Great first 15 minutes but been poor since then, Zouma diving in, Barkley terrible. 

@EdinburghBlue yes the site is running like a pig at the mo.

Edited August 11, 20196 yr by Blue Exile

I don’t think we’ve been too bad ( apart from Happy of course). Considering how fresh this team I’m more confident now than I was 40 minutes ago in regards to the season. Once we get RLC, CHO and James back from injury we will get better.

Pedro has been Very poor this half

1 minute ago, Crem said:

I don’t think we’ve been too bad ( apart from Happy of course). Considering how fresh this team I’m more confident now than I was 40 minutes ago in regards to the season. Once we get RLC, CHO and James back from injury we will get better.

James?

Kante would be like a kid in a sweet shop in this game.

How many times is Pedro going to give the ball away in dangerous areas. 

Just now, doctorblue said:

James?

Reece

Good first half. Without Zouma moving like an elephant...

2 minutes ago, JPH said:

Good first half. Without Zouma moving like an elephant...

... in stilettos. On ice.

Important to remember that Zouma is probably going to be more of a squad option this season when all are fit. Hard to imagine that he would be picked ahead of Rudiger when he is available.

We should have been level at minimum, without the penalty we would be leading

Totally outplayed Utd...only chances they've had have come from our silly mistakes

I’ve seen enough in this half to feel pretty positive moving forward. I still don’t think Zouma is good enough for Chelsea. Pedro has been poor as well, giving the ball away far too easily.

Barkley has shown flashes but nothing compared to pre season, I’m not sure he’s comfortable out wide.

 

The rest of the team I think have done really well and we’re really unlucky not to be winning this.

Decent first half and plenty of encouraging signs, albeit with a need to eliminate several stupid errors, and not just from Zouma ... I think Frank and Jody will be livid at some of the casual balls to lose possession, especially in our own final third of the pitch.

This is basically Utds best team and its sh*t. Played very well, enjoy watching Mount, looks very comfortable on the ball and there just lucky they got gift which also got them in the game for a short period after that. Utd are basically counter attacking with the pace up front. I would personally bring Pulisic on for Barkley, both wingers are giving the ball away too much.

Unhappy at score very pleased with what I’ve seen, not near our strongest squad, but totally dominated. 

We look better without Hazard, he is a big loss but the fact everything went through him and his stop start style left us so toothless at times.

This is more direct, better football, kova has been brilliant, as has Jorginho, his defending has been good as well, Barkley string and direct but a few too many mistakes. 

Apart from Happy and giving away gifts the defending hasn’t looked too bad as a whole AC and Emerson looking good, midfield coming back and helping. 

This side with Rudi, RLC and CHO  will be a force, we have done more than enough to be winning this 

 

A lot to be positive about, even though we are losing. The pace of our game is 10x better than it was last season, Mount is playing very well, the midfield overall looks really good. The only reason we are behind is because of Zouma, it sounds harsh to single out one player, but we can't ignore it, his poor tackle cost us and he looks dodgy almost every time he touches the ball. 

Zouma keeps diving in and turns like a tank. Tammy and Mount is raw as expected. Pedro keeps giving the ball away in dangerous areas.

We need to step it up. The game is for the taking.

 

We've played better than I feared we would, but we need some incision. 

Not to emhasize too much but Zouma gave them a goal. Could have given them 2.

Not a very balanced performance but this is what you get from young players. Some of our attacking was good and being very quick gives you the chance to find space all the time.

We could have buried 3 goals but we had no luck with Tammy's and Emerson's chances.

I think we are in for a massive rollercoaster-ride for the whole season. Lets be positive.

It wasn't a bad half, unfortunately the penalty is probably going to shadow that. I think the team played okay and we should have put our chances to bed.

Zouma and Barkley are the standout bad performances on the pitch atm. I saw a lot of hype towards Barkley from Chelsea fans across different corners of the internet during the week so that was a surprisingly bad performance. 

Half Time Thoughts:

Creating some decent changes, unlucky to hit the post twice. Could well be one of those days where we just can't score. However, the pre-season worries about the lack of cover in front of the defence, the susceptibility to counter attacks and the calamity that is Zouma, all proving to be true so far.

Also, it appears this new server can't handle matchdays.

Pulisic will almost certainly get a decent run out in the second half and that should be interesting to watch. May need a tactical sub for Zouma, especially with him on a yellow card. But that would mean throwing Tomori into the deep end. Unless we move Dave into the middle and bring on a sub who can cover right back.

Well, the performance has been fine on the whole. We’ve created some good chances and don’t deserve to be behind. Mount doesn’t look out of place and actually has been better than Pedro and Barkley. It just takes one player to create a sh*t-show though. If we had Rüdiger, CHO and Kante playing we’d be whipping them. 

Really can’t wait to see Rüdiger back