its almost a daily occurrence now where I see someone mention Drinkwater and I have to remind myself we did actually sign him

20 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It looked like definite contact to me, it was a clip, if you give a foul for it then you have to give a penalty for it. 

I dont believe anyone is denying there being contact, Football is a contact support and that nudge certainly wasn't a foul nevermind a penalty.

The difference between awarding a foul outside the box and penalty I believe comes down to the benefit of doubt, officials could possibly call a foul based on assumption outside the box however in order to award a Penalty they have to be absolutely certain there was some sort of infringement. I seriously doubt that nudge would have been called a foul outside the box and I have further doubts on whether Torres would have gone down like he did outside the box.

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

It looked like definite contact to me, it was a clip, if you give a foul for it then you have to give a penalty for it. 

It's a contact sport. Torres felt the contact and dived. He didn't give a foul for it, hence no pen.

The ref waved away plenty of 'dives' last night by both teams. Good on him.

I think with the blue blinkers off we would all be screaming for a penalty if the roles were reversed. Torres did make a meal of it but from behind it doesn't take much contact to the foot/ankle/leg to make another player lose their balance or throw them off their stride. He was nowhere near the ball, it was a tame but stupid foul and we got hugely lucky. What made it more idiotic was he made the challenge as he was heading out of the area. Even if this was not a foul, all he had to do was wait another second to tackle him outside of the area and remove any risk of a penalty. Simple inexperience/over exuberance in my opinion. Other than that in my opinion he had a decent game, great if you take into account the caliber of the opposition.

3:10 mins for replay

 

37 minutes ago, Kev123 said:

I think with the blue blinkers off we would all be screaming for a penalty if the roles were reversed. Torres did make a meal of it but from behind it doesn't take much contact to the foot/ankle/leg to make another player lose their balance or throw them off their stride. He was nowhere near the ball, it was a tame but stupid foul and we got hugely lucky. What made it more idiotic was he made the challenge as he was heading out of the area. Even if this was not a foul, all he had to do was wait another second to tackle him outside of the area and remove any risk of a penalty. Simple inexperience/over exuberance in my opinion. Other than that in my opinion he had a decent game, great if you take into account the caliber of the opposition.

3:10 mins for replay

 

I must admit, i gave a sigh of relief when the ref let that slide. However now i look it again i think the ref was absolutely right, yeah he had a little nibble, and it was unneccessary, but Torres went down with more or less no contact, he was clearly looking for the pen. Dive IMO. 

It seemed Bakayoko was playing the deeper of our two CMs, with Kante pushing more forward. I wonder if that was by design or by choice? It makes sense away from home to a team like Atletico. 

Obviously we don't want to throttle his best asset but it shows great discipline from a young guy who is naturally accustomed to powering forward with the ball.

 

If the roles were reversed we'd be moaning about it for weeks on here and claiming contact should mean a penalty. Clumsy but he'll learn. 

I've a feeling that if Torres had been running into the box running towards goal the penalty may have been given.

Not so sure about his song.....'never gives the ball away' . Had a shocker today and appears to get easily caught out of position. Needs as well to be careful with him giving careless could away around the box. Lots to work on in his game if he is to achieve his potential.

What has been said about the studs-up shin high-tackle he got in the first half today? From Doucoure I think.

Obviously Jon Moss saw nothing amiss, but nor have his colleagues with the four similar tackles that they haven't dealt with in our previous 8 games.

1 hour ago, charierre said:

Not so sure about his song.....'never gives the ball away' . Had a shocker today and appears to get easily caught out of position. Needs as well to be careful with him giving careless could away around the box. Lots to work on in his game if he is to achieve his potential.

I think the song has jinxed him !! He needs Kante.

Last night demonstrated he is still very raw. Bad fouls and giveaways. But if I'm honest he has played a lot recently and playing next to Fabregas in a two man midfield also made Matic look like a donkey for 18 months. Only Kante with his ridiculous combination of speed and stamina can make that work.

Edited October 21, 20178 yr by Spiller86

Remember he didn't have a preseason and was playing with a knock.

Not the best of games against Watford but he'll get back to his best before soon.

i think he had a average game. in the first half (like most of our players) he looked good, but tapered off in 2nd half. i do agree with poster above, i think he's still carrying a knock and maybe fighting through it despite it limiting his mobility. i do like his close control and dribbling though, he really is a pleasure to watch in those glimpses he's shown of being able to get out of certain situations where he's got two men on him. 

He's obviously not the finished product and quite clumsy in both tackling and keeping possession. However, he got all the phsyical and technical attributes to be a very good player in a year or two. We'd still struggle if we still had Matic instead, he wouldn't be able to cover the ground to bail Cesc out.

19 hours ago, Backbiter said:

What has been said about the studs-up shin high-tackle he got in the first half today? From Doucoure I think.

Obviously Jon Moss saw nothing amiss, but nor have his colleagues with the four similar tackles that they haven't dealt with in our previous 8 games.

Yawn

36 minutes ago, Van Butsen said:

Yawn

Obviously you're OK with refs repeatedly ignoring red-card challenges on our players.

I'd say 5 such incidents in the first nine games is a pattern worth commenting on.

1 hour ago, Backbiter said:

Obviously you're OK with refs repeatedly ignoring red-card challenges on our players.

I'd say 5 such incidents in the first nine games is a pattern worth commenting on.

I dare claim that absolutely no elite Club gets shafted as much as Chels........when it comes to getting shafted then we are IT my friend. So much hate and animosity its shocking. This League has been rotten for a long time........ohh the refs are just pathetic? all of them? THen how come nothing is done about it? The refs are being told what to do and how.........we all been through it a million times watching Chels. Ohh yeah of course its all just bad refereeing and im a crazed looney........

Cry me a river 

19 minutes ago, Van Butsen said:

Cry me a river 

As I said.......everything is all good and proper.......all is well.

Re-watching the highlights of the Watford game just reconfirms how he has to learn not to be so sloppy at times. Within the first miniute from kick-off, he gave the ball away twice - the second against a better team could have proved costly - a well time challenge from Rudiger saved the day. And the silly free-kicks he keeps giving away in dangerous area's - he HAS to stop that.

Still think long-term he is an upgrade on Matic, but right now he is still raw and theres a fair bit of room for improvement. It will help no end to have Kante back in beside him.

 

Edited October 23, 20178 yr by Nibs

Never forget that he is a young player, he is only 22 ! And he must again to get used to PL.  

19 minutes ago, Cyborg7 said:

Never forget that he is a young player, he is only 22 ! And he must again to get used to PL.  

Don't get me wrong, I rate the guy. Love his energy and do think he will become the real deal. I know he's still young and adapting to the PL (he's actually 23), but I think of a player like Verratti who is only a year older and totally bosses games. All I'm saying is he needs to learn from these mistakes and quickly - especially with Utd game coming up in a couple of weeks.

 

i think his athleticism and determination are certainly there for us all to see. However, i am worried about his positional awareness, he gives his man a lot of space, and then when he goes in for a tackle it often ends up in a foul.  He close control is pretty much non existent, which leads to a lot of lost possession or needless fouls.

I'd like to think he could develop under the tutelage of Conte, who was  a fantastic midfielder himself, but i'm not sure Conte will be given that amount of time.

I think the key to his song is the line "together with N'golo"

Hope he gets back to matching the lyrics to his song!!