Boy did Diego the Dragon awaken. Looks like his old self and am delighted to have him back.

The pressure is firmly on Spuds now despite our visit to Goodison on the weekend.

Now, if only we can tighten up our defence just a bit, I won't be so nervy for the duration of the match right up to the final whistle.

KTBFFH!

Really satisfying display by the whole team.

nuff said...

Everton, West Brom away both tough but Spurs fixtures are now equally problematic too.

if they win comfortably at Palace the pressure will be back on but we looked good yesterday... everyone did well.

When we have possession we really need to stop passing it back to Cortouis just to have him hoof it upfield gifting oppo possession most of the time. My only complaint from this game. Did it over and over and over again inviting needless pressure onto ourselves.

1 hour ago, Stim said:

When we have possession we really need to stop passing it back to Cortouis just to have him hoof it upfield gifting oppo possession most of the time. My only complaint from this game. Did it over and over and over again inviting needless pressure onto ourselves.

I agree - it's so infuriating and with the players we have there's no excuse for it.

Was another nervy one last night. Great to get the early goal and Hazard was great again but we just let Saints start to dictate things and looked very shaky at the back and I started to think it could be Palace all over again. Massive goal from Gazza - just at the right time and the timing of the third goal helped me relax a bit. 

Would be great if Palace could take some points of Spu*s tonight but let's not worry about them. Let Antonio and the team concentrate on our remaining games and then it doesn't matter - Come On The Chels!

Great second half from our side but the first half was nerve racking. I just can't understand why after we score early it is quite obvious that we are going to concede. What is happening at the back in the last couple of months is a mystery to me. Conceding that last minute goal annoyed me quite a bit, but I was at the Shed and Courtois had a go at Terry and Luiz as I have never seen him. He must have felt really really angry at the defending. Ffs, this is a team that didn't score against Manchester City 10 days ago! Costa had a great match (an assist and two goals) but man, he annoys me with his inability to keep the ball for long most of the times! And a shout out to Cahill with his great header just when it was needed. Anyway, we got three points and an almost relaxed game on the second half.

Cahill makes the odd positional and technical bludner but he is a gutsy player always prepared to put his team's need in front of taking care of his body.

Felt like an important win, we really needed the 3 points last night ahead of Everton. There was a good rhythm to our attacking play, brilliant to see Costa score twice. I thought his hold-up play was still poor a lot of the time but then I never thought it was great even when he was on form earlier this season. If he can go on a run now until the end of the season with a few more goals then that should push us over the line. It was clear that his confidence was growing again after his first goal, culminating in what I thought was a brilliant second. More of the same please Dieeeego!

Our defensive fragility is a bit of a mystery to me, especially when you consider how solid we were up until January. I wonder whether the nerves might be starting to kick in at the back? Aside from Saturday, so many of the goals which we have conceded in the last several weeks have come from avoidable, elementary defensive errors. We really need to sharpen up because Everton are good enough to rip through anyone at home. 

12 more points needed to seal it. If we could win on Sunday then that would be a massive step psychologically IMO.

 

 

Edited April 26, 20179 yr by Celery1989

I'm a bit worried by how many goals we seem to needlessly concede in the dying moments of games we're comfortably winning. I know it's not going to cause major issues but can think of 2-3 times this season now we've conceded late on pointless goals. 

Ok defending was crap, but hazard, costa, fabregas and Kante on top form made it a joy to watch...will costa be remembered as one of the most frustrating players we have had? When he's focused and on his game like last night, he is one of the best strikers in the world...quicker to 50 league gls than Suarez despite all his sulks and tantrums 

Edited April 26, 20179 yr by The Brit

6 minutes ago, The Brit said:

Ok defending was crap, but hazard, costa, fabregas and Kante on top form made it a joy to watch...will costa be remembered as one of the most frustrating players we have had? 

Bar Nando, yes.

He is even more frustrating in a way because we know he can be an absolute goal-scoring minotaur when he focuses. From the very beginning it was clear he wasn't much of a technically gifted footballer. But boy is he strong. He made goal-scoring look easy in his first season with us. And his second goal last night gives me hope he finishes the season strongly! 

Scores goals if given the chance, but so many attacks break down because his first touch usually knocks the ball about 20 yards away. Also every time he gets the ball with his back to goal, you can pretty much go and get a cup of tea, because he's going to dither on it, then try to dribble past 5 players and run straight into them and lose it.

Can understand some criticism for him, he drives me nuts when he loses focus or fight too, like he has over last few months...but too many have forgotten that without his goals in the first half of two seasons, we wouldn't have won the title in 2015 and with a great chance of winning it again in 2017...think that deserves a bit of respect

4 hours ago, RMH said:

Great second half from our side but the first half was nerve racking. I just can't understand why after we score early it is quite obvious that we are going to concede. What is happening at the back in the last couple of months is a mystery to me. Conceding that last minute goal annoyed me quite a bit, but I was at the Shed and Courtois had a go at Terry and Luiz as I have never seen him. He must have felt really really angry at the defending. Ffs, this is a team that didn't score against Manchester City 10 days ago! Costa had a great match (an assist and two goals) but man, he annoys me with his inability to keep the ball for long most of the times! And a shout out to Cahill with his great header just when it was needed. Anyway, we got three points and an almost relaxed game on the second half.

Conte was going beserk at the defence, I'm sure he will sort this out in the summer. As an observation, our defence was much better at Wembley than last night. Ake being the difference.

Impressive performance, players stood up where it mattered, during the 40-60 minutes period after they had us in trouble. Some of the best football we played lately, Cesc in the team made the offensive play so much easier. Conte must have screwed in that missing piece in Costa's head, from the first kick in the game he looked a completely different player from the player we have seen in the last couple of months. Hazard/Kante delivered the usual 8/10 performance. The only downside was poor defending, every corner was like a dynamite in the 6 yard box, every ball was getting past everyone into the far post. I'm sure Conte will make them watch the replay, I was surprised Courtois didn't come out to punch the ball into his zone.

I really believe Spurs will drop points tomorrow, they would have gone into the game full of energy had we drawn or lost, now they are going to play the 'perfect' game just to stay in touch once more.

It was refreshing to watch a match with Martin Tyler and Niall Quinn commentating, as opposed to the sh*te that was the commentary in our FA cup game. I like Quinn as a commentator since he's one of the few who actively likes Costa and respects the style he plays in. 

Great result against what are is a decent Southampton team, though they didn't have much to play for last night really, but our performance was excellent. Defending needs some work though, despite his goal I thought Cahill had a poor enough game really, I'd play him against everton since we'll need his size to try and combat lukaku, but I think i'd rather have Ake in that position, he's much more composed than Cahill with the ball. 

Courtois had that ankle injury which he played with against Spurs so perhaps that has a bearing on him out coming out to defend corners.

I too think Ake is the future, I also think perhaps Cahill was aware of the reviews Ake was getting and so was a bit nervy by trying to overcompensate.

I also think we will beat Everton though of course it will be tough. 

 

 

Edited April 26, 20179 yr by Strider6003

14 minutes ago, Osgood is Good said:

Conte was going beserk at the defence, I'm sure he will sort this out in the summer. As an observation, our defence was much better at Wembley than last night. Ake being the difference.

Yes, on Saturday we were playing a good attacking side while last night we played a team that couldn't get one past the Citeh defence! The second goal was a lack of focus similar to Arsenal's goal at SB.

I expect Conte will sort this out in summer and it looks like he the club is bidding for defenders. But we can't keep conceding in every single game until the end of the season, so I guess he needs to work something out soon with what is available at the moment. Most of the danger comes from set pieces and crosses into the box, so it could be just a matter of training those situations. The annoying thing is that we had such a great defensive performance up until January... 

Last night I was also surprised that Ake didn't start, but after that header I kind of "forgave" Conte for choosing Cahill over Ake ;)

@garryhayes: "Cahill tries giving Terry the armband as they run up for a corner, but he refuses it."

this makes me sad. really sad

Edited April 26, 20179 yr by magichat

Good win.

Good Chelsea goals.

Bit sloppy at the back for their two goals.

25 minutes ago, erskblue said:

Bit sloppy at the back for their two goals.

well at least they were scored by Chelsea Old Boys - we could somewhat cheer for them...again somewhat ;)

Strong palace team

5 hours ago, magichat said:

@garryhayes: "Cahill tries giving Terry the armband as they run up for a corner, but he refuses it."

this makes me sad. really sad

It shwos what kind of man JT is though, he knows that would be disrespectful to Cahill so he doesn't take it.

Glad to see Diego back on his game and show he wants it, glad to be proven wrong in this game. If he plays like that at everton we can win, we need him too or we won't. 

Good win well done Lads!