1 hour ago, Snedger said:

Are performances against the other top sides is concerning. Ok, we may win the league but toothless performances in these games makes me feel quite disappointed. It's a bit like watching a lower division side in a cup match and we had our giant killing at the Etihad.

And I wonder why Hazard has chucked in the towel again... I'd seriously consider a Chinese super bid right now.

A point for us would robbery quite frankly. And after that penalty we really don't deserve anything at all.

Then next season you will be crying out for him. Think over the remaining games of the season, how much points Hazard will win us which he will. Such knee-jerk people. A title is won over 38 games. All quality players have a blip. And I am not defending him but the general team approach did not help Hazard tonight.

6 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

People have absolute insane expectations of each player in our side apparently if you are not as quick as Usain Bolt with an ability to dribble like Messi's, pass like Pirlo's, defend like Terry and run through players like Jonah Lomu you aren't good enough to play for Chelsea.

 

Pedro, a lot of banter here is wishful thinking. You would want your girlfriend to be good looking, smart, good fun and pretty capable upstairs and downstairs, right?  Always aim high....

Costa's worst performance this season and Willian has shown he should never start ahead of Pedro. Willian is often credited for his ability to track back yet lost his man at the back post for their goal. 

Thought from the start we should have gone with three in the middle and controlled the game and created more when Fabregas came on. Definitely something to consider next weekend against Arsenal.

Just catch your breath people and get some prospective...a point away at a title chasing team is a good result...and with the other results tonight we emerge from it with an increased lead in the league...plus a lot of our challengers have to play the dippers at Anfield so I say play well Liversh*te and take points from our rivals...

Edited January 31, 20179 yr by doctorblue

Great result away from  home, gutted we couldn't win it with the penalty but overall a good point to be fair.

Like many I am happy with the point but as many have stated the overall performance was relatively poor.  It would have been harsh had Liverpool lost....but I would have been laughing my arse off.  I am sure the conditions did not help matters, it must have been miserable to play in but far too many players put in below par performances.  No one could put their foot on the ball until Cesc came on, we played more like Palace hoofing the ball anywhere to anybody.....still I am hoping to see a better performance against Arsenal. I am sure Conte will have a few words after the game....

I thought the team played well, they certainly looked as if they did what was asked of them and performed their roles admirably, we did enough to win what was a tough game in which a draw is still a very good result.

Cheer up boys we know our players are all slightly flawed but who isn't, we should look at what we are doing well and at the moment we are doing everything better than everyone else in the league which is why we are top.

Moaning about a players deficiencies isn't really noticing what they are bringing to the balance of what is a very good side, its not the worlds best, yet (and thinking/moaning that we should be isn't being realistic), we are still a work in progress but I wouldn't say we were far off the elite and I don't think it would take that much for us to be right up there.

 

Quite a dogged performance, an improvement in some ways vs spurs away. 

Let's face it, good pressing sides are what we struggle with and we're not going to go from where we were to Barcelona in one season when to comes to playing through those teams. 

I saw a team today and it's a good one. 

footballing gods have been kind to us today regarding our rivals results. 

4 minutes ago, g3.7 said:

Let's face it, good pressing sides are what we struggle with

That doesn't bode particularly well for our [touch wood] European prospects next season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe if we still had an experienced hand like Mikel...

Liverpool were always going to be well up for this, far more so after they'd suffered three consecutive home defeats in three different competitions. Not our best performance of the season perhaps, but one of our most difficult fixtures, and with Arsenal losing at home, Tottenham drawing at Sunderland, a draw is very satisfactory result.

After tonight's game, the worst case scenario was that we'd be five points clear at the top of the table. As it is, we've now increased our lead from eight to nine points. Nine points. Means we'd have to lose three more than our nearest challengers to blow the title. Not impossible, take nothing for granted. But that nine points lead puts us in a very, very healthy position.

The state of some of these posts. Yeah let's sell Hazard...

i think people forget just how bad things were last season. We'd have snatched at 4th place if offered in August. We are now 9 points clear!

Theres a few areas we can improve upon but we are clearly a work in progress. We are clearly a good team with a great manager and it was a deserved point tonight I thought. A good result and we've extended our lead.

Not that you'd know it...

 

 

Edited January 31, 20179 yr by bjd

27 minutes ago, Stas1 said:

Pedro, a lot of banter here is wishful thinking. You would want your girlfriend to be good looking, smart, good fun and pretty capable upstairs and downstairs, right?  Always aim high....

Mine is, she is also pretty damn good in the kitchen, probably why I have such a positive outlook on life 

I like your analogy though, I suppose seeing as I do occasionally moan about the odd nit pick here and there I'll let the banter slide.

Although continuing your analogy its the comments out there slating their pretty brilliant other halves over a slightly over baked bakewell tart or 2, and suggesting that they have no other choice then to kick them to the curb as they have swiped right a few times on some tasty pics on Tinder or maybe even a video of them showing off their rather large "talents"... that I have generally been getting on my tits.
 

Edited January 31, 20179 yr by PedroMendez

9 points clear with another tough game out of the way, with the way the other results have gone it should almost feel like a win.

Just a single away trip remaining to a top 6 rival I would say we are in a incredible position.

Arsenal Chelsea Saturday morning is my super bowl...hate that its a 0730 start here in the US but oh well

On 25/01/2017 at 15:29, coco said:

Remember when this fixture used to nearly always be draw, and with only one draw to our name all season, i think we may be due another. Will settle for it as well tbh.

back to the traditional scoreline, you could of put your house on it.

It's gutting that we didn't win after getting a penalty but I'd have taken a draw, we didn't have the best performance. I have to single out Kante today though, the man is an absolute machine.

"Don't see why Hazard was taken off so early tbh. He looked poor only in comparison to him at his best. A few flicks and link ups added enough flair and creativity to our side worth keeping him on. We need Fab on now." Here's what I wanted to put after the sub before the forum crashed on me. I think with Hazard staying, and Fabregas on we could of came closer to a win. Oh well, sh*t happens.

Willian is so much more effective as a sub, would prefer starting Pedro over Willian.

However it's a throw up between the 2 depends on whose day it is unfortunately it just didn't happen for Willian today.

I mean, we can't ignore the other team- this isn't 2006. that was a league with one great team and 19 teams ranging from bad to good. 

we're one of six very good sides, but there isn't a team that is head and shoulders above the others in terms of first 11. for a lot of the season liverpool have been very good and it isn't easy to go to anfield under the lights when there is something really on the line for them. they've had worse teams get the better of better sides than this team in those conditions.

klopps' a good manager, they have a team that is recognisably his and stylistically it is a bad match up for us. the way conte works, don't expect jose style wholesale changes in approach for specific matches. obviously that has its positives as well as negatives. 

conte isn't trying to make us a team that is a high class jack of all trades. he's trying to make it a master of one very particular style of football and that is something that we might well be on the way to but we're not there yet.

p.s. I felt willian started over pedro because the latter struggled a lot against spurs and willian generally protects the ball better. he was better than pedro was that day but I don't think it was a total success- when we were pushed back we still struggled to move the team up the pitch.

Edited January 31, 20179 yr by g3.7

Now I had time to settle down a bit, not upset about the game anymore. I guess our expectation raised higher after each game, a point against Liverpool at Anfield is deemed not enough by many ( myself included). At the start of the season, I'd happily take top of the league with goal difference on 1/2/2017, let alone by 9 points. We are very much on track to win it, provided no major disaster to our team. Conte and his players are exceeding expectations, but this is only his first year, we need to cut him and the players some slack. I'm sure if Conte had his way, he'd have a Vidal or Pirlo at his prime in place of Matic. The danger with expectation is losing touch with reality, somewhere down the track this team will struggle and have a dry run, and I hate to see fans calling Conte out after the amazing work he as put in up to date. 

Some folks are ridiculous...we could have won yes but we also easily could have lost. David Luiz's brilliant free kick and Costa's failed penalty kind of offset each other in terms of luck

Think of the glass as half full, it helps .

Maybe it's just me but would you rather be in our position or the chasing 5?

7 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Now I had time to settle down a bit, not upset about the game anymore. I guess our expectation raised higher after each game, a point against Liverpool at Anfield is deemed not enough by many ( myself included). At the start of the season, I'd happily take top of the league with goal difference on 1/2/2017, let alone by 9 points. We are very much on track to win it, provided no major disaster to our team. Conte and his players are exceeding expectations, but this is only his first year, we need to cut him and the players some slack. I'm sure if Conte had his way, he'd have a Vidal or Pirlo at his prime in place of Matic. The danger with expectation is losing touch with reality, somewhere down the track this team will struggle and have a dry run, and I hate to see fans calling Conte out after the amazing work he as put in up to date. 

Brilliantly said. Take a bow Son !!!!