****Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea****

[imcallingbullsh*t]

I just want us to 'win lucky' from time to time. We seem to 'draw unfortunately' often Of course you make your own luck. We are edging games without winning them all, but if we're honest, we are not doing quite enough to win always.

Last season we were too open and conceded too many. Poch, Alderweireld, Dier and a tweeked formation have worked wonders. We are hard to beat and long may it continue. We should improve upfront too as Son settles, Lamala continues improving and if Eriksen gets more space (from better movement from the others). Dembele can also take on some of the responsibility to win games. To be fair we have had a few injuries: Chadli, Son and Lamala missing has put more strain on Kane and you forget how young an attack we have. Is Son the oldest at 24? They are developing still.

After today I think the team will be hungry to go on a run and prove they can be ruthless. We missed Alli's sheer determination today. He's not the finished article by any means, but he bring an aggression to win at all costs which we missed.

I would add to that our first choice CM pairing that got us to 5th last year also have not been available. Agree that the new version may be better however its not like we have been without issues.

 

[Kandi1977]

What I wanted to know was why wasn't Fabregas booked for booting the ball at the end?

Why wasn't Hazard booked for the same? He almost kicked it out of the hands of Rose when was to pick it up for a throw!

 

[billyiddo]

Were the ref and lino as bad as they looked at the game?

 

[Robbo]

Were the ref and lino as bad as they looked at the game?

The ref certainly fell for the Hoofski players' diving and play acting in a few challenges. A couple of our yellows were debatable to say the least. Rose's for instance - silly free kick to give away, but not a yellow until Hazard incredibly enough was hit by an invisible rocket at the exact same time as Rose tripped his feet.

I also thought the ref could and should have added much more time in both halves. Hoofski was time wasting from very early on. I recorded the game, and every time they got a goal kick in the second half, I immediately fast forwarded 30-40 seconds, as I saw no point in watching a slo mo goalkeeper crawl uninterestingly towards the corner flag and back.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Looking at the pen Liverpool got we should have had one too then as I think it was Fabregash who blocked a mason cross with his elbow

The ref booked players too early and did let them get away with town wasting (but IMO that was borderline) the Lino had a mare though With some of the offsides

 

[braineclipse]

Close fought game, can't complain about a draw.

Chelsea making it a close game and defending well isn't surprising considering that they're recovering from their poor form it seems. I think getting to sit back and counter attack suits Mourinho perfectly when they're not doing too well. They've always had that in them. Think we were probably forced to be slightly cautious by their counter attacking force - Willian, Hazard, Pedro is enough to trouble any team in the world on the break. Thought we were sensible in our approach.

Though we lacked a bit of magic from our attacking players. Too many poor touches and too often when one player did something really well individually it was followed up by something that took the pace out of our attack by someone else. Can't be too harsh on any of our attacking players as they were all about as good and as bad as each other.

Thought they tired just as much as we did. Great effort by the lads, particularly the attacking players that started away to Qarabag and against Chelsea.

Edit: Oh, and important to keep up our undefeated streak. A loss wouldn't have been the end of the world, and probably avoiding a loss was more important for Chelsea than for us. But just great to see us keep up that run of undefeated games.

 

[Jordinho]

The ref certainly fell for the Hoofski players' diving and play acting in a few challenges. A couple of our yellows were debatable to say the least. Rose's for instance - silly free kick to give away, but not a yellow until Hazard incredibly enough was hit by an invisible rocket at the exact same time as Rose tripped his feet.

I also thought the ref could and should have added much more time in both halves. Hoofski was time wasting from very early on. I recorded the game, and every time they got a goal kick in the second half, I immediately fast forwarded 30-40 seconds, as I saw no point in watching a slo mo goalkeeper crawl uninterestingly towards the corner flag and back.

Our players kept giving him the excuses he needed though. Lots of stupid challenges in non-threatening areas and hands on shoulders. Should have been a few penalties going by how little it took to get a freekick.

 

[El Guepardo]

Plus Kane was booked for accidentally running in to a Chelsea player. Ivanovic ran in to two of our players in the same way & yet, no yellow card was shown?

 

[Gazzasrightboot]

Our players kept giving him the excuses he needed though. Lots of stupid challenges in non-threatening areas and hands on shoulders. Should have been a few penalties going by how little it took to get a freekick.

Agreed. I thought Rose's challenge for his booking (despite the fact Hazard made a meal of it) was unnecessary and I thought Walker's was stupid as well.

Plus Kane was booked for accidentally running in to a Chel53a player. Ivanovic ran in to two of our players in the same way & yet, no yellow card was shown?

The Chelsea players are better at conning the referee that's for sure. I think with our press and multiple bodies being around a player, it looks worse than it is which is probably why we are the team that has committed a high number of fouls and has the most amount of yellows.

 

[braineclipse]

Our players kept giving him the excuses he needed though. Lots of stupid challenges in non-threatening areas and hands on shoulders. Should have been a few penalties going by how little it took to get a freekick.

To some extent it comes with the territory. If you're pressing hard and playing a fairly aggressive style you will also give away "needless free kicks" in some situations. Particularly as we're asking our attacking players to play that style, and they're often not going be brilliant at tackling and winning the ball. Quite a few of those free kicks in non-threatening areas are low risk high reward challenges. Win the ball and we often have a very good counter attacking chance, get it slightly wrong and it's a free kick in a non-threatening area. Also serves to break up their play and keeps them from play through our pressure.

Very happy to see us err on the side of too much aggression in those situation. Less so in situations where we have them contained and give away free kicks in dangerous positions.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

Time wasting is something that really annoys me and is an issue that refs do not understand or chose to ignore as they only seem to notice after the fans have reacted . It's all very well pointing at their wrist or saying afterwards that time is added but this alleged tactic is about slowing the game down and no amount of added time can do anything about that. Bookings do not work as this tends to happen later in the game and the chance of being sent off is reduced, but turning over possession by awarding a freekick could make a difference, particularly with goalkeppers . Very radical I know and never likely to happen as nobody in football cares what fans think.

 

[Jordinho]

I'd really like to see a 6-second rule for throw-ins.

 

[glasgowspur]

I'd really like to see a 6-second rule for throw-ins.

Yes, and the lino given the spray to mark where it's to be taken from.

 

[Kandi1977]

I'd really like to see a 6-second rule for throw-ins.

First of all they should start actually using that rule for goalkeepers! Mignolet got penalized for that in the EL, but he held on to it for nearly half a minute before the ref had enough. But it's the first time in ages I have seen been penalized. Too often they cling on to the ball well over 15 seconds, and the refs don't give a fudge. The rule is there, so it should be used!

 

[Baleforce]

I agree laws should be enforced as written

but, none of us complained about our lot using such tactics in the 90's when we close to valuable points away at Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday I'm sure ;-)

 

[jpp]

I felt the ref failed miserably to let the game flow and subsequently played into their hands. Make no mistake, Chelsea are a horrible side to referee but sadly yesterday's ref fell for all the tricks.

A few things riled me and I'm sure every supporter would agree that these minor points should be sorted and could easily be. Firstly Begovic showed his intention in the first minute when he took 45 seconds or more to take a goal kick. Why is this allowed by referees?

Players kicking the ball away. Obvious, annoying and against the rules, yet continually ignored by referees. Why? Just sort it out, it's ungentlemanly conduct, book them.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Close fought game, can't complain about a draw.

Chel53a making it a close game and defending well isn't surprising considering that they're recovering from their poor form it seems. I think getting to sit back and counter attack suits Mourinho perfectly when they're not doing too well. They've always had that in them. Think we were probably forced to be slightly cautious by their counter attacking force - Willian, Hazard, Pedro is enough to trouble any team in the world on the break. Thought we were sensible in our approach.

Though we lacked a bit of magic from our attacking players. Too many poor touches and too often when one player did something really well individually it was followed up by something that took the pace out of our attack by someone else. Can't be too harsh on any of our attacking players as they were all about as good and as bad as each other.

Thought they tired just as much as we did. Great effort by the lads, particularly the attacking players that started away to Qarabag and against Chel53a.

Edit: Oh, and important to keep up our undefeated streak. A loss wouldn't have been the end of the world, and probably avoiding a loss was more important for Chel53a than for us. But just great to see us keep up that run of undefeated games.

About sums it up. They lost a little not having the focus of Costa but as you say if pedro oscar hazard willian dont give you hassle then they have got problems.

I'd actually say that avoiding defeat was VERY important in that it hasn't given Chelscum any 'turning point' to their season.

We got a nice run of games now and a easy to manage EL game. All good

 

[parklane1]

I agree laws should be enforced as written

but, none of us complained about our lot using such tactics in the 90's when we close to valuable points away at Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday I'm sure ;-)

Indeed, I rarely take notice when fans moan about refs as we all do it and its because we have colour blindness for our own team. As or the game I thought before hand that Jose would put a team out not to lose and I fully expected us to stuggle to get much room to play in.

They had one shot on target ( good save by Hugo) but we did struggle to force the game and it was no surprise that it ended goalless.

 

[Baleforce]

Indeed, I rarely take notice when fans moan about refs as we all do it and its because we have colour blindness for our own team. As or the game I thought before hand that Jose would put a team out not to lose and I fully expected us to stuggle to get much room to play in.

They had one shot on target ( good save by Hugo) but we did struggle to force the game and it was no surprise that it ended goalless.

I remember us parking the bus at their shed under Ramos and getting a point, Gomes had a blinder, I was bloody delighted.

Also, no point getting bothered about anything the opposition manager says in his press conference, when the journo's asked for Jose's opinion yesterday, he didn't give it, he was merely relaying a message to the chelsea fans and ownership about his perceived positives, which is exactly the same thing Poch does to us every week, you are not going to get a fair, balanced and accurate view from somebody who's salary is dependent on them achieving a certain outcome. You can ask a football manager any question you like about anything, all they are going to hear is, "this happened, does that mean you are good at your job or bad at your job?"

 

[Finney Is Back]

My thoughts on yesterday's game was that 0-0 was probably just about the right result, although we clearly had a few chances to win it.

Chelsea's entire game plan was to crowd us out in the area of the pitch between their penalty area and half way inside their half. They constantly got 8 or 9 outfield players into that area when we had the ball and consequently they were extremely hard to break down. Despite that we still had 3 or 4 decent enough chances to win it.

I thought we seemed to lack a little bit of our usual energy, perhaps as a result of our long trip and lack of recovery time from the game on Thursday or perhaps because we missed Alli. Also Chelsea played it long on many occasions, both in an attempt to avoid our press and I think also to do their best to try to keep our fullbacks from attacking as it looked as though they were trying to get the long balls into the channels.

I thought we coped with Chelsea's counter attacks pretty well with us only really having the one alarming moment when Lloris saved Hazard's shot about half way into the second half. Other than that the only moments of panic came when it looked to me as though Chelsea were a good yard or two offside. In the first half from my seat in the East upper it looked to me as though Chelsea were offside on 4 separate occasions with the linesman not putting his flag up for any of them. Those that were watching on TV - did I miss something or was the linesman just absolutely terrible?

Anyway I am reasonably happy with the performance, I think it is very much a point won after playing a full strength team in a Thursday night game 2,500 miles away.

It is also telling when (who are supposed to be) one of the biggest teams in the country comes to WHL and parks the bus to play for a point. It shows that teams are now extremely worried about what we can do to them when we are attacking.