Is this a joke?

Still haven’t learned from previous seasons not taking chances and then throwing the game away, we completely lose control.

Time for me to make the post that will be liked by absolutely no one 😂

But things aren't that bad. We should have won the game but didn't because we didn't take our chances and gave up some soft chances defensively (and that awful refereeing decision).

Just like when we were in second it was a false position with us overperforming, these last few results aren't a reflection of our general overall performances. We don't need to panic.

Edited January 14, 20251 yr by Qaz

1 minute ago, Qaz said:

Time for me to make the post that will be liked by absolutely no one 😂

But thing aren't that bad. We should have won the game but didn't because we didn't take our chances and gave up some soft chances defensively. 

Just like when we were in second it was a false position with us overperforming, these last few results aren't a reflection of our general overall performances. We don't need to panic.

I fully expected us to have a patch like this at some point over the season. I agree we were never really title challengers. The missed chances are costing us most at the moment. Jackson is on a poor run in terms of goals, and apart from Cole we don't have many others that chip in with goals. If Reece can stay fit he should score a few but we need our mids and wingers to score more.

I’m still confused.

How can David Brooks escape a red and it’s classed as reckless - they was nowhere near the ball.

The ball was literally still in our goalkeepers hand!

Reckess is normally when you challenge for the ball, miss the ball and catch the player with force.

The PGMOL literally made it up as they went along tonight - they went to screen to give him a yellow card!

Surely if a player does something recklessly nowhere near the ball it's automatically a red card offence!

Corrupt organisation!

Wish we had a Mourinho, Conte , Tuchel just for tonight because there’s no way any of them would accept that, they would go nuts in the post match press conference!

But we won’t say anything about it in the press conference, being in and around the top half of the table is about as much as we desire at the moment.

We are a soft touch in so many ways now!

 

Edited January 14, 20251 yr by 2211

We get Lavia back for the PL and then Caicedo is moved to RB, unfortunate.

I mention Lavia as we only lost to City and Liverpool when he played with Caicedo in midfield,

Perhaps next time James starts. 

Fun match to watch,  even it's 2 points dropped. To see James score a last minute free kick to get the point was something to be hold for a long time. To be fair, Jackson showed up today and did some good things, apart from scoring. Palmer does his usual things, but with teams clearly targeting him, he's getting fewer chances these days, although he still did his job when the opportunity came. The issue ( again) is when teams are having a go at us, we can't defend. You need to grind a few 1:0 or 2:1 during this time of the year, and we can't do it. Again, we aren't a title challenging team, just need to forget the hype, make sure we get the points to lock down that 4th spot.

4 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Fun match to watch,  even it's 2 points dropped. To see James score a last minute free kick to get the point was something to be hold for a long time. To be fair, Jackson showed up today and did some good things, apart from scoring. Palmer does his usual things, but with teams clearly targeting him, he's getting fewer chances these days, although he still did his job when the opportunity came. The issue ( again) is when teams are having a go at us, we can't defend. You need to grind a few 1:0 or 2:1 during this time of the year, and we can't do it. Again, we aren't a title challenging team, just need to forget the hype, make sure we get the points to lock down that 4th spot.

Time for our manager to wise up and change the formation accordingly.  He is a very poor in-game manager.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6058403/2025/01/14/chelsea-2-bournemouth-2-highlights-goals/

(Google 'twelve foot ladder' for a proxy to bypass the paywall) - talks about the Lavia sub changing the game.

Just seen the highlighs Jackson gets an assist and is unlucky with two attempts though does win the ball well, he did poorly with a header that a better striker would have scored probably Havertz yet not sure about Timo,

Maresca put James in his natural position yet was Lavia injured or did he just want to keep Enzo on?

Great free-kick from James and a nice reminder of what we have been missing.

On Brooks a clear booking yet I think he makes the point that Cucu took him out in the 1st with a body check so the Red was avoided. 

 

14 minutes ago, 2211 said:

I’m still confused.

How can David Brooks escape a red and it’s classed as reckless - they was nowhere near the ball.

The ball was literally still in our goalkeepers hand!

Reckess is normally when you challenge for the ball, miss the ball and catch the player with force.

The PGMOL literally made it up as they went along tonight - they went to screen to give him a yellow card!

Surely if a player does something recklessly nowhere near the ball it's automatically a red card offence!

Corrupt organisation!

Wish we had a Mourinho, Conte , Tuchel just for tonight because there’s no way any of them would accept that, they would go nuts in the post match press conference!

But we won’t say anything about it in the press conference, being in and around the top half of the table is about as much as we desire at the moment.

We are a soft touch in so many ways now!

 

Does it make any difference ? Arteta cries about decisions week in and week out but nothing seems to change. I can recall plenty of instances of terrible decisions going against Chelsea when the 3 mentioned were the manager too. 

Been on the receiving end of some questionable decisions the last few weeks and tonight was the worst, but it doesn’t change the fact we should of been at least 2 goals up at HT and also gifted them their equaliser.

Get rid of the deadwood and use all the cash to buy Isak.

Play Isak up too, Cole behind him with Madueke on one wing and Jackson on the other.

5 minutes ago, Dubair said:

Does it make any difference ? Arteta cries about decisions week in and week out but nothing seems to change. I can recall plenty of instances of terrible decisions going against Chelsea when the 3 mentioned were the manager too. 

Been on the receiving end of some questionable decisions the last few weeks and tonight was the worst, but it doesn’t change the fact we should of been at least 2 goals up at HT and also gifted them their equaliser.

I know what what your saying but I disagree about it not making a difference.

Arsenal get soft decisions sometimes - check out the penalty they got on Sunday.

If we keep rolling over and having our tummies tickled we are gonna get even less decisions and there's no appetite for PGMOL to change how they referee our games, even if it's on a subconscious level,  I believe it's worth kicking up a stink in the media.

 

Think back to the home game against Palace where Will Hughes clearly should of got a 2nd yellow - it was so blatant the Palace manger subbed him off immediately.

Maybe if we made more of a fuss about that back then they would subconsciously think twice about incidents like tonight or that stupidly soft penalty given against us at Ipswich.

What have we got to lose by complaining - nobody likes us anyway, so not ruffling any feathers is literally having a detrimental effect on us IMO.

9 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Get rid of the deadwood and use all the cash to buy Isak.

Play Isak up too, Cole behind him with Madueke on one wing and Jackson on the other.

Even if we could afford Isak, why would he join us? He could have as much, if not more, success if he remained a Newcastle player.

Chelsea best team in first 45, not so much in second.

No point in complaining about Refs, POGMOL may very well be corrupt but that will never come out as it would undermine the entire sport. Only plus is they seem to bungle across the board.

Players are very young and still sometimes too naive and inexperienced vs more sussed and experienced players from the other 19 teams in the league (we know why, had that discussion last season).

Lot of players think that show boating wins matches NOT hard work on and off the pitch. Lot of players seem unable to complete critical passes time after time, winning the ball without fouling seems an alien concept to a lot as well.

Players punched above their weight up until December, since then reality has set in and heading towards 5th to 7th positioning which is its true level. e.g. Jacko has become as frustrating  in front of goal as he was last season currently. Can boil that down to if Cole shines and produces brilliance its a good outcome at 90 mins if not....

League winning teams always have solid defense (couple good CHs, good pacey fullbacks and a top goaly) since Fofana went out this has not been the case, the defence has been rotated a lot and the team has suffered in EPL. 

Manager and owners always look good when team winning, truth is team exceeded expectations on the winning run last year and we've all built our hopes up/ got carried away. Novel/ unseen before tactics that can profit a team at one point of the season but can be quickly sussed out by opponents coaches and counteracted. No coach can sit on his laurels in this league, Maresca needs to find answers soon.

Barcodes will likely take 4th place tomorrow and I think it may be a challenge to get back into UCL places. Unlike with old owner don't see Maresca being in peril, but he does need to turn this awful run around as they may not be forgiving.

The fix is to change 'Inconsistentcy' to 'Consistency' - easier said then done.

 

VAR has been absolutely stinky for us this season, that’s the 3rd incident in as many weeks that is blatantly obvious and yet hasn’t gone our way.

Regardless we’re such a better team with Lavia on the pitch, it’s instrumental for the rest of the season that he stays fit and in the line up.

Acheampong did well, nothing he could do about the goal, showed a striker outside and it was just a sublime finish. Reece didn’t skip a beat on his return either, time to start looking for some positives.

 

I like Jackson. He’s a handful and holds up the ball better now. But he’s not a clinical finisher. He’d be interesting playing alongside an Osimhen or Delap. Or coming on second half to wreak havoc. But as a starter he wastes too many chances and he’s dragging the team back.

He had to score one of those chances in the first half. A good striker would. Then you think he might score if he keeps plugging away second half. But he disappeared totally along with our other forwards and that next chance never came.

We were lucky to get a draw in the end. But our failure to capitalise on our chances is happening too often now and our season is suffering because of it. 

Edited January 14, 20251 yr by Dr. Socrates

f**k off robert jones

1 hour ago, POCH OUT said:

Wolves and then city next

And there ends our easy run of fixtures. 

Just once Maresca, play Palmer on the right and stick Felix behind a striker, it cant be any worse then playing Noni

Reece robbing me of points in the prediction league!

1 minute ago, Munkunku said:

Reece robbing me of points in the prediction league!

I will say it again, thank you Reece  ;)

I think we have a great young team. The youngest team. The best youngest team. First half we were sizzling. Playing some lovely stuff. Bournemouth came to play football and our young lads were playing great football. But . . .gamesmanship. . .and the fact that we didn't get that 2 goal lead. That Jackson - even though he was having a good game and he had an assist - maybe he should have scored?  We had a young CB at 18 - who looked great - going to be a top quality player one day - a real footballer.  Caicedo, Lavia, Little Enzo, Sancho, etc. All our players were making an effort and getting about and Bournemouth are a decent side and we out played them. BUT. In the end to get the draw. We needed a grown up.

We need a couple more grown ups in our team/squad.

To be fair Maresca did go to a 4-1-4-1 when we needed to.  Felix almost scored when he came on.  Neto ran about a lot - could have done more to be fair - but the dynamics of the game had changed so it was all a bit doomed.

We are getting better.  Maresca's game management is getting better. It takes time. I liked the way we played in that first half. 

33 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

I will say it again, thank you Reece  😉

Sell asap.

40 minutes ago, TheCeleryKing said:

I think we have a great young team. The youngest team. The best youngest team. First half we were sizzling. Playing some lovely stuff. Bournemouth came to play football and our young lads were playing great football. But . . .gamesmanship. . .and the fact that we didn't get that 2 goal lead. That Jackson - even though he was having a good game and he had an assist - maybe he should have scored?  We had a young CB at 18 - who looked great - going to be a top quality player one day - a real footballer.  Caicedo, Lavia, Little Enzo, Sancho, etc. All our players were making an effort and getting about and Bournemouth are a decent side and we out played them. BUT. In the end to get the draw. We needed a grown up.

We need a couple more grown ups in our team/squad.

To be fair Maresca did go to a 4-1-4-1 when we needed to.  Felix almost scored when he came on.  Neto ran about a lot - could have done more to be fair - but the dynamics of the game had changed so it was all a bit doomed.

We are getting better.  Maresca's game management is getting better. It takes time. I liked the way we played in that first half. 

I actually like this

I think we forget that this is by some distance (about 2 years) the youngest average age team in the league.