Chelsea 2011/2012

Team Brian GB

There seemed to be no appropriate thread to discuss post-match reflections of the game today so I thought I might as well begin a Chelsea thread for the season.


That match was truly weird from the offset, Chelsea had the most bold and attacking game anyone has had in coming to Man United for a long time, a ridiculous amount of opportunities - two goals with a hint of offside in them, Man United getting the kindest richochet they will all year, Rooney misses a horrid penalty, Torres goes from hero to zero - it was truly bizarre.

What I think it does prove is that Chelsea are the real deal this season when there has been plenty of question marks. That is the most fluid and attacking Chelsea has played in a long time, they went toe to toe with the most renowned attacking side in the nation and on the continent, without a change in formation or a huge overhaul in players. Villas-Boas has certainly done a number on them, if we can go to Old Trafford and perform like that then we will most definately be in the hunt on all fronts this season.

Ramires appears to be continuing his ascent and is now morphing into Essien, Mata is a Godsend and Sturridge is a showboater. Considering at half time we took off Lampard and put on another striker, Meireles and Ramires showed just how capable they are.

I don't think I've ever been so satisfied when we have lost before though it is evidently clear we have lots to look forward to.

Diabo_Sam

You're ok, you just need a decent striker...

AttackingFlair

Mata is a brilliant signing

Snow

Meireles did not show capability. I didn't know he was on the pitch until he got subbed. Did he touch the ball?

Sturridge should have gone off earlier. He wasted a lot of build ups and chance creation.

What's worrying for Chelsea is when they defend set pieces. In the Smalling goal they didn't seem that bothered to organize themselves and were a complete mess. Smalling and Evans unmarked at the far post and most people know Young likes to put the ball on the far post.

Team Brian GB

We were unlucky in the fact that two major chances fell to Ramires as opposed to the likes of Lampard or Mata. Whilst everybody is fixating on Torres aiming for the goal in front of the Stretford End but instead missing the goal at the Kop, the simple fact he got himself into that position I am delighted with on top of his earlier goal and his movement.

Team Brian GB

I am struggling to comprehend why Wenger was dragging his feet over getting him earlier in the summer, in the middle of July he could have gotten Mata but by waiting until August 31st the best he could do in a similar position was Benayoun.

Arsenal's loss is our fantastic gain, he is formidable.

Leroy The Red

The boy doesnt like a tackle.

Ole's_toe_poke

TBGB, Why u no sign out and out winger?

Team Brian GB

Meireles I thought was very good, he did a lot of grunt work in the midfield keeping it ticking over for us. Sturridge was wasteful though he was effective coming down the right flank and getting balls in.

With regards to the first goal, there was an obvious error in communication, everybody but Terry seemed to be going for an offside trap.

niMic

Well, Chelsea will certainly outdo Arsenal for the title challenge. Again.

I also think they'll outdo City, eventually. I do think we'll win the league relatively comfortably in the end, but Chelsea could make a fight of it.

peterstorey

Wenger wasn't dragging his feet - you offered him silly money.

Ish84045

I'd agree with alot of what you're saying. It was a strange game, which could easily have ended 6-6 in all fairness.

There were obviously a few factors which contributed to such a open game. Our formation. Fletcher coming back from a long lay off - the Anderson - Fletcher partnership being a bit dreadful (I'd have probably played over Fletcher tbh). our 2 first choice (experienced) CB's being out injured. But fair play to Chelsea, they created a shed load of chances.

If you drop Lampard from your team, and allow Mata to roam through the middle with some pace flanking Torres, I can see Chelsea doing really well. On another note, your defence is probably the shakiest I've seen it in years.

Would you agree with that? I was surprised to find Luiz on the bench.

As many chances as you created, so did we.

Team Brian GB

There weren't that many around this summer - Sanchez had his heart set on Barcelona whilst the likes of wide strikers such as Neymar we haven't been able to come to terms. I would have gone in big for Aguero though, the fact we have been following him very closely for five years would have made you think that we would put some offers in for him.

Snow

Not really no. Three players ran forward. Torres, Lampard and Bosingwa. The other players didn't. Terry went for Hernandez, whom Torres was suppose to mark, and lost his man Smalling. Evans was never marked in the first place.

They did the same defensive duty against Sunderland but Sunderland didn't score. Missed a sitter.

I'd also imagine the captain, the center half, would organize things and the rest would not just think of doing an offside trap on their own. That's some risky business to pull off.

Crustanoid

alastair

On the subject of Chelsea, have any London caftards seen the advert on the tube which says something the lines of 'chelsea do the finest prawn sandwiches, so come and experience our hospitality packages.' It's trying to be ironic, but it's awful.

thebelfastboy

thought mata looked impressive for the spanish u21's and he has seemlessly settled into english football, he's going to be a smashing player.

lampard a few years ago was a cracking player, but he looks completely out of form at the minute. chelsea looked much more direct and threatening when he was replaced by anelka.

i wouldnt be surprised if AVB drops both lampard and torres.

Team Brian GB

There is plenty of fairness in that, I agree with what you say about Mata particularly - in a 433 system where a central striker has to deal head on with two central defenders having someone with flair and ingenuity supporting you from behind is more beneficial I think from the outside. I made the suggestion a few days ago that putting Malouda on the left and Mata behind Torres would be a clever way to go.

Our defense certainly is not as strong, part of that is down to outlook as our whole team in previous years have a defensive posture to it with a midfielder devoted to protecting the back four whereas today we expensed with that well and truly which would have been a factor today. My concern is with Bosingwa, he has had a year now at full fitness and he isn't producing the form he was in before his long layoff. That leaves us with the choice of putting Ivanovic out there, thus losing his presence in the middle in punting on Luiz.

Part of our defensive issues is that Terry and Ivanovic are the same player, they both have the same strengths and by extension the same weaknesses whereas Luiz has the potential to be the 'Carvalho' defender so that plays into it as well.

Kraftwerker

You were playing a pretty inexperienced United with a very youthful but talented backline.

You did well, but United were deserved winners.

charlenefan

Chelsea wouldn't of got even half the chances they did today had Rio and Vidic been playing

I wonder just what the score would have been had Chelsea been missing Terry and Ivanovic (as he seems to be first choice CB these days)

amolbhatia100

Chelsea looked more fluid than I expected but they also lacked the sort of character, grit and killer instinct that they've had in recent years. I mean, honestly, their buildup play was fairly good but I really thought we'd win that game through most of that match. And we have Rio and Vidic to step back into that defense as well as Rafael. That's pretty much Chelsea's best defence isn't it? And it looked dreadful. They still rely heavily on Terry who's past his best and Luiz is still young and prone to being rash and ill disciplined.

Honestly, today Chelsea were actually disappointing despite their offensive bravado. But AVB has only joined so I suppose it was going to be the case.

bergen

Chelsea will be up there and we'll have a very very tough game at Stamford Bridge. Today was a great test for our young side.

Team Brian GB

-Rooney, Nani, Anderson, Smalling, Evans, Hernandez, Evra, Young - it wasn't as if you played with Pogba, Cleverley and Wellbeck, you had a couple more new players in your side than we did. What is more Chelsea are re-inventing themselves into a more offensive side, I am annoyed this game came so early in the season as opposed to what seemingly became the customary April/May game.

peterstorey

Chelsea deserved at least a point, ManU were very lucky to win that game after being outplayed for most of it.

Team Brian GB

Though what also made this match interesting is that at half time, and after Torres had scored, it was poised in a way similar to your Arsenal match was around the same point. Whereas they went for it and got supremely battered, we had a firm grip on affairs in the second half. Naturally you missed some big chances but you did against Arsenal as well who barely got into your half or troubled you.

Rood

ye seen this the other day - cringeworthy

Kraftwerker

It was a very inexperienced and youthful backline, Evra aside.

I think it could've been a lot more comfortable for us with a few more first teamers available.

I won't hold my breath about an exciting Chelsea. We've seen brief blossoms under all your ex-managers, only to revert to excruciatingly boring type.

charlenefan

This thread is just one massive WUM isnt it

WireRed

There is definately a changing of the guard taking place at Chelsea, for the better I'd say as the team Mourinho built peaked some 4 or 5 years ago with only one title during a transitional season for us with a big slice of luck in the head to heads to show since his departure.

You can see that the club's policy in the market has changed greatly due to realising their faith in Arnesen securing their future was misplaced. Mata, Ramires, Luiz, Sturridge, Lukaku, Romeu, and the likes of Kakuta on loan should see them change their style of football and provide a long-term core from which they can build. The Chelsea team of the past 7 years have often relied on physical and psychological strength to be successful with the quality of football often sacrificed to play to the strengths of their players, you can see now with the transition they are making that the next Chelsea side will be based more on pace and technical ability, which can only be a good thing from their perspective IMO.

I don't think they'll win the title this season as a consequence of this transitional phase between old and new but they'll be a threat in the cup competitions and will remain a long-term contender for the PL and CL.

Really need to bite the bullet now and drop Lampard though, they were far too open today because they included him aswell as the in-form players like Meireles, Mata, and Ramires. Those players are exactly what they were crying out for, now they just need to sacrifice him for Mikel to add balance to the midfield or even trial Luiz as a holding midfielder who IMO has the potential to be a better solution for that role than Mikel.

mu77

bullshit - 3-1 maybe should have been 5-3. don't make youself look like a bigger fool. 8-2

Boss

We could have scored 8 goals.

Chelsea deserved to score more, but they still should have lost. What's your definition of outplaying? pointless possession? Our attacking football was sublime and we carved out numerous chances.

MacMUFC

Thought Ramires was absolutely superb for them earlier. He along with Torres looked like the only Chelsea players actually gave a shit.

FlawlessThaw

AVB got his tactics hopelessly wrong for the match. He's with the big boys now (is this the first time he's faced a world class manager?) and he's got to learn if he comes to Old Trafford and his team plays like that they will get picked off no matter how many chances they create.

What today does show is that Chelsea will be fighting for the title as they're a cut above everyone else in the league that isn't from Manchester. I suspect we'll see the biggest gap between 3rd and 4th place for a long while.

I reckon United would have won 6-4 if all sides took their chances; Rooney being the biggest culprit for us.

Sarni

He's an Arsenal fan, they've been bragging about their attractive football for ages and probably think quality of performance is measured by possession and amount of shots taken.

We basically created something dangerous each time we took the ball around their area, they only had two or three more clear cut chances and our midfield was barely existent the whole game.

I think title battle will be between us and City this season. Chelsea are still lacking width and their midfield seems to be getting worse. Meireles, Ramires and Lampard doesn't really look that impressive and their side has always been built around impressive midfield.

Ubik

We'd have probably kept the ball better if we'd had those two playing...

Chelsea played well but we were very complicit in that at times. You won't be the only ones growing as a side over the season either, we're playing in a new way as well.

SharkyMcShark

Mata looks like Joe Cole would look if he was homeless for a few months.

Neutral

Probably the same, because

1. Penalty miss
2. Rooney scuffed shot that hit the post, when it should have been easier to score
3. Rooney overcooking the pass for Berba, who still should have done better.

All chances where Terry and Co. weren't a factor.

Fiskey

I think its quite funny tbh.

Feed Me

I honestly think you're putting too positive a spin on it there.

There was a real naivety to AVB's approach. It's all well and good saying that you're satisfied in defeat because you acquitted yourselves well, but you've ultimately nothing to show for it.

In the days of tough, obdurate, powerful Chelsea, you'd have eked a win out.

I'd be happy if every one of our rivals comes to Old Trafford and tries to go toe to toe with us, as we'll invariably turn them over.

I think you've got problems. Terry is really on the wane, Cech no longer carries the air of an invincible goalie and you can't seem to find settled combinations up front. Most concerning should be the midfield area - Lampard is done as the goal getting, running man, with Meireles and Ramires lacking real class.

I'm not being harsh for the sake of it. This is the weakest Chelsea side since the pre-Jose era.

Neutral

Feed me - you think their midfield lacked class?

I think in Mata, Ramires and Meireles they have a pretty good midfield, problem was Meireles was asked to play a position he simply can't. They'll tweak it a bit more, get Mikel in there for his tackling, and it'll work.

Their backline on the other hand...wow, how the mighty have fallen.