34 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

True that Liverpool were on the beach, but aside from the game where Jackson screwed us over, our form this last month has been very good

Honestly our mid season dip seems to really be down to injuries more than anything.

Need to find the tweet for the exact match weeks, but if you break our season into thirds, this was our league form for each third.

1/3 - 2nd inform

2/3 - 16th inform

3/3 - 2nd inform

34 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Need to find the tweet for the exact match weeks, but if you break our season into thirds, this was our league form for each third.

1/3 - 2nd inform

2/3 - 16th inform

3/3 - 2nd inform

Just read something that sort of makes you wonder .

Had we won the game away at Arsenal which we lost 1-0 then we would have finished in 2nd place.

That just shows how weak the league was this year. Arsenal fniished on 74 points and got 2nd. In the previous 3 seasons that would have got you 4th.

Well, credit to Enzo - he’s proved me wrong and I’m happy to eat my words. I said before the game that we didn’t have it in us to win vs Forest and they would bottle it.

The game was mega boring but that’s what was required in some way. Forest want you to play frantic, transitional football and we gave them very little opportunity.

It looks like he’s sorted the defence however he now he needs to get us back in the goals. Our goal threat is very low and we play very stifling, boring football. It’s a hard watch He definitely needs to get Palmer scoring again

Credit to Maresca for getting us back in the Champions League. I got very irritated with his comments at some stage in the season but this certainly puts credit in his account.

As much as I was convinced that missing out would have been catastrophic, I do believe that making it could be the turning point we were so desperate for under this ownership.

Now let's just hope the board doesn't do anything stupid in the summer.

UTC! 💙

Great to be back to the CL next season. It was a a tough game and we weren’t very good in the first half. Good to see the team come into the second more willing to put in a shift. Still, the football is quite bad and I don’t think that Maresca is a very good coach. This team needs a better coach with more experience. But, I guess that he’s earned to start the next season.

2 hours ago, Drogba1 said:

Chelsea points totals since winning the title in 2017 under Conte

2017/18 - 70 points (5th)

2018/19 - 72 points (3rd)

2019/20 - 66 points (4th)

2020/21 - 67 points (4th) (did win CL though)

2021/22 - 74 points (3rd)

2022/23 - 44 points (12th)

2023/24 - 63 points (6th)

2024/25 - 69 points (4th)

With the exception of the disastrous 2022-23 season, this is just where we're at as a club at the moment, even before the clowns took over.

Mourinho's speech about 'football heritage' comes to mind. We made a huge mistake not giving Conte the players he wanted in 2017, and we haven't come close to the title for 8 years since.

Given that this squad is arguably a lot weaker (at least experience-wise) than those previous teams pre-Boehly, I don't think 4th is a bad season at all.

Not my point at all.

We can think that the final league position is acceptable - or even good - without dropping standards to the extent that we are celebrating failure.

A quiet resolve to get better - build on the foundation - and move forward, whilst acknowledging that 4th place was a good final league position, would be professional and show the players have the right mentality. Instead they show a small club mentality - with an OTT self congratulating w**kfest.

We lost to Liverpool. We lost to arsenal. We lost to both, whilst playing sh*t football.

35 minutes ago, Zeta said:

That just shows how weak the league was this year. Arsenal fniished on 74 points and got 2nd. In the previous 3 seasons that would have got you 4th.

Could also make the argument that the mid table teams this season are far stronger than they've been in recent years

The fact that the promoted teams couldn't even get close to 17th seems to support that

40 minutes ago, Zeta said:

That just shows how weak the league was this year. Arsenal fniished on 74 points and got 2nd. In the previous 3 seasons that would have got you 4th.

Looking at the previously dominant "Big Six":

• Tottenham have declined by 28 points

• Manchester City have declined by 20 points

• Manchester United have declined by 18 points

• Arsenal have declined by 15 points

• Chelsea have improved by 6 points

• Liverpool have improved by 2 points (would be more if they hadn't slacked off in intensity for the last 4 games after clinching the title)

Is the decline of the first four because the middle clubs are better ?

Personally I think it is more the lower quality of the top clubs affording the middle tier more points.

Biggest gainers are Forest +29 points, Brentford +17 points, Brighton +13 points, and Fulham +7 points

Will be interesting to see next season if this all represents a blip or a new trend !

Edited May 25, 20251 yr by Sexyfootball

1 hour ago, terraloon said:

Just read something that sort of makes you wonder .

Had we won the game away at Arsenal which we lost 1-0 then we would have finished in 2nd place.

There’s a lot of “ifs, ands, or buts” that could be given to every club tbf.

It’s funny though. Emery and Howe were getting praises weekly by our fanbase in criticism of Maresca. Today, it was Maresca that managed arguably the most important win of the season. Emery completely shat the bed and Howe bottled it and played hoof ball for 90 mins with the best striker in the league. He’s lucky he was saved by a sh*t United side.

2 hours ago, terraloon said:

Just read something that sort of makes you wonder .

Had we won the game away at Arsenal which we lost 1-0 then we would have finished in 2nd place.

Had we not completely messed up our 'easiest' run of the season Dec-Feb, we would have been second comfortably if not still challenging for the title in May.

I don't think fans will ever be happy, no matter who we had as manager. There is no perfect coach, they all have their pros and cons. Our football wasn't exactly great under the managers that won us the most trophies, and we had even better players then, especially in attack. Personnel matters a lot too. What can Maresca do with pretty much one misfiring striker all season, and not amazing attackers up top? Not to mention our best CB out most of the season, as well as Lavia and James consistently injured. Palmer has a dip in form and there was nobody else to step up. We also had our second striker out most of the season, but he was a young striker who we shouldn't have to rely on. For his first season in charge, I think he's done a good job. If we win the final on Wed, he'd have helped us to get silverware too, something that this young team could benefit from winning and experiencing.

I've watched the whole post match interview and the "F off" was clearly aimed at the likes of Carragher and Neville who have been saying all week we lack the character to win away at a place like Forest.

Firstly, it's a storm in a tea cup no matter how the press will try and spin it in the next couple of days.

Secondly, good on him for sticking up for our players. I am not one of those people who thinks everything Carragher and Neville say is gospel or gold.

I actually think more people should stand up to them, especially from a Chelsea point of view, as they are always taking cheap swipes at us. "Billion dollar bottle jobs" and "players should stop signing for Chelsea" are 2 examples of outrageous things that each of them have said about us but haven't been called out on.

And while the Forest owner might have have gone a bit too far with banning Gary Neville it all started because Gary was running off his mouth about the owner coming on the pitch when he had no proof or idea on what was actually said between the Forest owner and Forest manager.

I say well done Maresca, it needs more people in this industry to call them out rather than the seasoned journalists sucking up to them and quoting and complimenting these two pundits every 5 minutes.

Edited May 26, 20251 yr by 2211

1 hour ago, Sunspear_88 said:

I don't think fans will ever be happy, no matter who we had as manager. There is no perfect coach, they all have their pros and cons. Our football wasn't exactly great under the managers that won us the most trophies, and we had even better players then, especially in attack. Personnel matters a lot too. What can Maresca do with pretty much one misfiring striker all season, and not amazing attackers up top? Not to mention our best CB out most of the season, as well as Lavia and James consistently injured. Palmer has a dip in form and there was nobody else to step up. We also had our second striker out most of the season, but he was a young striker who we shouldn't have to rely on. For his first season in charge, I think he's done a good job. If we win the final on Wed, he'd have helped us to get silverware too, something that this young team could benefit from winning and experiencing.

Fofana is not our best CB, he has a lot of mistakes in him. I don't see anything about his game that is better than Colwill, Chalobah or Tosin.

It's very simple for me. I just want to enjoy the football, for Maresca to cut out the crap when he speaks to the media, and for our owners and directors to stop being so reckless and stupid.

I don't see why we have to put up with 5 months of sh*t football grinding it out. You expect the odd grind here and there, but not every game 5 months running. If that kind of thing is happening, then the manager is struggling or the players are simply not good enough. I think it's fair to say that some of these players aren't good enough, but when you look at the start to the season we had, it's clear that some are and they were hurt by Maresca changing the system. The poor performances and poor form literally started as soon as he changed things.

8 hours ago, Valerie said:

Unfortunately I will. I will pretend to have forgotten about this excruciating season.

So will I, but I won’t need to pretend.

I think most on here are not convinced by Maresca. But he deserves some credit for navigating the team successfully through a tough series of fixtures to end the season in top 4. The defense has improved over the course of the season. I would like to see our attacking play improve next season. Hopefully key players like Lavia can stay fit and we can make some decent signings to strengthen in key areas e.g. striker.

Mid season blip cost us. Need a massive clear out for players that did not perform.

Need to bring in 1 top CB, 1 high energy midfielder to cover for Lavia/Caicedo, 1 creative attacker and 1 no-nonsense striker that gets goals no matter what

I haven’t been satisfied with our style of play this season, but fair play to everyone involved for qualifying for the Champions League. We’ve made progress on that front and we’re a good chance of winning some silverware later this week.

Haven’t liked Maresca’s conduct over the journey, namely the way he downplayed our title chances in December and his criticism of the fans in the home game against Ipswich Town.

I’m still not convinced by him, but with CL football secured and being under a long term contract, he’ll be safe to give it another crack next season.

Splitting the season into two.

1st half of the season (first 19 games):

1. Liverpool = 46 (+28)

2. Arsenal = 39 (+21)

3. Nottingham Forest = 37 (+7)

4. Chelsea = 35 (+15)

5. Newcastle United = 32 (+11)

6. Manchester City = 31 (+6)

7. Bournemouth = 30 (+6)

8. Fulham = 29 (+3)

9. Aston Villa = 29 (-3)

10. Brighton & Hove Albion = 27 (+1)

11. Tottenham Hotspur = 24 (+13)

12. Brentford = 24 (-2)

13. West Ham United = 23 (-12)

14. Manchester United = 22 (-5)

15. Crystal Palace = 20 (-7)

16. Everton = 17 (-10)

17. Wolves = 16 (-11)

18. Ipswich Town = 15 (-15)

19. Leicester City = 14 (-20)

20. Southampton = 6 (-27)

2nd half of the season (last 19 games):

1. Manchester City = 40 (+22)

2. Liverpool = 38 (+17)

3. Aston Villa = 37 (+10)

4. Arsenal = 35 (+14)

5. Newcastle United = 34 (+10)

6. Brighton & Hove Albion = 34 (+6)

7. Chelsea = 34 (+6)

8. Crystal Palace = 33 (+7)

9. Brentford = 32 (+11)

10. Everton = 31 (+8)

11. Nottingham Forest = 28 (+5)

12. Bournemouth = 26 (+6)

13. Wolves = 26 (-4)

14. Fulham = 25 (-3)

15. West Ham United = 20 (-4)

16. Manchester United = 20 (-5)

17. Tottenham Hotspur = 14 (-14)

18. Leicester City = 11 (-27)

19. Ipswich Town = 7 (-31)

20. Southampton = 6 (-33)

Edited May 26, 20251 yr by Jezz

I have defended and praised Maresca but this sudden praise on Maresca is hilarious. We finished 4th which is what I expected from this squad.

Hello all! (first post)

Is Maresca surprising anyone? Was he a top manager when hired? or he's a work in progress very much like the young squad?

And for the record, I too think this squad as-is isn't silverware material--nope time alone won't make some of these players grow into WC players.

Still, great to see CL specially so that the incoming youngsters can already get a taste of it next season.

12 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I do appreciate that bit of fire to tell all us critics to f off though.

Weeeeeell, I say it to him as well. Despite all the celebrations after scraping 4th place, we played a horrendous, boring style of football from November/December onwards, we had players playing out of position, no leadership on the pitch most of the time, backbones made of jelly, no tactical nous to speak of.... We'll have so much fun in the CL if nothing significant is going to change 🙄

Don't like the bloke but he gets credit for fixing the defence (7 clean sheets in our last 12 games, including five 1-0 wins, is undoubtedly what got us over the line to CL qualification), albeit amusing that most people still want a new goal keeper and centre back, and have concerns about the defensive qualities of the left back.

He's also got us back in the Champions League in a very competitive year, which is noteworthy in itself.

Still multiple question marks for me though. Needs to find a way to retain the defensive solidity but also improve the attacking intent and entertainment level. I suspect key to that will be whether we stick with the likes of Fernandez, Jackson, Neto, Madueke, Sancho or go to market in search of better players. Hoping Estevao will be the right level to help Palmer more than that lot. Striker signing needs to be the priority for me, and maybe even two of them.

9 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Looking at the previously dominant "Big Six":

• Tottenham have declined by 28 points

• Manchester City have declined by 20 points

• Manchester United have declined by 18 points

• Arsenal have declined by 15 points

• Chelsea have improved by 6 points

• Liverpool have improved by 2 points (would be more if they hadn't slacked off in intensity for the last 4 games after clinching the title)

Is the decline of the first four because the middle clubs are better ?

Personally I think it is more the lower quality of the top clubs affording the middle tier more points.

Biggest gainers are Forest +29 points, Brentford +17 points, Brighton +13 points, and Fulham +7 points

Will be interesting to see next season if this all represents a blip or a new trend !

This is a good post, but I think it may be a mixture of aspects.

• I think in some instances players have aged, or gone stale in their environments, such as City.

• There is a growing trend to reduce the age of the players, driven by the resale values for PSR purposes. In driving down the age you introduce inconsistency and lose experience.

• More money is coming into the boardrooms of clubs so the spread of talent in players and managers is now wider.

• Fashionable systems and formations have been found out in some areas, so mid level teams can implement a specific strategy against big 6 sides to get a result.