West Ham V Chelsea (PL) Sun 23rd Sep 13:30 UK

[Scott Harris]

Just now, BlueAardvarkrule said:

Sky Sports talking as if we’d lost and the spammers had won. The only winner here was for the anti football brigade, no wonder a Wet Spam season ticket is so cheap as they can’t guarantee there will be any football played. What’s going to happen when this lot play Newcastle, both teams will stay in their own penalty areas!

another point so onwards and upwards, bring on the scrounges next weekend.

Our football today wasn't exactly what I would call pro football either though. Holding onto possession for the sake of it is just as boring to watch as ultra defensive football.

[enigma]

8 minutes ago, Floyd25 said:

They did in patches, but we still created a lot of chances that we didn’t take, no idea what Sarri is doing making Kante play as a second striker at times, bizarre.

We didn't have any clear cut chances

[Ukraine Bolt]

Think Sarri needs another two transfer windows until we see the proper Sarrismo. January and next summer will be crucial for us.

[DaRick]

A reverse wasn't beyond the realms but the manner surprised me.

I expected West Ham to concede at least one goal but instead they were far more solid than Pellegrini's teams usually are - Zabaleta did a good job of stifling Hazard despite his lack of pace.

Pedro is more crucial to Sarri's system than I realised (though I was hoping that he'd be fit for this game). Against teams that set out to defend, we require his movement to suck defenders out of shape. Willian can be dangerous when we set out to counter-attack, but he IMO doesn't have the movement (or finishing) to break down solid defences. 

I would expect Giroud to cause problems against a deep defence, but he looked fairly ragged for someone who didn't play much against PAOK. His finishing has always been inconsistent, but his heading is often laser-sharp and so him missing the target altogether was disappointing. Not that Morata did any better. 

Losing Rudiger to injury would be a blow - definitely our best CB. Will Sarri play deeper as a result with Cahill, or try Azpi at CB with perhaps Zappacosta at RB? Or will he just play the way he usually does? Against Liverpool things could turn ugly if we do.

Agree that we lacked the vitality that we displayed against Cardiff as a side - Sarri might have done well to rotate more against PAOK than he did with hindsight. 

EDIT: I will note that this result is actually an improvement over last season's, which shows how badly we underperformed last season as a whole. 

Edited September 23, 2018 by DaRick

[robdog]

Just now, Londonisblue said:

At that point, having lost 3 of our last 5 games vs these bar stewards at their sihthole and only won once, that's gotta be a psychological problem ...

damn good point - I didn't realize that - I do remember when CFC won the League a couple of season ago wet spam knocked us out of the League Cup - then I remember the lost last season - it is a London Derby & it makes total sense - remember when spuds put on the pressure on us? They lost this fixture, which enabled us to win the League - I guess we need to give wet spam more credit vs London sides, but didn't they get rolled over by the gooners? 

[charierre]

Frustrating, poor all over the pitch. Our attacks had no venom,Hazard and Willian particularly poor with decision-making. Not convinced on Kante playing so far forward,when chasing a result surely be should have been hooked for a more attacking option. In the end we were lucky to get a point, the Yarmalenko miss was a shocker. One thing Sarri needs to consider is his subs bench against teams who sit deep an unpredictable CHO might not have been the worst option to break the deadlock.

 

 

[atomis]

9 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

West Ham didn't turn up today because it was us who were playing them, it's not like they played well, we just played a poor game of football. West Ham were there for the taking, we just weren't up for it.

They played well enough...... nevermind how bad we were, they still did what they could.......and got a point........or all 3 when the media come knocking.

9 minutes ago, robdog said:

good rant there but think about this way - last season Chelsea lost this fixture - so already Chelsea are better off than last season - btw I felt Kovacic played pretty well today - I didn't want him to start over Barkley but in the beginning of the match there was a nice run from the back Kovacic had made me excited - now on to our last away match to L'pool in the League Cup

We could have easily lost this one too.........easily.

[Scott Harris]

I'm not going to put today's performance down to playing on Thursday, it's such a cop out excuse in my opinion. Hazard, Giroud, Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Kovacic, none of these players started on Thursday and each of them were as bad today as the ones that started on Thursday. Also, when you see us actually going for it in the last 5 minutes, then it's even harder to use Thursday as an excuse. The players weren't fatigued, we just started slow and didn't get going, it happens very often with us and no coach seems to be able to snap us out of it.

[DaRick]

2 minutes ago, robdog said:

damn good point - I didn't realize that - I do remember when CFC won the League a couple of season ago wet spam knocked us out of the League Cup - then I remember the lost last season - it is a London Derby & it makes total sense - remember when spuds put on the pressure on us? They lost this fixture, which enabled us to win the League - I guess we need to give wet spam more credit vs London sides, but didn't they get rolled over by the gooners? 

Away from home though. 

[axman2526]

Well this sounds a rubbish game against a rubbish team and a rubbish result.

A repeat against liverpool and we get stuffed.

[Raff_Sarrista]

What happened about Christensen? The worst thing is losing Rudiger for double match vs Liverpool.

[robdog]

Just now, DaRick said:

Away from home though. 

good point - tbf da hammers scored first in that match & I remember the gooners were worried but the gooners were able to take the match to them & roll them over

[Jezq8]

Need to be more clinical in front of goal. And hazard at times needs to be more decisive. We looked too casual and slow at times, I always felt this game would be the game we dropped points. Let’s see how we fair against Liverpool. I think we will get a good picture of where we are after that game.

 

[Raff_Sarrista]

Sorry guys, in Italia I’m not able to get news easily. Is there someone kind to explain me the situation about Christensen and Pedro?

[IliyaKrostin]

We had to stay close to Liverpool & City. We still gained a point and a clean sheet, we're still unbeaten and we could win here. 

We definitely need a striker, thanks for Giroud's movement and touch, but he can't lead us high. Morata as well. Willian with few poor decisions, Hazard missed few chances to assist as well.

The whole team wasn't in the game today, the most disappointing thing is to lose Rudiger now, especially before the games against Liverpool.

Anyways, we should keep the head up and keep working hard against Liverpool. COME ON CHELS!!!

[DaRick]

2 minutes ago, Raff_Sarrista said:

Sorry guys, in Italia I’m not able to get news easily. Is there someone kind to explain me the situation about Christensen and Pedro?

Pedro was probably injured due to colliding with the PAOK goalkeeper, whereas Christensen was possibly not fit to play after the game against PAOK.

[atomis]

Not good enough, not by a long mile.

[Brutos]

The overreaction here is laughable having witness last season. Team's will do this all season so get used to it and we will struggle in some matches but we are moving in the right direction and Sarri is working on getting us where we want to be.

[Zeta]

Sloppy all round and kept trying the same things despite them not working. 

[Floyd25]

19 minutes ago, enigma said:

We didn't have any clear cut chances

Kante’s header was a clear cut chance, Luiz’s header from the corner was a clear cut chance. But yea, we didn’t create too many clear cut opportunities, we had moments where we could have done, but composure let us down. 

[Floyd25]

2 minutes ago, Brutos said:

The overreaction here is laughable having witness last season. Team's will do this all season so get used to it and we will struggle in some matches but we are moving in the right direction and Sarri is working on getting us where we want to be.

Agree that we are moving in the right direction, do you not think that the lack of composure in the final third is worrying though? Who aside from Hazard, Pedro and Alonso do you see scoring the goals?

[atomis]

2 minutes ago, Brutos said:

The overreaction here is laughable having witness last season. Team's will do this all season so get used to it and we will struggle in some matches but we are moving in the right direction and Sarri is working on getting us where we want to be.

Bare the FA win, f**k last season. That wasnt our standard........we must not use it as a benchmark. Last season was some demonic sh*t.

[STATS]

I might sound harsh but generally think while Kante is a top player he is slightly overrated and is not as effective as he should be in our team. This is not just a knee-jerk reaction. This is me watching several games this season. For a player who has the rep he does, we need more from him and it seems that he is cut a lot of slack. Does his job but can do more. For instance he had a lot better game than Kante today but people seem to slam Jorginho and not Kante who was a total passenger. Jorginho created our best chances today. Hazard had a poor game but hopefully that is a one-off. Other than that he has been top class this season.

A shame as that was a chance to go 8 points clear of United and keep level with Liverpool but could have been worse as how Yarmolenko missed that I do not know but another clean sheet anyway . Next week is going to be a true test of our character as this is our biggest test. 

[robdog]

Just now, Floyd25 said:

Kante’s header was a clear cut chance, Luiz’s header from the corner was a clear cut chance. But yea, we didn’t create too many clear cut opportunities, we had moments where we could have done, but composure let us down. 

Our best chance was saved by the face of fishfinger hands - another positive from this match - two matches on the road & two clean sheets - so defensively Chelsea seem to be getting better but Der Panzer is injured - let's see how Chelsea can handle this setback

[atomis]

Losing our panzer will have klopp buzzing im sure........if we even think about playing a high-line against pool we will get f**ked. The upcoming 2 games will prove if Sarri is flexible or not.