Chelsea 0-2 Man City

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

38 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

14 points minimum, but hope for 16.

We took seven points from these fixtures last season.

[mkh 273]

Maresca on Carney Chukwuemeka and his future: “Carney is a very good player but because of some injuries in the past… I think it's important he plays 30 or 35 games in a row”.

“Is he going to play that for us? I'm not sure…”, says — via @BobbyVincentFL.

[Pizy 18,368]

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills watching Younes’s match recap video and reading his comments section where everyone is shitting on Caicedo. Enzo I understand was really poor for much of that match some deserves the criticism. But I thought Caicedo was a very solid 7.5 or 8 out of 10 today. 

I feel like people were watching a different game than I was.

[Vegetable 830]

Incredible how much and in how expensive way can change in this team to change nothing in the end. You'd expect some new energy, dedication and drive after all this, meanwhile it's copy paste everything we've seen before, easy loss at home against jogging and starting Premier League battle with displaced Brighton's 3rd choice keeper as a starter. 

[Mário César 975]

the right decision was to keep poch and get rid of sanchez altogether and bring in another goalkeeper

with the change, we've turned everything upside down again and everything is ruined

[robsblubot 3,504]

Just now, Pizy said:

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills watching Younes’s match recap video and reading his comments section where everyone is shitting on Caicedo. Enzo I understand was really poor for much of that match some deserves the criticism. But I thought Caicedo was a very solid 7.5 or 8 out of 10 today. 

I feel like people were watching a different game than I was.

Nobody was "shitting on Caicedo" lol Much less on Enzo -- I actually though Enzo had good moments esp finding Cole in some long balls.

The bar is high here--higher today against the best team in the league. "solid" in what exactly? did not give the ball away? I think he was OK until getting skinned by Kova.

If Caicedo was a 7.5-8, what was Kova then? For me Kova was an 8, while caicedo a 6 (closer to a good 7 prior to Kova play). I honestly don't know what he did today that helped us so much against City, which would've warranted a 7.5-8. Lavia looked much better on the ball as well.

I daresay that if Caicedo were a City player, he would not play in midfield and rather be adapted into a more defensive position.

[Pizy 18,368]

5 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Nobody was "shitting on Caicedo" lol Much less on Enzo -- I actually though Enzo had good moments esp finding Cole in some long balls.

The bar is high here--higher today against the best team in the league. "solid" in what exactly? did not give the ball away? I think he was OK until getting skinned by Kova.

If Caicedo was a 7.5-8, what was Kova then? For me Kova was an 8, while caicedo a 6 (closer to a good 7 prior to Kova play). I honestly don't know what he did today that helped us so much against City, which would've warranted a 7.5-8. Lavia looked much better on the ball as well.

I daresay that if Caicedo were a City player, he would not play in midfield and rather be adapted into a more defensive position.

Literally every comment I’m seeing on his video is “get Enzo out of Chelsea, Enzo doesn’t do anything well, Enzo is a disgrace” etc. Much of the same about “useless” Caicedo. I’m literally reading it right now.

Kova was a 9 out of 10 today for me just like Lavia was for us in my opinion. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,479]

I thought Fofana was much better than in preseason.

[NikkiCFC 7,953]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Sanchez and Jackson are going to cost us 20-25 points between them this season if they start every week. I’ll say it now.

 

They cost us most points last season as well so nothing new here. 

I think Maresca made a couple of mistakes. Obviously inclusion of these 2 is one. Enzo as AM everyone noticed but funny thing is that Enzo insisted of playing there from last summer. 

Another one being Nkunku as LW. Especially if Cucurella is inverted MF we basically have no player on the left side. Subs could be better. 

[robsblubot 3,504]

4 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Literally every comment I’m seeing on his video is “get Enzo out of Chelsea, Enzo doesn’t do anything well, Enzo is a disgrace” etc. Much of the same about “useless” Caicedo. I’m literally reading it right now.

Kova was a 9 out of 10 today for me just like Lavia was for us in my opinion. 

Heh that's just game talk/rant esp when losing comfortably.

Yeah Kova was a bit more involved than Lavia, so better yet for me. I do understand being cautious with Lavia tho.

Edited August 18 by robsblubot

[robsblubot 3,504]

3 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

They cost us most points last season as well so nothing new here. 

I think Maresca made a couple of mistakes. Obviously inclusion of these 2 is one. Enzo as AM everyone noticed but funny thing is that Enzo insisted of playing there from last summer. 

Another one being Nkunku as LW. Especially if Cucurella is inverted MF we basically have no player on the left side. Subs could be better. 

Yes. And yet Enzo is a super energetic and dedicated CM for Argentina. He just does not have the attributes to play CAM and is always on the ground complaining on minimal contact.

Nkunku as a LW goes into team balance, and relates to our discussion about a player who left (who shall remain unnamed 🙂).
Nkunku, Jackson, Cole means that we cannot press at all. Granted, Maresca probably thought that this was not the game to press high anyway, so he opted for pace, but it was just too easy for their backline to carry the ball with these players IMO.
I can totally see Neto being slotted on the left and then Nkunku and Jackson will dispute #9. BTW, Nkunku looked really poor today.

[Vegetable 830]

12 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Literally every comment I’m seeing on his video is “get Enzo out of Chelsea, Enzo doesn’t do anything well, Enzo is a disgrace” etc. Much of the same about “useless” Caicedo. I’m literally reading it right now.

 

I do not support it, but pricetag causes certain expectations. People give them way more slack than they did to Werner, Koulibaly, Lukaku etc., despite them being actually cheaper, anyway.

[Pizy 18,368]

A lot of our fans just need to stop crying and get some perspective. That’s the best team in the world. They’ve had years and years of continuity and their players know one another so well their understanding is almost telepathic. If we went out today and lost (and looked lost) against some midtable side or relegation fodder I’d be melting down too. They’re the Champions, ffs! We’re nowhere near their level.

We won’t be playing against Haaland, Kova, or Doku every week. We were ALWAYS going to struggle against world class opponents early on. And tbh, we performed better today than most would’ve expected. Many thought we’d get battered and concede 4 or 5.

 

[Mário César 975]

at the end of the seaason maresca will be gone

that is my bet 

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

Tbh, 25m sale kova breezing past 225m Enzo caicedo mf to score was painful. We obv massively overpaid for it but bar a couple outliers, the xi+bench we saw today is strong. They should be technically solid enough to adapt Maresca ball for what it worth and it will be enough for at least top 6. At this moment the cohesion is back to 0 but we were never gonna win vs city anyway. 
The squad will need a couple more matches to look up to speed, so don’t expect maximum points yet. Serviette and the early fixture accumulation will be a good thing bc it gives many players a chance to impress and brush off the rust 

 

other than that…

good:

Cucu carrying euros form, Lavia, fofana being useful in between injuries 

 

Unpleasant  but not worrying yet:

Nico still wasteful when it matters, nkunku still not having back that extra sharpness, palmer less effective when marked properly , Enzo Maresca still having to figure out the other Enzo is useless as no10, gusto still rusty 

 

definitely worrying

Sanchez (given that we spent over 70m on half an XI of useless goalkeepers despite this being a super easy fix ), still no chemistry between Enzo and caicedo even with Lavia, Maresca having no clue how to fit our best attackers into a system where they all work 

[Laylabelle 9,359]

10 minutes ago, Pizy said:

A lot of our fans just need to stop crying and get some perspective. That’s the best team in the world. They’ve had years and years of continuity and their players know one another so well their understanding is almost telepathic. If we went out today and lost (and looked lost) against some midtable side or relegation fodder I’d be melting down too. They’re the Champions, ffs! We’re nowhere near their level.

We won’t be playing against Haaland, Kova, or Doku every week. We were ALWAYS going to struggle against world class opponents early on. And tbh, we performed better today than most would’ve expected. Many thought we’d get battered and concede 4 or 5.

 

That's the thing. We're no where near their level and we're no where near Arsenal's level. Those two are above the rest and will no doubt be far above the rest. We only lost 2-0..which is nice. Would've been nice to win but would've been unexpected 

It's the teams around us we need to beat and that's where the struggle at times was last year so hopefully..

[Pizy 18,368]

3 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

That's the thing. We're no where near their level and we're no where near Arsenal's level. Those two are above the rest and will no doubt be far above the rest. We only lost 2-0..which is nice. Would've been nice to win but would've been unexpected 

It's the teams around us we need to beat and that's where the struggle at times was last year so hopefully..

Look at some of the other big teams this weekend. United looked awful for much of their match and won with a jammy goal. Liverpool looked woeful for the entire first half of their match and were outplayed by fucking Ipswich for 45 minutes. They were playing much worse opponents than we were today but you’d think reading the meltdowns from our fans that we lost to Everton or something and looked woeful. 

It’s not like our direct competitors look awesome and the task of getting 3rd or 4th looks out of reach with our squad. They looked poor at times as well.

We know City and Arse are in a world of their own currently. We shouldn’t even concern ourselves with them. If we struggle and lose against a bunch of the others then we can be concerned.

[Vegetable 830]

3 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

It's the teams around us we need to beat and that's where the struggle at times was last year so hopefully..

That is true, but I think the hard part is to switch ones thinking from "teams being around us" being City, Arsenal and United to "teams being around us" being Leicester, Brighton and Wolves.

Besides, since Potter we are very busy making excuses about cohesion, chemistry, club structure… Cohesion is the 5% extra edge but extra edge is not our problem right now, we fail at basics. Enzo is invisible player since he came here, similar to Werner, but Werner was actually contributing to other factors of game and didn't have team built around him, including another 100+ mil worth of players. Our 1st choice GK is nowhere near Kepa level. Front line is too slow or unaware to escape offside trap. Sure, there is a lot of young players and dross players in the team and we became a full mercenary operation, but if you acquire 80+ million footballers nothing less is to be expected from them, than 80+ million football.