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Delighted to come away with all three points, Spurs were dreadful, and we could have easily scored more. I thought Fofana had a solid game. We’re truly blessed to have Caicedo; I honestly don’t know where we’d be without him. Once again though, Maresca disappointed by playing defenders in midfield when we had capable midfielders sitting on the bench. I’ve noticed he does this every time we face one of the so-called big six. Ed, it’s clear Maresca doesn’t trust Guiu, he could have caused real problems for their defenders when the game opened up in the dying minutes. As for the sporting directors, I’m still not sure what the plan is with all these signings. If they genuinely want to fix this mess, they should start by sacking Stewart and his partner, who squandered millions on the likes of Disasi, Sterling, Koulibaly, Kellyman, David Fofana, Ugochukwu, and others. It’s baffling how so many people can be involved and still fail to make a single sound decision. We have been yearning for a lethal striker and an experienced leader in defense, but they dont seemed to understand/want to address this.
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3 points from an away match. Not bad. We should have scored more though. But to earn a victory & a clean sheet, I am happy for that. Criticism against Sanchez this season IMO is not fair. A part his error against West Ham to let Paqueta shot, he hasn’t done anything wrong. He was really good with crosses today. Fofana is much needed, he can pass, he has better technique than other CBs. Hope he can stay healthy longer. About Lavia not starting & Maresca played James as DM: it’s managing Lavia’s injury. I hope Lavia & Fofana will follow James who now plays longer & longer after having injured so often during his young career
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Zizi – he definitely is reluctant to play Guiu. The sporting directors apparently face no scrutiny, and out of the list of players you gave, Ugochukwu made us a profit so that goes down as a win; in fact they probably make a point of that if and when they have an appraisal! I guess they think that Delap will become a lethal striker but when we have had success, it was when we brought in players like Drogba and Costa that had been performing strongly in the previous seasons.
3 points at Tottenham is a plus of course. However, I watched the game and it was a win against a totally rancid Tottenham performance.
Caicedo is world class – I’m really worried that someone like Real will come in with a silly offer and the club take it, whilst high fiving each other over the money they’ve made. Fofana looked good on his return, Joao Pedro scored with a good finish but also missed other chances that a top striker would put away. Playing Reece as a DM is testament to his quality, but it’s not a long term solution – let’s hope Lavia’s fitness can hold up under this rehab regime as Aindro points out.
Sanchez didn’t have a lot to do but he did claim crosses well, he stopped what shots were fired at him and his decision making was broadly ok. Nevertheless, there are mistakes in him – I guess they’re waiting on Penders’s development.
In any case, if a team sets themselves up to double up on our wingers and not play out from the back (which allows Caicedo to nick the ball as he did against Spurs), then we have no answers. Spurs didn’t do that, just as Liverpool didn’t, because they think they’re too good to play negatively against us.
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We really need to find a solution for breaking down low blocks. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the stats that we’ve conceded four goals from long throws in our last four games. What’s the point of having a set-piece coach if we can’t sort out something as basic as that? Aindro, while Sanchez has improved, he still has mistakes in him as Ed pointed out and to be fair, it’s not just him, Tosin and Chalobah are in the same category, good players, but more suited to a mid-table side than a club aiming to challenge for the league year in and year out.
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Zizi – agree about Tosin and Chalobah. I think Colwill has the potential to be brilliant – excellent in the air, great anticipation, and the ability to play a great long ball – just like JT.He also played with Thiago Silva. Fofana also has potential but he needs an experienced CB next to him as he is prone to being impetulant. Players in positions like central defence and midfield need people to learn from.
To be fair to the set piece coach, we clearly have a plan when it comes to corners. We always look dangerous and the stats bear that out. But, Zizi, you’re right – we’re terrible at defending long throws and the coach needs to go figure that out.
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Ed, yes we’ve definitely improved in terms of scoring from set pieces this season, and credit where it’s due the coach deserves that. But given that so many teams are now using long-throw tactics, you’d think we’d have a clear plan to protect the six-yard box. And be fair to the set-piece coach, I did notice yesterday that they tried having three outfield players stay up near the halfway line, which does help by reducing the number of opposition players crowding our box and makes for an easier counter, It’s a smart idea in theory, we just need to execute it better.
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Zizi, as Ed said, Sanchez wouldn’t be our long term GK as Penders is at the moment developing at Strasbourg. But while he is no Cech nor Courtois, he isn’t our weakest link at the moment. I agree with you & Ed about CB, for me CB is our weakest link. Chalobah is good, but he is limited in term of ball distribution. Fofana looks good but he spends more time in the treatment room. Badiashile, forget it. We should have brought a CB when we knew Colwill was out long term.
In attack, Guiu doesn’t seem to be our solution. I still believe that Delap is though. Hopefully Delap will score goals for us. Again, Caicedo world class, Enzo improving a lot, James looking healthy, Cucu solid, Neto, Estevao, we are not bad. We just need to insert one or two experienced new players into our squad.
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Center back and centre forward, clearly Juan is not an out and out striker while question marks still over Delap and Guiu. Palmer good too but not a centre forward. We will see what they plan to do.
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Concerning set-pieces, two things.
– Corners and indirect freekicks: I think we’ve improved so much with goals from corners. And our corners and indirect freekicks look dangerous with our tall centre backs in Chalobah,Acheampong & Tosin.
– Throw-ins: Our defending against throw-ins were so poor this season. And to rub salt into the wound on this throw-in matter, we’re certainly mmissing a trick here. This season so many clubs employ long throw-ins and score from them. We don’t have a long throw-in specialist. We do need to improve here if we don’t want to miss the train._____________________________
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Some good sumups on here all basically true re keeper, centre halves snd striker. I think Maresca likes Gusto so he plays Reece as a defensive midfielder to accommodate both of them. Thats of course wrong. Could have played Lavia or Bonnanotta or Fernandez further back. Lavia and Estevao came on way to late. Acheampong should have also started, his our best centre half while Colwill is out which unfortunately is virtually the whole season. We shouldnt get carried away as Spurs were terrible.
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Blueis the best- I agree it’s been a great discussion, and credit to everyone for keeping the site enjoyable, no quarrels, no bad language, no outbursts. just solid football discussion.
If our half dozen scouting team is paying attention, players like Mateta and Semenyo should definitely be on their radar. Both are proven Premier League players who can handle the physicality, intensity, and pace of the league, qualities our current squad still lacks in key areas. We need players who can make an immediate impact, Marc Guehi would be another fantastic addition if we can bring him back on a free. He’s solid, composed, and already familiar with the club. exactly the kind of decisions we’ve been missing lately._____________________________
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As much as we despise the snake there is little doubt he is the best keeper around. Anyone watch Pool v Real Madrid? So many awesome saves.
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This is the story of Chels under this ownership, one step forward, two steps back. It’s beyond frustrating. The main problem is the manager and his constant tinkering with the lineup. We had two proper strikers on the bench, yet he plays George as a false nine? Why is Josh sitting out? Why is Hato being played out of position? None of it makes sense. Do you think Mourinho would’ve underestimated a team like Qarabag, away in Baku with a fired up home crowd? Not a chance. He’d have gone full strength, killed the game off by halftime, and then rotated. Maresca keeps overcomplicating things, and it’s costing us results we should be cruising through. I’m genuinely tired of this experiment.
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Baffling team selection from Maresca, just didn’t make any sense. George up front just isn’t an option that should be considered. No doubt Maresca will say that he’s learnt from this and developed himself, but I’m sorry, Chelsea isn’t a place to act as a creche for up and coming managers. We need a top manager and we’ve only ever had sustained success with a top manager.
Lavia injured as well, so he’s probably out until the New Year.
Hato I understand is an option as LCB but he hasn’t featured there much this year and rolling him out in an tricky away game in the CL, alongside Tosin the donkey, is a risk.
But all in all, this lineup isn’t one that regularly plays together. Just odd decision making again and highlights Maresca’s poor judgement. He’s getting wins against teams that are going through turmoil, we’re not winning commanding victories.
Positives – Estevao looked good again, I’m sure Blueco are already projecting the profit from selling him on. Garnacho scored a good goal.
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Blues1967: Courtois has always been a world class goalkeeper. Even when he was playing for us. Unfortunately it’s our loan system that bit us back in the a** as he found a girlfriend in Spain when being loaned-out to Atletico for so long and felt more home there than in London. I hope Chelsea won’t make mistake with his compatriote Penders. Should the Strasbourg loan be a succes, give Penders the no:1 shirt straight away to replace Sanchez.
Ed & Zizi: I just watched the UCL highlights, UCL matches are always difficult for me to watch as it’s during working hours where I live. A disappointing result, a horror display by Hato. I just read an article from Rooney this morning: why so much rotation??? While I understand the need to keep our players fresh, when I saw the lineups of Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Crystal Palace: hey, they don’t rotate that much!! Why do we have to do so? Is there something wrong with our fitness department?
I spoke too quick about Lavia as I was hoping he could follow Reece James’s path. But here we are, he got injured again.
Ed, let’s not think too negatively, so far the owners haven’t sold any of these potential young players yet except the ones who were not part of the manager’s plan (Madueke etc).
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Basic win against a club that is destined for the drop. First half highly frustrating. Happy with baby Lurch’s form long may it continue. Delap does some excellent work up front but you sort of wonder where his next goal is coming from. Pleased for Gusto getting his third ever goal at any level since he started playing pro football in 2018 (he scored two others, one each with Lyon reserves and France Under 21s). Estevao continues to impress. We have a gem there.
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Good result but its a very tight league one game can take you out of the top 4 or even top 8. Wouldnt worry too much about Bournemouth and Sunderland they bound to drop points too. Pity we couldnt get a draw against united and Sunderland. We need Palmer back asap.
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Going to be difficult for Maresca when Palmer is back and all the forwards are fit to play. Good all round display yesterday although the reluctance to shoot at goals is a big problem that needs to be sorted.
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Rover – the reluctance to shoot comes back to Maresca’s ‘system’. We’re supposed to walk the ball into the goal.
My take – First Half we looked relatively toothless, always hoping to rely on some individual bit of brilliance. Delap is off the pace and needs more game time; if he gets 10 goals this season I would see that as a big plus, as it would hark back to memories of Drogba’s first season – a guy who can occupy multiple defenders and let the attackers behind ply their trade. Jury is out of course and my gut says we need a proven Costa/Drogba type.
Second Half – better of course. There is definitely a player in Garnacho, and he was probably our best player yesterday. Caicedo and Enzo are our best two in midfield. Estevao needs to be considered an automatic starter in important games. We risk losing him otherwise. Joao Pedro is a quality player – I’m just unsure where he fits in when Palmer is back. He’s not a CF.
Wolves didn’t test us and yet could have scored a couple.. I’d rather have seen Josh start yesterday ahead of Chalobah. There is also a player in Fofana but his injury woes undermine one’s confidence in him. If we could have some degree of certainty that Levi and Fofana would be mostly fit then a new CB might not be needed, but we don’t have that luxury. So we need an experienced CB.
A 3-0 home win against a Wolves team in a tailspin should be par for the course, even after drawing 2-2 against Qarabag. I’m far from convinced about Maresca, but we do have some real quality in that squad.
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Chelsea dominated the game and I am glad we were able to break their defense. Malo Gusto 1st professional goal. I hope many more to come from him. What was different than our previous match against Sunderland is that we crossed the ball. Garnacho, Estevao, Neto, all crossed the ball. I think this is due to Delap’s constant presence in the box. With Pedro as no:9, we did not cross enough.
Garnacho played his best game so far in Chelsea shirt. Estevao was good and I agree with Maresca not to rush him. We have Neto, we have Gittens who are more accustomed to the League and the country. Let’s be patient with Estevao.
It’s very worrying that we’re not even in December: Enzo carrying injury, Neto carrying injury, Pedro carrying injury. Palmer is still injured. Lavia injured. Badiashile injured. We have tough luck with injuries
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