Agree, they had a weak side out, but from the first minute we were lacklustre. If we play with that lack of conviction against Stoke we will lose.
First of all it was a rejuvenated Chelsea give the opponents credit they made I difficult for us Second of all Kos hit the post a robin should have scored or passed to Gerv that one time for him to score Third we didn't lose Fourth our second half performance was much better Fifth Kos an verminator were immense as was Gibbs Sixth we still have third place in our hands
Since when are Stoke a God team now I know it will be difficult but if we can play badly and tie vs Chelsea we should beat Stoke
tbh he played more like the pre-injury Ramsey in the second half He's not quite there yet but I'm hoping for more performances like the one in the second
Accurate Either side could have won the games had their finishing been better. Both teams defended well and The midfield was even in the second half (thought we just edged the first) 0-0 Fair result all round. Well played goonies
Sczezny - 7/10 - Solid, commanding presence. Didn't look like conceding. Gibbs - 7/10 - Played well but got caught going forward too much. Seemed to think he had even more license to be a striker when Santos came on. We could have been caught out easily at the end. Vermaelen - 6/10 - Not his best day. One or two slips but nothing serious. Kosielny - 8/10 - Another quality defensive display. He should be dominating Torres/Kalou/Sturridge and did just that. Sagna - 5/10 - Form has gone. He seems slower than usual, could this be fatigue setting in? He was coming out of a long injury. Oxo - 6/10 - People hype him up on this board, but his performance today was average. Song - 6/10 - People may be critical of him, but apart from the last 10 minutes he dominated the midfield. If it wasn't for his terrible passing in those last 10 minutes he would deserve a 7. Walcott - 5/10 - Got beaten by Bertram. Simply not good enough right now. Rosicky - 7/10 - He is the only thing holding this team together. Ramsey - 4.5/10 - Yes, this may seem overly critical, but he lost he ball maybe 10 times today? Provided very little in attack apart from one optimistic looped ball for RVP, which would have taken a wonder strike to finish. Van Persie - 5/10 - His worst performance of the season for one reason: he lacked confidence. If he had used his right foot we could have won 2-0, but he had no confidence to do that. Subs: Diaby - 5.5/10 - As I knew he would, he lost the ball numerous times and mis-placed passes. He has the ability to move quickly but chooses not to. Nevertheless he looked a tad more sprightly than usual, so perhaps there is potential. Gervinho - 6/10 - Wasn't too bad, perhaps his run of bad form is over. We may need him for the rest of the season, so this performance is reason to be optimistic. Santos - 6/10 - Quite good in attack; was unlucky not to get on the end of a few passes.
It was not a great Chelsea performance at all. They came to defend and break and it worked well for them. We were indecisive in their final 3rd - as we were against Wigan and as I said 1 point from 2 home games is not good enough. A point would have been ok if we had of beaten Wigan. Second half was better overall, but we didn't trouble Cech. It's still in our hands but we are in the process of screwing it up and need a MUCH better performance to beat Stoke at their place. I guarantee they will play at a higher pace than Chelsea did today.
Chelsea under Di Matteo are a different proposition, they are organised and can defend, they are far better than before. Seeing how they defended against Barcelona proved it, hell, if they can stop the best team in the world scoring, we shouldn't be too down hearted for stopping us. Thanks goodness Drogba wasn't playing otherwise we would certainly have lost.
The statement in bold highlights how poor we were today. We were at home, big occasion, desperate for points. It took Chelsea resting players for us to get a point.
Chelsea put bodies behind the ball .. like they did against Barcelona. Did they park the bus .. not quite .. it was a transit van
How the **** does that mean we parked the bus? We were organised and you couldn't penetrate. We had a good amount of chances just as you did.
7/10 for gibbs? he was clearly our best player today, attacking and defending wise. its pointless to say he was caught out too often, that happens to an attacking full back. in our formation that is meant to happen, and then the two deep midfielders (Song and Ramsey/Diaby) have to cover the sides.
