We weren't poor in the 2nd half. We defended very well against a very good side for most of the half. We made two defensive errors and conceded two goals.
I thought we were so solid for an hour. Yes Chelsea had a lot of ball, but they created pretty much zip. Then we started to get involved in Costa's antics (sections of the crowd didn't help, in my view) and Ron made possibly his worst ever substitution since he became Saints manager. From then on, we deserved nothing. If neither Mane nor Tadic had of been available to us, then I could have understood the substation. But they were available. (And I am not talking with hindsight, I was saying it from the moment Long was calling to be subbed due to his injury).
To put things in perspective; in spite of the royal hash they've made of defending their title this season, today Chelsea played like champions. And we were unlucky not to get at least a point.
A lot of positives from today IMO. Clasie and Romeu especially were outstanding, so was Long. We just came up against a better side today (second half!) Willian and Ivanovic were great - although Willian was diving so much. I have no words for Costa - cheating ****. I hate Chelsea as a club, more than any other. Their cheating/gamesmanship seemed to swing the game, and their 30mil players did the rest.
On the plus side, Pardew's Palace are 3-0 down after 30 minutes v West Brom. That's WEST BROM. Managed by Tony Pulis. Oh dear!
Yeah Atkinson was totally sucked into Chelsea's gamesmanship and their first goal came after the lino was flagging for a free kick to us.
I think that was the most horrible side I've ever seen play at St. Marys - Chelsea and their antics were quite frankly, disgusting. Costa in particular, disgusting player. As for Pelle? Sorry, I used to be a fan, but absolutely shocking once again today when he came on. Mane should have come on instead.
That was probably the best game from TWO sides that I have seen at SMS this season. At 1-1 I felt that it was a bit like a cup final and I really wanted to see it decided rather than drawn. On balance, I think Chelsea just about deserved it over 90 minutes though its always hard to take a late winner. I thought Romeo was MOTM. Long was a close second. Davis was unlucky to get a yellow so early and that sort of tempered his game unfortunately. Clasie was good. Pelle gets some criticism which is a bit unfair as he is coming back from injury. It wasn't so long ago people were questioning Long's inclusion at the expense of Pelle. Both work very hard in different ways. We need to support him a bit more. I loved the guy who texted radio solent to complain about JWP's performance... ..sort of sums up us Saints fans after an unfortunate defeat!
I thought the ref and his motley crew were pretty shocking as well - the itchen linesman didn't have a clue, the referee overuled him a couple of times which says it all.
Tremendous 1st half defensive display. Not great for the heart rate to defend deep and give Chelsea so much possession, but if you want to see how to defend compact and disciplined then that was a masterclass. Understandable that we thought we could do the same again and you could see Chelsea getting frustrated and we had some half chances for the 2nd Then that Costa incident changed the game and seemed to get Chelsea fired back up and then the ref blunted our midfield dishing out cheap yellows. If I had been on the pitch I would have punched Costa in the face and took the 10 match ban. The FA should be retrospectively banning players for that kind of behaviour. I'm sure nothing will be done. Couldn't make out what went wrong with the 1st goal from my view, but it looked soft. Tremendous powerful header from Ivanovic for the 2nd. Forster did well to get down to it.
If Pelle is still injured, it must be a fairly bad chronic sort of thing, as it has been six weeks since he returned from an injury that had him out three weeks. That isn't going to get better if we keep throwing him out there. We have attacking options now, and while it might not be his fault if it is injury, that doesn't make it more rational to keep playing a striker who has gone 10 hours (or nearly 4 months, if you'd prefer) without recording a goal or assist. Heck, he only has 4 shots on target in that span (an average of 1 shot on target for every 145 minutes played)...it's doing neither us nor his career any good to keep running him out at the moment.
His knee is a mess. We ruined him by playing him when he needed resting. When he ran today it looked like a snail. He is even slower then he was before. Pelle knew he couldn't do **** all, so started to do the crap backhills to hope Chelsea got surprised.
