Firstly, Chelsea would be French Champions by the length of the straight . PSG are basically a piss poor copy of City. They have power speed and craft up front and bugger all else. They are dead poor elsewhere. In this game, although we obviously played a more tentative style, we were again flat and devoid of ideas. Chelseas' much praised back 4 look completely ordinary when faced with real speed and skill. JT in particular showed why many including me think he's miles past his best. OK for the PL against less technical skills, but out of it in the CL. Ditto Cahill. Azpi went well and Ivan made up for lack of pace with pure grit and experience. Cech should be bounced straight out the door, he's an absolute liability. Courtois is a shoe in, which means how do we get Costa ?? Ramires is just a total idiot. He can't pass, can't play, can't tackle. Yellow card early means he's useless in defence for 75mins. Willian tries but he can't pass either. ( though the one to Hazard was a cracker) No team can afford him and Ramires together in midfield. If Oscar is the answer, what's the question? Looks like he just doesn't know where or how he should play. He's badly out of form. Torres, is there a worse "striker" anywhere? Hazard can't do everything himself. Luiz went well after an indifferent start, but he too had to do it alone so poor was Ramires. So as per all season, midfield and striker is our big problem, and lack of cover in defence as well. We had no one to replace any of the back 4. Positives, not a lot except even playing away and badly to boot, we still gave PSG plenty of problems. It's frustrating to watch the wheel go round with a couple of cogs missing. The last goal really exposed us to the danger of pure skill. Tough now at our place, but not impossible.
PSG deserved winners. Central midfielder Luiz at fault for first and second goals. Gave possession away cheaply which put Terry under pressure for first goal. Gave away stupid foul tracking back for second goal. Delivery was superb from Lavezzi so can't really blame Luiz for own goal or Cech's keeping as he had lots of bodies in front of him. Poor Luiz made the first goal, made and scored the second, and got booked. And hooked at Palace after 45 mins. A bad week for Silent Bob. Hopefully he'll play a blinder in the second leg to atone
Have you seen Courtois? or any decent keeper for that manner. Irrespective of how many bodies you have infront of you - with the 2/4 feet extra leverage - you go out and uproot everyone.. especially the protection you get with refs.. Cech never comes out confidently - or never comes out period! How can you even justify Cech? Don't get me started on the third goal.
Agree that a more dominant keeper may have dealt with it. But it was a superb delivery from Lavezzi. Maybe Courtois would have dealt with it.
Sums it up pretty well in the first place, they were there for the taking but we didn't take advantage of it. If Hazards post shot has gone in we'd have probably gone on to win it. Small margins eh. Big ask in the second leg, unlikely but we're capable.
no one says otherwise. He is and always will be a legend. But we don't need to push legends out - they need to graciously accept and move on!!
This. Let's not overreact like a bunch of girls about this poor performance, slagging off the back 4 etc..
Yes mate but unlikely. Wanted top 3 (80+ points) and CL QF at the beginning of the season. And we have achieved that.
Let's hope so. Ah well. At least we ran the ultras today... and made up for Arsenal's shame in the 95 Cup Winners Cup final. Night, mate
Let's hope Eto'o is fit next week, he'll do just fine against that back four. Cech was appalling today but the OTT comments don't help, still the best keeper in the league imo. As for the back four bashing, where have you been the rest of the season when they've been saving our arses and making up for our lack of striking options? We have the best defence in the Premier League and just had an off day today, awful overreaction. JT has arguably been defender of the season FFS!
We should never have allowed ourselves to lose that game by two goals. Should have taken advantage of the fact that we had them rattled after our equaliser and pushed on to take the lead before the end of the first half. Poor clearance by Terry led to to their first goal (though it was a quality finish by Lavezzi). Then a stupid free-kick to give away that led to their second, I'm not even sure it was a foul. But it was awful from Luiz to put that in. Had he been more aware of what was around him he would have let that ball run as it was going out and there as no one PSG player there to put it in. A shame as he played ok despite that fuck up. Then to concede that third goal at such a late stage was disastrous. Some comical defending to allow Pastore to steam roll past our defence and then poor goalkeeping by Cech to get beaten at his near post. Referee was a bit of a cunt as well. On the balance of play PSG deserved their victory, but they didn't do enough to score three, that was the result of bad goalkeeping/defending. From a not so bad defeat at 2-1, we're now staring at a quarter-final exit. We really have our work cut out for us in the 2nd leg and need to plan on scoring at least three as I cannot see us not conceding.
Back 4 bashing ??? Didn't read that anywhere. I said they were shown up as not so great when quick clever strikers run them around, which is completely true. Don't care how good they've been in the PL, in the CL against an attack like PSG, they are exposed for what they are. I praised Ivan and Azpi as well. To call it how it is, is NOT slagging them off. I exclude Cech who deserves every criticism coming his way, he has had a dire season and makes more mistakes as the season goes on. For the last goal the PSG guy beat Azpi, Cahill and Terry, one ,two ,three, then Cech. For what it's worth, and as a concession if you think I'm too harsh, all of the back 4 look buggered. Put that down to Jose who simply won't play perfectly good subs, as he does with the rest of the team. And I repeat, tough call at our place but not impossible.
Just re-read your post having seen others' reaction, CP. You seem to watch Chelsea games looking for certain players to make mistakes to shoehorn and fit your opinions and preconceptions into: ie JT is miles past his best. Well JT and Cahill did OK against Cavani and Ibra (is Ibra miles past it now?) JT gave Lavezzi a chance with a poor header, but crucially Luiz gave the ball away cheaply in the build up and also gave away a stupid foul to lead to goal two. Are those mistakes due to him being miles past his best? No Lavezzi was superb and all our problems came down the right v Ivanovic, not through Cavani and Ibra v JT and Cahill. Ivanovic struggled against all Lavezzi's speed as all defenders would have. Have you ever played centre half: all CBs can look ordinary v real speed and/or skill regardless of age. Vidic v Torres 2009, JT v RVP 2011 or JT v Walcott 2008 or JT v Eto'o 2005 etc, Carvalho v Ronaldinho 2005... whether they are 25 or 35. Our defence (including Cech, who must be bounced out of the door straightaway, like before the Stoke game, nice way to treat a valued dedicated professional) are much-praised because they have conceded just five goals in the Prem in 2014, and got us in the title race
