3 hours ago, xXRuufioXx said:

What the f**k is that supposed to mean? I'm here to discuss Chelsea, the same as everyone else. My opinion though doesn't mean I can't discuss the teams performance. 

deary me...well, I'll dumb it down a bit so that you can understand:

(i)   You said, and I quote - "my opinion is the only one that matters to me";

Some inferences to be drawn from such a breathtakingly arrogant statement are as follows:

(ii)  Anyone that has a different opinion than you is wrong;and/or

(iii) You do not in any way value anyone else's opinion that is different or in opposition to your own; and/or

(iv) You are unable and/or unwilling to engage with others in circumstances where you only value your own opinion etc.

I could go on & drawn other inferences but do you now have the general idea...or didn't you get that far in school?

And as far as 'discussion' is concerned it certainly helps the development & progression of any discussion for posters to share their opinions - however, none of us, when sharing an opinion, should ever make the mistake of concluding that 'our opinion' is the be all or end all of a matter under discussion because otherwise, what would be the point of having a discussion in the first place? Hence, with such an attitude of yours, I put to you the rather obvious: being what is the point of you, with such an attitude as yours, being on this site, or for that matter, any internet site whatsoever? Do you understand now?

Thought we played all right, but being all right is not enough in tough away game like this. Our problems are at both ends of the field, Morata should have scored when he hit the bar, if he missed the ball we'd call it unlucky, once he got a foot on it there's no excuse to not score. Before their goal, Morata stuffed up the chance to send Hazard through, we'd bank on him scoring 1 on 1 with De Gea from central position in the box. We got ripped on in the central area too many times, there's no way we should allow them pass through the bodies for the first box in the center of the goal. Most teams at this level don't concede goals like that, if we are going to concede goals, at least make them cross the ball or shoot it outside the box, concede the kind of goal like that was pure embarrassing. Taking Hazard off is a sign of surrender ( unless he's injured), he wasn't great because United did a good man marking job, but being able to do that for 70 minutes doesn't mean they could do it for the whole 90. Players are tiring, a slip or a lapse of concentration Hazard would make something happen. You can not bench your best player when the game is on the line, United won the duel with Hazard, and scored the winner soon after Hazard was off.

I thought united wasn't great, but we made it easy form them with missing chances and the lack of concentration at the back, unfortunately they are features of this team right now. We need to win 8-9 out of the final 10 to get the 4th spot, and I'm not confident about it. Another lose against City we'd pretty much done.

12 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Lmao. i think Morata will come good. He is just low on confidence

Yes, that one that cannoned against the bar would have given him a lift, if it had gone in. In the first half, he was going to ground too easily. Sometimes, he was fouled but Atkinson decided that it was his duty to teach him a lesson. In the second half, he manned up and was far more physical, possibly because Conte bollocked him at half time. I too reckon he will be miles better next season. We've all seen on his form early in the season, how good he can be.

19 hours ago, TJB said:

The goal should have stood but it's not a glaring, obvious mistake. Linesman gets a split second to see that and make the call.

That decision isn't why we lost, it's the terrible second half performance that did.

That decision is EXACTLY the reason we lost.  Get the decision right and the worst we get is a 2-2 draw.

17 hours ago, xXRuufioXx said:

Boring boring Chelsea!

 Made the decision a few months back to not watch any of our games against our top 4 rivals. So far I've definietly made the right call! Not one ounce of fight in this team. Boring negative manager.

Yep - that rings true for a lot of today's fans.  Didn't see the game, feel able to make a judgement on the team and the manager based on "Wot I Know".  Too many like that these days.

@Davey Baby "I've been a lone voice on these boards about Christensen. He's a good prospect, but he needs to toughen up, " - Not so much of a lone voice Davey.  Some of us have the same opinion.  A decent prospect is right, but is all.  Seems to do very well against slightly lower opposition, but has struggled against higher quality.  I'm sure he'll make it, but has a lot to learn, and fast.

 

2-2 would have been a fair result. United pretty average to be honest, just took their chances. There were signs we were getting back to something near our best in the opening 30 minutes. Second half feel into our shell somewhat and didn't have that same intensity that we had in the first half. The result just sums up our season. Chin up, and onto the next. All I ask is that Chelsea leave nothing on the pitch in these domestic, and cup games coming up. Still lots to play for. At least there is an improvement in the performance of the team, which is comforting considering it's the business end of the season. 

Was at the game. Some things that were apparent to me there.

Firstly, i just cannot see Morata coming good. He is just not strong enough, brave enough or even aware enough for the English game. Hazard and Willian in the end were dribbling away from him rather than pass to him. It is demoralising to run 40-50 yards and pass him the ball for him to immediately crumble every time and then the players have to track back again.

Its a comment on modern society that Ollie Giroud, with his chiselled Rylan-esque chin, perma tan and starched stiff hair came on and in two minutes showed Morata how to be a man and hold off challenges from defenders!

Willian is a far better player that i have recently given him credit for. His movement and touch is excellent. his crossing isn't always on the money but his finishing is different class,....at the moment.

Danny Drinkwater is excellent. We cannot have Babayoko starting ahead of him, its embarrassing. He is strong in the tackle, he is constantly on the move, has good link up with Kante, good short and long range passng. He slipped twice and scrapping on the floor, still won the tackle. What more is there? Perhaps he could score more goals, but in a team firing on all cylinders surely he would score more.

Substitutions - WTF. Couldn't work out any of them. If Hazard was subbed cos his energy levels were low i didn't see it. He was still taking care of two defenders and will always come up with something. I am not a fan of Pedro at the moment. For me he is falling short of previous standards. I got Giroud coming on, but i would have started him. I don't think he would have hit the bar that's for sure. Also much as i love the craft of Cesc, his legs are gone and just cannot compete against big strong midfielders with lots of energy still in them. Whilst i get the final ball unlocking the defence, with Hazard off and Morata collapsing in aheap all the time i saw little value in it. I think Drinkwater should have stayed on.

Overall a frustrating game. They were really poor and only scored from sloppy play by us. With a decent hold up man (Giroud) for Hazard Willian and Drinkwater to have worked off of we would have been out of sight.

Also it is bit worrying that both goals came through Christensen's guy. The first was a head injury to him and the game should have been stopped. The second was worrying as Lingaard just stepped off of him into loads of space 8 yards out. This needs to be sorted soon. Thankfully he is young enough to learn and improve as i am still convinced he is a future captain.

I do like it when someone who was actually at the game gives a clear and sensible summation of it.  Well done, mate.

18 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Small margins today and we ended up on the wrong end of it. A couple of thoughts:

1. Sadly Andreas was key to the two goals again. Steep learning curve at this level. But I'm confident he can learn from this all. 

2. Disappointed for Morata and us that he was flagged offside incorrectly. It was his only contribution to the match. I'm starting to really worry for him.

3. Conte right to take off Hazard in context at the time. He was tiring and it made sense to bring on Pedro to keep working without the ball and to give a threat in behind as United pushed on. Sadly they scored and made that move redundant quite quickly.

4. Matic showed that we were silly to let him leave last summer. He bossed the midfield. Why exactly Marina et al decided to move him on for a completely unproven Bakayoko boggles the mind, even if he wanted to leave. If we miss the top four this season some questions need to be asked not just of Antonio but of our overall strategy in the market. 

Final thought is our match against Spurs in a few weeks is shaping as a bit of a cup final. At this rate we will need to win that to make the top four.

To be honest i think Drinkwater and Kante bossed the midfield for most of the game. Possession constantly got turned over in the second half because Morata a) could pin his man without collapsing, b) couldn't maintain close foot control of the ball without losing it and c) rarely if ever made a run in behind or showed an inkling to do so. In fact Giroud's first effort was to run past Morata into a channel, collected the ball, pinned his man, spun out of two challenges and laid the ball off.

In the end Hazard and Willian got pi$$ed off with trying to put balls into channels for runners that weren't there. Moses couldn't keep running 60 yards to make the run and Alonso didn't have a brilliant game. A Forward making runs into channel, keeping possession or just gaining yardage brings all of our other players into play.

All of Man Utd improvement came from our own deterioration. They created and developed very little in their own rights

8 hours ago, old git said:

Yes, that one that cannoned against the bar would have given him a lift, if it had gone in. In the first half, he was going to ground too easily. Sometimes, he was fouled but Atkinson decided that it was his duty to teach him a lesson. In the second half, he manned up and was far more physical, possibly because Conte bollocked him at half time. I too reckon he will be miles better next season. We've all seen on his form early in the season, how good he can be.

then we had this bs call

sh*t like this happens all the time when Chelsea face the dirty red mancs - they are allowed to kick Chelsea off the park & nothing said - I mean this photo shows clearly Morata was onside - the argument now is that De Gea knew Morata would be called offisides & didn't go for Morata's shot - again I say it's BS

Edited February 26, 20188 yr by robdog

It was a very close call. The linesman can't stop time and draw a line on the field, you have to give them some benefit of the doubt. We lost that game not because of an offside call, but because the players dropped off completely in the 2nd half and Conte f**ked up with his changes.

2 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

I do like it when someone who was actually at the game gives a clear and sensible summation of it.  Well done, mate.

Well it’s easy to see at the game, the quality on those dodgy streams isn’t great you know. 

Anyway I mainly came to post this...

For those lamenting the loss of Matic, his error led to our goal as he failed to track Willian. We haven’t lost that much, only squad depth and an unhappy player. 

Still fuming that we lost this game, absolute joke. 

no point crying over spilt milk, up and on to the next game. 

I hate football...

5 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

To be honest i think Drinkwater and Kante bossed the midfield for most of the game. Possession constantly got turned over in the second half because Morata a) could pin his man without collapsing, b) couldn't maintain close foot control of the ball without losing it and c) rarely if ever made a run in behind or showed an inkling to do so. In fact Giroud's first effort was to run past Morata into a channel, collected the ball, pinned his man, spun out of two challenges and laid the ball off.

In the end Hazard and Willian got pi$$ed off with trying to put balls into channels for runners that weren't there. Moses couldn't keep running 60 yards to make the run and Alonso didn't have a brilliant game. A Forward making runs into channel, keeping possession or just gaining yardage brings all of our other players into play.

All of Man Utd improvement came from our own deterioration. They created and developed very little in their own rights

Kante and Drinkwater played well wouldn't dispute that. Where Matic was superb was in breaking up play around Willian and Hazard and starting counters. 

Agree on your points on Morata. He just seems to have lost the edge he had early doors.  I thought he was unlucky at times yesterday though. Atkinson seemed to give a foul anytime someone was touched and yet Morata couldn't buy a foul. I do agree he needs to be standing up more in those situations though. Hard to understand why he hasn't cottoned on to that yet. He's not being bullied off it in my view, he just goes to ground expecting a foul. 

On 26/02/2018 at 17:58, Zeta said:

It was a very close call. The linesman can't stop time and draw a line on the field, you have to give them some benefit of the doubt. We lost that game not because of an offside call, but because the players dropped off completely in the 2nd half and Conte f**ked up with his changes.

If it’s even a close call the benefit of the doubt has to go to the striker according to the rules. Basically the linesman guessed it.

5 minutes ago, Petworth Chelsea Fan said:

If it’s even a close call the benefit of the doubt has to go to the striker according to the rules. Basically the linesman guessed it.

Never going to happen though. The flack they'd get from the media and the fans for allowing a marginal offside goal to stand is much worse than they'd get for disallowing a marginal onside one. 

 

On 26/02/2018 at 09:22, WhiteWall said:

Was at the game. Some things that were apparent to me there.

Willian is a far better player that i have recently given him credit for. His movement and touch is excellent. his crossing isn't always on the money but his finishing is different class,....at the moment.

Danny Drinkwater is excellent. We cannot have Babayoko starting ahead of him, its embarrassing. He is strong in the tackle, he is constantly on the move, has good link up with Kante, good short and long range passng. He slipped twice and scrapping on the floor, still won the tackle. What more is there? Perhaps he could score more goals, but in a team firing on all cylinders surely he would score more.

I think willian is one of those player who, if he could bring consistancy to his game, would be a true world beater as he has all the tools needed.

Completely on the same train with drinkwater. Think he is a lot better than credited for and should be alongside Kante every game. He is so much better for us now than baka or cesc it is truly baffeling what conte is doing,  or not doing, with him.

On 2/26/2018 at 19:36, JM7 said:

For those lamenting the loss of Matic, his error led to our goal as he failed to track Willian. We haven’t lost that much, only squad depth and an unhappy player. 

Still fuming that we lost this game, absolute joke. 

That was McTominay.

I'm not understanding the Matic hype, win or lose nothing about his performances at United scream to me "WHY DIDN'T WE KEEP HIM" 

He needed selling, he just needed replacing and upgrading also. I don't cry at night because we sold Ivanovic and haven't upgraded on the right flank, (although I do like Moses) but the point still stands, Ivanovic had to go, Matic had to go. I can bet if another manager comes in they won't have plans for Matic, only Mourinho has plans for him because he is a Mourinho type of player, but I don't see any shades of Matic from his 2013-2014-2015 years, they seem to be long behind him.  

Its people like the Neville brothers that genuinely have people believing Matic is the second coming and he's exactly what United needed, not to mention they're nearly 20 points behind their rivals and haven't won the league in 5 years despite spending over half a billion during that tenure. 

Edited February 28, 20188 yr by Slojo

We only miss him because Bakayoko is so f**king dreadful.

Matic doesn't get the credit he deserves. But also, he does get spoken about like he's the complete defensive midfielder any top team would love. I mean, come on, he's a distance behind Kante, arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world. 

As for the Neville brothers, Phil I always found extremely annoying, sh*te player who played in a superb team. Gary, FairPlay, he did his thing for Manchester United, but now as a commentator and pundit, bit like carragher, he's become a little hard to listen to, same old sh*t, different day. 

29 minutes ago, Famous CFC said:

As for the Neville brothers, Phil I always found extremely annoying, sh*te player who played in a superb team. Gary, FairPlay, he did his thing for Manchester United, but now as a commentator and pundit, bit like carragher, he's become a little hard to listen to, same old sh*t, different day. 

Gary "Schoolboy error" Neville.

It's all he ever says when a player messes up.

1 hour ago, Famous CFC said:

Matic doesn't get the credit he deserves. But also, he does get spoken about like he's the complete defensive midfielder any top team would love. I mean, come on, he's a distance behind Kante, arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world. 

As for the Neville brothers, Phil I always found extremely annoying, sh*te player who played in a superb team. Gary, FairPlay, he did his thing for Manchester United, but now as a commentator and pundit, bit like carragher, he's become a little hard to listen to, same old sh*t, different day. 

Gary who I do really like as a pundit has always had a boner for Mourinho, anything Mourinho does he loves, so it's no doubt the same for United. 

Under LVG Neville would absolutely drill United for not keeping up with expectations, however, Mourinho constantly gets a free pass despite hardly improving the United side. 

I think Matic gets more credit than he deserves when I listen to pundits talk about United and United fans themselves. And that's not me being bitter I have no issue with admitting an ex player is better elsewhere, I highly rated Salah here & at Roma, I highly rated De Bruyne before he arrived and much more after he left. I just think when it comes to Arsenal, United, Liverpool & Spurs you get those pundits that will praise and defend them no matter what. United and Liverpool are the worst for it, but that's because they've been such famous clubs for years and most of the notable older pundits played for either of those two sides, and sports journalists were following either of those two sides.