Zubimendi off for Odegaard Honestly, once again far below the level of top Premier League football. Simply not good enough for a title winning side.
1-1FT We really did bottle that one. Appalling performance and yet another failure in a big game. That’s a loss to Liverpool, ac draw at home to City and a draw against 10 men Chelsea in a truly pathetic display. It might be different when our players are back, but there is zero chance we win the PL or any trophy with performances like that. Chelsea look the superior team. Disappointingly, one of the reasons is their players look like they want it more. City right back in it now and probably favourites.
FT. 1-1. A draw in isolation isn't a terrible result, but context matters. When Chelsea went down to 10 men, we had a real opportunity to go for it and kill them. Instead, we struggled and we couldn't get into our flow. To Chelsea's credit, they did defend well and they did well to upset our rhythm/momentum. I can't help but feel that's an opportunity missed from us given the circumstances. I guess we just need to take the point and move forward.
That was infuriating. Chelsea are the dirtiest, most annoying squad in World football though. Soo many horrible players. We get hate for the set piece stuff but they played pure haramball most of that game. Just looking for fouls, cards and counter attacks.
They are play actors and ****ty, however they bullied us today and we had nothing in response. Wet let it get to us. Their 10 men outclassed our 11 and we were lucky to get a point today. Thank you Caciedo.
They were winning the majority of duels TBH. Gamesmanship aside, they were better than us by a distance.
Didnt play well - Saka missed some good chances. But after the week we've had, missing both our first choice CB's - its not a terrible result.
I think 7 points from Spurs, Bayern Munich and Chelsea is a solid return. In isolation, drawing against a team who had 10-men for most of the match is poor. But when you factor in the wider context of the season and where we are in the league right now, a draw today is fine. Especially as we were missing our first-choice CBs (both of whom were important for their leadership and build-up), our main left winger, had no natural centre forward starting and our captain being on the bench. I'm not saying this to make excuses, but when you're playing a London derby away from home against a team who are 3rd, you need your leaders on the field. Hincapie and Mosquera have only had 1 start together - against Brighton in the League Cup. Their lack of chemistry and understanding was apparent today. But look, it's been a taxing and exhausting week. We've come out of it relatively unscathed (results wise).
Villa Park and Goodison next two away games too. Jeepers. December is going to make or break us I think. 8 games in 27 days. We need to start winning some away league games. White, Madueke, Odegaard, Nwaneri, MLS (at #6), Jesus, Norgaard all need to start getting some starts to spread the load. Martinelli can’t start, he’s got to be kept as second half pace counter sub. Then January we’ll have Havertz and Trossard back too.
My concern is 2 pts from 9 against City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Pressure games we've not only failed to deliver in, but not played that well - the worst performance being today. Doesn't bode well for the really high pressure games in April and May. I am at a loss to explain today - it's not the injuries, because they should not cause the players to be so indecisive, lacking execution, energy and concentration. Against 10 men we should have at least dominated possession and been knocking on the door. Instead we conceded and then went on to give up silly free kicks, corners and chances. It was like Chelsea had the extra man. If one game could be definitive to determine that we are not good enough to win the title, this one and the performance was the closest too it. Still very disappointed with how lifeless and lacking fight we were.
Everything in context. The City and the Liverpool results were poor, but the Chelsea result is not (even though the performance was not good). Drawing away from home against a team 3rd in the league without both our first-choice CBs, starting LW and no natural striker is not a terrible result. Especially after two physically and emotionally draining matches against Spurs and Bayern. This was a tough week of games and we've come out with 2 wins and 1 draw. It's a solid return. We are still top of the league with a 5 point gap on Man City and a 6 point gap on Chelsea. In our first 13 games, we have now played Liverpool, Newcastle, Man Utd and Chelsea ALL away from home. We have got one of the north London derbies out the way already. We don't play them again until end of February now. We have also played City at home already and don't need to worry about the reverse fixture until April now. After the Brentford match on Wednesday, we go to Villa Park on the weekend. So that's another hard away fixture ticked off early on. We've had the trickiest opening set of fixtures and we've navigated through them pretty well IMO. Sorry Jay, but this is nonsense. We are unbeaten in 17 games across all competitions. We have won 12 and drawn 2 of our last 14 matches. There is absolutely no reason to be this upset. The 3 draws we have are against Man City (expected title challenger), Chelsea (expected title challenger) and Sunderland (currently competing for a European spot). Saying we are 'lifeless' and 'lacking fight' simply isn't true.
