15 goals is just insanely low. How strong was the league overall that season?
How did Chelsea concede only 15 goals in 2004/05?
- Thread starter VorZakone
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Carvalho, Terry, Cole Gallas, Makélélé.
Put it in a pot, stir it up and.....
Put it in a pot, stir it up and.....
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Cole didn't join Chelsea until the summer of 2006.
Oh feck yeah, they still had Gallas who was an even better defender than Cole.
I mean the league was pretty strong(not as strong as 2008, but still strong).
Arsenal came off their invincibles season and were goal scoring machines that season.
Jose's Chelsea were a machine though. Terry-Carvahlo were an incredible partnership. Gallas had a good season. Makelele was great. Lampard was incredible in midfield. Jose was actually the 'special one' then and maximized every single player.
I don't think any team will ever break that goals conceded record in the Prem.
Arsenal came off their invincibles season and were goal scoring machines that season.
Jose's Chelsea were a machine though. Terry-Carvahlo were an incredible partnership. Gallas had a good season. Makelele was great. Lampard was incredible in midfield. Jose was actually the 'special one' then and maximized every single player.
I don't think any team will ever break that goals conceded record in the Prem.
Yeah, Terry, Gallas, Ferreira and Carvalho were the four defenders with most appearances for Chelsea that season. Glen Johnson and Wayne Bridge also played quite a bit.
Good defence, one of the best DMs ever, Mourinho's usual organisation. Playing against them was terribly frustrating.
Having a perfect defence and a midfield that could properly shield them, not to mention one of the greatest defensive managers of all time. Plus no one knew what to expect from Jose, teams really didn't know how to break his Chelsea team down.
And Petr Cech of course
Best GK in the world at the time
Two of the best CBs
Best holding midfielder
Best defensive manager
Voila
Two of the best CBs
Best holding midfielder
Best defensive manager
Voila
Aye, prime Cech was an incredible keeper.
Yeah. Although still a very good keeper, he was never really the same since his terrible head injury.
Mourinho side with Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas defense all in their prime protected by Makelele. I can see why.
They had pretty much every defensive player in their prime and also one of the best defensive tacticians in his prime too.
Chelsea were so powerful it felt like there would never be another team win the league.
How? A great defensive team, and it just happened to be one of those seasons. Everything went their way. Like the invincibles going unbeaten
Of note, they gave up 13 goals in 12 games in CL
Of note, they gave up 13 goals in 12 games in CL
Momentum is massively underrated in sports. Sometimes teams just go on a roll, the players are brimming full of confidence and the opposition is often defeated before the game has even started.
I think a lot of teams in the PL just stopped expecting to score against Chelsea. It was the same with their undefeated record at Stamford Bridge (which also only held up in the league IIRC).
Interesting...
World class defence supported by Makelele, and had the option to hit it long to Drogba if they were under the kosh.
Unbelievable side.
Unbelievable side.
Probably fair to say that Mourinho was the first manager to bring continental defending to England.
Teams always played fairly open and gungho at that point, Mourinho was happy for the 1-0.
Teams took a while to adjust and get used to breaking the bus, European teams already played that way.
Not great tbh
Chelsea's nearest challengers were Arsenal who basically imploded after their winning run came to an end at OT so from being invincible's their title defence was an embarrassment. We were in a state of rebuilding bedding in the likes of Fletcher, Rooney and Ronaldo while dealing with an ageing Roy Keane. Back then the PL was basically contested between Arsenal and us and given both sides issues at the time Chelsea were able to swoop in with their massive investment and dominate the league those 2 years
All that being said their points total still holds up as one of the best in PL history and obviously to only concede that number of goals showed the professionalism and consistency that Chelsea side had. To not have many of those lapses in concentration which turns a 4-0 into a 4-1 is really impressive
Yep, and with the Abramovich money it felt like we would never catch up. Surprising to think SAF put together one of our greatest ever teams over the next 4 seasons.
Cech was the best keeper in the world at the time too, didn't hurt.
I think a lot of people underrate Terry as a defender. That's one of the reasons it's hard to believe. Along with Carvalho it was one hell of a partnership.
I think the attacking talent wasn't as prolific, or at least fewer chances were made back then in the Premier League. Most teams would still hoof it and if you could deal with that, you could deal with them. Middlesbrough and Bolton were European football contenders, while the league contained the likes of Charlton, Birmingham, Blackburn, Portsmouth, West Brom, Norwich etc with Palace & Southampton at arguably their worst in the last 15 years. An average Newcastle and Fulham were in the Premier League that season and the likes of Spurs and Man City were nowhere near what they are now. Everton even finished above Liverpool that year which shows how weak they were at the time.
Arsenal only conceded 36 goals finishing in second and Manchester United only 26 which is an amazing number as well. For comparison, in 04/05 it took until the team in 10th place before a side conceded more than 50 goals. Whilst in 2018/19, the 5th place side conceded more than 50 goals. It shows that teams were probably both better defensively and weaker offensively back then. Even in terms of goals scored, only Chelsea & Arsenal scored more than 60 goals in 04/05, whilst in 2018/19 the whole of the Top 6 scored more than 60 goals.
Liverpool & Man City's defensive quality is probably understated in 2018/19, conceding 22 & 23 goals respectively against obviously much better attacking quality, smaller teams giving it more of a go etc. I think teams are probably regarded as having a good defensive season these days if they concede an average of one goal per game (38 a season) as nobody bar City & Pool bettering it did that last year.
Arsenal only conceded 36 goals finishing in second and Manchester United only 26 which is an amazing number as well. For comparison, in 04/05 it took until the team in 10th place before a side conceded more than 50 goals. Whilst in 2018/19, the 5th place side conceded more than 50 goals. It shows that teams were probably both better defensively and weaker offensively back then. Even in terms of goals scored, only Chelsea & Arsenal scored more than 60 goals in 04/05, whilst in 2018/19 the whole of the Top 6 scored more than 60 goals.
Liverpool & Man City's defensive quality is probably understated in 2018/19, conceding 22 & 23 goals respectively against obviously much better attacking quality, smaller teams giving it more of a go etc. I think teams are probably regarded as having a good defensive season these days if they concede an average of one goal per game (38 a season) as nobody bar City & Pool bettering it did that last year.
I remember thinking, shit were never going to catch Chelsea up. They were unbelievable, as impressive as invincible arsenal were this Chelsea team was much scarier.
Interesting opinion. Certainly in conversations I have on football Terry is regarded as an all-time great CB.
It's Carvalho that is overlooked.
Same way Barça only scored one goal against Inter during 190 minutes in the UCL 2010 semis: Mourinho's defensive tactics built around TopTop Defensive players.
This is just a part of it. Entire team was geared to defend and not just those guys.
They were an unbelievable team. Hard to score against and pretty good at scoring. I still think that chelsea side would beat this City side. Pep hates playing against those type of teams.
And behind them was the pre-head injury Cech, who never made a mistake.
Sadly true. Still real quality but he made a few errors he never, ever made before the injury. Apparently, he had quite a thin skull and was very fortunate not to suffer serious brain damage or worse. So, overall he did very well to comeback as well as he did. Great guy too!
Didn't some newspaper offered a prize to whoever scored against them?
They were one of those teams, you know if they score that's game over.
They were one of those teams, you know if they score that's game over.
The CL stat is interesting. But to concede 15 league goals is incredible. I've never had as much of a daunting feeling of a rival's dominance than Chelsea back then.
Tbf the league was pretty shite back then and tactically backwards. They didn't know how to deal with his 433 formation.
#BlameJose. 
Great defensive unit, the medium and small teams were still playing neanthertal attacking style which Jose could easily deal with.
In one off games or two legged ties, yes. Not over the course of a season though.
When Robben was introduced to the team it felt like this was the dominant Prem side for the foreseeable future
I've encountered people in both camps, and I also think certain opinions are trendy or fashionable at times.
It was certainly a thing to trash Terry and praise Carvalho to the hilt in certain circles at one point - https://www.redcafe.net/threads/terry-zero-tackling-technique.229464/ Some of the stuff on that thread was ridiculous.
Such opinions are still around in places, but I think with Terry continuing in English football for many years after and forming different partnerships then Carvalho has perhaps started to become a little forgotten.
I feel that chelsea side were also great in dispatching lower teams so it would be very close than some may think. They were also mentally very strong so I couldn't see them choking in crunch games.