closed Chelsea 0-1 Man City

[quickpassnmove 924]

The really absurd thing about Bakayoko is that he got a chance and one good season in Monaco, but Chelsea played Ruben Loftus-Cheek out of position and barely at all, then loaned him to the worst side in the Prem.  If I were going to pick between the two of them, I know immediately who I would choose because one of them has bags more skill, strengh and speed than most midfielders anywhere. He just needs playing time.

[quickpassnmove 924]

2 hours ago, Robguima said:

Heh I'm one who actually appreciates the qualities Alonso has, not the ones he does not (pace and defending) - he was one of the few players today not dangling on ball under pressure and producing some pretty good one-touch passes, one to morata's chest in the first half. Think he would make a pretty good midfielder if moved/trained there tbh. We are committed to this system though, because the squad has abundance of CBs and no fulllbacks other than azpi.

BTW, Azpi is not a good wingback... He's just too defensive for a wingback and the team lacks quality and intent going forward when he's there.

Team has the wrong balance at this time: way too defensive...

I fully support moving Alonso into CM and buying another wingback ASAP.  I think he could be even more dangerous as a LCM without needing to always run out wide as the outlet (and subsequently not being able to pass a defender with (lack of) speed).

[Jase 43,479]

12 minutes ago, quickpassnmove said:

I fully support moving Alonso into CM and buying another wingback ASAP.  I think he could be even more dangerous as a LCM without needing to always run out wide as the outlet (and subsequently not being able to pass a defender with (lack of) speed).

[El P. 1,354]

3rd place in EPL, quarterfinals of UCL, preparing squad for next season with no crazy departures (Costa and Matic), with bringing creative , offensively good fresh blood, developing what we already have. Winning a domestic cup maybe. That is what we should be aiming this season, if we are being realistic.

Won't expect more, won't expect less.

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk

[ccheongf 211]

MC deserved to win. MC pressed high with 2 to 3 players whever the ball is. Other Chelsea players rooted ,doesnt run to help his team mate being pressed. Even though Chelsea won the ball ,dnt know where to pass because no help. So blocked off Chelsea from attacking and losing the ball to opponent ,most of the time.

[Antonio8 736]

9 hours ago, Jason said:

After 7 league games

2016/17 - W4 D1 L2 - scored 12, conceded 9

2017/18 - W4 D1 L2 - scored 12, conceded 6

6 points in CL

without aguero they have g.jesus 

without morata chelsea has bats 

[cosmicway 1,333]

When Morata was substituted the commentator said "what's he doing ? a midfielder for a centre forward ? this will only allow Pep to push his team forward and dominate the game".
Exactly what happened.
Pedro did not even play in Spain, Bats played for 10 minutes.

[cosmicway 1,333]

Also I don't understand why Hazard gets subbed in every match by Conte.
Hazard is 26 and 7 out of our 11 players not counting Tibot play for 90 mins. Why is n't Hazard one of them ?

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Haven't read much of the comments but was surprised Moses didn't play he would have given Delph far more problems than Dave. Willian was disinterested and ineffective and I think any offers that come in for him should be listened to. City looked good but we waved the white flag as soon as Morata went off.

[Milan 17,985]

11 hours ago, Jason said:

After 7 league games

2016/17 - W4 D1 L2 - scored 12, conceded 9

2017/18 - W4 D1 L2 - scored 12, conceded 6

Last year's start was slightly easier compared to this season, with Spurs and Stoke away, Arsenal, Man City and Everton already behind us. (We then went on that winning run though  ). As I said, forget this game and make sure we restart at Selhurst Park.

[coolhead23 1,147]

Very bad game for us ... City & Pep literally exposed all our weakness. 

This was one of those games where losing was not the issue but how we did is the worry. It seem like a practice match where City was told to attack while Chelsea was to defend and still we were not in our elements.

- Strategy was average. Not sure why did William came on as a sub when u have a second striker in place. No Moses was a surprise. 

- In game we were average, passing all over the place, positioning was not there, intelligence in the game was missing. We did have few good moments but they were far too less for a team who are Champions playing at home. 

- We didnt exploit their left side despite the fact that they had Delap there, if I m correct the first real chance on our right came in around the 65th-70th min. We made Delap look like a WC player

- Lack of quality on the bench is killing us. Plus too much dependency on Hazard is a big worry. 

- The point for taking Fabergas is to move the ball from our half into the other ... he just didnt have any impact, kept falling deeper & deeper. 

- City managed to dictate an away game at the home of the Champions despite not having Augero, Kompany, Mendy & Toure in their 11 is a real worry for us. 

City & United looks too strong and the only team to offer them some competition is suppose to be Chelsea but going by yesterday game we are way behind them. Hope Chelsea as a club realizes that if they want to be ambitious they need to help their manager in achieving that ambition & not side lining him. 

[It's too big 625]

13 hours ago, quickpassnmove said:

The really absurd thing about Bakayoko is that he got a chance and one good season in Monaco, but Chelsea played Ruben Loftus-Cheek out of position and barely at all, then loaned him to the worst side in the Prem.  If I were going to pick between the two of them, I know immediately who I would choose because one of them has bags more skill, strengh and speed than most midfielders anywhere. He just needs playing time.

Different players. Bakayoko isn't as good as Ruben going forward, but he is better at the defensive side, and vice versa. 

[It's too big 625]

3 hours ago, cosmicway said:

Also I don't understand why Hazard gets subbed in every match by Conte.
Hazard is 26 and 7 out of our 11 players not counting Tibot play for 90 mins. Why is n't Hazard one of them ?

He just came back from injury and is our best creative/attacking player, so Conte doesn't want to push him too hard. 

[Kendrick 339]

13 hours ago, Jason said:

After 7 league games

2016/17 - W4 D1 L2 - scored 12, conceded 9

2017/18 - W4 D1 L2 - scored 12, conceded 6

Great, so we only need now 13 wins in a row to challenge for the title.

If anything, this stat just shows how bad our situation is, if we managed to recreate the poor start of last season. Now unless Conte has another surprise of formation up his sleeves...

[Stats 7,164]

Just way too defensive. Fatigue kicked in but no denying it from the first minute we did not really show much. What really disappointed me was seeing Azpi at RWB. Delph is not a LB and is clearly being used as an emergency replacement. Moses or Zappacosta should have started to pose him problems and no surprise, Delph had the game of the life because we had no one with the ability to run at him and Azpi played at RWB for the whole game. Just way too negative.  We missed a trick there.

The scoreline actually flatters us. Should have been a lot more.

I just hope Morata is available after the international break.

[King11Didier 916]

I think the mindset before the start of the game was wrong for us. It looked like Conte wanted to do one of Mou's type of matches and get a 0-0 draw. We were afraid to attack and to create something, really, really cautious whole game and still we made a lot of mistakes. I hate when we sit back and try to take a draw, especially when it is on Stamford Bridge, it looks so illogical. I think Conte f8cked up this match completely after bringing Willian for Morata, that was probably the decision that ended the game completely. I hope Conte learned his lesson after that match and won't ever again go into game with the same mindset, it's just wrong. 8 lost points in home games so far, nothing to be proud of, the boys should improve a lot if they want to fight for the top 3 this season.

[termninja 5,290]

I can't remember the last time we didn't get 3 points and I wasn't angry. Usually I don't feel other team was better when we don't get the result, but City kicked our ass properly last night, well played! We'll be back stronger, Rudiger and Christensen are great, glad we have them.

[Panic 57]

8 hours ago, Stats said:

Just way too defensive. Fatigue kicked in but no denying it from the first minute we did not really show much. What really disappointed me was seeing Azpi at RWB. Delph is not a LB and is clearly being used as an emergency replacement. Moses or Zappacosta should have started to pose him problems and no surprise, Delph had the game of the life because we had no one with the ability to run at him and Azpi played at RWB for the whole game. Just way too negative.  We missed a trick there.

The scoreline actually flatters us. Should have been a lot more.

I just hope Morata is available after the international break.

Had Moses played, City would have had a much easier time finding space in behind the defence. Although Moses is not a bad player, he just isn't the type of player to change a game like this, even if he is better going forward. (Moses is a bad decision maker, mediocre passer, and he possesses no end product.) Playing Zappacosta would have been a monumental risk as he has had very little time to adapt and was not a real option for a game like this.

As for the scoreline, yes we were dominated by City for most of the match, but to say City deserved anything more than a goal or two is unfair. They may have dominated the ball, but they did not generate many real scoring chances, although they did generate far more than us which is why they're deserving winners.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

30 minutes ago, Panic said:

Had Moses played, City would have had a much easier time finding space in behind the defence. Although Moses is not a bad player, he just isn't the type of player to change a game like this, even if he is better going forward. (Moses is a bad decision maker, mediocre passer, and he possesses no end product.) Playing Zappacosta would have been a monumental risk as he has had very little time to adapt and was not a real option for a game like this.

As for the scoreline, yes we were dominated by City for most of the match, but to say City deserved anything more than a goal or two is unfair. They may have dominated the ball, but they did not generate many real scoring chances, although they did generate far more than us which is why they're deserving winners.

If we had any desire to win the game Moses would play. 

Instead we went for full defence, "hope we score a fluke and defend lead" type of tactic. It works sometimes but I hoped we will change that by now and try actualy playing games. 

Hell we were quality against arsenal in past years, but recently even they easily stop us with high press.

We have top players. The day we will believe that we will become top european team. But now everytime someone good comes and we revert to bunker tactics. 

Its one thing to come with tactical plan of counter attacking and entirely different playing bunker with no attack.

Now Im not sure if thats down to players or coach, but subbing AM9 for Willian instead of Bats was ridiculous.

[Panic 57]

46 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

If we had any desire to win the game Moses would play. 

Instead we went for full defence, "hope we score a fluke and defend lead" type of tactic. It works sometimes but I hoped we will change that by now and try actualy playing games. 

Hell we were quality against arsenal in past years, but recently even they easily stop us with high press.

We have top players. The day we will believe that we will become top european team. But now everytime someone good comes and we revert to bunker tactics. 

Its one thing to come with tactical plan of counter attacking and entirely different playing bunker with no attack.

Now Im not sure if thats down to players or coach, but subbing AM9 for Willian instead of Bats was ridiculous.

I disagree that by playing Azpi meant we had no intention of winning. As we have seen in past matches against City, they targeted the wide areas, in particular the space behind the wingbacks, and this yielded many chances for them. In fact, they had much better scoring opportunities in last year's matches than they did yesterday. Playing Azpi provided security on the flanks and could force them to attack through central areas, which is good as we had 3 central midfielders and 3 cbs. Playing Moses would leave our right flank exposed. I'm not convinced that Moses has enough in his game to be worth the trade offs in a game like this.

As for the "hope we score a fluke and defend lead tactic" that you ascribe us to playing, I can only partially agree. When Morata was on the pitch, we had a clear counter attack strategy. Morata was successfully holding up the ball and we were able to craft a few chances, not great, but nothing that can be described as you have. It was only when he was subbed off that City started the domination. As I have previously stated, I was both surprised and disappointed by the decision, but I can see why Conte went that route. He still takes the blame for yesterday's result, but I won't say he made a blunder.

There are issues within the team as you and others have pointed out, but if we evaluate the skills this squad has, and compare them to elite attacking sides, you will find this squad is quite lacking. This doesn't excuse our performances, but it adds perspective. This is a good squad and we can still compete for silverware, especially if Conte can find another solution as he did last year.