Chelsea 2022/2023 | THIS IS LAST YEARS THREAD YOU NUMPTIES

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Rnd898 said:
Yeah credit when due, Kepa has been great lately and the team are clearly starting to feel confident with him between the sticks again.

For a backup keeper he's been solid for more than a year now and deserves the chance he's been given. At the start of the season Mendy looked shaky and it just so happened he was injured for Potter's first couple of games in charge as well so the timing was very convenient for Kepa to impress the new manager and claim the spot for himself. Now it's up to him to continue these kind of performances and not crumble and lose his confidence again after some eventual setbacks.
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Be interesting to see how he gets on. If memory serves me correctly he was ok in his first half a season then other teams figured out he was incredibly poor at commanding his six yard area aerially and that he was weak with long range shots to the corners; I remember one shocking stat before Mendy came in where he had apprantly not saved one shot heading to one of his top corners from 25 yards plus in his whole time at Chelsea.

Has he improved all of this or is he being allowed to show off his quick reflexes and ability to spring up quickly?

Brentford will be an interesting challenge. They love exploiting defences with aerial/height deficiencies.
 
Dave Smith said:
Be interesting to see how he gets on. If memory serves me correctly he was ok in his first half a season then other teams figured out he was incredibly poor at commanding his six yard area aerially and that he was weak with long range shots to the corners; I remember one shocking stat before Mendy came in where he had apprantly not saved one shot heading to one of his top corners from 25 yards plus in his whole time at Chelsea.

Has he improved all of this or is he being allowed to show off his quick reflexes and ability to spring up quickly?

Brentford will be an interesting challenge. They love exploiting defences with aerial/height deficiencies.
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Yes he literally let in all the shots on targets in those period. So why we actually searched for goal keeper and got Mendy. His saves to shot ratio worst in league in those periods as well.Defense didn't help him either.
 
Think we’ve likely seen the last of Kante in a Chelsea shirt, then. Heartbreaking. He eclipsed even Hazard as my favorite recent Chelsea player of the past 5 years.

With his contract expiring in the summer combined with his age and injury record these last couple of years I doubt he pulls on the blue shirt again. :(

What makes it even more sad is that there was so much positivity around him heading into this season since he finally had a free summer after being run into the ground for the past few years. Then in that Spurs game at the start of the season in which he picked up the injury he completely dominated the midfield like prime Kante. Things were looking so promising.

He’ll probably end up at Barca or PSG where they’ll take him for free and on a long term deal which we won’t offer.
 
Gutted for him. He’ll have missed about 6 months of football by the time he returns. Puts the contract situation in a precarious situation. Either way, wish him a speedy recovery and hope he can rediscover his best form when returns.
 
Dave Smith said:
Be interesting to see how he gets on. If memory serves me correctly he was ok in his first half a season then other teams figured out he was incredibly poor at commanding his six yard area aerially and that he was weak with long range shots to the corners; I remember one shocking stat before Mendy came in where he had apprantly not saved one shot heading to one of his top corners from 25 yards plus in his whole time at Chelsea.

Has he improved all of this or is he being allowed to show off his quick reflexes and ability to spring up quickly?

Brentford will be an interesting challenge. They love exploiting defences with aerial/height deficiencies.
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Yeah he has actually - posted this elsewhere but the biggest problem was Kepa's technique. He would tend to rock back his hands in order to swing them at incoming shots so as to improve his momentum when diving - the problem is this almost inevitably leads to weak wrists as you have a very small window to meet the ball optimally.

He's more or less stopped doing this now - it's been a concerted effort for literal years. The best example is the second save he had in that triple sequence against Ramsey - getting that onto the post was ludicrous but especially for Kepa given his previous issues it was mind-blowing. Definitely a credit to him and to the coaching team that he's been able to address this fundamental flaw.
 
WeePat said:
Gutted for him. He’ll have missed about 6 months of football by the time he returns. Puts the contract situation in a precarious situation. Either way, wish him a speedy recovery and hope he can rediscover his best form when returns.
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The thing that frustrates me the most is I feel this could have been avoided.

Lampard and bar his first half season Tuchel never managed his minutes properly. I would have got it if we had Bakayoko and Drinkwater still here but Jorginho and Kova proved more than adequate against non top 6 sides so there was plenty of opportunity to rest him without any drop in performance let alone a big one.
 
I know they've got a few injuries but after their crazy summer spending, it feels like that's the worst Chelsea team we've faced since pre-Roman days. I don't rememeber the last time we've gone to Stamford bridge and it felt comfortable all game. Literally had no nerves or anxiety throughout the whole game. I'm a lot more confident in getting top 4 ahead of them after seeing their last few games.
 
Chief123 said:
I know they've got a few injuries but after their crazy summer spending, it feels like that's the worst Chelsea team we've faced since pre-Roman days. I don't rememeber the last time we've gone to Stamford bridge and it felt comfortable all game. Literally had no nerves or anxiety throughout the whole game. I'm a lot more confident in getting top 4 ahead of them after seeing their last few games.
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When you were 1-0 down in the 93rd minute, no nerves or anxiety? Ok then, sure.
 
duffer said:
When you were 1-0 down in the 93rd minute, no nerves or anxiety? Ok then, sure.
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Honestly speaking, no because I felt like we dominated the game and were unlucky. I've just not seen such an underwhelming Chelsea team like this for a long time. The fact we got a deserved point makes the dominating performance pleasing.
 
Although they came up against a really good defence, they look a bit toothless in attack and at times in the build up play. Not a cert for top 4 unless they improve.
 
Chief123 said:
Honestly speaking, no because I felt like we dominated the game and were unlucky. I've just not seen such an underwhelming Chelsea team like this for a long time. The fact we got a deserved point makes the dominating performance pleasing.
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I would say you dominated the first 30 minutes. No more than that. It was evens stevens after that. We were a bit toothless up front though.
 
I know they had no Reece James but we made them look average in that first half. 47% possession, two shots on target and an xG of 0.35 without the penalty. Not a great performance.
 
I think they were pretty organised and tough to break down. Like us they don't have strikers. Aubemeyang is kind of past it but there's no one out there. I fancy us and them more then spurs for 3rd and 4th but kane is dragging them where we should be.
 
Chief123 said:
Honestly speaking, no because I felt like we dominated the game and were unlucky. I've just not seen such an underwhelming Chelsea team like this for a long time. The fact we got a deserved point makes the dominating performance pleasing.
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1st half you dominated. 2nd half you did not. You were 2nd best for a good portion of it. Last 10 mins was the only time you threatened and you had to make tactical changes. A draw was fair neither of us looked worthy of 3 points and both look like works in progress.
Irwin99 said:
Although they came up against a really good defence, they look a bit toothless in attack and at times in the build up play. Not a cert for top 4 unless they improve.
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I’ve said it before, we don’t have enough goals in our side and I said pre-match we would look a little impotent so I’m not surprised by that at all. Auba doesn’t really offer much to our build up, he is literally just going to poach a few goals over the season and call it a day. At this point neither of us look like a top 4 side. Let’s just be grateful that Spurs aren’t exactly setting the World on fire and Liverpool are having a bad start.
 
Who's Kissing Cameras? said:
I know they had no Reece James but we made them look average in that first half. 47% possession, two shots on target and an xG of 0.35 without the penalty. Not a great performance.
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Their forward line isn't great, to be honest. Aubameyang looks past it (although, we already knew that from his time at Arsenal); he can score goals but doesn't really contribute anything else. I feel Sterling has lost something, also; he doesn't seem as explosive in his acceleration or his change of direction. Havertz is truly terrible (think he is worse than Werner, actually). Ziyech wants to leave and is uninterested. Pulisic is pretty poor. Broja - don't know enough about him, but young and inexperienced. Not great options.

They have no replacement for James, either, which makes it worse. No attacking from their RWB until he is back. They are in a similar situation with Chilwell, also - Cucurella is primarily defensive and has looked awful on top of that.

They need a very good transfer window in the future.
 
Chelsea have a similar problem to us in that they don't really have the players to put the ball in the net, but they have got a good coach.

They've recruited quite poorly in forward areas in the last couple of years. It'll be interesting to see whether Potter fixes that for them.
 
SirReginald said:
1st half you dominated. 2nd half you did not. You were 2nd best for a good portion of it. Last 10 mins was the only time you threatened and you had to make tactical changes. A draw was fair neither of us looked worthy of 3 points and both look like works in progress.
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Disagree.
 
I think Chelsea have the superior technical squad. The available options for their substitutions in contrast with United was stark. I think they will be solid fundamentally but it's hard to know what the end game is with Potter he doesn't seem like a philosophy based manager but rather rises to a given occasion. He's a good coach I personally feel Tuchel had more intensity in his side between the two but Potter is more diversified tactically.
 
Chief123 said:
Disagree.
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After the Kovacic change there wasn't much between the two teams. He helped get them up the pitch and stop it from becoming a procession for us as it was against Spurs. We still had the better moments in the game but we didn't do enough to win the game.
 
I see where @Chief123 is coming from.

The only team that had a sustained period of dominance was United and they should have scored at least 2 goals in the first half an hour. Potter then changed tactically and pretty much strangled the game so Chelsea could get a foothold but this brought parity and didn’t result in United being placed under any real pressure or threat.

I don’t really remember the last time I’ve seen Chelsea need to do that at home.

I think Potter will do well though but it’s clear he’s got plenty of work to do. I’m not criticising him for the change up by the way. Showed he’s a great coach and knows when to be proactive when his team can’t get into a game.

United are also evolving although genuinely feel with the right number 9, or even a fit Martial, we’d be blitzing a few teams by now.

The defence and midfield feels so much more solid and balanced than it has done for a very long time.
 
Title challenge is off then.. Anyway, solid defensively again but almost totally toothless in attack.

We've got at least 6 quality forwards, who've shown it in the past and currently for national teams what they can do.

Like when Tuchel started as manager in a lot of ways.
 
WeePat said:
Do you think you dominated the entire game? Interesting.
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I think United had the only period of real dominance.

Chelsea got back in the game when Potter switched things but didn’t threaten like United did during that first half hour or so.

That’s my take anyway.
 
WeePat said:
Do you think you dominated the entire game? Interesting.
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Nope, but I do think we dominated more than just the first 30 minutes like you suggested. The majority of game was just a matter of whether Utd could take one of their chances.

Chelsea bar the penalty had 1 shot at home which is not even a threatening chance.

When is the last time Utd have gone to Stamford Bridge and Chelsea's objective was to stop Utd playing. So much so the manager actually had to scrap his Plan A after 30 minutes.
 
WeePat said:
I would say you dominated the first 30 minutes. No more than that. It was evens stevens after that. We were a bit toothless up front though.
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We did dominate the first 30 minutes - and it was a bit of a stalemate after Kovacic / Cucurella change, though we still did carve out the better chances all game (Rash and Antony).

Overall, I think we shaded it, and should have won it on the balance of play, but I'm ok with the draw. Chelsea winning would have been unfair.

It's been a long time since we can say that about matches at the Brdige - so all in all a very good performance by us
 
Chelsea were pretty bad last two matches. I think they’ve got some good players and will finish 4th. But they’re nowhere near the force of recent times (and the same can be said of Utd of course but we’re starting from a much lower position).

The league is going to be so interesting this season. Spurs play diabolical football. Liverpool look clueless at times. Utd and Chelsea are going to be close to each other.

Arsenal and City look better than everyone else. But Arsenal will fall off a little I feel.
 
Even halfway decent goal scorers for either team and it’s not a draw … one way or the other. Even without James there balls basically set on Aubas toes 4 feet from goal.

And you guys had some beautiful open lanes and combinations. Kepa is t playing THAT well, it is just poor.

The big difference is we know that’s our next point of reconstruction. We are already pre buying Nkunku, and working other deals. You guys spent big on Anthony and Sancho and you are embryonically attached to Rashford for and others, and The Glazers take an ice age to move on from players.

We could have more than one addition in January; would not surprise me. I think a decision on Havertz and Ziyech coming sooner than later. If we are healthy, make the tweaks in midfield we are talking about, and follow through with our front line changeover …. I can see us being downright good by next season.

With United ….Very much will depend on the rate of change the Glazers are willing to back. That means taking losses on outgoings, not just buying a player here or there.

Which Im actually hoping for by the way. I hate Arsenal and Spuds. The league is better when United are good.
 
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Suedesi said:
We did dominate the first 30 minutes - and it was a bit of a stalemate after Kovacic / Cucurella change, though we still did carve out the better chances all game (Rash and Antony).

Overall, I think we shaded it, and should have won it on the balance of play, but I'm ok with the draw. Chelsea winning would have been unfair.

It's a long time since we can say that - so all in all a very good performance by us.
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Yeah that’s a more fair assessment of the game I would say.
 
Bluelion7 said:
Even halfway decent goal scorers for either team and it’s not a draw … one way or the other. Even without James there balls basically set on Aubas toes 4 feet from goal.

And you guys had some beautiful open James and combinations. Kepa is t playing THAT well, it is just poor.

The big difference is we know that’s our next point of reconstruction. We are already pre buying Nkunku, and working other deals. You guys spent big on Anthony and Sancho and you are embryonically attached to Rashford for and others, and The Glazers take an ice age to move on from players.

We could have more than one addition in January; would not surprise me. I think a decision on Havertz and Ziyech coming sooner than later. If we are healthy, make the tweaks in midfield we are talking about, and follow through with our front line changeover …. I can see us being downright good by next season.

With United ….Very much will depend on the rate of change the Glazers are willing to back. That means taking losses on outgoings, not just buying a player here or there.

Which Im actually hoping for by the way. I hate Arsenal and Spuds. The league is better when United are good.
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I think to suggest Chelsea are going about things better than United in terms of their transition is a little premature. United have added Eriksen, Martinez, Malacia, Casemiro and Antony with all improving the first XI and squad drastically. Chelsea spent more money and in my opinion got much less.

Now you have Potter you’ll need to continue to heavily spend. United will get the other pieces Ten Hag needs but there’s really not that much. A replacement for Ronaldo and a fully fit Martial and I think the team goes up a level again.
 
TheReligion said:
Now you have Potter you’ll need to continue to heavily spend. United will get the other pieces Ten Hag needs but there’s really not that much. A replacement for Ronaldo and a fully fit Martial and I think the team goes up a level again.
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Blimey, there's Chelsea fans ringing in TalkSport saying Potter isn't the right man. Although I agree he's not a top manager, he's still undefeated so far despite it being underwhelming. Reminds me a bit like Ole's long underwhelming undefeated record.
 
TheReligion said:
I think to suggest Chelsea are going about things better than United in terms of their transition is a little premature. United have added Eriksen, Martinez, Malacia, Casemiro and Antony with all improving the first XI and squad drastically. Chelsea spent more money and in my opinion got much less.

Now you have Potter you’ll need to continue to heavily spend. United will get the other pieces Ten Hag needs but there’s really not that much. A replacement for Ronaldo and a fully fit Martial and I think the team goes up a level again.
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I think it’s a case of both of you looking at things with a more hopeful outlook for your own clubs than you would for the opponent, which is fair enough, we are football fans at the end of the day.
 
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