Ok, I’ve had my rant about yesterday’s game and I’d rather just forget it ever happened now. However, there are a couple of issues the game raised that I really think need addressing.

Firstly, our home form. After years of half expecting to get results at home and half expecting our unbelievable record at Stamford Bridge to come to an end, it happened – and we’ve fallen apart since. One defeat to the scousers and it’s all gone tits up since really.  Have we really got so little backbone that we’d let the dippers of all people have us fall apart?

And it hasn’t gone unnoticed either. Whereas last season a lot of sides probably quite fancied a draw at Stamford Bridge, this season, they’re actually coming out and saying it. Like yesterday’s goalscorer for Southend, Peter Clarke, who’d said “Yes, of course their home record gave us hope. Their form is patchy and they were hoping to turn it around - but they didn’t.  We were not intimidated. Knowing they hadn’t had the best of times at Stamford Bridge might have played a part and fortunately we got an equaliser.”

Surely if that’s the attitude even sides like Southend turn up at Stamford Bridge with, then we’ve got even bigger problems than we imagined?
And secondly, our trouble at home seems to be about our ability to break teams down. I mean, of course a lot of sides will come and park the bus but we’re just not clinical enough when it comes to finishing and yet we keep hearing that we won’t be spending anything in the transfer window. Something’s wrong, we don’t seem to have enough to cut it this season and yet even in the aftermath of yesterday’s game, Scolari insists “The result says not very good performance. But on the pitch what can you say to my players? They made maybe 15 chances to score but they didn’t. They created that many because they played very well. We bossed the pitch. Southend played a hard game and were very spirited. They tried to get a draw and in the last minute they did. Our mistake is not scoring more goals. This is our mistake but I think we played well.  My job is I try to do the best every day. My job is not only results, it’s to work very hard. I don’t think we need any players. I am not going to stand here and say we need this or that. I need to teach my players how to concentrate that is all.”

Well, we seemed to concentrate well enough at home for the last four years, so maybe there’s a little more to it than that?

Filed under: Rants