Crystal Palace

[Vesper 29,073]

5 minutes ago, calculatingInfinity said:

 

Yeah that's the truth, sadly. Can be said about too many players as well. Reece James & Fofana too...

the 'Made of Glass' Crew:

  
Wesley Fofana  
Benoît Badiashile  
Ben Chilwell  
Reece James  
Roméo Lavia  
Carney Chukwuemeka
Christopher Nkunku 

[Fulham Broadway 16,944]

2 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

Once again, I'm not disagreeing. It's just that Roman wanted the best of the best or at least the next best thing. Whatever predicament we might have been in had he still here, it wouldn't have been this one.

Do the board support this "project" or not? Time will tell. 

I think the difference is pretty simple - the current hedge fund investors are careful with their money - Abramovich didnt worry about spending - if it wasnt resulting in a potential trophy, he'd get rid. No  'transition' or 'project' bollocks in order to make himself richer like most owners, it was win, win win. 

[Mário César 1,002]

Chelsea didn't play a bad game. just like against ipswich and even better than that, to be honest.

the problem was the individual errors and the lack of ability to kill the game off. the attacking players lacked goals.

the midfield without lavia is easily swallowed up and, as we don't kill the game off, we're at the mercy of what's happened so far.

the squad is good, but with players like fofana, reece and lavia always injured, it gets complicated.

i liked joshua's debut. on the other hand, gusto's regression is worrying

 

[mkh 305]

Chelsea’s medical staff and some internally have suggested Fofana undergoes surgery and would miss at least 3 months. However, Fofana has said no and declined. (@lequipe)

[Mário César 1,002]

Chelsea didn't play a bad game. just like against ipswich and even better than that, to be honest.

the problem was the individual errors and the lack of ability to kill the game off. the attacking players lacked goals.

the midfield without lavia is easily swallowed up and, as we don't kill the game off, we're at the mercy of what's happened so far.

the squad is good, but with players like fofana, reece and lavia always injured, it gets complicated.

i liked joshua's debut. on the other hand, gusto's regression is worrying

 

[Vesper 29,073]

Mike Dean blasts 'definite' penalty decision officials got wrong in Crystal Palace vs Chelsea

Reaction from Crystal Palace 1-1 Chelsea as former Premier League referee Mike Dean says Pedro Neto should have been awarded a penalty

https://www.football.london/Chelsea-fc/news/mike-dean-blasts-definite-penalty-30709737

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean believes Chelsea should have been awarded a second-half penalty in their 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.

For Enzo Maresca the frustration grows. He may have said his team were not part of this season's title battle and four winless top-flight fixtures has all-but confirmed this over the festive period.

A draw to Everton, losses to Fulham and Ipswich Town, now a stalemate at Selhurst Park with Oliver Glasner's Eagles leaves Chelsea nine points adrift of Liverpool, who have two games in hand at the top.

Cole Palmer put the Blues ahead early and the visitors looked to press on. Somehow a cushion did not arrive, allowing Jean-Philippe Mateta to equalise with less than 10 minutes remaining.

However, it might not have come to that if this afternoon's referee Tim Robinson had pointed to the spot in the 63rd minute, as Dean believes he should have.

Pedro Neto raced towards the loose ball in Palace's 18-yard box - marginally trailed by opposite full-back Tyrick Mitchell.

"I think it’s a penalty kick. I think Neto’s got there first, knocked the ball away and Mitchell’s caught him from behind," Dean said as Sky Sports' referee analyst upon review.

The Blues man went to ground as a result of the challenge but play was waved on. VAR Paul Tierney did not look to influence a rewrite of his colleague's call, nor has the Premier League's Match Centre account on X released a statement as they would do for reviewed decisions.

Dean conclusively added: "So, I think it should be a penalty. He’s probably looked at it and thought he might have got a touch on the ball but I’ve slowed it down a few times and he hasn’t touched the ball. I think it should have been an intervention and a definite penalty."

[Reddish-Blue 2,365]

2 hours ago, Mário César said:

the problem was the individual errors and the lack of ability to kill the game off. the attacking players lacked goals.

Scoring 1 goal won't win you many games.  As we saw against Fulham and now Palace, teams tend to give a bit more energy in the final 10-15 minutes, especially when they are only 1-0 down. 

Hopefully for Maresca's sake, he fixes it up as Newcastle have closed the gap to 4th and City have started to win again.   It's not looking good for our side as they have Isak and Haaland where as we have Jackson up front. 

[Mhsc 929]

4 minutes ago, Reddish-Blue said:

 

 It's not looking good for our side as they have Isak and Haaland where as we have Jackson up front. 

Isak was basically completely and totally useless for like the first 10 PL games and then great form over the last 10. NJ was in great form during Isak's terrible run.

Strikers go in and out of goal scoring form, with very few exceptions. The nice thing about NJ is that he contributes very positively with link up play, pressing and making runs to open space for people.

I would like another number 9 for competition but of course what will happen in reality is: Maresca has another striker, plays other striker. Other striker does not score. Everyone complains should have played NJ! Plays NJ. NJ doesn't score. What's this fool doing?! Should have played other striker! Both our strikers are bad! We need another striker!

Sometimes following football is quite tedious.

[Reddish-Blue 2,365]

4 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Same script. 

Sell the players Maresca doesn't trust and bring him players that he does. Acheampong looked good, but we need midfield depth for Enzo/Caicedo and someone to compete with Jackson. 

We have midfield depth and someone to compete with Jackson (Lavia, Nkunku) but they are always unavailable when the team needs it 😆

4 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

End of the season is a fair while away yet but if we didn’t end up qualifying for the CL - and these sort of games end up being why - hypothetically speaking would Enzo be held as accountable as Poch was last year? Given the owners belief that last seasons squad was a CL level squad?

That would be a very interesting watch as Enzo is intent on playing his way and it's going to cost us more points this season.  That's why I said in the other thread that Newcastle are starting to put it together and they have a clinical striker up front.  Unfortunately we don't have that.

Bournemouth, Wolves, City, West Ham and Brighton as the next 5 fixtures.    I'd be surprised if we won 3 of those games. 

[Reddish-Blue 2,365]

4 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

Isak was basically completely and totally useless for like the first 10 PL games and then great form over the last 10. NJ was in great form during Isak's terrible run.

Strikers go in and out of goal scoring form, with very few exceptions. The nice thing about NJ is that he contributes very positively with link up play, pressing and making runs to open space for people.

I don't disagree with that but the point is, Newcastle were still able to keep it together with Isak not in form and now they are reaping the rewards of getting some players back from suspension/injury.  Same can be said for City. 

We had a chance to pull away and keep a gap by not dropping points in consecutive games but now we're stuck in the top 5 race. 

 

[Mário César 1,002]

2 hours ago, Reddish-Blue said:

Scoring 1 goal won't win you many games.  As we saw against Fulham and now Palace, teams tend to give a bit more energy in the final 10-15 minutes, especially when they are only 1-0 down. 

Hopefully for Maresca's sake, he fixes it up as Newcastle have closed the gap to 4th and City have started to win again.   It's not looking good for our side as they have Isak and Haaland where as we have Jackson up front. 

the problem is that unlike in some games we haven't managed to take a two-goal lead or kill the game off early. that's the only difference because we've conceded late goals like against brentford, tottenham and leicester, for example.

the difference is that at 1-0 the team has found it harder to hold on to the lead. 

fofana's absence and lavia's absence have cost us these points.

i have an idea that, with them, we wouldn't have lost so badly. 

lavia gave the midfield another physical dimension. something that isn't happening now.

[Blue Armour 4,322]

Couldn't watch this game, but from what I gather, the overall play was good., but let down again in key moments.

Looks like it's going gearing up to be a tough finish for top 5, barring any additional strengthening during the transfer window.

This team should have enough in the tank to finish above Nottingham forest, and top 5 will hopefully be enough to secure a CL place.

 

Edited Sunday at 00:58 by Blue Armour

[TheHulk 1,893]

This season is done unless a miracle, 2 out of 12 points against complete shit team, fuck off. If it was against the top would be understandable.

[Reddish-Blue 2,365]

8 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Couldn't watch this game, but from what I gather, the overall play was good., but let down again in key moments.

Looks like it's going gearing up to be a tough finish for top 5, barring any additional strengthening during the transfer window.

This team should have enough in the tank to finish above Nottingham forest, and top 5 will hopefully be enough to secure a CL place.

 

I do wonder if the club is looking at getting a midfielder in just to help out Caicedo/Enzo and give them a breather?   

KDH, Carney, Chilwell were all supposed to be moved on in January. 

[chelsea_4_eva 1,163]

2 out of 12 points is unacceptable. TWO out of TWELVE and keep in mind who it was against.

[cosmicway 1,333]

It's Maresca wall.
He burned the players.
He did a similar thing with Leicester last year.

[cosmicway 1,333]

23 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Couldn't watch this game, but from what I gather, the overall play was good., but let down again in key moments.

Looks like it's going gearing up to be a tough finish for top 5, barring any additional strengthening during the transfer window.

This team should have enough in the tank to finish above Nottingham forest, and top 5 will hopefully be enough to secure a CL place.

 

Could n't watch this game too because I knew what was going to happen.

[Special Juan 27,445]

A part from the goal another shit performance, foot off the gas at 0-1 and could have killed the game but we decided to think once again we are better than we are