Chelsea 0-1 Aston Villa

[chelsea_4_eva 1,159]

For the last season or 2, I just dont go into games thinking we should be winning this game comfortably anymore.

With all the travel and game Villa have played, I just dont see us taking any advantage of it. This will end a draw.

[Thor 2,392]

14 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Losing 3:2 now. 3 more players from first 11 in early in the second half. I think we may get a point on Sunday 💪

The flex emoji after such a statement actually made me chuckle hard lol

[Laylabelle 9,359]

23 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

And that is the state we are in. Hoping Villa are knackered for Sunday in a game at the Bridge. 

Tbf even if they are we usually play like we've played the night before!

[Vesper 28,855]

I dread this game

[TheHulk 1,859]

Not looking forward to it.

[DDA 9,690]

I dread every game

[robsblubot 3,508]

I do think the team will improve, and being a home game there is a good chance that that alone will help the younger players to perform better. I suspect away games will be tough for the entire season, unless we do some very smart business in Jan.

I've commented before the season started that even if we forget about the supposedly (debatable) quality of the squad, and instead simply focus entirely on teamwork, it would still take quite a bit of time to get a new team going. Add to that the fact some players are quite young and inexperienced, and we will need to have loads of patience.
Because of that, I also expect performances to fluctuate quite a bit as well. So, we may have a good/great game where everything clicks, hopefully against Villa 😅, followed by another where things don't go so well. That's really the natural progression of an (almost) completely new squad.

Not losing that last game was important. Need to get points and slowly build confidence, and you do that by not losing. Play like shit, still, don't lose the fucking match.

I don't particularly like this team in general-one of the worst Chelsea teams I've seen tbh. I'm also far from happy with what the club has been doing, but I do think we should have enough quality to play better... mostly by improving as a team. Younger players who lack confidence, and/or are still trying to find their game, will naturally play better as the team improves.

I honestly don't care a whole lot about the starting XI selection; contrary to many here, I don't see a huge gap in quality between the picks. Just need to get the result! A win here would do wonders. 🤞

[Thor 2,392]

5 hours ago, Vesper said:

I dread this game

I'm clearly an idiot, because I stay up late every time in Australia in hope we turn it around and start playing beautiful winning football.

[robsblubot 3,508]

It will happen... just not this season. 😉

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

4 hours ago, Thor said:

I'm clearly an idiot, because I stay up late every time in Australia in hope we turn it around and start playing beautiful winning football.

I used to do the same but considering our squad is nowhere near fit and our attackers seem allergic to scoring goals, better off watching the other PL games.  

[Blue Armour 4,289]

9 hours ago, robsblubot said:

I do think the team will improve, and being a home game there is a good chance that that alone will help the younger players to perform better. I suspect away games will be tough for the entire season, unless we do some very smart business in Jan.

I've commented before the season started that even if we forget about the supposedly (debatable) quality of the squad, and instead simply focus entirely on teamwork, it would still take quite a bit of time to get a new team going. Add to that the fact some players are quite young and inexperienced, and we will need to have loads of patience.
Because of that, I also expect performances to fluctuate quite a bit as well. So, we may have a good/great game where everything clicks, hopefully against Villa 😅, followed by another where things don't go so well. That's really the natural progression of an (almost) completely new squad.

Not losing that last game was important. Need to get points and slowly build confidence, and you do that by not losing. Play like shit, still, don't lose the fucking match.

I don't particularly like this team in general-one of the worst Chelsea teams I've seen tbh. I'm also far from happy with what the club has been doing, but I do think we should have enough quality to play better... mostly by improving as a team. Younger players who lack confidence, and/or are still trying to find their game, will naturally play better as the team improves.

I honestly don't care a whole lot about the starting XI selection; contrary to many here, I don't see a huge gap in quality between the picks. Just need to get the result! A win here would do wonders. 🤞

Yes. No matter the gap in form right now.

While no one should be surprised that a young side can come up short in games,

There's no reason to go into games fearing the absolute worst.

Our game against the league leaders Liverpool should be proof enough.

A draw that very well could and should have been a win.

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

if anyone is thinking of "taking a break" from Chelsea atm or "watching other PL teams", then you're glory hunters no if's or but's.

If you're a true Chelsea FC supporter then you are through thick and thin, good and bad.

Suffer the bad times and enjoy the good.

KTBFFH

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

5 minutes ago, bigbluewillie said:

if anyone is thinking of "taking a break" from Chelsea atm or "watching other PL teams", then you're glory hunters no if's or but's.

If you're a true Chelsea FC supporter then you are through thick and thin, good and bad.

Suffer the bad times and enjoy the good.

KTBFFH

Couldnt echo this more. Well said

[ZAPHOD2319 4,487]

Suffering the bad times makes the highs of seeing the team hoist silverware all the more sweet!

[Pizy 18,368]

2 hours ago, bigbluewillie said:

if anyone is thinking of "taking a break" from Chelsea atm or "watching other PL teams", then you're glory hunters no if's or but's.

If you're a true Chelsea FC supporter then you are through thick and thin, good and bad.

Suffer the bad times and enjoy the good.

KTBFFH

I would never take a break from Chelsea and watch other teams. Doing that would indeed make someone a “plastic fan” or glory hunter. But taking a break from football altogether like I would is different. 

When it starts to feel like we the supporters care more than the players on the pitch and they put in embarrassing effort and performances week in and week out then I’m not going to have my weekends ruined. 

A rough patch for a few weeks or a month is nothing. A disastrous humiliation for a year+ with no signs of it ending is another. 

[Vesper 28,855]

6 hours ago, bigbluewillie said:

if anyone is thinking of "taking a break" from Chelsea atm or "watching other PL teams", then you're glory hunters no if's or but's.

If you're a true Chelsea FC supporter then you are through thick and thin, good and bad.

Suffer the bad times and enjoy the good.

KTBFFH

I am never going to stop posting my crazy transfer demands!!!!

lololol

[Vesper 28,855]

Chelsea haunted by home truths as Stamford Bridge loses its fear factor

https://theathletic.com/4881499/2023/09/22/Chelsea-stamford-bridge-pochettino/

“All football fans go to games with hope, if not expectation. But now we go into games thinking, ‘We are not going to win’ and, ‘This is going to be a disappointment’, or ‘Will we even score a goal?’. For me, it is like going back to the early 1990s before Glenn Hoddle turned up.”

David Chidgey is in his fifties and has been supporting Chelsea most of his life. For the past 21 years, he has sat in the same seat in the upper tier of the Matthew Harding Stand at Stamford Bridge. He enjoyed a great view as Chelsea experienced the greatest period in their history, with their ability to dominate teams at home playing a major role in securing a remarkable 19 major trophies between 2005 and 2022.

When Chelsea lost at Stamford Bridge, it used to be headline news. From 2004 to 2008, they went a Premier League record 86 games without defeat. Only Liverpool’s run of 68 fixtures at Anfield (2017-21) has come close to emulating it in the years since.

“We used to roll teams over,” says Tim Rolls, another long-standing season ticket holder. “There was an arrogance in the crowd — I was just as guilty of it. We would win every week. There would be a shock if we did not.

“When we scored, we knew the game was usually over.”

If there was an air of complacency back then, it has been replaced by worry and angst. Chelsea have won just one of their last 10 home games in England’s top division, a sequence that includes the final seven home games of the horribly underwhelming 2022-23 season. That solitary success came against the team currently propping up the division, Luton Town, last month.

The club’s owners still hope the team qualify for the Champions League next season via a top-five finish in May but, to achieve that, the least Chelsea have to do is return to winning ways on a regular basis at Stamford Bridge. They are already losing ground on the teams in those positions — after just five games, Mauricio Pochettino’s side trail fifth-placed Brighton by seven points.

Starting with Aston Villa on Sunday, their next five home games are against teams who prevailed at Stamford Bridge last season: Arsenal, Brentford, Manchester City and Brighton.

This is going to be quite the test for Pochettino as he seeks to reverse the negative momentum. But the decline set in long before the Argentinian arrived, so it would be wrong to point the finger solely in his direction.

When Chelsea last won the Premier League — under Antonio Conte in 2016-17 — they amassed 51 out of a possible 57 points at home.

As the table shows below, the return has become increasingly disappointing since then. With the exception of Maurizio Sarri’s side in 2018-19, who lost just once, Chelsea have underwhelmed in front of their own supporters — albeit the culmination of the 2019-20 season and the vast majority of the 2020-21 campaign was played in an empty ground due the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last season was particularly bad as their home haul (25 points) was less than half of that gleaned en route to the title in 2016-17. It was the second-fewest number of points Chelsea have accrued at Stamford Bridge since the Premier League began 31 years ago. Only the miserable 2015-16 season, an anomaly during Roman Abramovich’s ownership, was worse with just 24 points secured.

Manchester City put Chelsea’s downturn into perspective. They have won five of the last six Premier League trophies under Pep Guardiola. While they have not gone on the unbeaten run at the Etihad Stadium that Chelsea enjoyed between 2004 and 2008, they have collected 86 more points at home than Chelsea since they were last crowned champions in 2017. In other words, an average of 14.3 more per season.

So why is this happening?

Perhaps the players are simply not as good. That certainly applies to the current squad — they may have cost hundreds of millions of pounds in transfer fees, but the vast majority have been acquired with their potential in mind. Replacing all-time Chelsea greats, such as John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Eden Hazard, was never going to be easy.

Similarly, the amount of upheaval at Chelsea over the past 18 months, through sanctions and the sale of Abramovich’s club to the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium, is unprecedented for a team of their stature. Look beyond the squad; this is a different club now.

People will argue Chelsea won the Champions League in 2021 and the FIFA Club World Cup only last year and apportion blame on the new owners for making too many changes too soon. But, as the table below illustrates, the decline had set in before Boehly-Clearlake arrived on the scene. It highlights the terrible record Chelsea have at home against the other members of the so-called ‘big six’ — Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham — from the 2020-21 campaign onwards:

Chelsea have won just once in 16 matches, suffering seven defeats. Remarkably, Chelsea have not even scored in half the fixtures. The malaise is real.

“I have sat around the same people in the Matthew Harding Stand for years,” Rolls says. “There is not an expectation on us winning at home anymore. There is a nervousness, an apprehension. People do not expect us to even score!

“During the 86-game unbeaten run, it would be a shock if a team scored at Chelsea — no matter who they were. A few wins might change the mood. But a lot of my friends are thinking we will do well to get a draw against Aston Villa. That says it all.”

Hazard told the London Evening Standard in 2017 how he sensed opponents were beaten before kick-off whenever they came to Stamford Bridge, such was their stature at the time. That superiority complex is a distant memory now.

Near the end of last season, after a 2-1 loss to Brighton, The Athletic asked Lampard whether Chelsea had simply lost the fear factor which made the team in which he played so successful at home. Lampard is unique in being able to provide insight from his time as a Chelsea player from 2001-14, but also as head coach (2019-21, plus 11 matches as interim in 2023).

His response suggested he felt that the current generation — and it should be stressed that plenty of the players involved in that Brighton defeat have since been sold — had become too easy to play against.

“It might be the case (that teams are no longer afraid of playing Chelsea) but the fact is, it feels useless to hark back to the team I played in,” he said. “Many top football clubs have moments when the fear factor drops with performance. Off the top of my head, you could look at Liverpool and they pulled it back and came again. Those moments where teams get a run of confidence against you — the only way to fight that is to look within yourself to become a team that is not nice to play against.

“That brings me to the physical capacity of the team and the contact level of the team. I would like to see more contact. When you are short, it is hard to make contact and that can flit through the team. Whether teams are less fearful, if they are, that should be a carrot for us to turn it around to the point where they do feel it again.”

Inevitably, as results have deteriorated, so has the atmosphere created by the crowd. Anxiety prevails. These days, cheers are soon replaced by jeers at the first hint that the hosts are struggling. There is nothing intimidating for away teams to endure.

“The overall feeling now is one of frustration,” Chidgey adds. “There is quite a lot of head-shaking going on. You do not go just to see your team win; you want to see goals, that bit of flair. When you see mistake after mistake, the head shakes.

“The issue people are having is no matter how old they are, when you have had 20 years of great success it is a very hard pill to swallow to see what is happening now — particularly when it is a pill you should not have to swallow.

“There was definitely an expectation of success after winning as much as we have over the last 20 years. It is not easy for my generation to accept. To go from being one of the most successful clubs in Europe to mid-table mediocrity is hard to stomach. But if you started supporting Chelsea during the last 20 years, I feel for that generation even more.

“They have known nothing else. They have no understanding that you can lose as well as you win. After having so much success, it makes it so much harder to take.”

The 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest earlier this month was a blueprint for Chelsea’s struggles in recent years. The visitors sat deep, made themselves hard to break down and exposed Chelsea’s lack of quality in the final third. The away support roared approval as their counterparts grew restless. Steve Cooper’s side increasingly looked for the counter-attack and took advantage — as many other clubs have done — of a defensive mistake when it came.

To his credit, Pochettino is not looking to avoid taking responsibility. Not for the first time, he has insisted that what has gone on before he arrived is not playing a role in the disappointing results now.

But with the relationship between match-goers and the hierarchy being tested due to a series of price increases, patience is in short supply. The final whistle in the Forest game was greeted with boos, as was the goalless draw at Bournemouth last Sunday. Should the display against Villa similarly underwhelm, leaving them closer to the bottom three than the top three, then the reaction may hit new lows.

On being asked when Chelsea’s next league win at Stamford Bridge was going to come, Chidgey replied only partly tongue in cheek: “Sheffield United.”

The match is on December 16.

[Vesper 28,855]

sigh

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