1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Babestation?

That made me laugh, and also ponder if it still exists. I kind of think of it as the Ceefax of adult entertainment.

6 minutes ago, Dr. Socrates said:

I think we’re actually in a lot of trouble. We have a first eleven who can’t play together for more than one half once a week. Otherwise half of them might get a recurring injury. Or are too knackered because they’re being overplayed. And a second eleven who will struggle against lower league sides. And a manager who can’t manage his way out of a paper bag. And who just makes things worse more often than not.

Personally I don’t care about this season anymore. We’ll be lucky to get into the Europa League. But am worried about the damage being done to the club because once you fall into a spiral it’s very hard to turn things around without a proper overhaul of players and staff and who is going to overhaul this lot?

Think its more about how to overhaul.

So many players need punted but due to the inflated fees we paid for them, the inflated wages they are on and on a fair number of cases the length of contracts its going to be multiple windows to clear them out and consider who to bring in to rebuild the squad as one that can compete.

If a wand was available and FFP not an issue then Enzo, Garnacho, Gittens, Badiashille, Tosin, Disasi, Gusto, Guiu, Delap, Mudryk, George, Sterling would certainly all be gone. That's 12 players out the door before you think about players on loan like Jackson and Washington. Thats like a ridiculous amount of dead wood players and we haven't even got to the likes of Pedro and Neto who you could argue would add to the list

It just isn't possible to clear out a squad on that scale so we are stuck woth a number of these passengers for an extended period.

5 hours ago, Dr. Socrates said:

I think we’re actually in a lot of trouble. We have a first eleven who can’t play together for more than one half once a week. Otherwise half of them might get a recurring injury. Or are too knackered because they’re being overplayed. And a second eleven who will struggle against lower league sides. And a manager who can’t manage his way out of a paper bag. And who just makes things worse more often than not.

Personally I don’t care about this season anymore. We’ll be lucky to get into the Europa League. But am worried about the damage being done to the club because once you fall into a spiral it’s very hard to turn things around without a proper overhaul of players and staff and who is going to overhaul this lot?

We've been in trouble since the UK government decided to score political points using Roman to do it.

What we are now, and have been since blueco took over, is well and truly:

11 hours ago, Bebe1980 said:

Seriously guys, what other manager in the world would not be playing Cole Palmer and Estavao together?

Spot on.

Pepilini could have Messi and Ronaldo in his squad and he would still only play one or the other.

12 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It’s becoming suspicious how he’s being protected from criticism in the media and press. Not one direct criticism.

£100m for a bottom half midfielder.

Conspiracy theory: Man City trained up a number of junior managers under pep to infiltrate the known competition and sabotage their premier league ambitions - the guys a mole !

You may think he's working for BlueCo but he's really working for the UAE Royal Family!

Every game, he picks the wrong players...

And when we're losing he takes off the players who can win it and subs them with... Gusto ? FFS!

11 hours ago, General said:

Apparently what cheesed Maresca off about the owners t’other day was their post match debrief with Bullyband Egbhali , Maresca and the SDs where a stewards inquiry is held if like today and many days the result stinks the gaff out

I wonder how today’s went. And yes I do think the owners and SDs get an indirect say on player selections. TT bailed as soon as he sniffed that 🐮 💩 no top manager would stand for it. But we are Chelsea so always some manager inexperienced or not willing to take the hot seat.

Poch walked for the same reason.

Just watched the goals back again this morning and something has to be said about the defending for the second goal.

If we have no option but to tolerate this clowns fetishism for getting Gusto on the pitch, the very least we can do is to stop the pussy from occupying the centre of the goal when defending set pieces. In addition to being as weak as piss, he has no spatial awareness and cannot jump.

Granted we would have crumbled somewhere else, all Maresca's teams will, but Acheampong clearly heads that ball away and would have been nearer to Watkins in the first place.

HOW ABOUT THIS STAT FOR NETO

Stat	Number
Touches	67
Number of times ball lost	24
Pass accuracy	83%
Crosses completed	1/9
Duels won	1/4
Tackles won	0/1
Dribbles completed	0/1

'Free Header': Ollie Watkins thanks Chelsea star for Aston Villa winner as Jamie Redknapp slams defender

The England international spoke to Sky Sports after the match with former Tottenham Hotspur man Jamie Redknapp asking if he could ‘believe his luck’ that it was the smaller Malo Gusto closest to putting in a challenge for that 84th minute goal.

Watkins replied: “I felt like they were stood off us. They had a lot of chances from our own corners when they were countering. I’ve gave him [Gusto] a little shove and he wasn’t marking me too tightly. It’s basically a free header. It’s nice to see that float into the corner. It’s a nice moment for me.”

AND ITS NOT THE FIRST TIME GUSTO HAS MARKED PLAYERS BIGGER THEN HIM AND COST US, MARESCA STOP PICKING YOUR SEX TOY

56 minutes ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

HOW ABOUT THIS STAT FOR NETO

Stat	Number
Touches	67
Number of times ball lost	24
Pass accuracy	83%
Crosses completed	1/9
Duels won	1/4
Tackles won	0/1
Dribbles completed	0/1

Sad as it may be, but having that 1 successful cross actually marked him down as our "best" winger for crosses yesterday LOL.

Garnacho 0 out of 4

Gittens 0 out of 2

1 hour ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

'Free Header': Ollie Watkins thanks Chelsea star for Aston Villa winner as Jamie Redknapp slams defender

The England international spoke to Sky Sports after the match with former Tottenham Hotspur man Jamie Redknapp asking if he could ‘believe his luck’ that it was the smaller Malo Gusto closest to putting in a challenge for that 84th minute goal.

Watkins replied: “I felt like they were stood off us. They had a lot of chances from our own corners when they were countering. I’ve gave him [Gusto] a little shove and he wasn’t marking me too tightly. It’s basically a free header. It’s nice to see that float into the corner. It’s a nice moment for me.”

AND ITS NOT THE FIRST TIME GUSTO HAS MARKED PLAYERS BIGGER THEN HIM AND COST US, MARESCA STOP PICKING YOUR SEX TOY

Come back when you can speak English, Ollie. Present participle.

51 minutes ago, dermott said:

Come back when you can speak English, Ollie. Present participle.

Criticising his grammar instead of acknowledging that he might be right is not a strong position.

I still feel flat after yesterday.

We are at the stage where all we can talk about is beating a Bracelona team that have thier defenders on the half way line and not losing at home to Arsenal with 10 men.

When the chips are down we fold, each and every time.

Play aggresive against us, we crumble.

Play fast football, we crumble.

Apply sustained pressure on us for more than a few minutes, we crumble.

We've lost 3 times at home this season after taken the lead!

There's a lack of fitness, we have the worst running stats in the division and we never play well for more than 45 minutes - and most of that time in this 45 minutes how many real saves does the opposition goalkeeper have to make??

There is a lack of charactor in the squad.

Of course we know the square root of the problems at this club is the board and the sporting directors and thier stupid rigid transfer policies but we have enough good players to not be 10 points behind Villa half way through the season!

I blame the manager for a lot of our demise. Teams generally play in thier managers image according to thier principles.

So when our defender waste 60 seconds passing side to side to each other it's because what he's trained them to play like this.

When we have a throw near the opposition penalty area but 10 seconds later the ball ends up at our goalkeepers feet it's because he's trained them to play like that.

He thinks control is keeping the ball even if you're going backwards.

10 points being Aston Villa is alarming and highlights what Uni Emery brings to a team compared to Maresca, but this isn't even the long term pain.

When the likes of Palmer, Estevao wake up and realise this board has no real plan to be a top team again and this manager coaches any creativity out of our players and consider leaving then the real decline will happen at warp speed.

Yesterday was a real eye opener, Villa was pants for 60 minutes and won the the game and caused us no end of problems in the last 30 minutes and had nearly 3 times more shots on target than we had in the whole match.

We are a sinking ship and there isn't a lifeboat in sight at the moment.

7 minutes ago, 2211 said:

I still feel flat after yesterday.

We are at the stage where all we can talk about is beating a Bracelona team that have thier defenders on the half way line and not losing at home to Arsenal with 10 men.

When the chips are down we fold, each and every time.

Play aggresive against us, we crumble.

Play fast football, we crumble.

Apply sustained pressure on us for more than a few minutes, we crumble.

We've lost 3 times at home this season after taken the lead!

There's a lack of fitness, we have the worst running stats in the division and we never play well for more than 45 minutes - and most of that time in this 45 minutes how many real saves does the opposition goalkeeper have to make??

There is a lack of charactor in the squad.

Of course we know the square root of the problems at this club is the board and the sporting directors and thier stupid rigid transfer policies but we have enough good players to not be 10 points behind Villa half way through the season!

I blame the manager for a lot of our demise. Teams generally play in thier managers image according to thier principles.

So when our defender waste 60 seconds passing side to side to each other it's because what he's trained them to play like this.

When we have a throw near the opposition penalty area but 10 seconds later the ball ends up at our goalkeepers feet it's because he's trained them to play like that.

He thinks control is keeping the ball even if you're going backwards.

10 points being Aston Villa is alarming and highlights what Uni Emery brings to a team compared to Maresca, but this isn't even the long term pain.

When the likes of Palmer, Estevao wake up and realise this board has no real plan to be a top team again and this manager coaches any creativity out of our players and consider leaving then the real decline will happen at warp speed.

Yesterday was a real eye opener, Villa was pants for 60 minutes and won the the game and caused us no end of problems in the last 30 minutes and had nearly 3 times more shots on target than we had in the whole match.

We are a sinking ship and there isn't a lifeboat in sight at the moment.

Ya, that's what worries me ... our best players, like Cole and Estavao, will go if this clown is allowed to carry on "managing" their minutes etc.

Been over this before but I often wonder why people think we hsve a lot of talent in our squad. I really dont think we do. Certainly not enough to be a top four team and that is in a season where a lot of teams are under performing.

If you categorise our squad in terms of being Premier league team so categories are First Class, First Team Standard, Squad Rotation, Back Up, or Lower League then I would have something like (and I include potential as well as current ability

First Class - Palmer, Caciedo and James

First Team - Cucurella, Acheampong, Esteveao, Sanchez, Lavia

Rotation - Neto, Fofana, Santos

Back Up - Colwill, Gusto, Mudryk, Enzo, Delap, Pedro, Jackson, Chalobah

Lower League - Jorgensen, Tosin, Garnacho, Badiashille, Gittens, George' Sterling, Guiu

Probably missed a few

Looking at that it's quite clear what a bang average squad it is for a team supposedly with top four aspirations. Only three players that are of genuine high class. And of the 5 first team ones three are really there based on potential rather than current contribution and the keeper we know will f**k up again.

Meanwhile we have about 6 players getting regular playing time who are either squad fillers or shouldn't even be playing in this league.

4 hours ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

HOW ABOUT THIS STAT FOR NETO

Stat	Number
Touches	67
Number of times ball lost	24
Pass accuracy	83%
Crosses completed	1/9
Duels won	1/4
Tackles won	0/1
Dribbles completed	0/1

Abysmal.

19 minutes ago, loz said:

Been over this before but I often why people think we hsve a lot of talent in our squad. I really dont think we do. Certainly not enough to be a top four team and that is in a season where a lot of teams are under performing.

If you categorise our squad in terms of being Premier league team so categories are First Class, First Team Standard, Squad Rotation, Back Up, or Lower League then I would have something like (and I include potential as well as current ability

First Class - Palmer, Caciedo and James

First Team - Cucurella, Acheampong, Esteveao, Sanchez, Lavia

Rotation - Neto, Fofana, Santos

Back Up - Colwill, Gusto, Mudryk, Enzo, Delap, Pedro, Jackson, Chalobah

Lower League - Jorgensen, Tosin, Garnacho, Badiashille, Gittens, George' Sterling, Guiu

Probably missed a few

Looking at that it's quite clear what a bang average squad it is for a team supposedly with top four aspirations. Only three players that are of genuine high class. And of the 5 first team ones three are really there based on potential rather than current contribution and the keeper we know will f**k up again.

Meanwhile we have about 6 players getting regular playing time who are either squad fillers or shouldn't even be playing in this league.

But Aston Villa have maybe one or two players in their squad who would get into our first team and they’ve won nine matches in a row and are ten points clear of us and sitting pretty. Maybe it won’t last, but how has Emery made the most of a bang average squad?

Sure there are glaring deficiencies in our squad, but Maresca doesn’t seem to be getting the most out of what he has. He’s learning on the job supposedly, but is he improving us? We look like a right shower at times. And that’s got to be on the manager.

29 minutes ago, loz said:

Mudryk

Yeah, that fcf**kker.

4 minutes ago, Dr. Socrates said:

But Aston Villa have maybe one or two players in their squad who would get into our first team and they’ve won nine matches in a row and are ten points clear of us and sitting pretty. Maybe it won’t last, but how has Emery made the most of a bang average squad?

Sure there are glaring deficiencies in our squad, but Maresca doesn’t seem to be getting the most out of what he has. He’s learning on the job supposedly, but is he improving us? We look like a right shower at times. And that’s got to be on the manager.

I would say all of these would

Martinez

Obama and/or Kamara

Tielemans

Rogers

Sancho (depressing to say that, just because Garnacho and Gitrens are so sh*t)

Watkins

Poor game management. Poor substitutions. Poor decision making. Inexperienced manager. Inexperienced tinkering manager. etc.

The reasons for failure at Chelsea FC are quite consistent.

Our players were/are better than the Villa players and we should have won that comfortably. But their manager was/is much better than our manager.

Rogers is Cole Palmers best mate - so why didnt we sign him and not bother with Gittens and Garnacho?

1 minute ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Rogers is Cole Palmers best mate - so why didn't we sign him and not bother with Gittens and Garnacho?

Because we're not building the team around Cole, we're building it around Enzo Fernandez !

Hence we signed Enzo's best mate, not Cole's, to make Enzo feel more comfortable at the club !

All very logical LOL

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Because we're not building the team around Cole, we're building it around Enzo Fernandez !

Hence we signed Enzo's best mate, not Cole's, to make Enzo feel more comfortable at the club !

All very logical LOL

Sad but true.

Who do we think made that decision?

4 minutes ago, Scott said:

Sad but true.

Who do we think made that decision?

Eghbali would be my guess

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Because we're not building the team around Cole, we're building it around Enzo Fernandez !

Hence we signed Enzo's best mate, not Cole's, to make Enzo feel more comfortable at the club !

All very logical LOL

Oh no. . . Poor old Jamie "No mates" Gittens

16 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Eghbali would be my guess

Yes I agree. Wasn't he directly involved in the negotiations to sign Enzo at the time? There had been some suggestions that 1 or 2 of the big La Liga clubs had some interest in signing Enzo and logically we would sell him as he would be better suited to their league. But I cannot see it happening under the current owners.