Chelsea vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[RichardBatchelor]

If we were doing that, we'd be doing it in our way. The Man City way is utterly tedious, death by a thousand passes. All in front of bored senseless fans, yawning away amongst the empty seats in a soulless exhibition centre, brought occasionally to colour by the blinking lights of their digital advertising hording flags. Is it over? Have we won yet? Oh yes, he's Roll With It, we must have won. Again. Time for another quarter of a billion of left backs? Is it a Tuesday night? Let's boo the anthem of the competition. Have our owners hanged any of the LGBT community recently? Who knows, who cares, our manager wears pumps and a jumper!

I want us to win trophies. I want us to never look anything like that abomination.

That's just down to Guardiola and his tippy tappy tactics though. Liverpool have spent squillions as well, but I'd argue they're far less boring to watch, and at least their fans still feel like proper fans for the most part.

Liverpool are still good to watch. Fast and exciting. City are not. Everyone I know thinks they're dull. obviously they are also brilliant at what they do. Would I want Villa to win playing like that? One season, a couple of trophies, maybe, otherwise, no thanks.

[brontebilly]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Hause is rubbish in a 3...his inability to kick a ball really gets exposed....Mings is rubbish in the middle of a three too as he can't turn onto his right side and has plenty of experience with England on the left of a three. It was worth trying anyway against Chelsea. Lukaku is that good at the moment he can dominate any defender.

[Smithy]

I can't remember the last time I was this positive after a 3-0 defeat. Probably never. Yes, the goals were very sloppy, but we actually played pretty well, especially in the first half, against one of the best sides in the world who won the champions league last year and then added a £100m striker.  Swap Lukaku for Ings and it could have been 3-0 to us.

People have repeatedly pointed to the draw last year as being a better performance, or showing more fight - but last year we had less of the ball, had fewer shots, fewer shots on target, fewer corners - and Chelsea had more of the ball and more shots on target.  Goals are the only stat that really matter, obviously, but by every other metric, Saturday was a better performance than last year.

I also just saw the expected goals was 1.37 each.  Pretty rare that a team that wins by three goals doesn't also win on Xg.

If we play like that for the rest of the season we'll be absolutely fine.  We won't miss that many chances every week, and we won't give away many silly goals from individual errors like that either.

I expected us to lose, and we did, but I also saw a lot of positives so I'm going to focus on that :-)

[Chris Smith]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Because, as usual , people have to back the manager even when he gets it wrong.

Because, as usual, people can’t accept genuinely held differences of opinion.

[Sexual Ealing]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Because, as usual , people have to back the manager even when he gets it wrong.

Because, as usual, people can’t accept genuinely held differences of opinion.

Also, how the hell did the manager get it wrong? Put any manager in the world in charge of our squad up against that Chelsea team and their manager, and there's more chance than not that Chelsea win.

[Monty]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Because, as usual , people have to back the manager even when he gets it wrong.

Because, as usual, people can’t accept genuinely held differences of opinion.

Also, how the hell did the manager get it wrong? Put any manager in the world in charge of our squad up against that Chelsea team and their manager, and there's more chance than not that Chelsea win.

Well I suppose in theory he gets it wrong if he doesn't set us up to maximise our chances of winning, whoever we're up against. However on this occasion I think that would be very harsh to say - sometimes neutral eyes are useful, and virtually every journo I've read who was at the match thought we played really well, and that 3-0 enormously flattered them (though it didn't flatter Lukaku).

[TonyD]

Saturday didn’t go to plan so missed the game completely.   Just watched the highlights and reckon if you swapped the keepers around we might have taken the points.   

[Skerra]

I said last season that I hate to watch Citeh play. Bores me to death.
As for our performance v Chelsea, I had us down to lose but, our overall performance warranted at least a point. Hope we can keep playing in a similar fashion and it will come good for is. Have us down to win against Everton so don’t blame me if we don’t!!

[olaftab]

I don't post much, a reader more than a poster. Personally, i thought we did really well. A homer ref, against the current european champions who are as strong a side we will face this season, honestly did anyone expect a result? Plenty of positive signs. Plenty. We will do well. The 3 at the back thing surprised me with how well we took to it. Watkins and McGinn superb. New home grown hero incoming with Ramsey senior. . Strong bench with options  UTFV

Thanks JimmyV. Good post.

[LukeJames]

I can't remember the last time I was this positive after a 3-0 defeat.

I remember losing 3-0 at Middlesbrough and absolutely battering them, probably under Taylor II or O'Leary.

[eamonn]

Yeah, but then we dicked them the year after, Luke Moore hat-trick(?) and Kevin Phillips laughing in little Lee Cattermole's face and actually making him cry. Maybe that explains all the dirty play and yellow cards in his subsequent career (Cattermole), over-compensating innit.

[ChicagoLion]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Because, as usual , people have to back the manager even when he gets it wrong.

Because, as usual, people can’t accept genuinely held differences of opinion.

we lost 3 nil because of our defence.

[amfy]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Because, as usual , people have to back the manager even when he gets it wrong.

Because, as usual, people can’t accept genuinely held differences of opinion.

we lost 3 nil because of our defence.

We let in 3 because of our defence. We scored nil because of our attack.

[Drummond]

Thats why Mings should have marked Lukaku.

Totally agree. I really don't get it with Tuanzebe at all. We'd have been better with Mings in the middle and Hause left of him, if we did have to play 5-3-2.

Because, as usual , people have to back the manager even when he gets it wrong.

Because, as usual, people can’t accept genuinely held differences of opinion.

we lost 3 nil because of our defence.

We let in 3 because of our defence. We scored nil because of our attack.

And given that all the players have a responsibility for each, everyone's to blame. It's a team game.

[Flamingo Lane]

Not being funny, and I hope not stupid, but what's Xg?