Chelsea v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[onje_villa]

Quite a surprisingly fair piece about Chelsea and us after the game http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20835394.

It seems the press have the same goodwill as the majority of us fans towards what Lambert is trying to do.

Can't think of many teams getting stuffed 8-0 and getting so much leeway.

[nigel]

I put on my Claret and Blue tinted glasses this morning and thought of the positives we can take from this:

1, Guzan, without him it would have been 12+
2, We were first on Match of the Day!!

If we get to Wembley let's hope it's them we get, and serve them with a cold piece of revenge.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Oh well. We all know that kids are going to be inconsistent but the bigger worry for me is Lambert's apparent tactical naivety. 

Maybe I was expecting too much but I thought Lambert was coming to the club with real tactical nouse built up with his continental training. But too many times already this season he's got his tactics completely wrong with catastrophic consequences.

I don't think we've seen the last tonking we'll get under Lambert unfortunately.

Agreee on all points, Adam.

Lambert is the complete opposite of Pullis, he doesn't seem to know how to shut up shop, he only seems to know/want to play open football. He played right into the hands of Benitez yesterday, who's no idiot when it comes to tactics. When you allow with the attacking threat of Chelsea to dominate the midfield, unchallenged for 90 minutes, you really are putting your head in the lions mouth. Lambert's to the slaughter.

Yesterday will only be stomachable if he learns from it. Of course we want to be entertained with attacking, progressive football but be also don't want to be humiliated by naive tactics. It's not really asking too much.

the reason we didnt shut up shop in my view is because we wouldnt know how to, i just cant see that young side being able to do that.

It's not the side that can't do it, it's Lambert. We were powerless in midfield, no guts, no fire, we basically never got near them. You can't expect to go to Cherlsea with all their attacking strength and expect to go head to head. There was only ever going to be one winner. It's hardly rocket science.

Maybe if we'd gone 451 the centre backs would have given Torres more and closer attention, Herd could have sat in front of the back four and got stuck into them. At least we would have got closer to them, we made it so easy for them, giving them so much space and with their talent and technique, they just passed the ball through us whenever they felt like it.

I'm not for one minute suggesting we'd have come away with something but I very much doubt we'd have been talking today about a humiliating, confidence sapping slaughter.

[sid1964]

Most teams have a freak result in a season

Utd beat Arsenal 8 - 2, then lost at home to Blackburn & got well and truly stuffed at home to CITY

Wigan beat Arsenal at their place

We beat Chelsea last season at their place, and then last week beat Liverpool, and then get our back sides kicked by Chelsea

These results will happen, what will be interesting is to see how the team responds to this!

We can only hope that we come out of this ok!!!

If we dont this could be a pivotal result.

[Kingthing]

There's more important things in life.

I've just watched the Snowman and at the end he melts and I cried and its not fair.

[Summers]

Losing isn't the issue.

Shipping 8 goals is.

Embarrassing. Hope all our fans that went are getting a refund.

[silhillvilla]

-17 GD
Truly woeful

[claretandbeer]

At 3-0 the game was lost so we should have closed ranks and tried to tighten up the defence rather than going gung hu and leaving ourselves repeatedly exposed to attack.

Totally agree and should have rested key attacking players,like Benteke,for Spurs.Yes,lambert got the substitutions wrong but you don't get 2 successive promotions and safety in the Premier League if you are tactically naive,as some suggest.Media pundits and some Liverpool fans praised the way our back 3 defended last week,now They,especially Herd ,are being pilloried. Defenders need help from the rest of the team.After the changes,Bannan,Ireland and Bennett offered pitiful resistance.

[PaulWinch again]

I think the most alarming thing was that if we're honest 8-0 flattered us.

[john e]

Oh well. We all know that kids are going to be inconsistent but the bigger worry for me is Lambert's apparent tactical naivety. 

Maybe I was expecting too much but I thought Lambert was coming to the club with real tactical nouse built up with his continental training. But too many times already this season he's got his tactics completely wrong with catastrophic consequences.

I don't think we've seen the last tonking we'll get under Lambert unfortunately.

Agreee on all points, Adam.

Lambert is the complete opposite of Pullis, he doesn't seem to know how to shut up shop, he only seems to know/want to play open football. He played right into the hands of Benitez yesterday, who's no idiot when it comes to tactics. When you allow with the attacking threat of Chelsea to dominate the midfield, unchallenged for 90 minutes, you really are putting your head in the lions mouth. Lambert's to the slaughter.

Yesterday will only be stomachable if he learns from it. Of course we want to be entertained with attacking, progressive football but be also don't want to be humiliated by naive tactics. It's not really asking too much.

the reason we didnt shut up shop in my view is because we wouldnt know how to, i just cant see that young side being able to do that.

It's not the side that can't do it, it's Lambert. We were powerless in midfield, no guts, no fire, we basically never got near them. You can't expect to go to Cherlsea with all their attacking strength and expect to go head to head. There was only ever going to be one winner. It's hardly rocket science.

Maybe if we'd gone 451 the centre backs would have given Torres more and closer attention, Herd could have sat in front of the back four and got stuck into them. At least we would have got closer to them, we made it so easy for them, giving them so much space and with their talent and technique, they just passed the ball through us whenever they felt like it.

I'm not for one minute suggesting we'd have come away with something but I very much doubt we'd have been talking today about a humiliating, confidence sapping slaughter.

you could be right,
 my heads all of a spin to be honest, dont know what i'm doing or saying, its a bugger for sure

[john e]

never been to fussed about Chelsea before, even with all there money i still didnt get excited about disliking them

but yesterday they made our young team grovel, they ground them into the dirt, and while i cant blame Chelsea for doing that i hate them like never before

[brontebilly]

Agree that at 3-0 down we should have tightened things up tactically. Was Vlaar injured? definitely need to bring him back in the next day.

Lichaj is nowhere near good enough at left back but things got significantly worse when he went off. Bennett looks frighteningly out of his depth at the moment. Frankly I thought he was a disgrace upon his introduction. Baker was all at sea trying to cover that space. Herd on the far side was as bad. Definitely Delph and El Ahmadi should have been introduced and the likes of Benteke taken off and rested. Bit unfair castigating Ireland, he was very good on the ball when introduced. The likes of Holman and Bannan are equally as bad without the ball as he is. Westwood not far behind. True for the 60k a week he gets he has been a huge disappointment but was instrumental in the only decent move we put together during the game.

Like at City we collapsed after going a few goals behind. That is worrying and has nothing to do with inexperience. You play to the final whistle from u-10s to seniors but a lot of our players need severe reminding of that fact. Lambert didnt help matters really and it is the end of the 3 centre backs experiment. The likes of Herd and Baker will have their confidence in bits after that game. Vlaar to come back next to Clark for the next game and pack the midfield. A point against Spurs will be a great result after that hockeying.

it is only one game at the end of the day. Chelsea were outstanding and will get back into the title race imo.

[silhillvilla]

I think the most alarming thing was that if we're honest 8-0 flattered us.

Yes could easily have been 12-0 Possibly more

[hawkeye]

You can not go to Chelsea, switch off at the back and then give the ball away so casually in the first 20 minutes in the way that Holman and Bannan did. They played like some one had died and in the end they did. It was apppalling and added an extra point to survive.
Thi

[Dave Clark Five]

Record defeat: 0–8 (v. Chelsea, Premier League, 23 December 2012).
Record FA Cup defeat: 1–8 (v. Blackburn Rovers, 3rd round, 16 February 1889).[10]
Record League Cup defeat: 1–6 (v. West Bromwich Albion, 2nd round, 14 September 1966).[6]
Record European defeat: 4–1 (v. Royal Antwerp, 1st round UEFA Cup, 17 September 1975).[39]


Another been there, done that, to add to the record.