The Swan

Well we are good at foreplay, it’s just the actual penetration stuff we are lacking. Who says sex and football are not related.

Spot on, 10 minutes to go and no urgency. Played 90 minutes like it was a training game.

So frustrating. All that possession. But in the final third we try and be too fancy. Little training flicks here and there. For f**ks sake, what about running fast, beating players, taking shots. No I think I’ll do another flick instead.

Reminds me of one of those spot the ball pics I used to see as a kid. Great photo.

Losing to the bubble blowers is always hard to take but 4.0 at home. My heart aches.

Who knows what to expect? I went into the Bournemouth and Southampton games full of confidence. However, despite at times playing well this season we have shown we can come unstuck against teams who defend deep, happy to watch us pass without shooting and then catch us on the counter. Still think we will win but there may be moments when this confidence is challenged.

You are right mate I was thinking more along the lines of a team like West Ham, anyway they are all small compared to us.

Come on Chels. Can’t see anything other than a win today. Hopefully some positive performances and another small team in the next round to help us advance further before we eventually reach the final.

The team got through today with real spirit. Absolutely buzzing.

How things are going I would take a draw.

Jose was the best manager.

Some great discussion on here and many insightful comments. If we reflect on the Villa game and speculate that if they had been less open and expansive the result might have been different. Consider the Valencia home game. They defended deep and adopted a counter attacking approach. We evidently struggle against teams who play defensively. Mind you when we went to Ajax we did the same to them. Absorbed pressure and were efficient in converting chances into a goal. The reality is that Super Frank is still learning and he needs to give more thought on how best to break teams down when they are happy for us to have the ball. All in all I remain optimistic though. This is a venture which remains a work in progress and as cliched as it sounds we need to get behind the team and cheer them on because for the first time we are seeing some talented players beginning to exhibit low confidence and losing can become a habit and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Before the game I looked on their forum and saw the usual bad mouthing of our beloved club. References to Stamford Bridge as the Nazi Dome and that we are all racists. Incredible. Two years ago, one of their fans threw a banana skin at an Arsenal player. Unlike the Manc c*** incident no ambiguity with the banana skin incident. I hope they find the bloke from yesterday. Spurs fans … people who live in class houses should be careful when they thrown stones.

The only game at which the atmosphere was flat was against Bournemouth. The games against lesser clubs such as Brighton, Aston Villa and Newcastle we were in fine voice. Likewise in the CL games. Last year games at SB were much flatter than they have been this season.

The Bournemouth game was not pleasant. Negative atmosphere. Perhaps the most positive comment leaving the ground that I heard was "we deserved a draw" Willian is coming in for a lot of stick. Often in these situations someone becomes the fall guy but don't agree it should be Willian. He didn't have the greatest of games but he was far from lazy. The stuff he tried did not come off...this happens. Pullisic needs to work harder off the ball, exciting when he gets it but he can spend ages not being involved. On balance though I don’t think we are too away from getting things right. Wish we would take more shots though all the build the play with no end product is frustrating.