Luton 2-3 Chelsea

[LAM09 7,056]

4 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Nicolò Barella

Inter would have taken €90m

which is only £78m

£37m LESS than Caicedo

Bastoni would have been far cheaper than Fofana, too. I have no idea why we're insistent on buying players from those in the EPL, as most are largely overpriced, with much better value being available elsewhere on the continent. 

[chelsea_4_eva 1,182]

Was hopeful we could improve our goal difference but alas we are too inexperienced to hold on to such lead..  Oh well at least we got the 3 points.

[Laylabelle 9,535]

I dont think they will but be nice if Lutoj stay up. They do show so much determination and if wasnt for the bar and the odd bit of decent defending could've taken something from us

8 wins...8 losses. Least a bit balance 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Laylabelle

[Mário César 1,278]

fulham next at home

we can get 3 wins a row.

no excuses

[DH1988 1,348]

Yes 3-2 is ridiculous considering we were coasting and I'm not happy, but:

- Teams struggle there

- Earlier in the season maybe we concede and end a draw

- Rode our luck completely and traditionally this season it's gone against us

[nyikolajevics 2,700]

2 hours ago, Mário César said:

fulham next at home

we can get 3 wins a row.

no excuses

With MU lose Today, we are within 3 points with them, Brighton and Newcastle. All 3 teams are in quite bad shape, would be nice if we overtook in the next couple of weeks.

[Chuckso 17]

We are in reminiscent of the Vialli era - where we played decent good attacking football but were soft and it was widely known all you needed to do was to “get amongst them” and we’d fold like a cheap suit. 
 

It’s the manager’s job to demand toughness and work rate from his players. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Chuckso

[Mário César 1,278]

53 minutes ago, nyikolajevics said:

With MU lose Today, we are within 3 points with them, Brighton and Newcastle. All 3 teams are in quite bad shape, would be nice if we overtook in the next couple of weeks.

after fulham fixture our easy run end and we have tough games but lets see. maybe with others players fit will be able to get some nice results 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

Funny thing is, before the match I expected us to waste a ton of chances. During, I said that I'd rather have taken our extraordinary ruthlessness in a tight match and in the end it turned out to be exactly that. Any less of a clinical, ruthless display in front of goal today and we would have lost. Not to mention all three finishes were of sublime quality. So credit to Luton for still putting up a fight and requiring an incredible conversion rate from our side, 2 woodwork hits and worldclass save to be beaten. While on their visit to the bridge they were quite rough today they played proper football instead of kicking our players out of furstration.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

15 hours ago, Vesper said:

Nicolò Barella

Inter would have taken €90m

which is only £78m

£37m LESS than Caicedo

But again whilst Barella is a very rounded player he isn’t exactly a holding midfielder or particularly defensively minded. So wouldn’t of made sense but sure that calibre of player would of been available for close to or the same as Moises no doubt. 

NB does play a lot more as that more attack minded midfielder, regularly getting in the sort of half spaces similarly to like where Silva/de Bruyne had done for City under Pep for a while. He is also renowned for making a lot of those runs - underlaps (I think thats how they would describe it 😂?)-  past their wingbacks as well as getting into the box. Maybe Gerrard is a good comparison for him. He can do that at Inter as they play him on the sides of a 3 but us signing Barella as a like for like to play instead of Caicedo when we look more like a 4231 team most weeks would probably not work.

To restrict him to a more sort of defensively minded position would be stupid. If anything, signing him instead of Enzo may have made sense tactically as he has a different role. Enzo is definitely the more freed up of the two when they play next to each other or more recently Connor. Moises was bought to be that bit more defensively minded and his role (& Lavia when he plays) has to be more for bringing balance to the team. Barella wouldn’t of done that, restricting his best qualities. It is weird though they play Mkhktaryan and the Turkish lad in central MF too.

Edited December 31, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

13 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

But again whilst Barella is a very rounded player he isn’t exactly a holding midfielder or particularly defensively minded. So wouldn’t of made sense but sure that calibre of player would of been available for close to or the same as Moises no doubt. 

NB does play a lot more as that more attack minded midfielder, regularly getting in the sort of half spaces similarly to like where Silva/de Bruyne had done for City under Pep for a while. He is also renowned for making a lot of those runs - underlaps (I think thats how they would describe it 😂?)-  past their wingbacks into the box. He can do that at Inter as they play him on the sides of a 3 but us signing Barella as a like for like to play instead of Caicedo when we look more like a 4231 team most weeks would probably not work.

To restrict him to a more sort of defensively minded position would be stupid. If anything, signing him instead of Enzo may have made sense tactically as he has a different role. Enzo is definitely the more freed up of the two when they play next to each other or more recently Connor. Moises was bought to be that bit more defensively minded and his role (& Lavia when he plays) has to be more for bringing balance to the team. Barella wouldn’t of done that, restricting his best qualities. It is weird though they play Mkhktaryan and the Turkish lad in central MF too.

I would have taken Barella in the fernandez role instead as well. Far superior player albeit Fernandez may still become better.

But Caicedo was always going to be a failure. i was lukaku-level certain that he would be a bust from the outset. It is not only about the price tag but where did Boehly got the idea that you need to spend 100m+ on a fkin DM. Pick any DM available for 60m or less and he would have done a better job than Caicedo. It is this weird idea that we need to have the best possible super young player for every position no matter the price. At some point Boehly will learn that sometimes you should just buy the finished product. But I fear he has another few billions to burn on braindead transfers till he does.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

Liverpool will be without Salah soon. 

[Mário César 1,278]

1 hour ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Liverpool will be without Salah soon. 

maybe fulham get a chance in carling cup SF 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

17 minutes ago, Mário César said:

maybe fulham get a chance in carling cup SF 

Salah will miss our late January with Liverpool. game, along with Jackson.

[bluesman2610 1,417]

I said this after palace if we can win ugly and it moves us up the table I’ll take it. We can worry about more attractive football in the summer but right now we need to get top 6. That would be a huge improvement from last year.

[Mário César 1,278]

if we win against fulham, it would be 4 wins in the last 5 games. not so bad

lets see but if we keep nkunku, lavia and maybe chilwell fit maybe we can get a second strong half of the season

[Laylabelle 9,535]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12914069/Thiago-Silva-apologises-tantrum-Chelseas-win-Luton-Brazilian-cameraman-moaning-team-mates-Blues.html

wouldn't call it a tantrum....he knew how easily we could've thrown it away..

[Chuckso 17]

41 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12914069/Thiago-Silva-apologises-tantrum-Chelseas-win-Luton-Brazilian-cameraman-moaning-team-mates-Blues.html

wouldn't call it a tantrum....he knew how easily we could've thrown it away..

This is the reaction we should expect from our manager - the Fergie hair dryer treatment - rather than the high-fiving and satisfaction he showed at the final whistle. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by Chuckso

[Stats 7,146]

That game was too nerve wracking. I was so close to not watching those last few minutes as my heart was racing up and down. Although we conceded 2 late on and were close to conceding 3, I thought the defence generally done well. If they did get back, Poch would defo had to take a lot of the blame. I think he left Sterling on the bench to teach him a lesson after his selfish display against Wolves, but we really could of done with him in the second half for the counter attack and added attacking threat.

Palmer brilliant but I do believe with the nature of the game as we were being dominated heavily for the past 20 minutes, he should have come off for Sterling. Palmer is very good attackingly, however when being dominated is not as effective in terms of keeping up with the defence side as he is not blisteringly fast so sometimes the game can run past him. Noticed it against United too. Couple times or more yesterday, Chong was racing through our midfield and Palmer was doing his best to catch him but could not to a point where I wanted Palmer to get a yellow card just to take one for the team. But we were being trapped by Luton and no escape route. Thankfully we held on to the win but like I say I also think Poch's lack of subs did not help. 

Can we finally do something we have not managed to do all season against Fulham? Get 3 league wins on the trot? Hopefully not... Nice to end 2023 on a win anyway as a Luton equalizer would have ruined my whole evening tonight.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]