Chelsea 2 Newcastle United 1

[Michael Tucker]

 

Please use this thread for all posts relating to our Premier League match against Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, before, during and after the game.

The Moderators will be keeping an eye on things, so let's try to keep it intelligent.

Please note that this un-moderated forum is a privilege and its abuse will result in the suspension of your account.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 17:30  Saturday, 12th January, 2019 (Local UK time/date).

[paulw66]

Expecting us to drop points due to a marginal offside call going against us incorrectly. 

[Droy was my hero]

25 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Expecting us to drop points due to a marginal offside call going against us incorrectly. 

In the last 4 games, by my count we have had 3 onside goals disallowed wrongly.  5 times hit woodwork (none against if I recall), actually scored 3 times and conceded none except for a wrongly over ruled offside decision by VAR.

We are on a great run of form whatever people want to say.

[bert19]

31 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Expecting us to drop points due to a marginal offside call going against us incorrectly. 

Or it to be 0-0 or 1-1 on 60 mins and Sarri to continue with the same 4-3-3 and like for like subs rather than change anything in search of a winner.  Striker issues aside, our predictable, slow, endless short passing is making nothing easier for us at the moment.  I do feel that we're fast approaching a time where results seriously have to take precedence over philosophy and he needs to show some pragmatism in our tactical approach.  

Saying that, we're more than capable of winning this one 3 or 4 nil if we start strong and dictate a strong tempo from the off.  

[The_Ghost]

10 minutes ago, Droy was my hero said:

In the last 4 games, by my count we have had 3 onside goals disallowed wrongly.  5 times hit woodwork (none against if I recall), actually scored 3 times and conceded none except for a wrongly over ruled offside decision by VAR.

We are on a great run of form whatever people want to say.

Quite! The run of “bad luck” is not only “unusual”, it’s almost unprecedented. 

As for the team - I’d go with;

                   Arrizabalaga

Azpilicueta  Rudiger  Luiz  Emerson

         Kante     Jorginho     Kovacic

Hudson-Odoi     Giroud     Hazard

But expect to see Alonso and either Willian or Pedro starting ahead of CHO and Emerson. 

Edited January 9 by The_Ghost

[bert19]

I l

7 minutes ago, The_Ghost said:

Quite! The run of “bad luck” is not only “unusual”, it’s almost unprecedented. 

As for the team - I’d go with;

                   Arrizabalaga

Azpilicueta  Rudiger  Luiz  Emerson

         Kante     Jorginho     Kovacic

Hudson-Odoi     Giroud     Hazard

But expect to see Alonso and either Willian or Pedro starting ahead of CHO and Emerson. 

I'd be happy seeing that as a starting XI with Willian, Pedro and even Morata on the bench. 

[Martin1905]

10 minutes ago, bert19 said:

Or it to be 0-0 or 1-1 on 60 mins and Sarri to continue with the same 4-3-3 and like for like subs rather than change anything in search of a winner.  Striker issues aside, our predictable, slow, endless short passing is making nothing easier for us at the moment.  I do feel that we're fast approaching a time where results seriously have to take precedence over philosophy and he needs to show some pragmatism in our tactical approach.  

Saying that, we're more than capable of winning this one 3 or 4 nil if we start strong and dictate a strong tempo from the off.  

Well that's not quite true.

We have seen a clear difference in our approach from the first half of the season, where we played much more direct and quicker, only for our defence to be a shambles. Now we are playing differently but the defence looks far more solid. Second best in the league and teams are barely troubling us.

Sarri was heavily criticised for how poor we were defensively at the start of the season, he's sorted that out at the expense of the quality of football,  yet now he is getting heavily criticised for being too boring.

The fact that he saw issues and dealt with them suggests he's  more competent than some would like to believe.  Maybe given time and a bit of money we can see some better football with a solid defence.

 

[Martin1905]

23 minutes ago, Droy was my hero said:

In the last 4 games, by my count we have had 3 onside goals disallowed wrongly.  5 times hit woodwork (none against if I recall), actually scored 3 times and conceded none except for a wrongly over ruled offside decision by VAR.

We are on a great run of form whatever people want to say.

And playing a lot better than we were a month or so ago and far better defensively than we were previous to that.

There are a lot of signs that Sarri is actually working well and doing a very good job in trying to get the right balance, some just dont want to see it.

Edited January 9 by Martin1905

[Mark Kelly]

8 minutes ago, Martin1905 said:

 

Sarri was heavily criticised for how poor we were defensively at the start of the season, he's sorted that out at the expense of the quality of football,  yet now he is getting heavily criticised for being too boring.

 

 

Groundhog day , this is exactly what Conte did , and guess what ? He got heavily criticised for "the most boring football I've ever seen" (that was you that was ! LOL !)

Said with the best intentions and not for point scoring !

[Mark Kelly]

We may have to score five goals to get a 1-0 win .