Watford 1-2 Chelsea - Saturday 2nd November, 2019

[Cicero]

Just now, Bluewolf said:

 

VAR made that call... 

Mike Dean is the VAR official 

[Bluewolf]

Not watching the game but???? 

That was never a penalty!!!! Deulofeu took two steps after the challenge, and when he knew the ball was gone, he went down. He should have been booked for diving! Awful decision!!

[Cicero]

Kepa you beauty!

[Bluewolf]

So we hold on... good result away but should have done much better than to give ourselves the usual jitters near the end.. 

[Cicero]

Aside the penalty, Jorginho MOTM.

Another level. 

[carefreeluke]

31 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Honestly going to be a head scratcher when Kante is fit. 

Jorginho + Kovacic partnership has been awesome 

Mount has been terrific as well. There may be some people out there who will judge him just on goals and assists but he does a lot of things off the ball that go unnoticed as well. His movement, his pressing and ability to find space between the lines is class. Complements the team very well. Still a lot of football to play this season but he for me is essential for us.

[Bluewolf]

Chelsea are up to third - six points clear of Arsenal and have 10 more than Manchester United and 11 more than Tottenham.

I was not expecting us to be in this position at this point in the season to be honest.. I appreciate we are going to get games where we drop the ball but realistically a top 4 finish is doable for us and I thought that maybe 5th or 6th was probably on the cards.. Still some way to go yet and players still to return.. 

 

[LFCMadLad]

Lampard is doing a great job. Far better than I expected. Hes actually making Chelsea likeable. 

That's a pretty scary thought 

[LFCMike]

7 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

Lampard is doing a great job. Far better than I expected. Hes actually making Chelsea likeable. 

That's a pretty scary thought 

Their fans will always make them unlikeable

[...Dan]

20 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

Lampard is doing a great job. Far better than I expected. Hes actually making Chelsea likeable. 

That's a pretty scary thought 

Haha yep, was thinking the same earlier. I really envy Chelsea right now.

[Cicero]

We’ve had a decent run of fixtures tbf. The real test is next month. 

[Dan+]

I said before the weekend, the five obvious candidates for 3rd and 4th (Leicester, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Man Utd) all had a real case for points being dropped this weekend. Of the other teams, Chelsea are the one I can tolerate winning the most as us and them could actually pull away a bit.

It's a very good weekend for Chelsea even if we win. They're at worst 6 points clear of 5th, and Leicester will be if we win tomorrow.

[Stan]

I enjoy what Lampard is doing with Chelsea and the squad he has inherited. They play good football. 

[Dave]

8 hours ago, LFCMadLad said:

Lampard is doing a great job. Far better than I expected. Hes actually making Chelsea likeable. 

That's a pretty scary thought 

 

7 hours ago, ...Dan said:

Haha yep, was thinking the same earlier. I really envy Chelsea right now.

 

Don't worry Gents. The transfer embargo will be lifted soon and they'll go back to there previous ways.

[Rick]

If they didn’t have a ban, there’s no way they would be playing half the players they have done. Literally the only reason they have been getting wanked off is under this weird impression that “frank trusts the kids” but in reality he would have been out spending 100m in the summer if he had the chance and the likes of Abraham would barely be getting a look in. 
 

It’s good for the young lads that Chelsea have been forced into this position, but it’s not some fairytale bollocks being bandied about by the media. 

[The Artful Dodger]

Chelsea haven't beaten anyone who you'd consider to be half decent yet, have they? Lost to Liverpool, Valencia and Manchester United (ok, maybe they can't be considered decent) and drew with Leicester?

Beware the Southgate syndrome.

[carefreeluke]

2 hours ago, Rick said:

If they didn’t have a ban, there’s no way they would be playing half the players they have done. Literally the only reason they have been getting wanked off is under this weird impression that “frank trusts the kids” but in reality he would have been out spending 100m in the summer if he had the chance and the likes of Abraham would barely be getting a look in. 
 

It’s good for the young lads that Chelsea have been forced into this position, but it’s not some fairytale bollocks being bandied about by the media. 

It's not easy to say if something would have happened or not but Lampard has mentioned a few times now that these players would have got the opportunity regardless of the transfer ban. OK, what any manager says in the media might not be the full story but Lampard knows the club and he has surrounded himself with people who have spent a long time working with the youth players, you only have to delve into Jody Morris' profile a little to see what he thinks of the club and in particular the academy. Furthermore, regardless of the fact that we couldn't sign anyone he has the same squad available to him that Sarri did but Sarri never used the younger players as much as Lampard has, Sarri was more or less forced into using Hudson-Odoi for example. On a similar note, you have selections, it would have been easy for Lampard to go with Giroud at the start of the season away to Man United but he trusted Abraham and has continued to trust and select him on the big occasions.  Look at the whole situation with Tomori as well. There's also the fact that many Chelsea fans will tell you that in the last 3-4 years, particularly the last two, the youth players in certain positions have also been better options than the more senior players in front of them. So the fact that some of these youngsters weren't playing, it was also a bit of a baffling decision on a player selection point of view. Like many Derby fans said he did at their club, Lampard at the moment has come in and united the fanbase again.

 

41 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Chelsea haven't beaten anyone who you'd consider to be half decent yet, have they? Lost to Liverpool, Valencia and Manchester United (ok, maybe they can't be considered decent) and drew with Leicester?

Beware the Southgate syndrome.

Ajax away?

But yeah, we have a lot of football to play and I'll draw more conclusive opinions after a full season.

[The Artful Dodger]

Just now, carefreeluke said:

It's not easy to say if something would have happened or not but Lampard has mentioned a few times now that these players would have got the opportunity regardless of the transfer ban. OK, what any manager says in the media might not be the full story but Lampard knows the club and he has surrounded himself with people who have spent a long time working with the youth players, you only have to delve into Jody Morris' profile a little to see what he thinks of the club and in particular the academy. Furthermore, regardless of the fact that we couldn't sign anyone he has the same squad available to him that Sarri did but Sarri never used the younger players as much as Lampard has, Sarri was more or less forced into using Hudson-Odoi for example. On a similar note, you have selections, it would have been easy for Lampard to go with Giroud at the start of the season away to Man United but he trusted Abraham and has continued to trust and select him on the big occasions. There's also the fact that many Chelsea fans will tell you that in the last 3-4 years, particularly the last two, the youth players in certain positions have also been better options than the more senior players in front of them. So the fact that some of these youngsters weren't playing, it was also a bit of a baffling decision on a player selection point of view. Like many Derby fans said he did at Derby, Lampard has come in and united the fanbase again.

 

Ajax away?

But yeah, we have a lot of football to play and I'll draw more conclusive opinions after a full season.

Oh yeah, fair dos. You can have that one.

To be fair, I'm being harsh. Can only play what's in front of you and you played well against Liverpool. Lampard does seem to have got things working well so far.

[carefreeluke]

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Oh yeah, fair dos. You can have that one.

To be fair, I'm being harsh. Can only play what's in front of you and you played well against Liverpool. Lampard does seem to have got things working well so far.

Twice. However, I would never start celebrating games too much where we played well. 

A lot of football to play anyway, let's see how we finish.

[Cicero]

3 hours ago, Rick said:

If they didn’t have a ban, there’s no way they would be playing half the players they have done. Literally the only reason they have been getting wanked off is under this weird impression that “frank trusts the kids” but in reality he would have been out spending 100m in the summer if he had the chance and the likes of Abraham would barely be getting a look in. 
 

It’s good for the young lads that Chelsea have been forced into this position, but it’s not some fairytale bollocks being bandied about by the media. 

What dross 

[LFCMadLad]

3 hours ago, Rick said:

If they didn’t have a ban, there’s no way they would be playing half the players they have done. Literally the only reason they have been getting wanked off is under this weird impression that “frank trusts the kids” but in reality he would have been out spending 100m in the summer if he had the chance and the likes of Abraham would barely be getting a look in. 
 

It’s good for the young lads that Chelsea have been forced into this position, but it’s not some fairytale bollocks being bandied about by the media. 

Yeah but Lampard has been forced into this position (as you say) and under the circumstances hes doing a great job. Nobody can really dispute that.

Tammy btw is up there with the top scorers in the league. That's down to how Lampard has them playing. They could have spent £100m on a striker and whoever that was probably wouldn't have done as well. 

It's not on the same scale but its similar to when Fergie took over at Utd. Nobody had heard of Beckham, Scholes, Neville etc. Look what happened there!

Lampard (in my eyes) is doing a great job with the tools he's been given.

[Rick]

I’m not saying Lampard isn’t doing well or that the young lads aren’t doing well. I’m saying it’s not a fairytale, it’s a situation not out of choice. 

[Cicero]

56 minutes ago, Rick said:

I’m not saying Lampard isn’t doing well or that the young lads aren’t doing well. I’m saying it’s not a fairytale, it’s a situation not out of choice. 

Who is calling it a fairytale?

Lampard would've never been appointed had there been no transfer ban. His trust in youth is essentially why he was appointed. 

[LFCMadLad]

1 hour ago, Rick said:

I’m not saying Lampard isn’t doing well or that the young lads aren’t doing well. I’m saying it’s not a fairytale, it’s a situation not out of choice. 

I dont think anyone has said it's a fairytale? Just that Lampard is doing a good job with the tools he's been given. 

[Rick]

Not saying anybody here is calling it a fairytale. I did say it’s something being said by the media. Just thinking out loud fellas.