closed Burnley 1-2 Chelsea

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

1 minute ago, Mana said:

Ehhhh...

I wouldn't push our luck with Baka just yet. Baka didn't play well today, but it's an improvement from his past number of games. He's not making critical mistakes like before.

Either him or leaving Kante alone in midfield with Fabregas.

[Milan 17,958]

5 points gap with 4 games to go. This is just too much, even though we gained 5 points on Spurs in the last 2 games. This is too much. We are such idiots for fucking up this season.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

3 minutes ago, Sir Mikel OBE said:

Either him or leaving Kante alone in midfield with Fabregas.

Shocking that those are the only options. Could we rather just play Christensen as a holding midfielder or something for the rest of the season?

Very important win today!

[LAM09 7,056]

Shocking that those are the only options. Could we rather just play Christensen as a holding midfielder or something for the rest of the season?
Very important win today!

We have Drinkwater as well

[the wes 7,212]

1 minute ago, !Hazard! said:

Shocking that those are the only options. Could we rather just play Christensen as a holding midfielder or something for the rest of the season?

Or even Luiz can play in midfield 

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

How about Barkley?  Why did we even buy him?

[Pizy 18,928]

Giroud, Moses, Kante, and Emerson were excellent throughout. Hazard coming on was pretty much the end of Burnley's chance to equalize. They couldn't touch him. Morata was very good until the horrendous miss. Even Bakayoko was solid because he kept him play so composed and simple.

Biggest refreshing thing to see was a left wingback in Emerson who has some good pace and can swing a cross in while running. Even the one time his man nearly got past him he was able to use his athleticism to recover and tackle the ball out of play. Something Alonso struggles with.

[Jase 43,479]

1. FIRST back-to-back wins in all competitions in 2018! Not a great performance but did enough to beat a surprisingly flat Burnley side.

2. Conte has had far too many touchline mood swings in 2018. One game he looks as if he can't wait to be sacked and the next, he looks like his usual, animated, frenetic self.

3. Not sure what prompted him to do so but fair play to Conte for actually playing 2 strikers UP TOP today. The partnership still needs work obviously but the Giroud-Morata combo look decent. The former focuses on holding up the play, doing the link-up while the latter focuses on getting in behind and at the end of chances (OMG!).

4. Kudos to Emerson for a very solid performance in his first league start. Quick, mobile (OMG YES!), defensively sound and looked dangerous going forward. What I liked most about his performance is his ability to whip balls into the space behind the Burnley defence/space between their defence and keeper - far more dangerous. Absolutely sicked and tired of us constantly crossing balls into the opposition player or high into the box where there is a chance an opposition player could win it. 

5. THAT Morata miss...

6. What is the point of Bakayoko?

[mccg 1,528]

23 minutes ago, DDA said:

How refreshing is it to have a LB with actual pace and close ball control. 

Yeah and can cross and defend also!!!!

[manpe 10,861]

Thought Bakayoko did okay today, at least an improvement on what he has been so far. Didn't cock up and had actually decent ball control at times. Overall a much better and more gritty team performance with some very good individual showings, notably Emerson, Moses and Cahill - all three very good and solid. Pedro I also thought did very well, linked things up in 1st half and had that full pitch run, but faded toward the end as he got more tired. Kante, class as always, ran the midfield and the way he always gives the right vertical pass to the right man and the pace with which he drives forward is great to see.

[FabHazard 655]

27 minutes ago, Jason said:

1. FIRST back-to-back wins in all competitions in 2018! Not a great performance but did enough to beat a surprisingly flat Burnley side.

2. Conte has had far too many touchline mood swings in 2018. One game he looks as if he can't wait to be sacked and the next, he looks like his usual, animated, frenetic self.

3. Not sure what prompted him to do so but fair play to Conte for actually playing 2 strikers UP TOP today. The partnership still needs work obviously but the Giroud-Morata combo look decent. The former focuses on holding up the play, doing the link-up while the latter focuses on getting in behind and at the end of chances (OMG!).

4. Kudos to Emerson for a very solid performance in his first league start. Quick, mobile (OMG YES!), defensively sound and looked dangerous going forward. What I liked most about his performance is his ability to whip balls into the space behind the Burnley defence/space between their defence and keeper - far more dangerous. Absolutely sicked and tired of us constantly crossing balls into the opposition player or high into the box where there is a chance an opposition player could win it. 

5. THAT Morata miss...

6. What is the point of Bakayoko?

I thought Bakayoko was decent today..Kept his game simple and safe...Much better performance than his previous games

[Polo7 3,496]

33 minutes ago, mccg said:

Yeah and can cross and defend also!!!!

Was going to say this. The whip he gets on the crosses are beautiful.

[Jase 43,479]

17 minutes ago, FabHazard said:

I thought Bakayoko was decent today..Kept his game simple and safe...Much better performance than his previous games

If you compare with his previous games, then yes, he looked decent. Was just glad he didn't mess anything up, like he did at Watford. Overall though, don't think he contributed anything meaningful in the game.

[robsblubot 3,595]

Have to disagree. Bakayoko had a pretty bad game as usual... his first touch shows too much of the football. He’s always chasing the ball never in control. His passing is always slightly off too.

that’s why talking about mistakes does not quite work. It takes quality from the opposition to exploit the mistakes. And this time around, the opposition did not look very sharp. Some of it was our doing, but despite their very good season, burnley still got a very limited set of players who play a fairly slow and laborious game.

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

11 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Could be the start of great new partnership.

Chelsea have had some fantastic ones in the past -Gudjohnsen/Hasselbaink, Greaves/Tambling, Dixon/Speedie, Hughes/zola, 

Hmmm i've been around a long time too bud

I don't remember Greavsie being there in the Tambling era, illuminate me buddy

Bert Murray Graham, Ossie, Hutchinson, Venables, Tambling.

Gotta be honest though to much booze and dope my memory has faded

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

11 hours ago, milan.cech said:

5 points gap with 4 games to go. This is just too much, even though we gained 5 points on Spurs in the last 2 games. This is too much. We are such idiots for fucking up this season.

Never say never bud, don't forget Spuds are habitual crumblies, they've usually fucked up by now, but they're in the process

[Fulham Broadway 17,320]

20 minutes ago, bigbluewillie said:

Hmmm i've been around a long time too bud

I don't remember Greavsie being there in the Tambling era, illuminate me buddy

Bert Murray Graham, Ossie, Hutchinson, Venables, Tambling.

Gotta be honest though to much booze and dope my memory has faded

I only remember Tambling, am not that old to remember Greaves. The ones that really lit up the Bridge and Chelsea for me were Osgood and Hutchinson, Alan Hudson and Baldwin with Cooke and Houseman (RIP) out wide. 

But back to Greaves and Tambling they played as a duo for two years before Greaves went to AC Milan and then there was the dynamic duo of Tambling and Bridges

[Special Juan 28,141]

Really good win and I liked the fact the once Burnley scored we got straight back on the offensive and killed them off.

I knew Morata was going to miss that 1 v 1, his heads still not right, he's a mess.

[Starman60 1,343]

12 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

I only remember Tambling, am not that old to remember Greaves. The ones that really lit up the Bridge and Chelsea for me were Osgood and Hutchinson, Alan Hudson and Baldwin with Cooke and Houseman (RIP) out wide. 

But back to Greaves and Tambling they played as a duo for two years before Greaves went to AC Milan and then there was the dynamic duo of Tambling and Bridges

I remember having bad dreams when Ossie left us for Southampton. I was gutted as he was my hero (Still is) Absolutely loved him and Hutch, we just never saw enough of them together in the team.