Chelsea 4 Manchester United 3

[east lower]

12 minutes ago, NoblyBobly said:

How was it when the last goal went in? It looked insane 😃

Mental!! 

Perhaps dragging a victory from that position, where there seemed to be a quiet acceptance that we were not going to draw the game made the moment that much more intense.
 

 

[east lower]

14 minutes ago, NoblyBobly said:

Well I suppose I admire his bravery in wanting  to take it, but that bravery is completely out trumped by stupidity. Imagine another Sterling miss? 

Not the time or place for histrionics. Cool heads required. Thankfully we have one of the coolest in Mr Palmer - Remember the crazy Man City home game also.

[Floyd25]

Not his biggest fan by any means and I think the win papers over the cracks, but it’s hard not to be happy for Poch, seeing his celebration on the touchline, been a very difficult season for him. Was infuriated with him during the match, thinking why is he bringing on defenders when we’re chasing the game, but he got the win in the end, so fair play on this occasion. I do look at our games and wonder what he’s trying to do sometimes, but a great moment last night. 

[NoblyBobly]

47 minutes ago, Floyd25 said:

Not his biggest fan by any means and I think the win papers over the cracks, but it’s hard not to be happy for Poch, seeing his celebration on the touchline, been a very difficult season for him. Was infuriated with him during the match, thinking why is he bringing on defenders when we’re chasing the game, but he got the win in the end, so fair play on this occasion. I do look at our games and wonder what he’s trying to do sometimes, but a great moment last night. 

I think what it was , was that he let his guard down for a moment , and he suddenly looked like one of us. It took that kind of unbelievable drama to do it but his true emotions just got the better of him.It showed he cared.
 He clearly likes to keep himself under control if he can, and I don’t think that has not done him any favours so far. 
I have been a big critic but I was super chuffed for him. 

[RDCW]

2 hours ago, NFAS said:

? 43 points not enough?

I miscalculated Luton's number of games left! 44 will be enough, so we need 1 more (although I haven't checked the fixtures to establish which of the bottom 3 are playing each other). It's a genuine relief that relegation is no longer an issue after the season we've had !

[Ham]

1 hour ago, RDCW said:

I miscalculated Luton's number of games left! 44 will be enough, so we need 1 more (although I haven't checked the fixtures to establish which of the bottom 3 are playing each other). It's a genuine relief that relegation is no longer an issue after the season we've had !

By the same token, last night's results mean that we can't mathematically win the league anymore 😕

[Chelsea_Matt]

Fell asleep and missed the drama! Happy birthday @Ham!

Amazing stuff but…blimey.

[bertles86]

In the cold light of day, I only have one observation - why don't our Murricans spend some money on midfielders?

 

Because  last night we most certainly did not have a midfield to speak off!

[My Blood Is Blue]

I’m still on a high, such an unbelievable ending. The middle was crap, but the ending gave us something only sport and probably only football can give us and reminded me why I keep watching every week. Wow!

All that said, last night proved, if it wasn’t already known, that the centre of our team is massively lacking and by that I mean the CBs and CMs. Caicedo was awful last night and it’s not the only time he’s performed badly, Enzo really struggles with the pace and intensity of this league (and that wasn’t an intense Man United performance!) and Disasi & Badiashile are not a PL partnership that can fill you with any confidence at all.

The plus side is we have Colwill to come back, who I believe is good enough, but we HAVE to go out and sign a top quality CB to play alongside him, otherwise our issues at the back will remain. As for CM, we’ve royally stitched ourselves up there… over £200m for a CM that has as much chance of losing you a game as it does winning a game. We have Lavia to come back, but god knows when and god knows if he’s the answer. 

Thanks to Lawrence & Winstanley we are currently left with a big and expensive hole right in the heart of our team with those 4 and it won’t be easy to fix, at least not financially anyway.

When I look at our squad depth/strength it’s clear where we need to get sorted and it’s right up the middle.

Anyway, that’s my rant after what was, in large parts, a terrible game for us, but I just want to enjoy it for what it was, a win over Man United, finally!

[NoblyBobly]

We have just got to drop Caicedo . Can anyone point to a performance that justifies that price tag . He’s a weak link imo. I’m not sure mentally he’s tough enough. We have Italian Casadei who is a great prospect just sitting there doing nothing. Enzo needs a different partner. 

[Mark Kelly]

5 hours ago, Floyd25 said:

Not his biggest fan by any means and I think the win papers over the cracks, but it’s hard not to be happy for Poch, seeing his celebration on the touchline, been a very difficult season for him. Was infuriated with him during the match, thinking why is he bringing on defenders when we’re chasing the game, but he got the win in the end, so fair play on this occasion. I do look at our games and wonder what he’s trying to do sometimes, but a great moment last night. 

a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[exiledblue]

What a game.

Apart from Palmer and Gallagher pretty much all the rest can go and for the first time I include Poch in that. It can not continue this way. The only thing we must practice in training is how to pass badly as we seem to have that perfected.

 

[My Blood Is Blue]

Highlights added, I’d skip the middle bit if I were you!

[Siidi]

I don't usually criticise pundits, but Andy Townsend was embarrassing to suggest Dalot had not fouled Madueke for the penalty. He rugby-tackled him. Townsend seemed to be in tears after our 4th goal went in, which added to my happiness. 

I am a fan of Madueke. He may lose the ball sometimes, but he is precisely the kind of player we needed in our attack last night. United's backline had disaster written all over it. You needed players who could take them on. Madueke does that, but unlike Sterling and Mudryk, he does it with an end product in mind. 

And we need to take on defenders when the game is still open because it is much more complicated when teams recoil into a defensive shape, as we saw against Burnley.

Whatever happens in the rest of the season, Pochettino must go. I am happy for him that we turned it around last night, but it was by chance rather than by design or strategy. His organic tactics-fee, strategy-free, coaching-free football may be box office for the neutrals, but we need something better.

 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

7 hours ago, east lower said:

Well, that was an experience and in the end I enjoyed the first 25 minutes and the last 3 minutes. But…………….the bit in between was pretty poor, once the euphoria of the win is done and people analyse the game they may see why we sit mid-table.

The £210m central midfield pairing were painful to watch, tonight Caicedo vying with Badiashile for worst player on the pitch. Enzo - very ordinary. 

Too many mistakes, not enough joined up play and we can’t seem to play instinctively and the lack of co-ordinated  movement very apparent.

Thankfully Noni had a ‘moment’ and then United had a forgetful moment (they forgot they were still in a match at the corner).

Palmer is the stand-out player by absolute miles, but he was a little frustrating in the second half. 

At 94 minutes, we truly looked like we’d run out of ideas. Very nice to ram the ole’s down the United fans throats. 

Just watched the Caicedo balls-up for their first, it’s worse than I thought. WTF was he thinking attempting a pass to a bloke who had three bearing down on him anyway, pass to the keeper. 

Up to the end, not a shred of positive energy from the coach either. 

Look, I am very happy we’ve won, but United ended up imploding.

Dallo must have made 6 or 7 fouls, plus the penalty and not close to a booking, Maguire too. The scoreboard at the ground showed a stat that they’d made 3 times the amount of fouls we had without a booking and we’d had three booked I think.

I know what you mean. It has an air of the Spurs 4-1 win about it. 

[east lower]

10 minutes ago, Siidi said:

Whatever happens in the rest of the season, Pochettino must go. I am happy for him that we turned it around last night, but it was by chance rather than by design or strategy. His organic tactics-fee, strategy-free, coaching-free football may be box office for the neutrals, but we need something better.

 

Carried by Palmer for us, in the same way he has been carried by Bale and Kane, then by the superstars at PSG.

 

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

a stopped clock is right twice a day.

As savage as ever 🤣🤣🤣 💥 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(it’s true though 👀)

[Holymoly]

While the win was both welcome and necessary we have to also be aware that we were two minutes away from losing after having been two goals up and that the result was more about United doing an us than it was about a wonderful performance by ourselves. Our defense is flakey in the extreme and our midfield has shades of an England Lampard/Gerrard dilemma. Aside from Palmer there has been zero consistency from a squad riven with a tendency towards injury. It isn't good enough and it is difficult to see where the club goes from here.

A great result against an old foe but once you delve below the headline it needs to be accepted for what it was, mid table madness.

[Chelsea_Matt]

3 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

While the win was both welcome and necessary we have to also be aware that we were two minutes away from losing after having been two goals up and that the result was more about United doing an us than it was about a wonderful performance by ourselves. Our defense is flakey in the extreme and our midfield has shades of an England Lampard/Gerrard dilemma. Aside from Palmer there has been zero consistency from a squad riven with a tendency towards injury. It isn't good enough and it is difficult to see where the club goes from here.

A great result against an old foe but once you delve below the headline it needs to be accepted for what it was, mid table madness.

Exactly. 😬🙃

[RDCW]

3 hours ago, Ham said:

By the same token, last night's results mean that we can't mathematically win the league anymore 😕

Happy Birthday !

[chiswickblue]

I find it difficult to judge the CM partnership as they are both obviously knackered from barely being rotated all season. But I would like to see Casadei and/or Chukwuemeka get a start in at least one of the next two matches, not least to add some physical presence in midfield which is clearly lacking.

At CB I don't know what the issue is with Badiashile since coming back from injury but he looks very ponderous. Disasi should be a backup player at best but injuries have forced him to play almost every match this season. I'd like to see a Colwill and Chalobah partnership until the end of the season, then depending on what happens with Fofana we may need to buy someone new.

[Miguelito07]

11 minutes ago, chiswickblue said:

I find it difficult to judge the CM partnership as they are both obviously knackered from barely being rotated all season. But I would like to see Casadei and/or Chukwuemeka get a start in at least one of the next two matches

I would have started Casadei against Burnley for either Gallagher or Enzo. Can't see Poch starting him against Sheffield Utd away. 

[east lower]

5 minutes ago, chiswickblue said:

I find it difficult to judge the CM partnership as they are both obviously knackered from barely being rotated all season. But I would like to see Casadei and/or Chukwuemeka get a start in at least one of the next two matches, not least to add some physical presence in midfield which is clearly lacking.

At CB I don't know what the issue is with Badiashile since coming back from injury but he looks very ponderous. Disasi should be a backup player at best but injuries have forced him to play almost every match this season. I'd like to see a Colwill and Chalobah partnership until the end of the season, then depending on what happens with Fofana we may need to buy someone new.

Badiashile is scared of the ball now, it’s his mind not the injury that’s causing his issues. He made a series of costly errors just after coming back from injury this season and neither the coaching staff or he has been able to get his confidence back. 

The way to improve defensively has been ostracised to the bench by the coach. He’d organise, encourage and also help others, but there’s a silly ego based show of ‘I am in charge’ nonsense going on. 

Banging this drum for a while but we do have to score 3 goals now to win games and I blame the coach in the majority for this, not wholly responsible though.

Not sure how ‘competitive’ Chuks is though, more of a 10 than an 8 or 6. 
 

Take your point 100% that Enzo, Caicedo must be out of/running out of gas. The coach won’t put Casadai on the pitch or give Chuks a start either. Again, and let’s say your job is on the line based on a spot in Europe next season or winning something this season, I  might not too.

[NoblyBobly]

Well we weren’t the biggest Billion Dollar Bottle Jobs on the pitch were we Gary Neville?  . Your boys took one hell of a beating 🤣

Another nice moment was when I went on an Arsenal fans YouTube channel just to relive the last five mins. Oh he was full it. Then on 98mins he tweeted live on his phone “ Chelsea fans , how do you feel? Bournemouth are above you in April”. He pressed send and we got the pen. Hilarious. 

[martin1905]

The midfield isn't as much of a conundrum as some think.

Perhaps we could not play 442 with Enzo and Caicedo as a pair?

What if we played Gallagher in his best position and stop playing as a second striker? Having him running around like a headless chicken upfront as the sole press is embarrassing.

Maybe, if he insists with this ridiculous set up, the full backs could tuck in and help the midfield pair, instead of just bombing up and down the flanks leaving the whole team completely exposed.

Who knows if the full backs played, even slightly more disciplined it may help out the two centre half's?

Would it not make sense to, I don't know maybe try Madueke out wide with Palmer as the second striker/10 and Gallagher playing as an actual midfielder?

For all Plamers brilliance his defensive work isn't the best. Madueke is much better defensively and Mudryk is very, very good at this side of the game.

So slightly less gung ho full backs, Gallagher playing deeper, Palmer supporting Jackson with Mudryk and Madueke out wide and suddenly we are a completely different team.

It's really not that difficult.

 

Edited April 5 by martin1905