I hate games like that! Poor old JT getting booed by spammers for having his head dented by Kouyate. I even felt a little bit sorry for Mariner as they chanted you don't know what you're doing, just a tiny bit. For a game with seven yellows all deserved I thought reffie poos was lenient. I don't think any of the pen shouts should of been given.
agree with this. Thought the ref did very well and didn't get carried away by the home crowds pleas. We had the chances to bury them, Costa's one on one, Hazard through at the end (why cut back to Willian . Should have won by more. They had a couple decent chances themselves and we are lucky they didnt make us pay for not killing that off.
Exactly - Hazard has more probability to score from acute angle through multiple bodies than Willian with Goal Gaping ! Willian & Rambo are so frustrating - they can run all day that is all. Fabregas is making Mikel look like Claude.
Its not like it was an acute angle either, was just off to the left of centre. He was through with the keeper to beat in the 6 yard box and he cuts back to Willian 12 yards out to shoot through 3 defenders! Made no sense
Well another win, another strange game, could have been 4-4 . Looked as if the Spurs game had taken the edge off us and Hammers were up for it after their dreadful bollocking last week. Overall a few worrying things are starting to recur. Fabregas is off the boil, Dave is off the boil, Ramires simply cannot pass to a team mate. Can't count the number of times he gave the ball away. Either play him as he likes to play or leave him out. Oscar is having a lousy season. Coutois saved our bacon, Hazard was our most dangerous. Back 4 were OK, looked a little weary, Zouma not as good as last game , but still did fine. I really think we need to look long and hard at our selection policy, too many players showing signs of staleness from overplaying. That said, we take another 3 points and on we go. Exciting, tough game from both sides, we just about deserved the win.
Wish we would rotate more but Jose is not big on it. But we should hardly find complete domination of English football worrying. Best team in league cup, league and only English side in Europe as usual.
CP - spot on about Rambo. He has digressed so much in DM position. With no pressure on in dying mins he passes straight to Noble or someone. No wonder Jose paired Fab with Zouma rather than Rambo with Zouma. I am starting to think Mikel will be better than Rambo & Fab in that deep position. To me Zouma didn't show enough enthusiasm in the DM role. He was jogging rather than sprinting. He struggled to catch up Kouyate's break - He ain't Eriksen. Zouma's positional awarness in the box for couple of crucial tackles & a header were very good. Back four except Cahill need rest big time.
We not playing this weekend, so they have a whole week to rest before PSG Jose said after the game that the whole squad is having two days off
Were we watxhing the same game? Ramieres had a brilliant match as far as I could see. Yeah he had a poor passing accuracy, but his drive and pace consyructed or played a part in all of pur swift counters. he was always on hand to break up play. he hit the post in the second. he had a hand in the goal too. its like mikel, and to some extent cahill, it doesn't matter how he plays people don't rate him. I think in games like these and any must win cup knockout game, he'd be the first name om the wall
This felt like Blackburn 05, a pivotal narrow away win. I'm not sure what some of you are expecting. This was always going to be a tough and tight weekend away game under the lights against a local rival. We've just played a cup final as well so tiredness was going to be a factor. With the amount of our players apparently not preforming, how the hell are we clear in the league, best placed English team in Europe and already have a cup to our name??? You can not and will not win every game and narrow 1-0's like this are vital to win championships. This is the best we've looked in the league since 2010, jesus cheer up some of you!!! And, contrary to some doom mongering on here, we've won both games without Matic. He's had a rest and ready to go in the C.L.
It gets a bit tiresome the dissecting and moaning about any player who doesn't have a 10/10 game. Every team this year has had blips and poor performances but ultimately we've won a trophy and on course for the first title in 5 years, with a pretty much nil net spend in 3 windows. Compare that to the money spent (and wasted to a degree) by the 2 teams who finished above us last year plus United....could we have hoped to be in this good a position last August?? Hoping the performance levels improve a bit obviously as we won't always 'get away with it' as we did last night but we're doing fine. Lets enjoy it and save the real moaning for when we're struggling not winning
This, though i did complain about Hazards puzzling cut back when he was far better placed to score. Other than that though, we are still getting results. Am hoping that these 2 days off, plus having Matic back, will leave them raring to go against PSG next week.
I think some people just forget that during our periods of success it's always been built on a foundation of efficiency more than blowing teams away every week. We had spells during the Robben/Duff peak 05/06 and spells during the 2010 double season but other than that, this is normally how we do things. Good one week, average the next but picking up the victories. There will be plenty more ground out wins to come if we win the league...no doubt whatsoever!! The P.L is just a very competitive league and being in London, we'll always have loads of derby matches as well.
Also, as bad as some people say we have looked, City have been far worse. Did you see their game against Leicester? My word did they look disinterested and jaded. Silva seems to be dragging the rest of the team by the collar. It's almost like they don't want to retain the title. Whilst we were away to a local rival who is competing for a European spot, they were up against a team , at HOME, with no geographical or historical rivalry, who are propping up the league with 18 points and they were lucky to win. I mean it, Leciester could have won it, especially in the first half, City were so lucky to score right at the death. If it had gone in 0-0 at half time, I think Leicester would have gotten something from that game.
