Chelsea away. 8pm Monday 8th April Live on Sky Sports

PrestonHammer

Even if we had unlimited funds for players and the best manager in the world, we'd still find a way to muck it up.

Hamstew

Apparently Nasri pulled his calf warming up to come on. 3 year contract incoming.

MrsGrey

Disappointing.

I looked at that bench and thought he was really the only one on there who could change a game.

We have really been hit with injuries this season: so many games, the bench is just the B team. f we'd kept more players fit, we'd have had quality options on the bench to change things...

Hamstew

I feel like this season is going to end up as a poor one. I think we'll end up in the bottom half of the table below Palace. For me that's a bad season.

thornburyiron

Despite what he says I sometimes think from Pelle’s demeanour that he doesn’t really believe that we will seriously be anything other than a lower half of the table team.
Since the start of this year we’ve had about 3 decentish performances out of about 15 if you count the cup games and this half of the season was supposed to be the best half with players returning from injury.

Moojor

thornburyiron said:

Despite what he says I sometimes think from Pelle’s demeanour that he doesn’t really believe that we will seriously be anything other than a lower half of the table team.
Since the start of this year we’ve had about 3 decentish performances out of about 15 if you count the cup games and this half of the season was supposed to be the best half with players returning from injury.

and yet, in his very first season, with a change of style, tonnes of injuries we are sitting around mid table at the moment...personally I'm pretty sure that given a bit of time we will be challenging for the top of of the table comfortably.
Maybe people need to realise that things take time to change and build and you can't expect to suddenly be a top 6 team.

thornburyiron

We will never be a top 6 team as we will never have the resources but we should be aiming for 7th or 8th but somehow we don’t seem to have the mentality or attitude to do this.
I know all teams can be inconsistent but we take it to extremes and always have. Again after tonight Cresswell has said we started off sloppy in the first half and that cost us. How many games this season has someone said that but it never seems to change.

BubblesNeverDies

I watched the Hazard "wonder" "goal of the season" (don't those commentators gush :doh: ) and it seemed like it came straight off the training ground with West Ham's defence playing the parts of the orange cones.
Clever to have Higuain standing between our two central cones to make a path for Hazard.

Expat_Hammer

Wasn't that a star wars episode, attack of the cones

:yercoat:

BubblesNeverDies

Expat, you forgot these as well :yercoat: :yercoat: :yercoat:
:biggrin:

SuzanneClaret

Well that was rather disappointing.

Not sure I can see were another point is coming from this season.

Lukerz

It was not a bad performance.

Balbuena being back made a huge difference to our back four. He is a proper aggressive defender & I like what I see of him more & more. He needs a proper partner. Whether that is Diop over time (who will continue to make errors at his age) or a new CB.

Cresswell was pretty awful I thought. So many times he waited for the ball to bounce through to him and was just all round sluggish.

Nobes I thought was excellent in the middle.

Rice was ok, a few nice bits of play but the fact was he was our DM & they ran through that midfield so often all game says something.

Arnie I thought did alright, its just a shame that he is not the same player he was four months ago & that is all down to his doing (& his brother). A few times I thought 'Arnie of last year would have done more with that'.

Anderson looked like he didn't want to be there first half but burst into life second in spells, pretty much sums up his style & our season really.

Lanzini, I felt the game passed him by again.

Hernandez was isolated and, as a result, invisible.

Snodders had a good go when he came on.

We had a period in the second half where we had a real go for 15 minutes & they were 'almost' on the ropes. We needed a goal then. Once that spell died off we lost that impetus & Chelsea controlled the game again. Hazard was excellent, but both his goals looked way better than they were.

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

Anderson looked like he didn't want to be there first half but burst into life second in spells, pretty much sums up his style & our season really.

I reckon Anderson has a dose of the Payets. I think he's worked out that we're not the Champion's League challengers that he was told we were during the sales pitch and has switched off.

Wouldn't be surprised to see him go in the summer.

heathrowhammer

Imo they were better then us all over the pitch, but then Chelsea are a very good team. Although we played better 2nd half. They were still in control. I can sort of accept this defeat.
But the dross we produced against Everton was totally unacceptable that game left me fuming.

OldCastleSwift

But why should we be accepting of these kinds of defeats? Didn't we leave the Boleyn to be able to compete with the bigger teams?

We're three years in and haven't really improved. Yes, we beat Arsenal and (a poor) Man U this season. Yes, we got a point out of Liverpool and Chelsea at home, but we used to do that every now and again at Upton Park.

Really struggling to understand why we moved (apart from the obvious financial benefit to the owners)

Vorselaarhammer

I thought for the Hazard goal showed up our lack of pace with Noble in the middle, he run away from him like Noble was in treacle. But Hazard is WC player so...

We looked a lot better with Arnie as the focal point striker. It aloud us to make a fist of it in the second half. The one true positive from the Moyes era was moving Arnie central, he is our most effective player in that position.

I have no idea what WH will turn up week by week.

Hamstew

SuzanneClaret said:

Well that was rather disappointing.

Not sure I can see were another point is coming from this season.

We could get something from Watford away as they have the final to think about.

OldCastleSwift

Vorse :ok: I've only just seen the Hazard goal and I can understand Balbuena and Ogbonna being reluctant to make contact, but Noble and Rice just let him straight through.

It was a good goal, obviously, but our porous midfield certainly helped him out.

IronHerb

Hazard has scored that goal on many occasions and is almost impossible to stop once he gets up to speed. It was a very good goal. He beat Rice fair and square and you don't get a second chance. Noble was away with fairies, marking space and not a player, which is his standard play these days.

SuzanneClaret

True Ham, or they could play out of their skins to get an FA cup start.

ASLEFshrugged

OldCastleSwift said:

We're three years in and haven't really improved.

We've had three managers in those three years, if we're ever going to improve we need at least a couple of seasons of stability so the manager can build a team (or have someone like Abramovich who is prepared to throw loads of money at us).

From the BBC commentary last night...

Eden Hazard has now been fouled more often than any other player in the Premier League this season (94).

and that was before he scored.

jay_in_cpt

Our 2nd half was much improved, 1st half our shape was useless, and sad it took Pelle till HT to change things, he could/should have been braver and done it earlier.

Arnie was a challenge for them in the 2nd half whereas Hernandez could hardly get a touch in the 1st half, Rice was taken out the game by their midfield, shows he IMO is still a work in progress, although he didnt get much help...Noble was ok, but is that enough these days in the PL...

Agree about Rocky, for me he looked like he had been playing always rather than coming back from a spell on the sidelines,Cresswell was predictable, poor that is.. the performance ( 2nd half ) was bettter and a little encouraging compared to the rubbish v Everton, & 1st half last night where we were hanging on to keep it to 1-0 down, sad tho it was a poor team selection in the first place that IMO robbed us of a possibly decent 1st half showing as well.

TheMadcapLaughs

Dismal first half. Very frustrating to watch, on the odd occasion we "burst" forwards it fizzled out with either misplaced passes or the ball ending back at Ogbonnas feet. Why Anderson didn`t run at the heart of Chelseas defence at times I`ll never know, he had a couple of opportunities first half and bottled it, must be a confidence thing. We are also very, very, very lazy, there seems very little appetite for or commitment to the game. Second half I enjoyed. Putting Arnie central made a difference, best game he has had for months, although he still wasn`t great. Anderson was better second half, although still not up to his best form, and Snodgrass made a World of difference. Snodgrass haring around lifted the whole team. He seemed to remind them that running and challenging for the ball was an integral part of football. I think we matched Chelsea second half. Anyone else leap around like a demented loon when Arnies header hit the stanchion and run along the back of the net?
:wahoo:

Lukerz

Snodgrass is integral to the team at the moment. If Lanzini & Anderson start, Snodders has to play. His work ethic is like two players.

welovethehammers

Lukerz said:

Snodgrass is integral to the team at the moment. If Lanzini & Anderson start, Snodders has to play. His work ethic is like two players.

I agree completely. I'd be happy for him to play in a more central role too. Rice is our only fairly dynamic/athletic central midfielder (Noble/Obiang don't have the pace) and if you put Snodgrass in a central role he offers a bit more athleticism in the middle and therefore harder to break down. When we play the likes of Lanzini, he's another little player who opposition midfielders run past for fun.

welovethehammers

I think by Rice's standards he didn't have a good game but then it's hard to blame him when virtually everyone in front of him (especially Lanzini and Anderson) aren't covering the ground defensively. Noble was ok'ish but doesn't have the legs. Hazard and Loftus Cheek were too much for our midfield, but as soon as Snodgrass came on we looked more solid.

I also didn't think Cresswell was as bad as made out to be. He wasn't amazing but there were many players in our team who played a lot worse.

Balbuena was fantastic and easily our best defender.

TheMadcapLaughs

Balbuena was our best player imo. I also thought Oggie had a decent game. I know Hazard skipped past him for the wonder goal, but I think Hazards mazy run had him a little glassy eyed.

I know its not going to happen, but I think Diop, Balbuena and Oggie would make a pretty formidable back three. Would certainly give Fredericks and Cresswell/Masuaku licence to get forward more, provide a bit more width and maybe, just once or twice, get to the by-line. We very rarely get in behind defences and ping balls across the six yard box.

BubblesNeverDies

Madcap
He seemed to remind them that running and challenging for the ball was an integral part of football

:ok:

alderz

I think Rice was always going to struggle in a two next to Noble up against a three for Chelsea. The CAM role needs to be someone who can drop in and make it a three against the big teams. I'd rather have Snodgrass in there than Lanzini at the moment.

BubblesNeverDies

Cresswell was totally out of position for Hazard's 2nd.