Chelsea Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

jezz said:

Mourinho disagrees, I will take his opinion over yours Everytime.

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Thank you. So, at least I can state my onions, right ?

I am normally the one who comes in and berates our performances, players and manager, as well as ENIC and Levy. I also criticize all the optimists and naive posters.

However, even considering how bad we've been over the last 18 months, the last two performances should give us hope. I don't even remember the last time we played two games in a row with that kind of energy. Yeah, it's only two games but there is an actual identity to the side again. It's not very strong yet, but it is growing. Other times, our performances seemed liked flukes or a player or two having a good day or whatnot. This time round, there is a belief growing. Yes, we capitulated to dumb errors, but this is against Chelsea, unbeaten this term, and at Stamford Bridge. We didn't lose our heads when we could've. Last year Chiriches would probably have been sent off and heads would have dropped and made it easy for Chelsea to score 8.

Even when we tried passing and passing around the box, there was a sense of prying, trying to find an opening and not the AVB pass it back to goalkeeper nonsense. When we had chances go bad with Lennon and Kane, these were the players trying and once they get the hang of it, we will be converting them. This doesn't seem like before when half-chances or chances were by accident.

The ITK may or may not be true, but without several of the players out "injured", the team has improved drastically. If these are the players giving their all in training, then the Pochettino project is well underway and finally he has had backing to drop the assholes that are lazy and think they are bigger than the club.

Yes, we will have to deal with scum like Chelsea at the winner's table, but I am optimistic in my belief that their bought success will come to an end and, really optimistically, their scourge of a club will soon get what they are due. There will come a time when badly managed clubs fall and, if Levy has changed his tune, we could be the predators waiting in the wings.

Back the squad. They are looking like they have the potential we all though they would have 18 months ago.

Beni said:

96% pass completion rate and my eyes say otherwise

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Pass completion doesnt account for trying to dribble through players on the half way line obviously. Can you really say he has had a good game today? He is a good player and usually contributes. Today he was poor...

I thought the team performance was ok last night, Mourinho is very clever and deliberately sat deep and broke on us. I thought Fazio coped well against good players and bar a 2 minute crazy period we looked a strong team. This chelsea team are going to do that against better sides, its as good as Ive seen them in the premier league.

Gaz_Gammon said:

4360654

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We are always in transition. If this team did start to perform we would sell the star player (s) soon after the big bids came in and so the cycle would continue. The transition would start again. Some of you are so gullible it defies belief.
ENIC. "The game is about profit"

carpediem1906 said:

i'm aghast at how eriksen seemingly goes missing in big games.

but granted he had to do a lot of running and covering on the left, what with ivanovic always bombing forwards.

another dilemma is, given the current form players are in, it is difficult to play lamela eriksen and soldado all together, but they have the most chemistry together.

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To be fair a lot of our players goes missing against the top teams. I think the last time we got a result against Chelsea it was 1-1 and Eriksen had an okay game. I think the problem isn't solely on Eriksen, although he can do more to get involved and he needs to take control of the game. Firstly, he is playing on the wings, a lot. That is fine against a team we can dominate or at least have an equal chance against, where Eriksen can drift in to the middle and get involved. He can't do that against the top teams and is forced to play and defend more on the wings. He can't drift in when we are dominated in the midfield. We also have much less time on the ball and our other players have to make faster decisions, so it's way harder to find and pass to Eriksen.

One thing i noticed against Chelsea was at half-time. Eriksen had completed 13 passes out of 16, the exact same number as our other winger Lennon. He also had received a lot of passes in non-dangerous situations and on the wing. Lennon is an out and out winger that don't really need a lot of passes in a game to be effective, in fact it might be better if he don't have a lot of passes. Eriksen is the opposite. He needs to see a lot of the ball to control the flow of the game and his best games are when he is one of the players on the field with most passes(not surprisingly it's also when we play the best). He is not that kind of player that can thrive without the ball.

I would rather play Eriksen in CM in a 4-3-3 like he did when he played for Ajax. His second best position is CAM, but he needs to drop deeper to get more involved, since you can't control the game from CAM. Him playing on the left is more of a compromise, because it's much closer to CM than CAM and thus easier for him to get the ball and get involved. Eriksen was much more of a Fabregas/Modric type when he played for Ajax, although he had more offensive duties and less defensive. Then again Fabregas is playing alongside Matic, who is a beast and plays insanely good(a destroyer with proper technique and ball playing abilities, just insane).

I think Eriksen will eventually leave us for a side that either plays 4-3-3 or one that plays more with a 1-2 midfield. He wants to play in the center.

arunspurs said:

Thank you. So, at least I can state my onions, right ?

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First thing I actually agree with.

carpediem1906 said:

misleading screen grab.

ball was in chelsea's half, our defence was pushing up... we were in possession if i rem correctly.

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carpediem1906 said:

our high pressing game is meant to kill games off in the first half.

southampton never winning from losing position under poch is in a way proof of that.

had we been more clinical and taken our chances in the first 20 mins, the game would be different.

that said, against chelsea and city... and maybe united now, we cannot afford to make individual mistakes. it cost us, it will continue to cost us.

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We cannot afford to make individual mistakes and when we have gilt edged chances we need to take them. Kane should score the header, and then should play in Lamela for a tap-in rather than running with his head down. 2-0 up after 20 mins and the game looks different.

arunspurs said:

Yes, I want to sell Lamela. 100%
But unfortunately, we wont find buyers for the money Levy expects. So, he will end up with us for another 2 years.

What I find amusing is, people like you defending Lamela to the hilt - as if you have followed him his whole carrier from River to Roma (game in game out ) and pretend they know everything about the player.

Mate, its already been 1 year 4 months. Discounting 4 months of injury,his time is up. He better start delivering; Otherwise its you will be the fool.

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Actually saw the transworld sport show when it first aired with Lamela.
It was on a stupid o clock in the morning channel 4.
To be truthful I thought he looked like a girl.
No I didn't follow him blindly, but when he started to score a few a Roma I remembered the young lad from the show all them years before.
When he became linked and signed for us.
Yes I was ecstatic, will he be a success, yes he will.
Will he turn up every game and be wonderous, nope.
Will he be erratic, most definitely.
Most top player's don't tend to be blinding every game. We just remember the good parts and forget the bad bits.

I thought it was a decent team performance although a mistake to change a winning team. For the brightest point though you hade to be there. Tottenham crowd absolutely unbelievable! I would be embarrassed to be a Chelsea supporter, completely outclassed.

It's time for Lamela to show us whether he is a show pony, or the thoroughbred we thought we had paid for.

The fans and manager so far this season have shown faith in him, its now his turn to pay that back.

Also if he continues to get the basics wrong then a spell with the youth team would do him no harm. Judging from Bentaleb, Mason and Kane they know how to control and pass a ball, making it look easy.

I didn't expect much but am still gutted about last night. Bar those 2 goals, that first half was the best we've played away to a top side in a long while

cornelius knob said:

We are always in transition. If this team did start to perform we would sell the star player (s) soon after the big bids came in and so the cycle would continue. The transition would start again. Some of you are so gullible it defies belief.
ENIC. "The game is about profit"

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If ENIC's game is about profit, then why aren't they making any?

2010: £6.5m loss
2011: 400k profit
2012: £5.7m loss
2013: £1.5m profit

Kendall said:

If ENIC's game is about profit, then why aren't they making any?

2010: £6.5m loss
2011: 400k profit
2012: £5.7m loss
2013: £1.5m profit

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You must have missed the discussions on here over the years. Levy pockets 10's of millions each year and fiddles the books...

spursram said:

Depends what you consider world class. Do you think any of Chelseas midfield players are world class? Fabregas, Willian, Matic, Oscar? And if you do then don't you think Bentaleb wasn't outclassed?

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probably not. either way, not being outclassed by world-class players isn't the same thing as (potentially) being world-class yourself.

jolsnogross said:

The Guardian has us down for 61% possession. If ever the system argument of pack the midfield so we don't get overrun was again made bankrupt, it was tonight. Its all well and good playing with a lone striker when you've got hazards, Williamns, oscars, schlurres, fabregas and co playing behind a costa or drogba or remy and never isolating the striker. 61% of mostly safe but useless possession isn't going to make us any stouter to the onslaught that comes in their 39%.
If tactics is mainly about what to do when we don't have the ball, we'll keep having these downers after some relative ups. We've shown we can really get amongst the opposition when we play with two up front. I'd argue we look more solid and defensively sound when we play with 2 up, rather than the 4231. So I hope Potch just gives us a run with the same core pairs down the spine of the side for a while....especially Kane and Soldado up front.

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Great post. Bumped for others to read.

Kendall said:

If ENIC's game is about profit, then why aren't they making any?

2010: £6.5m loss
2011: 400k profit
2012: £5.7m loss
2013: £1.5m profit

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Because they have made shambolic Managerial and Player acquisitions.

Don't think Lamela was as bad as some are making out. On a number of occasions he injected pace into some of our attacks with quick passing but we invariably got crowded out.

The biggest thing i noticed, and Graeme Le Saux on the commentary i was watching picked up on it, the Chelsea forward players are so much more reliable in posession. They keep the ball so much better - and in effect try less fancy/risky passes but eventually wear you down.

We seem to try the tricks and flicks 30 - 40 yards from goal. Whereas Chelsea only ever do this once they've worked their way to the edge of the area. It means if they lose the ball - we'd still have to go 100 yards to capitalise. But when you try a 50/50 flick / tight one-two around the centre circle and give up possession, you're immediately putting yourself under pressue. We need to be more careful in possession and it wasn't just Lamela doing this, Mason was gifting the ball away to easily in deep possessions last night as well for example

cornelius knob said:

We are always in transition. If this team did start to perform we would sell the star player (s) soon after the big bids came in and so the cycle would continue. The transition would start again. Some of you are so gullible it defies belief.
ENIC. "The game is about profit"

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You do know that the club pretty much breaks even every season? There is no profit for ENIC to put in their pockets, and had they been in it for the profit, the Bale money would never have been reinvested in the team. You may choose to ignore the facts all you want, but if the 7 had been a success from the off, our team would've been extremely potent.

yido_number1 said:

Pass completion doesnt account for trying to dribble through players on the half way line obviously. Can you really say he has had a good game today? He is a good player and usually contributes. Today he was poor...

I thought the team performance was ok last night, Mourinho is very clever and deliberately sat deep and broke on us. I thought Fazio coped well against good players and bar a 2 minute crazy period we looked a strong team. This chelsea team are going to do that against better sides, its as good as Ive seen them in the premier league.

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His pass completion and someone put a stat up about the number of successful takeons was 3 or 4, and that there were none failed.

His performance was good last night, as was Kanes. Kane also ran down blind alleys a lot last night, and gave the ball away, and so did others who had worse games, yet Lamela is the one who is alway singled out. Price tag, hidden agendas, seems to be the case.

Spurs Lodge Kittens said:

Don't think Lamela was as bad as some are making out. On a number of occasions he injected pace into some of our attacks with quick passing but we invariably got crowded out.

The biggest thing i noticed, and Graeme Le Saux on the commentary i was watching picked up on it, the Chelsea forward players are so much more reliable in posession. They keep the ball so much better - and in effect try less fancy/risky passes but eventually wear you down.

We seem to try the tricks and flicks 30 - 40 yards from goal. Whereas Chelsea only ever do this once they've worked their way to the edge of the area. It means if they lose the ball - we'd still have to go 100 yards to capitalise. But when you try a 50/50 flick / tight one-two around the centre circle and give up possession, you're immediately putting yourself under pressue. We need to be more careful in possession and it wasn't just Lamela doing this, Mason was gifting the ball away to easily in deep possessions last night as well for example

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It's worth going to squawka and comparing our possession statistics this season and last to 2012-13. They only confirm what we've been seeing week in, week out, but it's still a bit of a shock. This season we've improved a little, but are still nowhere near our competitors (we weren't in 2012-13, but were still miles better than we are now). The individual ratings are pretty depressing, too; Lamela is the worst culprit, followed by Dier, Ade, Kane, Kaboul, Townsend and Rose, but what's alarming is how Dembélé and Vertonghen's ratings have absolutely plummeted from what they were two years ago.

Before anything else, Pochettino needs to get this sorted.