yorkleyblue

Well spotted @bluedave They do slither back in, but usually can't avoid embarrassing themselves :)

Something of a theme about the yoof players that you fancy @Nibs

Yep, really good support, abusing your own like that. And thank f**k you in particular have "had enough". Now, off you f**k, go "support" the pikeys or Fulham or Citeh, or whatever. Not really the sort that Chelsea need nor want.

Another twat joins up with their Oscar Wilde-level wit. FFS

I think it's some w**ker with a moving GIF atavar who thinks it's funny but which gobbles up all the bandwidth

Don't we already own one of those?

Like I said, I'm not disagreeing with a lot of what you say, but we still have a good defensive record. You don't get points for getting chances through the midfield unless you actually score those. You can't take single players or team elements in isolation, it's a whole team game. The midfield and defense between them work, better than 18 other teams in the league. Take that pikey vardy if you want to, but there have been many many others where any such penetration has been dealt with easily and cleanly. All I'm saying is have a bit of balance about it all.

And yet STILL have the second best defensive record in the league. Strange, ain't it, when we have two of the worst defenders ever to have played for any team in Luiz and Alonso (if some people's ratings are correct) and a mid-field that gets sliced through with ease? Not arguing with a lot of what you say, to be honest, but you know how I like rational and reasonable language in debate.

And I think Spuds had no choice in the matter, they got dominated. That's the beauty and horror of football, two people can watch the exact same match and come to directly opposite opinions about what they have just seen.

I don't disagree, but that wasn't what we started off about, was it?

But you do know that the numbers higher than 2 can be applied to all players at times, don't you?

OK, if that's what you think. I think they were under the cosh, and all they could come up with towards the end was punt it away as far as possible. There was a hell of a lot of last-ditch defending as well. I think you might be down-playing the teams performance .

You honestly think that, particularly in the second half, Spuds having 10 outfield players in their own half and hoofing the ball up to Dave or Kepa was them "letting us have the ball"?

Ok, I just wondered if there was one place that most people respected. No worries.

As a matter of interest, who's match ratings are acceptable? Is it any web site that agrees with me? Or, seriously, is there a respected match rating site that everyone accepts as objective, fair and accurate?

Wasn't great, I'll give you that, but wasn't piss-poor either. I take it you have a long list of things he did wrong last night? I have no list of wondrous things he did, but I don't have a big old mental list of all his calamitous failures, either. I thought the entire team played very well, when compared to that last nightmare against the Spuds, but I'll agree that Alonso wasn't the stand-out star this time. I was chatting with mates last night and we all agreed that the age of social media and FOMO and Twatter and the like has created a society where there is a vertical line of opinion and everything has to be on one side or the other. A footballer is either sh*t or marvelous, there are no gradations. You, amongst a lot of other posters in here, have mostly those sort of opinions expressed about Alonso on one side of that line, and RLC and Emerson on the other side. It's possibly a sad comment on society, but this doesn't only apply to football, but everything in life. Perhaps its a generational thing, but I, and my mates, can see and accept a wide spectrum of opinions about many things. I've said many times, Alonso ain't world-class, but neither is he as sh*t as people in here claim. Same goes for Willian, Luiz, Torres at times, Kalou, Malouda and Mikel amongst many others. Sometimes they were dog' s and sometimes they were adequate and sometimes they played really well. But the binary stance of a lot of people precludes them from saying "fair enough, X done alright this time". I also fear people who are absolutely CERTAIN about anything. That way lies a hidebound refusal to see any other way but the "right way, my way" and not in a Sinatra way. That has a damaging and poisonous effect on any sort of decent society. There are very very few black and white certainties (Spuds are nasty w**kers being one of them, Scousers are never responsible for anything but are offended by everything is another) but more and more we are going down the path of this is the only possible "right" thing. So, when people really do play sh*te, by all means criticise. Equally, when they play well, say so. If, as most players do, they play OK, no major mistakes but no great winning moments either, then also say so. Accept that if you constantly raise the level of abuse for a player above and beyond the actual level of piss-pooredness that they displayed, you devalue that abuse so that people dismiss it as "oh, that's just poster X slagging off player Y because he doesn't like him, regardless of how he actually played". I'm sure that people who don't actually READ what I write on the subject of Willian just dismiss me as a 100% Willian fan who can see no wrong. You and I both know that isn't true, but, you know, " how can I possibly have a balanced view of the player, that's not how it works, he's sh*te, isn't he"?

Fair enough, mate - I thought you were just referring to last night. You're right, a sad state of affairs at the moment, but last night gave me hope.

She does it so well, and makes all the right noises too :)

That bit wasn't aimed at you. Sorry if you thought it was.

What about that match makes you think that Spuds made it look easy? We dominated them - how is that "being owned"? So hitting the woodwork twice, Christensen not knowing which foot was which and their keeper playing the match of his life don't count, is that it? I see the usual melt-down from the usual suspects. Not going to say much more than proud of my team, proud of the travelling fans, totally ashamed of a lot of you in here, as always, it appears. Beaten by a penalty fro an off-side w**ker, and some of you are diving into deep deep despair. Also, without trying to sound like a broken record, ONE misplaced pass from Willian triggered a storm of abuse in here. CHO missed the ball competely on the Spuds penalty area - not a post! But no agenda, mind. Spoilt brat, arm-chair "fans" with Playstation level knowledge of proper football. (NOT Soccer) - You decide if that is aimed at you or not.

Thank you @Liam, the cheque is in the post

Rough around my edges?????? You know how to handle that @Valerie

better still, people just stop arguing. You all know it makes sense.

OK- Still waiting for just the one example of me downplaying performances, but you carry on. I'll just leave it here

The conversation in the CHO thread isn't about performances, good or bad, it's about some dick running round like chicken little crying about the sky falling in when it wasn't true. Show me any of my posts inaccurately or unfairly criticising a player's performance, which is back to where we started.