Closed Man City 3-0 Chelsea

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

We need to find out why JT was taken off.

Agreed. I am not sure it was injury. Based on the look on JT's face, he was pulled for quality of play or lack there of. JT will be an all-time great at Chelsea, but there will come a day he cannot continue at the top level. Are we closer than we think?

[cosmicway 1,326]

We kind of really sold the meat our team when we let go of Mata, Luiz. Mata and Hazard had a very good understanding if my memory serves me right. We let go of them and whom do we have as replacements ?

With them in the squad we at least had the don't give up attitude to a certain extent. Yes they had their share of bad games but that happens to every player who plays week in and week out at high pressure games like we had to.

The last few transactions we have made have been really bad. Chasing great players who are past their prime *face palm* Fabregas we all wanted him when he was a killer at Arsenal but coming of Barca he was just an average guy, haven't seen anything sensational. Falcao same story.

Bad business: selling Mata, Luiz, KDB, am tempted to say even Lukaku( looking at how pathetic our strike force is I would certainly take him over the others, always thought Mourinho would mould him into the next Drogba. Damn was I wrong). Getting Cuadrado, Falcao, Remy ( when you aren't going to use why the eff waste money, might as well get some one from youth academy to fill in that place), Salah.

In the words of Ducard from Batman Begins:"we have sacrificed our footing for a killing stroke."

I like Remy.

You forgot Schurle.

When you sell that German, it means you have Messi and Neymar at least.

[chrismada9 1,948]

The writing is on the wall. This time last season, City started sluggishly because they didn't invest in the summer. They were found out, basically. Exactly the same thing is happening here.

Still time to invest in top quality .. still time to turn this around!

[Jase 43,479]

No, he meant it in a way saying that Man City didn't deserve to beat us 3-0, which is very deluded IMO.

Chill Skippy. It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comment. But otherwise, it's as what David said above. Mourinho meant in the context of the second half when it was still 1-0. He talked about Hazard having that chance to make it 1-1 and how players' mistakes contributed to the second and third goal.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

This just makes me think how well the team played last year and was able to mask it's biggest problem. The Defence. It is clearly the biggest weakness of this squad and yet all so called experts keep saying how fantastic our back four is. This would be entirely different team, especially offensively if we had the back four City has.

The sooner we implement Baba, Stones (I'm sure this transfer will be completed before next game as a result of this game) and Zouma into the starting XI the better.

[Johnnyeye 7,441]

Time to panic? lol i know it´s still early days, but the fact is we´re crap at the moment, need to adress some serious issues, the players need a f*cking kick up the arse, it´s getting really silly now, what´s the excuse? pre-season? pfff From title winners to this horror show in the space of a few months ? wtf is wrong with this team? What´s next ?, oh would you look at that, it´s West Brom away, will we beat this lot or will we see the same sh*t again ?, i´m keeping my mouth shut for the next few weeks. Hope we straighten this out immediately, because this is just plain awful, cheers.

[bluephoenix 1,126]

I like Remy.

You forgot Schurle.

When you sell that German, it means you have Messi and Neymar at least.

Thanks I knew I forgot someone? I also like Remy but whats the point if we are not going to use him at all.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Oscar will probably be unavailable, according to Jose.

Bego

Azpi Cahill Terry Baba

Matic Cesc

Moses Willian Hazard

Costa

Honestly with Oscar unavailable we are extremely limited in options that we can play. Our squad is so thin it's not even funny.

Hazard MUST spark, and Cesc too. Both look average atm and that's not something this team can afford.

[ZOS 580]

manager reactions?

[Stats 7,056]

Pellegrini is right though. City always dominate us when we play them. Home and away, we have got lucky in a lot of the encounters. It seems when we play them, they just dominate us physically and that is a problem. I know we will improve but it is like what Henrique was saying in the Mourinho thread, a lot of pundits seem to say we will win the league easily because of the Mourinho factor without actually realising that our squad is not that much better than our rivals. For instance you look at Kolarov, who does not get the praise he deserves and you look at Azpi who is repeatedly praised by pundits. The difference today, Kolarov offers a much better attacking threat and defensively his limitations are exaggerated. The bonus he gives to City, we don't have that on either sides of our FB.

It is not just a knee-jerk reaction but pundits do really overrate us. We don't have any natural attacking FB. It is easy to say the likes of Kolarov, Clichy and Zaba can't defend but they offer much more positives than negatives for them. Furthermore, there over-reliance on attacking will show their defincies in defending but because we are not as atttacking, Ivanovic and especially Azpi are saved from criticism.

[cosmicway 1,326]

Chelsea are traditionally good starters.
Sometimes things go wrong from December and afterwards.
Now it's 16 of August (!) and we are on the doledrums.

[samzilla 517]

Lost 4 games all last season.

In 3 games, we've reached 50% of that. Sigh.

[Sovieticus 743]

manager reactions?

"We were better in the second half."

Maybe we are going to pull of a Dortmund 2014/15?

[MichaelDance 552]

Oscar will probably be unavailable, according to Jose.

Bego

Azpi Cahill Terry Baba

Matic Cesc

Moses Willian Hazard

Costa

Honestly with Oscar unavailable we are extremely limited in options that we can play. Our squad is so thin it's not even funny.

Hazard MUST spark, and Cesc too. Both look average atm and that's not something this team can afford.

We'll have Courtois back for that next match, so we should play him.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

Lost 4 games all last season.

In 3 games, we've reached 50% of that. Sigh.

We didnt lose vs Swansea.

[Special Juan 27,429]

Well done to Asmir in amongst all this, some top saves to stop a complete embarrassment happening.

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

Well, some quick thoughts after watching all of this one. I do not think Jose got his tactics wrong today. We did not park the bus. It was clear in the first half that JT was getting beat early and often with their speed. Though Ivanovic cost us late, thought he played well for the first 70 minutes. I thought City played us similarly to how PSG played us at the Bridge last year - very physical and got us completely off our game in midfield.

My concern is what seems to be a shrinking pool of top flight talent. To be a supposed "big" club, and I realize we are and have unlimited funds as they say, we sure seem to be going backwards in some ways. We have to have the weakest bench game in and game out of any top 6 - 8 club. We have zero speed at times on counters. I miss Schurrle and the energy he could bring to a match. It is obvious we need to add back line players, but I would love to add an additional top flight attacking player.

What has happened to Fabregas? He struggles almost every possession. I am beginning to be frustrated with Costa, whether due to injury or not. He is struggling when the ball gets under him and is likely to lose it, trip over his own feet or feign contact. I am not sure what has happened to these two. They were key last year and are again this year in the opposite direction.

Can anyone tell me why Remy does not get more opportunity? He had some big goals late last year and even scored vs Man City.

Begovic kept us in the game in the first half. Easily could have been 3-0 or 4-0 at intermission.

My biggest item right now is finding some key additions in the transfer window immediately. Got to get some help in here!

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

[Vytis33 1,144]

Top effort from Begovic today. Didn't do him any favors that's for sure.