12 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Honestly after city someone said leauge over and we all had a go at him, ffs, after the way we performed, add in more CL plus injuries, you got to say, that title defense is getting smaller and smaller in the distance as city run away with the league 

People can react how they want. i AM A REALIST.  It is a 3 horse race with the teams who actually did their homework in the summer City Man u and spurs. We are in a 3 horse race for 4th position with arsenal and liverpool. Really glad they both dropped points today. Hopefully it teaches the board to Plan transfers properly. Failing to plan is Planning to fail and i guess the board have succeded all that is left is for Conte to get fired at the end of the season .SHAMELESS. Never thought i wud say this but i actually miss PETER KENYON

4 hours ago, Nibs said:

And there we go...........................

Had a long journey back home from Yorkshire today so put Radio 5 on to listen to the game with Pat Nevin co-commentating.  as I heard the two sides read out and heard the Palace fans noisier than ever I just had a bad feeling even before a ball was kicked and so it turned out. Haven't SEEN any of it but listened to the whole game and wee Pat was very critical. Seems we lacked bottle and just didn't turn up. Zaha and Townsend had an absolute field day and it begs the questions why would you not start Rudiger and Christensen - our two quickest and most in-form defenders? We were poor and by the sound of things Willian and Bats were particularly bad (oh to have another striker option - Abraham bags another 2.........). 

Didn't want to believe it was going to be a head to head between the two Manchester clubs and I know it's still early days but right now we seem to be WAY behind City. I know we've got injuries to key players but no excuses for a still decent side to get outplayed by the bottom club on zero points with zero goals. That's as bad as it gets.

 

Today shows why the world wonders why England doesn't win the World Cup. We have Zaha. We have Townsend. We have the tactical genius and fashion icon that is "Woy"

I jest Nibs. Our board hasn't provided our manager with a squad to mount a challenge. If all our first choice XI stay fit, we contend. If we lose a couple, especially Morata, we will struggle. 

Still praying Tottenham buy Zaha. 

3 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

I pick Rudiger over cahill all day but he is captain you can't be surprised at that, not sure why pedro is out of favour or maybe he has a knock 

I am starting to think that the only way Luiz will actually mark an opponent would be if you handcuffed him to said opponent. Or shot nailed him.

But hey, he has curly hair..... and isn't English. Which must be good?

Exactly. Classic scapegoating. TBH Dave was actually our worst defender today (how often have you said that?)

A couple of other observations:

1. We had a good patch in the second half when Musonda came on. Cesc delivered some balls over the top that yielded chances were it not for a couple of rough offside calls. 

2. Sakho always seems to play well against us. His play in the lead up to that second goal was amazing. 

3. Squad depth again has been highlighted as an issue. Bakayoko and Fabregas tired badly in the second half which haulted our momentum. Drinkwater can't get fit soon enough. 

4. The message to teams is clearly stop Hazard and you stop Chelsea. Eden was off the pace today and essentially was out of the game once he moved to 9. We desperately need another striker. Michy sadly doesn't suit the way we play. 

the board should be sacked. But till January (or even June!!) Conte should take a bet : have a 5 player turnover between UCL and PL and a Plan B that involves a different formation than 3 at the back. the turnover seems mandatory in order to prevent injuries but implies that we favour UCL over PL or the other way around. As for the alternative formation, there's a need to sort out this cahill/luiz issue as well as our injuries. The match against ATM was superb, and I do believe CFC are up there with the big guns in the UCL.BUT, we must realize that such cannot be attained without committing to make a substantial turnover in the PL insofar as our squad has not enough guys to compete at an equally excellent level in both competitions! 

1 hour ago, The Don Antonio said:

People can react how they want. i AM A REALIST.  It is a 3 horse race with the teams who actually did their homework in the summer City Man u and spurs. We are in a 3 horse race for 4th position with arsenal and liverpool. Really glad they both dropped points today. Hopefully it teaches the board to Plan transfers properly. Failing to plan is Planning to fail and i guess the board have succeded all that is left is for Conte to get fired at the end of the season .SHAMELESS. Never thought i wud say this but i actually miss PETER KENYON

I miss blaming Kenyon, it was always his fault.

Just watched Conte post match conference. I feel for him, ..he looked gutted and pissed...and so he should be...the players let him down today.  In fairness he says he must must do better, as does the training team and then the players.  He's got a big problem on his hand with what's left off this already depleted squad and he somehow has to find an answer.  Let's hope he comes up with something and the players support him and up their game.

4 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

Just watched Conte post match conference. I feel for him, ..he looked gutted and pissed...and so he should be...the players let him down today.  In fairness he says he must must do better, as does the training team and then the players.  He's got a big problem on his hand with what's left off this already depleted squad and he somehow has to find an answer.  Let's hope he comes up with something and the players support him and up their game.

We have some issues certainly. Three hamstring issues in short spaces of time seems particularly odd. 

Conte correct about balance without Kante.  I thought Bakayoko was excellent today but he isn't at the same level. Our midfield is also tiring badly towards the end of games. Drinkwater can't debut soon enough.

That said it is only three weeks since our finest performance in a number of years in Madrid. Good to see Musonda get minutes, the injury crisis may yet see some minutes for Ampadu as well. We win against Roma and all will be well again.

2 hours ago, acidicleo said:

and they are coming after us next week on the back of that win against gooners!!!

And when we beat them we reclaim our 4th spot - easy peasy.

This result is all too funny. How badly the players let everyone down today.

11 hours ago, Slojo said:

Fabregas I understand, we are very short in that area, but Willian & Cahill starting? What the f**k is going on with Conte's team selection. 

How dare you?

If you take the opinion of a london based genius on here, Conte is not at all to be blamed!!! 

10 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

We have some issues certainly. Three hamstring issues in short spaces of time seems particularly odd. 

Conte correct about balance without Kante.  I thought Bakayoko was excellent today but he isn't at the same level. Our midfield is also tiring badly towards the end of games. Drinkwater can't debut soon enough.

That said it is only three weeks since our finest performance in a number of years in Madrid. Good to see Musonda get minutes, the injury crisis may yet see some minutes for Ampadu as well. We win against Roma and all will be well again.

I was thinking about Drinkwater during the game.  In Kantes absence, he could be our go to next to Baka to add more engine and balance to midfield.

Edited October 15, 20178 yr by Fendieta

9 hours ago, brownindian said:

And when we beat them we reclaim our 4th spot - easy peasy.

That's the spirit 

I'm not convinced by 'Baka' yet - some of the pre-season hype was about him being a younger version of Yaya Toure which really excited me.

So far he looks like a pale imitation.  For sure he has a turn of speed and is very direct but...watch him closely and he is reticent to really mix it when a heavier tackle is required. 

His short range passing is also dire at times.  Yesterday there were several occasions when delivering a <5-10m pass he was a metre or two wide of his target.  What the heck do they do on the training ground these days?

Maybe less time at the bloody hairdressers and more time at Cobham is in order here.

 

 

12 hours ago, just said:

I am starting to think that the only way Luiz will actually mark an opponent would be if you handcuffed him to said opponent. Or shot nailed him.

But hey, he has curly hair..... and isn't English. Which must be good?

Luiz is there to sweep up behind Cahill, and he does it very well, hence we won the leauge 

5 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Luiz is there to sweep up behind Cahill, and he does it very well, hence we won the leauge 

Cahill is the real problem not Luiz. Sooner we drop him the sooner we will stop leaking goals. He's had a great career here but his time is up as a starter imo.

Players had the head elsewhere on this game, but the resultat is there... I think that it's not again dead for the title, 9pts it's lot of, but Man City will loss some game, so far they are impressive, but it's from February, March that everything play...

Stay focused ! Already get this qualification for 1/8 in CL Come on blues!!!!

21 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

@Richard P You were at the game Richard mate, in your view was this loss down to the managers team selection or players performances? 

 

Also never said Andreas wasn't good enough said he won't start yet because he isn't going to displace Gary or Luiz, stop trying to cling on to something said 6 months ago which wasn't even said because your point was shut down today, and your snitching back fired.  Being an obnoxious little prat in India might be cute in London it gets you shun and or your head kicked in, cultural differences I guess. 

In answer to your first part of the post I put it on the players. They were inferior in quality but their desire and energy were better than ours. When you have an off day with ability you can still put a shift in to help the team. We lacked both.

I will leave the second part of your post to your friend in India!

We had three first team regulars out, Morata, Kante and Rudiger.

Once again Conte got his tactics wrong like with Arsenal by under estimating the opposition, IMO.

Rudiger and or Christensen should have played with Luiz in midfield.

 

4 hours ago, Bloo said:

I'm not convinced by 'Baka' yet - some of the pre-season hype was about him being a younger version of Yaya Toure which really excited me.

So far he looks like a pale imitation.  For sure he has a turn of speed and is very direct but...watch him closely and he is reticent to really mix it when a heavier tackle is required. 

His short range passing is also dire at times.  Yesterday there were several occasions when delivering a <5-10m pass he was a metre or two wide of his target.  What the heck do they do on the training ground these days?

Maybe less time at the bloody hairdressers and more time at Cobham is in order here.

 

 

Covering for Cesc might be more simple for N'golo but he's more of a robot than a human. Anyone would struggle next to Cesc.

8 games played, 3 lost already. I can't see the team going on anything like the kind of run they did last year. It'll be a fight for 4th this year. 

Think we are capable of 2nd, bad luck just now with two key players out at the same time, Morata and Kante.

Last season we were lucky with injuries just Costa missing a couple.

20 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

Just watched Conte post match conference. I feel for him, ..he looked gutted and pissed...and so he should be...the players let him down today.  In fairness he says he must must do better, as does the training team and then the players.  He's got a big problem on his hand with what's left off this already depleted squad and he somehow has to find an answer.  Let's hope he comes up with something and the players support him and up their game.

In days gone by a swift kick up the arse would have been the order of the day.

5 hours ago, Richard P said:

In answer to your first part of the post I put it on the players. They were inferior in quality but their desire and energy were better than ours. When you have an off day with ability you can still put a shift in to help the team. We lacked both.

I will leave the second part of your post to your friend in India!

That was the debate, blaming that on team selection...hardly, even Cahill put it down to player performance...anyway thanks mate, at least you didn't have far to travel home after that. 

10 hours ago, Chelsbear said:

Cahill is the real problem not Luiz. Sooner we drop him the sooner we will stop leaking goals. He's had a great career here but his time is up as a starter imo.

Thank you, you watch football, I can relate to that.