Good result, decent performance. Could easily have won but can still be pleased to take points off them. Matic , Ramirez and William did a good job in midfield. Hazard still a shadow of his real self, and Fabregas looked done after about 25 minutes. He looks slower and less fit every game. Costa offered little but had zero opportunities laid on for him.

Defence was solid and only JT's error gave me palpitations. We are clearly a better side without Ivanovic at the moment.

Thought we were poor and very boring, but a point isn't bad.

On the plus side Hazard looks hungry again and Willian is awesome, Azpi is a God.

This thread only 16 pages? I missed the game. Just got home from action cricket. A draw is actually a good result. Will check out the highlights

Better, but still not good enough. Dynamo were there for the taking.

Poor performance? We hit the bar twice, had a stonewall penalty denied, every single player stepped up there game and we defended solidly.

We've scored 14 goals in the premier league - Arsenal 16, Man Utd 16 (2nd and 3rd respectively). Scoring goals is clearly not our problem. Defending is, and tonight, for the first time this season, we looked absolutely solid. 

 

It was a poor TEAM performance, although some players did well. Hit bar twice - personal skill (Hazard, Willian). Penalty - honestly, it was not a 100% penalty. Oscar is stepping down all the time. Defense was pretty normal today, with Zouma on the right side we did pretty well.

 

Both arsenal and manu have some glimpses of a good teamplay; We ,on other hand, since winter win games mostly with the help of personal class and skill of some players, or mistakes of the opponents. 

This thread only 16 pages? I missed the game. Just got home from action cricket. A draw is actually a good result. Will check out the highlights

Most big thread match day threads happen when we lose and play poorly. We did neither of those things this time.

I remember when many fans were banging on and on about Josh like he was the next frigging Messiah and look what happened to him.

 

Good Comparison there mate. I remember people wanting to drop Supa Frank for Josh & were rating Josh above Supah

a point away is not a bad thing.....but lets get real.....this is going to be our worst season for a very long time  we are at best average ..I am sure we will get better as the season goes on but we are a million miles away from been a top 4 team and jose knows this that's why he is so uptight.....football is all about small margins at the highest level and at the moment we haven't the class to take advantage of it...

Sad to hear that some of our fans were attacked in Kiev, sadly this isn't a first, it seems to be a numerous occurrence in places like this, not that we can act like saints in this country, but at least we've made a few strides to stop hooliganism, sad to see it's still prevalent in some country's. I wish that UEFA ensured that away fans were protected properly, but we can't expect them to do that, they are as incompetent as the FA, so attacks will continue, we could refuse to play in these places, unless our fans were properly protected by security, but it won't happen.

Edited October 20, 201510 yr by Floyd25

I personally thought the perfirmance was much improved

The defense was solid for 95% of the match considering Zouma was playing RB.

Hit the woodwork twice. Attacking play imo had some nice moves. And the pen

Tired towards the end but overall compared to the 'garbage' we've been served on & off since August I'm well chuffed with a point away in the Ukraine

I'm on me hols over here , my little Chelsea mad nephew likes the x-factor. Never seen it before but a lot of negativity & unwarranted critique still on the board tonight a La this supreme C##t on that show Simon Cowell.

Pikeys next. I smell blood in the water

Glass filling up with Watneys

Defence was clearly better, both in the midfield and the fullbacks, but the attack was lacking.

The h2 tactics of just hoofing the ball upfield are unacceptable for a top team

There are lots of reasons for the weakness in attack but part of it surely is that Dave and zouma offer nothing going forward at least when Dave is on the left and fab is at best holding his own. This leaves hazard, Willian and Costa running the entire offense.

Anyway it was a solid point and I said I'd settle for that before the game started.

To go further though we have to start creating regular chances.

Ramires and Mata were great, likewise Willian. Dave great defensively.

Will 7 points from the remaining three games be enough to qualify or do we need results in other games to go our way.

Will 7 points from the remaining three games be enough to qualify or do we need results in other games to go our way.

7 points will be enough to qualify, 9 points will ensure we top the group.

Thought we were much better overall. Ramires and Matic were solid in midfield which helped the cause no end.

 

Azpi kept their best player Yarmolenko quiet. Zouma made up in pace what he lacked in tactical nous. 

 

if we were a bit sharper upfront and the ref didn't bottle it, we would've won that comfortably.

 

Willian ran himself into the ground. Fabregas was much improved playing higher up.

 

Hazard and Costa are improving but neither are at their best. Costa looks half the player he was last year. He's lost his lethal touch. Hope he finds it soon.

2 matches 2 clean sheets...no ivan...José must surely see this....

we'll definitely going to qualify, we'll get a win vs maccabi and dynamo at home and i think that's enough

although then we might get drawn with real or bayern and get spanked, so hopefully we somehow nick the 1st seed

I thought it was a very good performance. Not quite up to our usual standard, but quite close.

 

I saw more team effort and more energy. Am pleased and hope we can build on these last two outings.

i dunno if costa is still unfit or not, but maybe he is actually 36 not 26, because he certainly moves like it at times. I can just imagine if we had a really mobile and agile forward like aguero or suarez up front we would be a lot more dynamic going forward. I feel costa slows things down once he gets the ball and it's difficult for hazard, willian, fabregas (or oscar) to link up with him well. 

Edited October 21, 201510 yr by enigma

Defence was clearly better, both in the midfield and the fullbacks, but the attack was lacking.

The h2 tactics of just hoofing the ball upfield are unacceptable for a top team

There are lots of reasons for the weakness in attack but part of it surely is that Dave and zouma offer nothing going forward at least when Dave is on the left and fab is at best holding his own. This leaves hazard, Willian and Costa running the entire offense.

Anyway it was a solid point and I said I'd settle for that before the game started.

To go further though we have to start creating regular chances.

Ramires and Mata were great, likewise Willian. Dave great defensively.

 

 

If Only!!!

Better, but still not good enough. Dynamo were there for the taking.

 

Much Better performance and to be honest I'm happy with a point. But as PB says, Kiev were there for the taking. Sure we were unlucky with hitting the woodwork and not getting a penalty, but at 60/70 minutes it would have been nice to have a sub to throw on to try and win it. We put on Oscar who was pretty ineffective.

 

Few shaky moments towards the end - JT what were you doing! and Zouma does not look like the solution to our right back problem, but it's more positive than negative for me on the whole.

 

I did like the look of Yarmolenko. He looks as though he could do for us exactly what Cuadrado couldn't.

Edited October 21, 201510 yr by Nibs

There's nothing spectacular about this draw but once again, good team work and effort were shown especially by our defence and the two DMs (Matic and Ramires). They were most likely instructed by Jose to play it safe and stay organised at the back so I can understand why we looked rather disjointed in attack.

In any case, we got a point and avoided a defeat in a potential banana skin. We should now continue to build on the positives for our West Ham game. Come on.

i dunno if costa is still unfit or not, but maybe he is actually 36 not 26, because he certainly moves like it at times. I can just imagine if we had a really mobile and agile forward like aguero or suarez up front we would be a lot more dynamic going forward. I feel costa slows things down once he gets the ball and it's difficult for hazard, willian, fabregas (or oscar) to link up with him well.

Costa is more a target man like drogba. Focal point of the attack, you create for them to finish, they don't have much movement as such. Aguero/Suarez are trequartistas, they create chances for themselves and others so they usually have good ball skills and movement. Last good one we had was Zola.

i dunno if costa is still unfit or not, but maybe he is actually 36 not 26, because he certainly moves like it at times. I can just imagine if we had a really mobile and agile forward like aguero or suarez up front we would be a lot more dynamic going forward. I feel costa slows things down once he gets the ball and it's difficult for hazard, willian, fabregas (or oscar) to link up with him well.

He's lost a yard of pace since his hamstring problems, he done well last night but doesn't look like a lethal finisher anymore.

he done well last night but doesn't look like a lethal finisher anymore.

 

How would we know, the attacking midfielders aren't creating any chances for him. 

How would we know, the attacking midfielders aren't creating any chances for him.

Because I can clearly see the difference in him from seasons gone by. A good number of goals he scored last season and for Atletic were made by himself...he's not done that so far this season.

He doesn't run full pelt anymore, wither it's because he cant or because he's cautious of his hamstrings popping again who knows.

Maybe he's still carrying a few extra pounds that he acknowledged and that's still hindering him.