Comments on: It Was Nice Whilst It Lasted, Chelsea

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:16:19 +0000

no, they equalised in dying minutes of first half in Moscow ..that’s why I forgot

By: Marq

Marq — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:28:02 +0000

It was 1-0 at half-time… I’m also in with Haakon. I hope for Chelsea to recover and make good for the rest of the season and take 2nd place, and for that matter, Villa to take third! I’m getting greedy, haha, but that will teach our Spanish friend to keep quiet

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:11:32 +0000

hmm…my memory failed me then, I thought it was 1-0 half-time

By: EastStandManc

EastStandManc — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:20:06 +0000

” they faced the exact same situation at half-time on sunday.”

Not really. We’d managed to keep the clean sheet ’til half-time unlike in Moscow. That goal on the stroke of half-time in the Luzhniki really gave them the strength to believe that if they turned the screw in the second half that they could find a winner.

I always thought if we could’ve held on ’til half-time in Moscow we could’ve embarassed them on the counter attack.

By: King Eric

King Eric — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:37:16 +0000

As I have said numerous times the day they lost in Moscow is the day the decline started. Roman and the players wanted that so badly and after missing out thanks to captain courageous and Anelka will have completely knocked the stuffing out of them and there is no way back. They realise that they have never been that close before or will likely never get that close again to Champions League. In my opinion they have never recovered and are a hell of a long way off the rent boys of three or four seasons ago. So close yet ………….!

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:58:06 +0000

got to say I disagree Denton, cole is the whole package, he’s proven and was the original world-class attacking left back who could defend as well in the premiership. Ever since he emerged at Arsenal Fergie has been trying to catch up and find an Ashley Cole figure, I think we’ve gone one better but Cole’s still up there as one of the best in the world as most people will tell you…He might be a bit of a nob with a fit bird but he is class..It’s wishful thinking to say Roman won’t spend, I think it could be a Chelsea policy to drive down prices for the summer by claiming there’s a new era of spending, he’s still worth 6 billion, which is 5 more than the Glazers and Chelsea are quite profitable worldwide…Chelsea aren’t finsihed, the first-half was fairly even and they have had some poor form but all the players are still there that threatened us last year, they’re not all that old…We played well on Sunday but it was our combatancy and commitment over the whole pitch that won us the game, rather than any particular gulf in class as the match statistics illustrates. Chelsea are in need of direction but they are not in need of that many new, quality players, they aren’t looking great the day after being beaten 3-0 with some serious defensive lapses (including Ronnie’s two disallowed goals) but I’ve got a feeling they will manage to iron them out and finish a strong second still. After all, they were playing the Champions at their home ground, it was never going to be an easy task, they won’t be playing us every week.

By: denton davey

denton davey — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:11:45 +0000

Jake – I believe that you are over-rating Ca$hleyHole. He’s very fast, agile, and has good defensive instincts but he’s not much going forward compared to, say, Patrice Evra who is the whole attacking package. That’s why I say he is over-rated.

Also, you will have noticed that I didn’t say that they would be finished without Deco, Ballack, and the others – in fact, I said that that might be “addition by subtraction” – but I do think that they are stood on the edge of an abyss in terms of this season.

AND IF they actually fall into the abyss then I think that they will have a hard time extricating themselves since Roman is unwilling to spend more money and the loss of CL cash will really hurt them.

Maybe this is just so much wishful thinking but you have to admit that they have been less than average (or at least their own level of average) since mid-November) and that’s why I think that Sunday’s ream-job could be so damaging to their season. There was no “fight” and no “spirit” although I did notice that that twat Jon Obi-Mikel (and JoseTheMoaner, too, for that matter) sought to downgrade the totality of UTD’s victory. Mikel is just young and stupid; Jose would say that, wouldn’t he ?

By: King Eric

King Eric — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:34:56 +0000

Denton: spot on about Fletch yet some people still fail to see what a difference he makes for us. Huge player nowadays.

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:32:00 +0000

yeah, I may have been a bit strong in that analysis, bit of hyperbole to illustrate my point that they were a quality team 6 months ago and they were better than us in 2nd half that day and they faced the exact same situation at half-time on sunday. Their reaction this time was left wanting but they weren’t bad in first half, laying the blame at Scolari’s clearly uninspiring half time team-talk would seem a little more apt than calling Chelsea a spent force..They will still finish second, Liverpool 3rd/possibly fourth as I predict a steep demise for them as having barely 3 or 4 quality players will really start to tell, not that it hasn’t done already because as I’ve stated elsewhere they have the exact same points as they did at this stage last year.

By: EastStandManc

EastStandManc — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:18:35 +0000

“Played us off the park”, Jake?

I watched the Final again on Saturday night and even Graeme YSB Souness had to admit that even though Chelsea had just about had the better of the second half, United’s dominance of the first outclassed Chelsea’s second half performance. The difference between the two is that United were still within touching distance of Chelski in the second half, whereas they weren’t in the first half. For all their “dominance”, they only created one clear-cut chance (Drogba’s effort).

In fact, let’s put it this way, if both teams had put away their major chances within the 90 minutes, we’d've still won 3-2, with Chelski’s second coming in the second half (Ronaldo goal, Tevez/Carrick, Tevez studs versus Lampard goal, Drogba post) and 4-3 in Extra Time (adding Giggsy’s miscue, Lampard’s crossbar).

Under pressure? Sure. Played off the park? No chance.

Some good points other than that. I’ll not be writing them off this season, either, until they are mathematically incapable of winning the title.