Chelsea 2 v 2 Southampton - Official Chelsea Match Report
The cliche, 'Football is a game of two halves' was never truer than in this match. In the first half Chelsea were in complete control, and scored two excellent goals (Ba and Torres...nah, just kidding...Ba and Hazard!). But in the second half Southampton gave it a right old go, and Rickie Lambert made Dave his bitch (not hard to do, I'm afraid) and then Jason Puncheon scored a cracker after (self-confessed Chelsea fan) Luke Shaw made a blistering Garath Bale style run up the left wing, to give them a point that looked highly unlikely at the start of the match (and even more unlikely at the start of the 2nd half). A point which pushed the Saints three clear of the drop zone.
So who do we blame for this most tame of second half performances? The manager? The players? The fans? Roman?
To be honest, I think it's a bit of everything. Roman should've never hired a gutless, devoid-of-ideas Liverfool loving manager like Benetez in the first place. That much is a given. But this time I think the players who were on the field (the defenders especially) need to shoulder the lion's share of the blame. Because they were the ones that folded like a deck of cards. And it's they that need to take a good long, hard look at themselves.
Benetez isn't going to change as a manager. His tactics and methodology is easily 10 years out of date, and is what it is. But these players are supposedly the 'best of the best' and the 'perfect blend between youth and experience'. (As if!). So it's up to them to man up. Because as much as I (we) dislike Benetez, he can't play for the players. And we've dropped so many points of late due to shambolic defending and individual PLAYER mistakes it's not funny.
JT can't come back soon enough. That and we NEED to buy a proper midfield enforcer / defensive midfielder before the transfer window closes. Because I'm sorry, this level of shambolic defending cannot go on.
The boos and vitriol at the end of the game may have been for Benetez. But the players deserved it every bit as much as him.
KTBFFH!!! :)
Brian M Logan
ThatActionGuy.com
SEONorthSydney.com.au
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