Chelsea (A) - Sat 25 Sep 12:30 | Pre-Match Thread

Match Result Prediction

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Agueroooo9320 said:
I maintain we will win the game if southgate managed us against you guys. all it takes is putting all our best players in the right position they play against chelsea and we win the game. but no pep sometimes lets his ego get in front of him and tries to show he is too clever against his opposite manager and ends up looking stupid with no defensive mid and no forward.
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Nothing to do with his ego, much more to do with needing to score the first goal and also seeing both Rodri and Fernandinho really struggle against Chelsea's press in previous games. It didn't work, but let's not pretend it was an insane gambit. There was a logic to it
 
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Vialli98 said:
What makes Pep do those things, do you think?


I think we're both capable of beating each other, as I think these are roughly two teams on equal footing, which is a pleasing thing to be able to say for first time in about half a decade.
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Pep has always happily explained his tactical decisions.

He picked Gundogan because we'd lost to Chelsea with both Rodri and Fernandinho playing 6. In the FA Cup especially we'd not managed to break the back 5 down, and he thought the only way to do so was to sacrifice the DM for another creative player and hope the back 4 could cover Havertz, Werner and Mount between them.

Gundogan has played dozens of games at 6 for us, including for a 14 match winning run to win the 2019 title so he'd played the position.

He said all of this in his pre match interview before the Champions League final.
 
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I dont think this is going to happen., but Wilson-Esbrand is the exact kind of player we need to beat the back 3/5. We really need that high, wide, pacey fullback to pull their wingbacks out to the touchline and let Foden, KDB, Sterling, Grealish etc get at the back 3 with less protection.

As much as I'm a fan of Zinchenko, the tucked in fullback has killed us against these systems, and Cancelo just isn't good enough on the left to do that role.

Like I said, it's not going to happen. Maybe in 6 months when we play in a cup or the return fixture he might get the chance if he's picked up a few more games.
 
domalino said:
I'd play Sterling because a few months ago he scored and won a penalty in the closest game we had to beating Tuchel's Chelsea. In fact, if Aguero scores, we win that game, I think even Tuchel admitted that. This was also when everyone was complaining about his form.

Also his runs in behind James were our only big chances against Chelsea in the CL final.

I'm not sure it's a fight between the two of them though.
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Far more negatives to Sterlings game than positives,the amount of times he will surrender possession being the main concern.

As for a straight fight,i wouldnt like to lose any of the other 10 from that line up and Jesus adds much more in terms of cohesion and industry IMO.
 
domalino said:
I dont think this is going to happen., but Wilson-Esbrand is the exact kind of player we need to beat the back 3/5. We really need that high, wide, pacey fullback to pull their wingbacks out to the touchline and let Foden, KDB, Sterling, Grealish etc get at the back 3 with less protection.

As much as I'm a fan of Zinchenko, the tucked in fullback has killed us against these systems, and Cancelo just isn't good enough on the left to do that role.

Like I said, it's not going to happen. Maybe in 6 months when we play in a cup or the return fixture he might get the chance if he's picked up a few more games.
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Having Jesus play wide right and naturally look to go outside to the byline instead of coming inside into traffic might help keep Alonso both wide and pinned back

Would be nice to have that on the left too, but it'll probably be Grealish and Cancelo coming inside and clogging the middle up. Hopefully Bernardo and/or Foden can go on the outside to open up some space
 
FantasyIreland said:
Far more negatives to Sterlings game than positives,the amount of times he will surrender possession being the main concern.

As for a straight fight,i wouldnt like to lose any of the other 10 from that line up and Jesus adds much more in terms of cohesion and industry IMO.
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Sterling’s work rate is the only part of his game that hasn’t gone down the pan so in that regard I rate him higher than Jesus.

As for cohesiveness and keeping possession I think Jesus is equally erratic on the ball - you can never be sure he’s not gonna miscontrol it or play a loose pass. I think he flattered to deceive in those opening games and I’d much sooner have mahrez or Foden or Bernardo on the right in the big games.
 
Trickyblues said:
This may be controversial but I genuinely think the Liverpool game will be tougher than this one...
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Yeah, I agree Chelsea will be cautious against us where Liverpool can blow us out in the 1st 25minutes like they did in 19/20 and 17/18, we will get a result here Chelsea cautious tactics cant keep working and that league game they beat us in the eithad was a total fluke, we will dominate the majority of the game and at some point we will take our chances. The Liverpool game is the final stretch of this 3 game run so it will be toughest. I'm super confident about this Chelsea are running hot right now but we control the game better then them we create more chances all our underlying stats are superior over the long run of the course of a season we should finish ahead of them 9/10 times. I'm more worried about liverpool.
 
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If Rodri and Gundogan are not fit then maybe it's worth trying a KGB trio in the middle?

............ Ederson ............
Walker Dias Stones Laporte
... KDB Bernardo Grealish ...
Jesus ..... Torres ..... Foden
 
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