Not long got home from the game. My take on it was we were by far the better team for 35/40 minutes and 2-0 up at half time would of been fair. Second half and Chelsea were far better, mata changed the game when he came on and in my opinion is a world class player. Bearing in mind I saw the Torres sending off at the game and haven't seen the replays yet, it looked a good decision at the time. I have heard since that it appears harsh. Torres and verts were having an ongoing spat all afternoon and it was obvious that one would get a red. Dean had a shocker today, neither side benefitted though as he was ****e for the whole game. Struggle to understand the slating of pauliniho by some posters, not just today but all season. I thought he was ok till he ran out of steam and looks a threat going forward. Once he is adjusted to the pace then he'll be a class act. If I remember rightly, it took Sandro a fair while to settle in here. I thought daws struggled in the 2nd half, naughton struggled again, Soldado & Eriksen both faded. Dembele & Lloris were by far our best players. The Chadli sub was strange but the general view was that naughton & Townsend looked a bit lightweight on the left and Chadli was brought to stop Cole bombing forward like he was, and that did stop to an extent. Sincerely hope that the bloke in the Paxton is ok and recovers. Could see the medics etc with him from the east lower.
We should have won that in the first half and we let a team off the hook in the second half again. Must get it sorted.
We've got to take advantage when we're on top.This is not last season.We were expecting a little more this season against these "top"teams. We may have "only" lost to Arsenal by a goal and drawn with Chelsea but 6 points are better than 1!
Just watching MoTD. Torres having his Crouchy moment. WTF is it when strikers get the red mist ?? And just as for the past 2 seasons, methinks Chelsky will be within 6 pts of Spurs come May.
I'm back mo'****as! Not that any of you would've noticed I'd been gone for a week or so Despite 1-1 against Chelsea being a "decent result" against a top side, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Lots of talking points. Thought it was Paulinho's least effective game in a Spurs shirt, gave a away quite a few passes. Dembele was immense however, that was the Moussa of the first run of games at the start of last season, completely bossed it. Soldado, yes the "not enough service from midfield" line can be used and I'd agree to an extent but in all honesty, is anyone else a little worried that for £26m, he should be offering a little more? Or am I just expecting too much? I don't expect him to score or create with every touch he gets and I know he set up Gylfi's goal today (though I think he mis-controlled it, may have meant to lay it to Gylfi anyway but he looked as if he was going in for a second touch until Gylfi stormed through) but I just feel he could be doing more, I don't know what but I just feel for the money paid I should be expecting magic of some sort... Still early in the season though. Felt Daws and Verts were below par too, Dawson, as much as I love the bloke as a pro and even a player, just doesn't seem to excel in the "big games". Was sloppy vs Arsenal and I felt he should've been marking Terry for when Terry scored their equalisor. The most disappointing aspect of today for me though was AVB. I didn't like the idea of Naughton starting at LB again but it was mainly his decision making of the subs in the second half that annoyed/ disappointed. For a start, I didn't feel we needed to sub Andros off at the time we did, although Gylfi scored it was Andros getting involved in a lot of the play and he looked a lot better from the greedy little ****e that we saw against Norwich and Cardiff, was unlucky not to leave with an assist when Paulinho hit the post. THOUGH, taking Towsend off for should've meant being replaced by Lamela in my opinion. Chadli is not a right winger and it wasn't until 80+ mins that Chadli got moved to the left where he prefers, not that he done much anyway when on the left but I just feel he's even more wasted on the right. Then the Holtby for Eriksen sub... To me, again was a pointless and needless sub at the time, Chelsea were over running us in midfield and we desperately needed Sandro on to help stop the likes of Mata getting a creative edge and therefore bringing on a like-for-like player when it was clear they wasn't going to be receiving the ball much to do what they do best while Chelsea had the majority of possession. And finally I'd have liked Defoe on sooner, it just wasn't working for Soldado and Defoe has been banging them in for fun in the cups, granted the opposition isn't the same as Prem standard but then what more can Defoe do to earn a chance of either starting a League game or at least getting a good amount of time on the pitch? Bringing him on at 77 mins was too late in my opinion, in fairness he did get into a great position but scuffed his shot which was a shame, a goal would have done wonders for him (and us). Ratings: Lloris - 8 - Saved the defence's bacon a few times, couldn't do anything for their goal. Walker - 6.25 - Wasn't poor but certainly wasn't great, linked with Townsend well in the first half. Dawson - 6 - Felt he should've been marking Terry for their equalisor. Vertonghen - 6 - The first game in a while he looked uncomfortable, did make a good tackle in the box at one point though. Naughton - 6 - Was caught out of position once or twice but I felt his passing going forward was decent, being played out of position again isn't easy but he was a lot better than against Cardiff. Dembele - 8.75 - MOTM, got up and down well, the Moussa we all want to see regularly. Paulinho - 6 - Unlucky not to score (twice actually) but didn't do much today, few sloppy passes and got caught in possession once or twice. Gylfi - 7 - Great endeavour for the goal, pretty anonymous otherwise though, was unlucky with that half volley near the end of the game. Eriksen - 6.5 - Pretty anonymous but done great to get the ball into Soldado leading to Gylfi's goal. Townsend - 7.25 - Gave Cole a tough time and alongside Dembele was involved in a lot of attacking play, wouldn't have taken him off, at leats not at the point he was. A shame he dived and got a booking though, don't like that. Soldado - 6.25 - Got the assist but was anonymous thoughout. Shouldn't have lasted 77 mins in my opinion. All subs got a 6, none of them impacted the game, though in fairness not entirely their fault, poor decision making from AVB for the times and positions they were placed just didn't work. Well that's my essay done,
vertonghen had a brilliant first half. it wouldnt surprise me if maurine told torress at half time to try to wind him up.
I agree with pretty much all of that except for your assessment of the defence. verts was superb first half, and had a vastly better game than dawson imo. i thought walker played well, and naughton was suprisingly decent too.
Ramires, Torres and Cole diving? Seriously? Ivanovic definitely but no idea where you've got the others from, especially Ramires.
I just don't think the defence were great today. They've been awesome for 90% of the season but I just felt today was a bad day at the office overall. Vertonghen got skinned by Torres and Torres' cross needed someone a bit taller than Mata to have likely resulted in a goal. Then Torres twisted and turned Daws until Hugo came out and blocked Torres' chip attempt. Walker I feel (perhaps harsh) could've stopped the ball to Schurrle by sliding in before it reached Schurrle for when he went one-on-one with Hugo. Naughton being out of position never helps but I felt he didn't do too badly, caught out once or twice but nothing too drastic.
Yes seriously. A quick google search from this season: [video=youtube;FPsX3nrU_V8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPsX3nrU_V8[/video] [video=dailymotion;x13ee6t]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13ee6t_fernando-torres-dive-against-hull-city-2013_sport[/video] Ramires dived today but got away with it. Can't find the video but there was one against Arsenal last season where MOTD showed how "clever" he had been. What do you even mean by especially Ramires? That he dives less than the others even though you've implied the others don't dive. They either do or they don't. As expected though you've missed the point and didn't answer the question. Ivanovic alone is enough.
BURNED! Dont't worry they just about scraped it through due to Torres not being sent off when he should've been
I know he's not a popular player but if we can somehow get the Adebayor from the end of last season or from 2 seasons ago, he would be one of the top strikers in the league. If he's focused he can be a huge plus in the big games. Just thinking about his performance at Chelsea last season when he was almost unplayable. Whilst Defoe and Soldado look like they could potentially go on hot goal streaks I don't think either could be as dominant as Adebayor can in a game (maybe Soldado can but I don't think he's that sort of player). It's looking very unlikely for Adebayor though and I'm not sure what the situation with him and the coaches/squad is.
I did voice concerns about this signing of soldado, mainly because his previous club and national side play a patience game and open teams up. I wasn't convinced he would fit in but with the signing of Eriksen there is clear potential for soldado to find space yet we have wingers who shoot on sight, Paulinho is trigger happy, not exactly ideal for soldado, especially as his 1st touch is crap. With Spain he doesn't need to do a great deal off the ball, other then make runs and short passes. With us he has team mates who shoot from everywhere and its only Eriksen currently who is creative enough, but Lamela needs to start and that will benefit soldado, so I wont give up on him yet but starting with Defoe wont do any harm, it will allow soldado to see if he can make an impact from the bench and realise he has to perform for his place.
I'm not the only one who's said that all he needs is a goal in the league and I still maintain that. We'll see what the next matches bring which somebody posted a couple of weeks ago were all winnable. I just wish we'd break out more in the league like the four goals against Villa in the Capital One and the Europa.
All this pathetic bleating to the media by Mourinho and a few blinkered Chelsea fans on here!! A proverbial game of two halves and a fair result, where the only sendings off should have been Torres earlier for the scratching of Vertonghens face and - much earlier in the first half - Ivanovic possibly could have conceded a penalty and gone for pulling back Paulinho in the box when trying to get on the end of the low cross. By no means a great performance, disappointing to concede in such fashion from a set piece a long way out and the lack of decent cover at LB is a concern, as is the fact that we appeared to run out of steam in the 2nd half. But still far more plusses than minuses after such a significant influx of players this season.
If Ivanovic hadn't pulled Paulinho back in order to clear that cross near the end of the first half, we might have put it to bed in the first half. In addition, if Mike Dean had done his job properly and sent off Torres earlier, we would have had another 10-15 minutes against 10 men. Verts did really well then, a lesser player would have gone to ground rolling around holding his face after that vicious attack by Torres, it's good that Vertonghen is such an honest player.
