Manchester United v CHELSEA: Video Highlights
Posted on January 12th, 2009 by Chelsea D
Ok, so it’s torturous to even consider watching any of yesterday’s game again because for us they’re not really ‘highlights’, but anyway, if you need pushing over the edge you can catch them here.
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Chelsea was absolutely crushed by ManU this Sunday. Being an ardent Chelsea supporter, this is turning out to be one of the most frustrating season so far. I feel that lot of this is down to Scolari, who is just too stubborn and traditional.
The way thing are right now, I won’t be surprised if it’s another trophy less season for us. Everyone was impressed by the way we started this season. But it was never too difficult to counter our attacking play. It was simple, stop the full backs and Chelsea will be choked. That’s what is happening for the past 2 months. We rely too much on our full backs and when they are stopped, we seem to run out of ideas. We are becoming very similar to Arsenal now. We try to pass and pass and never shoot. I cannot believe Scolari’s statement that we cannot play a 4-4-2 because our only left-footed winger, Malouda (who i think is currently the worst left winger in the premiership) is injured. We can very easily give chance to players like Stoch and Sinclair or even play JCole and Kalou on wings. I mean, ManU play 2 right footed wingers on wings and do just fine.
Defensively we are repeating the same mistakes for over a season now. I simply cannot believe that we are still not having men on post for corners and free kicks. Starting from last season, I remember atleast 15 goals that we could have saved if we had men on both near and far post. We would have probably won the league last season if we had kept men on both the posts for all our corners. We have to face the fact that inspite having many 6+foot players, we are very very poor at defending corners and free kicks and start having men on post. Scolari’s statement that “Posts don’t score goals, players do” is probably the most senseless thing that i have ever heard from a Chelsea manager.
Player wise, apart from Lampard, Mikel andBosingwa, everyone else is in underperforming. Anelka magic seems to have subsided. Malouda continues to be absolutely woeful. Drogba, the drama queen, is making too many noises without doing anything on the pitch. Kalou is totally unimpressive. Deco started off well but is not able to cope with the pace of premiership. Ballack has turned into one of the worst central midfielders and i cannot believe that we are thinking of keeping him at the bridge next season (inspite of the pay cut). JCole shows flashes of brilliance but is a bit inconsistent this season. ACole is ok without being great. JT is not a shadow of the player he was till last season. The injury woes continue to haunt us. I hope that we seriously consider future of Drogba, Malouda, Kalou and Ballack this summer.
The confidence we have in playing our young players is zero. It’s hard to believe that Scolari is not giving more chances to DiSanto, Sinclair and Stoch.
Overall I feel that last 2 months have exposed too many chinks in Scolari’s armor. I have never seen so many poor Chelsea performances in a row. This is an unbelievably frustrating time for any Chelsea supporter, specially considering the expectations we had at the start of the season.
Having said all this, Scolari might suddenly find a magic formula that will turn things around and we might end up winning a double or something. But this looks highly unlikely.
At this stage my predictions are that ManU will get the hattrick of EPL titles and the unstoppable force of Barcelona will win CL. I hope I am wrong and the Blue juggernaut starts rolling again!
A report in Daily Express says this
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According to a report in the British tabloid The Daily Express, the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has been disappointed with the Blues’ recent run of form.
Although they sit second in the Premier League, the South-West London based outfit have won just one league game from their last five fixtures.
Chelsea were even held at home to League One club Southend United in the FA Cup third round tie at Stamford Bridge on January 3, and now have to travel to Roots Hall for a replay tomorrow evening.
However, it is not just Scolari whose job is under threat as it is claimed chief scout Frank Arnesen could also face the chop having failed to produce youngsters deemed good enough to play for the first-team.
Apparently, just six first-team players, Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Mikel John Obi and Michael Essien, are assured of their futures with the Blues as Abramovich ponders an overhaul of his squad.
It is reported that results in the key Premier League clashes with Liverpool and Aston Villa as well as the FA Cup replay and Champions League fixture against Juventus will decide Scolari’s future at Chelsea.