Much prefer no crowd noise. Its not fake.

Obviously the 3 points make all the difference but I thought Chelsea played pretty well and Villa defended well. They are playing for their Premier League lives and worked hard to close Chelsea down. They had a plan and it worked in the first half. It was only our better quality coming off the bench that turned the game. The 5 substitutes will probably help Chelsea during this run in. We have lots of attacking options and by the looks of it some of our players are already up to quite a good level of fitness. I thought Dave played really well. He was all over the pitch and put in the cross for the first goal.

I was impressed with the speed and accuracy of passing. This really has become a feature of the team under Frank. Any long term management strategy is going to take a while to get right but Frank is still heading in the right direction. He just needs to add a couple more features to the teams personality. We need to have more threat in front of goal. We're a bit like the old Arsenal. A bit "Tipp-Tappy" around the edge of the box. We need to learn how to play those close passes inside the box. On a few occasions we got the ball and the men into the box but couldn't make that final pass or shot. It's hard against a team that are defending in numbers but it looked a like we ran out of ideas just when it counted. Maybe if we learn to draw teams out but I worry about our defensive frailties.

I'm going to put the Villa goal down to the defense being a bit rusty. I note an earlier poster mentioned how great it would be to have JT coaching at the back and I thought he will never do that and will want to become a manager in his own right. I wonder. Was he looking at the Chelsea team thinking I could improve that defense. Is he so ambitious? He's only at Villa because he finished his playing career there. He's not going to learn anything off Dean Smith and has played under some of the best coaches in the world. Will they give him the job if, or more likely when, they get relegated? I think there maybe questions over JT's future career path. Him and Frank are obviously mates but to be sure they would make a formidable coaching team. On the pitch JT was in charge but these days its Frank who's No 1. Could Frank work with JT or would he feel threatened by him? These are questions that would have to be answered before any "Dream team" coaching set up could take place. Did Frank and JT had a beer afterwards and discussed how shaky Chelsea's defense looked  when Villa came forward?

So many questions. Probably too many.

Good overall performance, would have been a travesty if we didn't take the 3 points here after dominating the entire game.

We're never going to challenge until we get a new CB and LB. I'm not expecting that to be done this summer, but one would be nice. Rudiger is supposed to be our best defender and was the worst of the bunch today. Would like to see Tomori back in next game. 

Billy should have played instead of Kante to get the ball moving more quickly.

RLC isn't match sharp yet but i don't think we expected much more after not having played for over a year. Also didn't help that he was shoved out wide. In future it should be either him OR Mount. On that note Mount was our best player by far. 

Willian was wasteful with his end product again. Poor corners and wild shooting. 

8 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Good overall performance, would have been a travesty if we didn't take the 3 points here after dominating the entire game.

We're never going to challenge until we get a new CB and LB. I'm not expecting that to be done this summer, but one would be nice. Rudiger is supposed to be our best defender and was the worst of the bunch today. Would like to see Tomori back in next game. 

Billy should have played instead of Kante to get the ball moving more quickly.

RLC isn't match sharp yet but i don't think we expected much more after not having played for over a year. Also didn't help that he was shoved out wide. In future it should be either him OR Mount. On that note Mount was our best player by far. 

Willian was wasteful with his end product again. Poor corners and wild shooting. 

How many times has that happened this season though? I've accepted it as the norm. If we didn't make the right subs, I can safely bet we wouldn't have scored that game. 

A lot of positives to take away this season, but something has to be done with this, and I think the defence is just far too fragile and unreliable. 

5 minutes ago, Slojo said:

How many times has that happened this season though? I've accepted it as the norm. If we didn't make the right subs, I can safely bet we wouldn't have scored that game. 

A lot of positives to take away this season, but something has to be done with this, and I think the defence is just far too fragile and unreliable. 

agree 100%. 

We won't challenge until we sign a dominant CB (like Liverpool with Van Dijk) and a more athletic LB. Personally i can't see a CB in the market that we sign and improves us for the next 5 years. 

4 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

agree 100%. 

We won't challenge until we sign a dominant CB (like Liverpool with Van Dijk) and a more athletic LB. Personally i can't see a CB in the market that we sign and improves us for the next 5 years. 

Van Dijk at the time was also a huge gamble, can we really just go out and spunk that much money on a defender? I thought Rudiger was the man we needed but f**k me, every game he's making silly mistakes. But that also tells me there's more to it than just a poor quality of defenders, but we still need better quality defenders regardless. 

Also, have to give Credit to Azpilcueta, both assists, we know if it were James doing that we would be wetting our nickers about it. I was against starting him today, but what a difference he also made when the right players came on with him. 

At least we've been linked with a couple LB's so we're looking to buy one.

But CB is arguably our weakest position, yet we're not linked with a single one? Thats worrying to me. Rudiger is good, but he just makes so many mistakes to the point where we could have just kept Luiz. Christensen is good with the ball but can't defend, Zouma is a worse version of Rudiger and Tomori is still raw.

All we need is 1 top level CB to pair with either Christensen or Rudiger and I think that issue with mostly be solved.

45 minutes ago, driller97 said:

At least we've been linked with a couple LB's so we're looking to buy one.

But CB is arguably our weakest position, yet we're not linked with a single one? Thats worrying to me. Rudiger is good, but he just makes so many mistakes to the point where we could have just kept Luiz. Christensen is good with the ball but can't defend, Zouma is a worse version of Rudiger and Tomori is still raw.

All we need is 1 top level CB to pair with either Christensen or Rudiger and I think that issue with mostly be solved.

It is a little strange, I think we will look to strengthen LB and Keeper though not CB this summer.

I think Frank was thinking with the chances we were missing it was attack we needed to strengthen more than defense except the LB and keeper.

We do have strength in depth with CBs though I concur none consistently instills confidence.

A massive win, we couldn’t have afforded to drop points in this one.

I think if we best City later this week we’ll be Top 4 for sure.

4 minutes ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

A massive win, we couldn’t have afforded to drop points in this one.

I think if we best City later this week we’ll be Top 4 for sure.

Yes despite our narrow win looking rusty, I think we will raise our game for City. 

So many positives to take from the weekend, all our rivals dropping points apart from Wolves has given us a massive boost.

RLC first competetive game in a year, played awful but to be expected and got some important minutes under his belt and came out unscathed.

Dave was everywhere today, i was one who thought it was time for R James to be given a chance but when he came on he was looking a bit rusty so good call by Frank on that one.

Mount looked really sharp and we need him to keep that up for the rest of the season.

Pulisic changed the game, also great to see him back after what seemed like an eternity he was out for, he took the goal really well.

Giroud is a leader and so good to have in our squad, so underated and took his goal well.

Our squad is really looking strong at the moment, we seem to have strength in depth in every position except Left back but Alonso played okay.

We could field a whole other starting 11 with the players that didnt start and our team wouldnt look much worse than the team that started.

 

1 minute ago, Juan Nil said:

So many positives to take from the weekend, all our rivals dropping points apart from Wolves has given us a massive boost.

RLC first competetive game in a year, played awful but to be expected and got some important minutes under his belt and came out unscathed.

Dave was everywhere today, i was one who thought it was time for R James to be given a chance but when he came on he was looking a bit rusty so good call by Frank on that one.

Mount looked really sharp and we need him to keep that up for the rest of the season.

Pulisic changed the game, also great to see him back after what seemed like an eternity he was out for, he took the goal really well.

Giroud is a leader and so good to have in our squad, so underated and took his goal well.

Our squad is really looking strong at the moment, we seem to have strength in depth in every position except Left back but Alonso played okay.

We could field a whole other starting 11 with the players that didnt start and our team wouldnt look much worse than the team that started.

 

                              Willy

R James   Zouma     Tomori     Emerson

                Gilmour       jorginho

                            Barkley

Pedro                Abraham             Pulisic

 

Good to be back,the crowd noise was unrealistic,Villa are never that loud lol,should and could have been a lot more,but hey ho.Missed our loud away support,UTC !

Man, heart palpitations aplenty. I had forgotten how stressful these matches are, lol so glad to have football back tho

I don't think the weekend could've gone any better with every team around us dropping points. Hopefully we continue to win, close the gap on Leicester and over take them. Our CBs scare the ever living crap outta me tho 

19 hours ago, comtrend said:

I watched that Aston Villa goal highlight several times now and I suggest you do the same:

1. The wall, Kepa and Azpi had nothing to do with that goal. Aston Villa passed the ball from the free kick out wide to Grealish, two Chelsea defenders closed him down and he made a pass bakwards before it was crossed into the box.

2. Kepa had no chance to get to that cross, it was too far away from him and it came in fast.

3. Rudiger was on a line with the rest of our defenders for that cross.

4. Christensen is ball watching and way to slow to react on that second ball, could have made an interception.

5. Rudiger is desperatly trying to get to the ball and almost makes a save on the goal line, despite beeing in a worse position to prevent the goal comapred to Christensen.

--------

67:25  Christensen is again in no mans lands after a free kick, giving Aston Villas attacker a free header just above our goal

--------

86:40 Christensen with a huge miss inside our box, Aston Villa attacker puts his shot just wide of our goal.

I don't really rate Christensen or Rudigers passing today, there was almost no pressure on them and I know Rudiger still had a couple of bad misses that led to no danger. The only real danger was when we gave away those cheap freekicks close to our goal. We might as well have put out a cone instead of Christensen on those.

It was clear when the wall was being set up that they were overloading the back.. players which stayed in the same position waiting for the cross to come in. (refer Pic 1). if anything Mount loses his man and they score. I question the organisation of the back  (Rudi, Kepa and Azpi) for having mount mark a CD when we had RLC on the pitch. Its actually funny to see 4 chelsea players marking absolutely no one ..Also from the pic its clear AC is marking Mings while Rudi is in no man's land.. Not marking anyone just marking space... He then proceeds to run into AC.  (refer Pic 2)

As for the errors the very first chance Villa had was when Rudi let his man pass him.. who proceeded to miss an easy chance.. He then made a complete hash of an attempted pass at the halfway line as the last man twice in succession.. His passing was below average..I am no fan of AC but in this particular game he played much better than Rudi

 

 

6 hours ago, Jangz said:

It was clear when the wall was being set up that they were overloading the back.. players which stayed in the same position waiting for the cross to come in. (refer Pic 1). if anything Mount loses his man and they score. I question the organisation of the back  (Rudi, Kepa and Azpi) for having mount mark a CD when we had RLC on the pitch. Its actually funny to see 4 chelsea players marking absolutely no one ..Also from the pic its clear AC is marking Mings while Rudi is in no man's land.. Not marking anyone just marking space... He then proceeds to run into AC.  (refer Pic 2)

As for the errors the very first chance Villa had was when Rudi let his man pass him.. who proceeded to miss an easy chance.. He then made a complete hash of an attempted pass at the halfway line as the last man twice in succession.. His passing was below average..I am no fan of AC but in this particular game he played much better than Rudi

 

 

Christensen is the worst in that situation, he literally just stands there, where at least the other players were trying to catch their men, Christensen just stands there ball watching. 

It's a great cross, but when there's that much space between the defence, the attack, and the keeper, what's the issue here? I think it's the keeper, maybe I'm being harsh if you look where the ball lands after the cross, it's not even that far in front of him, it's actually closer to him than it was to the attacking player who first got on the end of the cross. So really, Kepa should be doing much better there. 

It boils down to many things, lack of quality (christensen), Kepa being abysmal in the air as he usually is, and terrible organisation. This has happened so many times with the organisation, I've actually pointed this out a lot, for some reason Tammy gets the job of marking the opposition teams strikers, yes he's 6'4, but he loses his man often, because he isn't a defender. I've seen this happen so many times, and it's probably not bad organisation, it's more of a lack of, just "yeah you go there, and we'll work it out", because I have no idea why Mason Mount is tasked with marking in the danger area... Meanwhile RLC is marking nobody yet he's in the box even though he can do a much better job at marking than Mount can. 

Edited June 22, 20206 yr by Slojo

You can dissect this one play us much as you want, but it has been obviously clear throughout the entire season that: 

1 - Weak and out of sync central defense, who are the starting CBs on this team? It changes every week.

2 - A very unorganized and weak goalie. You need a goalie that is aggressive and have total command of his box.

 

Edited June 22, 20206 yr by haviet1

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/12012910/jack-grealish-dean-smith-calls-for-referees-to-protect-aston-villa-midfielder

This is the biggest sh*te I've read in a while. Let the boy fall down like he's done all season. He has no legs to get away so he just falls over. Hazard had people kick him and he just flew on.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/12012910/jack-grealish-dean-smith-calls-for-referees-to-protect-aston-villa-midfielder

This is the biggest sh*te I've read in a while. Let the boy fall down like he's done all season. He has no legs to get away so he just falls over. Hazard had people kick him and he just flew on.

100% this. He goes down at the slightest wisp of air blowing past him because he knows he'll win free kicks. Hazard used to get chopped all the time and he never complained.

I know it's from a couple of years ago but...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.besoccer.com/new/amp/hazard-the-most-fouled-player-in-the-premier-league-376279

3 hours ago, evissy said:

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/12012910/jack-grealish-dean-smith-calls-for-referees-to-protect-aston-villa-midfielder

This is the biggest sh*te I've read in a while. Let the boy fall down like he's done all season. He has no legs to get away so he just falls over. Hazard had people kick him and he just flew on.

It's laughable to think he needs any more protection than he currently has, he gets a free kick if he goes down to tie a boot lace. In terms of being the 'most fouled', the big difference between Hazard and Grealish is that Hazard used to actually get fouled! He's most at risk of injuring himself with those bellyflops.

1 hour ago, Remy10 said:

It's laughable to think he needs any more protection than he currently has, he gets a free kick if he goes down to tie a boot lace. In terms of being the 'most fouled', the big difference between Hazard and Grealish is that Hazard used to actually get fouled! He's most at risk of injuring himself with those bellyflops.

It used to take 3/4 repeated attempts to take Eden down, he’d use his magical arse powers to bounce off the first attempts. Yet he somehow got a reputation for going down easily with opposition fans, madness. 
 

Bob Mortimer has a parody of Grealish on his podcast which sums him up perfectly. 

If I take off my bluetinted specs, I can see that Graelish was fouled a lot, but I can also see that whenever he goes down the referee blows the whistle EVERY single time without fail and a lot of the time he wasn't fouled. This talk about protection is garbage, Graelish got a ridiculous amount of protection in that game, and that freekick he won that lead to them scoring, was never a freekick I'm sorry, utterly ridiculous decision. Graelish went down from an inkling of contact from Kovacic and once again the ref blew the whistle. 

 

16 minutes ago, Slojo said:

If I take off my bluetinted specs, I can see that Graelish was fouled a lot, but I can also see that whenever he goes down the referee blows the whistle EVERY single time without fail and a lot of the time he wasn't fouled.

You could also gain favour with referee's, if you use Timotei shampoo.