6 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Gave the ball away 14 times.

It's usually 24 times 

11 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Gave the ball away 14 times.

Heh Mikel never missed a pass and was considered a great passer... by everybody who never kicked a ball in their lives.

I too wish Enzo were more consistent in his performances, but I also think he gets overly-criticized at times. He is the risk-taking mid we have especially without Palmer. I hate when he plays as CAM tho... his skill set does not work for that role.

Finding players through forward passes is as much about the quality of the passer as it is about the movement of the players receiving the pass.

Edited September 30, 2025Sep 30 by acaeus

32 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Just look at this sh*te from Nazar Kinsella on the BBC web site LOL

I'd bet money that he is a paid shill planting propaganda from BlueCo. "Fernandez good, Palmer (and James) bad ... " They must think we are all blind and stupid !

Chelsea analysis: Fernandez leads from front against old club

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez had a barrage of objects hurled at him from the away end as he was trying to take a corner but eventually had the last laugh against his former side.

The Argentine, 24, led his team out as captain and helped secure a win in the first Champions League match at Stamford Bridge for two-and-a-half years.

Having helped get the ball out wide, Fernandez was lurking to score a tap-in had Rios not turned into his own net in the 18th minute.

It was an example of the World Cup winner's increased goalscoring instinct, adopting those Frank Lampard-style late runs into the box to score three goals this season.

Indeed, Fernandez has been involved in 16 goals in his last 27 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea (seven goals, nine assists), with only Liverpool's Mohamed Salah having a better record among Premier League players.

That final-third impact has been key with star attacker Cole Palmer having suffered patchy form in 2025 before succumbing to a persistent groin injury.

Fernandez has had to be robust and has started all nine of Chelsea's matches in all competitions this season.

That shows the leadership and grit Maresca needs from one of his leaders – as did the fact he was the most fouled player and involved in the most duels on Tuesday night.

Of course, you can see why the Benfica fans would have been so angry at losing him even for a then-British transfer record £107m in 2023. He left just six months after joining from River Plate, and also forced his exit.

He may well be public enemy number one in Lisbon, but he is increasingly winning over the west Londoners, who chanted his name in a much-needed victory.

Missed the game, and saw this article, knew instantly it was bullsh*t.

No surprise to hear Garnacho was dreadful also.

36 minutes ago, acaeus said:

Heh Mikel never missed a pass and was considered a great passer... by everybody who never kicked a ball in their lives.

I too wish Enzo were more consistent in his performances, but I also think he gets overly-criticized at times. He is the risk-taking mid we have especially without Palmer. I hate when he plays as CAM tho... his skill set does not work for that role.

Finding players through forward passes is as much about the quality of the passer as it is about the movement of the players receiving the pass.

Take those risks higher up the pitch, not in your own half.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Just look at this sh*te from Nazar Kinsella on the BBC web site LOL

I'd bet money that he is a paid shill planting propaganda from BlueCo. "Fernandez good, Palmer (and James) bad ... " They must think we are all blind and stupid !

Chelsea analysis: Fernandez leads from front against old club

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez had a barrage of objects hurled at him from the away end as he was trying to take a corner but eventually had the last laugh against his former side.

The Argentine, 24, led his team out as captain and helped secure a win in the first Champions League match at Stamford Bridge for two-and-a-half years.

Having helped get the ball out wide, Fernandez was lurking to score a tap-in had Rios not turned into his own net in the 18th minute.

It was an example of the World Cup winner's increased goalscoring instinct, adopting those Frank Lampard-style late runs into the box to score three goals this season.

Indeed, Fernandez has been involved in 16 goals in his last 27 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea (seven goals, nine assists), with only Liverpool's Mohamed Salah having a better record among Premier League players.

That final-third impact has been key with star attacker Cole Palmer having suffered patchy form in 2025 before succumbing to a persistent groin injury.

Fernandez has had to be robust and has started all nine of Chelsea's matches in all competitions this season.

That shows the leadership and grit Maresca needs from one of his leaders – as did the fact he was the most fouled player and involved in the most duels on Tuesday night.

Of course, you can see why the Benfica fans would have been so angry at losing him even for a then-British transfer record £107m in 2023. He left just six months after joining from River Plate, and also forced his exit.

He may well be public enemy number one in Lisbon, but he is increasingly winning over the west Londoners, who chanted his name in a much-needed victory.

Just saw that on the BBC match report. "leadership and grit" I knew it would make your head explode 😀

And @loz and @Term_X

I didn't think you could ever look past the stats SF.

8 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Take those risks higher up the pitch, not in your own half.

Fair, and that is what I'd prefer with the current team and players.

however, taking risks in your own half is part of the attractive, sought-after style of football people seem to crave around here.
I'd even add that that's not going to happen unless we start signing Ball-playing CBs--Hato is one?

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Just look at this sh*te from Nazar Kinsella on the BBC web site LOL

I'd bet money that he is a paid shill planting propaganda from BlueCo. "Fernandez good, Palmer (and James) bad ... " They must think we are all blind and stupid !

Chelsea analysis: Fernandez leads from front against old club

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez had a barrage of objects hurled at him from the away end as he was trying to take a corner but eventually had the last laugh against his former side.

The Argentine, 24, led his team out as captain and helped secure a win in the first Champions League match at Stamford Bridge for two-and-a-half years.

Having helped get the ball out wide, Fernandez was lurking to score a tap-in had Rios not turned into his own net in the 18th minute.

It was an example of the World Cup winner's increased goalscoring instinct, adopting those Frank Lampard-style late runs into the box to score three goals this season.

Indeed, Fernandez has been involved in 16 goals in his last 27 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea (seven goals, nine assists), with only Liverpool's Mohamed Salah having a better record among Premier League players.

That final-third impact has been key with star attacker Cole Palmer having suffered patchy form in 2025 before succumbing to a persistent groin injury.

Fernandez has had to be robust and has started all nine of Chelsea's matches in all competitions this season.

That shows the leadership and grit Maresca needs from one of his leaders – as did the fact he was the most fouled player and involved in the most duels on Tuesday night.

Of course, you can see why the Benfica fans would have been so angry at losing him even for a then-British transfer record £107m in 2023. He left just six months after joining from River Plate, and also forced his exit.

He may well be public enemy number one in Lisbon, but he is increasingly winning over the west Londoners, who chanted his name in a much-needed victory.

I thought Enzo was ok tonight but this: “It was an example of the World Cup winner's increased goalscoring instinct, adopting those Frank Lampard-style late runs into the box to score three goals this season.” is just laughable.

Tonight was never going to be easy. Thought we did ok without ever threatening them and if they’d equalised it wouldn’t have been unfair.

Maresca is struggling to rotate the team effectively and the injuries we have are making this even more difficult.

Big game up next so I can understand most of his selections tonight but there are a few of our second 11 that are miles off being adequate options.

Liverpool have been second best in most of their games this season so I’m still hopeful. Estevao has to play the 10 and James has to start.

Good win

Missed the game but am glad for the win. It's been a while

I will take a win without us playing well as we need results.

We do have to improve, our overall poor displays vs Brentford, United, Bayern, Brighton and now tonight shows we will get few points from poor displays.

Jackson was rubbi…. Oh wait, sorry, old habits die hard.

Didn’t watch the game, as I had a 5am start today, and the game finished early hours - too old to stay up (poor wife!). Good to grind out a win, but looks like another dull as dishwater exercise is sideways passing from the un progressive one.

Bring home Jose!

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I will take a win without us playing well as we need results.

We do have to improve, our overall poor displays vs Brentford, United, Bayern, Brighton and now tonight shows we will get few points from poor displays.

Sums it up for me!

7 hours ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

One bright spark, Maresca will have to play Guiu

I wouldn't bank on it.

Citation needed (technically we didn't even score the goal)

9 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

How does maresca picking him make me an idiot.

Acheampong will be ten times the player he is. The boy has made a couple of errors in our calamitous defence recently but at least the boy attempts to head the ball. At least he has spatial awareness.

It’s not badders fault that he’s picked over Josh is it

Call him out for coming off after 80 minutes when his back from injury and out on his feet isn’t his fault. What did you want to happen ? Stay on ? Christ get some perspective man for gods sake

8 hours ago, acaeus said:

Fair, and that is what I'd prefer with the current team and players.

however, taking risks in your own half is part of the attractive, sought-after style of football people seem to crave around here.
I'd even add that that's not going to happen unless we start signing Ball-playing CBs--Hato is one?

Thats not the kind of thing he was doing to lose the ball the vast majority of times though, most were just fairly simple passes he ddnt manage to make. They werent him attempting incredibly difficult defence splitting passes at all.

7 hours ago, Ibby_786 said:

Good win

It was only half those things.

Incredibly, this result pushed me up to 7th in the club's predictor game! Out of 69,777!

I'm going to lean back and savour my top 10 position. It's probably better (for a very short duration probably) than Chelsea will achieve in the CL....

12 hours ago, Term_X said:

Missed the game, and saw this article, knew instantly it was bullsh*t.

No surprise to hear Garnacho was dreadful also.

NO HE WASNT

George's game vs Benfica
Minutes	61'
Expected Goals	0.12
Goals	0
Expected Assists	0.1
Assists	0
Shots on Target	1
Dribbles	0
Touches	15
Passes	8/9 (89%)
Key Passes	0
Lost Possession	2
All Stats via Sofascore

SURELY THE END OF THIS FAILED EXPERIMENT, IF YOU DONT PLAY GUIU YOU ARE A COWARD, YOU ARE THE MANAGER AND ITS TIME YOU STOOD UP TO THE CLUB AND TELL THEM YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY HIM

45 minutes ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

NO HE WASNT

Well he wasn't good either. That Benfica RB locked him down with relatively no effort, but we all knew Garnacho was a sh*t dribbler but hey ho lets waste 9 months trying to sign him.

Garnacho was involved in the goal.

He also crossed the ball into the penalty area a few times.

His contribution helped.

Edited October 1, 2025Oct 1 by OTL