Rags v Chelsea

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Firstly, Chelsea didn't deserve to win. How they found themselves 3-0 up is a mystery to me, they hadn't been playing well at all and United had been the better side. Having said that though, Chelsea WERE 3-0, merited or not, and at that point any side should be able to hold on, let alone a side with Champion's League ambitions.

They were 3-0 up because they were playing a side that has a shit defence. None of their back four would even get near our bench. Plus, as has happened with us a few times, the rags failed to convert superiority into goals, until Webb gave them a big help. As we saw in the FA Cup game, once a team comes back from 3-0 down to 3-2, panic tends to set in and the rags really should have taken all 3 points.

Yet Garth Crooks STILL managed to name both Evra and Ferdinand in his team of the week!!

as I said at the start of the game, both backlines deserved annihilating.

they both got what they deserved.

 

[bobrivers]

Re: So called penalty on Welbeck and Cahill's red card

Cahill: "I was slightly fortunate to get away with that one."

AVB on the incident: "It seems to be a foul."

I'm off to bed now. I hope to wake up and find out that you being convinced that it was a clean tackle, was all a dream. For your own sake, really.

Here's a full quote from Cahill.

"I thought the contact was outside the box anyway, and at the time I thought I had got the bottom of my studs on the ball," Cahill, a January arrival from Bolton, told Chelsea's official website.

"I have seen the replay and sometimes when you go through the player and across the player to get the ball they are given against you, so I was fortunate to get away with that one but if you see the direction the ball moves I think my studs actually touched it first."

 

[Castiel]

I don't see how they were all that better either to be honest. We had more possession and more shots. It was pretty even statistically. Despite Webb giving them free kicks for every challenge in the first half after we scored. Its hard to play the possession game and slow things down when it becomes impossible to win the ball. Their wing play was nice, but none of it was any use. We broke through, three times, legitimately.

Their defence was bad enough to give an OG from a cutback and to allow Luiz a free header/head it in for him. You could say leaving someone as dangerous as Mata unmarked at the far post was also a fucking stupid thing to do, but Mata tends to find these positions often.

You can say they were more direct and faster. But better? Better would surely yield some kind of result.

 

[the blue panther]

That was a much weaker Chelsea team than we lost to - and Torres should have made it 4-2, but he's having such a nightmare he's just an embarrassment.
And how good is AVB - took his best attacker off and left on Torres and Malouda, who were both as bad as each other. AVB showed yesterday that he has no bottle, and neither does his team without their old strong spine.
If i was a red, I'd be more worried about how we went 3-0 down to that pile of shyte than getting excited about a 'Webb' induced recovery.
Chelsea were there for the taking and they dropped 2 points - they'll have tougher tests against Liverpool, Norwich and Tottenham.
After the weekend, I'm going for a final top 4 of
City,
United,
Tottenham
and Newcastle in 4th if they can get their best team out - their new guy looked good yesterday alongside Ba.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I don't see how they were all that better either to be honest.

Ask your guide dog.

 

[The Flash]

Whilst disappointing Chelsea didn't win, the fact remains that United dropped points yesterday. End of.

 

[Castiel]

I don't see how they were all that better either to be honest.

Ask your guide dog.

What did you see become of any of their attempted attacks? Their entire strategy appeared to be get in the box and dive. We got it in and shot. You consider them winning free kicks for every challenge, getting it in the box and falling over better than trying to build something up and score which eventually paid off?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I don't see how they were all that better either to be honest.

Ask your guide dog.

What did you see become of any of their attempted attacks? Their entire strategy appeared to be get in the box and dive. We got it in and shot. You consider them winning free kicks for every challenge, getting it in the box and falling over better than trying to build something up and score which eventually paid off?

I made the point earlier that they created very little until "Red Howie" gave them a big helping hand. But they looked far more incisive when they had the ball. just about everyone, commentators and spectators alike felt they were by far the better of the two sides in the first half and, once you'd scored early in the second half, they looked far more dangerous until the last few minutes. Malouda looks like your version of Arshavin these days and Torres' confidence looks completely shot.

 

[Castiel]

I made the point earlier that they created very little until "Red Howie" gave them a big helping hand. But they looked far more incisive when they had the ball. just about everyone, commentators and spectators alike felt they were by far the better of the two sides in the first half and, once you'd scored early in the second half, they looked far more dangerous until the last few minutes. Malouda looks like your version of Arshavin these days and Torres' confidence looks completely shot.

Yes I agree with that. I know Torres is useless. We're effectively playing with a striker who refuses to shoot and this is the main reason we've suffered so much this season, we can't score. He's the biggest mistake this club has ever made. Worse than Sheva (who was actually quite productive) and selling Robben. And Malouda has been bad since Ancelotti's first season. But we had nobody else at the time. AVB could have risked 19 year old Lukaku against the league champions, but who can say how he would have handled that? You lot moan about Dzeko but I'd love to have him available, at least he tries to take his chances.

I wasn't saying we played well, because we didn't by previous standards. But I don't think they dominated us like the pundits would have you believe. We were fully depleted and in bad form and we put three passed them, kept more possession and defended well up until that last corner (with a RB at LB and a CB we've never used before with no rapport with Luiz). Add to that Ramires, our best midfielder, was out, Essien wasn't fully fit and could only really go for 60 minutes, the Africans are away and whatever else was going on; I think that was a pretty good account for a side that was expected to get hammered. Moreso, why weren't we hammered? As mentioned, if City had played us yesterday, we would have been. The referee opened the door for them to get back into it. We didn't have the strength to get it under control like previous Chelsea sides, but it shouldn't have come to that anyway.

 

[BlueNoon]

I actually thought Cahill won the ball. It wasn't a lunge to get to the ball either so I don't see how it can be classified as a foul

People go on about his momentum during the sliding challenge - I guess the United fans want Howard Webb to manage the laws of physics too