Chelsea 0 v 1 QPR
Jose, bless his gifted cotton socks, could spot things going pear-shaped as they were happening and would change formation and / or players immediately. He wouldn't wait until half time. Or until 60 minutes, just because the 'How to Manage a Football Team Manual 101' says that that's the time to make a sub. He'd pull someone off during the first half if necessary. And even sometimes change THREE players at half time because they weren't pulling their weight!
Why? Because Jose didn't need to see the car crashing into the tree to realize that the vehicle had left the highway.
Which is the ideal segue into today's match. The dullest, most error filled game I can remember seeing in a month of Sundays. The Chelsea players, with the exception of maybe Cahill, were anonymous, and were obviously suffering from New Year's Eve hangovers. The way they played was nothing short of a disgrace.
Lampard looked well off the pace (he's too old to play so many games so close together), Torres was even worse than he normally is (if that's possible). Moses was invisible and missed an absolute sitter. Luiz was undisciplined (so what's new). Dave is really starting to f*cking annoy me with all his diving. Plus he gets pushed off the ball very easily, and decidedly average wingers are consistently getting the better of him.
Mata and Hazard came off the bench and gave us a little bit of impetus, but it much was too little, much too late. And even they weren't 'on their game'.
Cahill was the only player who played well today. Other 'pluses' (such as they were) include Marin, who - after a very dodgy start, when he could've been sent off - found a bit of confidence, and started to show some promise (like he did in our pre-season tour of the US). And Ivanovic, who didn't have a particularly good game, but at least never gave up trying.
Our next match is the FA cup third round tie against Southampton. A team who have already gone on record as saying they'll be playing a weakened team. So don't you think THAT GAME would be the game to play our B-Team in, NOT THIS ALL IMPORTANT PREMIER LEAGUE MATCH? Yeah, that would be far too logical wouldn't it, Rafa? Much better to lose at home to one of the few teams Chelsea fans hate with a passion.
This game was a DISGRACE. The sooner we sign some new players (especially a new centre forward - the Ba deal appears to be done, so more news on this soon), the better. At least with someone else up front we might actually have a chance of scoring.
KTBFFH!!! :)
Brian M Logan
ThatActionGuy.com
SEONorthSydney.com.au