7 minutes ago, TheBluesBrother said:

 

Chelsea play like Arsenal under Wenger. That may be the reason.

Not exactly - Chelsea ATM are capable of going toe to toe with stronger or equivalent sides, but drop silly points, whereas Wenger's Arsenal could easily dispatch most of the lesser lights, only to get trounced by the strongest sides.  

I think people are being incredibly harsh on giroud, we should really be celebrating a 3 0 win and talking about 2 beautiful finishes from him.

First time we’ve done the double over Palace in a long time and we get to see a happy little N’Golo, good stuff. 

Moaning about people moaning is so in vogue right now.

On a positive note I was reading an interview with Sarri and he said he’s never had a pre season with a club as short as he had this season. He only had 3 weeks to work with the squad and then pretty much went straight into two games a week with the league cup & Europa. Getting slightly ahead of myself but we have just beaten two potential banana skins and I can’t wait to see us next season when the players are used to Sarri’s methods.

44 minutes ago, Brutos said:

Sometimes I think this is an Arsenal forum with the amount of moaning I see before during and after matches

Worst thing is on "the dearest rivals thread" where people are currently hoping that city win so that pool don't win the league ...FFS ! If city lose today we would be only 2 points away from 2nd place !!! I get we dont wanna see pool winning the league, but neither do i want city or any other team besides chelsea ! If we could win points on city right now just like we did on woolwich and white hart lane, that would be great ! Plus, City will win vs pool at home so the title race is far from over ! FFS, both of these sides have proven they were not all that great when we faced them !! Have some faith in the team and concentrate on Chelsea !! Plus, if you can't stand english speaking media stroking their ***** on pool, do like me and just watch the game in another language and that's it ! Don't watch the post match analysis since it's pointless and you know that they'll carry on the wnakfest ! This is why I don't spend too much time on social media when it comes to football... BS everywhere. I ain't got time for all of that nonsense.

1 hour ago, dkw said:

I think people are being incredibly harsh on giroud, we should really be celebrating a 3 0 win and talking about 2 beautiful finishes from him.

Well said mate.Two lovely finishes and he was level with the defender on both occasions.Give the advantage to the striker ffs.So much negativity on here as usual.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Azpilicueta has dealt with Zaha brilliantly today.

Zaha's great record against us is a myth, he's had one top game against us which was this fixture last season.

Edited December 30, 20187 yr by Argo

Wasn't able to watch the match today due to work commitments, I'm about to watch it right now with a cold beer. Good to see my boy get on the score sheet. 

We have 2 home games now against Southampton and Newcastle, so a perfect chance to solidify top 4 for the end of the season. 

COME ON CHELSEA!!!!! 

2 hours ago, DaRick said:

Not exactly - Chelsea ATM are capable of going toe to toe with stronger or equivalent sides, but drop silly points, whereas Wenger's Arsenal could easily dispatch most of the lesser lights, only to get trounced by the strongest sides.  

 

True but I meant the tippy tappy passing game with little end result.

Good win and thoroughly deserved. Dominated that game. MOTM is a tough one. For me it has to be out of Luiz, Kante and Jorginho. All three were top class. Luiz won everything in the air and that assist was just top class. If Van Dijk put in that performance today, you would hear all about it but because it is Luiz, this won't be discussed much. He was literally sensational. Kante was back to being Kante. Recovering possession and making constant interceptions. Jorginho was class. Dictated that game and not sure if he missed a pass. Sensational. We have the most clean sheets in the league after Liverpool in the league with 9. Quite impressive and more than City now too. 5 points ahead of Arsenal and only 2 points behind Spurs with our next 2 games, ones we should be winning comfortably at home too. We should make the top 4 chances more secure. Nice way to end the year.

Jorginho made a terrible , weak back pass  in the second half which almost gifted PAlace a one-on-one with Kepa.  He cannot be MoM for that reason alone.

4 hours ago, The Brit said:

Startîng to wonder, are we really that much different under Sarri? Yes we pass the ball a lot but basically still rely on hazard providing some magic to make the difference.

Not much he  can do with a forward line like ours and a midfield without a goal threat. He is getting  the best of the resources he has.

1 hour ago, STATS said:

Good win and thoroughly deserved. Dominated that game. MOTM is a tough one. For me it has to be out of Luiz, Kante and Jorginho. All three were top class. Luiz won everything in the air and that assist was just top class. If Van Dijk put in that performance today, you would hear all about it but because it is Luiz, this won't be discussed much. He was literally sensational. Kante was back to being Kante. Recovering possession and making constant interceptions. Jorginho was class. Dictated that game and not sure if he missed a pass. Sensational. We have the most clean sheets in the league after Liverpool in the league with 9. Quite impressive and more than City now too. 5 points ahead of Arsenal and only 2 points behind Spurs with our next 2 games, ones we should be winning comfortably at home too. We should make the top 4 chances more secure. Nice way to end the year.

Very good points regarding Luiz. He never seems to get recognised when he is putting in great perfromances and he has done on a fairly consistemt basis recently. Kante also was excellent again. I can't agree re Jorginho's passing. Whilst his general mobility and ability to keep the ball moving with short 5 yard one touch passes are good he was actually very sloppy in possession as were a number of players. Jorginho, Barkley, Alonso, Willian (as ever), and even Hazard in parts were all guity of sloppy poor passes in the final third.

Olivier Giroud has dealt Chelsea an injury blow as he was seen on crutches.

'In the last two days I think we were a bit unlucky. Yesterday in 10 minutes we had three injuries, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek and [Danny] Drinkwater. Today Giroud. Then we were without Pedro and [Callum] Hudson-Odoi. 'Now we are in trouble because in January we have to play every three days.'

Lol at drinkwater being listed above. Like sarri would pick him.

Boring game made borning by palace. Giroud unlucky that his two cracking goals were wrongly ruled out. Had that be a liverpool shirt he was wearing he would have had a brace today and probably a pen for no reason whatsoever too.

Win is a win, Kante was brilliant today. 

Very suspicious about these injuries (not Giroud obviously)...all three players supposedly injured yesterday have been talked about for months as players that will be pushing for a move (loan or permanent) in January, seems a bit of a coincidence to me.

Some thoughts:

1. A very good win against a very disciplined and well drilled team. First away derby win in a while.

2. A clean sheet away in a derby is also a much needed boost for our wobbly defence.

3. Sarri deserves time to implement his approach. That includes investment in some key areas. However, today was reminiscent of our same old stuff under Conte and Jose. The ball was moved slowly and without purpose. He needs to evolve his approach as teams have worked him out already. The lack of rotation and movement in midfield is particularly maddening.

4. Linked to the point above, Jorginho today looked like Mikel without the defensive abilities. A million passes, few that were constructive, 'provoking a press' through sideways and backwards passes does nothing against a disciplined team. Needs to evolve his game as well.

Edited December 30, 20187 yr by Spiller86

A good 3 points at a vital time. 

4 hours ago, Phillip said:

Jorginho made a terrible , weak back pass  in the second half which almost gifted PAlace a one-on-one with Kepa.  He cannot be MoM for that reason alone.

Jorginho made several bad passes. My goodness we need someone to score goals in the box. Incredibly the reason we are 4th is our defense. We are not the wenger arsenal, we are the old arsenal masters of the 1:0 

we move the ball from back to front directly and at pace and then stop. No good ideas in the final third. 

2 minutes ago, ozboy said:

Jorginho made several bad passes. My goodness we need someone to score goals in the box. Incredibly the reason we are 4th is our defense. We are not the wenger arsenal, we are the old arsenal masters of the 1:0 

we move the ball from back to front directly and at pace and then stop. No good ideas in the final third. 

I noticed that too, although Palace didn't pressure us until that point. It's a tough match against a team like that but the only movement really came from Barkley and Kante switching wide. That wasn't supported by quick ball movement to pull Palace out of shape. 

Bit of a strange game, we were passing it around without lots of purposes, they were happy with a goal down until like 15 to go, then just couldn't get back into the rhythm. There's not even a yellow card for bad tackles, both teams were going at third gear. Having said that, a really important win. We are getting better with playing it out from the back, that's the reward for playing the same back 4 and deep midfielder week in week out. Nice to win a game from other players than Hazard, he looked tired after playing full 90 for 3-4 games on a trot. Kante is adapting well in his new role, if he gets another 3-4 before the season ends, I say it's a successful move.

11 hours ago, mojo said:

another match where da talking heads can STFU about Kante playing out of position - again these people don't realize that CFC aren't playing w/ a tradition DM - they fail to conceptualize what Don Maurizio is trying to do - no idea what Sarriball is

1 hour ago, robdog said:

another match where da talking heads can STFU about Kante playing out of position - again these people don't realize that CFC aren't playing w/ a tradition DM - they fail to conceptualize what Don Maurizio is trying to do - no idea what Sarriball is

Yeah because that totally refutes all the bad performances he's put in that bad position doesn't he. 

Next time Morata scores a goal we'll use the same logic. 

25 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Yeah because that totally refutes all the bad performances he's put in that bad position doesn't he. 

Next time Morata scores a goal we'll use the same logic. 

The strangest thing about all these "Kante's out of his best position" argument is that position doesn't exist under Sarri and DM further puts him away from very best, Conte's pre formation switch he played there and was bang average to put it kindly and that was without the ball playing expectations Sarri will demand.

If he Sarri furfils a lot of peoples fantasy and drops Kante back he either sits back and we take away his best attribute of hunting high up for interceptions and tackles or tell him to keep doing it which would leave gaping holes in behind whenever he failed to get the ball.

In a possession based 433, he is actually playing in the best position for him.

Edited December 31, 20187 yr by Argo