closed Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

1 minute ago, communicate said:

Cho barely played, Pedro rotate with Willian. Your argument has 0 weight

Pedro and Willian have started the last 5 games prior to today with Willian virtually having started all our games in December. I won't be surprised if he picks up a muscle injury soon 

[Special Juan 27,429]

Need credit for this instead of moaning about stuff, we ground out a great result here and it was a massive 3 points.

People need to forget the league and focus on the the top 4 perspective. 

Kante was immense today.

[Jase 43,479]

Important win but again, another uneventful performance. A lot of passes (again), little penetration (again) but scored thanks to one moment of quality. Palace were surprisingly hopeless. 

[Johnnyeye 7,441]

2 minutes ago, Vybz Kartel said:

It looks like Sarri would rather lose his job than bench Alonso, even when his on a yellow card and being spun around like a figet spinner. On the bright side Kante stepped up and thanks to him we didn't draw. He was really active in the final 3rd

Kante's awareness and anticipation for Luiz pass was out of this world, the movement, control and finish is what you expect from a top striker, what a goal. Kante has that is his locker besides his defending no doubt about that and i understand what Sarri wants out of him, otherwise he wouldnt play Kante so advanced

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

5 minutes ago, communicate said:

Completely agree. Should have rotated our front 3. Oops Pedro, Cho, and rlc are injured. What is his option? 

He could have taken Barkley off earlier before we lost control of the game. Also I don't know why he didn't even trust Piazon or Redan from the academy on the bench as cover for today. We fucken had 4 defenders on the bench today. He should trust our youth more or in Piazon's case why the fuck are we paying him to be a training cone?? I'm sure he would have been able to contribute 

[Pizy 18,370]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Important win but again, another uneventful performance. A lot of passes (again), little penetration (again) but scored thanks to one moment of quality. Palace were surprisingly hopeless. 

Palace are even more reliant on Zaha magic than we are Hazard. This is now both matches against Palace this season where Azpi has pocketed him. Since he was unable to do anything Palace were relegation quality.

Cant remember Kepa even touching to ball with his hands other than claiming easy crosses.

[Vesper 28,879]

14 minutes ago, Vybz Kartel said:

I blame Sarri for this he doesn't rotate well, add that to him waiting till min 72 to make a forced substitutition of course they are gassed considering it's the Christmas period 

Eden and Azpi have to just be worn the fuck out! They are asked to do herculean tasks

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, Pizy said:

Palace are even more reliant on Zaha magic than we are Hazard. This is now both matches against Palace this season where Azpi has pocketed him. Since he was unable to do anything Palace were relegation quality.

Cant remember Kepa even touching to ball with his hands other than claiming easy crosses.

But Palace didn't even bother to have a go at us. Just looked content to sit back and defend. Even the last 5-10 minutes of pressure wasn't a real, sustained pressure. They were just hoping for something to fall their way, like the Wickham chance (thankfully he skied the shot!).

[Laylabelle 9,360]

Nice to have a gap! Hopefully can keep it for a while. 

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

Important win but again, another uneventful performance. A lot of passes (again), little penetration (again) but scored thanks to one moment of quality. Palace were surprisingly hopeless. 

Let's be honest, we are seeing some Conteball performances more often than we see Sarriball of late. I thinkin need to get rid of the deadwood and get Safri guys who fit his philosophy. Jorginho and Kepa are a step in the right direction, can you imagine us trying to play out from the back during a high press with Courtios and the crew from last season? Currently we are fitting square pegs in round holes and I feel that's why Sarri's methods have been up and down 

[communicate 2,703]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

Important win but again, another uneventful performance. A lot of passes (again), little penetration (again) but scored thanks to one moment of quality. Palace were surprisingly hopeless. 

This is probably the more concerning problem. It has been like this for quite a while. We look to be in control but it was just sideway pass after sideway pass. Need to pass the ball with more speed and we definitely need a new striker 

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

2 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Nice to have a gap! Hopefully can keep it for a while. 

With our next 6 fixtures we really should be challenging Liverpool by end of February if we were consistent and could put on a 6-10 win streak but unfortunately we seem to always relax after winning 3/4 games straight and we always lose this breaking our momentum 

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

We have no hunger for more goals and lack urgency 

[DDA 9,690]

Bar one or two passes, Kepas kicking was of a high quality today.

[communicate 2,703]

Halfway to the season. Our problem is getting more obvious, we really lack of goal scorer. Other than Hazard, Pedro and maybe rlc at times, I honestly have 0 confidence of any of our player in term of scoring. Kante has scored more than Willian this season in epl. That is just shocking.

Giroud is too old and I think we have pretty much give up on Morata. Kovacic and jorginho cannot score. Barkley maybe but not sure 

So like today, when I saw that hazard look a bit tired. I have no idea how we are going to score. 

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, communicate said:

This is probably the more concerning problem. It has been like this for quite a while. We look to be in control but it was just sideway pass after sideway pass. Need to pass the ball with more speed and we definitely need a new striker 

At the risk of being dragged into the whole 'Sarri needs time or the players don't suit his style' argument again, we are basically watching the same football this season that we saw under Conte (last season) and Mourinho. Dominate possession against the lesser sides, which we have tended to do as well under Conte and Mourinho, but offer very little going forward. We always relied on someone to do something out of nothing in the past and it's the same now again under Sarri. Yet to see any of the trademark Sarri-ball that we keep hearing so much about. The football feels so rigid and the players don't look like they are having 'fun'.

[Laylabelle 9,360]

We're definitely not having fun. It's just pass pass pass.. Oh look they have it now run! 

[Magic Lamps 11,655]

1 minute ago, Vybz Kartel said:

We have no hunger for more goals and lack urgency 

tbf this Palace team under this manager suck any joy out of football, just stacking 11 men in the box, hoofing the ball upwards. If the opposition does not wanna play football and we can still beat them comfortably why bother wasting too much effort.

I have to admit i missed big parts of the game due to my shitty internet connection on the travel(Germany is stuck in medieval infrastructure-wise) but what i saw was that we patiently passed the ball around with maximum control (apart from willian who let it run out of play for fun) and palace barely had a look in. Even at 0-0 i was confident some individual magic would give us the win at some point. Ofc we are not an exciting team, we have almost 0 creativity. Barkley and Jorginho are hardly created too provide breakthroughs with their Apart from two zaha  shots to the stands i did not witness any chances from them, our defenders especially Luiz and Azpi were superb. Ofc our offense is shit apart from Hazard but that is a known problem and we know whose fault that is.