Closed Chelsea 1-1 Man City

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Yeah, the real blow was Fabregas and not Costa. That ruined the set-up that has been quite successful against City with Ramires - Willian - Hazard behind the striker.

Shame we couldn't get Cuadrado in time for this one.

Yeah exactly. The lack of possession by Hazard was also reflected by Cesc's absence. Such games really highlight his importance, I think he would've done really well too because Yaya was missing and in the reverse fixture Toure made Fabregas mute.

[Nero 1,794]

cesc, i miss you ; (

[samzilla 517]

Beginning to hate that smug, loud mouth Pellegrino more than I do Wenger.

Can't keep his mouth shut about us.

what did he say after the match?

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Let's not deceive ourselves. Fabregas would just have been another defender in that 2nd half. He'll have done absolutely nothing.

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

[Pizy 17,860]

what did he say after the match?

Same as he says every time they play us.

Only one team tried to win, they had 9 men in the box, blah blah blah

[Topico 165]

Who was Barclays MoTM?

[petr.breu 1,618]

City fans: "Champions of England. We know what we are"

Chelsea fans: "Champions of Europe. You'll never sing that"

[Sheva. 5,373]

Let's not deceive ourselves. Fabregas would just have been another defender in that 2nd half. He'll have done absolutely nothing.

Wrong. Fabregas can pick a pass even in the worst of games.

Instead we had Oscar (who's passing wasn't that bad tbf, but not Cesc level) and Ramires who constantly fails at decisive passes.

[Pseudo 92]

Our main problem wasn't the lack of Cesc, it was Oscar not having a creative bone in his body. He wouldn't start for any top team in Europe but for some reason he does for us.

[edetarod 2,155]

we're not scoring enough goals

1 goal against liverpool

1 goal against city

not good enough

[Barbara 15,149]

First of all, people have to decide. Either Fabregas completely disappears on big games or we deeply missed him today. You can't say a week ago that he's a big game bottler only to come here a week later and say he was what we missed.

People complaining about the tactics and the performance... well, I was waiting to put tons of you on ignore list because I'm tired of your negativeness, constant moaning and what not, so today was the fitting chance I've been waiting for.

We played 210 minutes of football in a week... players such as Oscar and Hazard were really tired. Ramires made a few mistakes that not even him usually do because he's still finding his best form. Matic is really tired and he's been sloppy compared to his standards. Terry had a complete nightmare, hand in hand with Ivanovic (despite the cross to Hazard assist the goal). Even Courtois made a mistake that cost us.

Under those circumstances and with a bench filled of youth players, I support the tactics, I understand why the players didn't play better and I'm more than happy with the draw. Without Fabregas, Ramires not totally recovered and Oscar and Hazard battered, there's no way we were going to dominate midfield, to play smooth attacking football against City.

If there are fans that should moan right now is City's... they had a week of rest, they have all their best players but one available for the match and they barely threatened us. Yes, they were the best team in the pitch, but their attack produced basically nothing. If Azpilicueta didn't make Navas look like a world class player, they would have had even less. Ivanovic tried to gift them two goals early in the first half and still they didn't score. They had the advantage, the need, the players. The only thing against them was the away factor. They even had Mark the Cunt to give them throw ins when the ball didn't even crossed the line...

Pellegrini is the one that seemed to have no tactical plan whatsoever. Based on how bad we played - and I understand given the circumstances - City (not us) should have played much better. We played home, yes, that's true, we didn't have two of our three most important players, the third, who did play, was really tired (and still found some energy to produce a few things and came up with a class assist), our captain had a nightmare, Iva was the liability he normally is and Oscar was also very tired. Had Mourinho played Cahill this could have been another completely different story because I'll tell what, Zouma completely closed the door in the defense - especially when Terry wasn't on his best days. Few are praising Mourinho for playing Zouma... but they don't waste any time saying Mourinho doesn't promote young players.

Yep, ignore list is a blessing.

[The Chels 2,502]

Well over 18 months under Jose and hardly any improvement in the attacking play, if at all, in big games. Very disappointing.

Decent result.

Agreed. The balance in the big games is still lacking: we seem to only look (relatively) defensively solid when we have no attacking threat, and we only look like creating good chances when we are defensively open. We haven't played with excellent balance and transitions in a big away game this season. That has to change soon if we want to do well in the CL.

[obiwan92 217]

I love Zouma.

[zolayes 14,489]

Sorry Barbara can only give one. Rep. Worth so much more.

[Sheva. 5,373]

we're not scoring enough goals

1 goal against liverpool

1 goal against city

not good enough

This has been a problem for a while now, compared to how we started the season. We 'usually' score 1-2 goals and that's it.

[We Hate Scouse 10,261]

Barbara for president

[didierforever 7,349]

good result and good solid performance. anyone blaming jose for the tactics needs to get a scan right away. we had christensen, ake, rlc and brown and a 36 year old DD on the fucking bench. no fucking way were any of them going to have a major impact on the game if we were chasing it. add to it the fact that we had played 120 minutes of football in the midweek with much of the same team and that we are top of the table with 5 points and city should have been the team to really press for the win. we were well organized, defended well and city had no more than a couple of sniffs, if that. even the goal was a defensive howler from courtois. great result. as for people saying we missed cesc, really?? what a load of crap. we got owned by 10 men city with cesc on the pitch with no defensive organization and nothing in attack at etihad. similar story against united and spurs and pool.. we dint miss him at all. infact his abscence was a blessing in disguise. with him instead of rambo, we would not have been anywhere as good in the mid defensively.

thibaut - howler. happens. he is human. he saved our asses against pool, and what could have been a tenis score over the 2 legs.

iva- poor performance. poor in defence, poor in possession. very lucky not to concede from his mistakes. nonetheless, good second half. the ball for the goal was delicious though.

zouma - MOTM. no doubt about it. what a beast. kept aguero in his pocket. dont need to spend crazt money on varane.

JT - it literally seemed we had a death wish in the first half. iva, then JT and ultimately courtois all making howlers. people keep critiszing GC but even JT has been poor recently.

azpi - had a great first half but a poor second. the number of times navas got behind him was embarrasing. only of the few matches where our left hand side was a liabiltiy. matic and rambo had to cover for him and did it wonderfully.

matic- good performance. lost the ball for the goal but nonetheless was awesome the whole game.

rambo - 3rd best player after zouma and willian. this is what we have been missing. the break of play, the defensive rock. brilliant game. that one pass was weird but except for that was awesome.

willian - one of his best games in the chelsea shirt. no doubt. played his heart out. seemed to be trying everything. even the goal, it was him who won the ball. hopefully the competition with cuadrado makes him up his game or rather he chucks oscar to the bench and is played through the center.

oscar- i honestly dint see him on the pitch. was he there? did he do ANYTHING? even the couple of free kicks that he took after willian was subbed were PATHETIC. not a chelsea starting 11 material player. no way.

hazard - first 15 minutes, he could not get the ball on his feet. his first touch was pathetic and he seemed to be doing an "oscar". but then got into the game. the run for our first corner, the assist is what makes him such a great player. nonethless, poor performance. could not help azpi much indefence and we were poor in attack in the second half.

remy - i think he had a very good game. his link up play is really good if not better than costa's. only problem, no aerial presence specially when our defence and goallie were chicking the ball in the air all night long.

like i said, good result. city have stoke away and pool away in the coming month and a brilliant time to increase the lead.