Mourinho's back. He creates that ridiculous "the whole world's against us" bullshit thing and they all buy it. He's even blamed Vertonghen today in his post-match interview. Nothing to do with Torres being spiteful and nasty all game, of course.
I almost never post during the game but just wanted to say that I totally agreed with this at the time. It's exactly what I would have done. Sandro for Paulinho would have made a big difference I think.
What do you think about Vertoghen grabbing his face when it is clear he didn't get touched? Do you think that is ok?
Not satisfactory at all, in fact useless to us and much better for Chelsea. We should have won that hands down. Oh well, we move on.
He did get touched, just not in the face. Is that ok? No. I don't like diving and play-acting. I didn't like it from your lot and I don't like it when our players do it. It shouldn't have happened. I don't want to see our players doing it and your player should already have been dismissed.
Yes, players do touch each other all game with out it being a foul but they don't grab their faces as if shot.
Got to say I thought both teams were a bit twatty today, tbh. Torres was a massive tosser from the start but there was a lot of niggly fouls and simulation from both teams. Townsend's was bloody disgraceful and Vertonghen lost his cool during the second half. I don't like seeing Spurs players cheat - I used to feel that we actually had a bit of moral high ground against many of the top teams not so long ago. Zokora was called up by Jol publicly for a terrible one a few years ago, IIRC. Townsend needs someone to get that out of his game right now. It's embarrassing to watch and won't help him as a player at all.
It was a clear foul, just nothing to do with his face or head. Chelsea supporters and Mourinho moaning about diving and simulation is like Harold Shipman complaining about poor medical care, though. Drogba? Robben? Half your side today? No? That's different, is it?
Other than the scratch incident I don't see how Torres was "spiteful and nasty". He was up for the game and comfortably the best player on the pitch up until he was sent off. I don't agree with managers targeting individual players of the opposition (didn't when Pulis did it to us) but I can understand Mourinho's frustration. Since the Clattenburg affair, there's been a real reluctance by Chelsea managers to criticise referees! definitely trying to build bridges. Vertonghen did no differently to what Ivanovic does most weeks, the bigger issue is with Townsend who just seems to dive for fun at a time where we're now vilifying Ashley Young for doing the same thing.
Two of our four goals from open play have come from Eriksen to Soldado to Gylfi. Another was Holtby to Lamela to Paulinho. So I'm not too worried about Eriksen, Soldado or Lamela (who has played very little). It's Chadli and Townsend who haven't produced anything in the PL. Though Chadli has a goal and two assists in other games, and Townsend has looked promising, they both tend to be fairly predictable wingers, who aren't going to get much against good teams at least, I think. The team I'd least like to face if I were an opponent would be one with Holtby, Gylfi, Eriksen and Lamela, so that's the one I'd like to play, at least as long as Naughton doesn't start at left back (and I'm hoping he doesn't start again.) I only saw the second half, but thought Dembele was our best player aside from Lloris. When things were going badly he seemed the only one able to keep possession. I also liked seeing the times when he dribbled all the way into the box, then laid it off. When he does that, even if the layoff is unambitious, it creates danger in a way we struggled to achieve by other means. I would love to see us do more of the very patient possession we did once or twice at the end of the game. I hope that's the direction we're headed. I'm really getting tired of Chadli ruining it by deciding to have a go from thirty yards.
He was constantly committing niggly, late fouls, leaving his foot in, going to ground needlessly, berating the officials and mouthing off to opposition players. He was too fired up and should've gone much earlier than he did.
Chelsea fans booed Drogba for diving, Mourinho and the players told him to stop. Townsend dived (again) and throughout the match Spurs players were kicking lumps out of Chelsea players in a deliberate ploy to break up counter attacking opportunities, most of which Dean refused to caution.
Give me a break. He dived relentlessly throughout his Chelsea career and he's one of your heroes. If the players and manager told him to stop, then it clearly didn't work. Not sure what game you were watching, DL. Dean let a ton of poor Chelsea tackles go in the first half, including giving Terry a free-kick for climbing all over Soldado. He also gave Ramires a free-kick for a blatant dive. You might want to watch that one again. I think you may have been caught up in the emotion of the game or something.
Maybe I should be content considering it felt like we were playing against 12 men up till the sending off. Hence the cheering by the fans for the odd occasion we got a decision go our way.
I think the bigger issue is fans complaining about dives from other teams players and saying nothing when their own players do exactly the same. I've seen several dives from Ivanovic, Ramires and Torres and I doubt you said anything about those (not aiming this specifically at you but fans in general). Another issue I have is the inconsistency referees have when it comes to deal with diving. Some get booked and some dives are just ignored. The ref did nothing after the Ashley Cole dive at Old Trafford. Once it's decided a player has dived there should be a yellow for all or no punishment at all. The ref shouldn't pick and choose. This causes players like Townsend to be correctly vilified like today but other dives from Torres and Ramires today to be completely forgotten as they were not booked or the dive was not spotted by the ref.
