Chelsea (a) post match thread

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Kev is rather more talented than Nacho and so, more importantly, is Sergio. KDB is not a passenger but he is also not in his best form. I'd probably play him less at the moment but I'm not sure anyone else will actually deliver more creativity etc and I suspect Pep is currently convinced of that and that is why he keeps starting him. I'm most assuredly convinced that Pep is better placed to judge than me or you.

Kev is a wonderfully accomplished footballer, but there's something of a Fairweather Charlie about him. Sometimes he will put the hard yards in defensively, but too often I watch him give up and his shoulders slump, and once his belief goes his range finder, touch and judgement go with it. I'm not convinced we can go another season with him Silva and Sterling in the same team and aspire to win the title, and I'd happily introduce a little more height and steel into that midfield (Fabinho perhaps), which is where I believe the majority of our problems lie, both offensively and defensively.

Whatever the stats say Spanish Dave has been in a class of his own this season and is the biggest shoe-in for Player of the Season that we've had for a few years now. Only Leroy comes close for me and he took 3 or 4 months to get going. Great to see the Vinster back last night. Thought he handled Dirty Diego superbly.

 

[pudge]

Kev is rather more talented than Nacho and so, more importantly, is Sergio. KDB is not a passenger but he is also not in his best form. I'd probably play him less at the moment but I'm not sure anyone else will actually deliver more creativity etc and I suspect Pep is currently convinced of that and that is why he keeps starting him. I'm most assuredly convinced that Pep is better placed to judge than me or you.

Do De Bruyne's 'pros' outweigh his 'cons' on his current form and the situation we're in league wise? Not for me in my opinion.

I'd have Delph stay in against Hull, Yaya for Fernandinho and Sterling in for De Bruyne.

I understand the 'moments of magic' argument but it's not a case of him being even average for the other majority of the matches, he's been down right terrible more often than not. He's not been inconsistent over each 90 minutes, he's been consistently poor imo and shouldn't be spared a place on the bench in the hope he turns it on for a minute or two in between losing the ball and shitting out of every 50/50.

A rest would do him more good than the pressure of playing every game imo.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Last night confirmed what most of us have known for a good few months and what Pep has known since at least last September: while City are a very good team they are not yet good enough to win the title. It is true that we would be a lot, lot closer to Chelsea had we not suffered some of the officially sponsored abuse dished out by a select band of so-called elite referees - and last night's display from Dean was again breathtaking in its blatant refusal to apply the laws of the game as the authorities say they should be applied, or to give our players, David Silva in partivular, any protection at all. He seemed to share Costa's desire that Vinnie's first game back in months should also be his last for several months. But last night, yet again, for the umpteenth time, we saw City have more than 60% possession against a top four contender, have more shots and more on target and yet we have only won two these matches, against United at OT and Arsenal at home. Last night we enjoyed 61% possession, had 17 shots to their 10, 7 on target to their 4 but scored only 1 goal to their 2. At its simplest we are not good enough at winning matches against good teams.

Willie has rightly taken over from Claudio in goal and has performed well on the whole, but he does have his dodgy moments and I wouldn't say we have total confidence in his abilities. Almost inevitably, one of his dodgeist moments arrived in the 12th minute when he palmed a shot he should have saved with relative ease into the net. A gift of a goal to a well-organised, in form team on their own ground with the title beckoning them! If Pep had hammere anything into his players before kick off it was probably on the lines of "no mistakes".Like thousands of other blues I was thrilled to see Vinnie back and I though this presence had a beneficial effect on our back four. But our problems at full back were still there for all to see. I don't like to single out individuals but Clichy has become a liability, as has often been pointed out. On Sunday a loss of concentration cost us a goal at the Emirates and last night he was frequently out of position and squandered possession when we were in promising positions. I was less enthusiastic about Delph's selection than I was about Vinnie's and no-one will struggle to work out why! I actually respect Delph. He is an honest, professional lad who always does his best. He is a good player, but no amount of encouragement, abuse, insults or anything else is ever going to get him to play like Zinedine Zidane - or Ya Ya Toure or Ilkay Gundogan. Delph is good, but not good enough for title challengers. And he plays in a position which is vitally important to the Guardiola approach. City were not good enough at least 4 positions.

The papers are rubbing it in that Guardiola isn't that special, that Conte is the real miracle worker and so on. Pep is not "to blame". Since September he has been telling us we are not good enough to win the title. Last night proved it. But a lot of problems will be solved in the transfer window. We play some irresistible football going forward but we don't finis it off and the defence will be overhauled. I think, and it seems to be a fairly widespread opinion, that we are close to being an exceptionally good team. And Pep is the man to get us there.

 

[mosssideblue]

Someone needs to say it as it was.

Mancini like Pellegrini had one decent season and the rest was mainly fucking turgid. It wasn't that long ago not to remember the crap performances and defeats yet its like history is being re written on here yet again.

Fans constantly longing for his return are a complete fucking embarrassment and i will tell you why. Not a fucking peep from any of them when things are going well, not one peep yet as soon as we lose a game they are back on moaning and whining.

Some are far more interested in being proven right on an internet forum at times than they are City doing whats required and moving forwards.

We played well last night. Some of the attacking play is on a different level to anything else seen in this league and but for some lax finishing and the final ball, we are not far off. Kun, Sane, Jesus, Sterling, KdB, Merlin gracing the pitch yet its moan fucking moan. "Should have backed Bobby" is the cry yet you all forget one thing. he would have spunked money on Van Persie and whilst it might have won a league, we can only guess he too would have been gone now and those players mentioned Merlin and Kun aside probably wouldn't be here and we would be watching the Ballotelli show week in week out or at least we would when he wasn't suspended.

We need new full backs, a keeper and a dominant CM. We can all see it, we have all said it and we have all acknowledged it will happen this summer when several contracts are up and players will leave that are just no longer up to it. What do you want Pep to do in the meantime? Play players he doesn't have? Chelsea barely mustered a shot 2nd half last night and but for a deflection and some poor goalkeeping and a lucky deflection yet again off the penalty save they have actually done fuck all. They didn't out play us, we out played them for large periods yet some just dont want to see it.

Pep came in and said we are going to change the mentality of the club. Not just the tam, the club and he said on several occasions its going to take time. We are competing against clubs with decades of experience at the very top when in reality we have been there for a few years. We went unbeaten at the start of the season but he kept telling us we would lose game, lots of games and he has been proven right. Maybe he knew then the quality in the squad wasn't of the required standard? He told us it wasn't a quick fix and that his job would take several years. Did anyone actually listen to what he said or was it in one ear and out the other?

Best owner in world football, some of the best talent in world football and without a doubt, the best manager in world football as shown by his record and for those that will harp on its easy when you are with Barca and Bayern, his job here is to turn us into those same sort of elite clubs that for the next 50 years will dominate the game because he has changed our mentality into the same as theirs. Winners!

The fans also need to change their mentality. Its not all about the next game or the next few weeks. it will take time but it will happen because everything our owner planned for when he came in and promised he has delivered and in Pep, he will deliver once more. If you cant see the improvements being made within the club as a whole i feel sorry for you. if you cant see what he is trying to do out on the pitch i feel sorry for you. Pragmatism is thown around here like confetti. You want pragmatism? Watch a Mourinho side or a Pulis side because that's pragmatism. Turgid, crap anti football that harps back to the days of muddy pitches, big lad up front and shouts of "get rid" from the sidelines and "get it up to the big man up front".

No fucking thanks because we are better than that and it might win the odd battle but it wont win the war because we will win the war.

Finally refs and linesmen are screwing us over every single game. See that for what it is and accept it and instead or turning on the team, direct some of that anger at them because they are costing us big time. Such fine lines in football and this season we have been royally fucked over and its costs us so many points its untrue. We get what we where due and the league table looks very different and the mood on here is very different. Its not Peps fault they are bent, nor is it Merlin's or Raheem's and like us, the players are fucked off with it as well but its a battle right now and we all have to take the fight to them and win the war.

Its a passionate game and we all love this club but some of the stuff written after a defeat is cringe worthy and downright disrespectful.

Fantastic post and you are right, it needed to be said. We sadly have amongst us profession moaners who take any opportunity to crawl out from under their rocks and spout shit when we lose. Its a pity the post match thread when we play well and win barely reaches half the pages of a lost game

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Chelsea the superior team and will be well deserved champions.

Showed today how to do the less glamorous side of the game brilliantly and in this league that goes a very long way towards winning titles.

Great to see Kompany play so well and get through a full game.

Although I agree that Chelsea have been clearly the best team this season and deserve to top the Prem (all teams are exactly where they deserve to be eight months in - no arguing), there's no way that Chelsea deliberately set out to concede possession at home and to defend in such a way as though they just assumed we'd miss an open goal and several clear cut chances. Lallana apart, good chances against us go in. Some of those chances, and they were very good chances, go in and the media say 'City show their class'. Miss 'em, like we did, and the media say 'Great defensive play'. And you have Hoddle PRAISING Chelsea's fouls as though we're in the 1960s when players regularly took the opposition players out with barely a word from the ref. No, last night we weren't brilliant, but we cut Chelsea open numerous times only to make some feeble attempts on goal.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Statistically he has out performed Silva on every level but where is his criticism?

I don't like butting in but, I'm not a stat man, nobody can put any reasonable argument forward that De Bruyne has been better than Silva this season. Not one

 

[mosssideblue]

Funny enough I don't think he got it spot on - the setup was perfect but the season's already gone and we weren't really playing for anything so why play Delph and Dinho together? There was no better time for Pep to implement his crazy attacking philosophy, Pep should have thrown all our attacking options at them, peg them back completely and break their resilient back 4. They played Zouma as a make shift fullback, if we had Sterling on the pitch yesterday, with Nacho and aguero in a 4-1-2-3 setup I am sure we would have taken that game.

what? We are not assured top 4, we are trying to build confidence for the upcoming semi and you think it was a dead rubber - unbelievable

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Disapointed with the result but not the performance but we do lack a plan b nice to see vinny get 90mins just hoped he come through it allright? The team needs a bit more experience in it up top instead of potential.

 

[Moorland Blue]

Great post,BluessinceHydeRoad,and spot on in its analysis. I'm happy with Pep and I'm confident of a top 4 finish with a pretty good chance of winning the FA cup. What puzzles me is that, given we all knew Pep was coming, why on earth did Tkixi and co.(including Pep?) not realise that our key issues lay with ageing full backs and risky centre halves. Relying on VK just didn't make sense (much as I think he's been our mainstay for years) given his injury profile. Stones was bought for potential not instant success (and I'm guessing, on the assumption that VK would guide him). Buying Otamendi was a mistake waiting to happen. If you watch him in La Liga his whole game was based on the slower pace which meant he didn't have to dive in so often and when he did he would most often get it right because he had more time than you get in our league. Putting all the eggs in the Bonucci and Laporte baskets was risky but above all settling for 4 full backs all in their 30s was unbelievably complacent. Obviously there was bad luck too with the injuries to Gundo and Jesus (and Delph?), the argument with Yaya and the unexpected complete meltdown of a goalkeeper who had been brilliant for club and country over time. However, not to address the full back situation still strikes me as bizarre! I just hope that we get it right in the transfer market in the summer.

 

[OB1]

Kev is a wonderfully accomplished footballer, but there's something of a Fairweather Charlie about him. Sometimes he will put the hard yards in defensively, but too often I watch him give up and his shoulders slump, and once his belief goes his range finder, touch and judgement go with it. I'm not convinced we can go another season with him Silva and Sterling in the same team and aspire to win the title, and I'd happily introduce a little more height and steel into that midfield (Fabinho perhaps), which is where I believe the majority of our problems lie, both offensively and defensively.

Whatever the stats say Spanish Dave has been in a class of his own this season and is the biggest shoe-in for Player of the Season that we've had for a few years now. Only Leroy comes close for me and he took 3 or 4 months to get going. Great to see the Vinster back last night. Thought he handled Dirty Diego superbly.

Kev is undoubtedly infuriating.

I agree that the midfield is an issue as a collective and needs rebalancing. We need more speed, height and steel for the EPL. We have to defend better from the front to help the defence out. New full backs are also essential and I want to see Fabinho at right back; doing the inverted FB thang.

I enjoyed Vinnie's performance. For a guy who has made so few appearances recently that was an impressive return; shame he diverted Hazard's shot. Vinnie deserves more luck: it's a tragedy how his career has been so hampered by injury because he really could have been the world's best centre back.

 

[East Level 2]

Got on the tube no probs at Fulham Broadway and no, I didn't leave before the end but I did make sure I exited the ground swiftly.
What tourists?

They announced disruption on the District Line (the line FB is on) at full time and suggested fans go to Earls Court. A minute or so later they said no westbound trains were running through FB. I assume you weren't heading west. It's possible the problem was over very quickly as Earls Court didn't seem too crowded when we got there.
As for "what tourists"; please join Mike Dean in the queue at Specsavers.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Mate, consideration has to be given to where we've come from recently. We had it in 2012, but by 2016 we were a shambles and a shadow of our former selves. Did you honestly think even Guardiola could come in and sort the mess he inherited in one season?

It took took 4 years for us to build a championship winning side and 3 years to completely wreck it and bring us back to the Mark Hughes era. Pep is not God and albeit we have Jesus in our ranks, he has only just been resurrected after his crucifixion and hasn't yet played.

There were THREE key moments in the match tonight where Aguero went for the shot when it was the killer pass that was required. This is what Jesus brought to the side and why Aguero lost his place. In short Aguero is too greedy at times and needs to be more of a team player. I was shocked to hear that with Aguero we only win 49% of our matches and without him we win over 70%........ Food for thought.

Pep just needs time and our support to get the players he needs to execute his philosophy. Rarely am I upbeat after a defeat, but tonight isn't about tonight, it needs to be looked at in context of where we've been for the previous 3 seasons which is how we've arrived where we are today. Personally, I couldn't care less how some look at the here and now, I'm looking at what I can see in front of me with a view to whether we have a plan for the future and from what I can see, we have!

Let's just get automatic CL qualification sorted and see if we can win the FA Cup, because for me, it was always about next season and beyond and I seriously don't get why others can't see that too.

Tidy response that tbf bud.

 

[OB1]

They announced disruption on the District Line (the line FB is on) at full time and suggested fans go to Earls Court. A minute or so later they said no westbound trains were running through FB. I assume you weren't heading west. It's possible the problem was over very quickly as Earls Court didn't seem too crowded when we got there.
As for "what tourists"; please join Mike Dean in the queue at Specsavers.

Was going East. Parked at Notting Hill. There was a tourist on our row.

 

[OB1]

Do De Bruyne's 'pros' outweigh his 'cons' on his current form and the situation we're in league wise? Not for me in my opinion.

I'd have Delph stay in against Hull, Yaya for Fernandinho and Sterling in for De Bruyne.

I understand the 'moments of magic' argument but it's not a case of him being even average for the other majority of the matches, he's been down right terrible more often than not. He's not been inconsistent over each 90 minutes, he's been consistently poor imo and shouldn't be spared a place on the bench in the hope he turns it on for a minute or two in between losing the ball and shitting out of every 50/50.

A rest would do him more good than the pressure of playing every game imo.

Might be time for a rest.

 

[paulchapo]

This might be controversial but given that Pep places so much importance on possession and his midfield, could KDB be a big name casualty of the summer revamp? We all know he is capable of moments of magic but can Pep put up with that if he keeps on giving possession away with poor passes, a lot even simple ones and his lack of desire to work hard and press opponents?

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

You don't get rid of a talent like KDB just like that. Give him more of a Pep team, get him a bit fitter and rotate to keep him and Silva fresh and he will be more consistent.

 

[Dribble]

Tidy response that tbf bud.

It just really gets to me when some can't see that there's a plan in place, as opposed to the last three seasons where most of us were thinking WTF!

All the neutrals I spoke to today said we smashed Chelsea and looked totally superior. You CAN be the better team and lose and last night we proved that with loads to spare. We went to Stamford Bridge and made Chelsea defend for their lives at times with a 10-man defence. Now that takes some doing at any point over the last 15 years!

Keep the faith and give Pep the time he needs to reverse the decline we've all seen coming for the last 3-4 years. The difference between then and now, is that we have a plan and we have been blessed with Jesus our young Lord and our saviour. Trust me, if he'd have played last night, we'd have won. THREE times Aguero could have played a killer pass, but he decided to go for glory, and the few & far between chances we had were lost.

Think about the performance last night and forget the result for now. Think about Jesus & Gundogan returning and the replacements for some of our players who are reaching the end of their top side careers. From the end of last season, it's not been about the now, it's been about our immediate future, and if last nights performance is anything to go by, all I can say is WOW!

Even Delph looked like the player we hoped we'd got! Keep the faith brothers, I feel like we could be on the cusp of something special, but don't believe for a moment that any other PL challenger is just going to bend over, lube up and let us stiff them until they're red raw without them giving us a right scrap. Those days are long gone and Leicester proved that last season.

 

[Dribble]

This might be controversial but given that Pep places so much importance on possession and his midfield, could KDB be a big name casualty of the summer revamp? We all know he is capable of moments of magic but can Pep put up with that if he keeps on giving possession away with poor passes, a lot even simple ones and his lack of desire to work hard and press opponents?

KDB is the Ying to our Yang. He's more direct than any of the other passers we possess which give us superb variation. One thing we've added this season, is the ability to break with pace and KDB is the player who is supplying the killer direct forward passes so that Sane, Sterling and Jesus can cause havoc.

Just give it time and I'm sure we'll be wetting ourselves with what the future holds.

 

[paulchapo]

KDB is the Ying to our Yang. He's more direct than any of the other passers we possess which give us superb variation. One thing we've added this season, is the ability to break with pace and KDB is the player who is supplying the killer direct forward passes so that Sane, Sterling and Jesus can cause havoc.

Just give it time and I'm sure we'll be wetting ourselves with what the future holds.

I agree, some of his passing and crossing are superb but I was looking at it from Pep's perspective of his holy mantra of keeping possession. From my perspective he needs to work harder and stop giving the ball away from easy positions.

 

[bluegaz13]

I have read a few posters on here who think Gundogan will be our saviour next year as far as the midfield is concerns......however as we have found out already with De Bruyne......there is only so many places we can afford for the so called 'bottlers' and I'm afraid we have already got our fare share of half hearted tacklers in the team......saw him pull out of quite a few challenges before his injury
Compare them with Silva.....who reminds me now, of a more skilful Asa Hartford ........who doesn't shirk challenges and never stops working for the team.
Possibly Sterling comes into the bottler category too.
We need some physicality introducing into the midfield......Delph , although not top class certainly improved this against Chelsea !
We are not a million miles away and Pep has now had the time to both assess the players available.....plus the requirements of the premiership.
Next year is the time to judge Pep.......plus does anyone think the campaign/agenda by the press to second guess who will be released at the end of the season has not played a part in the fluctuations of the performances ??