. First half was beyond shocking but we kicked in.

Love Costa because he is just that player. Hazard is like a radiator, he takes a while to warm up but when he does he's proper warm.

Fuck em alllllll

[Styles 9,790]

More of a tactical issue than a personnel issue imo. You have the front 6 that's trying to press and be proactive and there's the back four sitting deep and containing. Especially Cahill, man that guy needs to grow some balls and take more risks.

That really needs to be fixed. You either soak up the pressure or you press (which means pushing the defensive line higher up). And it should be the latter imo, especially against inferior sides. Defenders should be able to defend with more space in their backs and defend proactively at this level.

Don't know if you saw the Real-Atletico game, Ramos and Varane would often cross the halfway line. I'm not saying the same must happen at Chelsea but better than they're doing now.

Good point.

[Tomo 21,751]

Am I the only one a little bit worried that we only have five senior defenders?

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Yeah disagree to disagree as I still think he was pedestrian.

For me Oscar was better than him in every aspect, especially in the key moments in the second half which actually won us the match. And yet, the 22 Oscar is constantly criticized by not providing enough key passes, goals, and assists. Should I then be satisfied with sideway passes from our 27yo maestro? I will praise him when he truly has great game like last one, not like this.

We did NOT play well today. A better team could've hurt us (they were so poor though) and these type of performances are is the reason we did not win the league last season.

It's nice to praise the newly promoted outfit, but they look like going right back to where they came - no quality in the final third whatsoever.

So far, in these 2 games for Chelsea, Fabregas made 7 key passes and 3 assists. Oscar made 2 key passes and 0 assists. I think Fabregas is doing a pretty passable job. Pun intended.

No one is asking you to praise him, but calling his performance poor when he's actually doing his job well -- distributing the ball, creating chances and getting assists--is strange. Right now, he's the top assister in Europe.

[DYC. 7,542]

That won't happen here, because we have slow centerbacks,if we keep a high line we will be skinned alive by pace

Not necessarily. Press effectively and like we saw a few times today, players will just play long balls and give up possession. Especially teams like this. Of course it will always be a bit risky but that's why Chelsea plays for the title.

Mourinho's game plan for big games is already known and I don't think he'll change the cautious approach in those games.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Not necessarily. Press effectively and like we saw a few times today, players will just play long balls and give up possession. Especially teams like this. Of course it will always be a bit risky but that's why Chelsea plays for the title.

Mourinho's game plan for big games is already known and I don't think he'll change the cautious approach in those games.

Hopefully we do this against the smaller sides and kill the game early but because of the slow backline we will probably only do that for 45mins in every game

[Billy. 2,742]

Am I the only one a little bit worried that we only have five senior defenders?

Nope, i think we need one more

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

Great 3 points lads! Probably struggled to win this one last year and more likely a draw. Enough about comparisons to last year though, we are off and running at the top the table!

A little too calm in the first half. Did not see enough urgency until later in the half. Thought we were in control in the second half, even with the couple of good opportunities Leicester had.

Courtois really showed what his massive frame can do in a couple of awesome saves. He got left on an island a few of times. I think he is starting to settle in now. Glad to have him patrolling the box.

Costa is not going to win any track meets. Certainly not one of quickest players. He gets beat to loose balls a fair amount. BUT he makes up for his lack of quickness with his hustle, power and just sheer nose for the goal. He knows how to find the net when the ball finds him in the box with a thunderous shot.

Oscar played much better today. Thought Matic looked sharp. Schurrle his always energetic self. Willian looked tuned in as well when he came on. How awesome will it be to see Drogba find the net at the Bridge again

Glad to see Hazard finally looking in form. He looked like himself in the second half with his passes and late goal. Rarely saw this in the World Cup.

Curious when we will see Luis. I want to see how his skills will effect our forwards when he presses up the pitch, although Ivanovic really got offensive today and I thought made a tremendous difference with our offense when he pressed forward more and more. He handle himself really well working open in the box to feed Diego Costa for the first goal.

Good day to be at Fulham Broadway! Top of the table!

Come on you Chelsea!! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

[Tomo 21,751]

Nope, i think we need one more

Personally I would go for a CB before another striker.

We kept pace last season with a semi retired Eto'o as our only decent option, if Costa is out for a month at any point god for bid we should get by, if we have to start playing teenagers in defence for a prolonged period off time, our team stability is fucked.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Sheesh! You'd think we lost or something.

I don't often comment before I watch the game again but judging from the comments in this thread you'd think we were playing against pylons who had no business being on the pitch. The phrase 'No Game Is Easy in the Premier League' is not just some cool tag line, its truth! Every week there will be new challenges and difficulties.

I thought the first half Leicester played well and took away the middle of the pitch, the only areas they didn't press us hard were on the flanks. That in turn made it difficult for Costa, Fab, and Oscar to receive the ball in areas where we could hurt them. Schurrle was lively in the first half but he had no finish whatsoever... It kind of hurt us a bit because most of the attention was towards the middle of the pitch, and our left flank didn't have the right numbers going forward(only Hazard at times) Leicester did a great job counter attacking all game mainly because the first pass to initiate the counter was accurate and biting. When they switched it to the right flank, on a few occasions, Brana was far too narrow and had they delivered better crosses could've hurt us. They cut off our valves of Matic, Oscar, Cesc and forced us to look for other solutions.

In the second half it appeared to me that we were playing a higher line and looked to commit more bodies forward, the problem was we still couldn't work the ball to our central players and got caught on the counter too. For me every game is won and lost in the middle of the pitch and we didn't get the commanding performance from Matic or Cesc; they were good today but not entirely imposing. Had it not been for a motm performance from Ivanovic we wouldn't have had the cutting edge to get the victory. Leicester City had a fantastic game plan...

Thibault Courtois is world class.

Eden Hazard drifted in and out of the game but scored that all important clincher to relieve pressure. We can't play him centrally for fear of him getting marked out of the game.

Diego Costa is a match winner! We FINALLY have one! A guy who doesn't score the 3rd and fourth goal in a route, but scores game winners and first goals... I can't tell you how important it is to have a true match winner. Even if he just scores 15 more goals like today(winners in a tight game) we'll be champs, I have no doubt about that.

Ivanovic is a warrior, gonna be hard to displace him in the side.

Azpi, RIGHTFULLY didn't get too far forward to expose us at the back. It looks like our width is gonna come on the right side this year, LB will stay home if the first two games are any indication. He was great again today... Luis is gonna have a hard time finding games if Brana and Azpi continue in this fashion.

Good win against a side we didn't know an awful lot about...Those games can be nervy and this was no different.

[zolayes 14,489]

Am I the only one a little bit worried that we only have five senior defenders?

Ake is more than ready to step up

[stroey 2,525]

Ake is more than ready to step up

Yeah I agree, but only for the Left back spot. We only have senior 3 centerbacks, that's a little bit thin. I don't know if Christensen/Zouma can stand up like Kalas last season. Jose has used Mikel as a centerback before, that could also be an emergency option.