Chelsea vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[The Edge]

My favourite thing about Ollie's goal (and I haven't read this entire thread, so it might have been pointed out already), was that after the mis-control by Thiago Silva allowed Diaby to break away, Thiago Silva tried to make amends by tripping Diaby - clearly recognising the break was on and he was away.  Moussa hurdled the attempt (just) and kept going, when he could have gone down and earned Silva a yellow.  When the ball went in, you could see Silva's frustration - he knew he'd fucked up, both with the mis-control, and not taking out Diaby when he could.  Delicious.

I really love it when an attempt at a professional foul fails, and the attacking team properly capitalises.

I thought the attempt from Thiago was laughable. He's an old man in football and Moussa is one of if not the quickest, most agile forward in the League.

It's laughable they've spent all that money and they're still playing him and an untested kid up front.

Yes whoever is in charge of strategy at Chelsea  probably needs to have a sit down in a darkened room for a while.

I don't see any strategy in spunking £1bn up the wall and seeing what sticks.

That £1bn is going to cost them in FFP for the next five or six years.  If it turns out they've bought a load of old dross, and they can't get into the top four, they'll be buggered financially.

Clearly it's not working for them right now, but I think it's too early to say that billion has been "completely" wasted.  They've bought some good players, just massively overpaid for them.  But it would be lovely if a couple of them never found their feet at all, and just become £100m flops.

Chelsea thought they had pulled off a ffp masterstroke by putting players on 8 year contracts to spread out the outlay. The problem is if those players don't turn out to be as good as you thought you have big problems getting rid of them when they can just sit back and keep the money rolling in for 8 years. They could well find themselves up the creek without a paddle. Although Citeh have spent similar amounts of blood money they seem more capable of finding actual talent.

[Dave]

....I'd like to make a comment on the game-----------Caicedo £115,000,000?

https://x.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1706236095766409506?s=20

See above, absolutely embarassing their midfield.

Such a good video... just two wonderful players, we're so lucky to have them. Outside of City and maybe Liverpool, the best midfield in the league in my mind. Which is crazy to say considering some of the dross we've seen over the last 10 years.

That bit at about 1min 30. Just glorious.

[LeeB]

....I'd like to make a comment on the game-----------Caicedo £115,000,000?

https://x.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1706236095766409506?s=20

See above, absolutely embarassing their midfield.

Such a good video... just two wonderful players, we're so lucky to have them. Outside of City and maybe Liverpool, the best midfield in the league in my mind. Which is crazy to say considering some of the dross we've seen over the last 10 years.

That bit at about 1min 30. Just glorious.

It's like when the kids were toddlers and I'd have them try and get the ball off me.

[pablo_picasso]

The last time we played Chelsea I watched the game in a bar here in Spain with my son in law . A couple of young Chelsea supporters  bowled up and the gobby one spent most of the game moaning about Potter and how he needed to go. At one point when it was obvious we were giving them a lesson he turned to us and said " I know you guys are Villa supporters but you got to admit there is no way Villa should be able to beat Chelsea."
I do hope the entitled little prick isn't  too upset this weekend dealing with his new reality.

Summing up the self entitled arrogance of every modern day happy clapper day tripping glory hunting fuckwit fans on the planet in one sentence...

[Hookeysmith]

I see the cull has begin at Chelsea

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12557527/Chelsea-team-coach-Bruno-Saltor-secretly-leaves-club-working-Mauricio-Pochettino-just-four-months-following-Blues-disappointing-start-season.html

Few more games and Poch the chancer will be gone also

[London Villan]

The last time we played Chelsea I watched the game in a bar here in Spain with my son in law . A couple of young Chelsea supporters  bowled up and the gobby one spent most of the game moaning about Potter and how he needed to go. At one point when it was obvious we were giving them a lesson he turned to us and said " I know you guys are Villa supporters but you got to admit there is no way Villa should be able to beat Chelsea."
I do hope the entitled little prick isn't  too upset this weekend dealing with his new reality.

Was his name Steven?

[AV84]

Thought it funny when Watkins scored he went right to the Chelsea fans and stuck his fingers in his ears. McGinn came over behind him and led him away, gently directing him towards the Villa fans on the other side.

[Gareth]

They have a lot of injuries and a good manager.  I still fear they will be comfortably in the mix for top 6 at the end of the season.

But they have an FFP time bomb and I very much hope it blows up.

Think a lot depends on Nkunku getting fit and then hitting the ground running…if that happens they’ll be ok, if not they are looking at another shopping spree for a centre forward come January.

[AV84]

13 games in 2023 they've failed to score in. That's a very poor record for any team.

[lovejoy]

It was a pretty enjoyable lunchtime job in my Villa training top today - for some reason I decided on the west London loop.

[paul_e]

They have a lot of injuries and a good manager.  I still fear they will be comfortably in the mix for top 6 at the end of the season.

But they have an FFP time bomb and I very much hope it blows up.

They have got good players but, for me, their approach feels a bit Bruce-like in that they focused on signing players they liked rather than players they needed and now the squad is a bit unbalanced and less thna the sum of its parts. Maybe they fix that over the season as the squad gels or maybe they spend another fortune in January and finally get it right but either way I think they look a long way from the top 6 right now.

[LeeB]

I also think they've been that bad for that long it's not something a couple of wins is going to fix.

[clash city rocker]

For too many years we have just turned up there with hope. The last twice we have turned up with a plan. Long may it continue.

[olaftab]

Olaftab, we simply have not won more often than we have won to date.

I obviously make school boy errors more often than I don't

[chrisw1]

They have a lot of injuries and a good manager.  I still fear they will be comfortably in the mix for top 6 at the end of the season.

But they have an FFP time bomb and I very much hope it blows up.

They have got good players but, for me, their approach feels a bit Bruce-like in that they focused on signing players they liked rather than players they needed and now the squad is a bit unbalanced and less thna the sum of its parts. Maybe they fix that over the season as the squad gels or maybe they spend another fortune in January and finally get it right but either way I think they look a long way from the top 6 right now.

I do agree, but I feel even with their scattergun approach they have a lot of quality once they get players back from injury and I think Poch has the experience to get them firing.