Match Reaction - 0-2 chelski

[Marc Overmars]

Koscielny has conceded th most pels since 2010 (6).

clumsy.

And Chesney has conceded the 2nd highest.

Quite an impressive 1-2 there.

[AFC Leveller]

Barcelona at home disagrees with that though.

I don't blame Kos for the penalty too much. The challenge was very instinctive and not one of his previous moronic challenges where's he had time to weigh up the options (see Villa at home last year). The majority of blame lies with Flamini and Santi (I believe?) for letting Hazard easily skip pass them at that pace and manage a run on Kos in the box. Bundle him over and take the FK but you don't let a player with the skill of Hazard having a free run on our CB's in the area.

Also. Szechesny got done very easily for the penalty itself. When was the last time he saved a penalty or won us a game the same way De Gea did for United over the weekend?

The second goal on the other hand ....... that was one which should have been handled. No way should our CB's be allowing a long ball over the top to result in a goal. Though mind you the deliverer was Cesc and the receipant was Costa, two world class players and difficult for any defence to deal with. All in all though, I thought our defence played alright, better than most games this season and wasn't the reason why we lost that match.

The 2nd goal looked avoidable to me. Koscielny looked like he was about to control the ball but his misjudged it and in the process let Costa run free.

The first goal was simple unacceptable. Why play 3 in the middile if they are gonna let Hazard run stright at the CBs? Cazorla just basically escorted him to our pel area.

That Wilshere chance where he miscontroled it could have been a game turner but in the end, they were better and worked harder, esp in defence.

[Alpha]

The 2nd goal looked avoidable to me. Koscielny looked like he was about to control the ball but his misjudged it and in the process let Costa run free.

The first goal was simple unacceptable. Why play 3 in the middile if they are gonna let Hazard run stright at the CBs? Cazorla just basically escorted him to our pel area.

That Wilshere chance where he miscontroled it could have been a game turner but in the end, they were better and worked harder, esp in defence.

True . It was very avoidable goal . Worst scenario was Kos to cover BFG to avoid a straight red card and the german could simply have had to shoulder Costa and made him off-balance . That could have been just a yellow card or nothing .
Most referees accept a push with a shoulder if not very clumsy .

[Özim]

Even if Chelsea were down to 10 men, we wouldn't have won, they're too organised and we just don't have the answers to that. We've been shown up enough times to know we just can't take these big teams on and beat them, it's nothing to do with the ref it's to do with the tactics, the team selection and players not being utilised in their natural positions as well as an insistence on playing slow paced tippy tappy football which has been proven to be a failure (unless you have a team full of top notch players and a superstar) and a refusal to address weak areas in the transfer windows.

You don't fail to win so many big games without there being a fundamental problem with your approach.

[Alpha]

Even if Chelsea were down to 10 men, we wouldn't have won, they're too organised and we just don't have the answers to that. We've been shown up enough time to know we just can't take these big teams on and beat them, it's nothing to do with the ref it's to do with the tactics, the team selection and players not being utilised in their natural positions as well as an insistence on playing slow paced tippy tappy football which has been proven to be a failure (unless you have a team full of top notch players and a superstar) and a refusal to address weak areas in the transfer windows.

You don't fail to win so many big games without there being a fundamental problem with your approach.

We wouldn't have known with a referee so nice to a strong team . He should have sent Cahill off first before we could have agreed or disagreed with your statement .

[Niall_Quinn]

Even if Chelsea were down to 10 men, we wouldn't have won, they're too organised and we just don't have the answers to that. We've been shown up enough times to know we just can't take these big teams on and beat them, it's nothing to do with the ref it's to do with the tactics, the team selection and players not being utilised in their natural positions as well as an insistence on playing slow paced tippy tappy football which has been proven to be a failure (unless you have a team full of top notch players and a superstar) and a refusal to address weak areas in the transfer windows.

You don't fail to win so many big games without there being a fundamental problem with your approach.

Forced to agree. And I mean forced, dragged, kicking and screaming. But the record can't be explained away by 398 unlucky performances. Different teams, different players, same result. One common factor.

[Xhaka Can’t]

There is nothing about Wenger indoctrination as your emotions make you think . We are all gutted for the defeat as fans .Wenger put out his best team . The players did not perform as expected . Simple as that . We don't have the players health records . We don't know who are about to burn out and who are at risks of injury .
You can say he should have started this or that player . He should have put this player at this position.But we don't know what is behind closed doors . Not playing Ozil in the middle is just a myth . He has the freedom to operate everywhere . Even when he plays in the "middle" he can still go in the wings .
Now you tell me if you were the manager what you could have done .

I think the players performed exactly as expected.

[selassie]

Barcelona at home disagrees with that though.

I don't blame Kos for the penalty too much. The challenge was very instinctive and not one of his previous moronic challenges where's he had time to weigh up the options (see Villa at home last year). The majority of blame lies with Flamini and Santi (I believe?) for letting Hazard easily skip pass them at that pace and manage a run on Kos in the box. Bundle him over and take the FK but you don't let a player with the skill of Hazard having a free run on our CB's in the area.

Also. Szechesny got done very easily for the penalty itself. When was the last time he saved a penalty or won us a game the same way De Gea did for United over the weekend?

The second goal on the other hand ....... that was one which should have been handled. No way should our CB's be allowing a long ball over the top to result in a goal. Though mind you the deliverer was Cesc and the receipant was Costa, two world class players and difficult for any defence to deal with. All in all though, I thought our defence played alright, better than most games this season and wasn't the reason why we lost that match.

Yeah to be fair he did perform well against Barca at home.

The problem is most definitely Central Midfield, the lack of defensive awareness and cover is killing us, you have pretty much alluded to this with your Flamini/Santi comment. Central Defence isn't really a big problem though I have not felt that comfortable with Central Defence in the big games for quite a while now..

Yeah Chesney has been dodgy for me this season, he doesn't seem to have that commanding presence that he had last season and his distribution is awful. He also gives me the jitters when he messes about with the ball after receiving a backpass!

If you watch the replay for Costa's goal you will realise how bad our defending was, they were both caught square, it was schoolboy stuff.

[Özim]

We wouldn't have known with a referee so nice to a strong team . He should have sent Cahill off first before we could have agreed or disagreed with your statement .

We would, it's predictable, we always lose or fail to win, just look at our record. People knew we'd lose before we started. Even with 10 men Chelsea are organised and well drilled enough to keep us at bay, I don't think we really have the game to open them up because we're so slow it allows them to block any of our attacks, whether it's 10 or 11 doesn't make a huge amount of difference when you play a game like ours, we don't really exploit space.

[Power n Glory]

I think the players performed exactly as expected.

Ain't that the sad truth.