17 minutes ago, Crem said:

Yeah. First 20 minutes the noise was immense. Then it just went quiet.

 

At the moment the team is pretty fragile and vunerable, so when the opposition takes hold of the game, it's understandable the fans get anxious and start going quiet. We rarely threatened after that Kante effort, so there's wasn't exactly a lot to shout about. 

3 hours ago, Sing the Blues said:

Well my optimism after the Liverpool game evaporated. Back to being worried AF. 

We look like a bunch of headless chickens on crack. There's lots of running around but no discipline whatsoever. They were getting into the heart of our midfield with ease and with Kante running all over the place it was an absolute mess. 

For 20 mins we looked on top of the world. It was all downhill from there.

The less said about Willian the better. 

Headless chickens on crack I haven’t ever actually seen, but its the right image. We played fast but without control. Then a midfielder often Kante in h1 or Willian or pulisic or Pedro with some nutty cross gives the ball away with the wrong pass and they ran hard at us. As good as mount was we had more controlled play with Jorginho/Kante/Kovacic. 

The weaknesses in attack are obvious, not enough quality. Pulisic isn’t Strirling  or mane and Pedro isn’t salah. 

All that said the new guys will grow into the premier league and the team. I thought Tammy’s hold up play was again good. He mostly won his contested possession and distributed the ball well. Did that part of the job better than Giroud. 

18 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I suggest you re-read your post. You didn’t say that he defended well at all. ‘You said the team didn’t defend well. It would help if Azpilicueta could cross a ball’ - he put the best cross of the game for us in on to Masons head, which he nodded in to Schmeichels arms?

 

You singled out Mason & Pedro and said the rest looked tired and not at it, which clearly shows you felt Pedro was at it - thus, praise.

Don’t want to dwell on this but you’re  taking bits from what I said because you thought when you read it I was slaughtering Azpilacuetta and praising Pedro. I’m telling you I wasn’t and that’s exactly why I worded it the way I did, because I didn’t want to be overly critical of one or ‘praise’ the other.

“The defense played well” (which includes Azpilacuetta obviously) “but we defended poorly as a team” (as in the rest of the team...which includes Pedro).

I still rate Azpilacuetta and think he’s our best defender despite probably being past his best and generally not being able to cross the ball.

I also agree with you about Pedro, he can be an accident waiting to happen as he’s showed a number of times over the years. But at the same time I think his energy and willingness to chase lost causes is a good example for the team...he’s lively as I said.

 

6 minutes ago, DP2 said:

Don’t want to dwell on this but you’re  taking bits from what I said because you thought when you read it I was slaughtering Azpilacuetta and praising Pedro. I’m telling you I wasn’t and that’s exactly why I worded it the way I did, because I didn’t want to be overly critical of one or ‘praise’ the other.

“The defense played well” (which includes Azpilacuetta obviously) “but we defended poorly as a team” (as in the rest of the team...which includes Pedro).

I still rate Azpilacuetta and think he’s our best defender despite probably being past his best and generally not being able to cross the ball.

I also agree with you about Pedro, he can be an accident waiting to happen as he’s showed a number of times over the years. But at the same time I think his energy and willingness to chase lost causes is a good example for the team...he’s lively as I said.

 

Fair enough if that’s how you meant it, I’m just saying that’s not how it read to me and goes along with the general narrative on the board at the minute that if Azpilicueta breathes then he’s done it wrong. Apologies, I’ve obviously picked up your point wrong!

1 hour ago, RMH said:

Where did you get that impression from? We were very good for 20 minutes, had chances and scored just one. The rest of the match was for Leicester, who did not set the world on fire but were the better team.

Well, looking at the match highlights, it seemed that Chelsea were not creating chances like they did initially - instead, they mostly seemed content enough to sit back and try to preserve the 1-0 lead. I figured that this was down to the energy expended in the previous game. 

I was asleep so unfortunately couldn't see the full match. Timezone's a bitch. 

EDIT: Plus, looking at the stats, it's obvious that we got enough shots on target to get more than 1 goal on another day. But Leicester capitalised better on their chances. 

Edited August 18, 20196 yr by DaRick

6 minutes ago, DaRick said:

Well, looking at the match highlights, it seemed that Chelsea were not creating chances like they did initially - instead, they seemed content enough to sit back and try to preserve the 1-0 lead. I figured that this was down to the energy expended in the previous game. 

I was asleep so unfortunately couldn't see the full match. Timezone's a bitch. 

I just watched the replay. 1.30am was a bridge too far for me last night. Three thoughts from me: 

1. Giroud looks to be critical for us this season. His link up play and height at defensive set pieces means he is a nailed on starter.

2. I can't help but feel that having a partner alongside Jorginho at all times is critical. When Kante moved forward to press and left him isolated it was just a disaster. Thursdays approach of having Kovacic or Kante go forward and one stay back seemed to work much better. 

3. So pleased for Mason to get that first goal. He is still learning and young but looks to be part of the squad for a long time to come.

 

The players were done after 35 minutes... Coasting after that. Probably too tired from the last game. Should have got two or three early on. Leicester could easily have won in the second half.

12 minutes ago, DaRick said:

Well, looking at the match highlights, it seemed that Chelsea were not creating chances like they did initially - instead, they mostly seemed content enough to sit back and try to preserve the 1-0 lead. I figured that this was down to the energy expended in the previous game. 

I was asleep so unfortunately couldn't see the full match. Timezone's a bitch. 

EDIT: Plus, looking at the stats, it's obvious that we got enough shots on target to get more than 1 goal on another day. But Leicester capitalised better on their chances. 

Not sure about the stats but we were bad for 60 or so minutes, we let them grow into the match and were never back in control. The first 20 minutes we were superb, just a shame we don't have a quality finisher because we should have been at least 2 up. After that, we almost fell to sleep at the Bridge.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

A really poor performance, we were lucky to get away with a draw. Apart from the first 15 minutes, it was an rubbish game to watch from our point of view. I know we had a game mid week, but it's the beginning of the season, if the players can't cope now, how will they cope with the Champions League and Christmas period? 

Doesn't really work like that, natural fitness will be up by the time those games come about hopefully alongside better rotation from Frank.

31 minutes ago, RMH said:

Not sure about the stats but we were bad for 60 or so minutes, we let them grow into the match and were never back in control. The first 20 minutes we were superb, just a shame we don't have a quality finisher because we should have been at least 2 up. After that, we almost fell to sleep at the Bridge.

Most of those shots would have come during that initial 20 min period. 

Nevermind inviduals. For me, as a team,  the main problem we have at the moment is how shockingly bad we are when we don't have the ball.  There were times today when we were so open it looked like we had no midfield.

1 hour ago, Dixons said:

At the moment the team is pretty fragile and vunerable, so when the opposition takes hold of the game, it's understandable the fans get anxious and start going quiet. We rarely threatened after that Kante effort, so there's wasn't exactly a lot to shout about. 

Kante's effort was poor, he should have used his left foot. Sure last season he fluffed a crucial chance by not using his left too.

A game of many parts - some great, some good, some awful and some down right shocking.  Looked like world beaters for 15 minutes then it all fell apart and unravelled once Leicester woke up and started to take control of the game.  Our midfield were all over the place and became disjointed both from an attacking and defensive perspective; Frank needs to decide his best 3 / 4 and stick with it so they can understand each other; all over the place at the back when Leicester started putting the pressure on and I thought that Dave was poor defensively, Emerson was OK going forward but not exactly doing his defensive work when required, almost Alonso esq.  Going forward we looked ok but then about 5 minutes after we scored we lost the plot and the link up play fell apart; bad passing, easy give aways and in the end we were lucky to walk away with a point.  Quite encouraged with what I saw in midweek and some of the first half, other than that we were poor and looked like a mid to lower placed team....still Norwich up next and they are in form, so no easy games this season and no easy 3 pointers....keep working at it Frank I'm sure we'll get there in the end..

First 20 minutes superb, we could and should have had 2 more on top of Mounts goal.

But after that it was like all our energy (bar pedro) had been taken. Our midfield disappeared completely. Our attackers did not link up at all and left Giroud isolated. 

Bringing Tammy on was dumb. What is he going to do when he gets no supply just like Grioud was?

Willian? Simply awful. Awful player. Better bringing on Alonso.

Poor result and one we did not deserve. Foxes crushed us second half and deserved to win imo.

Really rubbish watch after 20 minutes, not entertained at all.

I think the poor 60 minutes narrative is overegged, poor 45 for sure however while we lost the complete control in the second half of the first half, we didn't look like conceding.

25 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Kante's effort was poor, he should have used his left foot. Sure last season he fluffed a crucial chance by not using his left too.

He'll never be consistent in and around the penalty box. 4 or 5 goals in a season is about the best we can hope for.

3 minutes ago, Argo said:

I think the poor 60 minutes narrative is overegged, poor 45 for sure however while we lost the complete control in the second half of the first half, we didn't look like conceding.

But the way the game was going  it was only going to be a matter of time before they scored.  You'd think we were playing peak form Man City the way they were ripping thru our  non exsistent midfield.

On 16/08/2019 at 02:41, Gol15 said:

I expect a hard game, I'll be pretty much ok with a draw here, Leicester is a tough team.

 

Ironically they beat us last season at home, you could argue we've improved, especially if the midweek fixture is considered.

Can only assume the exertions from midweek was the reason behind the frankly alarming shift from the first 20 minutes to the rest of the game.

I was begging for a draw throughout the second half.

56 minutes ago, Cam said:

Can only assume the exertions from midweek was the reason behind the frankly alarming shift from the first 20 minutes to the rest of the game.

I was begging for a draw throughout the second half.

At home to this type of opposition never understand why we would beg for a draw. I get they deserved to win, but I would sooner we took more risk to win and then lost than do what we did.

Game of 2 halves. First 45 we were great, creating chances every time we cross the half way line, should have scored a couple of more easily. We had them rattled, but just couldn't put the finishing touch in, should have been game over by half time. Second half they played a lot more direct into space and caught us napping, we were clearly looked more fatigued and fortunate to walk away with a point. I'm pretty sure I have seen games exactly like this last season. The biggest concern is still the defence, and it's the senior players that making them. I reckon another poor game by Dave, he'd probably be looking at bench time. Giroud did what we asked him, he's not about scoring lots of goals himself, but his presence got others into actions and he created at least 2-3 clear cut chances that others couldn't put away. The midfield got overran in the second half, defensively Jorginho is still a concern, and on another day the VAR could have sent him off . It's too early to read into the table, I reckon game by game we are making progress. We have played 3 good teams so far, and to be fair we were better in large parts of the games, keep working on it and we will see a good run soon.

Pretty bad start for the season. Against United, I thought the scoreline was not reflective of our game. This time around, however, we went to sleep and there is no excuse for the second half performance.

I feel pretty bad for Lamps. I don't think one season as a manager gives you quite enough experience to manage a top flight team. Really hope our Lamps and our game pick up soon before we start fighting for the scraps.

6 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Ironically they beat us last season at home, you could argue we've improved, especially if the midweek fixture is considered.

Good point.

Good for the first 30 or so mins when we could have been 3-0 up and the game over. However, we didn't take our chances when on top and it cost us when they equalised.

The run and cross that led to the corner should have been stopped. Poor marking allowed them to get a free header to equalise.

They cold have scored again after equalising, to be honest.

Still very much 'a work in progress' for Super Frankie and his staff.