Judging by some of the posts on here I think I must of been at a different game yesterday! The stats might show we had more shots etc but the reality is Chelsea deserved the 3 points. The main difference between us and them was they looked like scoring when they attacked, we rarely did. I thought mata ran the game and made Walker look stupid at the end with the 4th goal. As I posted yesterday, only 3/4 of our side played well. Whereas we had at least 5 who had poor games. However, it's one defeat against a very good and strong Chelsea side. I'm hoping that Bale & Dembele return on Sunday and Adebayor gets a game too. I'd play ade just behind Defoe as let's be honest, neither Dempsey or Gyfli have shown their upto it.
Your last sentence is right but the rules are very clear. If he had a hold of his shirt it was a penalty. I think the Gallas tackle on Cole was probably a penalty too, but that was a careless tackle which is a matter of opinion so the referee's call. The shirt holding was a matter of fact which the ref got wrong. The fact that it happens all the time is no excuse. The fact is that you can't accidentally grab hold of a shirt so its blatant cheating and should be punished. But as I've said Chelsea deserved to win because of our mistakes.
To be fair I would be aggrieved if the shirt pulling pen had been given against Spurs because that sort of thing goes on numerous times in every game these days and almost always goes unpunished. But the fact is that rules are rules and it should be given, just as the foul should be given against any team when someone pulls a shirt.
I don't think that there's any doubt that Chelsea were the better side in the first half, but they created very few chances and had virtually no shots. They dominated possession and we were very poor, but they didn't turn that into a consistent goal threat. They got the goal and Mata missed a good opportunity, but I can't even remember Friedel making another save. The start of the second half was all Spurs and if Cech hadn't been on form, then I think it would've been a different result. Even after conceding twice, he made a string of saves to stop us from going further ahead and putting the game to bed. Our defence then went on to make a series of blunders and throw it away. I don't think that bringing on Livermore helped our momentum either, which I felt might happen at the time. Can't argue about the result and Chelsea were clearly the better side overall. Hopefully we'll have a stronger side available next weekend or we'll find a better balance if we don't. Townsend should've replaced Bale, in my opinion, but Sigurdsson in the centre and Dempsey on the left just didn't work at all. They switched for the 2nd half and were far more effective.
I am in no doubt that the better side won. We had some good periods but for the most part we looked at one level lower than Chelsea. Sigi was very disappointing he seemed to rotate like a dog every time he received the ball before passing it, breaking up momentum. Lennon and Defoe deserve credit for their efforts but Gallas was awful. Verts often had little options open to him when trying to move the ball forward. Such a disappointment that Demebele and Bale were not available for this game we do not now know how much difference that would have made, great pity.
Agree with a lot of what is being said by Spurf, PNP and Junction in particular. I think if you take out the loss of JT, we were at full strength. I'm not sure Bale would have made much of a difference as people believe. For me, Dembele was crucial and Kaboul even moreso. It's still a Spurs side in transition but what I've seen of Spurs so far suggests there are more reasons to be positive than negative. Looking forward to the return fixture at the Bridge in April. Going to the NLD with my best mate who is a Gooner so hope to get a better measure of both sides then. Obviously I want a mass brawl at the end with both sides being fined severly and players given lengthy suspensions afterwards But hope to see a good open game in what is the biggest London derby I don't think Spurs nor Chelsea will lose as many games as last season because this is a weaker league than last season IMO.
how can yo say it wasn't a penalty because it would have been soft as ****,under the rules of the game shirt pulling is an offence punisable by a free kick or Penalty.his shirt was pulled in the box Penalty,no argument,what you've come out with as an argument is rubbish,try reading the rule book.
As much as I hate to admit it, Chelsea were by far the better team throughout most of the game bar a 20 minute spell in the second half from us. Mata was the difference though, he sliced open our team like a knife through butter and had he not been on the pitch, no way would Chelsea have scored 4 goals. I was relatively pleased that we still managed to carve a few chances out though, Cech had to make a couple of good saves, baring in mind we were also missing 5 first teamers in Kaboul, BAE, Parker, Dembele and Bale - of which at least 3 of them are guaranteed to start and an argument can be made for all of them to be in first XI when fit. I hate losing a derby (well I hate losing full stop), especially at home but Chelsea were without just one of their key players in Terry, they had Cahill and Luiz to deputise who are by no means slack defenders. It's the most impressive I've seen Chelsea play in a long while though, granted they should be playing well with the amount of money spent but everytime I used to see them play, they were very reliant on Drogba and Lampard to come up with the goods and played what I'd class as negative football (CL Final a prime example), now they have a really strong midfield - spearheaded by the very impressive Mata that create numerous chances for themselves and team mates (just a shame they have Torres upfront - who was dreadful for the record). It's not often we get out played, especially at home but credit where it's due, even if it is Chelsea!
Stop clutching at straws ffs it wasn't a pen. You'd be saying the exact same if it was the other way round.
It's all relative to how their replacements performed in hindsight. Realistically you can't really say that Kaboul would've started instead of Gallas, they were our first choice partnership in the one game before Kaboul got crocked. Even with Vertonghen and Caulker proving themselves I don't think anyone would've argued with Gallas starting after his performance against United. With that in mind, whilst Caulker didn't look comfortable with Torres and Hazard on the ball against him it's hard to say Kaboul would've made a huge difference. In short if you were to use hindsight and replace one player it'd be Gallas even if he probably would've been in every fan's team prematch but technically I suppose you could replace him with an uninjured Benny or Kaboul. If you were to say which loss was crucial to our style of play it would be Dembele but Bale is the player that could've helped us with a moment of two of brilliance and arguably the most damaging loss as we'd planned for the game with him. You could also argue that Parker would've helped us steady the boat when we took the lead but it's all 'if's and 'but's. I take heart from the fact that we were in that game for 90 minutes despite having a lot of players missing but I'm not feeling sorry for us.
Well,this is our old Spurs.They confound you one moment and drive you nuts the next! I was in seventh heaven after the United match.I knew we would lose there!!!!! and I expected us to beat Chelsea,but no...... Our defence put up a stone wall against United, then it's Custer's Last Stand against Chelsea.Go figure! I think Chelsea must have been very,very happy to find out that Bale had other things to do.He's that good!Instead of the two Chelsea players to watch Bale,they were released to mark their opposite number.
No prizes for guessing who I think we missed the most against Chelsea, and it wasn't Kaboul, Bale or Dembele
I was happier to not see Dembele. I wasn't that bothered about Bale as we won 5-1 last time when he was playing but Dembele out enabled us to dictate play and control the midfield. Something that would have been difficult to do if he were in the side.
I'd have thought your best back 4 was BAE, Vetonghen, Kaboul and Walker No? Surely G*llas wouldn't get near your First XI if everybody was fit. If so that's worrying, I reckon Dawson could do a job, bedazzled as to how G*llas gets in ahead of him.
No way is he right,like i have said if you read the rule book you'll see it WAS a penalty.the only reason i'm arguing has nothing to do with the game,but drogs,saying it's not a penalty,when the rules say differently
I'm not sure if it wasn't or not but the trip by G*llas on Ashley Cole on G*llas lloked stonewall from where I was sat. I honestly can't think of a game now where we've not had at least one blatant penalty appeal turned down since the opening 3 games of the season. That includes the CL as well.
