Closed Chelsea 2-2 Swansea

[Jase 43,479]

Thanks Jason that's exactly the point I was trying to get across couldn't have said it better myself.

And no, it isn't fine under any condition, but it's bound to happen somewhere in the season (no one expects us to get 114 points right?) and Swansea today were very good and had a man more and I'm glad we didn't lose. Rather we drop two points like this, fighting in the end and with a man less, than get a lucky win today but drop two when we draw against a very dull Watford at home while we don't create any chances because we're not even trying for example.

You're welcome.

[Stingray 9,441]

Besides the fact you called me Jason (he isn't this good-looking), I agree. Every season you have two or three of "those games" and we've gotten one of them out of the way today and somehow avoided defeat. In the long-term we could look back at this as being crucial.

[1chelsea 864]

Embarassing performance, many people including myself called this after our horrible preseason and transfer window. Hope we go out and sign Pedro now or we will be seeing a lot more of this as the season goes on

Well like I said without adding more in the window Chelsea won't win the league I've seen nothing in this game that suggests otherwise.

Don't worry guys it's just pre-season!

Swansea destroyed us... even before the red card.

I said this and I'll say it again in confidence: We will not win the league this season with the current squad. I'm even surprised we didn't lose, if this game was played at the Liberty today we probably would have lost.

I 100% expected another woeful performance because of preseason.

We were an embarrassment to be honest!

What annoys me, is that we sell Petr Cech to Arsenal of all teams, then Courtois gets a red card in the opening game!

Begovic though, can't take away the fact that he was solid when he came on.. made some great saves, but what that means now, is that we've not won any of our last 6 games within 90 minutes!

And next week we have City away! Can't even contemplate the situation right now! Need to lie down!

I agree with MrExcalibur100

Anytime we lead it's just like we shut down the system

Play like killing the clock, brain derp or save energy mode

And when we got draw or lead , Suddenly we start running like a chicken without head, run around crazy

but still no formation or pattern to create the attack , pure personal ability

Won't say much as someone said the usual suspects are here excluding xpetrcechx

But the negative that cost us is Ivan he was shit spread all over the place

[sriddellx 2]

On to the much bigger problem, though... DAT bench. It's just straight up embarrassing how weak our depth is. Mourinho brought on Zouma for Fabregas FFS. Just imagine - IMAGINE! - having a top-class midfielder be there to replace Matic or Fabregas when one of them is shit or a change is simply necessary...

However embarrassing it may be, Mourinho bringing on Zouma for Cesc kept us in the game. We were being completely overrun in midfield since the red, understandably so with a man less, yet suddenly after the change we looked a lot stronger in midfield and began to take control of the game again. In the last 20 minutes, albeit with 10-men I thought we looked at our most dominant; it's a great example of how a "defensive" change - ie bringing on a natural centre half - can in fact make you much more offensive.

[milka 3,393]

Begovic is a world class / Ivanovic - bench !

[bluephoenix 1,131]

And start to moan about another defeat...

That's another way of looking at it. I wanted to suggest that but I wanted to be optimistic about it

[bluephoenix 1,131]

It isn't "fine" under any condition, but given the circumstances, we should be happy with a point on the basis that a; we were very poor for long periods, and b; Swansea were excellent and obviously had a man advantage. We showed good resilience and that is a victory in itself considering the relative lack of fitness (both physical and mental) at this stage of the campaign.

This what everyone who thought we were brilliant last season will say when we probably mark our spot in the top 4 and that thought scares me.

[Unionjack 7,531]

I cant say much good about today but it seems if we speak negatively about the lads we are pessimistic. All I see is people not trying to make excuses for a team that I dont know why the majority of them even turned up.

If even Mou cant get the best out of them then theres problems. Not just the obvious ones that get mentioned a thousand times a day but WTF is up with Hazard and Cescy? Our 2 most creative guys that looked brain dead for most of the time. Hazards wondered around like a lost soul so far apart from the final 10 mins.

Its going to take weeks for us to get to a state to play anywhere near what we can, if we do at all. Right now Im just hoping we make Europe next season.

What I would dearly love to be is a fly on the wall following Mou around and listening to what he truly feels and not just the BS he throws out to the supporters and the media.

One good thing from the day is Ive just cracked opened my first homebrew turbo of STRAWBERRY cider and its bloody gorgeous!! Only followed a Youtube recipe made with Strawberry Ribena cordial. Ended up @ 9%! I was thinking about sending Eden a few bottles. I need a few to chill out tonight so Slante guys!

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

It is not that this result has come as a surprise. The writing has been on the wall since we beat those very swans half a year ago. We changed nothing since then. Hence we will get found out more often and those results will be no rarity. Call it knee jerk, but deep inside you know it: This squad won't win a big title.

[Liquidator 5,176]

This place makes Dignitas seem like the happiest place on Earth

[Reddish-Blue 2,509]

It isn't "fine" under any condition, but given the circumstances, we should be happy with a point on the basis that a; we were very poor for long periods, and b; Swansea were excellent and obviously had a man advantage. We showed good resilience and that is a victory in itself considering the relative lack of fitness (both physical and mental) at this stage of the campaign.

If you're happy with a point at home, you must have low standards

Anyway, We are going to be found out more often this season...without any fresh faces, teams know what to expect from our players

[Barbara 15,149]

well for the wise people talking about pre-season, there must have been something very wrong with my eyes because the team performing today and the team that perfomed the other matches prior to this was very different in the intensity and the way they approached the match - which was expected, except for those people who think pre-season is the new World Cup.

We aren't sharp yet - but made huge progress there imo - and I concede our defense looked even worse than it normally does. Ivanovic had one of the worst matches I've seen from a Chelsea player and unfortunately for us, he can play 10 matches in a row like that and nothing will happen, even if we sign a LB.He's untouchable and it's one of the few things I think Mourinho has been doing wrong. He totally lost the plot with Iva.

As the team isn't sharp and the physical condition isn't ideal our slow defense got further exposed - not only by Ivanovic, but by everyone. There had been numerous mistakes made by all back for, from losing 1x1 and getting raped by a winger, to slowness and wrong timing. I expect some serious improvement as the weeks go - they were just as shaky the first few weeks last season, but even with the improvements, it doesn't change the fact we have a way too slow team. Yes, team, in general. It's not only about defense and midfield. With the exception of Willian, Hazard, Moses and Ramires, all our players are either slow or just have standard pace. Willian and Hazard are still far, far away from their best physical condition. Hazard - because he's a slow starter (has nothing to do with him arriving fat to pre-season as some people implied today and in other occasions) and Willian because he had a whole Copa América, shorter vacation and if we don't take care of him properly, we'll burn him out. It'll take both of them a couple of weeks, if not more, to get sharp. That leaves us with a ridiculously slow team as Ramires and Moses are clearly bench players.

Fabregas is already a slow player and he's one of those players that couldn't be farther from being sharp. Except one good game - I guess against PSG, not sure - where he had been decent, throughout all of pre-season and carrying on today it's clear he needs to take a few steps towards an ideal condition. It doesn't mean he's useless, the root of all our problems as some people have been saying or implying. He's just off form. Just like Hazard, Willian, Azpilicueta.

The only in form players we have right now imo are Oscar, Moses and maybe Terry. Matic and Cahill are almost there and the rest are taking their sweet time to get there (which is sort of expected). It's hard to talk about Costa. He seems to be fine and he looks like his usual self form wise, but you never know with his hamstring, so I won't put him in any group.

Still with all those physical problems, Ivanovic existence (allied with Mourinho stubbornness and blindness) we were quite competitive today, a very different team from pre-season and I think we'll get things going soon. I'm far from hitting the panic button, I don't understand those who has already decided our season within a few friendlies and one official match. We could end up the season trophyless or with a couple of them again, that's not the point. The point is it's way too early for you guys to come to any conclusions about this team's chances of winning anything this season. Yes, we still have the same problems as last season. As far as I remember we still won the title with some very comfortable lead. Start spouting bs about us winning nothing at least in November. You won't look as clueless as you do now if you actually wait to see how we and the other teams fare for real.

[Kezza 1,965]

Ahh such an exciting match!! As a football fan that was awesome to watch.

As a Chelsea fan, bit gutted about how our defense performed, expected a lot more!

City next, hopefully we can take the negatives from this game and turn it around to get a good run going.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Not entirely related but i was there and in this row to two loud lads in shed lower but half of em in the stand were stilling down?! The fuck is that about, stand up and sing you pricks or save yourself some cash and sit with the other plastics in the family centre

[thekid9 418]

why the hell are people saying it was a good performance?

one goal was a fluke freekick

the other a horrible deflection

apart that I can't remember fabianski being troubled!!!

we are an empty shell of the team that started last season!

and in all probability we will ALREADY after 2 games be 5 points behind city,utd, and arsenal at least by next Monday!

[Unionjack 7,531]

Not entirely related but i was there and in this row to two loud lads in shed lower but half of em in the stand were stilling down?! The fuck is that about, stand up and sing you pricks or save yourself some cash and sit with the other plastics in the family centre

Dont get me started about the change in our supporters bud. Who knows it may be the same across the league (but from what Ive seen on other teams forums its not as bad as ours - and I couldn't give a toss about anyone elses team anyway). But for whatever social and economic reasons our supporters have changed even from the time I started following us.

It may just be the biggest thing that pisses me off.

[Diceflix 207]

Actually we have a good press and tempo but somehow, poor finishing, can't even understand we almost had zero shot on goal! Almost!, Courtois red card was disastrous, but fortunately Begovic comes to the rescue! and his performance last night made me quite comfortable while Courtois gone for a while.

Hazard keeps making opponents player busy tho, but they marked him too tight 1 : 4? ​

Special notes for IVANOVIC, just how frustating to see him in right flank!, poor defence yet more awful in attack, He just keep kicking the ball onto Swansea's players body!

ey,,, ever since we get Yokohama as shirt sponsor our Bus is become moveable. *If you know what i mean

[akandeel13 34]

I watched this one live and I have to say I'm surprised by some of the remarks here! For me, these are the facts:

- Cahill was brilliant yesterday. Without him it could have been 4 or 5 Swansea (who really played well).

- Willian had a great game too.

- Hazard holds the ball way too much, and he's directly responsible in ruining several breaks towards the end. He's definitely been figured out by the rest of the EPL teams.

- Ivanovic is a great player, but he should not be RB. But then this means he has no room in Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 or its modified 4-3-3. So just sell.

Other than (somewhat) Costa, this team does not have something or someone that scares the opposing defenses. It lacks creativity and the ability to find solutions up front. And it's full backs are sub par.

[1chelsea 864]

Ignore everywhere I enjoyed myself yesterday you frowners/complainers can spoil it

[bluephoenix 1,131]

What will make this is right is Arsenal also being held to a draw or even better lose to WHU. Personally can't understand why we sold Peter Cech to a direct opponent.