Lets stick to the original thread. AVB is a twat and Chelsea fans are not biased. This dislike they have for AVB is fully justified...I bow down to their greater knowledge of the world of managers since they have employed most of them in the last few years.
if you weren't saying they were gimmes or easy games then what point were you actually making? Because it seems to me as if your point was that Chelsea have had really hard games and Spurs have had easy games, but then you say they aren't easy games. Make your ****ing mind up!
Oh give over, you said "5 league goals from open play in 9 games is a staggeringly frightening stat.". I haven't bothered to check out how many of Chelsea's were from open play but it looks like they're in the same ball park, making that "staggeringly frightening stat" look rather tame. You had a tougher start?! Unbelievable, talk about missing the point. The point, since you missed it, was that a slow start in terms of goals is not an unusual occurance. Spending a huge amount doesn't equal everything clicking together instantly. There's no way no how you're going to tell me that Chelsea only struggled for goals in the opening 9 games because every 'keeper played a blinder, they struggled to create enough chances, just as we have.
And on his own board he has just said November/December/January is not about performances but about getting points on the board. Surely when you have just sold your best player and recruited 7/8 new players totally reshuffling the starting line up. It means August/September/October should be about getting points on the table rather than performances since most players are going through an adapting period Anyone can see that. However AVB your still a twat.
So the difference is that you've not dropped points in any easy games whilst we've dropped 3 in 1 game? So explain to me how we should be totally out of sight from you again? United should be a gimme the way they've started but Mourinho set up defensively and got outplayed for most of the match. Southampton have outplayed them this season, so have West Brom and even Stoke gave it a good go despite being crap. Not to mention how you failed to beat our side, that you think is about 7/8th best in the league.
The point was that teams will struggle for goals in the early stages. As I said to DL, do you really think Chelsea were some non-stop entertaining side that was just coming up against the best 'keepers and defences in the World in those initial games? Of course not, they were struggling to create enough chances just like we are. I'd say our goals in open play were pretty good, the Cardiff one in particular and so far as I can remember they've nearly all come thanks to play through the middle and a wideman cutting inside. Maybe you really didn't enjoy the goals but I certainly did, it's the number of them that is a concern. No one's saying the negatives are off limit, you only have to click on any other thread on this board to see that, and this certainly isn't a lets discuss the positives in detail thread. It was just something I found funny with a bit of a point about a lack of goals and quality in the early stages of the season being not unheard of.
I thought the Villa goal was better. Neat quick passing and a great finish. Agree though, the goals we have scored in open play have been impressive, it's the lack of them is what's worrying.
The Chelsea question was exactly that, without pulling up the old match reports (I just can't be bothered to do that) if you have, fair enough, l don't recaIl an equally stuttery start (perfomance, not result) hence my question. Although there have been a few good goals in the league, it is hard to bring one to mind as you've just found. Paulinho's Cardiff goal was good, it got a result, just as Townends lucky cross that went in untouched. Again not being negative, just a balanced view, before its misconstrued. I do take your point about early seaso form especially with new beginnings, don't think anyone here would possibly make a comment not being aware of that surely, I'm just not seeing signs of progress let alone progress itself, but again I know that can be countered with our league position. Like you and everyone else I can wait to see how things develop, might all come good, who knows, I just don't like most of what I see in front of me so far,If that upsets people so be it. As far as fences go, I'm still sitting on it, arse cheeks are to one side atm, but I'm still on it!
To be honest, I think we could've had a few more good goals in that game if it wasn't for Marshall and the crossbar. I thought the Townsend one might get brought up but it's the same for every team, Wilshere got a big deflection to get Arsenal a point at West Brom, Chelsea have benefited from some defensive howlers recently. The trouble for me is the volume of goals we're getting, rather than the style. It's a case of hitting the back of the net by hook or by crook, as my Nan would say. I assume I view the problems differently to others, which probably explains why I'm not too hard on the team as I also think it's very fixable. The first problem I think we can all agree on is a lack of variety in our play, we're very predictable and whilst Townsend's providing it in his play, Dawson's long passes are the next closest thing we seem to have to switching our style of play at times. That comes down to taking more risks, for me. It may cost us a couple more goals here and there but when sides are already setting up as defensively as they can be against us then going a goal down is not something we should fear. So variety in our play please. How about just passing it to Soldado even when he has his back to goal, lets see what he can do with it. How about having Paulinho or Dembele involve themselves in the overlap on the left side the way Walker does on the right, get Soldado or Paulinho peeling off to the far post when a winger cuts inside, it's the easiest ball for them to play yet we rarely have someone making the run. There's tonnes of stuff we can do that we're not doing not and I bet there are much better ideas than an amateur like me can come up with too. Secondly is killing games off. It's happened a number of times in the league, when we've taken the lead we've quickly the opposition opens up, which suits us yet we conspire to miss chance after chance to kill the game off. The Hull game was a classic example, in the final 10 minutes after we scored we had some great chances to put it to bed, the best of all was when Townsend(before the stage dive) was running down the right and had another 4/5 players breaking with him against only 2/3 defenders. That should be a goal in anybody's book but he sent the ball low across the box and it was cut out. For me the players have to fix that one. Basically our problems are goal related. I don't mind if we mess around with the ball passing it around the back to take the sting out of the game when we're winning but when we're not, it should become pretty clear early on whether they're going to be drawn out or always stay deep. I also don't mind having our wingers playing on opposite sides, narrowing things but for God's sake, if we're going to play through the middle don't ever stop and put your foot on the ball, it's a sure sign that the next move will be backwards or sideways, I'd rather we lost the ball than played it backwards in the opposition half when we need a goal.
Not sure if it has been mentioned, but I think one of the main reasons (in my case anyway) for the current frustrations is not because of the plastic fans wanting 5-0 wins, it's because so many people do remember how bad we were in the 90's (my first game was against Wimbledon at palace, all my mates had told me we were dead certs to win, and we lost 1-0) with our Ian Walkers, Jason Dozells and stuart nethercots, and sensing how close we are to actually becoming a big team again it is frustrating to see the chances passing us by. It's happened in the last two seasons, plus the lasagne gate. In only marginally different circumstances we could have had 4 years of CL football, which could have been the difference to keeping Berbatov, or Bale, or Modric etc. At the moment both Arsenal and Chelsea can look down at us and mock us for a complete lack of success in the prem era. Even Arsenal, without a trophy in 8 years can say they have more money, a better stadium, CL football every single year, 3 league trophies, 4 FA cups and world class players. This as a team without a sugar daddy. And all the time we try and act like a big team without success we can be mocked for the money spent, length of stadium delays, lack of actual money spent on transfers due to not having any money (getting beaten with both ends of the stick with that one) It's easy to say "oh it's the plastics ****ing up the mood for everyone at the lane", but its not. things are never that simple The pressure on sunday matches the media hype around the Y word The gut wrentching feeling of losing out AGAIN to either Arsenal or Chelsea to a CL place the lack of goals in the league the dull football at the moment the lack of trophies in the last few decades watching our "rivals" get to CL finals, fa cups, league cups etc all contribute to the current feeling around the club and stadium, and even on this board. It seems a bit silly for us all to be saying how negative other fans are given the way we were all posting on the AVB right or wrong thead, or the style of play thread. The stadium at WHL should be rocking though, and if for whatever reason it isn't the club and fans need to find ways to change this.
Good points raised. As you know I've said about lack of goals last season aswell, so I agree. Its easy to see how bad it is atm in the table http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/table I accept other teams get fortunate goals, Wilshere etc, but those teams have far more 'normal' goals (our rivals have pretty much double) for the inevitable 'bonus' goal to be just part of it. The concern you share in the first paragraph is actually worse when you consider that townsends for us has to be added to the 3 pens....its bloody dire! then take Sigurdssons out and all your left with is Paulinho's Cardiff and Soldado's Villa goals..... We've got 3/4's of Barca's game down to a tee, the ball retension in MF, quick retrieval when lost, and dodgy at times at the back! Its just as you say goals, the rest of it seems pointless though if the system doesn't produce, the system for us that is. I'm not one pressing for 5-0's every other week, just some more 2-0's two would be nice, 1-0's are too nervy! The curveball in all this is our league position, can't argue with it, and I don't feel right discussing these things in a way as 4th is target, but how a team can be 4th having only scored as sporadically as we have, and not defended aswell as 5 goals conceded suggests is more than baffling, all I know is whatever course of events have led to it, it can't last much longer...can it??
They were just the goals that spring to mind, they may well have scored more like that, I've no idea. Pretty much agree though.
On the balance of play Arsenal deserved a draw and they certainly had no luck against Villa. As for Chelsea that's again inaccurate. Chelsea were rewarded for perseverance, if you put inexperienced players (Hart, Nastastic, Jenkinson) under pressure chances are they'll make a mistake. The goals simply don't happen if Azpilicueta and Torres don't continue their runs, that isn't luck.
I've never said there are easy games, but some are definitely tougher than others and that's undeniable. You claimed you couldn't understand the hype over Chelsea's start given we were only 1 point ahead. My point is that we've had to negotiate far tougher fixtures (on paper). It's not tame at all. You claimed there were similarities between this Spurs team and our 04/05 team which couldn't be further from the truth. Everyone knows Chelsea struggled for goals at the beginning of the season due to a new manager trying to find out his best formation and XI but more importantly due to absence of Arjen Robben and no goalscorers.
Nonsense. United at Old Trafford aren't a gimme for anyone. Please explain to me how Ramires, Lampard, Schurrle, Hazard, Oscar and De Bruyne aren't attacking players? All of these players started against United so I'm not sure where the idea Mourinho played defensively came from nor this idea we were outplayed. It was a dire game of football which was completely even. Crystal Palace (A) (3) Swansea (H) (3) Arsenal (A) (0) Norwich City (H) (3) Cardiff City (A) (3) Chelsea (H) (1) West Ham (H) (3) Aston Villa (A) (3) Hull City (H) (3) You'd expect Spurs to be on around 22 points. Compare that to Chelsea's fixtures Hull City (H) (3) Aston Villa (H) (3) United (A) (1) Everton (A) (1) Fulham (H) (3) Spurs (A) (1) Norwich (A) (3) Cardiff (H) (3) Man City (H) (1) You'd expect Chelsea to be on 19 points. Maybe comfortably clear is an exaggeration but you'd certainly expect Spurs to above Chelsea given the fixtures played.
You're not even disagreeing with what I've said. I was never talking about what is deserved or not, I was just remarking that the goals had some fortune to them, Notso mentioned one of ours and so I was just giving examples to show that other sides also get these similar less pretty goals. You'll notice that these are recent goals and that's why they came to my mind, had a similar goal by anyother club come to my mind first then I'd have mentioned that. Now get off my back
