Chelsea 0-0 West Ham - What's your view of our performance and West Ham?
Chelsea dropped two important points last night at Stamford Bridge against a resolute and determined West Ham United side. With 39 attemp...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2014/01/chelsea-0-0-west-ham-whats-your-view-of.html
Chelsea dropped two important points last night at Stamford Bridge against a resolute and determined West Ham United side. With 39 attempts on goal, Chelsea just could not break down the Claret and Blue wall!
Everyone will have an opinion on this and there is no right and wrong but the tactics Sam Allardyce employed have caused plenty of debate around the country and on social media networks ever since the final whistle blew.
Jose Mourinho stated that it was "19th century tactics" but Chelsea fans should take their minds back to our Champions League winning season and games at Stamford Bridge and the Nou Camp against Barcelona to see that it's a tactic we have employed to get a result.
That's what it all comes down to here. Sam Allardyce is fighting for his future if you believe reports in the press and as he said after the game "I am not going to come here as Man United did and play wide open football" and you can understand it.
As much as it's frustrating for us, we did have at least three good chances to break the deadlock but for the defiance of Adrian in the West Ham goal.
Samuel Eto'o's strike just on half time was saved at his near post, John Terry's header was straight at him and right at the death you could argue that Frank Lampard should have done better as again his effort was fired straight at the West Ham Goalkeeper.
When you read about Managers being under pressure you often take a look at the players to see if they are still playing for him, still giving their all under his guidance and you have to say that to a man, each of the West Ham players gave everything to stop Chelsea last night.
I read a stat somewhere that said we had 73% possession, 490 passes compared to West Ham's 120, 39 attempts at goal compared to West Ham's one single effort and 51 clearances made by Allardyce's men. They were literally throwing bodies (not just one at times either) at the ball to make blocks in and around the box, they earned the point here without question and credit to them!
As for Chelsea? Well we could argue once again that we need to be quicker in possession of the ball. It's not the first time someone will come to Stamford Bridge and set up like that, looking to make it difficult for us to break them down. We need to come up with alternative solutions because although our approach play is good, we came to the final third, up against that wall and the pace in our attack died!
I believe the pace that Mohamed Salah brings will be a massive bonus as that's what this team needs. Pace down both wings with Oscar pulling the strings to open teams up.
Again we are reading opinion from Chelsea fans about the striker situation but once again I would like to point out that to me that's not the problem. Look at the City first goal at Spurs last night for example. David Silva drifts into space, turns and spots a run of Aguero, he plays the ball early and Aguero scores. It's a simple game played at pace and this is what we are missing.
All in all we can feel nothing but disappointment this morning as with Arsenal dropping points at Southampton, we had a chance to overtake them but blew it.
Now we have to prepare ourselves for City at Eastlands and we have to take some positives from this one going there. Once again we have a clean sheet which compared to the beginning of the season, is a massive boost.
Will City rip us apart like they have plenty of others this season? I don't think so. Can Chelsea break them down? That's where the game could be won or lost.
Congrats on your point West Ham, I can't fault you for your efforts.
Carefree & KTBFFH!
I felt Willian was poor last night, and if there was more overlapping runs on the left and a few crosses on the left into the box it would have kept Westham guessing, They always had two players on Hazard and essentially nullified him from cutting into the box. CFC need to attack quickly , not 6 touches by the midfield players and then back to defense and back to midfield , the runs of the ball needed to be intelligent.
ReplyDeleteLast night was a "must win" and we blew it. I fear that after Monday we could well find ourselves 5 points behind Arsenal and 6 behind City. I can't help but think City would've put another hat-full past West Ham last night despite their "heroic" defending.
ReplyDeleteI have no problems with what Mourinho is doing with our squad and fully support the recent changes in personnel, the squad looks more balanced and it bodes well for the longer term but.......it's quite ironic that if there was one game where we really needed Mata, then last night was it. We didn't need pace on the break, we didn't need to close them down, we didn't need tremendous trickery; we were camped in their half. What we needed was someone who could pick the right pass, at the right pace in a congested area, Bring on Juan Mata, the poor mans Silva; perhaps we should have kept him until the end of this week?!
it's quite ironic that if there was one game where we really needed Mata, then last night was it. We didn't need pace on the break, we didn't need to close them down, we didn't need tremendous trickery; we were camped in their half. What we needed was someone who could pick the right pass, at the right pace in a congested area, Bring on Juan Mata, the poor mans Silva; perhaps we should have kept him until the end of this week?!... This is absolutely true.
DeleteBut then again we say Mou is a world class coach and he knows better than many of us. I was surprised he was angry at the tactics the hammers played when indeed he created the method. One would think when you invent something, you will have the remedy; an introduction of a Mata like player would have been the remedy yesterday.....sellah
how was it a Must Win game,,,,,there,s going to be game,s like this for all the top team,s,,MC@ARS,,,we should have won,but,it,s not the end of the world,,Mata,s gone,,,,so if but,s and maybe,s,we can all think that,,,going on your,logic,,,how come,s we got rolled over by the Hammers,at there,s last season,,,pretty sure Mata played in that game,,,JM,was also bang out of order with his after game comments,,and deserves all the comment,s he,s getting,,,and I m a fan of his,just saying how it is,,,,,there,s still a way to go this season,still feel we are in with a chance of the title,,but if I m honest,and I ve said it on here already,,I feel MC,,[[ at the present time ]],have the best squad and team in the prem,,,,ktbffh
DeleteI agree with the last contributor ,, we missed Mata but I do not agree with you regarding our lack of need for an in form striker. I bet if Aguero played for us he would have taken one of the opportunities, just why did we let him escape us? Frank Lampard is probably a little too slow now and too many of his efforts sail over the bar. I hope we can stay in the top 4, too many of our rivals are scoring goals freely.
ReplyDeleteMourinho moaning about time wasting and parking the bus - its was ok for him to get a result at the Nou Camp that got Inter through back in 2010!
ReplyDeleteLa
Willian is rubbish at set pieces. His corners were awful. This was one of those nights where the ball just won't get in, cf. Lampard shot at the final seconds of the game.
ReplyDeleteWhy pick Mikel against a park the bus team like Allardyce's West Ham? Why switch Ivanovich to left back when he can't even cross properly with his right foot when playing at right back? Why not bring Luiz on and play him at left back as at least he is 2 footed and can pass and shoot. I cannot understand Mourinho's obsession with playing Ivanovich as a full back when he clearly ain't good enough to play there.He must be one of the worst right back in the EPL.!.
ReplyDeleteRemember spurs several yeas ago doing the same thing against Mourhino ?
ReplyDeleteTo score against such team you need to get behind them = wingers. Have we got any ? Particuarly as we are not seeing Cole o Azi do that job.
We are too narow - even against Manu our midefielders drifted inside.