9 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

Well, it turns out the sky ISN'T falling in.   Though to read this thread you wouldn't know.

I'm surprised City didn't play De Bruyne - surely he'd have had something to prove against the team that let him go because he wasn't good enough for the big occasions?

Has he had any decent games in a big match yet? 

Well, that was a nervy, gut-wrenching watch and the final whistle couldn't come soon enough. Still far fromn over but a Massive 3 points - especially with Sp*rs late comeback. Those 3 late goals will have given them a real lift so if we had dropped points they would have a lot more belief that they can win it but as great as they must feel with the comeback, they must still be a little deflated with us winning what looked a tough game on paper (and was!).

 

COME ON THE CHELS - 6 more Wins!

 

Shattered after that win last night.

Also delighted and relieved.

That's being a Chelsea supporter for you.

A great result last night. A massive three points. My nerves were shattered but nothing that a glass of whisky can't resolve. A terrific atmosphere at the Bridge. Crowd was in great voice. Now for Bournemouth away. Come on Chelsea!

Looked far more solid when Zouma was taken off last night. I like him a lot but the injury has really stunted his progress. He looks far too awkward on the ball to play in this back 3 and his physicality seems to have lost it's edge. Hopefully he's young and can get back to his best but needs a full season on loan playing regular football in my opinion.

Delighted to get the points, we showed a bit of steel, but again I think we rode our luck against City, Stones had a sitter he missed.

Sometimes you need a bit of luck.

Interestingly, that is the first time any manager has done the double on a Pep team. 

Onwards we march. How many wins before it become mathematical? 

 

4 minutes ago, Zola said:

Delighted to get the points, we showed a bit of steel, but again I think we rode our luck against City, Stones had a sitter he missed.

Sometimes you need a bit of luck.

Interestingly, that is the first time any manager has done the double on a Pep team. 

Onwards we march. How many wins before it become mathematical? 

 

Their poor finishing doesn't make us lucky. They've done it all season and they did it in their last match against us in our stadium. If they can't take their chances, that's not out problem. We could have killed the game ourselves if Hazard had put away that one chance at the top of the box. But ifs don't win you football games.

A couple I know are ST holders at City. Will have to contact them later to discuss the game!

Edited April 6, 20179 yr by Boyne

We're certainly stuttering to the end of title race - Chelsea doesn't look great anymore, on another day it would have been a draw or even a loss. Luck was on our side thankfully, hoping Conte will change things and we'll improve. I wouldn't be against Costa being dropped, Hazard to play up front.

Costa really couldn't have picked a worse time to be off form! It's a shame Batshuayi didn't work out...

Costa, woeful!! That foul on delph i believe, when he stopped the Hazard attack from 20 yards away from the ball, pretty much summed up his form of recent, childish petulance which os disrupting our play more than the opposition. 

 

Good performance from the rest though. Great and important win!!

Edited April 6, 20179 yr by Jackbuchanan
Edit

I don't think costa was bad today. I thought he worked hard and was well marked by Kompany. Kompany is an excellent defender.

Hazard was better than the rest of Chelsea today. We need to give him even more talented support if he is going to stay. At the moment Real Madrid can offer him a higher standard of team mate.

Its a real poser as to how to assess the performance. Great result and hopefully wraps up the title. No doubting that but...

Is any fan happy to see us sit so deep and invite pressure? Can understand doing so with 20 mins or so left. But we virtually played like this from the moment we scored the first goal. When doing so its hard to get up the pitch and retain the ball. We rarely imposed as an attacking force and especially second half we were so worried about defending we forgot how to control and pass the ball.

On the other hand, bar some dreadful set piece defending I never really thought they looked like scoring, and we saw it out pretty comfortably. I guess the main Stat is the result but for me we showed too much respect and played like an inferior side.

I think that one of the main issues is that we struggle to get the ball forward from the defence line when the teams press so high as last night City or as we saw against Spurs. So we are forced to sit tight at the back and hope for the break, and normally we defend very strongly and concede very few chances. I don't think that they had that many clear chances last night, although we've been dropping in the defensive strength since January and are conceding more goals by stupid mistakes (last night was a clear example). Conte needs to figure out how to get the ball to the midfield and forward against this high pressing teams.

34 minutes ago, jamie#8 said:

Its a real poser as to how to assess the performance. Great result and hopefully wraps up the title. No doubting that but...

Is any fan happy to see us sit so deep and invite pressure? Can understand doing so with 20 mins or so left. But we virtually played like this from the moment we scored the first goal. When doing so its hard to get up the pitch and retain the ball. We rarely imposed as an attacking force and especially second half we were so worried about defending we forgot how to control and pass the ball.

On the other hand, bar some dreadful set piece defending I never really thought they looked like scoring, and we saw it out pretty comfortably. I guess the main Stat is the result but for me we showed too much respect and played like an inferior side.

I don't agree with you on that is playing in a way that exploits City's weaknesses playing like an inferior side. Surely the inferior side/approach is one where you pig headedly ignore your weaknesses our your opponents weaknesses. 

Last season when Ivanovic was really struggling was it a sign of inferiority when an opponent sat deep to counter at pace down that flank, sitting deep and playing out fast is what was leaving him and the rest of our defence exposed and gave the opposition countless clear cut chances a game.

Personally I have no gripes with the way we have played this season and in general find fast high tempo or even counter attacking football far more enjoyable to watch than "possession" football, passing it sideways for the sake of it really bores me (and the successful Spain and Barce teams that epitomised this ethos were the teams I would always fall asleep watching).  
We have also seen over the last few seasons that it doesn't currently work with the composition of the premier league.  

Edited April 6, 20179 yr by PedroMendez

2 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

I don't agree with you on that is playing in a way that exploits City's weaknesses playing like an inferior side. Surely the inferior side/approach is one where you pig headedly ignore your weaknesses our your opponents weaknesses. 

Last season when Ivanovic was really struggling was it a sign of inferiority when an opponent sat deep to counter at pace down that flank, sitting deep and playing out fast is what was leaving him and the rest of our defence exposed and gave the opposition countless clear cut chances a game.

Personally I have no gripes with the way we have played this season and in general find fast high tempo or even counter attacking football far more enjoyable to watch than "possession" football, passing it sideways for the sake of it really bores me (and the successful Spain and Barce teams that epitomised this ethos were the teams I would always fall asleep watching).  
We have also seen over the last few seasons that it doesn't currently work with the composition of the premier league.  

No qualms with sitting a bit deeper and then playing good counter attacking football when neccessary. But to do so you need to engage a lot earlier than what we were doing last night, and then have purpose when you have the ball. I feel we done this more when we played away against city.

Last night we didnt look to win the ball back early enough, and then when we did turn it over, I didnt see any swift flowing counter attacks. I saw laborious negative passing that ultimately ended up with us giving it away or whacking it up field. Hence why I said we were more worried about just defending. There is definitely a middle ground and I felt last night we played in a negative manner that couldn't have been enjoyable to watch for most fans.

Not having a massive moan up because we ultimately own the game but I don't see last night as a step forward for next season in Champions League etc.

Didn't Hazard say last year that he doesn't want Tottenham to win the league because of what it means to Chelsea fans. Hasn't his resurgence in form coincided in Tottenham trying to chasing us down ?
I think is this now Hazard mission to deny Tottenham any league titles LOL LOL

26 minutes ago, jamie#8 said:

 

Last night we didnt look to win the ball back early enough, and then when we did turn it over, I didnt see any swift flowing counter attacks.

The integrity of our defence is all about being compact and compressed, it looks like we are being battered, a few posters on here actually even said as much.

But in all honesty, the best quality chances (mistakes) fell our way, and we took most of them. Citeh on the other hand were as usual happy to play their football in our final third, without really 'battering' us.

Neither of the front line attacks were very good last night, it came down to who would make the least mistakes, they made two costly mistakes, we made one. That's the season in a nutshell, we make very little mistakes they have made plenty.

 

1 minute ago, coco said:

The integrity of our defence is all about being compact and compressed, it looks like we are being battered, a few posters on here actually even said as much.

But in all honesty, the best quality chances fell our way, and we took most of them. Citeh on the other hand were as usual happy to play their football in our final third, without really 'battering' us.

Neither of the front line attacks were very good last night, it came down to who would make the least mistakes, they made two costly mistakes, we made one. That's the season in a nutshell, we make very little mistakes they have made plenty.

But there has to be some balance between defence and attack. I think for the majority we have got it right this season. But last night felt like we were deeper and pressed with less intensity than usual. Players such as hazard, Cesc, Pedro come alive when we have the ball, not when we havent.

1 minute ago, jamie#8 said:

But there has to be some balance between defence and attack. I think for the majority we have got it right this season. But last night felt like we were deeper and pressed with less intensity than usual. Players such as hazard, Cesc, Pedro come alive when we have the ball, not when we havent.

Well we were deeper and pressed then normal becasue we were playing a good team who hold the ball well. But the possesion stats mean nothing in these games between us and them, it's proven time and time again, defence wins the games.

Just now, coco said:

Well were deeper and pressed then normal becasue we were playing a good team who hold the ball well. But the possesion stats mean nothing in these games between us and them, it's proven time and time again, defence wins the games.

Agreed but defending well shouldnt mean our forward play has to suffer.

19 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

Why do you lot keep predicting a 4-2-4 when we haven't played it (for more than 10 mins) since September?

I'll ask the crystal ball...

2 minutes ago, jamie#8 said:

But there has to be some balance between defence and attack. I think for the majority we have got it right this season. But last night felt like we were deeper and pressed with less intensity than usual. Players such as hazard, Cesc, Pedro come alive when we have the ball, not when we havent.

You forget this is a team that threw the entire season away last year and is only now building back that trademark confidence and professionalism we're known for. To that end, winning that game last night was absolutely vital. How we went about it didn't matter. I'm pretty sure we'll be the attacking side against United when we meet them but we had to see this game out and get the 3 points here. We were more proactive in the 1st half but Cesc was leaving Kante too much work to do and Silva was dancing about our box because of it and so Conte brought Matic on to shut out the game, seeing as we already had the lead.

We'll worry about CL performances when we get to the CL, at which point we'd no doubt have better players in the team and hopefully a striker who hasn't got his finger up his arse, as well as much better wing backs. Things like that matter if you want to be proactive in beating City at their game. Especially when it's not your usual style (like Arsenal or Barca).

Just now, BellettiBullet said:

I'll ask the crystal ball...

Time to bin that crystal ball, no?