Premier League - West Ham United vs Chelsea sans Ivanovic

Another game without Ivanovic, another non-trainwreck defensive performance?


Also, tenth League game of the season. Who says we ring it in by rocketing into the top half,
aye lads? #ShootForTheStars

I imagine it'll be a very similar team to the Kiev game:

Not a fan of Ramires but surely he keeps his spot.

Should do, Matic looks better when he has an actual partner too.

Considering Cesc's form, might be better to have Ramires. Or RLC, tbh

HT: 1-0
-

Matic rightly sent off
Goal rightly not given
Fabregas rightly flagged offside
-

You can guarantee it'll still be aggrieved indignation and talk of conspiracy from Mourinho post-match, though. #yawn

Shed wrote:HT: 1-0
-

Matic rightly sent off
Goal rightly not given
Fabregas rightly flagged offside
-

You can guarantee it'll still be aggrieved indignation and talk of conspiracy from Mourinho post-match, though. #Yawn

You re being sarcastic right?

With what do you disagree? The two yellows were as stonewall as you'll see ever, the whole of the ball was NOT over the whole of the line (unless your opinion now overrules technology), and Cesc was fractionally offside.

Am amazed how sharp turn Matic has taken. Last year he was undoubtedly one of the best mf in league. What kind of dumb person does that kind of challenge when already on yellow card one goal down and when team needs all the help he can provide.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

We've been better with 10 than we were with 11...

WIZARD

Willian and Hazard, it's all down to you guys! With 10 players we have to resort to the 1 + 1 = 5 formula

I hope Pedro doesnt sub Willian yet. Please dont make this mistake.

Damn

I remember avb days when we kept losing games. When avb was let go, our spine consisted on strong minded players that were able to save the season and win the cl. It's hard to really see players like that in our team now. There is John terry, but that's pretty much it.

We've always been playing 9 against 11 with Cesc so its not a surprise that the tempo and the play has improved once we really started playing 10 against 11.

Fabregas is the weakest link. Its not a matter of form. He has always been like that. He needs to get the axe but Mourinho cant do that.

Zouma is a a downgrade to Iva. Mourinho is just courting him until he gets one of his defenders in the transfer window or beyond.

A year back when everyone over here was boasting about the prospects of Zouma, I warned about his limitations.


Anyway, very good performance by Everyone else. I saw heart and sweat. I am happy with the performance. Things will turn out right if they continue playing like that.

With just a few tweaks, like the ones I have mentioned and with the same effort put, very few teams can compete with this Chelsea side. The question is how will they rebound.

I do hope Mourinho will give it up and stop blaming the referees. Yes so many unfair calls today. But just give it a break man and just move on.

Matic deserved the second yellow but in many cases, the Referee would have just discarded it or gave a warning. He simply chose to give the Red / second yellow which is deserved but come on!

Uncanny wrote:I remember avb days when we kept losing games. When avb was let go, our spine consisted on strong minded players that were able to save the season and win the cl. It's hard to really see players like that in our team now. There is John terry, but that's pretty much it.

Come on Guys!!!! Give Willian some credit

huntsman wrote:

Uncanny wrote:I remember avb days when we kept losing games.  When avb was let go, our spine consisted on strong minded players that were able to save the season and win the cl.  It's hard to really see players like that in our team now.  There is John terry, but that's pretty much it.

Come on Guys!!!! Give Willian some credit

willian i forgot, he's been saving our butts.

Another loss, ffs.

This one is so hard to judge.

We were really unlucky not to win. Compared to how crap we played this entire season, this one showed a lot more pace and intent.

It's a shame about Hazard since he's one of the weaker links in the team right now..

Who isn't a weak link at present?

Kick wrote:Who isn't a weak link at present?

True

Terry, Willian, GK, even Hazard was trying and he had to be contained by the opposition players so he was not a weak link. But he was definitely not performing to his standards.

The weak Links were and still are as always, Fabregas, Oscar (he didn't play this time), Ramires (He missed a winning sitter), Zouma (He has time lapse brain freeze moments; he is not destined to be a starting player yet; not on the right side for sure as he was not supporting the right side) and finally Diego who spends his time wrestling the opposition and fighting them and he retraces back (responsible for the first goal partially along with Zouma) and he dribbles a lot outside the box which is something he has to leave to the more technically gifted players.

When Fabregas F**ked off, Chelsea resumed playing better football because the ball had to rotate between more competent players who had to resume Fabregas's responsibilities and participate in more play time.

That is what I warned you about before the start of the season and I will not refrain from drilling this point whenever the opportunity arises because you guys don't listen. I sometimes question whether you understand anything about the game.

Chelsea has never been that good to start with, looking at the profile of its players. Any Tom Dick and Harry can see this. The manager is to blame for that too. He could have sold that scrub Oscar for 35 to 50Mils and bought Douglas Costa for half the money and he ll take the other half to the bank.

Salah has always been a good player to keep instead of paying 30Mils to buy Pedro who cant offer anything which Salah cant offer only better.

And the list goes on.