Ratings & Reactions: Chelsea v Villa

[TheAuthority]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

Chelsea have now lost at home against newly promoted teams once out of the last 56.

Tonight they fielded the world's most expensive goalkeeper, a left winger who cost £58m and an England international striker who scored 26 goals for us last season.

Kepa and Pulisic alone cost more than our entire starting XI.

Apparently "they were there for the taking"...

How dare you come in here with your facts and reasoned debate.

Smith should  never be nice to our players again and as we didn't win by 6 obviously we're getting relegated to to the Bisa Homes League.

[sidcow]

Just got home. 

Wish I hadn't have gone. 

[MadridVilla]

45 minutes ago, TRO said:

I felt for Jack tonight.

how they have the cheek to compare him with Mount and Madison and have no consideration, of who he is playing with......are they blind.

jack was trying to do it all again.....he was let down by too many tonight.

 

Completely agree, I remember thinking how hard he was trying to do it by himself. Sadly it seems when he tries so hard he struggles the most, he is best when he is free to play his own way and doesn't feel burdened by carrying the rest of the team. Given that both McGinn and Hourihane were ineffective tonight, there's not a lot of choice he has other than to do it all.

At the end of the day he plays in a certain way and games like tonight where we are up against it just don't suit his style because we don't have enough possession of the ball in their half to allow Grealish to run at players, so he's forced to come deep to get it where he gets fouled in midfield before he can cause problems. It would help in games like tonight to have a striker who can hold the ball up well and allow Grealish et al. to get the ball between their defence and midfield lines where he is lethal, but alas, Wesley has a trampoline for a right foot 

[tinker]

Hard game for us , Chelsea are a well organised team with some great players .Main points...... defence, 2nd time in two games that a goal has been scored from a free header from a couple of yards out. It looked like Konsa was to blame , he tried to play offside but Elmo and Ming's both played Abraham inside. Not sure if it's Ming's and Elmo or Konsa, guess we will know from who starts on Sunday. Ming's is slow out of the box though , later in the game he played Abraham onside, everyone else had pushed up at least a yard .........

Midfield, dear me what a mess. overun and lost countless first and second balls , allowed them to control the game . It got better when Douglas came on and I thought he had a good game but Hourihane, Marvelous and Mcguine looked lost and out of the game . 

Taking nothing away from Chelsea as they played very well and look like a top 4 side . On games like this we need a plan b. The back 4 held onto the ball to.long and the midfield couldn't keep possession. Wesley was a lonely figure up front and the frustration told on him . It situations like this it would be nice to have another forward on who can help him hold the ball and relieve some.pressure .UTV 

[cbr600rr]

simply put.. chelsea have tammy & villa have wesley 

if it was the other way around villa would have won.

its a simple game, you get the best players you get better results.

A NEW STRIKER IS NEEDED

[villan-scott]

Sometimes the opposition are just better, and there isn’t a lot you can do about it. We got outclassed last night without ever being out of the game, again. 

We move on, our season isn’t defined by losing 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. The rest of our December is more important to be winning games against the teams around us. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by villan-scott

[Elton]

19 minutes ago, cbr600rr said:

simply put.. chelsea have tammy & villa have wesley 

if it was the other way around villa would have won.

its a simple game, you get the best players you get better results.

A NEW STRIKER IS NEEDED

It’s not quite that simple. You also need to swap Wesley’s service with Tammy’s service. They are a better team that’s why they won, not because of one better forward. In fact Tammy missed a quite a few easy chances last night.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Elton

[lexicon]

The entitlement from some in this thread... Christ. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

I think the frustrating thing is we’re 15 games into the season and we’ve already lost 8 games, when in all reality we could have lost half of those games and at least drawn the others. Palace we played very poorly but should have drawn except for an outrageous decision by the referee, Arsenal we deserved at least a draw and should have had a pen for handball in the last minute. Bournemouth at home we arguably should have won the game rather than lost, we were the much better team and gifted them two goals in the first 10 minutes. And I think the Liverpool game, whilst we were under the cosh in the 2^nd half, we were desperately unlucky to lose to a last minute goal. We could feasibly be 4-6 points up on where we are if we just had better managed our games, and that’s what rankles most. Even Frank Lampard said before the game last night that Villa should be higher up the table than we are. 

 

I think we really must work hard to try to pick up some much-needed points in the next 6 games and get some form going into the new year. I think we should aim to go unbeaten for the rest of the month. Leicester will be tough but we’re at home and will have a large backing again, I think we can get a result if we play like we did against Man U. I personally think the next 6 games we can get some positive results and would be happy with the following:

 

Leicester (h) – draw

Sheffield U (a) – draw

Southampton (h) – win

Norwich (h) – win

Watford (a) – win

Burnley (a) – draw

 

That’s being optimistic but I think we are capable of getting those results and see now reason why we shouldn't look to be winning all of them. If we get those results we would find ourselves on 27 points from 21 games, with easier away games in the new year against teams in and around us and playing the bigger sides at home where we’re more likely to get a result. I think we are capable of beating sides like Arsenal, Man U and even Spurs at VP, particularly if we sign a more reliable striker in the window.

[VillaFaninLondon]

2 hours ago, Elton said:

It’s not quite that simple. You also need to swap Wesley’s service with Tammy’s service. They are a better team that’s why they won, not because of one better forward. In fact Tammy missed a quite a few easy chances last night.

I agree Chelsea are better than us but you can also see Tammy is better than Wesley by watching him. He's more mobile, works harder, has better off the ball movement, his positioning is much better, and he's better in the air. Wesley hasn't scored a header yet for us, all his goals have been tap ins, with Tammy you can cross to him, go long, go over the top, or play to his feet. He does miss chances, sure, but the fact he gets so many shows how good he is at getting in the right positions. Wesley didn't have one chance last night, or against Man U, and fluffed his best chance against Wolves. The guy needs to do better, plain and simple.

 

But I also have some sympathy with him. We had very little of the ball last night, so chances created were at a minimum. In fact, our ball retention in general has been very poor this season under DS, which is something I'd call him out on because his Brentford team always had so much ball possession and he doesn't seem to have carried that over to this Villa team. Even in the Championship we didn't retain the ball that well. And it's hard to criticise just Wesley last night as I thought a few other players were poor, even Jack wasn't great last night. The referee was also appalling and whilst Wesley went down easily, there were one or two occasions where I felt he deserved a free kick. 

 

There's nothing we can do about it until January anyway really, where we have to hope DS can pull off a fantastic signing up front. I still think we should look at playing maybe El Ghazi up front and seeing how he does, I think he might do well there. 

[TheStagMan]

12 hours ago, villalad21 said:

No. Chelsea were missing chances and Heaton had a worldie of a game

Try watching the game again without your blinkers on. The number of attacks that were blocked was impressive. For the most part they could not get through us, and then on the few occasions they did, Heaton was there.

[TRO]

10 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Surely if all these games v top 4-6 teams are deemed winnable and missed opportunities when we don't that shows we've adapted well to this level and far quicker than expected. Be honest in August I'm sure many on here were expecting more Man. City style defeats away from home (even that wasn't too bad) or even some like in the dark days of Lambert/Sherwood/Garde.

Norwich fans certainly don't see games v Chelsea as must win or whatever (even though they had that win v Man. City) and for their great start Sheffield United have only actually had Arsenal as a "big" win. They drew with Man. United as we did.

We're doing o.k especially as in the opening few games I wasn't seeing a huge goal threat from us so the next 10 games have been a big surprise with us regularly scoring at least twice in a game.

Of course you'd want to be more points clear from the bottom 3 but it has been a really odd premier league so far. Last season Huddersfield and Fulham were all but relegated so the standard is miles better at the bottom this year, even more so if Watford pick up a decent manager.

After their display at the weekend I thought Spurs would comfortably beat Man. United tonight. Looked at the stats after 70 minutes and Man. United had 7 shots on target compared to Spurs one shot. Man. United's wildly contrasting performances over the last three days sum up the weird nature of the premier league this season.

It's not like we're 10 points off 9th or 10th. I think with a good January window we could actually be in contention for those places in the final weeks which would mean a fantastic first season back up here.

Why is it?

When we talk about the game......folk start talking about the season......e.g what we did in the Liverpool game, has no bearing on what we did last night.

We was poor at times last night.

When you can't win your share of headed duels, when you can't get touch tight at crucial times....when opponents just drift past you, when your positioning is questionable....and when you concede goals unchallenged, even our first touch was not up to standard......there is room for concern.

How many goals do we concede from headed crosses......its embarrassing.

Chelsea or not ....We have to raise our standard of offering better than that.....far too open and vulnerable.

You could clearly  see the look on Deans face......

I have to be honest with you.....I thought the performances of some of our players was rank bad last night , playing like that, we would have struggled against Leeds or Albion.

Some players competed and had a go......others just drifted and watched them.....but such is the squad, Dean has little chance to change it.

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by TRO

[TRO]

9 hours ago, MadridVilla said:

Completely agree, I remember thinking how hard he was trying to do it by himself. Sadly it seems when he tries so hard he struggles the most, he is best when he is free to play his own way and doesn't feel burdened by carrying the rest of the team. Given that both McGinn and Hourihane were ineffective tonight, there's not a lot of choice he has other than to do it all.

At the end of the day he plays in a certain way and games like tonight where we are up against it just don't suit his style because we don't have enough possession of the ball in their half to allow Grealish to run at players, so he's forced to come deep to get it where he gets fouled in midfield before he can cause problems. It would help in games like tonight to have a striker who can hold the ball up well and allow Grealish et al. to get the ball between their defence and midfield lines where he is lethal, but alas, Wesley has a trampoline for a right foot 

just to pick out one thing from last night.....they closed us down and got tight.....conversely, we stood off and let them play... they won all the close encounters..... too soft and wimpish in the challenge.

That's work rate and desire.

[Mic09]

If I was to bet what game we would definately lose this season back in August, I would have said Chelsea away.

So I come away pleased we gave them a good go.

[foreveryoung]

12 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

Chelsea have now lost at home against newly promoted teams once out of the last 56.

Tonight they fielded the world's most expensive goalkeeper, a left winger who cost £58m and an England international striker who scored 26 goals for us last season.

Kepa and Pulisic alone cost more than our entire starting XI.

Apparently "they were there for the taking"...

If we played out of our skins to try and get a result I could accept this. The fact of the matter is. we had a lazy start, were sloppy with the ball, have a striker and a defender that isn't performing, you could probably include McGinn is those that is not performing like we have seen either. We are also to soft, rarely show fight and so inconsistent its worrying, something Smith keeps reiterating in his interviews after games. Everyone knows if we are on it, we can give any team a game, today it was too easy for Chelsea, they didn't really get out of first gear.

What's gonna be our excuse when Sheffield beat us??

Edited December 5, 2019 by foreveryoung

[IrishVillain]

One positive from the game was us starting to get our press working. It's been frustrating in games to see the forward line constantly gesturing at each other to push up and press as a unit without success, but last night there were signs of progress. I distinctly remember one of the attempts to hunt as a pack which forced their defender to boot it out for a throw in on the far side. In comparison Chelseas press was incredible, made it really difficult to play out through, and was relentless. Hope we take lessons from that.

 

[terrytini]

12 hours ago, TRO said:

There were aspects of our play, that was poor tonight Terry, even you should be able to see that.

Our ball retention and ball winning was poor, we had too many players below par, some just chasing shadows.....i think we done exceptionally well to keep the score down...albeit their goals were soft.....once again beaten in the air at a duel by an opponent showing more initiative and desire.

You could clearly see Dean was not happy with the poor defending for their goals.

I thought they was better than us, but i thought we contributed to that with our poor play.

“Even me “.....I have no problem seeing poor play....I saw it a lot more clearly and a lot mor3 often than you did under the previous Manager

... and yes, 100% agree there were aspects that were poor. There have been in every game.  As for last night specifically I agree with everything you have said here.

However, there were good points aswell. Not enough. 
 I think the difference between us seems to be I fully expect us to be poor and at times and I’ve not seen enough, by a long way, to let it bother me.

If we repeated that performance regularly, and against bottom half teams, I’d be as critical as anyone.

[terrytini]

12 hours ago, TRO said:

Terry, you can't be serious with that last line.

I thought we would lose, because they are a better team, particularly in terms of quality on the ball.....and more consistent with their good play, they have less off days than us.We had some poor performers tonight.

Never the less....I'm disappointed we lost.

100% serious the result doesn’t matter. 
Im not in the least interested in results against top half sides. Said so at the outset and I’m not going to change that view. For me all that matters against top half sides is performances.

[terrytini]

12 hours ago, TRO said:

I think they mean, they were winnable.

its not so far fetched to say, they have a point.....all those games, could have been won had we shown a better calibre of defending a lead.

The Bournemouth game was an exception after gifting them a 2 goal lead....we played ok.

I admire you positivity Terry, but wake up and smell the coffee.....there was some poor moments of play from us tonight.....despite a good passage of play for the goal.

 

“ Wake up and smell the coffee”.......we didn’t play to our best and lost 2-1 away at Chelsea a couple of days after playing Man United Away.

I’ve no idea what you’d rather I thought, but I’m not going to cry myself to sleep over that.

Of course the games are winnable...but some of you lot,, if you add up all the games we’ve let ourselves down we’d be top, it’s just ludicrous.

I expect it from some of the younger fans, but your constant highlighting of what’s wrong surprises me.

[terrytini]

5 hours ago, villan-scott said:

Sometimes the opposition are just better, and there isn’t a lot you can do about it. We got outclassed last night without ever being out of the game, again. 

We move on, our season isn’t defined by losing 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. The rest of our December is more important to be winning games against the teams around us. 

Yes.