What better motivation could we ask for before the city game? I'm only sorry that I'm away but this next match will be better than the Palace banana skin.

After we got the early goal, we got over confident and lost our discipline defensively. After their second goal, it was like the Alamo, sumptuous football with no end result. 7 points is still a handy buffer but Tottenham have 3 games coming up in which they'll be disappointed if they don't get 9 points. 

I'm absolutely stunned.

If nothing else, this shows up our lack of depth at the RWB position.

Maybe Conte should have given Aina a chance instead of shoehorning Pedro into an unfamiliar position with hindsight.

We still have a useful lead, but a win versus Man City just became so much more important.

Have to win v City now. Otherwise it's starting to look like anything could happen.

We'll have an extra day's rest before our game against City and, it could be argued, they need the three points more than we do. They will also be smarting over the walloping they took at their place by us, so I expect them to try and boss the game while we'll sit back and do them on the counter. Something we do very well.

Very unexpected result. Should really wake our lads this one. Massive game on wednesday. For our season the biggest yet.

After sleeping on this defeat it becomes apparent that we were unlucky yesterday and sometimes these things happen in football. We should have had a penalty for that handball in the box and their player should have gotten a red and been sent off. The Ref was dreadful and made so many mistakes it was laughable. What worried me was Costa who has been crap for quite some time. Yesterday he was guilty of squandering chances. Looks like he is off in the Summer but what a time to be crap. We have no striker who can put the ball in the net and that's worrying in the run in. I hope Arsenal beat CITEH today and also beat Spurs i the coming weeks. Our run in has just got more difficult. We played well yesterday but they defended like tigers. That's football. We need to get back on track against CITEH and Bournemouth or we could throw this title away.

No need to panic. We've played a lot worse and won this season. I think the initial change in formation was destabilising at first but we created enough chances to win the game comfortably.

People are mentioning city as the title rivals but should we lose to them we will only be 4 points in front of spurs. They are the danger. City still have to beat us and arsenal today to get within 6.

Missing Moses was a real blow which is now apparent. Hope he's back for CITEH.

Chelsea have great defensive selections where Terry, Zouma or Ake could of come in for Moses and you move Dave to RWB. I thought that would be the obvious change.  I don't see the point in having Terry and Zouma on the bench.

Or even play a back 4 if you don't trust any of your squad players. 

14 hours ago, Don Conte said:

hope people appreciate moses now. I have been saying for the longest that he is our most important player bcoz we have no sub for him..

it was pretty dumb of conte to play pedro at rwb. Hopefully conte has a plan because spurs and city smell blood

Nothing to do with Moses please tell me how he prevents those 2 goals, he could have played zouma and Dave, that to me seems solid, more so that Moses dave however he obviously expected them to sit back and Pedro ensured most of our attacks came down that side, we had 24 shots and forced 11 saves including 1 by Townsend, they were barely in our half, but 3 on target 2 goals, our cb's very light weight and Kante was suffering it seems from playing 90 mins with France, wasn't his energetic self, on another day we would have scored 4 or 5, performance was good attacking just not clinical conte set out to attack 9 out of 10 we win that game to call conte dumb...bit of a stretch and, well, dumb. 

Edited April 2, 20179 yr by DonAntonio

5 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Nothing to do with Moses please tell me how he prevents those 2 goals, he could have played zouma and Dave, that to me seems solid, more so that Moses dave however he obviously expected them to sit back and Pedro ensured most of our attacks came down that side, we had 24 shots and forced 11 saves including 1 by Townsend, they were barely in our half, but 3 on target 2 goals, our cb's very light weight and Kante was suffering it seems from playing 90 mins with France, wasn't his energetic self, on another day we would have scored 4 or 5, performance was good attacking just not clinical conte set out to attack 9 out of 10 we win that game to call conte dumb...bit of a stretch and, well, dumb. 

Yes but Pedro isn't a defender. I agree that Zouma would have been a better bet. We were unlucky that they defended so well and their keeper had a blinder. That's football.

Problem with Pedro playing RWB is his not great defensively, Matic plays which is pointless at home against a lower league team. He wasn't great again and the game just bypasses him.

The most crucial bit is Pedro was missed in the front 3. His having a great season and loves scoring goals. Costa has been off form for a while and Hazard isnt a big goalscorer. Pedro played the whole game as a wingback either side and I feel his finishing was badly missed.

10 minutes ago, TheBluesBrother said:

Yes but Pedro isn't a defender. I agree that Zouma would have been a better bet. We were unlucky that they defended so well and their keeper had a blinder. That's football.

Well yea I don't disagree, I don't fault the tactics here and normally that's a win, we played some super football at times, put the second most shots this season, they defended out of their skins and Manuel Hennessy was back to his World Cup winning best, what can you do, Pedro isn't a defender and conte is well aware, never the less 3 cb's a lwb and a rwb who isn't naturally a defended butvtravking back should be more than enough to keep out palace at home, his fear was likely them sitting back for 90 mins and us not breaking them down, he played for the win and I think the team selection was right but the defensive performance was lack lustre, that's down to the players not the tactics or the team selections in my opinion, hard to blame the manager here. Personally I would have went 

 

---------------zouma------luiz----------GC------------

dave----------fab-------------Kante--------------alonso

 -------pedro-------------Costa------------haz---------

 

that gives solid defence for the for the counter and a tried and testing goal scoring front line fed by fab, but easy to say on retrospect our second string team should beat palace. 

Pedro was our best player for me yesterday. Pressed well, recovered the ball few times and regularly cut through their defence but like majority of our team, the decision making in final third let us down. BTW, no one seems to have mentioned that flip-flap by Alonso. That was delightful. 

So I've finally managed to bring myself to watch the highlights since I missed the game yesterday.

 

Good goal by Cesc.

Luiz defending for the second goal was criminal. 

That handball not being spotted by officials is beyond a disgrace, it's a blatant movement of the hand towards the ball.

Costa is a right greedy bar steward when he isn't scoring.

Costa really had to score the header from the 6 yard box, what a chance that was.

Cesc seemed to get criticised a bit here yesterday but he was influencial in a lot of our good play it looks like.

Hazard looked to have played very very well.

 

It just wasn't our day but none the less, extremely frustrating to lose to them.

...Iam still in chock can someone please wake me up and tell me it was all just a bad dream..

Also martin Keown about the handball 'maybe that's the luck they deserved' f**k off you reprobate, it's a deliberate handball, no one deserves to get away with that in a football game. 

Also martin Keown about the handball 'maybe that's the luck they deserved' f**k off you reprobate, it's a deliberate handball, no one deserves to get away with that in a football game. 

We have had a lot of luck this season these things even themselves out over the course of the season. We have gotten lucky countless times this season so it goes both ways

7 minutes ago, Brutos said:

We have gotten lucky countless times this season so it goes both ways

list them...

8 minutes ago, coco said:

list them...

I'm interested to see this list too, considering the amount of penalty decisions gone against us this season. No surprise to see absolutely nothing being made about us not getting another, f it was one of our defenders doing that and we got away with it sky would be all over it

Needless to say I'm terribly disappointed to the result, and may I say a big f* you to the International break. I agree with most, we actually played a pretty good game, apart from the 2 minutes of dreadful defending and the inefficiency in front of goals. Unfortunately, those minor mishaps cost games, we have all seen it before, freakish things do happen. It's almost a trend now every new manager get all the lucky breaks the predecessors missed.

First goal, Ambitious pass from Pedro from the byline, but when you are confident and playing well you do that. Although it was a risky pass, I thought Matic made a mess of collecting the pass, or at least put a foot in to disrupt the Palace player. Somehow Zaha fired a shot in through legs of 3 defenders into the corner was beyond me, sheer class or a bit of luck, whatever Second goal was awful, that's the kind of goal you concede in the last minute when you are chasing the game, not in the 11th minute at 1-1. Somehow we had no one near the half way line apart from Luiz, Bentake made an a$$ of us, and he's about the slowest striker going around. I have to point fingers at Costa, he was awful, hasn't been playing well this year. In a game like this where chances were created every second minute, he was either late for the ball or completely mis kick it. I don't care if you are Messi or Torres, missing an open header in the dying stage of the game was simply awful, and he had another 2-3 clear cut chances. Regardless whether he stays or not, we need another proven striker. I'm that thick to blame the defeat on missing Moses, but against their fast wingers, we really needed a solid fullback. Pedro on a day like this would have been far more effective in the final third. Anyone over that hand ball not given? thanks a lot f* referee and lines person.

We got 2 more games this week, there's no point to over analysis spoiled milk, we just need to keep doing what's been working for us and try to take our chances. Agains6 t City it will be a completely different game, at least we will have 1 more day rest than them, and hopefully Arsenal FAN TV put up a good fight against them tonight.

Sh1t happens, don't panic..

3 minutes ago, dkw said:

I'm interested to see this list too, considering the amount of penalty decisions gone against us this season. No surprise to see absolutely nothing being made about us not getting another, f it was one of our defenders doing that and we got away with it sky would be all over it

I just can't remember any of our season being about luck.

saying that these things even out over a season is so wrong, luck does not work like that especially in football

 

1 hour ago, Brutos said:

We have had a lot of luck this season these things even themselves out over the course of the season. We have gotten lucky countless times this season so it goes both ways

What like the fact that were robbed of 2 points in our first game against Swansea early in the season?