Well we have finally done it

[Scott]

We have become the Arsenal.

All flash passing with no end result.

Jose's 1-nill wins don't look so bad now heh?

[geezer]

Add the silent support to that as well.

[Kerry]

I have never been moaning about Jose's 1-0 results.

I was one of those who had never understood the discussion about beauty and style and so on as long as we kept winning. Maybe I'm just too stupid for this, am reluctant to understand or I'm just a stupid foreigner I don't know.

[geezer]

Don't beat yourself up about it Kerry, that's not what clubs are for :D

[Kerry]

Don't beat yourself up about it Kerry, that's not what clubs are for :D

Beg my pardon geezer I forgot about it totally. :P

I just wanted to express my growing annoyance about this "beauty-style" discussion. Overall I've never come to understand the sense behind it.

[geezer]

The day football supporters make sense amongst each other is the day passion has left the game. Don't try to understand it, go with your own instinct and stick to whatever you believe in yourself (and you seem pretty good at that). Too many fans are sheep these days.

[Kerry]

I'm just willing to understand at least a bit because we're on a discussion board and how could we discuss if we don't understand a tiny bit of what's going on in other people's heads? Well recently whenever someone comes to question Scolari's ability there are always other people coming up praising Scolari's beauty but I for me am still not able to understand the beauty behind a 0-0 draw against Newcastle, a 1-1 draw against Spam, not to say the beauty against the defeats. Can someone lose beautifully?

[byatt]

When you've got two rows of defensive players from the opposition lined up infront of the goal, its difficult to score from distance, hence having to try and walk the ball into the net

[Chelsea John]

No passion from the team. no passion from the fans, deco has been poor for many games now, and once again joe cole is the fall guy. Big phil is starting to worry me, no real plan b or c. A really reall y frustrating afternoon, at this moment in time i hate football and question why i keep going, but come boxing day.........

[geezer]

Can someone lose beautifully?

Yeah, Liverpool can lose beautifully as often as they like.

[Kerry]

Yeah, Liverpool can lose beautifully as often as they like.

But neither do we want to become Liverpool, don't we? So there's nothing to talk about beauty when we've lost ...

As I've said, I'm too stupid to get it.

[geezer]

But neither do we want to become Liverpool, don't we? So there's nothing to talk about beauty when we've lost ...

As I've said, I'm too stupid to get it.

OK I won't try to explain it to you but a word of warning. You mentioned earlier about trying to understand what goes on in peoples minds. Please don't try to get inside my mind or you will lose your sanity for good. I'm pure cuckoo!!

[abramovich]

When you've got two rows of defensive players from the opposition lined up infront of the goal, its difficult to score from distance, hence having to try and walk the ball into the net

Every top club faces the same problem,not just Chelsea. Maybe we should inform the opposition in advance not to play too negative against us because it doesn't suit our beautiful passing style. We used to laugh at Wenger for complaining about such things now Scolari does the same.

[goose]

I thought that the spammers were not as defensive as most teams that come to the bridge and that they

put some useful attacks together.

On the debate on beautiful football, I'd much rather play and win with good football than ugly, but I'd rather

win ugly than loose. Problem is, in my opinion, we are not playing the beautiful game at the moment.

Making 20 passes in mid field only going square and backwards is only boring and fustrating. I'd rather see

fast sharp probing passes with more crosses coming in from the by line and more goalmouth action.

At the moment we're not getting the ball into dangerous areas. I think it was something like the 42nd min today

before Green had to deal with a cross which he came out and punched and then the 44th min before he had to

actually save a shot and that was probabaly with about 60% of the play.

[Kerry]

OK I won't try to explain it to you but a word of warning. You mentioned earlier about trying to understand what goes on in peoples minds. Please don't try to get inside my mind or you will lose your sanity for good. I'm pure cuckoo!!

geezer, as in my real life (meaning not internet communities) I'm surrounded by crazy scum and co, you're far away from insane, but this is just my personal judgement and as moi has issued I'm just too young and inexperienced

We used to laugh at Wenger for complaining about such things now Scolari does the same.

I can't say anything concerning Monsieur W but at least our passing is much too imprecise to break through a tougher defense. West Spam didn't have such an impressive defense today and we looked so poor to crack it. We would have looked much better when we wouldn't lose that many passes nearing the box. Sometimes when Kalou neared the box and gave the ball so easily away I felt as if I could have jumped into my screen

[icecoolguy22]

We were not beautiful yesterday, to my eyes West Ham played some better looking one touch football than us at times. As I posted in the match thread, our midfield players are too slow, or dare I say too old to play quick passing football. Back to their better days, Ballack , Deco had great first touch, now days they tend to take that extra touch or two, which result in losing possession or slow down the movement. It maybe a temporary form thing, but I remember when Sheva lost his pace, he lost his first touch too, and never got it back <_< So be warned! We are not showing any passion and guts on the field, and we are losing the physical battles as well.Maybe Scolari got a point saying once Drogba came on, we lost the midfield. However the combined force of Mikel, Lampard, Deco should get over Parker and Noble is worrying, even I know there are bigger dogs out there than those too in the league.

We pass the ball around too much without getting any decent ball into the box, we have no one who can run against defenders. Bosingwa is trying too much on his own, after scored 2 goals on his own he is trying to repeat it every time,should just put the cross into the 6 yard box for Drogba. Anelka should just stand beside the last defender instead of drifiting all over the park.

Scolari is trying to make us the Brazil of 2002 or Barca of 2008, unforunately we dont have the players to make it. Time is not on our side, we need the passion and guts carried our through in Jose's era, and rollback on how to win ugly and dirty.

[Elliott]

Our play is so predictable, it makes it a doddle for an opposition manager to defend against us?

Organise two banks of four in front of goal, defend deep, and dont let Chelsea's full backs get forward.

Problem solved.

The only player who enables us to mix it up is Drogba, and to my mind, Scolari got it wrong yesterday, as he HAD to start. No matter what.

[BLUENUT]

Our play is so predictable, it makes it a doddle for an opposition manager to defend against us?

Organise two banks of four in front of goal, defend deep, and dont let Chelsea's full backs get forward.

Problem solved.

The only player who enables us to mix it up is Drogba, and to my mind, Scolari got it wrong yesterday, as he HAD to start. No matter what.

Spot on Elliot.

It's not like it's some kind of master stroke either.........almost every team has played like that at the bridge this season, and got something for their effort. Seems like everyone except big Phil knows what to expect. The phrase 'Park the bus' was created by Jose, who most of the time knew how to tow it away!! Most sides are going to play defensive against us, it's down to us to control the game and find an opening. Too many times this season we don't look like we're in full control, let alone finding an opening, I'd guess on average we're creating about 2 or 3 attempts on target each home game, which quite frankly isn't good enough.

Forget plan B, at home I don't think we have a plan A, if we do it simpley doesn't work! There are a few sides I always want to beat at the bridge, Manu, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham, all have gone away with something this season.

The 2nd half could have been a defining moment in our season yesterday, but all it did was prove why Chelsea will not win the league this season, and it pisses me right off!

[Kerry]

Scolari is trying to make us the Brazil of 2002 or Barca of 2008, unforunately we dont have the players to make it. Time is not on our side, we need the passion and guts carried our through in Jose's era, and rollback on how to win ugly and dirty.

Agree. Exactly my thoughts. There was the question if our players are just not suited to playing the style Scolari demands, or if the players simply need more time to adapt to his style. Now 6 months passed and all I have observed is that the players generally have no problems playing his new style. When I've watched the first competitive game this season against Pompey all that came into my mind was "Hey the new system looks quite good on us". So actually they can play like that. What worries me more however is that they are simply not the right types of players to make it look perfect and competitive against any team. I appreciate Scolari trying to bring us on. But evolution instead of revolution maybe is more what we actually need. If he's not going to sack the whole squad.

Another thought is that maybe this cross-passing isn't actually that what will bring success in the premier league. We see it of Arsenal; their short passes have been praised till hell but look what have they achieved with it? A fourth spot in the league! They couldn't manage to beat the scousers in the CL. Maybe we should learn a bit out of Wenger's destiny. I have the thought that Jose's defensive result-grinding style that AG has merely perfected looks ugly to some watcher's eyes but maybe is very effective for success in the league. Just a thought

[Tri-Blue]

I looked at our home results this season, apart from humping Pompey and Sunderland 4-0 and 5-0 respectively, we average under a goal a game at SB in the league. Thats unbelievable....6 goals in 7 games.

Thats where the problem solely lies. It took 44 minutes before we got a shot on target against West Ham and thats becoming a regular occurance in our games. When teams play with the intention of sitting back we cant break through. We cant utlise the abilities of Ash and Bosingwa as theres no space for them to run into, so we resort to probing away in front of the defence to no avail. It comes to an end with a cross ballooned into the box with no whip or pace on it for anyone to attack.

I suppose its the price we have to pay for free flowing football. Maybe Jose's methods werent so bad afterall......Eh Roman?

[The Brit]

it ocuured to me yesterday how there were people on here moaning about jose and the way the team was going...well after a promising opening two months, i'd argue we're playing worse (at home) than under jose...at least then the team had belief, fight and character...this lot at the moment seem to be half the players they really are...internationals getting overshadowed by mark noble, scott parker and carlton?

a few days ago chelsea tv showed us taking on barca from a few years ago...it made me realise how you got the feeling back then that we were really a big club that could take on europe's best...i know jose didn;t get us to champs league final, but it was still his team that eventually did...I just have this horrid feeling now that roman appears to have withdrawn his funds, that we are going backwards.

[loz]

I think people are being a bit premature in the 'Roman has withdrawn his funds' thing. We may not have been spending £150m a season but we have still been spending more money than most other clubs can dream of every single season since his initial spurge. The only thing we have to base claims that Roman has stopped spending on is the fact Kenyon has said we wouldn't be spending this January - it remains to be seen if that is true.