17 Dec 2016 20:28:46
I love this argument that Chelsea have an advantage in the title race because their defence being better means that if they don't score they might still get a draw!

We've drawn 4 games, meanwhile Chelsea have only drawn 1! And our draws have been 0-0, 0-0, 1-1 and 2-2. So not exactly games where our defence has opened up like flood gates. The advantage Chelsea have is that they don't throw points away against weak opposition. We have lost to Burnley and Bournemouth. Chelsea have lost to Liverpool and Arsenal.

There is your difference. They are up for every game, meanwhile we have got complacent too often. They can afford to lose to Liverpool and Arsenal because they very rarely chuck points against mid table or lower league teams.

Conceding goals is only an issue if you are not scoring more than the opposition anyway. Call me Klopp mk2, but I would rather win 4-2 against Palace than 1-0. No clean sheet is irrelevant if our good and GS column is healthier.

Anyway, what is it with the extremities? Literally a week ago I had to post on here to call people to stop making out Chelsea were "lucky" and that they would "struggle without Costa". Now it has gone polar opposite, and Chelsea are the benchmark! They are a good team, but we have beaten them already this season, and we are hot on their heels. Not to be underestimated, but also not as good as some people think. There are more than 50 shades of grey in between black and white!

Some posters are so dramatic!

1.) 17 Dec 2016
17 Dec 2016 21:06:22
I ll tell you my version MK. Liverpool have a great chance to go on and win the title and I would bloody sweat blood on the pitch to make it happen. It will be us and chelsea for the title. Arsenal will collapse just like they always do while UTD will be the surprise entry into the top 4 at the expense of City.
Your second para is more of a cliche, I would rather 6-4 than 2-0😎. I don't think they really want to score too many Chelsea, they are more interested in securing points than entertaining people.

Chelsea are a decent team with some good players and some very poor players who plays well in a system which brings out their strength and erase their weaknesses

Marcos Alonso is a very average LB but a very decent wing back courtsey of the system they play.

6 points is a decent gap and if we don't win on Monday it will be 9 which means when you are chasing anything the pressure is always on you.

2.) 17 Dec 2016
17 Dec 2016 21:18:28
I have been hearing lately that Chelsea will be found out soon but none are explaining what are their main weakness. I don't want to ask Ed's on this but can any poster actually explain how you could beat Chelsea other than occupying the space behind their wing backs?
There are not too many forwards who would breach their gigantic midfield. Except City and the first half show by Moussa dembele Chelsea never looked vulnerable at all.
Let's have some tactical discussions 😎. How will any team breach 3-4-3 who play a vey defensive football when not in possession?

3.) 17 Dec 2016
17 Dec 2016 21:24:03
All depends on injuries or lack off them.

4.) 17 Dec 2016
17 Dec 2016 22:57:25
Harry you play with a 3 in the midfield and you flood one side probably the left as Moses can't defend so Azpilicueta will have to move over to help him opening up space in their back line as the others will have to compensate. You will dominate the midfield as you have the extra man and at the same time pull one of the front 3 back to compensate for that. Hazard and Costa will still cause you problems but you will create lots of chances. One thing you don't do is try to match them up. That's a major thing that Pep did wrong but even then they should e been 3-0 up at half time. Spurs did it well for 45 minutes and should've been well in front at half time. I honestly believe Chelsea will drop like a stone after they lose one game as teams are starting to get to grips with them now but they are just about scraping through.

5.) 17 Dec 2016
17 Dec 2016 23:25:12
Hot on there heels? How do you define that?

They are 9 points clear and we have an unpredictable derby next.

In was only a few weeks ago we were top, it is they who were hot on our heels now they are riding away.

In other news it's still that lad from Brazil but plays for Spain as the main reason they are winning all the time. Not that they don't deserve to have a world class striker bang in form because who's to say they don't.

6.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 01:56:24
Dot they won't last the distance. It's not that long ago people were writing them off for top 4 and saying City would walk the league. Just relax they have far too many average players in a very average system to keep up their current form.

7.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 03:13:22
Chelsea are good, but I feel that they are peaking way too early in the season.

8.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 05:07:10
They are a solid team but VERY reliant on costa ( more so than we are on any 1 player) they have picked up 6 points in last 2 games with about 4 efforts on target. Those 2 goals have come from nothing. He misses the next game- I think they will draw or lose It as a result. Just need a few more bans for him lol I also have my doubts if they can change this style of play enough when they will fall behind in games.

9.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 07:57:56
Pip

Every team plays with 3 in the midfield. Either you call him an ACM or a striker dropping deep. Lallana is the third midfielder and I don't expect him to play anything different to exploit their weakness. I agree with your view on their full backs vulnerabilities but they do have an extra CB to cover if required.

{Ed001's Note - where do you come up with this nonsense from? Leicester played all last season and this season with a midfield 4, not a 3. Chelsea play with 4 across the middle. Everton have played a midfield 4 a number of times as well. As have Watford. Every team plays things slightly differently, so please stop this obsession you have with it being only a 3.}

10.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 08:10:51
You got it wrong there. I have not included the wide players in the midfield.

{Ed001's Note - how have I got it wrong? If you don't understand what a midfield is, then don't suggest others got it wrong! You have it wrong if you are not including the wide midfielders in the midfield. Think about what you are typing please.}

11.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 09:19:22
I still maintain Costa is the player Chelsea are most reliant on and in his absence have a relatively unproven replacement. Unfortunately I don't this his suspension will be that big a Miss considering the opposition Chelsea have next at home. If Chelsea were missing Costa for the length of time we have not had Couts then that would make a difference to their results.
They will be there for the duration of the season in my view.
Eds - is there any difference with the 343 Chelsea are deploying and the one Rodgers hijacked off Basel? Or is it simply a case of players generally being better at Chelsea and more of them in roles suited to them?

{Ed001's Note - there are always differences, as the players play their roles differently. Also, the system Rodgers half-inched from Basel was a half-arsed copy which never used the feature that caused so much trouble to us in the first place. Basel didn't play a standard 3-4-3, they switched between a 3-4-3 and flat back four depending on whether they were attacking or defending. All basic stuff that Rodgers and his analysts should have been sacked for needing more than 180 mins of football to see. They should have approached the game fully understanding what the Swiss did, but we had a woeful lack of preparation at that time.}

12.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 12:38:42
For a Chelsea comparison, remember when we switched to 3 CB's and 2 WB's in the 2015/ 2015 season? It was so effective for a little while that Mingolet was in contention for the Golden Glove at the end of the season. However, it greatly reduces firepower up front that means eventually we stopped scoring. And the because we needed to commit more forward to help scoring, we started the crumble at the back. The PL is just too fast and too powerful to play 3 at the back without the very rare type of specialised wingbacks like Dani Alves to make you do it - makeshifts fail. Right now Chelsea are already in the first stage of that - they've only been able to score 1 a game for 3 games in a row (and 4 games out of 6) and will soon find themselves drawing repeated because they fail to knick that one goal.

13.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 13:45:10
No system is infallible, it will be found out soon enough. The key is to be versatile and to have a team that can change its set-up based on the game situation.

14.) 18 Dec 2016
18 Dec 2016 23:04:55
The key is to be versatile Ron - and that could be our problem too, because we never change our style even when we are 2/ 3 goals up. It keeps coming back to bite us.

15.) 19 Dec 2016
19 Dec 2016 01:24:26
The 3-4-3 is basically a defensive formation, one that a lot of coaches and teams in Italy played in the early 2000`s especially Juventus under Lippi where Conte played in and the Italian national team under Dino Zoff, one Conte also played in. all with this system.

In a system like that, you have 6 defensive players when in possession and up to 8 defensive players when you are not. The system has its holes like every other one, especially one where Conte doesn`t have the right personnel for it. Alonso, Moses, Cahill and Luiz IMO, are average players and that is starting to show. The system is built to hide weaknesses of individual players as Wales showed at the Euros and Chelsea`s players` inadequacies are also staring to show. In their last 4 games, they have been shown up as average but either Costa did his thing or teams like Palace or Sunderland did not have enuff attacking quality to punish them. We are the only team with the attacking quality to hurt them and they know it.

Where we to play them, we are better than them in CM as we have Lallana who is the X factor and they have no player like him who can press, defend, score and assist. We have the wingers and FB`s to push their wingbacks back and take advantage of them.

They may have Hazard and Costa to provide goals but we have Couts, Firmino, Origi, Mane and Lallana who can provide goals as well. Thay are being found out and they will not go all season on a winning streak. They can be beaten and very soon, we will see that.

16.) 19 Dec 2016
19 Dec 2016 12:04:43
KBL - how many times has it "come back to bite us" this season? You don't need to change if the original system is still working.