Closed Chelsea 1-1 Southampton

[stroey 2,525]

Do you really want ramires / mikel / guadrado / drogba to be the first squad ?

Rambo is the best supporting player for Matic and Cesc in midfield, much better than Oscar.

Remy, Luis (and Zouma) should get more minutes.

Cuadrado needs a run of games

[Pizy 18,993]

-Dire first half and mostly good second half.

-Costa and Hazard were both good overall.

-Both Matić and Fabregs looked exhausted and sloppy. Worst performance I've seen from Fabregas.

-We are embarrassingly susceptible to pace. Our defense and midfield get annihilated by pace. Not only through the middle but in wide areas as well.

-Oscar, other than a flurry here and there, just isn't good enough.

How good is Morgan Schniederlin? Looked a level above our midfield players today. I'd have him here in an instant. Could be a great option in the summer. Bossed us today.

A point was a fair result in the end and not the end of the world.

City will now have renewed hope and Arsenal will start to believe that they have a serious chance to claw us back and nip us to the title. I expect plenty of rotation for the next match. Surely José will finally relent in that regard.

Also, how bad has Cuadrado looked for us? Yes, it's hard to get settled and up to speed when you get so few opportunities and only cameo appearances, but fuck me he looks lost. Getting concerned.

[longguilol 14]

Do you really want ramires / mikel / guadrado / drogba to be the first squad ?

No. But that begs the question:

Why is Mourinho keeping the above players around? 30m for Cuadrado - and he could barely bring the ball under control today and got signed up this transfer window. Awful decision

Mikel and Ramires are past it, why keep them around?

Grandpa Drogba? He's a Chelsea legend but clearly past it, if Mourinho's decides to sign players for sentimental reasons then he's paying the price for it now.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Can't really expect anything from Cuadrado and Remy, the former probably didn't even warm up before coming on..

[GoranZg 56]

Regardless what happens in final rounds, this is not level of football we should feel good about. Surely we all have our points of view, but I'm deeply annoyed by performaces of "Oscar The Invisible" and "Willian The Useful" match after match. Our attacking line is failing miserably thanks to those two. And to think Mourinho pushed De Bruyne and Salah out of the team... we could have secured the title already with some decent attacking football

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I know we should be winning at the bridge, and we can certainly play better than that, but a draws a draw. We should have sunk that goal at the end, and could have had a penalty, so some of it was down to luck in that respect, but then Cesc had a nightmare for the majority, but I wasn't majorly disappointed in anyone otherwise (Oscar doesn't count. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't even turn up).

I just think as much as we could have done better we've also played a lot worse recently, and I was encouraged by a lot of the second half.

Was waiting for someone to make mention of how poor Cesc was, he looked like he's never played football before... Wayward passes, little to know passion, dwelling on the ball, not taking any chances to shoot. I won't even begin to speak on defensive contribution, I'd be here all night.

[Amblève. 4,995]

We simply have too many one-dimensional players in our squad. Aside from Hazard, Matic and Cesar every single player that started today's game is too dependent on either the player behind, in front or next to him.

Terry can't play if his partner doesn't possess above-average pace, Cahill can't play if his partner doesn't have a huge football IQ. Ivanovic needs someone to cover for him, Willian always needs someone to help him out offensively, Fabregas has no pace and is a liability defensively for our system, Costa needs the support of the guys behind him and Oscar, hell I don't even know what kinda support he doesn't need.

Now compare this squad to the one we had under Mou's first time at the Bridge. Back then our midfield was probably the most versatile in the history of the PL, our back-line was a joy and our striking force in Drogba revolutionized the way we view strikers' now.

With the current state of our team too many players are doing a job they ideally shouldn't be doing. Matic shouldn't be covering for him AND Fabregas, Hazard shouldn't be creating for all 3 players behind our striker, Azpilicueta shouldn't have to worry about exposing Terry and his lack of pace, Ivanovic shouldn't be our main threat on the right flank, whoever is playing with Ivanovic on the right side should be able to provide offense himself and shouldn't have to cover for Ivanovic all the time (Though, I advocate that this should be the case for the remainder of the season considering our lack of options).

The lack of allrounders and two-way players is worrisome IMO. You can't have a healthy balance within our starting-11 if guys have to bail our certain teammates from the start of the game. That absolutely shouldn't be the norm.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Really disappointed, especially with that chance at the end. But look at it this way, 6 points in front with a game in hand. Come on Chels, we can do this.

[longguilol 14]

Regardless what happens in final rounds, this is not level of football we should feel good about. Surely we all have our points of view, but I'm deeply annoyed by performaces of "Oscar The Invisible" and "Willian The Useful" match after match. Our attacking line is failing miserably thanks to those two. And to think Mourinho pushed De Bruyne and Salah out of the team... we could have secured title already

The Brazilian duo (Willian and Oscar) are the weakest link in the team. Brazil's complete capitulation at the 2014 World Cup was prove enough of their genuine lack of quality and more importantly mental strength. The minute things start going wrong, they'll simply collapse on you as demonstrated by Germany's 7-1 riot of Brazil, Brazil's worst defeat in their footballing history.

Both need to go. Hazard is the only world class player in the team.

[The Mak 4,459]

Can't complain considering the 2nd half effort.

Costa looked very dangerous in the box, but a bit too eager to get on the ball, moving out wide etc. when there was already a lot of support. A bit more patience and he could've got a second, had the beating of Fonte and Anderwield in the air all game.

Hazard was fantastic, really turned it on, everything good went through him and down the left.

Fabregas played it too safe, didn't take enough chances. Had a habit of running into the congested middle a lot when there was always space down the right. Probably because him, Oscar and Willian all play too centrally.

Mane and Long were just too quick for Matic to deal with, understand why he came off.

And can someone tell me why Zouma has been dropped? Koeman was always going to play counter, he would've been perfect. Terry and Cahill is a very slow combination to play against Mane and Long; they caused a sorts of problems in the first half.

Good thing City are shit!

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

This draw is on Mourinho again for failing to rotate the line-up for the umpteenth time.

Players who play every game looking dead on their feet. Players who hardly play games looking rusty as fuck. Very mediocre squad management.

[Barbara 15,149]

Rambo is the best supporting player for Matic and Cesc in midfield, much better than Oscar.

Remy, Luis (and Zouma) should get more minutes.

Cuadrado needs a run of games

I suppose you didn't watch the match against PSG just a few days ago then.

[buffalo 2]

Matic should have been sent off for a second yellow as Dean was pulling out the card and realized Magic was already on yellow.

Southampton was still terrorizing the back line creating chances.

Dean wasn't pulling out a second yellow at all. He reached for his breast pocket, but his cards were in his shorts.

[stroey 2,525]

I suppose you didn't watch the match against PSG just a few days ago then.

My opinion isn't based on 1 game where he was on a yellow card and played on the RW.

He should partner Matic in the pivot.

We haven't lost any game with him and Matic this season, and won the COC when he supported Zouma.

[stroey 2,525]

Dp

[coolhead23 1,147]

Wasnt a champions performance at best an average one ... we really need to step up in distribution of passes in the final third, for a team that has so much quality we are too slow (it was a better display today in the second half) ... I feel there is sense complacencies getting into the players mind or maybe it is fatigue or lack of motivation or maybe something mysterious ... it needs to be taken care of because at times it looks like we are going down by our standards.

[Liquidator 5,176]

Don't understand why people are happy because we played well in the second half. If we bothered to turn up in the first half we may have got a second goal and won the game.

Not entirely the players' fault though. Why we are playing an almost identical team to one which played 120 minutes vs psg is beyond me. Good bringing Remy on with 15 minutes left. Probably 15 minutes too late. Cuadrado still seems incapable of communicating with our players and ran around like a horse on LSD. Don't get me started on Oscar as well.

[thekid9 418]

What the hell does Mo see in Gary Cahill?

He didn't win a single header all day, or 1 on 1, he blocked one shot that was all he did! was out of position for the penalty.

ZOUMA
ZOUMA
ZOUMA
FUCKING KURT ZOUMA!!!

[Starman60 1,343]

I'd be embarrassed if I were those players after that first half presentation. Embarrassed. Mourinho didn't change the system, only got Matic out of the match because he was a second away from a second yellow and being sent off. Ramires did exactly the same job. There was no difference in how we played, except the players actually gave a fuck in the second.

I'm bloody tired of those guys being so nonchalant, careless and just entering the pitch to make it count as 11 players. The second half presentation came probably after a wakeup call by Mourinho in the break, and it shows it can't be physical. There's no rational, believable way to explain players aren't performing because they're tired because they're overplayed when after 45 minutes they finally play.

Also, we criticize Mourinho for the lack of rotation. What has Cuadrado done? Remember Ramires midweek? Except Zouma - who definitely has a case - and Luís who's moe suitable for games at home, who else can Mourinho rotate in this team? Remy and Drogba didn't show to be any better than Costa (actually Costa was one of our best players there today imo), we don't have options for the AMs (there's no questioning about how bad Oscar has been and how useless Willian is in the attack). Who's to replace Cesc - the worst by far imo today. At least Oscar improved some in the second (even if he missed two goals he should have scored) as did Willian and Hazard ran the show as usual. But Cesc was just as lethargic, slow, soft and uninspired as he was in the first. Maybe slightly better because Ramires really improved our midfield.

So I'd love for the people blaming Mourinho to tell me what system or players he can employ that would have changed how we played the first half. I don't think Zouma would have changed our overall performance - he isn't a midfielder, where the problem basically resided - and Luís could have brought some impact, but even then, I don't see something eye catching they would have brought when we were just easily outplayed in the midfield by Saints - who completely dominated the match after scoring.

We're lucky to be six points ahead of City - and seven ahead of Arsenal. I'd be surprised if our lead at the end of May is bigger than 3 points.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Well written intelligent piece Barbara

[iseah100 5,612]

Players are getting frustrated. Namely, Cesc, Hazard and Costa.