18 minutes ago, JM7 said:

We have such an odd relationship with Maresca don’t we. In theory, we should love him for what he’s achieved (top 4, Conference and CWC) and yet most of us would sack him in an instant.

No, I couldn’t give a flying f**k about the Conference or the CWC! The Conference wpshould be the bare minimum given the level of the opposition and since West Ham had won it. The CWC was nothing more than a glorified friendly tournament. And, getting top 4 was a last minute win at Forest away, a crap first half performance. So no, I don’t give Maresca any credit for that, especially after Palmer saying that he decided to go against Maresca’s tactic and taking the game by the scruff.

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea have taken just 3pts out of a possible 21 vs…

Brighton (H)

Sunderland (H)

Brentford (A)

Leeds (A)

Bournemouth (A)

Palace (H)

Man Utd (A)

Yup. I have been calling that out before we faced leeds and have said we would drop down and any title talk was foolishness because in december we face actually good teams, rivals and bogey teams not the trash we have blown lots of important points against.

11 minutes ago, JM7 said:

We have such an odd relationship with Maresca don’t we. In theory, we should love him for what he’s achieved (top 4, Conference and CWC) and yet most of us would sack him in an instant.

An instant is too long, a lot of us would develope time travel & make sure he ended up working as a librarian where he couldn’t ruin everything for everyone (presumably).

9 minutes ago, RMH said:

No, I couldn’t give a flying f**k about the Conference or the CWC! The Conference wpshould be the bare minimum given the level of the opposition and since West Ham had won it. The CWC was nothing more than a glorified friendly tournament. And, getting top 4 was a last minute win at Forest away, a crap first half performance. So no, I don’t give Maresca any credit for that, especially after Palmer saying that he decided to go against Maresca’s tactic and taking the game by the scruff.

Palace go above us.

United will be on the same points as us if they beat Wolves tomorrow . Spurs are just 3 points behind us now.

3 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Palace go above us.

United will be on the same points as us if they beat Wolves tomorrow . Spurs are just 3 points behind us now.

That’s just embarrassing. Under Roman it would be a sacking offence not being top of the league with the quality we’re seeing, and even more being below Crystal Palace. That’s how much the standards of the Club have fallen. As long as they get their money buying and selling players, football is secondary.

24 minutes ago, RMH said:

That’s just embarrassing. Under Roman it would be a sacking offence not being top of the league with the quality we’re seeing, and even more being below Crystal Palace. That’s how much the standards of the Club have fallen. As long as they get their money buying and selling players, football is secondary.

You know our standards have dropped when the fans talk about us being able to play well against the "big" teams .WE used to be one of those "big" teams

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

We have such an odd relationship with Maresca don’t we. In theory, we should love him for what he’s achieved (top 4, Conference and CWC) and yet most of us would sack him in an instant.

The bare minimum. Even West Ham won the conference league with more certainty than us.

17 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

The bare minimum. Even West Ham won the conference league with more certainty than us.

They were actually undefeated.

Gone from 2nd to 5th in a week. What a joke.

42 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Gone from 2nd to 5th in a week. What a joke.

Trust the process. As a wise Clown Lake once told us, we're on an upwards trajectory and will soon be unstoppable.

Luckily there's quite a few teams losing players to AFCON soon.

Sunderland losing SEVEN of their squad !

Recall Sarr and trust with what we have until end of season.

Internal solutions FC.

32 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Luckily there's quite a few teams losing players to AFCON soon.

Sunderland losing SEVEN of their squad !

Watch them fight and give everything even with all of those players leaving. We lose one (Jackson last season, Caicedo this season) and start making excuses.

The problem with this clubs is the current standards.

When we was 2nd there was media briefings about our target for this season is getting into the top 4 - who says that when your only 6 points behind the league leaders and you're playing them in the very next match.

While we have this small club mentality we'll switch off when we are riding high and only take every Premier League match seriously when it gets into the spring months and missing out on the top 4 is a real possibility.

Aston Villa have the right mentality, try and win every single football match and see where it takes you.

Maresca is the perfect yes man for this current state of Chelsea FC.

If we really wanted to win the league this season we'd upgrade on him and the players.

Unless we drop to around 15th at any point during the season the board will let him see the season out.

It's a sad state of affairs - turn a profit on players and somehow squeeze into the top 4 is what the board is all about currently.

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by 2211

1 minute ago, 2211 said:

A problem with this clubs is the current standards.

When we was 2nd there was media briefings about our target for this season is getting into the top 4 - who says that when your only 6 points behind the league leaders and you're playing them in the very next match.

While we have this small club mentality we'll switch off when we are riding high and only take every Premier League match seriously when it gets into the spring months and missing out on the top 4 is a real possibility.

Aston Villa have the right mentality, try and win every single football match and see where it takes you.

Maresca is the perfect yes man for this current state of Chelsea FC.

If we really wanted to win the league this season we'd upgrade.

Unless we drop to around 15th at any point during the season the board will let him see the season out.

It's a sad state of affairs - turn a profit on players and somehow squeeze into the top 4 is what the board is all about currently.

Lampard has said this repeatedly when interviewed about his second stint, and he's not just talking about the players. His comments were also about the general attitude of supporting staff brought in by BlueCo to replace the previous ones.

The culture of the club has changed to not just tolerate, but accept mediocrity. Ergo, results are mediocre.

6 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Lampard has said this repeatedly when interviewed about his second stint, and he's not just talking about the players. His comments were also about the general attitude of supporting staff brought in by BlueCo to replace the previous ones.

The culture of the club has changed to not just tolerate, but accept mediocrity. Ergo, results are mediocre.

Exactly!

The problem isn't that we're aiming too high and missing our targets, the real problem is we're aiming low and hitting out targets.

2 hours ago, 2211 said:

The problem with this clubs is the current standards.

When we was 2nd there was media briefings about our target for this season is getting into the top 4 - who says that when your only 6 points behind the league leaders and you're playing them in the very next match.

While we have this small club mentality we'll switch off when we are riding high and only take every Premier League match seriously when it gets into the spring months and missing out on the top 4 is a real possibility.

Aston Villa have the right mentality, try and win every single football match and see where it takes you.

Maresca is the perfect yes man for this current state of Chelsea FC.

If we really wanted to win the league this season we'd upgrade on him and the players.

Unless we drop to around 15th at any point during the season the board will let him see the season out.

It's a sad state of affairs - turn a profit on players and somehow squeeze into the top 4 is what the board is all about currently.

The reality is very simple. If you want to compete for title you don't sign kids.

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by Bob stark

15 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

The reality is very simple. If you want to compete for title you don't sign kids.

While that is true, the core of our team are 23+ and are no longer kids. We can't use the youth excuse any longer, the age profile of this squad is little different to Chelsea 04/05.

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by SydneyChelsea

@evissy come on man! Many are besmerching your beloved BlueCo! Where is the balance you used to bring?

6 hours ago, RMH said:

That’s just embarrassing. Under Roman it would be a sacking offence not being top of the league with the quality we’re seeing, and even more being below Crystal Palace. That’s how much the standards of the Club have fallen. As long as they get their money buying and selling players, football is secondary.

6 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

You know our standards have dropped when the fans talk about us being able to play well against the "big" teams .WE used to be one of those "big" teams

Is not a surprise many have allowed their standards the drop, a lot of the Ultras seem to long be gone and we are left with a pretty average fan base.

The Bridge is often referred to as one of the least intimidating atmospheres.

Devils advocate given my take on some of the football we've played this season. I offer a defence of Maresca, about the only one I can find.

Despite some calamitous defending in most games, not all of it leads to goals, we have the joint-second-best defence in the league. Second overall on Goal Difference. Despite not having a striker who can put the ball in the net, we're scoring goals, third most goals scored (alongside Brighton/ Tottenham)

The table doesnt lie. I just hope we see an all-action Palmer pick up responsibilities for getting us more goals. If he scratches around for form then we could sink very quickly this season.

Currently, we're 8 points off the top in 5th spot, 8 points off being 15th and a relegation dogfight.

If only we could get a run going like Villa, we'd be top.

I wish Maresca would find some joy as a manager, its like he hates entertaining football the way we set up and play.

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by bluelightening

2 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

While that is true, the core of our team are 23+ and are no longer kids. We can't use the youth excuse any longer, the age profile of this squad is little different to Chelsea 04/05.

I think I need to use different term than kids, not ready is better term.

As long as we keep signing player that hopefully ready help us after 2/3 season, we will continue on this cycle of 2/3 seasons away from being ready to compete every season.

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by Bob stark

8 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

I think I need to use different term than kids, not ready is better term.

As long as we keep signing player that hopefully ready help us after 2/3 season, we will continue on this cycle of 2/3 seasons away from being ready to compete every season.

That honestly makes it worse with the current squad, as Garnacho, Colwill, Gusto, Pedro, Jackson etc. all have at least 3 years of EPL experience despite being 24 or under

58 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Devils advocate given my take on some of the football we've played this season. I offer a defence of Maresca, about the only one I can find.

Despite some calamitous defending in most games, not all of it leads to goals, we have the joint-second-best defence in the league. Second overall on Goal Difference. Despite not having a striker who can put the ball in the net, we're scoring goals, third most goals scored (alongside Brighton/ Tottenham)

The table doesnt lie. I just hope we see an all-action Palmer pick up responsibilities for getting us more goals. If he scratches around for form then we could sink very quickly this season.

Currently, we're 8 points off the top in 5th spot, 8 points off being 15th and a relegation dogfight.

If only we could get a run going like Villa, we'd be top.

I wish Maresca would find some joy as a manager, its like he hates entertaining football the way we set up and play.

I don't think this is a defence so much as it is evidence of mediocrity. We always seem to top underlying statistics without ever getting results, and people will often assume that means we are doing something right but for some reason that just doesn't translate to results.

There are only two ways to explain these sort of relationships in statistics; either it is luck/chance that hasn't yet evened out, or there is some other hidden, confounding variable that is common to all these factors.

There is only so much one can blame, statistically speaking, on luck/chance. The other explanation for us underperforming our numbers is that this is actually as good as it gets, that the inconsistency we see is as a result of a broader, more systemic issue that influences all the other factors i.e the manager.

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by SydneyChelsea