I didn't know José was a doctor, clever man.

Me neither so why would I write a letter? He is the guy in charge of the medical staff though is he not? And he was talking in the context of a football game which tends to be his forte, Martin Tyler just said on the liverpool game about yesterday, the staff go on if the ref and the player call for them...you take a look back and see if hazard called them on..

says it all: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33837212

Me neither so why would I write a letter? He is the guy in charge of the medical staff though is he not? And he was talking in the context of a football game which tends to be his forte, Martin Tyler just said on the liverpool game about yesterday, the staff go on if the ref and the player call for them...you take a look back and see if hazard called them on..

I see the point mate, I'm just uncomfortable with him publicly criticising members of Chelsea in public.

I see the point mate, I'm just uncomfortable with him publicly criticising members of Chelsea in public.

I was surprised actually, he normally takes all the heat and protects everyone, which indicates he was seething, but you're right out of character and I'd say unnecessary, a good bollocking after the game in private would suffice 

Not the worst of games considering what could have been, but it showed we still have the same problems as last year and they were not addressed over the course of the summer. There were some positives when we were going forward in the first and second half, we just need to improve our distribution in the final third. The players seemed lost and most of them seem to avoid shooting outside of the box. I think selling Luis or simply not replacing him was the biggest mistake we made this summer. We do not have an alternative when either Ivan or Azpi are injured or not playing well. Willian seems to have regressed to the form he had at the start of last year, without offering the defensive coverage. Hopefully we make a few signings before the end of the transfer window, or this will be a really long season.

I was surprised actually, he normally takes all the heat and protects everyone, which indicates he was seething, but you're right out of character and I'd say unnecessary, a good bollocking after the game in private would suffice

phew !....glad we cleared that up !....:)

Great comedy listening to the grumpy gooners on TalkSport !!

A proper still of the incident should have been taken a fraction later which shows Gomis had knocked it quite far from him and away from goal..anyone who has played the game will know that by the time Gomis would have brought the ball under control with his left foot, Cahill would be blocking the angle to goal

Yeah ur right I've never played the game. Ref seemed to share my opinion as did the vast majority of ex pros, who have played the game. Ref got it spot on. We weren't hard done by by. Move onto the next game.

Edit. Why would gomis have needed to take a touch with his left foot? What's to say he wouldn't just hit it first time?

Edited August 9, 201510 yr by big blue

Yeah ur right I've never played the game. Ref seemed to share my opinion as did the vast majority of ex pros, who have played the game. Ref got it spot on. We weren't hard done by by. Move onto the next game.

Edit. Why would gomis have needed to take a touch with his left foot? What's to say he wouldn't just hit it first time?

Says move on, the adds a late edit to carry it on.....LOL

Not sure if anyone else saw it this way or not but we seemed to be trying a lot of back heel flick passes yesterday. I turned to my dad at one point and suggested that if for every back heel flick we made in the game the club gave 100 quid to charity the charity would end up very well off lol.

Says move on, the adds a late edit to carry it on.....LOL

Thought it was rude not to attempt to answer the point I quoted. Glad you found it funny though.

Just watched the highlights of the game again. Almost everything Swansea threw at us came from the Ivanovic-Cahill side of our defence. Dave, as usual, kept his flank neat and tidy but Ivanovic was demolished by Montero and Cahill once again struggled with Gomis. These are issues that we should really think about when facing teams that are going to run at Ivanovic because he rarely commits into tackling wingers who are faster than him (and most are). Strong center forwards also tend to give Cahill a hard time. Hopefully we'll get that new left back in asap and can play Dave on the right and also give Zouma some time on the pitch in such cases.

Edited August 9, 201510 yr by ChelseaFinn

Not a great start but no need to panic as I think we all know that due to the strange pre-season planning, we are a bit off proper match fitness. But it will need to come fast as at times Swansea did outplay us yesterday. 

 

Can't see how anyone can question the sending off - very poor decision from Courtois and a red card all day long. So after that I was happy we salvaged a point and just hope we up our game against City next week. 

 

I hope Jose rotates a bit more  this season as I just can't see this team repeating last season's success - we look a little too predictable and I can see us being over-reliant on Hazard and Costa again.

Is interesting now ahead of city. If begovic puts in a staring performance and we do not lose, does Jose keep him in the side after that?

Tibo made a mistake that cost us the game. If his replacement comes in and plays superbly what then?

I expect tibo comes back in but does that send the right message to the rest of the squad?

A mute point if begovic is average or worse against city.

begovic could save ten penalties and 10 one on ones with aguero and jose would still drop him. I would never fault jose but he does have his favorites just look at ivanovic.

Man I love Chelsea pensioners all the way in it. Remember my first game way back in 2003

I get the feeling we won't be seeing frantic for a while.

Yeah ur right I've never played the game. Ref seemed to share my opinion as did the vast majority of ex pros, who have played the game. Ref got it spot on. We weren't hard done by by. Move onto the next game.

Edit. Why would gomis have needed to take a touch with his left foot? What's to say he wouldn't just hit it first time?

All the pundits I saw including Jamie "im a c**t" Rednapp said pen but no Red card

All Sky pundits said no red. Last not on MOTD they said ref got it right but didn't elaborate.

Anyone notice that the shove on Costa (when he was through on goal) at the end wasn't even shown last night

Is interesting now ahead of city. If begovic puts in a staring performance and we do not lose, does Jose keep him in the side after that?

Tibo made a mistake that cost us the game. If his replacement comes in and plays superbly what then?

I expect tibo comes back in but does that send the right message to the rest of the squad?

A mute point if begovic is average or worse against city.

 

Why would he? Courtois is still our best goalkeeper, you don't drop your best players because they make a mistake. If that's how you want to handle it, then throw Willian out of the team as well because he's the whole reason it happened anyway.

Willian, the world's greatest defensive winger, seemed to forget to protect his side of the pitch yesterday..... 

 

Edit: Sorry, I forgot he's a number 10 isn't he, I mean with his razor sharp decision making. Look at what that guy can do with the space you get on the wing. Imagine what he could do with even less time and space. Pass over the magic hat Cesc. 

Edited August 9, 201510 yr by Nichollz

One thing that I don't get about Football these days - Why do goalies always charge out so recklessly when a striker is through on goal? More often than not they end up fouling the forward, and in so doing, end up getting sent off and then the team most probably concedes a goal from the resulting penalty. I just think that goalies could exercise more caution when the risk of fouling the forward is quite high and the consequences are very detrimental indeed.

 

Maybe I'm being pedantic and excessively critical, but more often than not they foul the forward. Maybe it would be better to come out kind of half way and then stop there? 

Needless to say, that wasn't what we demanded. However, after a slow preseason, most of us could forecast few dropped points. Looking at the positives:

 

Costa played the full game with no signs of pain. He was constantly against 2-3 defenders, didn't let the team down and had a pretty good game without the goal. The one incident late when he was tripped down without the goal was a blatant foul, either a run a goal or a yellow card and FK just outside the box.

Oscar had a good game and goal. I remember his last goal was against the same opponent. I thought it was unlikely to have him off once when were down to 10, he was our best player.

Hazard at the usual high standard.

The backup GK was good, would have lost the game without him.

Jose made the right call again when we were in trouble, Zouma filled the gap in midfield and immediately they lost their superiority in the game.

One thing that I don't get about Football these days - Why do goalies always charge out so recklessly when a striker is through on goal? More often than not they end up fouling the forward, and in so doing, end up getting sent off and then the team most probably concedes a goal from the resulting penalty. I just think that goalies could exercise more caution when the risk of fouling the forward is quite high and the consequences are very detrimental indeed.

 

Maybe I'm being pedantic and excessively critical, but more often than not they foul the forward. Maybe it would be better to come out kind of half way and then stop there? 

I think it's that sweeper keeper mentality nonsense. Basically what Neuer and Lloris do -- charge at opposing strikers to keep them away. Those teams play high lines though and have relatively fast defenders like Boateng and Vertonghen, with us, it's not a go to tactic. We can't afford to play sweeper keepers or high lines because of the lack of pace from our centrebacks, and a lack of understanding of the role as seen yesterday displayed by Courtois.

I'm hoping a slow start will mean we're fresher at the back end of the season, as many have said over the years it's a marathon not a sprint

One thing that I don't get about Football these days - Why do goalies always charge out so recklessly when a striker is through on goal? More often than not they end up fouling the forward, and in so doing, end up getting sent off and then the team most probably concedes a goal from the resulting penalty. I just think that goalies could exercise more caution when the risk of fouling the forward is quite high and the consequences are very detrimental indeed.

 

Maybe I'm being pedantic and excessively critical, but more often than not they foul the forward. Maybe it would be better to come out kind of half way and then stop there? 

 

That's just not true. How often do situations like yesterday actually happen?

 

I think it's always the smartest move to come of your line, that way you can dictate where the striker has to go and where he has to play the ball if he wants to score. You also force him to make a decision and you give your defenders some extra time to get back.

 

If you stay on your line, you give all the initiative to the striker and you let him make up the rules.