3 hours ago, Mod said:

I was really meaning a different angle entirely, not just in our play. The club hasn't a soul anymore, and the board give no sh*ts whatsoever about the fans! The things they said at the start were enough to put many off. It's like supporting a business now, with the Chelsea badge on it, rather than supporting a football club!

Amen to that Mod. Spot on.

And sadly many of our fanbase just lap it up. Perhaps grateful the UK government allowed us to keep the rotting corpse of a once great giant.

I just feel empty about it all. Clearlake (through Kaveh on Sky Sports) pretty much said the League Cup wasn't a priority for them, so no point getting worked up about being eliminated.

6 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Have you seen him trying to win a header?

Good point... GK then ?

Hard to break down the low block nowadays, especially when Arsenal do it.

Not withstanding that we could have and should have given it a bit more than we did - zero impact from Palmer, Estavao and Garnacho.

The tactic of bringing on our best players in the 2nd half to win the game is ok when it works...

9 hours ago, mojo said:

just for the sake of this annoying fakface we should somehow win it

Arteta strikes me as someone with terrible body odour.

You win some, you lose some.

If that's the standard (Arsenal) to be the best in the league, we aren't far off at all.

We are still trying to shrug off Maresca's ways, but I've seen changes to how we want to play and I'm feeling pretty positive about the remainder of the season and beyond.

Personally I would have gone straight in with our best team, but I also understand LR tried something different in the first half. If it had of worked we'd all be lauding him.

I hate to single out an individual, but Delap needs to be loaned / sold in the summer. There is just nothing special about him, and his time at Ipswich has massively overrated his stock.

I thought the manager got the first half bang on, set up well and we did everything we needed.

I also think he got the 2nd half totally wrong, we needed to shock them early and go at them, get crosses on top of Kepa, get shots in from anywhere and everywhere, break their comfort. He should have had Palmer and Estevao on at half time, take the game right to them.

But overall we competed well and had the better of the chances, the few there were, while looking comfortable defensively.

The ref was abysmal, the amount of fouls he let them away with yet pulled us for every little dive, ridiculously inconsistent.

Also Arteta is a creepy little c**t needing a good smacking.

14 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Cannot be our strongest 11 though. No Estevao and no Colwill.

I meant strongest possible.

Although many will view as negative, I think LR played it right last night - well almost. I wanted to see Palmer and Estevao come on at HT for Delap and Gusto and to give them long enough to get into the game and make an impact. Thought we looked the better team for large parts but because we didn't have our main match-winners, we just didn't do or create enough. Another night and one of those Enzo chances or one of those set-pieces gets us back in the game.

Disappointing but the damage was done in the first leg and I feel more positive now than I did under Maresca.

31 minutes ago, dkw said:

I thought the manager got the first half bang on, set up well and we did everything we needed.

I also think he got the 2nd half totally wrong, we needed to shock them early and go at them, get crosses on top of Kepa, get shots in from anywhere and everywhere, break their comfort. He should have had Palmer and Estevao on at half time, take the game right to them.

But overall we competed well and had the better of the chances, the few there were, while looking comfortable defensively.

The ref was abysmal, the amount of fouls he let them away with yet pulled us for every little dive, ridiculously inconsistent.

Also Arteta is a creepy little c**t needing a good smacking.

I didn't think I could dislike Arsenal and Arteta any more than I do...I was wrong ha ha.

What have they done in his 6 years other than a lucky FA Cup win? They just need a couple of losses to derail their title challenge. I would be massively disappointed as one of their fans, knowing they rely on set pieces and the dark arts.

Havertz can do one as well. He'll never win a Champions League at Arsenal. I also look forward to Real Madrid picking up Rice, Saliba and Gabriel at some point in the near future.

Edited February 4Feb 4 by Malcolm9

A pretty frustrating evening at the Emirates. My thoughts:

1. Delap is criminally off the pace to play for Chelsea.

2. Agree with 1st Half comments and 2nd half we should've gone for it earlier, overall I'm still happy with what LR has done thus far.

3. Fair play to Estevao for flying back and being willing to play, top lad.

4. Let's hope Arsenal win nothing, god they're cocky for what they've delivered in the past couple of decades.

We go again KTBFFH!

Edited February 4Feb 4 by Chelsea-Charlie

Assumed it fniished 0-0. I turned it off after we gave them the ball in the 96th minute. Of course Havertz f**king scored.

Wait. We lost?

Hahaha, I turned it off after that sh*t cross presuming he’d blow for full time.

Understand the Havertz hate comments now.

Unfortunately I never had any confidence in us getting through.

We had a slight chance last night if we played our best team and they all played well but that didn’t happen.

No top manager would go near the Chelsea job at the moment. I doubt LR with a few months to land the job is putting some of these teams out.

Put the medical team on the bench next to him so we can at least see who’s responsible.

Not talking about last night specifically but in general. When was the last time we played the same 11 consecutively, is it no longer allowed ?

12 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

We drew with Arsenal at home when we had 10 men and Maresca was manager.

Lost 2-3 at home to Arsenal at home when we had 11 men and Rosenior was the manager.

3 games against Palace for Maresca and drew every single one.

Rosenior beats them first time of asking.

This post lower, describes us perfectly

55 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

3 games against Palace for Maresca and drew every single one.

Rosenior beats them first time of asking.

Come on mate. . We have to look at last night. Maresca is gone, . Rosenior takes responsibility for last night. . I can't excuse that performance, it doesn't matter if we conjure up an imaginary worse effort in our minds does it ?

4 hours ago, dkw said:

I thought the manager got the first half bang on, set up well and we did everything we needed.

I also think he got the 2nd half totally wrong, we needed to shock them early and go at them, get crosses on top of Kepa, get shots in from anywhere and everywhere, break their comfort. He should have had Palmer and Estevao on at half time, take the game right to them.

But overall we competed well and had the better of the chances, the few there were, while looking comfortable defensively.

The ref was abysmal, the amount of fouls he let them away with yet pulled us for every little dive, ridiculously inconsistent.

Also Arteta is a creepy little c**t needing a good smacking.

More comedy gold DKW, cheers 👍

😂

4 hours ago, dkw said:

Also Arteta is a creepy little c**t needing a good smacking.

This is the most important "takeaway" from the night.

Arteta - yep, you can smell him @Valerie . Everything about him is creepy.

Edited February 4Feb 4 by TheCeleryKing

9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Results like this have become the standard, and to some worthy of praise.

We are what Arsenal used to be. Top 4 money making machine, who cares about trophies. Rest our captain, keep him at home for our true trophy, the top 4 cup.

Ah we can take moral victories from performances, getting more shots on goal or winning the possession battle. So great are arsenal to perform like we did against arsenal we are the true winners guys and gals!

It has dripped down like a virus from mother blueco. And many like tamed dogs lap the crap off their masters fingers and think it is steak.

Shameful.

Spot on Ax.

Despite spending record amounts we've got a small club mentality amongst a lot of fans now. .

Arsenal came to the first leg , and despite being held to a draw by our 10 men in the League game, played like they owned the place.

United go to Arsenal and take the game to them and win.

WE go to Arsenal with a timid, small team mentality, our fans saying if we try and actually go for it we could get a terrible thrashing, and better to defend our one goal defeat and hope for the best.

f**king awful.

The tie was lost at home, when we were missing five influential players. Last night it was important we stayed in the game, as such the coach got our first half tactics spot on. We were never going to take the game to the Gooners from minute one, we simply at present are not consistently as good as them. What I did expect though was a change of tactics slightly earlier via substitutions…maybe the 50th minute, and play it as a one off cup tie. Instead we were treated to more of the same, slow build up, a reluctance to cross or take a shot when one presented itself. Come the 85 th minute we were still playing exactly the same, why not throw a centre half up top , go long and cause chaos?

As a side note, the referee was disappointing last night , how did we manage 3 yellows but less fouls?

20 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Come on mate. . We have to look at last night. Maresca is gone, . Rosenior takes responsibility for last night. . I can't excuse that performance, it doesn't matter if we conjure up an imaginary worse effort in our minds does it ?

It was a good game plan, the subs didn't impact the game at all. Not really sure what people expect.

Just now, GarnachoCheese said:

It was a good game plan, the subs didn't impact the game at all. Not really sure what people expect.

The "game plan" was to defend our one goal defeat. It almost worked didn't it ?

I expected this ..

"Rosenior has indicated that Chelsea will adopt an aggressive approach in their upcoming match against Arsenal, focusing on high turnovers and pressing tactics to create scoring opportunities. He believes this strategy will help the team compete effectively against their well-organized opponents"

15 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

13 hours ago, forbzy said:

So what are they good at, if anything? And what are they really up to?

Other folks have mentioned it and explained it much better than I can in different threads.

 

Broadcasting and media rights
Prinicipal partnerships and sponsorships
Matchday ticket sales and packages
Merchandise and retail sales
Hospitality and corporate boxes
Naming rights
Licensing intellectual property and media

Etc.,etc. Blah-blah-blah.  Essentially raising the stock of the overall brand – get the brand noticed and recognised in lucrative new markets and at some point in the future sell on to another bunch of investors (most likely more americans). BlueCo's £4.25 billion takeover in 2022 – sell in 2032. They are hoping to sell for double the price in 10 years. They have used the club as a base for hospitality for all of their other corporate interests. They have got attention. They did that nifty ‘trick’ with extending players contracts. No one was really interested in the proposed “all star game” but they sold the World Club Championship to everyone. The buying and selling of players is not a great way to make money – maybe for Brighton and some other fluke situations, but overall it doesn’t bring in enough do$h. The ‘strategy of buying young players wasn’t even their strategy to begin with. They started by buying high profile players like Sterling. They didn’t even care about wages back then (all the way back in 2002). So they are not that bothered about buying or selling players or picking the team. That is just a hobby for them. Bragging rights from the corporate box. I am sure they want to win games/trophies, but that is as you say, not the primary motivation.