This was a chance to seal 3rd place against a sh*t arsenal team but we handed it to them on a plate. Hadn't seen Sarr in an age & this was not the game to give him a start. The defence looks like a train wreck without Silva-Rudiger axis & I'd be happy to see Barca take AC because he is a panicky defender, definitely not a leader who can lead a defence. This was our chance to get a win & rubber stamp top 4 & maybe look towards resting some key players for future games. But we keep dragging this out and this time it may well be us who bottle it.

Very disappointing result.

TT has to own this and admit he made an error with team selection.

Our record against Arsenal since Conte was coach has been average unfortunately.

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by Jezz

4 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Was also surprising seeing the lack of fight and desire in the team. I get it slightly more for Brentford as they are like Fulham to us. Was a cup final for them and we do not really feel a history of London derbies.

But Arsenal? Come on you expect to see that fire from Mount, James and RLC.  Chelsea Boys growing up knowing about this game and was like a training match to them. Even behind though it was still the same insipid sideways passing and back to the defenders we go.

Even from the crowd. I heard nothing from our fans on the box and it was all Arsenal songs and insults about us being a "sh*t club no history" I get capacity is down but was like we had no fans there for almost the whole game.

Serves our fans right and exposes the masses of fools over the years that I have read on here blaming foreigners for our crap atmosphere when it's really not the case.

8 hours ago, Munkworth said:

He is also a former Portsmouth player but you still can’t forgive playing for Arsenal…

so did cech. I guess you have a problem with him also then.

9 hours ago, Mana said:

VAR is there for clear and obvious errors. It wasn’t clear and obvious.

But if that VAR decision gave Arsenal the points, I understand you fuming at them but we lost even IF the decision was given to us. So this VAR doesn’t matter. 

Direct your anger for the 80+ minutes of football. And how awful the line up and the players were.

LOL. It was clear and obvious. It was an outrageous decision. There is no point argung this any further. If you want to believe the earth is flat, you are entitled to your opinion, but don´t project any feelings onto the game I do not have.

52 minutes ago, kennypaul said:

so did cech. I guess you have a problem with him also then.

Yes, my only problem with Cech is he played for Arsenal but at least it wasn’t Tottenham or, even worse, both (looking at you Billy Gallas)!

Just my take for what it is worth 

- we were terrible 

- Arsenal celebrating like this is some great victory, it maybe in terms of their league position but I reckon anyone could have beaten us yesterday we were that bad 

- midfield was non existent despite the long periods of possession, Kante is a shadow of his former self and has been for a couple of months now

- defence was awful to a man Tiago sured it up a bit but not enough 

- same old same old up front but good to see Timo score again and make a nuisance of himself, although another chance missed though 

- TT clearly fuming, let’s hope we have a bounce back at the weekend. 
 

Not a season defining result unless we don’t learn the lessons from it. But overall f**king annoying !  

10 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Less of the personal insults fella. 

There are other sources on the internet that list him at £120K. I'd agree £34K is more likely for a freebie, but with this club who knows ... we supposedly opted to pay Lukaku £325K a week after all ... more than double what he was on at his previous club. 

Less of the Marina insults then fella.

Our finances are actually very good for a top club. For what we paid for Lukaku and his reputation at the time £325k is reasonable. Obviously in hindsight its a lot but certainly expected for a £97.5m signing. 

8 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Less of the Marina insults then fella.

Our finances are actually very good for a top club. For what we paid for Lukaku and his reputation at the time £325k is reasonable. Obviously in hindsight its a lot but certainly expected for a £97.5m signing. 

Don't agree - sorry ! Losing the equivalent of £75 million a year over a sustained near 20 year period is hardly what I'd call good financial management. Just because that might be better than a few other top clubs (Real, Barca, Juve spring immediately to mind) that have had an even worse governance model is akin to celebrating the the one eyed man being king in the kingdom of the blind.

On Lukaku, or anyone else come to that, it is frankly ridiculous paying someone more than double their previous salary. You simply shouldn't have to do that if you want to have players in the squad who aren't mercenaries and have the right motivation. There is absolutely zero executive skill in this kind of "negotiation" ... and it's why we have ended up with so much unsellable dead wood that no-one wants to sign, or even loan in some cases, due to their exhorbitant salaries, and who have a huge financial incentive to see their contracts out.

United have fallen down the same rabbit hole, and it will take years to sort out for them and us.

 

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Don't agree - sorry ! Losing the equivalent of £75 million a year over a sustained near 20 year period is hardly what I'd call good financial management. Just because that might be better than a few other top clubs (Real, Barca, Juve spring immediately to mind) that have had an even worse governance model is akin to celebrating the the one eyed man being king in the kingdom of the blind.

On Lukaku, or anyone else come to that, it is frankly ridiculous paying someone more than double their previous salary. You simply shouldn't have to do that if you want to have players in the squad who aren't mercenaries and have the right motivation. There is absolutely zero executive skill in this kind of "negotiation" ... and it's why we have ended up with so much unsellable dead wood that no-one wants to sign, or even loan in some cases, due to their exhorbitant salaries, and who have a huge financial incentive to see their contracts out.

United have fallen down the same rabbit hole, and it will take years to sort out for them and us.

 

They pay notoriously low salaries in Italy, obviously he's going to be on double his previous salary. 

Just so you know, City are apparently putting Haaland on 6x what he's currently on Dortmund. These things are completely normal with high profile moves.  

What worries me about this team still is the ability to play certain matches like they aren't even motivated.

It is a culture that needs addressing.

I couldn't imagine the days of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cech etc.. letting around 6 or 7 other players stroll around the pitch against Arsenal like it's a meaningless friendly.

 

Let's not forget when we needed to win last season at Villa to secure a top 4 place we lost and only made it because Leicester messed up as well.

Obviously we beat Man City in the Champions League final but who knows if we could of coped with the added pressure of CL qualification riding on it had Leicester won on the last day.

It happens far too often,  and playing players who have already signed contracts for new clubs or not even good enough to play regularly in London derbies doesn't help.

4 minutes ago, 2211 said:

What worries me about this team still is the ability to play certain matches like they aren't even motivated.

It is a culture that needs addressing.

I couldn't imagine the days of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cech etc.. letting around 6 or 7 other players stroll around the pitch against Arsenal like it's a meaningless friendly.

 

Let's not forget when we needed to win last season at Villa to secure a top 4 place we lost and only made it because Leicester messed up as well.

Obviously we beat Man City in the Champions League final but who knows if we could of coped with the added pressure of CL qualification riding on it had Leicester won on the last day.

It happens far too often,  and playing players who have already signed contracts for new clubs or not even good enough to play regularly in London derbies doesn't help.

Yes I’m worried we’re slipping further back into the pack. We are so far behind city and Liverpool that our decisions in the summer are crucial. I don’t want to sound like a Newcastle or Leeds fan or even a gooner, but this will be the fifth season of not being realistically in the hunt for 1st place since 2017. The keystone cop defending needs to be sorted out as well  before this season fizzles out.

I mean how do we realistically compete with Liverpool or Man City when we don't have a competent goal scorer. You need that to compete for the title. We've been awful domestically for a while. 

13 hours ago, forbzy said:

While Lukaku is useless you cannot blame him for the calamitous defending. I think we would have done a lot better starting Chalobah instead of Sarr, and Thiago instead of Christensen. Also Azpi should only be played in the middle 3 these days. 

Yep yet with no Rudiger or Kovacic why do you compound it by playing Lukaku. 

4 hours ago, andy said:

Just my take for what it is worth 

- we were terrible 

- Arsenal celebrating like this is some great victory, it maybe in terms of their league position but I reckon anyone could have beaten us yesterday we were that bad 

- midfield was non existent despite the long periods of possession, Kante is a shadow of his former self and has been for a couple of months now

- defence was awful to a man Tiago sured it up a bit but not enough 

- same old same old up front but good to see Timo score again and make a nuisance of himself, although another chance missed though 

- TT clearly fuming, let’s hope we have a bounce back at the weekend. 
 

Not a season defining result unless we don’t learn the lessons from it. But overall f**king annoying !  

Observant Chelsea fans knew this performance and crushing scoreline were coming. Yes, we put right the debacles of the previous two home defeats to Brentford and RM behind us with three wins at Southampton, RM and against Palace. But the team has been misfiring badly in recent months, most of the players are either carrying injuries or physically drained (more likely both) so the team had to be rotated, and we were up against a team that regularly brings out the worst in us, who were themselves battling desperately to keep alive their fading hopes of a CL spot.

On the face of it, TT didn't rotate too drastically. He kept Mendy, Azpi, James, Alonso, Mount, Werner, Christensen and RLC, was forced to leave out an injured Rudiger, rested Silva, and gave our £97m striker the chance to prove himself against a team that had lost 3 games in a row. 

But look a little closer and you see issues all over the place. That back 3? James (fantastic player, but hardly experienced at RCB), an out-of-form head-in-Barcelona Christensen, and Sarr, who has done pretty well overall but only when shepherded by dominant, top-class leaders like Rudiger and Silva. I cringed when I saw that and knew what was coming, and it did. Two of their goals were assisted by our defenders FFS.

The wing backs? Azpi is a great all-rounder who can fill in at wingback, but he is a fraction of the threat James is in his proper position. Alonso is in decent form, and really there is no one else, but you knew Saka would expose him. So that was another hopeless combination.

We knew we would miss Kovacic, but RLC, for all his gifts, is not proven at CM in big games. Kanté, as we all know, is really struggling with his fitness and is currently a shadow of the player he has been. I know we are not well-blessed at CM, but this did not look a sensible pairing.

Up front, Mount, Werner and Havertz have been looking good. Lukaku, on the other hand, has looked utter sh!te for a good 8 months now. So was a London derby against a team that has frequently caused us problems despite being crap the right game to say "Here's your big chance, Rom"? He doesn't combine well with other players, doesn't work hard, doesn't give defenders a hard time, doesn't score against teams in the top half, visibly worsens the way we play as a team, and exudes a don't-want-to-be-here attitude, so I'm not sure any game or any opposition is the right time to gamble on him and hope he suddenly starts doing the business he has failed to do since last August.

So  all over the pitch the seeds of disaster were sown the moment TT came up with that dismal array of poor selections. He looked in despair in his post-match interviews, because he felt so badly let down by his players, but it shouldn't take him long to realise that a manager's skills lie in making the most of the players at your disposal and picking combinations that work, rather than undermine what you want the team to do. Yes, he had to rotate, but he did it shockingly badly last night, and it's glaringly obvious what he got wrong.

6 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Serves our fans right and exposes the masses of fools over the years that I have read on here blaming foreigners for our crap atmosphere when it's really not the case.

Yawn. 

The atmosphere at the Bridge has been rotten all season bar the odd exception. 

Our end at Wembley at the weekend was the worst in living memory, and that was open to more members than ever before due to the lack of demand.

There is a problem, but it has nothing to do with who has memberships or season tickets (or nationality for that matter).

Perhaps that is the point you were trying to make, but if so, the irony of you having a dig at match going supporters while doing so, is blinding. 

15 hours ago, Mana said:

After this performance today do you really think we will beat a consistent in form Liverpool in the final?

I doubt it. This team PROVED tonight that their mentality is rubbish. Which is why I am finding it difficult how these same crop of players won the CL, SC and CWC.

I was thinking about that again today. It's hard to imagine the Chelsea dressing room believes they are capable of beating Liverpool. We're not just unravelling. We've unravelled. 

Underdog mentality and professional pride might save us. 

I'm still very irritated at this performance. 

13 minutes ago, carrickblue said:

I was thinking about that again today. It's hard to imagine the Chelsea dressing room believes they are capable of beating Liverpool. We're not just unravelling. We've unravelled. 

Underdog mentality and professional pride might save us. 

No chance we beat Liverpool unless something changes drastically.

40 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

No chance we beat Liverpool unless something changes drastically.

We gave a good go of it in the last cup final, but Liverpool have that extra motivation to win. I'm afraid the mentality among a few of our players is weaker than that of Liverpool's. 

2 minutes ago, enigma said:

We gave a good go of it in the last cup final, but Liverpool have that extra motivation to win. I'm afraid the mentality among a few of our players is weaker than that of Liverpool's. 

We've played well in all 3 games against Liverpool so far this season. But despite that we've failed to win any of those games. For sure some luck and bad refs didn't help, but my worry is if we have a game where we don't play well against them it could result in a hammering.

I have a feeling we will beat Liverpool expect like us they will get a major first team injury like we have with Chilwell and it might be ths that enables us to beat them.

 

59 minutes ago, enigma said:

We gave a good go of it in the last cup final, but Liverpool have that extra motivation to win. I'm afraid the mentality among a few of our players is weaker than that of Liverpool's. 

We did, and in both league games. We have not been the same side though for the past month or so.

1 hour ago, enigma said:

We gave a good go of it in the last cup final, but Liverpool have that extra motivation to win. I'm afraid the mentality among a few of our players is weaker than that of Liverpool's. 

How many times have I heard this same story before? Starting from the Super Cup final in 2019? Always we are so close, or we matched them BUT...

The fact of the matter is we are consistently losers when we face Liverpool. I can't see us beating them in the final. It will most likely be the same ol' story we have with these players. "We matched them but they just have that extra edge".

Most of these players are weak. And I'm not saying this because they lose to Liverpool x number of times.

I'll never forget under Lampard how disgustedly poor these players have been. No bite, no personality, no passion, no fight, no nothing. And we are still seeing traces of it today.

Losing pathetically to Arsenal is STILL happening. What's next, another loss to West Ham? We have been very dodgy against West Ham in the last couple of seasons.

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by Mana

Losses like this and Brentford as well as knocking ourselves out against Real are what gets managers sacked. The players know it they have done it to enough of them already.

Maybe they are fed up with TT.