West Ham 3 Chelsea 2

[chelboy]

1 hour ago, boratsbrother said:

But it's not as simplistic as just comparing players man for man. 

Overall, Liverpool's passing is that bit sharper. They pass and run with the ball at a higher pace. Their intensity on and off the ball is that bit higher than ours. Salah is simply levels above any forward we have and their overall attacking play is far better.

Their manager has his team going for it home and away against every opposition. They never go out and park the bus when up against the very best.

 

 

 

 

Well yes, they take far less touches in the final third and their build up in attacking areas is far quicker than us. We go backwards too often and give too many touches to our midfielders when we attack. That’s why it’s harder for us to create as many 6-12 yards chances like Liverpool and City do. 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

I just rewatched the passage of play in between 1-0 and 1-1 and then 2-1 until half time. We honestly honestly should have killed the game there with 2-0. We were getting in behind them easily but decided to take 3 rash shots when an extra pass could have opened clearer chances. Their fans were quiet and they couldn't get the ball, were nowhere near us. Kai had a chance to win the ball and get clattered for a penalty at 1-0 and again at 2-1, for the former I think he let the tackle come through and was worried about getting hurt so avoided getting his body in the way. The latter he took a poor touch.

We absolutely had them on the ropes. It was actually a better performance in those spells than the Watford game where we never had any control. 

[boratsbrother]

Spurs won and have a game in hand and will be just 4 points behind us if they win that game. Utd starting to pick up, so 3rd and 4th  could well be a very tight race again.

[Backbiter]

2 hours ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

I just rewatched the passage of play in between 1-0 and 1-1 and then 2-1 until half time. We honestly honestly should have killed the game there with 2-0. We were getting in behind them easily but decided to take 3 rash shots when an extra pass could have opened clearer chances. Their fans were quiet and they couldn't get the ball, were nowhere near us. Kai had a chance to win the ball and get clattered for a penalty at 1-0 and again at 2-1, for the former I think he let the tackle come through and was worried about getting hurt so avoided getting his body in the way. The latter he took a poor touch.

We absolutely had them on the ropes. It was actually a better performance in those spells than the Watford game where we never had any control. 

Exactly how I saw it. But that is the major weakness with this side - we can never kill teams off. In the three recent games we failed to win - Burnley, United and WHU - we were totally dominant but couldn't get the goal to make the game safe. Our attacking play has not improved from the December- January slump that meant the end for Lamps. 

And just as our defensive weaknesses back then were wrongly seen by Lamps as individual errors rather than structural/ organisational problems, it's pretty clear that attacking failings are greater than our strikers being poor finishers.

The way we play means we generally dominate possession and territory, but it means we deny our forwards the space in which our rivals' attackers thrive, while our opponents are getting better at setting up to defend against our tactics.

[SabCFC]

53 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

 

And just as our defensive weaknesses back then were wrongly seen by Lamps as individual errors rather than structural/ organisational problems, it's pretty clear that attacking failings are greater than our strikers being poor finishers.

They were structural. You cannot be serious, we also conceded 5 in one game against WBA, it doesn't erase all the incredible defensive records we're breaking left and right in 2021. Don't compare a few games with some mistakes, to a record of 54 goals conceded in 38 games, the worst defensive record Chelsea has had since ... the early 90s! This is an outlier, that was a clear pattern.

We have scored the second most goals in the league. City has LESS. Why are people acting as if we're 10 points off them and barely scoring while conceding a ton? Best defense, second best attack.

Edited December 5, 2021 by SabCFC

[Blue Rod]

Could it be that the genius of our defence is one side of the same coin as our cowardly attack. It takes a brave tactician to commit players to attack. Sitting back and defending may not be all it's cranked up to be, after all. 

I watched ManCity game on MOTD last night. They didn't just switch from their end to the opposite box in a flash, they had 5, yes 5 attacking players on the edge of Watford box when that ball arrived. In contrast, when Havertz broke with the ball to a crossing position, there was zero Chelsea player anywhere near the West Ham box. And this was a match which we supposedly controlled. 

Slow transition allows opponents to re-group. We then pass the ball around the edge of their box without penetration. We are controlling the ball without controlling the game.

This is how I imagine things. Our No 6 wins the ball, looks up and immediately hits an offensive pass. 3,4,5 players are running to support the attack. The opponents are running helter-skelter tracking the ball and our players. What we have instead is Jorginho looks left, right and left again, hits one nice little pass to the nearest person, sideways or backwards, job done. The opposition allows him that pass while they regroup. Jorginho racks up good passing stats. It looks controlled, but is ineffective as an attacking football. 

Opponents have also worked out that we are not a high scoring side in the PL. So they can win or draw by scoring a couple of goals. They will gamble with little spells of open football to grab those goals. Even when they come out and play openly, like West Ham did in short spells we still didn't punish them. 

We have to rebalance our game. Good defensive stats only win you a title if you score goals. 

[SabCFC]

The revisionism is hilarious. City couldn't get more than a shot on target against Southampton and lost to Palace. Liverpool lost to the same West Ham, they scored a 90+4 winner at Wolves.

We have scored more goals than City while conceding the same number of goals.

We must be doing something right, I reckon.

They look more fluid? Yes, I'd guess so given their managers have been working on the same ideas since 2017. It's only been 10 months for Tuchel, he's catching up pretty damn quick.

[boratsbrother]

What we've been doing/getting away with is unsustainable over a season - relying so heavily on WB's and CB's to win us games.  Creating very few clear cut chances but  scoring enough to win. Teams missing their chances.

 

 

 

[Backbiter]

42 minutes ago, SabCFC said:

They were structural. You cannot be serious, we also conceded 5 in one game against WBA, it doesn't erase all the incredible defensive records we're breaking left and right in 2021. Don't compare a few games with some mistakes, to a record of 54 goals conceded in 38 games, the worst defensive record Chelsea has had since ... the early 90s! This is an outlier, that was a clear pattern.

We have scored the second most goals in the league. City has LESS. Why are people acting as if we're 10 points off them and barely scoring while conceding a ton? Best defense, second best attack.

Read what I posted 

[Droy was my hero]

34 minutes ago, Blue Rod said:

Could it be that the genius of our defence is one side of the same coin as our cowardly attack. It takes a brave tactician to commit players to attack. Sitting back and defending may not be all it's cranked up to be, after all. 

 

????  We have a 5 man attack going forward.  One thing we are not short of is men up front.

26 minutes ago, SabCFC said:

The revisionism is hilarious. City couldn't get more than a shot on target against Southampton and lost to Palace. Liverpool lost to the same West Ham, they scored a 90+4 winner at Wolves.

Remember on this site you are the revisionist.  Or at least taking the minority view in things that have been argued over for a while.
To remind people that 19/20 was a year of high goals conceded is revisionism for many - they were in denial and they don't take it lightly to be told so.

Some people have been wrong on TT and the team for a long long time, and a long list of injuries (and especially Jorginho playing with an injury) is precisely the circumstances they can claim to have been right all along.  They get few chances.