He was fantastic today. Must play him more. Must. 

Quality performance. Best left back performance I’ve seen for a long time, must be a starter now.

Very good game tonight, his best in a Chelsea shirt in my opinion.

Impressive going forward to tonight, should now be starting based on what we saw.

Played very well tonight, very refreshing to see we have a left back capable of crossing the ball.

Given the chance and took it.Will start more games.

Was Alonso injured or dropped??

Sarri has basically said post match he doesn’t pick him because he’s too short.

2 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Sarri has basically said post match he doesn’t pick him because he’s too short.

Ridiculous statement & he alluded to that a few weeks ago. 

53 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Sarri has basically said post match he doesn’t pick him because he’s too short.

 

That is irritating, and harkens back to when Mourinho was going for height with his full backs and Ivanovic was undroppable despite his decline simply because Cech to Ivanovic was route one.  That said, it's not quite so bad when you see full quote - particularly in context of saying that Emerson is definitely staying: 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2019/1/24/maurizio-sarri-praises-players-and-hails-emerson-s-quality?cardIndex=0-0

 

‘Emerson will stay with us, for sure. He’s very important. He’s improving. Sometimes I had a little problem to put him in because we are not a very physical team so when we play with three little players in the same match, set-pieces could be a problem, but not for another reason. I’m very happy with him, he’s improving and he’s a very good player.’

I can kind of see his point and it's said Sarri is obsessive over set plays (not that we've seen much benefit)...  It is a little problematic when you have a Hazard, Pedro, and Kante in the team - and Kovacic is a middling 5"9, while Jorginho is pants in the air.  RLC and Barkley playing over Kovacic might help I guess.  Having Giroud or Higuian to help out versus false 9 too.  That said, it needs to be messaged differently, and we have to find a way to make it work such that Alonso can't simply walk into the team because he's tall.   Ashley Cole same height as Emerson and he did perfectly fine, clearly.  

Also, we absolutely need Emerson's crossing for Higuain.  

That is dumb. By the same token why not pick Giroud instead of Willian or Pedro and then play emerson. Same number of big guys who can head the ball well. 

How good was that cross for Giroud? The run was absolutely fantastic as well. While they may have limitations defensively, Emerson and Zappa are the only natural attacking FB that are able to charge down the flanks and whip those type of crosses in. So refreshing to see.

He did so good. 

Will be interesting to see who starta on Sunday. If Alonso starts that suggests Emerson may got the nod in the Bournemouth game which would be deserved on current form

The height thing is nonsense. 

We have lined up fairly regularly with kante jorginho kovacic, and then the 3 wingers in a false 9. Leaving just 4 with aerial presence. 

But surely we wouldn't be any worse off height wise, if Emerson was playing in games where either Barkley, RLC, or Giroud were playing? 

We would still have 4 physical players for ser pieces.

Who knew having a leftback that can properly overlap, run past the opposition and deliver a good
cross would do wonders for the team.
Having him in the side stretched Tottenham defensively and gave them something to worry about down the left flank and with a better striker he would have had two or three assists.

If Sarri goes back to Alonso now because he’s tall he’s crazy and I’ll lose faith in the manager. That’s something I’d except from Mourinho at his crazy worst.

Looked brilliant now he's playing alongside a competent starting 11. Shame it has took so long but should be able to hold down a starting spot now on merit.

Played very well. Interesting that Sarri is saying he often plays Alonso due to his height.

I remember Jose saying he wanted at least 4-5 tall players for set pieces. It definitely matters. I've thought since Matic left we were a tall player short. 

Edited January 25, 20197 yr by Spiller86

26 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Looked brilliant now he's playing alongside a competent starting 11. Shame it has took so long but should be able to hold down a starting spot now on merit.

Sarri's got his reservations about Emerson's physical presence and I think he's going to keep differing to Alonso but hopefully we see a bit more of Emerson from now on. 

3 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Played very well. Interesting that Sarri is saying he often plays Alonso due to his height.

I remember Jose saying he wanted at least 4-5 tall players for set pieces. It definitely matters. I've thought since Matic left we were a tall player short. 

Matic was never any good in the air despite his height.

City don't really have a physical presence for set pieces and they've done alright in recent years.

11 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Sarri has basically said post match he doesn’t pick him because he’s too short.

But he also said a lot more positive stuff.  Thankfully someone could be arsed to  post the entire quote and not just pick the negative bit out of it.

I thought he played well, solid defensively, ran up and down the flanks ( which Alonso couldn't manage), and put in some good crosses that we have been missing lately. The too short argument is bull, Alonso is too slow, which one is worse? You either lose some headers or let a winger walk past you in every duel, I know which option I'd take. It's the same logic Jose used to pick Ivanoic in his last season, we need to defend corners with heights, but we don't need to defend against winger/fullback running through.

Good game from Emerson but I cant see Sarri dropping Alonso for long, unfortunately, Emerson is a much better FB than Alonso.

Alonso, like Moses done a great job as a WB but as FB, hes far too limited in open play.

He looked like a proper fullback last night and did everything you'd want a fullback to do. I had been pretty underwhelmed by his previous performances, while Alonso was actually in fine form until relatively recently, so was not particularly desperate to see him displace Alonso as first choice. One good showing is not enough to convince me though so I'd like to see him get a run of successive games. He's earned a chance at least. Even if last night does turn out to be the exception to the norm then I suspect Alonso could benefit from the break.