closed Chelsea 1-1 Everton

[bigbluewillie 1,808]

11 hours ago, Jase said:

Also, am starting to wonder if we're having too many attacking options for our own good. We complain so much about those players not being consistent but, we constantly chop and change those players (when everyone is available) without them having any sort of chance to get any sort of consistency. 

But does Pep not do that, with swapping Foden, Jesus, Mahrez, Sterling, and now Grealish.

And in defence as well, Stones, Laporte, Diaz etc.

Pool on the other hand have arguably one of the best attacks in Europe Salah, Mane, and now Jota as he seems prefered over Firmino.

The only other one is the glitzy PSG Messi, Neymar, Mbape

[Warning_Hazard 156]

11 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Always thought top 4 is our limit.

Still I remember so many seasons when me and the mates always said 'get to 40 points and we're not going down'

Yeah 40 points was the ticket! Still is in the championship!

[Strike 6,981]

Average opposition with a rookies in defence and attack. Result has put us in our place. Our best shot is in Europe again.

[MoroccanBlue 5,211]

There's also a self confidence issue. We've completely lost it. Maybe due to certain player uncertainties?

Don't get me wrong. I back the club fully in not wanting to extend certain players contracts and rightfully upgrading on them, but you do wonder if this has taken a toll on the players and Tuchel in particular. 

Rudiger is as good as gone. 

Christensen and Dave seem to be both out the door. 

Barkley and Saul have nothing to play for anymore. 

Talks the club won't extend Jorginho's contract. 

Kante's fitness issues remain a concern for the club so there is a delay there. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by MoroccanBlue

[milka 3,308]

18 hours ago, Vesper said:

I will be satisfied with

UEFA Super Cup

FIFA World Club Championship (other than CL the big one left for me)

3rd in League

At least get to semi final round on CL

and win one or both of League Cup and/or FA Cup (obviously would prefer the FA Cup, as then we can grab another trophy from Community Shield)

 

so 3 or 4 trophies, go deep into this CL, qualify for next CL

and we will be World Champions for 2 years (due to delay in new format and with the winter World Cup) with the gold badge

AND

with one more trophy we tie Real Madrid for trophies overall since 2004 (only trail PSG (but they have shit in terms of ANY big trophies, all theirs are from the 4 leagues trophies in farmers league) Barca, and then the leaders Bayern), 2 more and we pass them (or maybe not, as they will for sure win La Liga, and maybe Copa del Rey)

 

 

This season the goal was clear or at least we were all left with this impression - the title. 

Everything else will be accepted as consolation ( There is no way we can win again CL  this season ,so we can FA Cup or EFL like some kind of trophy ) . 

Place in the top four and the Club World Cup - yeah ok fine . Nothing  so special .  We were in top 4 with Lampard too so yeah .

Edited December 17, 2021 by milka

[Mário César 819]

Title? Exageratios of expectations... We struggle to get top4 last season. Tottenham save us in the last game and we lost agains leicester in FA Cup Final

 

[milka 3,308]

When you win the Champions League and get a striker for 100 million, you expect more than a place in the top four. 

[Mário César 819]

1 hour ago, milka said:

When you win the Champions League and get a striker for 100 million, you expect more than a place in the top four. 

You expect to challenge for the title, close the gap between Chelsea and City/Pool, but none of us demands epl title to be a sucess season

If we past 80 points, it will be great archievment.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Mário César

[milka 3,308]

We can't pass 80 points without being in the battle for the title.Thomas Tuchel made us believe that this season we will be on par with Liverpool and City in view of his achievements since January .

Whoever says that he did not expect us to be in the battle with them is lying. 

When you want Lukaku / Haaland/ Kane, you don't want them just for top 4 .

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by milka

[ZAPHOD2319 3,903]

Just now, milka said:

We can't pass 80 points without being in the battle for the title.Thomas Tuchel made us believe that this season we will be on par with Liverpool and City in view of his achievements since January .

Whoever says that he did not expect us to be in the battle with them is lying. 

 

He has repeatedly said that we should not be looked at as the favorites to win the PL title. He has said that City and Liverpool still have a gap that we must close. It looked pretty awesome when we were leading the PL in December, but that is a long way from the finish. I will take what Tuchel has consistently said. 

[NikkiCFC 7,604]

We may pass 80 points but they will go over 90. I never understood this closing the gap talk. Liverpool and City have nothing to do with us losing points against horrible teams which we do often. We had 4 season in a row with finishing 1st, 10th, 1st, 5th. 

We beat City 3 times this year, also Liverpool last season at Anfield and draw this season (would be a win without red card). And we are champions of Europe. So saying 3rd place with 80 points is success is ridiculous. That means we blow 25-30 points against lesser sides. 

 

[cosmicway 1,261]

Lots of postponements I see.
Must be due to covid. Look here:

https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/west-ham-fixture-postponed

Why was n't ours postponed and v. Wolves on Sunday ?

[Blue Armour 4,168]

13 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

There's also a self confidence issue.

Don't get me wrong. I back the club fully in not wanting to extend certain players contracts and rightfully upgrading on them, but you do wonder if this has taken a toll on the players and Tuchel in particular. 

 

This is what I mentioned last month on the Rudiger thread.

We are practically taking a gamble this season by having these stand offs with players., who all said and done delivered above their levels last season. And the club says it doesn't value that? Ridiculous. Instead we go and dump a boatload of cash on Lukaku.

It's become a pattern. Every time we have a manager come in and work wonders., the club somehow manages to pull the rug off from under their feet in the very next season.

[Blue Armour 4,168]

11 hours ago, milka said:

When you win the Champions League and get a striker for 100 million, you expect more than a place in the top four. 

Yes. And also you don't always get to be involved in a title challenge.

If I were a club and still within 7 points of the top team at this point of the season, I would fight tooth and nail to close that gap.

Don't agree with adopting this defeatist and 'practical' mindset at this stage.

I have full confidence that if we sort out the contact issues over the next couple of weeks, and have key players return, we WILL get back into a title challenge.

Only annoying this is figuring out when/how City will drop points. They seem to be on one of their runs were they just ruthlessly dispatch bread and butter teams. It would take one of the bigger teams to claw the lead from them, no doubt.

[Blue Armour 4,168]

3 hours ago, cosmicway said:

Lots of postponements I see.
Must be due to covid. Look here:

https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/west-ham-fixture-postponed

Why was n't ours postponed and v. Wolves on Sunday ?

Aren't Liverpool and City also playing on Sunday as planned?

[maxlev 45]

It is just a drop in form coupled with injuries to our key players. We will rejuvenate and get back to our best soon. This happens almost every season to us btw november to end of december. 

[cosmicway 1,261]

13 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Aren't Liverpool and City also playing on Sunday as planned?

5 postponements today.
Not all. Arsenal are playing, pool and City tomorrow.
But why could n't we ask ? We are the hardest hit.

Edited December 18, 2021 by cosmicway

[Blue Armour 4,168]

13 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

5 postponements today.
Not all. Arsenal are playing, pool and City tomorrow.
But why could n't we ask ? We are the hardest hit.

Hardest hit in what way though? We have 3-4 players confirmed.

It's not a big enough number to warrant a postponement. The only part that sucks is that it took out all our forwards.

If the club wanted to be sneaky like United we should have just shut down the training ground and pretended there was a possible covid crisis. Maybe that way we could have got it postponed.