Are we the most resilient bottle proof team in history?

[FrankSwift1]

Yeah you're right. Serves me right for not checking.

What confused me was that Liverpool beating City 3-2, also put the title in Chelsea's hands, as they still had to go to Anfield.
However, Chelsea lost to Sunderland the following weekend (City beat West Brom and Liverpool won at Norwich)
I think this also was the game when the Chelsea assistant Manager Rui Faria had to be restrained after the Final whistle.

Chelsea then won at Anfield, so you could argue that City, Chelsea and Liverpool all bottled it at some point or other.

I think the team that could have won it that season that noone really mentions was Chelsea. They beat both City and Liverpool home and away. Finished 4 points behind us but needed 5 more points as we had better gd to win it. In the last 7 games they lost at Palace, lost at home to Sunderland and drew at home with Norwich.


The best bit of the whole Gerrard slip and losing the league is that he was a fantastic player. He won over100 caps for England, won almost all the major trophies BUT if you ask anybody to talk about him and his career that's not a Liverpool fan, they will bring up is the slip. (My young daughter calls him slippy G btw). They might mention Istanbul or West Ham but the slip is what he's now most famous for.

He had a chance at redemption last season. The narrative was all set for him to redeem himself by stopping us beating his Villa team so his beloved Liverpool could win the title. 2-0 up at 70 minutes his little heart must have all a flutter. Finally he had an answer to the slippy g banter. But 3 goals in 8 minutes ended his little dream.

He will now be forever remembered for that slip.

Poor Slippy G.

 

[Bill Walker]

I will answer this question after Wednesday night

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

I really dislike this term "they bottled it" or "they are a team of bottlers".

I get rags saying to me that City "bottled it" v Chelsea in the CL final. No. Pep just picked the wrong team / formation and Chelsea played better tactically on the day.

Give Brighton some credit. That Everton game apart, they have played some great football this season.
Yet according to the media, Arsenal went from beating an inform Newcastle side away from home the previous weekend (with an excellent performance) to "bottling it" against Brighton.
It's a bollocks term

 

[I'm With Stupid]

The European thing has been odd, a perfect blend of dodgy decisions defensive fuckwittery and not turning up.

I think part of it is just the nature of cup competitions. Any dodgy decision can knock you out. An injury to a key player in the middle of a game can cause huge problems (Fernandinho having to play right-back against Vinicius Jr, for example). And sometimes you just happen to come up against that team that might not be as good as you, but just has a style of play that's your absolute kryptonite.

Having said that, we've definitely been naive at times. When Liverpool beat us in 2018, everyone knew how they were going to come out, and yet we just tried to play our normal game. When Real Madrid played them in the final, they basically sat back for the first 30 minutes or so and let them punch themselves out and then gradually took control of the game, and in the end it wasn't even close.

Against Real last year, and the rags this year in the league, we let a setback affect us mentally and then let them score another goal in quick succession. We drew with the rags this year because of a dodgy decision, but we lost to them because of our poor reaction to that dodgy decision.

We also have to be aware that teams that are about to go out of the Champions League will throw everything at it in a way that teams won't in a league or domestic cup competition. And usually with world class players too. And sometimes that will backfire, and we'll hammer them on the break, but often it will work if we don't mount a brilliant rearguard action, which is not something we have to do often.

The best team rarely wins the CL. We're currently in a competition with the 3rd team in Italy and the 2nd team in Spain (both by some distance). Chelsea won the CL with a team that started Ryan Bertrand as a left winger and Gary Cahill at CB. They didn't win it when they had Arjen Robben and John Terry in those same positions. Real Madrid have won the CL/European Cup 13 times, but have only won it while also winning the Spanish league 3 times. And that makes them the second best after Barcelona who have done it 5 times.