Lamps decisions just were really baffling when you think about it. Amount of crosses we put in that second half and he did not bring on Giroud who is great in the air. Just mind boggling. Although we have a decent midfield on paper, I think the lack of physicality presence is evident and the need for a physical and technical player such as Declan Rice is clear. When we play the so called better teams who have a combination of technical and physical ability, we come unstuck. Pogba when he came on against us earlier in season was running the show because no one was able to deal with his skill and physicality. Xhaka today, the press was non existent and he looked all of a sudden a good player. I think it is the reason we struggle, especially away from home against any decent opposition. To constantly batter teams without a physical midfield, you need to move the ball quick and press efficiently, similar to how City have done in recent years under Pep, however our pressing style is non-existent.

Happy we have a quickfire game coming round, albeit preferred it to have been Tuesday or Wednesday, however a whole week without football would have been too frustrating to bare. Hopefully we beat Villa and make some kind of amendment for yesterday's shocker.

It’s been the same for a few matches - nothing has changed. The sad thing is that Arsenal didn’t have to do a lot to win. Lampard has called out the players as well and said he warned them before the match about the dangers. So it seems it’s the players that aren’t running. 
 

Our next games? Villa and Man City at home. Tough games. 

Another awful performance, make that 4 in the last 4 games now. We didn’t play well against Everton or Wolves, were lucky against West Ham and didn’t play well again yesterday.
Where is our control in midfield? Against Wolves our midfield was wide open and every time they got the ball towards the end of that game they seemed to be running forward against an unprotected defence. Again yesterday we struggled in the middle of the pitch and relied on making enough crosses for one to go in eventually. When we do cross there only ever seems to be the central striker there, who is generally outnumbered, no runners from midfield getting into the box and the opposite full back isn’t in there either. Really concerned at the moment. 

8 hours ago, carrickblue said:

unsmoked back bacon fat fully rendered, pork sausage, potato bread, soda bread, fried egg, black and white pudding, maybe a hash brown but not traditional in these parts. no beans. no tomato, mushrooms ok

Nobody mentioned whether its with ketchup. 

Lampard..."It is not tactics or systems, it is do you want to run, back your team-mate out and sprint? Or do you want to jog and say 'maybe I don't have to run', and we took that decision instead of the right one."

That's it FL you refuse to accept your responsibility for selecting 2 injured players and making the wrong substitutions...Roman let's put him out of his misery...

I don’t think it was a major problem yesterday, but we definitely lack a physical presence in the middle. Everton’s midfield were too strong for us, and likewise Wolves. Soucek and Rice also bossed us for most of the West Ham game. The only player we have with that potential is Ruben but I don’t think he’ll ever be aggressive enough. I’m sure Frank would like to add somebody of that mould.  

1 hour ago, Elliott said:

I don’t think it was a major problem yesterday, but we definitely lack a physical presence in the middle. Everton’s midfield were too strong for us, and likewise Wolves. Soucek and Rice also bossed us for most of the West Ham game. The only player we have with that potential is Ruben but I don’t think he’ll ever be aggressive enough. I’m sure Frank would like to add somebody of that mould.  

Reading a few similar posts lately, it feels like many people are coming round to a view I have expressed for quite a while. I'm in total agreement Elliott, though RLC is most definitely not that player anymore than Jorginho, Mount or Kovacic are.

Put a young Michael Essien type in the centre of our midfield, ( yes, Michael Essien slojo), and it would make a huge difference to controlling games in the centre. We are desperately lacking any sort of physical presence or leadership in midfield.

The only current player we have who has the attributes to possibly fulfil that role is Reece James.

44 minutes ago, just said:

Put a young Michael Essien type in the centre of our midfield, ( yes, Michael Essien slojo), and it would make a huge difference to controlling games in the centre. We are desperately lacking any sort of physical presence or leadership in midfield.

I reckon current Michael Essien would be an improvement!

12 hours ago, Slojo said:

Kante was a lot worse that game, his worst of the season, but no doubt that will be overlooked by the usual people. 

Who had a good game though? Hudson-Odoi off the bench can be happy with his display, Pulisic looked dangerous the few times someone gave him the ball and err, that's probably it. You're right to say Kante was a bit off, but he wasn't helped by having to plug so many holes all at the same time.

2 hours ago, doctorblue said:

Lampard..."It is not tactics or systems, it is do you want to run, back your team-mate out and sprint? Or do you want to jog and say 'maybe I don't have to run', and we took that decision instead of the right one."

That's it FL you refuse to accept your responsibility for selecting 2 injured players and making the wrong substitutions...Roman let's put him out of his misery...

Lampard did take responsibility in another part of the interview you're quoting from. But he's right to call a spade a spade. The attitude of the players was woeful yesterday and he's right to call them out on it. 

From the BBC - pretty shocking but confirms what we saw.... 

As a team Chelsea covered nearly 4km less than Arsenal, with the hosts having five players (Hector Bellerin, Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka) who ran 10km or more to the visitors' three (Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell).

 

 

9 minutes ago, carrickblue said:

From the BBC - pretty shocking but confirms what we saw.... 

As a team Chelsea covered nearly 4km less than Arsenal, with the hosts having five players (Hector Bellerin, Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka) who ran 10km or more to the visitors' three (Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell).

 

 

What's happened since Leeds, when the figures were impressive and attitude spot on? 

9 minutes ago, The Brit said:

What's happened since Leeds, when the figures were impressive and attitude spot on? 

Not making excuses but I wonder if we’re suffering to an extent from burnout. Other than the Krasandor game we’ve had the same players play practically week in week out, Champions League and league whilst others sides have seen more in way of rotation (either due to squad size or playing the kids in the Europa League). For the size of our squad we do not have the quality in depth - especially with Werner and Havertz not hitting the ground running. Can you imagine the state we’d be in if we had the same number of injuries as Liverpool?

11 minutes ago, The Brit said:

What's happened since Leeds, when the figures were impressive and attitude spot on? 

Perhaps they got complacent and ate too much Christmas pudding expecting to roll over the opposition.

The only good thing is after giving Arsenal some confidence hopefully they also nick points off some of our competitors. 

1 minute ago, Pob said:

Not making excuses but I wonder if we’re suffering to an extent from burnout. Other than the Krasandor game we’ve had the same players play practically week in week out, Champions League and league whilst others sides have seen more in way of rotation (either due to squad size or playing the kids in the Europa League). For the size of our squad we do not have the quality in depth - especially with Werner and Havertz not hitting the ground running. Can you imagine the state we’d be in if we had the same number of injuries as Liverpool?

I thought we did have the same number of injuries as Liverpool just in wide positions as opposed to Liverpool's backs.

I agree on us lacking quality replacements. 

1 minute ago, Strider6003 said:

I thought we did have the same number of injuries as Liverpool just in wide positions as opposed to Liverpool's backs.

I agree on us lacking quality replacements. 

We’re only missing Ziyech (though admittedly we were without Pulisic and CHO earlier in the season). Liverpool are missing van Dijk, Gomez and Matip which has resulted in Jones coming into midfield as Fabinho has had to drop back.

13 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Unsmoked bacon wins

12 hours ago, carrickblue said:

unsmoked back bacon fat fully rendered, pork sausage, potato bread, soda bread, fried egg, black and white pudding, maybe a hash brown but not traditional in these parts. no beans. no tomato, mushrooms ok

That was inclusive

Arsenal are such an up and down team. They did good yesterday, but we just didn't turn up at all. We haven't turned up much against Arsenal in the last five seasons. We've lost or drawn against them more than we have wins against them. It is very annoying when we see how bad they've been in those last few years. It is what it is though.

27 minutes ago, Malta Blue said:

Unsmoked bacon wins

I win again, the hash brown conundrum remains though. 

In the last 5 years we've played Arsenal 19 times and won 6 times. 

3 hours ago, Elliott said:

I don’t think it was a major problem yesterday, but we definitely lack a physical presence in the middle. Everton’s midfield were too strong for us, and likewise Wolves. Soucek and Rice also bossed us for most of the West Ham game. The only player we have with that potential is Ruben but I don’t think he’ll ever be aggressive enough. I’m sure Frank would like to add somebody of that mould.  

Been saying it for years...we never replaced Ballack or Essien with like players, instead it was all about wanting this nice free flowing tippy tappy football...we'll look where's that's got us, a weakened spineless midfield; we haven't had bite in the middle for ages...God even Mikel is better than this lot..even as bad as he was 

1 hour ago, Strider6003 said:

Perhaps they got complacent and ate too much Christmas pudding expecting to roll over the opposition.

The only good thing is after giving Arsenal some confidence hopefully they also nick points off some of our competitors. 

Question is, who are our competitors? What standard are at? 

Even under Mourinho, Arsenal at times threatened to overrun us.

I recall this from Sept 2015 under Mourinho when we were being outplayed and Costa's antics got Gabriel sent off and then we went on to win 2-0.

Costa's fight vs Gabriel 2015 Chelsea vs Arsenal 19 09 2015 Bpl |hd - YouTube

 

1 minute ago, Speedie said:

Question is, who are our competitors? What standard are at? 

That is now becoming a real question, it is certainly not City or Liverpool and is instead Aston Villa (just look at the table), Leicester, Everton, Wolves and Spurs.