Clearly missing Kante. Wilshere is allowed to dominate in midfield without him in there.

Poor half, Hazard up front is not working and Michy should come on at half time to give them a proper striker to worry about.

If that shot went in goal would have stood, so they miss and get a do-over, poor poor refereeing 

i would bring nate for willian on ht, switch to 352 beef up the midfield, hospital jack waltzing past matic and cesc easily

Enjoyable half of football. I still think we would have been better off playing a striker up front though. With Hazard and Pedro playing so well and Fabregas seeing gaps in the Bournemouth defence, i think we would be far better off with a striker playing in place of Willian.

The game is totally 50-50. Pedro was the difference.

Mmmm need to be careful second half.

 

bournmouth looking dangerous at times. Might need to bring on chalobah to tighten up. As fabs is not good at breaking up play 

1 minute ago, bloodyfool0 said:

We need a good 2-3 buffer for this match up.

WE'll probably have that by the end. Our second halves are legend! KTBFFH

What the f**k was that ref doing at the end? Idiot.

Enjoyable half of football. I still think we would have been better off playing a striker up front though. With Hazard and Pedro playing so well and Fabregas seeing gaps in the Bournemouth defence, i think we would be far better off with a striker playing in place of Willian.

Agreed. Might be worthwhile brining in someone in Jan, if Conte doesn't trust bats?
I am thinking a cavani type might suite this system

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

Enjoyable half of football. I still think we would have been better off playing a striker up front though. With Hazard and Pedro playing so well and Fabregas seeing gaps in the Bournemouth defence, i think we would be far better off with a striker playing in place of Willian.

Willian offer almost nothing as usual in attack, why does he always have to stop our play whenever he gets the ball instead of just doing a turn like Hazard and go direct ??!

Quality goal from Pedro, he's certainly contributing more this season. 

Moses and Alonso getting forward quite a bit, but without a proper striker around the 6-yard box, crosses aren't going to be much use. Would be good to see Bat on for Willian or Pedro at some point in the 2nd half.

Defensively overall we look good, but then there are moments when Wilshere will suddenly just get through 3 players and we're in trouble, possibly need to get Matic to watch him a bit closer and not go so far forward.

I think it was a very good half, we worth more than one goal here. I'm going to be disappointed if we're going to win only 1-0. Our counter attacks unstoppable, we're playing a good football. 

We also had some bad points, Wilshere always dangerous when he gets the ball in the central, Matic and Fabregas barely win the ball against him. 

1-0 is not enough here, I'm waiting for more! COME ON CHELS!!!

1 minute ago, dkw said:

What the f**k was that ref doing at the end? Idiot.

Astonishing.

Should have had one but basically gave Bournemouth two free shots at goal from 16 meters. Laughable refereeing.

Really nothing between us and them so far. Just a piece of Pedro inspiration, that is it. Need to step it up in the second half. 

1 minute ago, comtrend said:

Willian offer almost nothing as usual in attack, why does he always have to stop our play whenever he gets the ball instead of just doing a turn like Hazard and go direct ??!

I don't get it either. It's like he has no confidence to take people on in attack, which is weird because he's great at bringing the ball out of defence and starting counter attacks. He breezes past players when getting the ball out of defence.

Just now, Scott Harris said:

I don't get it either. It's like he has no confidence to take people on in attack, which is weird because he's great at bringing the ball out of defence and starting counter attacks. He breezes past players when getting the ball out of defence.

He's always been like that since he joined. His go-to move is to beat a player, then stop and try to find someone else. He doesn't have the selfishness or confidence to want to keep going by himself. He's got the ability though, if he knew how to use it.

Should be looking for a 2nd here can't afford to sit on this lead today as Bournemouth are looking dangerous in attack.

Hazards Rabona is the reason this game is not televised. #purefilth

Hazard need a striker infront of him. Michy for Willian.

Great goal by Pedro tho.

 

I don't want another 1-0....they're so stressful haha

 

Lets get another couple, yeah?

I'm thinking we should take off Willian for another holding mid (Chalobah?) and shift to a 3-5-2 to try and get some control in midfield.
However that might be exactly what Bournemouth want, blunting our offence to put more numbers in central midfield.
Maybe we just aren't working hard enough in the press....
Bournemouth have played us well

I think I'm about to OD on football, with four of the six matches going on my laptop and all the mobile devices I could find (Tablet, iPhone, and an old Android phone that I found). Not a bad feeling. With that being said, it was a pretty good first half. I would have preferred more goals, yes.  But we also have another half to play, so there's more time. 

Hazard was fired up!! no end product yet but he's giving encouraging signs that he could get the game by the scruff of the neck.. Pedro wasn't that far behind, he's looking very lively..

 

Willian was average, didn't seem to be in synch.. Judging from the 1st half showing, conte committed stupid mistake by choosing willian over batshuayi and playing a false 9 tactic..

 

 

I'd bring Willian off for Michy, we haven't got any outlet up front at the minute 

keep repearting week in week out:  f**k the reef!

Edited December 26, 20169 yr by mojo