Chelsea 2023/24 season thread.

We conceded 11 of our 18 goals in the 4 games v the top teams we’ve faced in the league this season. That means we’ve conceded 7 in the other 11 against the so called lower teams we should be comfortably beating, those are the teams we’re discussing here so feck knows why you’re being sarky. We’ve gone from one of the worst defensive records in the league to looking up near the top.

Is there a separate column on that table that has GD for teams that we should beat easier than we should?
Got a hint or link for that?
feck I’ll go through Arsenal against the same opposition, why not. The team at the top of the table should be easily beating these teams right?
1 goal win v Everton
Drew v 10 man Fulham
Drew with Chelsea
Conceded 3 v Luton and need a 97 minute winner
1 goal win v Wolves
1 goal win v Brentford
3-1 win v Burnley v 10 men after Burnley deservedly equalised
Lost v Newcastle
Comfortably beat Sheffield United
1 goal win v Forest

I’ll do the second best team in the league next if you want

What’s happening? Is this some form of gaslighting you’re attempting here?

Just a wee correction to your original post.
 
I actually thought pre match a basketball type game would suit Chelsea more so I'd say it's very worrying from their POV they really should've shipped five goals to Man. United and didn't create much at all in second.

Chelsea moan endlessly when a Brentford type team comes and low blocks them to death at Stamford Bridge. Opportunity last night to take on a United side at their open game and who've already lost three times at Old Trafford yet based on stats were well beaten over the 90 minutes, same happened at Newcastle. If Spurs hadn't imploded as they did after 20 minutes the same could well have happened in that match.

Yeah really good points. I was surprised in the gulf between the two teams all things considered.
 
Yeah really good points. I was surprised in the gulf between the two teams all things considered.

Jackson taking that extra touch before shooting in the first half sums up their issues, no killer instinct in the big games these days.

Guessing Nkunku return is imminent so we'll see if he's better at converting those type of chances.
 
Wasn’t your xG 1.4 to United’s 4.6?

By that United should have scored at least 5.

The game was open in parts however without our first choice core this wasn’t surprising.

Yes that’s true (though pen counted for nearly 1xg). I wasn’t trying to say we deserved something out of the game or anything. We were thoroughly outplayed and honestly our performance deserved a battering. I said in a different thread I think but a more confident team probably shreds us to pieces and beats us 5-1.
 
Looks like age is finally catching up with the old warrior. Given he'd be 40 next season surely has to be a plan there regardless of form?

Perhaps one option is to go back to 3-5-2 and give him another CB to cover.

My gut feeling is Chelsea won’t renew his contract beyond this season (he’s been signing 1 year extensions every season since 2020). We have to start phasing him out now though. When Conte arrived, he started the season with Terry in the team, but one day he started leaving him out and that was it for him at Chelsea. He sat on the bench the rest of the season and then signed for you lot in the summer. The phasing out period gave Luiz and Cahill the time to play without Terry holding their hand.
 
Yeah really good points. I was surprised in the gulf between the two teams all things considered.

It was one of the worst performances I’ve seen from us in years. Probably the worst since the Conte years. I don’t think what you saw last night was a good representation of the level of our team.
 
Genuine question, did this £1.75 billion pledge have to be spent inside a certain amount of time? As they can't have had enough time to assess the sqaud properly, and do proper due diligence on all the players they bought, and are now paying the price for been so slap dash.


It just seems they wanted to burn through as much of this money as quickly as possible for whatever reason.
 
It was one of the worst performances I’ve seen from us in years. Probably the worst since the Conte years. I don’t think what you saw last night was a good representation of the level of our team.

I was absolutely amazed that I saw a team who were actually worse than United.
I know that's a general statement, but from the five or six chances you created, you never really looked confident of scoring, in fact the hardest chance was the one taken. Defensively you were very poor, and realistically, United should have scored five or six.
Not sure if the problem is Poch, or whether the players just don't have confidence in him.
 
That’s a big call. I don’t blame you for trying to wipe it from your memory but last season did actually happen.

I think perhaps expectations being different skews perceptions a little. I had fully checked out of last season by the end of February and my expectations for every remaining game were in the mud. I suppose I should have qualified it with ‘relative to expectations’. I was more disappointed last night than any game post Christmas last season.
 
This is insane. They’re 10th after spending a billion pounds. New into the job or not, he is definitely not doing an ‘excellent’ job.

They might, and probably will, improve but if this resembles ‘excellence’, the bar is incredibly low

Did he spend a billion? Have you not seen how spending ungodly money can actually be more of a hindrance than a help?

The results haven't been good enough but much like Arteta's first 2 seasons you can see clear signs of development. Results can lie for short periods of time, it's pretty easy to tell when a team is moving in the right direction to change results and do it in a fashion that can be sustainable due to the football they play.
 
Did he spend a billion? Have you not seen how spending ungodly money can actually be more of a hindrance than a help?

The results haven't been good enough but much like Arteta's first 2 seasons you can see clear signs of development. Results can lie for short periods of time, it's pretty easy to tell when a team is moving in the right direction to change results and do it in a fashion that can be sustainable due to the football they play.
I’m not disputing the general quality of their performances though. The level of expectation at Chelsea is much higher than midtable though and I, and many others, would have expected a much greater showing in the table after 15 games.

With that in mind, there’s no way we can constitute his performance as manager as ‘excellent’. I just find this thinking ludicrous and reflects the ridiculous media scrutiny of certain clubs.

United are far ahead (points wise) and the media clamour for his head. Even City are in a supposed ‘mini crisis’, yet very little is actually made of Chelsea - perhaps it’s just because they’ve been shite for so long.
 
Easy to say otherwise after yesterday but they are clearly a much, much better side than last season.

We played as well as we have done in a while and it still could have been a draw.

I think Poch might actually be doing an excellent job, desperately needs a striker but they have something about them.

United dominated the game, missed a penalty and had an xG of almost 5 to Chelsea’s 1.

It should have been 3/4/5 goals to one in United’s favour and if the likes of Martinez, Casemiro, Eriksen, Mount, Varane etc were all available then possibly even more comfortable.

Poch should be getting more from this team in my opinion. There’s a number of players in it that have experience in the PL and should have hit the ground running, especially playing one game per week without any other commitments or travel.

Caceido, Sterling, Silva, Colwill, James, Chilwell, Sanchez, Gallagher, Broja all know what the PL is about and shouldn’t need as long to adapt. Even the likes of Mudryk and Enzo have been at the club almost 12 months now.

I don’t think their performances in general have been horrendous but I also don’t think it’s asking too much to be expecting more at this stage.

They have spent over a billion since Boehly took over. They had two central midfielders worth over £100m a piece on the pitch against United v Amrabat and Mctominay.

Ten Hag gets criticised for having spent 400m and he is still having to play a shed load of players he didn’t even sign that don’t fit his system (Lindelof, Maguire, Mctominay, Martial etc). He also has to make signings like Weghorst, Sabitzer and Evans because of the Glazers whilst Chelsea have been essentially spending through the nose at whoever they desire.

I can see why people think Poch should be doing more.
 
I’m not disputing the general quality of their performances though. The level of expectation at Chelsea is much higher than midtable though and I, and many others, would have expected a much greater showing in the table after 15 games.

With that in mind, there’s no way we can constitute his performance as manager as ‘excellent’. I just find this thinking ludicrous and reflects the ridiculous media scrutiny of certain clubs.

United are far ahead (points wise) and the media clamour for his head. Even City are in a supposed ‘mini crisis’, yet very little is actually made of Chelsea - perhaps it’s just because they’ve been shite for so long.

I think people hugely underrate how hard it is to come into a club where there has clearly been a rot and turn things around. Especially once with issues above the manager and huge squad changes.

He has come in and in less than 6 months they look like a team that will do well. Certainly still issues and for instance I would have dropped Silva 6 weeks ago at least but you can tell there is a good side forming there.

That is impressive considering how messy the job he walked into was.
 
No? Almost certainly the opposite is true.

The opposite may be true if a club as a good structure for buying the right profile of player.

Spending hand over fist haphazardly under the stewardship of inexperienced ownership is a recipe for mediocrity.
 
United dominated the game, missed a penalty and had an xG of almost 5 to Chelsea’s 1.

It should have been 3/4/5 goals to one in United’s favour and if the likes of Martinez, Casemiro, Eriksen, Mount, Varane etc were all available then possibly even more comfortable.

Yeah, that match was a disasterclass from Chelsea, as was the Newcastle match. This United side has struggled to score all season and they put up an xG >4.

Playing away to top 6/7 sides is never easy but those two matches would worry me as a Chelsea supporter in terms of where this is going. Probably their two worst matches of the season.

Chelsea's defensive organization was terrible all match. United do not have a good midfield or set of ball players at the back and yet were cutting through them with ease.

Look at the second goal, its a disaster all around. The front three are bypassed by a slow rolled pass to Maguire, and even a supertanker like him has acres of space to turn and start carrying forward unimpeded. Rather than recognizing the danger and falling into a line with the central midfielders or trying to help cut off Maguire's passing options, Palmer just ambles up and marks nobody. Meanwhile, Sterling is jogging back despite Dalot being ahead of him and running into a huge empty space in front of the defense on the left. James gets sucked in so Dalot passes to Garnacho to tee up a completely unmarked cross at his leisure. United has an overload on the back post because Mudryk is too lazy or confused to run back and mark his man. The overload doesn't even matter in the end because Silva loses his marker, Colwill weakly just falls down, and United has three free players at the back post to nod home a cross that Garnacho had all day to pick out.
 
Could've signed Endrick

Will they regret this?

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...g-football-thats-what-i-want-to-do-in-my-life

His father, Douglas, picks up the story. “I have to admit I do not like the cold but my wife and Endrick do. Endrick really likes playing in the rain. So we received an invitation from Chelsea, from the owner, and we went there to see the club and the country. We watched Chelsea play Arsenal and we got to see the coach, the facilities, Jorginho, César Azpilicueta and Thiago Silva.

“They explained everything to us. They introduced us to the person who would help us settle in. She showed us the house we would live in, the school Endrick would go to, the church we would attend. Everything was right with us and Chelsea

“I can’t say 100% because I hadn’t signed, but the deal was agreed. I had already got it into my head that I would live in London with all that cold weather. But then at night, my son’s manager phoned and said that the Chelsea owner had backed out of the deal because the price they would have to pay for Endrick would inflate the market. It was €60m [£51.4m] for a 16-year-old boy who would only arrive in the country almost two years later.”
 
We’re in the business of winning transfer windows these days. As back to back to back transfer window winners, it’s only fair we decided to back out to give the competition a chance.
 
I have officially checked out of this season. Feck this team.
 
This has the potential to be the very worst project in the history of the game, when you look at the money spent and the squad that has been assembled.

It is looking like a massive oversight by Boehly and co. to think they could apply the same principals to a team in the premier league.

They have hamstrung themselves for the next 7-8 years with an extremely average core squad.
 
Boehly & Co. arrived thinking they were the smartest guys in the room. "The old guard were dinosaurs! We know better!" It turns out having no experience and endless hubris leads to this calamity.

They inherited one of the most successful clubs in Europe over the last 2 decades and have left them in shambles within 2 years, having spent hundreds of millions in the process. Baffling.
 
We’re in the business of winning transfer windows these days. As back to back to back transfer window winners, it’s only fair we decided to back out to give the competition a chance.
Your transfers are crap though - you're back to being 90s Chelsea and I love it :lol:
 
Would we really be calling this a season? Seems a bit harsh on the word season tbh.
 
I like you and @duffer so feel bad for you but it's funny to compile the misery on certain Poch lovers. :)

Thanks. We deserve the pile on to be honest. The ownership, the manager, the players, the lot of them deserve all the stick. Feck them. They’re embarrassing.
 
By comparison to us, United fans know pretty well the deadwood that have been around for years that we never shift

Chelsea fans, who’s the deadwood in your squad? It doesn’t feel like you’ve had most of these players very long (so maybe different scenario tbf)
 
Major surgery required to the squad.

We still need a striker. We need a new captain, James is injured too much and to replace Raheem.

Experienced players need to come in, not just kids.

1.3 PPG or worse is our level at the moment and a new manager won't change that.
 
By comparison to us, United fans know pretty well the deadwood that have been around for years that we never shift

Chelsea fans, who’s the deadwood in your squad? It doesn’t feel like you’ve had most of these players very long (so maybe different scenario tbf)

Can’t pinpoint any particular deadwood. Each individual is decent enough. We got rid of all the supposed deadwood last summer and the remaining deadwood aren’t really playing anyway (Sarr) or on loan (Lukaku).

I really don’t think the problem lies with the playing squad. 85% of them are new players signed in the last 12-18 months. They’re mostly talented young players who have the potential to blossom into excellent top players.

The owners and I’m sorry to say it, Poch, are the biggest problems.
 
Who would have thought signing a bunch of average players for crazy amounts of money would lead to a failure?
 
Can’t pinpoint any particular deadwood. Each individual is decent enough. We got rid of all the supposed deadwood last summer and the remaining deadwood aren’t really playing anyway (Sarr) or on loan (Lukaku).

I really don’t think the problem lies with the playing squad. 85% of them are new players signed in the last 12-18 months. They’re mostly talented young players who have the potential to blossom into excellent top players.

The owners and I’m sorry to say it, Poch, are the biggest problems.
Probably easier to solve than our problems then - who’s the fans pick to come in if Poch gets the boot?
 
By comparison to us, United fans know pretty well the deadwood that have been around for years that we never shift

Chelsea fans, who’s the deadwood in your squad? It doesn’t feel like you’ve had most of these players very long (so maybe different scenario tbf)

Gallagher isn't deadwood but I think everyone knows they're not going to be challenging for CL and cups with him as a midfield regular anytime soon. He's their McTominay pretty much.