10 hours ago, old git said:

It's not the defeat that irks me but the manner of the defeat. We were completely overrun in midfield. Bakayoko and Kante were lethargic and, while City had pace to burn everywhere, our lack of foot through players such as Fabregas and Alonso stood out like a beacon. Absolutely no complaints on our defence which stood up well against the onslaught. Christensen and Azpilicueta( no chance of him getting forward in his wing back role) were outstanding, Rudiger put in loads of tackles as did Cahill. Hazard was a shadow of the player that lit up Madrid. Conte was very vocal about the short timespan between this and Wednesday's games, citing fatigue as a potential problem. If that's the case, he should have recognised this in the players reaction in training but he still went ahead and selected virtually the same midfield and forward line that ran their legs off in Madrid. He talks about the trust he has in his squad but he didn't show it here.

Maybe because he had no choice ? We don't have the options to change our team around like City and United do.

5 hours ago, coco said:

Both keepers had decent games.

Both defences did ok, we struggled to get the ball out from the back when pressed, but apart from that we cant really pin the blame there.

Both forward lines struggled to penetrate regularly, but when Morata went off our attack basically folded.

The biggest difference in the game for me is evident by comparing just two players. De Bruyne vs Fabregas.

De Bruyne reminded me a bit of Lampard yesterday, dynamic and dependable.

 

 

If you can pin the whole game down that battle then I think you need to take another look. We were literally outplayed all over the pitch. 

3 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Maybe because he had no choice ? We don't have the options to change our team around like City and United do.

He could have played Zappacosta, Pedro, Kenedy and/or Musonda from the start, just to freshen up things and add some much needed pace but his conservative approach was to move Azpilicueta into wide midfield. 

Just have to take this result on the chin and admit we were well beaten by the better team on the night.

Imho opinion Conte got the team selection wrong for the game.....

.Fabregas should never have started. Great on the ball but with Cities Midfield you needed someone like Pedro who does press higher up the field and can win the ball can run at pace at there backline.

Dave shouldn't have played RWB why move him from the RCH when City have no tall Strikers.

Morata substitution I could see what Conte wanted with pace up front rather than a hit man. Unfortunately we kept huffing up field and giving possession back. 

Just now, jamie#8 said:

If you can pin the whole game down that battle then I think you need to take another look. We were literally outplayed all over the pitch. 

The deep play makers have huge responsibility in a system with only two attacking players in it. This is where the differences between the two teams was most apparent. And it was very apparent yesterday. 

2 hours ago, youlots said:

For accuracy ;-)

Actually story today is in Sunday times...then nob ends on Sunday supplement debated it

20 hours ago, JPH said:

Don't get your point. The performance of our today was so poor compared to the performance of City that it is hard to believe us being on top of them in the end of the season.

Us playing in Europe this season with the depth of our squad is even worsening our changes (IMO).

Yes, I have watched the league from the start till the end tens of years. I might be wrong ( and I hope I am) but the difference in our performance compared to the City's one is quite big.

So after the same amount of games roughly last year after we got smashed by Arsenal remind me what happened after that?

City also outplayed last season us all over the park we were just coinicalnon the break, we also got outclassed by Tottenham after a 13 game win streak, that's football. 

We played away from home one of the toughest teams in Europe, day to prepare, lost our striker mid game and only lost 0-1, I wouldn't piss my pants just yet but feel free to if it makes you happy.  

City looked like the defending champions. If the blame is going to be put on tiredness because of the CL game, being in that competition is going to cost us dearly this season.

I thought we had the better chances till Morata came off. Id go as far as saying we might have won it if he hadnt been injured.

At Juventus when Conte played with a 3-5-2 the most important player in his team was Andrea Pirlo. He played as the deep-lying playmaker. Fabregas has been playing that role, maybe slightly more advanced in this formation and hasn't been performing well. Even against ATM midweek, he wasn't that good. Luiz produced better lobbed balls and passes than Cesc. This formation won't suit us if teams press high, Cesc isn't athletic enough and loses the ball too often with sloppy passes. 

1 hour ago, luckywerthers said:

City looked like the defending champions. If the blame is going to be put on tiredness because of the CL game, being in that competition is going to cost us dearly this season.

do you mean champions in making?

defending champions were champions the previous season as they were the best side..

doesnt guarantee  they will go on to be the best following season as well when all sides improve their squads between seasons...

48 minutes ago, zes said:

At Juventus when Conte played with a 3-5-2 the most important player in his team was Andrea Pirlo. He played as the deep-lying playmaker. Fabregas has been playing that role, maybe slightly more advanced in this formation and hasn't been performing well. Even against ATM midweek, he wasn't that good. Luiz produced better lobbed balls and passes than Cesc. This formation won't suit us if teams press high, Cesc isn't athletic enough and loses the ball too often with sloppy passes. 

and pirlo was a true genius in that role...

4 hours ago, old git said:

He could have played Zappacosta, Pedro, Kenedy and/or Musonda from the start, just to freshen up things and add some much needed pace but his conservative approach was to move Azpilicueta into wide midfield. 

kenedy / musonda v city? hmm...

and pedro has been rather poor this season too...

9 hours ago, enigma said:

this is where we were last season after 7 games. we are winning the league again, lads!

And we've played harder games this season than we did that season, people need to stop overreacting.

I'll admit I'm concerned with the player fitness whenever we play midweek games, we seem to be a completely different team, other sides cope in Europe well, why aren't we? 

good match analysis of the game 

https://hickeyn5.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/chelsea-hire-taxi-man-to-bring-kdb-home/

12 minutes ago, enigma said:

good match analysis of the game 

https://hickeyn5.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/chelsea-hire-taxi-man-to-bring-kdb-home/

Fantastic analysis, Bakayoko was more at fault than Fabregas for that goal and was very off this game, his concentration levels don't look top tier, he can be too rash in dangerous areas which are very costly and his distribution needs to improve. 

5 hours ago, The Brit said:

Actually story today is in Sunday times...then nob ends on Sunday supplement debated it

Sheesh....really? Tried to find it online but couldn't get past the paywall.

Morata needs to rest his hamstring, so let's give him that rest. We have Palace next and Bats is more than good enough to play against them, I don't know where this panic comes from when it comes to Bats, yes he isn't the best at linking play but he can score goals, so it makes sense to get him in the box where he has the highest chance to score. If anyone thinks that we'll need a striker that is able to hold the ball up and be creative to beat Palace, Watford or Bournemouth, then they're either rating those teams too highly or don't rate us at all; or bonkers.

Best case scenario for the next 3 PL games if we need to play Bats, we take control of the games and get Bats in and around the area to score goals, worst case scenario we go to a 4231 and push Bats up top with Hazard in behind him flanked by Pedro and Willian; which lets Bats stay forward, if we can't even adjust for a different type of striker then we don't deserve to retain the title.

On 30/09/2017 at 19:35, Stim said:

Yeah... just go out and attack this city side... and get 4 or 5 put past us like the others. 

We're a better team than the others - much better!!! We're the champions playing in our own back yard - we gave City way too much respect. I'd back us if we went toe-to-toe with them, especially at home with our fans behind us. And I still don't rate their defence. I love Conte but he got his tactics wrong. I don't think it was a personnel issue, more tactical. We were playing way too deep. An embarrasing thing for the champions to be doing at home.

3 hours ago, acidicleo said:

do you mean champions in making?

defending champions were champions the previous season as they were the best side..

doesnt guarantee  they will go on to be the best following season as well when all sides improve their squads between seasons...

i meant that city looked like the defending champions, chelsea showed them far too much respect, they were playing at home, chelsea should of took the game to them, not just sat back

4 hours ago, Slojo said:

Fantastic analysis, Bakayoko was more at fault than Fabregas for that goal and was very off this game, his concentration levels don't look top tier, he can be too rash in dangerous areas which are very costly and his distribution needs to improve. 

Bakayoko looked shattered physically and mentally from the first minute, and should never have started. You can't judge his capabilities on this performance. Even Kante looked off the pace, and with an outboard motor for an engine, that's saying something. Both had to be at their very best to hold City's midfield at bay, and neither were. They left it all behind in Madrid. This has to be the first time I'm pleased that an international break has surfaced.

Again it comes back to our lack of depth. Two matches against top ten teams in Europe three days apart is very difficult. Especially when you have to play the same midfield. 

But we knew this in the summer. This is our failure to strengthen. We have 4 players for 3 positions without any injuries. Bakayoko has much to learn and it remains to be seen if Drinkwater can lift his level.

New to the forum here, just wanted to say that it's still early days.....plenty of season left, regardless of how sh*tty losing against Citeh was.

Reflecting on the game after calming down, we never really got out of 1st gear. To be fair to City, they outplayed us in every department but it's not surprising after the amount of effort the lads put in against Atletico. Losing Morata early on definitely didn't help but I felt Pedro would have been a better option than Willian. 

 

I said to a few mates before the game that we're going to struggle after playing Champs League on the Wed night against one of the toughest teams in Europe, travel back to London then play against an extremely good team in City. Pep knew that we'd be rattled and took advantage of it by pressing us and the high line pressure ensured that we had no time on the ball. I felt we could have started with a few different faces (ie Moses, Pedro who could have offered a bit more energy than say Cesc and Baka). Hazard looked spent by half-time as did a few other key players which as I said before isn't surprising due to the amount of effort put in on Wednesday night especially with Haz coming back from injury.

 

In regards to the current table, we're 7 games in and we've played the Spuds, Arsenal and now City whereas United's toughest fixture has arguably been Southampton. City trounced Liverpool and other than that have played against mid to lower opposition. Give it a month or so and we'll see what the Manchester clubs are actually made of...

I have no complaints, we were simply beaten by a better team. Totally got outplayed, let’s move on to the next match.