Chelsea 2-0 West Ham Utd (08/04/19)

[miketheloop]

I thought Arnie did well second half up top, best his played for a while.

I thought for 20 mins of the second half when we were chasing down the player to get that ball back we were back to our best.

Apart from that the lack of desire really pisses me off.

This needs addressing more than anything.

[Universidad-de-Chile]

Balbuena is back. That, for me, is the biggest plus point.

Can't knock the lads for effort tonight, in the main. We were undone by an utterly world class opener, and then a goal at the death.

Balbuena - what a return; plays football, from the back.

+ 10

The block on Hugain in the first half, another one on Hazard, the shut on the corner in the second half, plus some passes between the lines for our forwards...

[Samba]

Our season really is over isn't it.

We could still get relegated.
Just about..

[Faithless]

Is it my imagination, or does Ogbonna seem to play a lot better in the second half of the season, compared to the first.

I think both Ogbonna and Diop play a lot better with a more commanding CB next to them

[Hamadking]

Some serious deadwood to be shifted in the summer. Cresswell is awful, saying that Anderson was lazy when out of possession. Obiang is gash and need some major surgery in the summer. I agree, nothing to play for give games to holland/coventry etc and as peaches has already alluded to, lets buy some hungry you championship players.Im still willing to give Pellegrini another season, but I am feeling very underwhelmed.

[Ironing Board]

Some serious deadwood to be shifted in the summer. Cresswell is awful, saying that Anderson was lazy when out of possession. Obiang is gash and need some major surgery in the summer. I agree, nothing to play for give games to holland/coventry etc and as peaches has already alluded to, lets buy some hungry you championship players.Im still willing to give Pellegrini another season, but I am feeling very underwhelmed.

Isn’t he the third or fourth highest paid manager in the league?

[Ingwe]

Only the slow, slipping down of places left now.........ah well, it's the West Ham way.

[Up the Junction]

Did anyone else notice how frequently we appeared to concede possession tonight?

[Ironing Board]

Did anyone else notice how frequently we appeared to concede possession tonight?

One thing I didn’t notice was our midfield!

[Cuenca 'ammer]

Did anyone else notice how frequently we appeared to concede possession tonight?

not just a one off tonight though Boss is it ?

[Patito]

It’s interesting that Chelsea seemed much more dangerous with Giroud up front instead of the Argentinian.

I called that before the game tbf.

[Ironing Board]

I called that before the game tbf.

It’s so strange. I guess it Sarri won’t give him a place as he ain’t “his” player. He has played really well in the Europa too.

[the pink palermo]

We had a 20 odd minute spell in the second half where we upped the tempo and looked decent, and we needed to score during it. Sadly it wasn't to be and we can't have any gripes about the result.

For all Chelsea's dominance though , the difference on the score sheet with not many minutes to go was a single goal . In truth the gap was wider, mainly due to one of their couple of world class players doing what world class players do, make the difference.

Mind you, every single player of theirs looked more comfortable on the ball than ours, and we seem to be much nearer the bottom 6 than the top 6. Anyone who doesn't see we need yet another clear out is in denial.

Hazard for them tonight was magnificent.

[Graza]

I don't feel as bad about this game as I probably should.

Since turning over Newcastle in a fairly routine fashion we have played like ****. Even the skimming through against Huddersfield was more about them being a nervy team who are dreadful. Cardiff "performance" non existent, Everton pathetic. This evening we actually played for one half of a game of football and even in the first half while not good by any objective measure, head and shoulders above those performances.

So it's not all bad. I'm not saying there's much good in it, but perhaps some green shoots sticking out of the manure of our recent performances?

I still don't understand why anyone, especially an experienced manager would go with Hernandez up top on his own when playing a team where you have to believe we are going to be without the ball and in a defensive stance for the bulk of the game. It's just not his game. He doesn't have break away pace, he can't win anything in the air and he doesn't have the physical strength to hold up the play for runners. You couldn't build a person from scratch less suited to the way we were going to have to play today. Give him the ball to feet in the box and he is peerless. We were never going to do that tonight, so we were set up wrong. No two.ways about it. That was never going to work. That Pellegrini can't see that worries me.

[Ironing Board]

I don't feel as bad about this game as I probably should.

Since turning over Newcastle in a fairly routine fashion we have played like ****. Even the skimming through against Huddersfield was more about them being a nervy team who are dreadful. Cardiff "performance" non existent, Everton pathetic. This evening we actually played for one half of a game of football and even in the first half while not good by any objective measure, head and shoulders above those performances.

So it's not all bad. I'm not saying there's much good in it, but perhaps some green shoots sticking out of the manure of our recent performances?

I still don't understand why anyone, especially an experienced manager would go with Hernandez up top on his own when playing a team where you have to believe we are going to be without the ball and in a defensive stance for the bulk of the game. It's just not his game. He doesn't have break away pace, he can't win anything in the air and he doesn't have the physical strength to hold up the play for runners. You couldn't build a person from scratch less suited to the way we were going to have to play today. Give him the ball to feet in the box and he is peerless. We were never going to do that tonight, so we were set up wrong. No two.ways about it. That was never going to work. That Pellegrini can't see that worries me.

We’ll be rolling in Manure next, so hopefully that will be a nice catalyst!

[Crossd_Hammrs]

Should Snodgrass have hada penalty on 53 mins? Sliding tackle by Azpilicueta caught him late.
Anywhere else on the pitch and that's a free-kick.

Kante tried to cutely take him out on the edge of the box a second earlier too. Which caused him to stumble and allowed the left back to close him down.

[Crossd_Hammrs]

What a different second half!

But yet again we go behind before we start playing.
And yet again we fail to score away - One goal (a Noble penalty) in last seven away matches!

Chelsea booked for time-wasting at home - so we CAN raise our game to take on top four teams. Why don't we do anything against the lower clubs?

This team and this season has me utterly baffled.

[Humbug]

Actually thought Noble made some really good passes in this game. Pity that we have so many wimps in our side and that included Anderson, Lanzini , Creswell and Hernandez. They all tend to pull out of tackles and don't have any determination/conviction to track back and physically win back the ball once they've lost it. I thought Lanzini was the cause of the 2nd goal and to be honest , I have never really taken to him . He's scored some good goals for us , but generally doesn't do enough. Lots of deadwood to clear out , maybe even 8 or 9 players who are not 100% committed playing for us.

[Wilko1304]

Undone by a genius tonight. Hard to feel too hard done by, Hazard was just excellent.

Giroud came on when the game was stretched and missed a chance he should have scored, whereas Higuain was in the tighter game (for the most part) and if not for Fredericks's toe, he'd have ended it in the first half.

Well played Balbuena, Arnie and Snodgrass. Fabianski a hero, as ever.

[Al Fisti]

Unnecessary defeat yesterday.

The goal in the first half was a common collapse of at least 4 West Ham players. Balbuena and Ogbonna looked awfully there. Never ever should it be possible, that a player dribbles through the middle till our goalkeeper, despite of the quality Hazard has.

We destroyed a rather solid game against a real strong opponent - Chelsea has been good overall. There wasn´t just Hazard, playing well.

First half we have been very harmless in the offensive, second half was better, but i don´t blame Hernandez. Every striker would have been poor first half, cause Chelsea dominated us in midfield completely - no single proper ball in the box for Chicha

I am a big fan of Lanzini, but he was far from his best yesterday. It´s a pity but it seems that Pelle had the one sub too little yesterday, if the absurd story of Nasri is true.

The biggest disappointment for me is, that a problem of past years, which i thought, we have solved, occurs again in recent games - our central defence!!