Mark Kelly

2 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Are not two of those three players part the team you said downed tools downed tools last season. 

Obvious troll was obvious 

4 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Name the games changer the teamed missed?

Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Nkunku all out almost all season. 

5 minutes ago, ROTG said:

The league doesn’t lie, also unlike most of the teams above and below,  Chelsea didn’t play in a European competition. 

Yeah but if Arsenal or Liverpool had half their side out for an entire season they wouldn't have been second and third would they? 

I'm no fan of Pochettino but you're so blinkered it's unreal. 

19 minutes ago, Bison said:

So Copa America and then the Olympics. Smart idea .

Getting the excuses ready for why he can't run next season.

When there are rumblings about egos at the club from people like Silva, I'm imagining Enzo as numero uno diva, demanding to play where he wants and now this. 

Let's hope he rips it up and gets some of that fat off him. 

Surely the squad builders will say they got it right and Pochettino only achieved what he did because they bought well? 

After all didn't they say he never wanted Palmer? 

Sod off Klopp, Arne Slot is the new kid on the block and SKY are already writing the legend large,  the desperation is palpable. 

Just now, east lower said:

And therein lies the issues with a multi-layered structure - it’s where the responsibility lies for performance levels and what’s acceptable and what’s not.

At least with the old way of a hierarchical Management you knew and quite rightly, where the buck stopped. Especially with players and new signings. Now you have the lizards crawling around, trying to find cover for themselves and not focussing firstly and foremostly on the team. Briefings and counter-briefings aplenty.

The multi-layered approach is fine, as long as you have all pulling in the same direction and have reasonable and proportionate levels of success I.e. Man City, Arsenal (not won a league, but unfortunately look as if they may in a season or two - as long as they stay aligned and together). Liverpool maybe - have to see how it holds together with Kipplity going. Dutch are a spiky race, so could be choppy waters ahead for them (let’s 🙏 for that). 
 

Our lot seem to be jostling for position and longevity. 

It's always struck me as odd that someone could get sacked because someone else above them wasn't any good at their job but here we are. 

8 minutes ago, chara said:

As alluded to by others...PGs**t lot stated that Sterling was occupying the defenders space...huh...can someone explain what that actually means?....It's aggravating enough when what appear to be strong penalty claims, as seen by  reasonable folks, are dismissed but it was a case ,I think, a long time ago of things leveling out over a season,,human error or just bad luck with officials not having a clear view but now we seem to be at a stage when the ref can decide as he wants to rather than on what occurs.

The newly constructed English language terms ,,as Mr Blair suggested many years ago.."Newspeak" as I recall...appear to explain incompetence and possible bias (as if) by an organisation who..as mentioned before..are there for the game not the game there for them.( Big salary checks say differently?)

That "occupying the defenders space" is the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard in my life if you'll pardon my expression , whoever came up with that assessment is not fit to referee / operate VAR and should be removed , but knowing the PGMOL he'll get promoted . 

5 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Without meaning to be negative after winning 5 on the bounce, but I did find yesterday's game supports why I am not a huge Poch fan. We're going into the game in great form, playing a midtable team with not much riding on it (for them) and instead of playing the attack minded Gusto at RB, he picks a CB there.  Nothing against Trev, but he's playing out of position. It's as though he is more worried about Bournemouth and what they might do to us, rather than thinking we can and should dismantle them. 

That's him all over and why he will never amount to anything other than an also ran . He lacks bravery and if you don't trust your players , they know you don't.

We finished the season well so I don't begrudge him another year but am fairly confident he'll be gone regardless this time next year.

Just now, east lower said:

First time I saw it re-run was this morning and there’s just no debate to be had, 100%er

If the PGMOL had anything about them they'd be sacking the idiot VAR operative who deemed that Sterling had inhabited the space of the defender ( who was their CF and made a CF's tackle ) and so it wasn't a penalty as that was complete and utter garbage.

Just now, paulw66 said:

I have just watched it on Sky.

It's just an absolute 100% penalty. 

Literally any other club in the league get that , not us.

I'm sure I bore people rigid on here banging on about it but from memory the last two or three penalties we have actually been awarded were given by VAR review where the ref "missed it" because the lot of them are biased against Chelsea and have been for absolutely years , we see it every game where we are carded for the same type of challenges the opposition aren't . 

Many of our yellow cards are for dissent and kicking the ball away and having watched a lot of football this season I cannot recall a single time another club has been penalised for kicking the ball away , I'm sure it must happen but I haven't seen it and I have seen clubs kick the ball away against us and not been penalised for it. 

18 minutes ago, east lower said:

The Sky presenter on this section is a big Chelsea fan. Used to see him regularly at away games. He hides it quite well though!

Yes , he always sticks up for us too which is great to see 

6 minutes ago, east lower said:

I haven’t watched it back, so can’t really say anything about Cucurella’s reaction - But he got properly body slammed. Strong as an ox 🐂- the Bournemouth player, about as subtle as one too.

He makes a meal of it but I understand he was booked for kicking the ball away which is peak Taylor as he was desperately trying to tackle Semenya at the time , as Taylor didn't initially card him I can only surmise that VAR whispered in his ear to double whammy us again .

As I mentioned previously , I don't think you'll find many Chelsea supporters who aren't Fifa stat whores/ Twitterclowns  who want to see Gallagher sold but if the boy won't sign his new deal , what exactly are we supposed to do ?  We need to be balancing the books and Gallagher is a saleable asset that we won't want to see go for nothing. 

12 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

The bar for getting DG to admit that a ref and VAR team have got something wrong is very high. Which tells you how bad that decision was.

The bar for VAR to get a ref to review a penalty call is very very high. And yet we've had several penalties after VAR has intervened this season, which tells you how reluctant refs are to give us pens. 

The bar to get refs - especially the 'elite' Taylor and Oliver - to come to the monitor and be forced to review their own cock-ups  is very, very, very high.  Which explains the notorious Dean hairpull non-intervention and the refusal of VAR to get involved with the Sterling pen yesterday.

It's the weaseling out that really galls me, where if it's something that benefits us if overruled then the commentators chirp up with " VAR are going with the referee on this instance" but when is Reece James red card for instance then they will overrule the referee. 

What is it they can or they can't? 

It's an agenda that the entire media play along with. 

Just now, Backbiter said:

The commentators on Sky reported VAR saying he was booked for kicking the ball after it was already out of play.

A bodyslam like that has to be violent conduct. VAR and Taylor were astonishingly bad yesterday.

As i said in the match day thread , the game started with a real "end of the season" feel to it as neither team really had much to play for , that Taylor managed to enrage both sets of players to the point where I really thought it was going to kick off , is some doing , the man is either a moron or he had an agenda and a narrative to perform to. 

17 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

I've said it before, but let's take a punt on Elijah Adebayo as a backup to Jackson. He is 1.93m tall, strong, and good disciplinary record. He has managed 10 goals in 32 games in his first term in the Prem in a weak Luton side. Given Chelsea's additional creativity, I'd expect him to get more. He had an injury this term, but only the odd issue in previous seasons in the Championship.

Goals	Assists	Played	Goals per 90	Mins per Goal	Total Shots	Conversion	Accuracy
10	0	32	0.54	167	30	33%	53%

He is 26 and his last contract was in 2023, so probably a couple of years left. Transfermarkt says his contract value is about €12.00m, but they always underestimate it. Luton has been relegated, so he might be amenable to a move especially given various incidents in the past while playing for them. More, think of the income the club would get from having his full name on their shirt - "Elijah Anuoluwapo Oluwaferanmi Oluwatomi Oluwalana Ayomikulehin Adebayo"

Looks a handful when I've seen him play , for a moderate fee it may be worth taking a punt instead of putting all our eggs in an Osimhen basket , I think we may well be after Jhon Duran of Villa though 

28 minutes ago, Ham said:

That Arsenal decision was one of the most baffling decisions I've ever seen. 

He's called over to the screen which already suggests that he's made an error but he then watches a clear handball and goes against the VAR advice.  

The two most senior refs in England had an absolute mare yesterday.   

Both bent if you ask me.  

We are definitely being had over. 

To a narrative. 

For money. 

17 minutes ago, Bison said:

Would be a shame to see him end up there. 

I wonder if he'd come back? 

6 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

There were a whole bunch of decisions in the first half that I have no idea why they were made. Why was Cucurella booked? How is missing the ball and treading on Conor's foot not a foul? There were moments when bodies were strewn across the pitch, and play would be signalled to continue only to be stopped because one player leaned into another slightly. Were we going back to a previous foul, or did something occur that was not visible in the replay? Players were pulled back, and the foul was given the wrong way. Did I miss something? It was absolutely bizarre. 

It's Taylor, he's sees things nobody else does and VAR never overrule him because Chelsea. 

How you can constantly wave play on when Chelsea players are kicked and then book one for making more of a challenge than they should is the mark of a small and petty man. 

Well, thank goodness that's over. 

Up yours Arsenal 

That all stemmed from Taylor not giving a free kick on Cucurella. 

Wanker

Another penalty chalked off by VAR.