17 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

The thing that annoyed me most was the way he set up for a draw towards the end. At 1-1 he takes off Hazard and Fabregas and brings on Drinkwater and Willian. This is the time we should be going for the kill, why not bring Baka off and bring Willian/Pedro on or even Drinkwater and keep Cesc's creativity. Sitting back asked for a goal and keeping Baka on for the full 90 was suicide. If he is trying to build Baka's confidence, play him for 90 minutes against a weaker side, not against a top 4 London rival. 

The worst part of the game was to do with Baka, he was absolutely terrible that first half. Now most fans hate Mourinho now but he had a midfield 3 and with how Baka was playing he would of gone after 20mins, he was letting his team mates down and Chelsea was playing with 10 men. The majority of people could see it, Drinkwater should have been on at halftime and like you say keep Cesc’s creativity. I would have understood taking Cesc off for Willian later in the game because he was on a yellow and Willian runs for fun anyway, a lot more than Baka. 

Baka playing 90mins was an awful decision, it was that bad I think Conte was making one of his points to the board. Got to say I thought some of Cesc’s passing was quality, he must have been disappointed to go off. 

Ernie I take your point on Michy but for me when he has played (and he did at the start of the year) he has shown himself to be a fox in the box and no more. Certainly not who you bring on at 1-1 away less 2-1 up.

I thought Cesc, Hazard and Morata looked absolutely knackered. Be interested in what those at the ground thought? Cesc and Hazard went off because of that and Morata would have gone off too if we had a reliable striker on the bench. 

38 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Ernie I take your point on Michy but for me when he has played (and he did at the start of the year) he has shown himself to be a fox in the box and no more. Certainly not who you bring on at 1-1 away less 2-1 up.

I thought Cesc, Hazard and Morata looked absolutely knackered. Be interested in what those at the ground thought? Cesc and Hazard went off because of that and Morata would have gone off too if we had a reliable striker on the bench. 

60mins against Burnley was it when Chelsea was 3-0 down with 10men then 4 goals in 2 starts against minor opposition but Willian gets lauded for that. He actually comes on against Watford and got Chelsea back in the game. Like I say it’s easy to judge a player who barely plays and has no trust from his manager, given a number of starts he may not perform but his had nothing like Baka who put in one of the worst performances I have seen for years.

Alot of Chelsea fans have got the Mourinho bug, KDB, Salah and the rest was lucky to get 10 starts let alone 16.

Fair enough. I'm not a fan of Bakayoko either but I think he offers something we dont have otherwise: power and strength in midfield (albeit without guile). Michy I'm not sure offers much we can't get elsewhere.

Both in my view offer cautionary tales of buying young players from France on the back of one season. For every Drogba or Dembele there seem to me to be multiple Kondogbia, Capoue, Thauvin, M'Vila etc. who look like world beaters against a lower overall standard, are hugely overhyped and then struggle more broadly. 

Edited January 4, 20188 yr by Spiller86

90% of this forum spends every transfer window moaning about transfers now our manager says something and its shut up and stop moaning. Ok then.

A lot of people in the match thread seemed to be saying they think Conte setup correctly. I have to disagree. I've said it many times, so I won't go into details again, but this 3-5-2 is just too defensive and puts too much pressure on the 2 up front to create everything. He does it every time against a "bigger" side, and I just don't like it. 

Bakayoko should not be anywhere near the starting 11, and some of his substitutions were poor. Why does Hazard get taken off when we are looking to try and win a game? Bakayoko should have been off much earlier. Morata should have been off for Batshayui, or switched to the false 9 if he hates Bats so much.

He's come up against Wenger 6 times I think? (0-3 loss in the league, 3-1 win in the league, loss in fa cup final, loss in community shield, and 2 draws this season). 1 win in 6 against Wenger is not good.

It's not just that though, they setup against us in the same way each time and each time they cause us major problems and he doesn't do anything to resolve it. All they do is put on a high press, and our defenders sh*t the bed. They pass it out to Dave or Moses, who hoofs it up field and 9 times out of 10 it comes straight back. 3 Men in midfield last night and you could have driven a bus through the gap between them and the back 3. It's just poor tactically.

11 minutes ago, Zeta said:

A lot of people in the match thread seemed to be saying they think Conte setup correctly. I have to disagree. I've said it many times, so I won't go into details again, but this 3-5-2 is just too defensive and puts too much pressure on the 2 up front to create everything. He does it every time against a "bigger" side, and I just don't like it. 

Bakayoko should not be anywhere near the starting 11, and some of his substitutions were poor. Why does Hazard get taken off when we are looking to try and win a game? Bakayoko should have been off much earlier. Morata should have been off for Batshayui, or switched to the false 9 if he hates Bats so much.

He's come up against Wenger 6 times I think? (0-3 loss in the league, 3-1 win in the league, loss in fa cup final, loss in community shield, and 2 draws this season). 1 win in 6 against Wenger is not good.

It's not just that though, they setup against us in the same way each time and each time they cause us major problems and he doesn't do anything to resolve it. All they do is put on a high press, and our defenders sh*t the bed. They pass it out to Dave or Moses, who hoofs it up field and 9 times out of 10 it comes straight back. 3 Men in midfield last night and you could have driven a bus through the gap between them and the back 3. It's just poor tactically.

And yet if Morata does the simple bit of slotting home those chances, it all looks good again.

9 minutes ago, coco said:

And yet if Morata does the simple bit of slotting home those chances, it all looks good again.

Or Arsenal could have taken there chances and it goes the other way.

1 minute ago, Ernie_blue said:

Or Arsenal could have taken there chances and it goes the other way.

But we have an absolute world class goalkeeper for such chances, and he saved most of them. Arsenal didn't stop Morata scoring, he sorted that out by himself.

3 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

As for Michy I'm not sure what he has done to justify this sudden wave of affection. He is likeable sure, but he just does so little outside the six yard box.

This, this and this. People are really forgetting just how bad Michy was when starting games,and i keep hearing how he wouldn't have missed the chances Morata had, he probably wouldn't have got in the position to even miss them, not three times anyway.

Just now, Argo said:

This, this and this. People are really forgetting just how bad Michy was when starting games,and i keep hearing how he wouldn't have missed the chances Morata had, he probably wouldn't have got in the position to even miss them, not three times anyway.

3 prem starts in 18 months.

4 minutes ago, coco said:

But we have an absolute world class goalkeeper for such chances, and he saved most of them. Arsenal didn't stop Morata scoring, he sorted that out by himself.

I wouldn’t even say it would look good again but rather paper over the cracks like Baka. 

How people turn so quickly.  Let's hope our board have got a bit more patience and understanding than a lot of the posters "contributing" to this thread, who appear to have forgotten that we won the league last year under this manager.

17 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

3 prem starts in 18 months.

And thankgod that's all it is.

3 minutes ago, Argo said:

And thankgod that's all it is.

Like to give people a chance then Jose.

3 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Like to give people a chance then Jose.

Sometimes players don't need 20 plus games to clearly see they aren't good enough, i wrote off Lukaku within 20 minutes of his debut, for the same reason's plaguing his game now.

23 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

How people turn so quickly.  Let's hope our board have got a bit more patience and understanding than a lot of the posters "contributing" to this thread, who appear to have forgotten that we won the league last year under this manager.

Because so many people have been in this thread clamouring for him to be sacked... 

No-one is above criticism if they perform poorly.

 I could blame Conte for every dropped game this season, but not this one. Yes, he could have started Willian, benched Bakayoko, or kept Hazard on, it wouldn't have changed a thing as long as we kept missing those clear cut chances, or couldn't do the dirty defending work for another couple of minutes. We were never the 'prettier' team during our dominant spell of Arsenal, we allowed them to keep the ball, made them push high up, and counter punch them before they knew it,  defend deep and compact when we needed to.  That's exactly what happened last night, one long ball and Morata got past the last defender and open on goal, that went it we'd be writing a new song about Conte, but it didn't, and repeat twice more. Of course he could have taken Morata off, but the way Batshuayi's been playing, he wouldn't even make the runs and get the chance to score.

39 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

3 prem starts in 18 months.

Bit disingenuous to exclude cup appearances.

17 minutes ago, Argo said:

Sometimes players don't need 20 plus games to clearly see they aren't good enough, i wrote off Lukaku within 20 minutes of his debut, for the same reason's plaguing his game now.

Might aswell sell Baka aswell then.

This guy is not set for big matches vs big teams. He is too scared and plays defensively for a draw. 

HAVE YOU f**kING SEEN THE ARSENAL DEFENCE?????? Bringing in Pedro and Willian and keeping Hazard on would have caused chaos for  Chambers and Mustafi. Dear god why cant Conte see how bad Arsenal are at the back. They cant handle pacey attackers. I am beyond livid. If he keeps this mentality in big games he is not going to go very far in compeitions like the UCL and beating Pep (we were lucky last season to beat them twice). The reason why we haven't beaten arsenal for the past 4 matches is due to Conte's tactics mostly, bar the Morata misses. 

Edited January 4, 20188 yr by zes

5 minutes ago, Stim said:

Bit disingenuous to exclude cup appearances.

I’m just pointing out that Conte doesn’t trust Batman, hasn’t from the start and never will and bringing on a forward for 20 seconds without a touch isn’t exactly going to do anyone’s confidence any good. 

Batman has started 5 Cup games this season (JPT, League Cup and Champions league) and scored 6 goals, by stats he looks great but even I know he hasn’t played that well. You would need to watch the games to see what his all round performance has been like but also need to take into account the situation at the club he has been in since he joined and tbh has been treated like dirty by Conte with how this must be effecting his performances.

47 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

How people turn so quickly.  Let's hope our board have got a bit more patience and understanding than a lot of the posters "contributing" to this thread, who appear to have forgotten that we won the league last year under this manager.

You do know a player can actually have a bad game and you won’t be a bad person for admitting it. Or Conte can get his tactics wrong, every manager has and will in the future and fans can critise the man for it. It doesn’t mean they want him sacked.

1 hour ago, yorkleyblue said:

How people turn so quickly.  Let's hope our board have got a bit more patience and understanding than a lot of the posters "contributing" to this thread, who appear to have forgotten that we won the league last year under this manager.

No one is above being criticised. Even Messi can have a bad day and be called out for it. 

35 minutes ago, zes said:

This guy is not set for big matches vs big teams. He is too scared and plays defensively for a draw. 

HAVE YOU f**kING SEEN THE ARSENAL DEFENCE?????? Bringing in Pedro and Willian and keeping Hazard on would have caused chaos for  Chambers and Mustafi. Dear god why cant Conte see how bad Arsenal are at the back. They cant handle pacey attackers. I am beyond livid. If he keeps this mentality in big games he is not going to go very far in compeitions like the UCL and beating Pep (we were lucky last season to beat them twice). The reason why we haven't beaten arsenal for the past 4 matches is due to Conte's tactics mostly, bar the Morata misses. 

Actually i would say it was the opposite and if anything Conte overcomitts vs Arsenal, Jose and Hiddink got comfortable wins or easy 0-0's by sitting in a shape and waiting for Arsenal to get impatient. Conte tries to play them more which has led to his clashes vs Arsenal turning into you shoot, we shoot, a philosophy Arsenal are much more equipped in than us hence the inconsistent results against them. If Conte went as defensive vs Arsenal as you claim, we would probably still be on a long unbeaten run against them.