Bournemouth 0-1 Chelsea

[Magic Lamps 11,677]

Having had accepted beforehand that grinding out a close late win at Bournemouth is our new level for now, I was actually able to enjoy this game a lot. Celebrated that Nkunku winner like mad. What a nice sneaky fox in the box goal that was . 
 

Sanchez was great for once. Motm. Made all the stops he had to smartly, decent in his passing but finally what a penalty save. Not a great shot but not too shabby either. perfectly timed leap there 

Also happy that Maresca listened to me and played Nkunku as striker. He is simply most effective in and around the box where his sharp football brain and instinct sets him apart from others. 

I still don’t trust Fofana. Disasi was the worst player on the pitch, really not a RB either. 

veiga and Caicedo were okish in that double pivot. Some great tackles paired with weird turnovers. Bournemouth were quite good and marking Neto, Palmer and Noni tightly, so when they got tired Sancho got to play out his strengths and change the game. 

[Pizy 18,442]

What we desperately need now is Lavia back for some control in midfield. It’ll help settle the defense and it’ll help link the attack together. Also makes Caicedo’s job much easier and I thought even today with a new midfield partner Moi looked fantastic for the most part. He was everywhere. 

[robsblubot 3,542]

7 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Veiga played a big role in that goal too

thought many were too harsh on him

he was playing out of postion and had only 18 minutes under his EPL belt before this

Think we all mentioned he was out of position and actually looked like a good player. He twice made big mistakes that could’ve costed us. I just disputed being so loaded in midfield when Veiga ends up playing there.

IMO he does not have the mobility for this position. The opposition today was very poor.

Their subs in the second half destroyed their team as they could not string two passes together. Yes, Maresca packed the midfield with the CAMs which caused them problems, but their subs evidently arent like ours in terms of quality.

[Magic Lamps 11,677]

1 minute ago, robsblubot said:

Think we all mentioned he was out of position and actually looked like a good player. He twice made big mistakes that could’ve costed us. I just disputed being so loaded in midfield when Veiga ends up playing there.

IMO he does not have the mobility for this position. The opposition today was very poor.

Their subs in the second half destroyed their team as they could not string two passes together. Yes, Maresca packed the midfield with the CAMs which caused them problems, but their subs evidently arent like ours in terms of quality.

Out of position is a bit of a stretch. He played CDM before. I see those 2 huge mistakes which luckily did not get punished but also 2 great tackles where he broke up Bournemouth and initiated the counter. Mind the boy is 20 yo and has almost 0 top level experience (Swiss league is dross) . I think he did well overall and looked very comfortable on the ball. 

[robsblubot 3,542]

9 minutes ago, Pizy said:

What we desperately need now is Lavia back for some control in midfield. It’ll help settle the defense and it’ll help link the attack together. Also makes Caicedo’s job much easier and I thought even today with a new midfield partner Moi looked fantastic for the most part. He was everywhere. 

Yeah I don’t think it’s a good sign that Caicedo was everywhere. He’s extremely mobile and can do a good job winning the ball back as well as defending from counters, but he had to work too much today.

he’s good mid, but not a very creative force.

hope he stays fit tho esp considering lavia never plays.

Edited September 14, 2024 by robsblubot

[robsblubot 3,542]

4 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Out of position is a bit of a stretch. He played CDM before. I see those 2 huge mistakes which luckily did not get punished but also 2 great tackles where he broke up Bournemouth and initiated the counter. Mind the boy is 20 yo and has almost 0 top level experience (Swiss league is dross) . I think he did well overall and looked very comfortable on the ball. 

Fair enough but I think that the PL demands a bit more mobility in the CM position due to the pace of the opposition players. Everybody got pace in the PL.

granted that given his age switching to midfield would still be possible. 

Edited September 14, 2024 by robsblubot

[Stats 7,060]

We rode our luck, however that is football. Also considering we had three of our CM out who would have partnered Caicedo in Enzo, Lavia and KDH, we did well. Especially defensively. Bar Fofana's silly pass which led to their penalty, I thought him and Colwill were excellent. Fofana looked really good at driving the ball out with his feet. Caicedo was brilliant too. Palmer was below par today. I thought at 1-0 he was a bit of a liability defensively and was not offering much, however brilliant, important 3 points.

Sancho was really good, but very unfair for them to not give MOTM to Sanchez who was brilliant in goal. Made very important saves, was commanding and made a good penalty save too. 

[Vesper 29,071]

7 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

I just disputed being so loaded in midfield when Veiga ends up playing there.

all 4 of the follwing were not avaiable

    
Roméo Lavia 
Enzo Fernández  
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall 
Carney Chukwuemeka  

over £200m spend for those 4

[Pizy 18,442]

Both Colwill & Fofana almost played like teenagers in that first half and until Tosin came in. They’re both super talented but take too many naive risks.

Then for the final 30 minutes or so they didn’t really put a foot wrong and looked good. Just like the Wolves match a few weeks ago. They looked all over the shop and then second half looked amazing.

[robsblubot 3,542]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

all 4 of the follwing were not avaiable

    
Roméo Lavia 
Enzo Fernández  
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall 
Carney Chukwuemeka  

over £200m spend for those 4

Sucks. 
I understand Enzo bc of the he stupid int break, but not the others. I’d very much like to know what’s going on with Lavia for ex. It’s not like we can count on him.

Edited September 14, 2024 by robsblubot

[ZAPHOD2319 4,531]

It was sloppy, it was Anthony Taylor being Anthony Taylor, but a big three points.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,531]

Enzo was a Gametime scratch because he is sick. Also played a lot of minutes for Argentina 

[iceboy 1,001]

Taylor being Taylor is nothing new especially for us. Colwill edhe Fofana were not good tonight. I really liked Tosin for minutes he played. 
Jackson...I don't know what to say about him. Really hope Nkunku will take his place.

[JFKvsNixon 39]

Sancho could really work out for us. I think that the reason he never worked out at Man Utd was that he was expected to perform the role of a counter-attacking winger, and that is just not his game. He doesn't have the pace to do this effectively at the highest level, what he's very good at doing is playing in tight spaces, something that Chelsea has struggled to do.

[Thor 2,448]

Would have liked to see consistency in performance - but a win is a win. These are the games that you have to win as a big team. 

I just think for us level of play is more important than playing like dross and escaping with a win. 

 

I can't get over how quickly the ball seems to go through us at times. Is it because we play with 2 in the midfield and teams like to stack numbers there against us to overload? Is it a midfield problem or is it a whole team not working in tandem problem - leaving bigger gaps between the lines. Confused because in a vacuum you look at performances of Enzo or Caceido on a game to game basis, and they're actually quite decent to good, but the midfield as a whole seemed disjointed. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,531]

8 minutes ago, Thor said:

Would have liked to see consistency in performance - but a win is a win. These are the games that you have to win as a big team. 

I just think for us level of play is more important than playing like dross and escaping with a win. 

 

I can't get over how quickly the ball seems to go through us at times. Is it because we play with 2 in the midfield and teams like to stack numbers there against us to overload? Is it a midfield problem or is it a whole team not working in tandem problem - leaving bigger gaps between the lines. Confused because in a vacuum you look at performances of Enzo or Caceido on a game to game basis, and they're actually quite decent to good, but the midfield as a whole seemed disjointed. 

I think teams go through us at times because of how Maresca is coaching them to all get back to defend instead of making the challenges mid way up the pitch. Hard to tell because they still are not completely playing his system. 
 

I have a group of friends that we text with each other during games. My Newcastle friend and I at the end of the game…

-You’ll deserve this even less than we did the point we stole from them lol

-Don’t care lol Just get the three points

 

[Reddish-Blue 2,364]

14 minutes ago, Thor said:

I can't get over how quickly the ball seems to go through us at times. Is it because we play with 2 in the midfield and teams like to stack numbers there against us to overload? Is it a midfield problem or is it a whole team not working in tandem problem - leaving bigger gaps between the lines. Confused because in a vacuum you look at performances of Enzo or Caceido on a game to game basis, and they're actually quite decent to good, but the midfield as a whole seemed disjointed. 

Because there's no controller in the midfield. 

You go back over the years, it was Makelele, Essien, Obi Mikel, Matic, Kovacic/Kante.

Right now, I don't see Enzo or Caicedo being that player, ideally Lavia is supposed to be the one but his injury issues (in such a young career) are concerning. 

Think we have horrible fixtures coming up so it'll be interesting to see how Maresca adapts.  

[OneMoSalah 8,793]

Any game where Robert Sanchez is MOTM for us should spell out trouble. Too many mistakes and inconsistency again but 3 points is 3 points.