The Chelsea Thread

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Tonight also presented us with an interesting problem.

Matic, Kante, Oscar, Willian is way too defensive a midfield. It crushes opposition play but there is so little impact there that we're totally reliant on Costa making something out of nothing or Hazard sparkling. Teams can just put 2/3 players on the latter, and mark Costa tightly and we sort of run out of steam. Pedro offers a good option for that, but if Cuadrado is off, I'd like to see a more creative right winger brought in or, against teams that sit as deep as West Ham did, see Oscar, Kante, Fabregas, or, switching to a 4-4-2 with Oscar and Kante in the middle. That last goal came precisely because Costa had a partner beside him and was freed from the tight marking he'd been under all night.
 
Deserved win, and a decent performance to go with it. LOL at Conte, Costa grabs the winner and Conte starts hugging random fans in celebration. Brilliant.
 
Chelski Shogun said:
Deserved win, and a decent performance to go with it. LOL at Conte, Costa grabs the winner and Conte starts hugging random fans in celebration. Brilliant.
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The third Friday night in September is gonna' be as fun watching the benches as it will be the action on the pitch with Conte and Klopp side by side the small area at Chelsea.
 
Costa should have been sent off but West Ham deserved nothing from the way they played. All in all, a decent win but much work left to be done. Good to see Hazard and Costa getting on the score sheet.
 
Scouseinthehouse said:
The third Friday night in September is gonna' be as fun watching the benches as it will be the action on the pitch with Conte and Klopp side by side the small area at Chelsea.
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So many matchups this season. Just for us:

Conte vs Wenger, Mou, Klopp, Pep etc. I suspect Conte vs Poch might end in a high octane knife fight.
 
Subtle said:
So many matchups this season. Just for us:

Conte vs Wenger, Mou, Klopp, Pep etc. I suspect Conte vs Poch might end in a high octane knife fight.
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[video=youtube;I5n28hpMFBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5n28hpMFBE[/video]
 
Honestly for all the talk about Conte being this tactical genius, what we saw today was almost nothing different from the Chelsea teams of the past.

4-3-3. Power, efficiency and defensive solidity in the midfield through Matic and Kante efficiently winning the ball and recycling possession complemented by a creative goalscoring midfielder in Oscar. Pace and skill down the wings through Willian and Hazard playing around a powerful centre-forward in Costa who is constantly running the channels and harassing defenders. Team kept compact and worked hard with the full-backs marauding down the wings during the attacking phase and Matic and Kante covering the gaps left behind.

We scored a goal and would have seen the game out if it were not for the series of deflections during the corner which you can't do anything about really.

As much as we try to escape it, Mourinho's 04-05 and 05-06 teams continue to cast a shadow and influence over the club for close to a decade now.
 
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Subtle said:
Tonight also presented us with an interesting problem.

Matic, Kante, Oscar, Willian is way too defensive a midfield. It crushes opposition play but there is so little impact there that we're totally reliant on Costa making something out of nothing or Hazard sparkling. Teams can just put 2/3 players on the latter, and mark Costa tightly and we sort of run out of steam. Pedro offers a good option for that, but if Cuadrado is off, I'd like to see a more creative right winger brought in or, against teams that sit as deep as West Ham did, see Oscar, Kante, Fabregas, or, switching to a 4-4-2 with Oscar and Kante in the middle. That last goal came precisely because Costa had a partner beside him and was freed from the tight marking he'd been under all night.
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Oscar-Kante-Fabregas midfield is a good shout but personally I would rather slot in Fabregas with Matic and Kante against top teams especially if our defensive unit remains as it is. With the defensive nous of Kante and Matic, I rather have Fabregas' superior vision and creativity as compared to Oscar's more hard-running energetic shift.

Think we would have broken down West Ham much earlier today if Fabregas was on the pitch.
 
There's a lot of talk about us signing Ricardo Rodriguez from Wolfsburg, moving Azpi to RB and then using Brana as a rotation option for CB, as our current CB targets don't seem to be working out. Apparently this would be a stopgap until January.

It reads a little iffily on paper, but comes with a caveat. We'd be using the £60m odd we offered to Napoli to buy James instead. What would people be more happy with: RR and Koulibay, or RR and James? I weirdly find myself leaning towards the latter. Hazard-Matic-Kante-Oscar-James for games when the opposition has weaker fullbacks / Hazard-Matic-Kante-Fabregas-Willian for games where they have stronger attacking wings/weaker in the middle / Hazard-Oscar-Kante-Fabregas-James to crush teams that sit back against us.

Not to mention the fact that he can play through the middle as well. and is a consistent goal threat from midfield, something we have been sorely lacking.
 
Subtle said:
There's a lot of talk about us signing Ricardo Rodriguez from Wolfsburg, moving Azpi to RB and then using Brana as a rotation option for CB, as our current CB targets don't seem to be working out. Apparently this would be a stopgap until January.

It reads a little iffily on paper, but comes with a caveat. We'd be using the £60m odd we offered to Napoli to buy James instead. What would people be more happy with: RR and Koulibay, or RR and James? I weirdly find myself leaning towards the latter. Hazard-Matic-Kante-Oscar-James for games when the opposition has weaker fullbacks / Hazard-Matic-Kante-Fabregas-Willian for games where they have stronger attacking wings/weaker in the middle / Hazard-Oscar-Kante-Fabregas-James to crush teams that sit back against us.

Not to mention the fact that he can play through the middle as well. and is a consistent goal threat from midfield, something we have been sorely lacking.
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Not for me. James is a great player but he is best in a No.10 position and if are shelling out such big money for a player, I rather we buy someone who will start every game rather than someone who will only start games against certain opposition. Your analysis is more along the line of 'he would be nice to have but not a priority' and all the more so when you consider the sum for him and the glaring areas of weakness we have in our squad.

Koulibaly and RR for me. If everything works out well, we can go buy that creative right winger we have been sorely missing in January or the summer. Griezmann would be ideal and very doable if we can get CL this season.
 
RhQQ said:
Chelsea were very average but definitely deserved 3 points imho though
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absolutely dominated the game and with some sharpness in the finishing would have had it wrapped up in the 1st half, when we watched what we did last season that performance was not average!!!!
 
Was talking to my brother about the game last Monday and the main thing we took away from the game wasn't the win or upgrade in performance at all. Yes we played better than a huge majority of last season (hard not too) but the standout change for me was the players attitude, they were trying, they wanted it.


I'm not convinced on Oscar what so ever but that night he was snapping into challenges constantly. I've just watched the highlights back and in stoppage time West Ham sling a ball into the box and the balls pinging around in the box, Courtois has to make a smart save but the ball's cleared to the edge of the box for an oncoming Winston Reid to strike...... But who's there sprinting at his hardest despite playing 90 minutes to beat him to it and smash the ball into the East Stand, our match winner Diego Costa. That is an attitude of a player who wants to play, win and fight for this football club and i saw more in that game from most players than i did in the whole of last season.
 
CJACKO11 said:
absolutely dominated the game and with some sharpness in the finishing would have had it wrapped up in the 1st half, when we watched what we did last season that performance was not average!!!!
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You looked good until you broke the deadlock, Hazard looked terrific, Oscar impressed me, Costa tried a little burst here and there, Kante was Kante, but other than that... And yes you controlled the game, but you were allowed to against cagey side, same as us (United) in our opening game against Bournemouth, West Ham set up that way, and only for a very good late strike from a player who shouldn't have been on the pitch, West Ham's ****** and grab strategy would've worked and they would have came away with a very good point.

As I said, I recognise you that you deserved the 3 points, as West Ham were much too unadventurous for a side who has European ambitions, and you did create decent chances, but I just felt you were asking for West Ham to score the way your lot took their foot off the gas after going 1-0 up, West Ham rarely threatened all night so I don't much risk in going for a 2nd goal at home, against a side who weren't at the races, and that's why I described it as rather average. If United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc had a smaller team against the ropes at home, after going 1-0 up, do you think they'd sit back and try hold out almost an entire half for 1-0? Batter them, get the fear factor back at the bridge, or perhaps I'm a little old fashioned.
 
ninjaskill said:
I only got to read about 5 lines of the second one as I don't have a subscription to the WSJ :P
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Don't they allow a certain number of free articles per month? I had no problem reading it despite having no subscription either!
 
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