1 hour ago, Slojo said:

I had a quick browse for a laugh, you get some absolute wums on there honestly, they think they were wronged by the referee for Fellaini falling over in the box in the 88th minute. God help anyone if they think our match day forums are bad, just go on RAWK or Redcafe. 

That was right in front of us and I don't remember thinking for a moment it was a foul (and I am the biggest pessimist going when it comes to Chelsea!). Interested to see these incidents soon on motd as I must say I miss so much at the match!

funny how when we are on MOTD the analysis is mostly about our opposition - a good 5 minutes on Lukaku, thanks guys...

No talk about our disallowed goal either. 

A really really great win. Well deserved. Great performances all around and we looked like quality as well as Champions.

Now, if only City would slip up some...

Manc of the day clutching at straws with their "analysis" of the game.

That said anything less than challenging for the league till the very end is unnacceptable given the money spent for United. And right now they look a million miles away.

Lets all remember the first few games of the season where they beat absolute dross 4-0 ey?

Uppity pricks.

2 hours ago, robdog said:

He only mentioned him once & that was about being over-ran by the CFC midfield

 

That is Gary not Phil...

 

And Conte took on Diego Costa and which one left? 

 

Too much to hope Roman and the board back Conte in all things? Well this is Chelsea so...

Musings about the game:

+ Great win! Much needed for the team and the mood. Keep this up and we will finish top 2. 

+ Special shout out to Mourinho for actually playing a positive game and not parking the bus. I was expecting an ugly boring affair. This was 2 teams going for each others juggular.

+ Welcome sight to see Kante back in our starting 11. I think this is our strongest lineup. 

+ Our 3 man midfield of Kante, Baka and Cesc is what we need to play. Kante being the sheild with Baka being the box to box midfielder and Cesc having a reduced defensive role is the best midfield line up we have. 

- Alonso. He needs a backup. He was not playing his A game but i cant really blame him considering how many minutes he is playing nor can i blame Conte as we dont have a reliable rotation (Kennedy is a ?)

- Finishing. Did anyone else go on an expletive laden tirade everytime our players got clear cut chances and did not 1. Shoot towards goal 2. Dilly on the ball too long and lose possession ? This should not happen to a team of our stature. We could have killed this game 4 - 0 but the fact that it ended 1 - 0 is a testament to our weak finishing. 

-  Willian. We have seen our players have good games and bad games. Willian has been consistent however, Consistently bad. How he starts over other options I know not. I would much rather have Batshuayi play in that position and see if he can impact that game. 

- Composure towards the end. I dont know if this is on the players or on Contes substitution and the tactics but the final few minutes was scary. After leading Utd by a slender margin of 1 goal, the final few minutes we were letting them have too many gos at us instead of controlling possession and waste time. A more clinical team would have finished us. 

 

16 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

That is Gary not Phil...

 

And Conte took on Diego Costa and which one left? 

 

Too much to hope Roman and the board back Conte in all things? Well this is Chelsea so...

It is still my personal opinion that if Conte and Costa had made up, our forward line up with Morata/Costa/Hazard  will be so Fing lethal that we can make City sh*t in their pants. 

6 hours ago, mojo said:

I could watch this all day... not just because it was a brilliant goal but the crowd going nuts, the celebration... oh and the Utd players looking around trying to figure out who to blame 

What on Earth was Jose going on about in his interview after, I'm still trying to work out what game he was watching! 

What a disgrace!!!

He says he subbed in his creative players first ,but after we subbed in defensive players like rudiger and drinkwater, he changed his tactic and subbed in fellaini.

But the first sub of any team yesterday was Fellaini.

 

 

The one worrying moment for me? Zappacosta is substituted for Rudiger. Good! Rudiger at right wing back, that's what I would have done. Wait! Rudiger's going to right full back and Azpilicueta is being pushed forward to right wing back! No!! Why change it if it's not broken? Other than that, a pretty comfortable night until Fellaini came on with flailing arms and looking like a whirling dervish. How we've missed Kante? What a player.

Kante is arguably our most important player, he adds so much energy in midfield and closes down the opposition so well. He even allowed BAKA to play his game as a box-box man (who was pretty sublime) apart from his finishing.

i hope we can build on this game, it shows that we still have the desire and will to put in a strong display.

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, Jezq8 said:

Kante is arguably our most important player, he adds so much energy in midfield and closes down the opposition so well. He even allowed BAKA to play his game as a box-box man (who was pretty sublime) apart from his finishing.

i hope we can build on this game, it shows that we still have the desire and will to put in a strong display.

 

 

 

reason why Kante won this

4 hours ago, old git said:

The one worrying moment for me? Zappacosta is substituted for Rudiger. Good! Rudiger at right wing back, that's what I would have done. Wait! Rudiger's going to right full back and Azpilicueta is being pushed forward to right wing back! No!! Why change it if it's not broken? Other than that, a pretty comfortable night until Fellaini came on with flailing arms and looking like a whirling dervish. How we've missed Kante? What a player.

This worried me too at the time, but I suppose the thinking was Rudiger was needed in the back three given United had thrown on Fellaini and were lumping balls forward into the box.

31 minutes ago, dembabarahman said:

This worried me too at the time, but I suppose the thinking was Rudiger was needed in the back three given United had thrown on Fellaini and were lumping balls forward into the box.

I think everybody, except maybe Morata and Hazard, were behind the ball in the last ten minutes, because they new what Mourinho's tactics would be!

Brilliant game, brilliant performance, brilliant result. 

I have seen us beat United quite a bit at SB over the years, but despite the score line only being 1-0, I can't actually think of a game where we comprehensively outplayed them to this extent. And that includes last years 4-0. 

Had it not been for our awful finishing, we could have won that by 5 goals easily- 1-0 flatters United massively. And they had the leg up of our goal being chalked off; soft to say the least. 

It was fairly even for the first 10-15 minutes when they had the Rashford chance, and the last 10 minutes United were on top when we sat back and went 5 at that back, but other than that, we wiped the floor with them. 

Our midfield destroyed Herrara & Matic all day. Kante is obviously essential, but that midfield 3 with Bakayoko & Fabregas gets the best out of all 3 of them, as we saw in Madrid. It was just too good for United, and we dominated the middle of the park and there was a period in the second half where United just couldn't cope with it and struggled to get out their own half. It really was men against boys. Seeing Bakayoko get the better of Matic was delicious, especially after months of the media trying to convince everyone we sold United a player who had, overnight, turned into Zidane. He looked pretty damn average yesterday. 

Morata was outstanding. Stepped up to the plate in the big game and did what you want your centre forward to do- score a match winning goal. Should have got another when through on goal but fluffed it. We will let him off given his overall performance; he caused United problems all day long, and was  a threat from the first to final whistle. Compare to Lukaku who ran around all day scratching his head, and posed no threat what so ever. The fact Lukaku didn't even touch the ball in our box says it all, and goes a long way to reinforce the suggestion that up against the better sides, he goes missing. 

To be honest, every single player did their job out their today- every one of them. Fantastic performance, probably the best of the season. 

I thought the crowd played their part too and created the best atmosphere I have experianced for a while. United fans usually make a decent racket themselves, but I didn't hear them once in the second half from the MHL. 

Seeing Mourinho in his post-match interview just capped off the day. He must have been seething, as we all know he wanted to win this one, and I am sure he had his smug little speech (with a dig aimed at Conte), all rehearsed..... but instead he had to rather pathetically try and convince himself, any anyone dumb enough to believe him, that it was a fairly even game. It wasn't even in the slightest. His half a billion pound squad got played off the park, and in a last throw of desperation resorted to hoofing it up to Fellaini to try and get something from the game. The fact that United fans have a song about  "Jose playing the way that United should..."  is pretty amusing on days like today, and only gets funnier when you see their record away from home against the big 6. 

If he wasn't so bitter, and disrespectful to a club whose fans stood by him to the end, I would actually feel sorry for what he has become. 

Anyway, brilliant day all round, much needed win, and with Kante back there is reason to be positive that we can kick on from this. 

CHELSEA CHELSEA CHELSEA 

 

5 hours ago, old git said:

The one worrying moment for me? Zappacosta is substituted for Rudiger. Good! Rudiger at right wing back, that's what I would have done. Wait! Rudiger's going to right full back and Azpilicueta is being pushed forward to right wing back! No!! Why change it if it's not broken? Other than that, a pretty comfortable night until Fellaini came on with flailing arms and looking like a whirling dervish. How we've missed Kante? What a player.

Fellaini cam on to go against Azpi.  It was an obvious change the correct one.

My feelings are that Conte has tried to avoid 3 in midfield (even when low on players) because he didn't want to lose our creativity up forward as a counter weapon.  However the United game was a good indication that you don't need a Willian or a Pedro on to get shots away (and good ones).  Baka's best game by a mile, Cesc's best game this season, and Hazard/Morata didn't have to do much defensively.  Ticks all round.  

Could be a defining moment in our season just as last years was with three at the back.  Three in midfield!

Matic had a good gCHELSEA

We need a striker like lukakCHELSEA

Mourinho always wanted the united jCHELSEA

 

That header is up there with Osgoods winner in the FA cup, magical when it comes off.

15 hours ago, didierforever said:

What did conte say about luiz. Did not hear him well. Can anyone confirm?

Just out of curiosity, exactly how much did you lose on your Mancs winning 3-0 bet?

2 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Just out of Schadenfreude, exactly how much did you lose on your Mancs winning 3-0 bet?

I think this is what you meant, @yorkleyblue dearest.

28 minutes ago, coco said:

That header is up there with Osgoods winner in the FA cup, magical when it comes off.

 

It was a great header, but the cross as well was brilliant ... two or maybe three players could have put that away   

21 hours ago, cuppaT said:

Has money ever been made more easily than lumping it on Lukaku to score?

Yeah you can make money more easily, you buy a hyped up young player, you hype him up a bit more, then flog him to some poor sods and count the paper.