http://thefootballfaithful.com/chelsea-v-newcastle-player-ratings/ http://www.westlondonsport.com/chelsea/chelsea-v-newcastle-player-ratings-4 Required reading Stan!
I’m certainly no personal assistant or ‘political officer’ for Cesc but I reckon he was immense against the Geordie barcodes. Benitez takes a lot of stick from us but at least his team came to Stamford Bridge to play open and expansive football unlike Pulis’ WBA last season and Swansea this season. The Geordies hero worship Benitez judging by the amount of times they chanted his name yesterday. A bit of an easy win for us as we outclassed the barcodes all over the pitch.
You're insistence on vilifying Fabregas no matter how he performs is baffling. Fair enough, when he doesn't perform, but yesterday you could have easily argued for him being the best player on the pitch. He was putting in ball after ball for Hazard and Morata to chase, his passing was on point. Yes, we know his limitations, but he was better than Drinkwater, and was infinitely better than Baka has been playing of late. Did Fabregas steal your woman or sexually abuse you as a child or something? Because you seem to have an ulterior motive here.
nah no way. Willian holds onto it too long and lacks an end product imo. If we have him, we cannot play hazard. Either him or hazard or him in the middle instead of drinky. Also Dave is no wingback. He's bad enough going forward as a RWB let alone a LWB. big no no. If you have to replace alonso with anyone then go with Kenedy. Agree Alonso is looking a bit tired recently
Cescies looked good with 3 in CM. He gets cover from kante and drinky/bakayoko. We looked quite vulnerable in the middle even against swansea when we only had 2 in the middle as he was part of it.
Agree with this. I never want to see a right footed player at left wing back for us. It's the only width we have in our team so we can't have everyone wanting to move into the centre of the pitch. He's tired because we didn't sign anybody In the summer unfortunately, I think we tried though, did we? Try and resign Bertrand imo.
As for the game I thought it was a lot more comfortable than the Swansea match but still not that much fun. Besides the first 10 minutes we were well in control and it was a matter of time until we took the lead. It's nice to see teams go for it though when they play away at the big sides so fair play to them, I think they'll be alright, decent side just on a bad run of form. Moses was much better, Hazard was unplayable, Morata took his goal well and worked hard and some of Cescs passes were amazing. Drinkwater still doesn't do a lot for a 30M player though. Jack of all trades master of none I guess but maybe that's what those sort of players cost nowadays? 6 points from 2 home games is nice anyway and we haven't really played that well, saving it for Atletico (I hope).
I had another look at the replay after Bobby Ds' post, and I'll alter my view on Moses to say he did indeed look a whole lot better as the game wore on. Now I have to agree with Stan too, if only we could get Moses to attack like Zappa and Zappa to cross like Moses !! I think Stan's being too hard on Csec, his early season form was less than great, but last 4 or 5 matches he's been seriously impressive. Sure, he get's caught out for speed occasionally but his passing and creating openings is really top notch. Put me down as an Alonso fan as well, would be among my 1st choice picks every week. Looks weary though, and Kenedy the obvious replacement is still injured.
there is no early season Form. Early season Cescy was total liability in the mid 2 formation. Now he is given a free role with Mid 2 sweeping up all his misses. But for a free role, Cescy isn't lighting up at the moment either. I would expect atleast a goal or assist every other game. He hasn't done neither.
I really can't make my mind up if you are the Chelsea version of RCL (reverse jinx artist) or you really don't understand what you are watching
I also think it is the latter. As fans we can rag on players all we want if they aint performing, we pay for that privilege. But just blind ****ing delusion and hate on a player, regardless of how they are performing is just weird. By all means call them out when they play like ****s, but equally you have to offer plaudits when they perform, and Fabregas has been our best midfielder for the past 4-5 games, without question. He did the same thing to Obi Mikel until he left, and he calls out Alonso all the ****ing time regardless too. One time Alonso scored twice and got an assist in a 4-0 win, and he was still trying to tell us that he was no good etc And Cahill, everyone knows my thought on Cahill, I am not a massive fans, but the fact still stands that we have won 2 league titles, the champions League and the Europa League, with him in our Starting XI. Now JT was good, but not so good that he could do the job of two CB's. Yet Stan would have you believe that ALL Cahill's shortcomings were masked by JT's brilliance.
Everyone knows Matic did the double shift and then we had Kante for the 2nd title. Yes lets rave about how great Cahill is.
Indeed, Cesc has been superb for the last 5 games. His passing and goal assists are so good in that he can - literally - kick the ball onto a dinner plate from 30 yards.
....a title for us this season - against the odds - would be well deserved after our slow start. How do we go about jinxing Manchester City?
I think that will be a job too far. Man City have the best squad in the PL . I think we have better defenders than them, but then they kill us. They have such strength in numbers for every position, they can attack in numbers, or individually, their midfield can be aggressive or sublime, and their strikers (plural) are deadly. What's even more telling is their teamwork, the ball moves quickly and directly from back through midfield to the front men and they play a modern version of the old Dutch "Total Football". Simply put, they just have too many good players all over the pitch to our 4 outstanding ones, and 7 other good but not great ones( yet, in a couple of cases) They will have their bad patch for sure, but I don't see anyone catching them this season. I think we are a chance for 2nd, and a good thing for 3rd.
.......the ‘mighty’ Manchester City have just LOST to Shakhtar in the Champions’ League. May their losing run continue.
