Stoke City Vs Chelsea (PL) Sat 23 Sep 2017 KO 15:00 GMT

[fester]

Having failed to get through the "virtual waiting room" for this game, and living but 15 mins from the BET365 I was in with the home fans - a good seat opposite the dugouts!  Just on here to say how fantastic the away support were yesterday, seeing and hearing them from a differenct vantage point.  Loud and proud all game.

Stoke fans only really roused by what they saw as the injustice of Alonso staying on the pitch.

Can Chelsea also start a move towards the "stadium man-of-the-match" being any away player if that's appropriate?  When Morata had a hat-trick it seemed odd hearing Shaquiri announced as MOTM.

[coco]

49 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

 

I also think we noticed that without Luiz and Cesc, the passing ability of the team as a whole isn't nearly at the same level and I think that's why we looked so disjointed in the game up until Fabregas came on.

 

That's an easy conclusion to come to if you don't take into consideration just after Cesc came on Hughes took off Martins Indi and Stoke didn't have any recognised center backs on the pitch. At the time they were already 0-2 down and they pushed further up field as the game went on, allowing Morata to have loads of space to attack.

 

[chi blue]

22 minutes ago, Bloo said:

MOTD long ago ceded to any attempt at honest reporting - a reflection of the media at large.

At the end of the day it is a lightweight show, heavy on bonhomme between old pro's who have latched onto the Beeb's gravy train of tax payers money, and short of anything remotely interesting to say about any match, not just ours.

The standard of technical insight is just about worthy of someone who has just decided to take an interest in football and has no prior knowledge - it's that bad.  It is way way overdue a shake-up in it's format (more stat's and high tech' analysis needed), it needs to be a much longer show that starts earlier and most of all Linekar needs to go.  He's a charming enough presenter but he offers so little in return for his £2m a year.  He's rooted himself in a job that will probably dump another £40m or so in his direction until he draws his State Pension.  It's the same with many of the 'Treasures' across the sporting spectrum - holed up in 'cushty' little numbers doing the bare minimum for big bucks and living off the back of their glory days.  

Good day for us though and I couldn't give a stuff about The Potters being light on defence for the match - happens to all clubs at some point in the season.  Some just manage the situation better when they are light - Stoke didn't and paid the price.  They should've gone for a point from the off and started with 2 or 3 parked buses instead of trying to take us on as they did.

Good to see that sourest of managers Hughes looking so glum after the match too.

KTBFFH!

 

 

Gave up on match of the day years ago, I was bought up in the Jimmy hill era of the programme and it seemed then to be much more level and un biased, mind you we weren't on that much back in the day, now a days we have to sit and listen to jermaine Jenas and Phil Neville, blokes who were so lucky to carve out a career in playing football, when their limited talents should of said otherwise (you could find more talented players than them way down the football pyramid) and now they have got careers in punditry and once again a real lack of any talent in this field and they get a job, (lucky lads, mind you I wouldn't want to look like Phil Neville for any amount of money!) I always stick to sky's game of the day highlights, 1/2 an hour highlights and no crap biased punditry after.

[mbh]

Will be glad when our period of crisis is over, then we will show our mettle.

 

[Jezz]

21 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Well, 4 new arrivals in the team and they all look good. Four goals, a hattrick for Morata and a rare clean sheet. It's all very good for confidence, particularly for the new charges.

Hazard and Fabregas are well rested for our upcoming games, which is important. Both looked a cut above when they came on. As others have said, Willian is so frustrating, today he was at his worst, always needing the extra touch always getting knocked off the ball. Pedro's goal was great but other than that he was completely anonymous.

A rare show of indiscipline from Alonso which was completely needless, though I didn't think the second foul was a booking, in fact I thought it should have gone the other way. Christensen looks class, in fact he oozes class, no doubt Luiz will be back for Atletico but it will be interesting to see how Christensen fares against City, who look to be in free-scoring mode.

Finally I'm very glad Conte preferred Rudiger to Cahill, which I didn't foresee. I thought Cahill would get the nod given his experience and the fact he knows Conte's methods well and the fact Stoke is traditionally a very difficult away game, but Rudiger deserves his spot and it's good to see the team being picked on merit.

If you look at our bench, with Cahill, Zappacosta, Hazard, Musonda, Batshuayi and Fabregas, we seem to have good options to call upon and that's with Drinkwater and Luiz out.

Signs are good. Well done Chelsea. Well done Morata. Tough coming into a very demanding league with a big price tag and a big player to replace but this boy looks like he can cope with the pressure, and more importantly it looks like he's a top striker. Hopefully this is just the beginning. He can finish, he's good in the air, he's got pace, he's got skill, he's got a good temperament, he links well with his teammates and his movement is good. I like him. I like the boy a lot.

Excellent post, Davey!

You beautifully articulated my own thoughts on the game. We haven't had an easy start in terms of the difficulty of our fixtures, compared to Manchester United, but it's pleasing to see that we're overcoming any obstacles that confront us.

The competition is tougher this year, but I trust Conte enough to believe that we'll be right up there at the end of the business end of the season. You raise an excellent point that the depth of the squad is beginning to emerge and in the event of injuries/suspensions, this will come in very handy for us.

It's deeply satisfying to see Morata perform well and adjust to the English game as quickly as he has. He possesses so much talent and it makes me happy that we chose to sign him over Lukaku.

[The Brit]

3 hours ago, Bloo said:

MOTD long ago ceded to any attempt at honest reporting - a reflection of the media at large.

At the end of the day it is a lightweight show, heavy on bonhomme between old pro's who have latched onto the Beeb's gravy train of tax payers money, and short of anything remotely interesting to say about any match, not just ours.

The standard of technical insight is just about worthy of someone who has just decided to take an interest in football and has no prior knowledge - it's that bad.  It is way way overdue a shake-up in it's format (more stat's and high tech' analysis needed), it needs to be a much longer show that starts earlier and most of all Linekar needs to go.  He's a charming enough presenter but he offers so little in return for his £2m a year.  He's rooted himself in a job that will probably dump another £40m or so in his direction until he draws his State Pension.  It's the same with many of the 'Treasures' across the sporting spectrum - holed up in 'cushty' little numbers doing the bare minimum for big bucks and living off the back of their glory days.  

Good day for us though and I couldn't give a stuff about The Potters being light on defence for the match - happens to all clubs at some point in the season.  Some just manage the situation better when they are light - Stoke didn't and paid the price.  They should've gone for a point from the off and started with 2 or 3 parked buses instead of trying to take us on as they did.

Good to see that sourest of managers Hughes looking so glum after the match too.

KTBFFH!

 

 

I have noticed a bias/love in towards manchester ever since the beeb made their new home there...as well as city are playing right now, i dont see why they opened the show last night against bottom club palace...there were more entertaining/even games, like leicester v liverpool or West Ham v spurs...ours was arguably the most impressive result of the day, yet once relegated way down the order and a brief bit of praise for Morata's display afterwards.

in many ways, the show's commentators sum up the fading force it's become...they are all a much of a muchness, sound the same, bring little flair or insight...just some scripted cliched nonsense...go back 20-30 years there were a number of quality voices...the so-called also rans back then, who got the lesser games, like Tony Gubba or Gerard sinstadt would be the main man on the show now.

Edited September 24, 2017 by The Brit

[PedroMendez]

2 hours ago, coco said:

That's an easy conclusion to come to if you don't take into consideration just after Cesc came on Hughes took off Martins Indi and Stoke didn't have any recognised center backs on the pitch. At the time they were already 0-2 down and they pushed further up field as the game went on, allowing Morata to have loads of space to attack.

Yeah I know its definitely a very simplistic observation especially as the formation also switched at that point too and it is also way too soon to truly judge Bakayoko's passing ability as he should definitely be given time to settle and he still has plenty of development left in him just look at how much Kante's passing game has improved since he joined us.

But it was just the feeling I had watching the game yesterday we just seemed to lack a little composure and vision in the midfield, which Cesc holds in abundance.  

[robdog]

wow I remember the play but when I revisited it this tackle seems to be much worse than when I originally viewed it

We are lucky that Cesc didn't get injured on that play

[coco]

10 minutes ago, robdog said:

wow I remember the play but when I revisited it this tackle seems to be much worse than when I originally viewed it

We are lucky that Cesc didn't get injured on that play

The most telling thing about that image is what's missing from it.

[robdog]

1 minute ago, coco said:

The most telling thing about that image is what's missing from it.

Yeah I was looking for the ball to, but I don't see it. Not sure why that wasn't a red there.

[coco]

1 minute ago, robdog said:

Yeah I was looking for the ball to, but I don't see it. Not sure why that wasn't a red there.

It's a three match ban all day every day.

[robdog]

Just now, coco said:

It's a three match ban all day every day.

well apparently not in England - perhaps if Crouch played for CFC that would have been given <_<

[Slojo]

7 hours ago, zes said:

The majority of the media consists of former Liverpool, Manure and Arsenal pundits. No wonder they give us no credit and highlight negatives from our play. We are the champions and yet Manure and City are getting all the TV coverage. Wtf? Next week is crucial. If we can beat both Atletico and Man city, they will find it hard to avoid talking about us positively. 

We also need Conte to stay with us, he will build a quality team if given the time. Next year with RLC returning from on-loan, f**k our squad will be good. 

They never have Chelsea pundits on MOTD, and when they do its people like Chris Sutton who were huge flops and do nothing but bitterly criticise our club. Sadly they never have Ruud on as much. 

I would honestly rather sh*t in my hands and clap than watch Danny Murphy & Martin Keown talk about football. 

[Slojo]

 

Who remembers this? Or the MOTD coverage on Chelsea players diving too much? Always the same case. It's not a conspiracy either it's genuine that Sky/BBC have barely any Chelsea pundits compared to Manchester & Liverpool ones. When the Diego Costa "crimes" controversy came up it was Jamie Redknapp, Graeme Souness & Jamie Carragher talking about it on the panel on a Chelsea vs Liverpool match, that's 3 f**king Liverpool pundits right there. Who's going to be there to defend Chelsea the same way Arsenal, United, Spurs & Liverpool are constantly defended? 

[robdog]

15 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I would honestly rather sh*t in my hands and clap than watch Danny Murphy & Martin Keown talk about football. 

[lukecfc]

1 hour ago, coco said:

The most telling thing about that image is what's missing from it.

Not Kanté of course.

[robdog]

sorry to beat a dead horse, but I saw that Adel Taarabt was shown red for this tackle

Crouch's tackle on Cesc looks hell of lot worse than Taarabt's tackle

[erskblue]

I am still buzzing after being at this game. I know it is an ordinary game,but for me after all these years to finally see Chelsea in a competitive game and winning it 4-0 is just fantastic.

[erskblue]

I was in the Main Stand at the end nearest the Chelsea away support and it was a great atmosphere. Us scoring within the first couple of minutes set us up nicely.

Impressed by the workrate and closing down od our players.

4-0 was more than I could have imagined at Stoke.

Bought cfcnet before the game and had a read of it on the way back. Wore my Chelsea 1970 retro top under my jacket and the guy selling it laughed when I told him I was a Blues fan.

Great day out. Blue is the colour.

[erskblue]

The noise from our support was brilliant.

 

Edited September 25, 2017 by erskblue

[Cyborg7]

Great game at Stoke ! It's pristine for confidence. We have made the difference promptly in this game, Morata score and Pedro, I thought the game was complete, but in second Half-time, Stoke have well reacted, mostly on free-kicks. We been at shake... 

But with the entered from Fabregas and Hazard, we have made the difference again, with more domination and opportunities set up. 

I think with the middle to 3 we are stronger in the game, we have the ball possession. It's better to play into 3-5-2. 

[buzzcfc]

Brilliant away day, one of the best in a while for me. Thought we looked decent and 4-0 away at Stoke is always an impressive result even with most of their defence out. I really do fancy us to beat City next week.

The Terrace bar needs to sort things out though, 45 mins for a beer!

[icecoolguy22]

Beating Stoke at their own turf is almost as satisfying as beating one of the top 6 games. I thought we were cruising until Alonso decided to take a dive to fire up the crowd, got himself a yellow for a silly kick, then almost managed to turn the game around by sending himself off. Fortunately, Conte made the change immediately and the rest is history. As usual, an opposition player got away with a x-rated tackle, and nothing but a yellow, not even going to be reviewed. We probably deserved all the red cards we got this season, but it makes me sick that other players kept getting away with worse.

[General]

cant really add any more comments to what was a superlative away victory except....

same biased reporting or lack of on CNBC coverage of prem in USA, nice to see international consistency at least 

 

 

 

[robdog]

27 minutes ago, General said:

same biased reporting or lack of on CNBC coverage of prem in USA, nice to see international consistency at least 

 

 

 

It some English based company that provides the commentators for NBC - I believe the entity is called Premier League Productions