Chelsea 0 Aston Villa 1

[Ham]

1 hour ago, Max Fowler said:

What we are about to see at the weekend is so predictable that it can be spelled out in writing. No manager - Poch, Jose, Pep himself could contain the voice of the dissenting fanbase. Often called entitled, the Chelsea fans recognise without blue tinted spectacles the hostile takeover that has gone on at our club. It can go on no longer. This goes beyond well Poch, who will be hung out to dry like Potter. This goes to the depths of Clearlake - the private equity company ripping the heart out of our club.

No more to 4-4-3's on the whiteboard. No more to beloved managers being ruthlessly sacked. No more American models applied to our beautiful game. No more to penny pinching fans. No more to youth players being treated as lambs to the slaughter. NO MORE!

The fans have spoken and they will speak at the weekend. Clearlake - this is NOT your club. THIS IS OUR CLUB.

You are about to find this out very soon indeed. Chelsea 0-2 Aston Villa. 

 

[east lower]

4 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Sorry Max 

Other than one or two dissenting voices I can't see much happening, it's much too early to be that upset I think. 

Not so sure Mark, normally the away crowd are extremely patient and forgiving, the home crowd not so much.

But on Sunday, there was a good few who let fly with vociferous negativity. I put that down to a combination of no measured improvement in performances or results and the Poch/Tottenham factor.

[Mark Kelly]

5 minutes ago, east lower said:

Not so sure Mark, normally the away crowd are extremely patient and forgiving, the home crowd not so much.

But on Sunday, there was a good few who let fly with vociferous negativity. I put that down to a combination of no measured improvement in performances or results and the Poch/Tottenham factor.

Blimey, I'm really surprised by that, I'll get in some popcorn and watch with interest. 

[Max Fowler]

6 hours ago, Willian Dollar Baby said:

Finally had a chance to catch up on the Bournemouth highlights so haven't seen the full game. It didn't seem too bad of a performance, as always we lack that clinical edge. Mudryk looked a lot better in the highlights I saw. Jackson also a nuisance but without the composure to put the ball in the net. He reminds me of Danny Welbeck so far. Rapid and strong with great link up play but no cutting edge. Sterling is the only one who can be relied upon consistently in the attack.

Whilst many of the players purchased look good individually, the squad building has been terrible. We started off with a lack of goals from our attacking players and have added multiple midfielders who have zero goal threat. 

I would personally love to see Chilwell at LB and Colwill CB but do sympathise that there are other issues we have to take into account. The poor squad building has left us with a real lack of height and physicality in our team meaning Poch is having to fit in an extra centre back, although it's clear he does not want to move to 3ATB. James being out also doesn't help here as he would be far more useful from set-pieces than Gusto.

By my quick fag packet maths, Poch has always picked at least 4 players who are strong in the air.  Chilwell has been playing LW who I would say is very decent in the air to make up for a lack of height elsewhere, with Colwill behind him at LB and then the two centre backs. I don't really count Jackson who is tall and strong but from what I've seen not great with his head. 

In this game the injury to Caicedo allowed the physical monster Ugochukwu to come in, then allowing us to play Mudryk over Chilwell. With this in mind, I would be shocked if we ever see Gusto and Maatsen as tandem full backs at the same time given their lack of height. 

I actually like what I've seen so far from Poch. We've deserved far more points than we have with the main reasons being a few key areas we failed to address in the summer. He's doing the best he can given the lack of quality we have in the penalty box. Spending the fortune we have and still have such an unbalanced team is so depressing. After all the money spent Bournemouth had an arguably better bench than us and that can't just be excused by injuries. 

Given the youth of our squad, again through poor squad building, this season will continue to be transitional and we are still a number of players short if we have any aspirations for CL again. It feels ridiculous to say that we still need more signings. What a mess. 

Villa is going to be real tough game. I've also just found out that Jackson is already one yellow away from a suspension! How on earth???

 

All of Jackson‘s yellows have been for dissent. Great stuff.

[Mark Kelly]

10 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

All of Jackson‘s yellows have been for dissent. Great stuff.

I think "dissent" is a catch-all that encompasses complaining the referee isn't doing their job properly. 

Which, er, they're not. 

[chara]

Another great "rule"implimentation...so to verbally disagree with a ref gets a yellow...the same punishment as for a borderline red card dangerous tackle or cynical take down...makes sense...obviously the sticks and stones rhyme doesn't work for the PG buffoons!

[CarefreeMuratcan]

20 hours ago, martin1905 said:

That in turn has caused teams to just sit back and let the better sides have the ball, which has in my opinion ruined the game and made it boring.

A radical thought has occurred to me this morning while drinking my coffee. Should the rules be adjusted so low blocks are punished. Offside line is the goal line if a certain criteria isn't adhered to. For example if all of a team's players are in their own half, no offsides in that half. 

[Sciatika]

Interesting, but probably too hard to administer at the margins. We will simply get into arguments about which side of the halfway line a player is standing. Also, low blocks are often the 4-5-1 type where one player is left upfield for an out ball and to hold up play for a counterattack.

[asvaberg]

13 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

We will simply get into arguments about which side of the halfway line a player is standing. 

Espesially just after the break 🙂 🙂 🙂 

[Chelsea_Matt]

On 18/09/2023 at 09:20, asvaberg said:

Way too early, Mark.

The optimist in me fancy a colossal win for us - the Ketchup effect 🙂 

Why ketchup 🤣🤣🤣

[Chelsea_Matt]

I think we’ll play out of our skins and keep it to 0-3.

[Blue Moon]

21 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Why ketchup 🤣🤣🤣

Arcane reference to away seats at Ajax?

 

20 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

I think we’ll play out of our skins and keep it to 0-3.

Optimist.

[Mark Kelly]

35 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Why ketchup 🤣🤣🤣

I think it's an allusion to the banging on the bottom of a ketchup bottle yielding no ketchup then suddenly ...... ketchup central . 

Meaning no goals , no goals, no goals , bang , five goals. 

[Max Fowler]

Questions for the likes of @xceleryx, @Ham and anyone remotely optimistic about how things are going - not meaning to draw  camps again. Given our upcoming fixtures afterwards, and how things have gone so far, do you have a bare minimum of required results from our next four games?

Aston Villa (H)
Brighton (H) (EFL Cup)
Fulham (A)
Burnley (A)

[asvaberg]

47 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

I think it's an allusion to the banging on the bottom of a ketchup bottle yielding no ketchup then suddenly ...... ketchup central . 

Meaning no goals , no goals, no goals , bang , five goals. 

Excactly. Thanks.

[Dwmh]

11 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Questions for the likes of @xceleryx, @Ham and anyone remotely optimistic about how things are going - not meaning to draw  camps again. Given our upcoming fixtures afterwards, and how things have gone so far, do you have a bare minimum of required results from our next four games?

Aston Villa (H)
Brighton (H) (EFL Cup)
Fulham (A)
Burnley (A)

... And who will you sack if the players don't meet it?

Extremely loaded question.

[Ham]

1 hour ago, Max Fowler said:

Questions for the likes of @xceleryx, @Ham and anyone remotely optimistic about how things are going - not meaning to draw  camps again. Given our upcoming fixtures afterwards, and how things have gone so far, do you have a bare minimum of required results from our next four games?

Aston Villa (H)
Brighton (H) (EFL Cup)
Fulham (A)
Burnley (A)

I want wins in all of the league games.  Not fussed about the LC. 

I think that's really doable. 

 

[Sleeping Dave]

Well. What to say? Must-win? No, we just need to accept we aren’t going to pull up any trees any time soon. Improvement game by game is all we can realistically hope for. 

                      Sanchez

Gusto - Silva - Colwill - Chilwell

                Enzo - Ugochukwu

    Sterling - Gallagher - Mudryk

                        Jackson

[Ham]

22 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Well. What to say? Must-win? No, we just need to accept we aren’t going to pull up any trees any time soon. Improvement game by game is all we can realistically hope for. 

                      Sanchez

Gusto - Silva - Colwill - Chilwell

                Enzo - Ugochukwu

    Sterling - Gallagher - Mudryk

                        Jackson

Hopefully we'll have Noni and Palmer starting/off the bench too. Maybe Broja for some minutes too. 

Looking unlikely that Caicedo will feature as he hasn't been seen in training yet. 

Ecuadorian FA need to explain why he played for them with strapping on his leg. 🤬

[bertles86]

I predict a Cucurella redemption arc. Poch hands him the #10 shirt to unlock those pesky opposition defences which dare to defend against us! Marc then shows us what he's all about and pulls off the best display in the position since Gavin Peacock against Boro in '96.

[Ham]

10 minutes ago, bertles86 said:

I predict a Cucurella redemption arc. Poch hands him the #10 shirt to unlock those pesky opposition defences which dare to defend against us! Marc then shows us what he's all about and pulls off the best display in the position since Gavin Peacock against Boro in '96.

I predict a new club for him in January. 

[Blue_in_TX]

1 hour ago, bertles86 said:

I predict a Cucurella redemption arc. Poch hands him the #10 shirt to unlock those pesky opposition defences which dare to defend against us! Marc then shows us what he's all about and pulls off the best display in the position since Gavin Peacock against Boro in '96.

Clearly what gets written when there is no drug policy for the chat room 

[Sleeping Dave]

4 hours ago, Ham said:

Hopefully we'll have Noni and Palmer starting/off the bench too. Maybe Broja for some minutes too. 

Looking unlikely that Caicedo will feature as he hasn't been seen in training yet. 

Ecuadorian FA need to explain why he played for them with strapping on his leg. 🤬

Yep that one sounds like insanity. How is the club just accepting that? Fuck international football, that’s been dead for decades. 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

Anyone else loving that Villa and Brighton lost in Europe. I mean it shows the depths we have sunk to, but still. Every little helps. 

[Ham]

11 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

Anyone else loving that Villa and Brighton lost in Europe. I mean it shows the depths we have sunk to, but still. Every little helps. 

Thank God for small mercies. We could have been in Europe and playing twice a week with 14 players available.