The ironic thing is that in the first half, there was actually a little bit of logic for having Pelle on the pitch. We were putting a lot of balls into the box. It was our primary method of attack. But yes, that logic just didn't exist in the second half. We weren't putting crosses in, we had a lead to defend, the tide was turning in Chelsea's favour, our method of attack had become one of trying to counter, and with an hour in their legs the last thing that the aging Ivanovic and Cahill would surely have wanted to face would have been pace. None of that says Pelle. None of it.
As disappointing as it was to concede so late, I think we did pretty well today. The whole team worked tremendously hard to keep Chelsea at bay most of the time. Anyone who thought it would be a stroll has been taken in by our recent results or badly underestimated Chelsea. We are a good side, but we are not CL material and seeing Chelsea's form in the last few weeks it was obvious to me they were approaching their best. When I see comments on here to the effect of "Chelsea aren't all that good" it made me wonder what they had been watching. They ground us down with movement and control and even before they scored it seemed only a matter of time before they would. That we conceded didn't surprise me too much, but the manner how was a bit disappointing to say the least. I haven't seen any replays but my impression for the first was maybe down to FF, and these days defending corners doesn't usually make me too nervous so it came as a bit of a surprise to see us let one in from a set piece.
Anyone see who was picking up Ivanovic from the corner? That's the sort of thing you don't always see at the ground.
Yep, the lino was flagging furiously and half our team, plus the supporters, were yelling at the ref. After the game the feller behind me said Costa won them that game. When I asked what he meant he said he'd got our whole team rattled and we lost our composure, which they hadn't been able to do through legitimate means. I think he had a point.
I would tend to agree. Costa went on his wind up routine to try and disrupt us and it worked perfectly for them. We lost focus. Although I would say losing long was provably as pivotal. To be fair Chelsea were strong and for me a draw would have been about right
It was VVD he wasn't tight enough and the few yards head start was enough. Virg was also partly at fault for the first goal, although that was calamitous all round so I won't say it was entirely anyone's fault
I said this ages ago. I thought you'd have been on here commenting about Pelle's flicks I also said, and my wife is absolutely convinced of this, that Ron first of all called for Sadio but Pelle caught his eye and had the good grace to look surprised as he pointed to himself whilst Ron nodded, "yes".
Also for anyone that didn't manage a decent stream today and doesn't use Kodi, ronaldo7.net is usually a good place to start for hd streams
I found this place earleir http://www.keepsporthonest.com/, didn;t watch your match on it, but it;s the best feed I;ve had for the hammers for a while.
Yep my view on that Fabregas goal remains unchanged from my view live. Forster has to stay positioned where he so that he can try and save from Hazard. But the moment the ball goes beyond Hazard, Forster has no reaction time to dive and is left to just hang out a leg and hope. But whilst that was unlucky, it was our fault for giving the ball away at the other end.
I've just see their equaliser. And yes, Fraser has a bit of a mare and completely mid-reads it. However as I touched on earlier, it takes about ten seconds from when we lose the ball ridiculously on the edge of their box until they score. It was just so bad. One moment we have the ball under not a lot of pressure and we just give it up and then they score.
Didn't see the replay for the equaliser (too busy headdesking), what was the linesman allegedly flagging for?
Foul on Cedric at the other end of the pitch. If it was a case of Atkinson saying no foul and over-ruling him, then given the one replay of it which I have seen, I can understand it. Looked like a shoulder into Cedric, not sure if it was enough to constitute a foul.
Oh right, that's not that annoying then, we did have about 58,000 opportunities to stop it on the way down the other end.
Agree with thought that Romeu was MOTM for Saints. I was v impressed with Cedric today too. Also the way the defence didn't jump ino any tackles around the box, we all know how Chelsea players love to roll around on the ground. Not much mention of the possible penalties from what I've seen....did anyone have a good view of them? 1) handball....Chelsea defender's clearance back into a teammate's hand 2) foul / handball / both on Austin in 2nd half
My view of the game is that we gifted them 3 points. For most of the first half we restricted them to a few short spells of possession, just outside of our box, with no real worries. We didn't make enough of our possession, especially all the freedom Cedric had on the right flank. Too often he only had Austin and Long in the box, to aim for. Second half we started giving them too much time on the ball, yet even then were still keeping them at arms length, with them hitting hurried shots from outside the box. I think it was just before their equaliser, that Cahill went sprawling, after challenging Austin, and from where I was sat it looked as if his left arm struck the ball. I wasn't the only one, who thought that, to be fair. The equaliser. I thought the ref had played a Chelsea advantage, so will have to look at that again. An injustice if it was our foul, and maybe another if the ball went out before the Fabregas cross/goal. FF definitely looked at fault for the first. Missed the winner as a guy, using a crutch, was leaving the row I was sat in, and by the time he got passed me, I stopped worrying about tripping him up, I looked up just as the ball entered the goal. Get the impression that a player on the post may have kept it out. Costa, as already said, helped to distract the players, and I'm looking forward to seeing (again) his fish out of water, dying act, after Bertrand barged into his back. That, and the time he tried to gain an advantage, after we had put the ball out, so VVD could recover, after Costa had caught VVD in the face, shows just st how big a piece of excrement Costa is.
