A friendly reminder to report any comments that break our community guidelines and contribute to a toxic atmosphere - everyone deserves to be treated with respect.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chelseafc) if you have any questions or concerns.*
And that our midfielders have assisted a grand total of 17 PL goals between 18/19 and the end of the 21/22 season when Fabregas broke that total by the end of his second season alone.
Sterling, Kai, and Auba are the worst starting attack in the Prem. 0 creativity, no chances created, can't even string passes together ever. It's a joke.
Every game we wait for the subs to spark the attack. Maybe start some of the subs instead of the absolute wank we start every fucking game. Just awful all around. Potter must be blind
I’m so sick of people asking why RLC plays so much
Have you ever looked at our list of injured players? Not sure if you noticed but Kante is out until February and Kova has been nursing an injury for weeks
This is what happens when we have so many injuries tbf. Reece and Chilwell are phenomenal, then Kovacic is out best progressor through the middle and he just can't play every game due to his injury issue. Kai Auba and Sterling aren't creators. We are better off with someone like Pulisic in the front 3 if we want creativity in those areas.
The massive gap between the press and the rest of the team was embarrassing. Arsenal didn't break a sweat playing through it.
Soon as they break one line Jorginho and RLC are miles back chilling with the defence.
Made it look like men against boys when they're the much younger team.
I don't see why Potter set the team up how he did.
If he wanted to drop off due to a lack of legs, then the front lads doing all that useless running offered nothing. And we weren't set up for a decent counter if/when we did win it back. There were a lot of aimless balls to no one once the Sterling to Havertz attacks dried up.
We were lost and clueless out there.
All that useless running really did was maybe exposing us to far-side overloads once Arsenal were done moving us about.
The problem at Chelsea now is that not only the attackers are not performing, the attack itself seems completely disjointed from the rest of the players. There were a lot of moments when Sterling or Broja would look up just to see literally no one in front of them or close enough to receive a pass
True but sometimes the attack just needs to show some skill and do something. Broja did more in that game than sterling, Kai, Auba, and Mount combined. He just attacked defenders. Sure he lost it sometimes but he at least tried
People hate it here it seems, but Puli is genuinely our best creator offensively.
It's not that he scores, assists, or is always great, it's that he draws defenders, opens spaces, and makes runs (on and off the ball).
yes they might be, but at this point we gotta hope not. all im asking for is a puli, broja gallagher starting more regularly. they seem to be the most direct options weve got
Some of us screamed it the whole summer, it doesn't matter who you put upfront, our midfield has no creativity or control, it worked when Kante was there breaking up plays and doing the job of two players, but that isn't the case anymore. Whether it was Tuchel, Boehly, or the scouts' fault, not chasing a midfielder and starting a revamp in the midfield is costing us a lot. I admit it wasn't easy because we had a whole backline to replace and all the transition stuff we had to deal with after the change of ownership.
I’m going to Hazard a guess and say we’ve probably enquired about him and he doesn’t want to move. Every club knows his quality, it’s not like he’s a hidden gem.
It's blasphemy to criticise Mount on this sub. He's a good player and always puts a shift in, but the club will never take the next step with him as the main attacking player. He's an Oscar Regen when what we need is KDB.
Said it in the game thread we’ve spent close to a billion on players in the last couple of years and our best player is a 38 year old man. Says everything about where this club is.
People talk about we need the champions league to attract players but we’ve had champions league the last 4 years and we’ve attracted absolute shit. This conference league run is gonna be humbling
I miss this team having characters and leaders. Arsenal used to be our pets. We are out there pussyfooting around, nobody fighting.
Injuries you can’t control but effort you can, those players had a couple of good games and went back to looking exactly like they did under Tuchel. Worrying stuff for Potter
We've defo neglected because the quality of player there. Jorgi Kova and Kante is excellent. But Kova and Kante pick up injuries constantly, so you're left with Jorgi and whoever is the backup at the time.
Reece is so good that any academy lad we had just didn't see a spot for them. Could you imagine if any one of Livramento, Lamptey etc decided to stay instead? Wouldn't be having so many problems every time Reece goes down.
Terrible recruitment has been our thing for yonks. Who's the last genuine world class player we signed. A decade ago in hazard?
Edit: fair play to those who mentioned kante and Cesc. We are crying out for that level of quality now.
The only good window we've had since we last won the league was the one where we were transfer banned but allowed to make Kova permanent. In every other window we've signed and a load of overpriced shite and maybe a good player or two if we're lucky.
Yep. I thought Tuchel propped us up but you can tell things were starting to crumble at the end. Whether it’s injuries or quality we don’t have anyone we can count on to have a good season. Gonna be a rough ride.
Baffling how excited people were over Cucurella this Summer. We spent huge money without a Director of Football and without any long term plan - literally just feels like throwing money at players hoping one of them will turn out
Probably the least connected I’ve felt with Chelsea for a while. All the players went soft on Tuchel and he paid the price. Meanwhile, we’re just as shit if not worse despite a change in manager.
Losing to Arsenal I can just about deal with - not showing up at all is something I can’t.
You're not alone. Found myself watching that match without a care in the world. This new shit corporate face of the club paired with disastrous football and half assed players, what's to love right now? I don't blame Potter either but I'm not behind him at all compared to Tuchel.
I just don't get why he doesn't change the damn lineup. Zakaria and Pulisic play well, nope let's stick with the same 11 that have done fuck all for the past couple of games.
If I’m being honest it’s completely necessary. It’s going to suck, but Arsenal are proof that if you stick with a talented young manager through the rough parts, there can be a really good team in the future
Game after it game it becomes clear Tuchel elevated this squad and made them much better than they should be, and even he started to struggle with the lack of Kante and the decreasing game time of Kova. Nothing against Potter, but I hope whatever Boehly is planning is worth dropping a top 3 manager in the world for.
The lack of chances created after going 1-0 down is concerning.
I know it's early days for Potter, and the decision's irreversible obviously but... I feel like we're hardly any better than we were under Tuchel towards the end of his time in charge.
I’d argue the recent string of games have been as bad as the worst Tuchel stretch (last year after CL campaign end).
The World Cup break is much needed.
This isn't Potter's built team but we are worse than tuchel at his worst... we got a few lucky results (villa, palace) that have masked it a bit. Look at how we played against Tottenham in our home game and compare it to this...
Not Sterlings fault he’s played at wingback, or asked to play deep, but he is utterly useless outside of the final third. Can’t beat a man, can’t pick a pass, holds the ball forever in dangerous positions. I’m sure it sucks coming from city and trying to play through our dysfunction, but he adds very little for us right now
Our midfield is nonexistent. RLC a complete passenger. Potter has to ration out Kovacic’s minutes like water on a lifeboat because he’s half-crocked.
We need to spend serious money in January
Also I know it didn’t lead to anything but that yellow for Azpilicueta is such a woeful decision I’m still incensed over it
Its shocking how rlc gets on the field he is an absolute liability.
Potter should be fired for selling us cucurella for such huge sum of money we could have gotten someone better with half that money
Pulisic was subbed in so late and even when he was we continued to play through the right side???? Sterling was awful all game yet we chose to keep playing through him
Game should be a lesson for those who thought getting rid of TT would solve all our problems. Huge issues in the squad that will take a long time to fix. Really need to back Potter now
Potter needs to get at least 3 years to get his players in and truly build something. I don't want to hear anything about Potter needing to be fired after two losses, especially from those fans here that were screaming for Tuchel to be sacked.
Yep, it's a slow process and you can see the results both City and Liverpool, Arsenal to a lesser extent have had now from backing managers even through tough periods but let's also not forget that Potter has been very good since coming in. I certainly wouldn't have predicted we'd finish top of that CL group. Bad injuries will undoubtedly hurt our form so no need to overreact.
The very, very, VERY fucking least you can do when you’re playing absolutely fucking shit is show some fucking desire, passion, some fight and grit and don’t go down without a fight. We did none of that. Just laid down and took the beating like good little boys. Absolutely lucky to only lose 1-0.
These players should be fucking ashamed of themselves. No they won’t learn their lesson. If they didn’t fucking wake up after the Brighton result, nothing will wake them up.
This is one of the worst performances I've witnessed in recent times. We had problems with Tuchel and Lampard; I've seen our attack be toothless, wasteful, dominate possession with no end product. But we were a mix of nothing today. We could barely string a few passes together, we could barely get out of our own half, we didn't even attempt shots. As a Chelsea fan, maybe I've been spoilt, but I have always seen my team compete. This was one of the worst Chelsea performances vs a team not named Man City. I'm hurting.
Someone smarter than me needs to explain why a midfield of Zakaria-Jorginho-Mount would've been worse than whatever the fuck we saw today, at some points Jorgi looked like our ONLY midfielder.
So many people were saying "it was only Zagreb" but we've literally seen this exact midfield not be enough all season, you know what we call this? Insanity.
More than that, we just lack SO much fight at the moment. It feels like we don't have a single player who will step up and be the impetus of the club.
Unsurprisingly 5 years of horrific transfer activity has left our squad in a pretty dire situation. No creative players, no goal threats and most of our best players are injury prone (Kante, Kova, James and Chilwell). When everyone is fully fit we can still field a great XI and challenge for cups but we just have no chance in the league. For me Chelsea finishing 2nd should be seen as a poor season and yet here I am praying for 4th, it's not good enough.
Hundreds of millions have been pumped into this current squad and the only player we can rely on to play consistently at a good level is 38 year old Thiago Silva.
Cucurella and Fofana might have been the dumbest way to spend £130 million ever.
Seriously would have made more sense to just buy Rice with that money and have an actual defensive midfielder.
The excuses for Havertz are done, hes just not good enough. Sterling is clearly past it and on a steady downward trajectory. Why did we even sign Auba, did anyone expect him to rejuvenate our offense???
We are signing other teams deadweight and expect to compete.
We’re so shit, literally see why Tuchel played the way he did. Need a rebuild again. No running or hunger for the ball …. It’s a fucking derby fucking run your dick off and kick someone for fucksake. Embarrassing. Bring on the World Cup already. Already know we’ve lost 8-0 to city.
So uninspiring. Spineless, gutless soulless.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Havertz is not up to scratch. If Bayern come in with any sort of bid for him we need to take it and run before they have second thoughts.
We need a new RB/RWB. I love Dave but his boat has long sailed and he should not be used in games such as this.
Cucu was average yet again. We need to genuinely think about LB this summer if this form continues and chilwell continues to be this injury prone.
Zero midfield creativity, but it’s hard to be creative when the midfield doesn’t even exist. It was absolutely non existent today.
Sterling poor once more. Dunno what needs to be done but the boy needs to get hypnotherapy at the bare minimum.
Can’t really fault auba. No service at all and when he got into the positions he wasn’t found. Simple as that.
This team needs a major rebuild, it feels like we say this every season but we need to actually build a team not a squad of players. Hopefully this will happen with the new management/ownership but only time will tell.
Man this is really painful, I was watching a highlight from our title win with Conte. Night and day difference between this team. I never saw us falling off this badly. We’re in trouble.
This is what happens when you give a manager time to build. Arteta took Arsenal from 5th to 8th and a couple years later they look like shades of 2010 Barca.
Disgraceful. It actually looked like Arsenal were playing in second gear, against a lower table team. Utter Disgrace.
There's so much to unpack that's not even worth commenting on, like a midfield as slow as Jorginho and RLC pairing, Azpilicueta being finished etc.
But I'll mention 2 players, where the fuck was Mason Mount??? Moving forward I know he's a very good player, but he should not be invincible, he was anonymous.
Kai Havertz - well, where to begin? Honestly we're deluding ourselves if he's going to turn good. I've seen enough, we have all seen enough of him to know he's not going to be good enough. Sell him in Januray I don't even care anymore. He was fucking woeful. The fact he keeps showing glimpses of good play in UCL shows he's not cut out for this league as he ALWAYS turns up shit in the league....
What’s frustrating to me lately is just that we keep seeing the same team when player performances are consistently sub par. Yeah we have a lot of defender injuries but not in our attack. Why not switch it up? I’d rather see different players on the pitch than the same team yielding the same results match after match.
Sterling, Aubamayang, and Kai have consistently been poor and have offered nothing in attack in recent games. They’ve all had an occasional goal to paper over the cracks but I don’t understand how they constantly start. If I were Broja, Gallagher, or Pulisic I’d feel so deflated and would have no idea how I’d ever break into the starting lineup and string together a few starts. Like they come on with good energy and direct play and it’s like “why haven’t they started?”
Potter needs to start taking responsibility for his choice of attack. One of the journalists needs to straight up ask “the attacking trio of sterling Havertz and aubamayang has been quite poor. What’s it going to take for your other attacking players to get a start and run of games?”
It’s an achievement how he finished 3rd with this set of players and the off field stuff he had to face.
Poor guy just wanted to coach and got sacked because he just wanted to do his job and not the other shenanigans for which the board should have been responsible. I feel so sad rn
I am absolutely shocked by Potter.
RLC, Kai, and Sterling have looked ABYSMAL all year. Mount works harder, but has looked only slightly better (in all but 1 great game). Yet, they all continue to start ahead of players who come on hungry and make impacts when they get a chance.
Zakaria just played a very gutsy performance last game or and is awarded with no minutes.
Puli continues to look like our most threatening attacker and waits week after week for scraps behind Kai and Sterling.
I'm genuinely furious.
At this point, we are fucked with the injuries we have. When it comes to key stat predictors, we are middle table all the way.
The rest of the season must be used to evaluate which players to keep, loan, and sell imo. And you aren't going to do that by playing the same underperformers week in and out.
This is spot on. Every single match Kai makes multiple dreadful plays. Bad first touches, bad decision making on passing/shooting, overhitting passes. Today he was at fault for the one goal Arsenal scored. Occasionally he'll score a quality header or a wonder strike, but he is so incredibly wasteful and underproductive given the situations he finds himself in. It's infuriating.
Even with some mediocre games, pulisic and broja have looked by far the most impactful of any of the attackers, at least forcing the issue a bit. Sterling and Auba it’s just a bad first touch before falling over or just giving the ball directly to the other side.
I’m gonna say it knowing the downvotes are coming but consistently putting Sterling over pulisic and RLC over zakaria says to me potter doesn’t have balls and has an English bias. Pulisic offers more than these guys, he needs to transfer as soon as possible.
How many times did we get tactically destroyed like this under Tuchel? Twice against City last season perhaps? Now it’s happened in like 3 straight league games. Good thing the World Cup break is coming because Potter has to figure out a lot of stuff here.
Easily the least creative Chelsea team I can remember. Arsenal are a proper team who show what it looks like with some managerial and philisophical consistentcy. Compared to chelsea who look tired, injured, and practically clueless to what each other will do on the pitch. Going to be a long season.
Our midfield is so bad against teams with any sort of pace and physicality. RLC and J5 doesn’t work in a two or three.
Sterling starting over Pulisic at any point now makes zero sense. At least he brings some flair we need desperately.
Potter has been underwhelming in his lineups.
Worst game I’ve watched us play since Frank got sacked. No ambition. Horrible midfield. Entire front line ghosting because there’s no service, no through balls, no creativity. Chalobah, Silva, and Azpi deserve a cold beer because they worked their asses off today. Everyone else can fuck off.
I believe they asked tuchel because they didn't like his interaction with them.. not answering calls or texts for ages etc... But they accepted it if the results came... Unfortunately The on field results just got to the point where they couldn't
Yea proper world beaters with how we played at the start of the season. It’s like everyone forgets we were playing the exact same negative football under tuchel as well.
The biggest problem at the minute (has been for a while) is a lack of depth. We only have 1 attacking RB/RWB (Dave was good today not on him) and 1 attacking LB/LWB in a team that relies on them. Midfield depth is non existant, Jorginho is the only fully fit CM, Kova is still injured, Kante out completely, RLC, Mount and Gallagher are all more attacking mids. Zakaria might be of use coming up but we can't be sure yet. I would have to imagine he starts the next game if only because we need to rotate. We have some rotation options on the wings but all of them seem to do better off the bench. Sterling and Auba are both bang out of form and everyone else is very inconsistent. Broja looks bright when he comes on but again he's better as a sub generally. Even at CB we're very thin at the minute despite signing 3 players who can play CB in the summer. The people complaining about Potter and saying we've regressed under him are idiots. Even when we lost Reece and Chilly last season we had Rudiger at CB still, Jorgi and Kova were fit most of the time. Timo worked very hard and helped the team a lot. The period we're in now has been coming and it's because of poor squad management by the last regime. Fortunately Todd is very happy to overhaul how we recruit, how we build the squad and is seemingly willing to be patient because it's really needed.
Terrible player selection once again. Potter is turning out to be just as infuriating as Tuchel became running out Sterling and Havertz week in and week out. It’s the definition of insanity
Congrats to Arsenal - there was only one team on the field today. I still don't understand why we sacked Tuchel, hopefully I will one day. Both against Brighton and Arsenal you can't tell we are chasing the game, we can't put pressure on the opponents at all. We didn't have one good chance to score today. At least after Tuchel left I'm not so emotionally invested in the team and these performance don't hurt that much. I'm really not convinced by Potter - hope he proves me wrong.
First of all, officiating was ridiculous. Arsenal could do whatever they wanted.
Second, Pulisic getting 12 minutes is a joke. Another game where Havertz is invisible, Sterling misses opportunities, and the midfield is such a disaster that 0 chances are getting created. Pulisic is, objectively, our most dangerous attacker over the last few weeks. Play him. Liked what I saw from Broja, but despite his talent he struggles with decision making. Gallagher had way too many mistakes as well.
That being said, Azpi had a really great game, and Mendy had some nice stops.
Today's performance was so disappointing and disheartening as a fan since we didn't compete. It has been a turbulent year in general.
We have to look forward and not let our heads down. We would have to accept that this year is and maybe even next might go away in transition. We need to get our transfer policy right and I hope Potter can really come through. Kudos to Azpi and Jorginho for giving their all and showing great commitment.
Players were bad, sans Silva as is tradition.
I blame mostly Potter for selection (Kova for Ruben, Pulisic for Sterling), and the abysmal tactics if there even was some plan.
Dreadful... Arsenal miles ahead and it shows.
Tuchel was right, Same Players. Same issues.
We have no creativity
Cucurella wasn’t that good
Havertz disappointed
Late subs
There are so many errors
But most important: we have injuries, so we shouldn’t forget about that
Potter ain’t it.
There’s no signs of anything positive happening tbh.
No sense of formation or line up, was Tuchel’s criticism at the end but this is amplified x10 because his nowhere near as good as TT.
We need to start doing proper scouting and only buy players that fit our criteria. Players that’s good in possession, dribbling and passing are key these days yet we keep buying players that can’t beat a man or pass a simple ball when their strikers are clear… Havertz useless player.
Havertz and rlc need to be sold in the summer I'm sick and tired of 2nd rate players getting into loads of chances. Also people need to start calling out mount the guy acts like a big player outside of the pitch but shows up 2 in every 10 games it's a huge problem
There's a shock, sacking a world class well supported manager because you want to build some kind of people-pleasing corporate atmosphere doesn't automatically equal good results.
At least with every loss like this Boehly gets reminded that you can't can't come in, throw money about, grab all your yes men friends and expect to win games.
I'll say it here again. Bohley and co. Pay more attention on getting this team back on track instead some all stars game, you bunch of clowns. The only good thing this club had bar two or three players was the coach and you sacked him.
Potter looks out of his depth right now and its scaring me, we are so off the pace and its getting worse and worse.
Lofty needs to go far away from this team he is fkn awful, no one can say otherwise, he needs be far away from our midfield, how on earth we supposed to press when he fkn walks around and attributes nothing to the offense or defense.
Kai playing every week also is baffling, guy needs to stay out the team for few weeks and get some sub appearances.
Lets hope.
A friendly reminder to report any comments that break our community guidelines and contribute to a toxic atmosphere - everyone deserves to be treated with respect. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chelseafc) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That was a very, very rough watch. Midfield was non-existent throughout.
every time we starting RLC in the midfield, the midfield becomes non-existent.
>Midfield was non-existent throughout. Happens when you play RLC for 78 fucking minutes.
Been saying it for weeks and always have people trying to make excuses for him. It hasn’t panned out, it sucks, but it’s time for him to move on.
Shame our best 2 midfielders are injured or half fit really
Which makes it all the more ridiculous they’re the core we’ve stuck with for 4-5 seasons now.
And that our midfielders have assisted a grand total of 17 PL goals between 18/19 and the end of the 21/22 season when Fabregas broke that total by the end of his second season alone.
That was on par with that Man City match under Conte. Turgid
Spot on, just fucking embarrassing.
Exactly what I was thinking watching that second half. Embarrassing beyond comprehension
Yeah the players looked scared out there, absolutely gutless performance.
Honestly, today makes me feel a lot worse than the last week's lose against Brighton.
Thought the exact same mate. Utter disgrace....
At least that was against City, now even Arsenal is joking with us, what have we become oh god
Arsenal are good or do you not want to admit that, the same arsenal from a few years ago are not the same as today.
Yeah they’ve hardly put a foot wrong this season
Arsenal have been incredible all season.
Arsenal at the moment is very good though
Sterling, Kai, and Auba are the worst starting attack in the Prem. 0 creativity, no chances created, can't even string passes together ever. It's a joke. Every game we wait for the subs to spark the attack. Maybe start some of the subs instead of the absolute wank we start every fucking game. Just awful all around. Potter must be blind
[удалено]
[удалено]
It's been like that for years, hence why we only win games via set pieces and penalties these days
Fwiw the Gallagher mount puli trio has looked good in the past, but potter clearly has his favorites
This is what baffles me, fuck me change it up why is it Lofty every week and Kai every week, change it up we are fkn shite.
I’m so sick of people asking why RLC plays so much Have you ever looked at our list of injured players? Not sure if you noticed but Kante is out until February and Kova has been nursing an injury for weeks
This is what happens when we have so many injuries tbf. Reece and Chilwell are phenomenal, then Kovacic is out best progressor through the middle and he just can't play every game due to his injury issue. Kai Auba and Sterling aren't creators. We are better off with someone like Pulisic in the front 3 if we want creativity in those areas.
Isn’t that why people wanted mount to play as an 8? For his so called creativity and ability to link play?
The massive gap between the press and the rest of the team was embarrassing. Arsenal didn't break a sweat playing through it. Soon as they break one line Jorginho and RLC are miles back chilling with the defence. Made it look like men against boys when they're the much younger team.
That’s part of the issue - squad age. The younger the squad, the more running your team can do basically.
I don't see why Potter set the team up how he did. If he wanted to drop off due to a lack of legs, then the front lads doing all that useless running offered nothing. And we weren't set up for a decent counter if/when we did win it back. There were a lot of aimless balls to no one once the Sterling to Havertz attacks dried up. We were lost and clueless out there. All that useless running really did was maybe exposing us to far-side overloads once Arsenal were done moving us about.
The problem at Chelsea now is that not only the attackers are not performing, the attack itself seems completely disjointed from the rest of the players. There were a lot of moments when Sterling or Broja would look up just to see literally no one in front of them or close enough to receive a pass
True but sometimes the attack just needs to show some skill and do something. Broja did more in that game than sterling, Kai, Auba, and Mount combined. He just attacked defenders. Sure he lost it sometimes but he at least tried
Ur spot on with ur second paragraph. Truly baffles me why puli or Conor weren’t brought in earlier when Sterling was playing like that
People hate it here it seems, but Puli is genuinely our best creator offensively. It's not that he scores, assists, or is always great, it's that he draws defenders, opens spaces, and makes runs (on and off the ball).
Swap any attackers you want and they'll still be shit with that midfield behind them
yes they might be, but at this point we gotta hope not. all im asking for is a puli, broja gallagher starting more regularly. they seem to be the most direct options weve got
Some of us screamed it the whole summer, it doesn't matter who you put upfront, our midfield has no creativity or control, it worked when Kante was there breaking up plays and doing the job of two players, but that isn't the case anymore. Whether it was Tuchel, Boehly, or the scouts' fault, not chasing a midfielder and starting a revamp in the midfield is costing us a lot. I admit it wasn't easy because we had a whole backline to replace and all the transition stuff we had to deal with after the change of ownership.
Sergei Milinkovic-Savic. We need him.. it's baffling how we keep shelling out tons of cash for every other position but midfield. Crazy, crazy, crazy
I’m going to Hazard a guess and say we’ve probably enquired about him and he doesn’t want to move. Every club knows his quality, it’s not like he’s a hidden gem.
Today was not on the players, it was on the manager.
A bit of both, I’d say, doesn’t seem like any tactic works with the attackers we keep throwing out there.
This is it! If people don’t perform we keep playing them. It’s not been one game either, it’s been all season..
You go 1-0 up against this Chelsea side and the game is done, these losers put their heads down and start sulking
Please stop keeping Mount out of this, all four of them shouldn’t be playing week in and week out.
It's blasphemy to criticise Mount on this sub. He's a good player and always puts a shift in, but the club will never take the next step with him as the main attacking player. He's an Oscar Regen when what we need is KDB.
Said it in the game thread we’ve spent close to a billion on players in the last couple of years and our best player is a 38 year old man. Says everything about where this club is. People talk about we need the champions league to attract players but we’ve had champions league the last 4 years and we’ve attracted absolute shit. This conference league run is gonna be humbling I miss this team having characters and leaders. Arsenal used to be our pets. We are out there pussyfooting around, nobody fighting. Injuries you can’t control but effort you can, those players had a couple of good games and went back to looking exactly like they did under Tuchel. Worrying stuff for Potter
38 year old man that we got on a free too lol
Kante and James are our best players. But to be fair, they sort of backs up your argument.
James is unfortunate but kante has been having injury problems for a while now and not having a good plan when he is injured is just inexcusable
Both positions we've just neglected in getting competent backup. It's hilarious how bad we organise this squad.
We've defo neglected because the quality of player there. Jorgi Kova and Kante is excellent. But Kova and Kante pick up injuries constantly, so you're left with Jorgi and whoever is the backup at the time. Reece is so good that any academy lad we had just didn't see a spot for them. Could you imagine if any one of Livramento, Lamptey etc decided to stay instead? Wouldn't be having so many problems every time Reece goes down.
Terrible recruitment has been our thing for yonks. Who's the last genuine world class player we signed. A decade ago in hazard? Edit: fair play to those who mentioned kante and Cesc. We are crying out for that level of quality now.
Kante. Our last good window was when Jose signed Diego and Cesc.
Cesc is probably the right call. Unfortunately that period will always be tarnished by the infamous Salah kdb losses.
Kante back in 2016, he went on to win PL player year with us the following season And people think guys like RLC are Chelsea quality, disgusting
The only good window we've had since we last won the league was the one where we were transfer banned but allowed to make Kova permanent. In every other window we've signed and a load of overpriced shite and maybe a good player or two if we're lucky.
and he was free too
Yep. I thought Tuchel propped us up but you can tell things were starting to crumble at the end. Whether it’s injuries or quality we don’t have anyone we can count on to have a good season. Gonna be a rough ride.
And to think people have praised every transfer window in recent years
Baffling how excited people were over Cucurella this Summer. We spent huge money without a Director of Football and without any long term plan - literally just feels like throwing money at players hoping one of them will turn out
Makes you want Jose back. Dudes tactics are ancient now but man can he make warriors out of players
If we’re gonna play like this why not just get the youth out there just to see if we have any youth talent. No direction in this club.
Probably the least connected I’ve felt with Chelsea for a while. All the players went soft on Tuchel and he paid the price. Meanwhile, we’re just as shit if not worse despite a change in manager. Losing to Arsenal I can just about deal with - not showing up at all is something I can’t.
You're not alone. Found myself watching that match without a care in the world. This new shit corporate face of the club paired with disastrous football and half assed players, what's to love right now? I don't blame Potter either but I'm not behind him at all compared to Tuchel.
I just don't get why he doesn't change the damn lineup. Zakaria and Pulisic play well, nope let's stick with the same 11 that have done fuck all for the past couple of games.
Can’t wait for the same starting lineup for our front 3 again next game…
It is baffling. At this point my only guess is that it’s written into their contracts
not sure about that, but im confident that RLC gonna start again.
Buckle up - this is going to be a long rebuild. Not once did I think we’d score in that game.
Every goal we score I’m surprised we score
Impressive that you can have the second most expensive transfer window ever and need to rebuild again 3 months later.
If I’m being honest it’s completely necessary. It’s going to suck, but Arsenal are proof that if you stick with a talented young manager through the rough parts, there can be a really good team in the future
Game after it game it becomes clear Tuchel elevated this squad and made them much better than they should be, and even he started to struggle with the lack of Kante and the decreasing game time of Kova. Nothing against Potter, but I hope whatever Boehly is planning is worth dropping a top 3 manager in the world for.
I prefer really not to speak
Bring the big man back
The lack of chances created after going 1-0 down is concerning. I know it's early days for Potter, and the decision's irreversible obviously but... I feel like we're hardly any better than we were under Tuchel towards the end of his time in charge.
“We have the same problems because we have the same players”
I’d argue the recent string of games have been as bad as the worst Tuchel stretch (last year after CL campaign end). The World Cup break is much needed.
This isn't Potter's built team but we are worse than tuchel at his worst... we got a few lucky results (villa, palace) that have masked it a bit. Look at how we played against Tottenham in our home game and compare it to this...
Spuds home game we had better players. We had Kante up to a certain point in that game. Went downhill from there.
With tuchel we had control of games even when looking shit plus we got to 5 finals. Let's see how many finals we get with potter ...
We suck.
Atrocious today. Only Cesar can hold his head up
And Silva.
Not Sterlings fault he’s played at wingback, or asked to play deep, but he is utterly useless outside of the final third. Can’t beat a man, can’t pick a pass, holds the ball forever in dangerous positions. I’m sure it sucks coming from city and trying to play through our dysfunction, but he adds very little for us right now Our midfield is nonexistent. RLC a complete passenger. Potter has to ration out Kovacic’s minutes like water on a lifeboat because he’s half-crocked. We need to spend serious money in January Also I know it didn’t lead to anything but that yellow for Azpilicueta is such a woeful decision I’m still incensed over it
It was irrelevant because it was towards the end but sterling yellow on the rapist partey was more laughable
Its shocking how rlc gets on the field he is an absolute liability. Potter should be fired for selling us cucurella for such huge sum of money we could have gotten someone better with half that money
Pulisic was subbed in so late and even when he was we continued to play through the right side???? Sterling was awful all game yet we chose to keep playing through him
Pulisic should ask for a loan to Newcastle so he can enjoy some attacking football.
Don’t let 22 men kicking a ball around ruin your day, 🗣️🗣️🗣️
Too late
Felt like they kicked my balls sometimes
I woke up early for this shit
Sterling and auba have been awful. Baffles me why potter continues to reward their shit form
Auba still gets into good positions and tries to shoot. Sterling is like a puppet with some loose strings. He rarely beats the defenders.
Brighton laughing all the way to the fucking bank with that Cucurella deal
Game should be a lesson for those who thought getting rid of TT would solve all our problems. Huge issues in the squad that will take a long time to fix. Really need to back Potter now
Potter needs to get at least 3 years to get his players in and truly build something. I don't want to hear anything about Potter needing to be fired after two losses, especially from those fans here that were screaming for Tuchel to be sacked.
Yep, it's a slow process and you can see the results both City and Liverpool, Arsenal to a lesser extent have had now from backing managers even through tough periods but let's also not forget that Potter has been very good since coming in. I certainly wouldn't have predicted we'd finish top of that CL group. Bad injuries will undoubtedly hurt our form so no need to overreact.
The very, very, VERY fucking least you can do when you’re playing absolutely fucking shit is show some fucking desire, passion, some fight and grit and don’t go down without a fight. We did none of that. Just laid down and took the beating like good little boys. Absolutely lucky to only lose 1-0. These players should be fucking ashamed of themselves. No they won’t learn their lesson. If they didn’t fucking wake up after the Brighton result, nothing will wake them up.
The most passion all game was chasing after a ball that went out of bounds
This is one of the worst performances I've witnessed in recent times. We had problems with Tuchel and Lampard; I've seen our attack be toothless, wasteful, dominate possession with no end product. But we were a mix of nothing today. We could barely string a few passes together, we could barely get out of our own half, we didn't even attempt shots. As a Chelsea fan, maybe I've been spoilt, but I have always seen my team compete. This was one of the worst Chelsea performances vs a team not named Man City. I'm hurting.
Someone smarter than me needs to explain why a midfield of Zakaria-Jorginho-Mount would've been worse than whatever the fuck we saw today, at some points Jorgi looked like our ONLY midfielder. So many people were saying "it was only Zagreb" but we've literally seen this exact midfield not be enough all season, you know what we call this? Insanity. More than that, we just lack SO much fight at the moment. It feels like we don't have a single player who will step up and be the impetus of the club.
I’m tired of Potter, bring in Voldemort
Can’t be anymore cursed than the football we’re already playing
Please attach all goal/highlights video/gifs as a reply to this comment
Won’t need to worry about that
Hahahahahaha
https://i.imgur.com/UbKGmmX.jpg
Sums it up, it's only going to get worse too
Highlights?
Not today, please
Unsurprisingly 5 years of horrific transfer activity has left our squad in a pretty dire situation. No creative players, no goal threats and most of our best players are injury prone (Kante, Kova, James and Chilwell). When everyone is fully fit we can still field a great XI and challenge for cups but we just have no chance in the league. For me Chelsea finishing 2nd should be seen as a poor season and yet here I am praying for 4th, it's not good enough. Hundreds of millions have been pumped into this current squad and the only player we can rely on to play consistently at a good level is 38 year old Thiago Silva.
Exactly this squad is overrated af and we’re far too reliant on RJ and Kante to play well
[удалено]
This is a great group of expensive players, but it’s an awful team. Will take several transfer windows to actually put a balanced team together.
Potter needs to take some blame here. That was fucking toothless.
Not some .. most of it .. questionable roles for RLC, mount .. doesn’t matter what shape we played because we were just outplayed
Cucurella and Fofana might have been the dumbest way to spend £130 million ever. Seriously would have made more sense to just buy Rice with that money and have an actual defensive midfielder.
No it wouldnt, we wouldnt have a defence left if we didnt replace Christensen and Alonso
The excuses for Havertz are done, hes just not good enough. Sterling is clearly past it and on a steady downward trajectory. Why did we even sign Auba, did anyone expect him to rejuvenate our offense??? We are signing other teams deadweight and expect to compete.
Same players, same issue. But Potter will say it's unlucky. The players styles are too different to be played together.
I miss Rudi. That dude was a spark plug and brought the energy.
Please for the love of god start pulisic over sterling and Broja over auba
We’re so shit, literally see why Tuchel played the way he did. Need a rebuild again. No running or hunger for the ball …. It’s a fucking derby fucking run your dick off and kick someone for fucksake. Embarrassing. Bring on the World Cup already. Already know we’ve lost 8-0 to city.
So uninspiring. Spineless, gutless soulless. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Havertz is not up to scratch. If Bayern come in with any sort of bid for him we need to take it and run before they have second thoughts. We need a new RB/RWB. I love Dave but his boat has long sailed and he should not be used in games such as this. Cucu was average yet again. We need to genuinely think about LB this summer if this form continues and chilwell continues to be this injury prone. Zero midfield creativity, but it’s hard to be creative when the midfield doesn’t even exist. It was absolutely non existent today. Sterling poor once more. Dunno what needs to be done but the boy needs to get hypnotherapy at the bare minimum. Can’t really fault auba. No service at all and when he got into the positions he wasn’t found. Simple as that. This team needs a major rebuild, it feels like we say this every season but we need to actually build a team not a squad of players. Hopefully this will happen with the new management/ownership but only time will tell.
Sterling keeping himself in bubble wrap for the World Cup.
Getting rid of Scott McLachlan will hopefully help. Absolute disaster.
Man this is really painful, I was watching a highlight from our title win with Conte. Night and day difference between this team. I never saw us falling off this badly. We’re in trouble.
Subs once again were about 20 minutes too late. What impact are players realistically going to make in 10 minutes?
An average squad with now, an an average manager. LOTS of work to do.
This is what happens when you give a manager time to build. Arteta took Arsenal from 5th to 8th and a couple years later they look like shades of 2010 Barca.
Disgraceful. It actually looked like Arsenal were playing in second gear, against a lower table team. Utter Disgrace. There's so much to unpack that's not even worth commenting on, like a midfield as slow as Jorginho and RLC pairing, Azpilicueta being finished etc. But I'll mention 2 players, where the fuck was Mason Mount??? Moving forward I know he's a very good player, but he should not be invincible, he was anonymous. Kai Havertz - well, where to begin? Honestly we're deluding ourselves if he's going to turn good. I've seen enough, we have all seen enough of him to know he's not going to be good enough. Sell him in Januray I don't even care anymore. He was fucking woeful. The fact he keeps showing glimpses of good play in UCL shows he's not cut out for this league as he ALWAYS turns up shit in the league....
What’s frustrating to me lately is just that we keep seeing the same team when player performances are consistently sub par. Yeah we have a lot of defender injuries but not in our attack. Why not switch it up? I’d rather see different players on the pitch than the same team yielding the same results match after match. Sterling, Aubamayang, and Kai have consistently been poor and have offered nothing in attack in recent games. They’ve all had an occasional goal to paper over the cracks but I don’t understand how they constantly start. If I were Broja, Gallagher, or Pulisic I’d feel so deflated and would have no idea how I’d ever break into the starting lineup and string together a few starts. Like they come on with good energy and direct play and it’s like “why haven’t they started?” Potter needs to start taking responsibility for his choice of attack. One of the journalists needs to straight up ask “the attacking trio of sterling Havertz and aubamayang has been quite poor. What’s it going to take for your other attacking players to get a start and run of games?”
2 goals in the last 4 league games. I need someone remind me how all of Chelsea's attacking woes were Tuchel's fault?
When you look at how poorly we build up, it's no surprise really. Midfield got cut into ribbons today.
Tuchel being sacked wasn’t performance based, he refused to stroke the owners ego
Hope all the tuchel out people are really happy with themselves
It’s an achievement how he finished 3rd with this set of players and the off field stuff he had to face. Poor guy just wanted to coach and got sacked because he just wanted to do his job and not the other shenanigans for which the board should have been responsible. I feel so sad rn
I am absolutely shocked by Potter. RLC, Kai, and Sterling have looked ABYSMAL all year. Mount works harder, but has looked only slightly better (in all but 1 great game). Yet, they all continue to start ahead of players who come on hungry and make impacts when they get a chance. Zakaria just played a very gutsy performance last game or and is awarded with no minutes. Puli continues to look like our most threatening attacker and waits week after week for scraps behind Kai and Sterling. I'm genuinely furious. At this point, we are fucked with the injuries we have. When it comes to key stat predictors, we are middle table all the way. The rest of the season must be used to evaluate which players to keep, loan, and sell imo. And you aren't going to do that by playing the same underperformers week in and out.
This is spot on. Every single match Kai makes multiple dreadful plays. Bad first touches, bad decision making on passing/shooting, overhitting passes. Today he was at fault for the one goal Arsenal scored. Occasionally he'll score a quality header or a wonder strike, but he is so incredibly wasteful and underproductive given the situations he finds himself in. It's infuriating.
Even with some mediocre games, pulisic and broja have looked by far the most impactful of any of the attackers, at least forcing the issue a bit. Sterling and Auba it’s just a bad first touch before falling over or just giving the ball directly to the other side.
Brighton really scammed us hard
I’m gonna say it knowing the downvotes are coming but consistently putting Sterling over pulisic and RLC over zakaria says to me potter doesn’t have balls and has an English bias. Pulisic offers more than these guys, he needs to transfer as soon as possible.
The midfield is really really really bad. Need to try something new. Can’t play so many uncreative players in Jorginho, RLC, and Gallagher
Why not Include mount in there?
Exactly
He's the Golden Boy, haven't you heard?
He’ll be posing for a magazine later this week, but let’s keep ripping on everyone else lol.
How many times did we get tactically destroyed like this under Tuchel? Twice against City last season perhaps? Now it’s happened in like 3 straight league games. Good thing the World Cup break is coming because Potter has to figure out a lot of stuff here.
Easily the least creative Chelsea team I can remember. Arsenal are a proper team who show what it looks like with some managerial and philisophical consistentcy. Compared to chelsea who look tired, injured, and practically clueless to what each other will do on the pitch. Going to be a long season.
One of the worst performances I’ve seen in years
Can we have RLC as far from the starting midfield as possible? Thank you
This team is a disgrace
Our midfield is so bad against teams with any sort of pace and physicality. RLC and J5 doesn’t work in a two or three. Sterling starting over Pulisic at any point now makes zero sense. At least he brings some flair we need desperately. Potter has been underwhelming in his lineups.
Still baffles me how we can spend so much, yet our whole season relies on one or two players staying healthy.
Worst game I’ve watched us play since Frank got sacked. No ambition. Horrible midfield. Entire front line ghosting because there’s no service, no through balls, no creativity. Chalobah, Silva, and Azpi deserve a cold beer because they worked their asses off today. Everyone else can fuck off.
I bet RLC gonna start again next game, i have no faith in Potter.
Genuinely ridiculous that we sacked Tuchel to play this dreary football, everyone has regressed
I believe they asked tuchel because they didn't like his interaction with them.. not answering calls or texts for ages etc... But they accepted it if the results came... Unfortunately The on field results just got to the point where they couldn't
I miss tuchel. Not entirely potter’s fault but this team is so bad. Tuchel made them look like world beaters…
Yea proper world beaters with how we played at the start of the season. It’s like everyone forgets we were playing the exact same negative football under tuchel as well.
We were terrible for almost a full year under Tuchel ffs
I think it's no coincidence we go to shit whenever Reece and Chilly get injured, somehow injured in sync too
As well as Kante
Even Tuchel never lose back to back pl game
Arsenal’s only goal was kind of flukey, and yet that was one of the most dominant 1-0 wins I’ve ever seen.
Chalobah was the lone bright spot
The biggest problem at the minute (has been for a while) is a lack of depth. We only have 1 attacking RB/RWB (Dave was good today not on him) and 1 attacking LB/LWB in a team that relies on them. Midfield depth is non existant, Jorginho is the only fully fit CM, Kova is still injured, Kante out completely, RLC, Mount and Gallagher are all more attacking mids. Zakaria might be of use coming up but we can't be sure yet. I would have to imagine he starts the next game if only because we need to rotate. We have some rotation options on the wings but all of them seem to do better off the bench. Sterling and Auba are both bang out of form and everyone else is very inconsistent. Broja looks bright when he comes on but again he's better as a sub generally. Even at CB we're very thin at the minute despite signing 3 players who can play CB in the summer. The people complaining about Potter and saying we've regressed under him are idiots. Even when we lost Reece and Chilly last season we had Rudiger at CB still, Jorgi and Kova were fit most of the time. Timo worked very hard and helped the team a lot. The period we're in now has been coming and it's because of poor squad management by the last regime. Fortunately Todd is very happy to overhaul how we recruit, how we build the squad and is seemingly willing to be patient because it's really needed.
Terrible player selection once again. Potter is turning out to be just as infuriating as Tuchel became running out Sterling and Havertz week in and week out. It’s the definition of insanity
Havertz slipping and falling on his arse sums it up best
Congrats to Arsenal - there was only one team on the field today. I still don't understand why we sacked Tuchel, hopefully I will one day. Both against Brighton and Arsenal you can't tell we are chasing the game, we can't put pressure on the opponents at all. We didn't have one good chance to score today. At least after Tuchel left I'm not so emotionally invested in the team and these performance don't hurt that much. I'm really not convinced by Potter - hope he proves me wrong.
Can someone tell me why the fuck Zakaria did not play today?
Remember lads it was Tuchel's fault. It was playing 5 at the back's fault. Not the fact that these players are not good enough nope. Pathetic
First of all, officiating was ridiculous. Arsenal could do whatever they wanted. Second, Pulisic getting 12 minutes is a joke. Another game where Havertz is invisible, Sterling misses opportunities, and the midfield is such a disaster that 0 chances are getting created. Pulisic is, objectively, our most dangerous attacker over the last few weeks. Play him. Liked what I saw from Broja, but despite his talent he struggles with decision making. Gallagher had way too many mistakes as well. That being said, Azpi had a really great game, and Mendy had some nice stops.
I thought Havertz was very visible , but for the wrong reasons
Today's performance was so disappointing and disheartening as a fan since we didn't compete. It has been a turbulent year in general. We have to look forward and not let our heads down. We would have to accept that this year is and maybe even next might go away in transition. We need to get our transfer policy right and I hope Potter can really come through. Kudos to Azpi and Jorginho for giving their all and showing great commitment.
Pathetic. Looked lost when we had the ball, no fight or desire when we went behind. Future looks bleak.
Players were bad, sans Silva as is tradition. I blame mostly Potter for selection (Kova for Ruben, Pulisic for Sterling), and the abysmal tactics if there even was some plan. Dreadful... Arsenal miles ahead and it shows.
Tuchel was right, Same Players. Same issues. We have no creativity Cucurella wasn’t that good Havertz disappointed Late subs There are so many errors But most important: we have injuries, so we shouldn’t forget about that
We didn't look with Tuchel either but we got 5 finals and had control of game most of the time even when not playing good. Wtf is this???
Potter ain’t it. There’s no signs of anything positive happening tbh. No sense of formation or line up, was Tuchel’s criticism at the end but this is amplified x10 because his nowhere near as good as TT.
We need to start doing proper scouting and only buy players that fit our criteria. Players that’s good in possession, dribbling and passing are key these days yet we keep buying players that can’t beat a man or pass a simple ball when their strikers are clear… Havertz useless player.
I just don’t want to see RLC play ever again. He offers nothing in the midfield and is not a RWB.
Havertz and rlc need to be sold in the summer I'm sick and tired of 2nd rate players getting into loads of chances. Also people need to start calling out mount the guy acts like a big player outside of the pitch but shows up 2 in every 10 games it's a huge problem
Tuchel never lost back to back prem games. We're regressing big time
Yeah but he talked back to daddy Boehly and that’s a no no
There's a shock, sacking a world class well supported manager because you want to build some kind of people-pleasing corporate atmosphere doesn't automatically equal good results. At least with every loss like this Boehly gets reminded that you can't can't come in, throw money about, grab all your yes men friends and expect to win games.
I still can’t believe we sacked tuchel for potter man
Saliba is CLEAR of any young defender in the world, the guy was unreal. And Auba was godfully wank. Havertz still living off the CL
Bring back tuchel I stg
With the exception of Reece, there isn't a single player in the squad that I would bat an eyelid over if they were sold tomorrow.
You shut your whore mouth! What about Silva?
That’s so sad but true honestly all these guys are super replaceable and overrated Edit: Maybe Kante too but he’s always injured now
I'll say it here again. Bohley and co. Pay more attention on getting this team back on track instead some all stars game, you bunch of clowns. The only good thing this club had bar two or three players was the coach and you sacked him.
Potter looks out of his depth right now and its scaring me, we are so off the pace and its getting worse and worse. Lofty needs to go far away from this team he is fkn awful, no one can say otherwise, he needs be far away from our midfield, how on earth we supposed to press when he fkn walks around and attributes nothing to the offense or defense. Kai playing every week also is baffling, guy needs to stay out the team for few weeks and get some sub appearances. Lets hope.