It’s the Derby day and it couldn’t have been anymore important than this. We are sitting on 6th position, tied up on points with Chelsea and whoever wins today at Stamford Bridge goes to third position behind Liverpool and City, with only 2 points difference to the latter. Liverpool are on a brilliant run but they will have their bad moments at some point, all we can do is play our best, accumulate as much points as possible and hope for the best.
Right, so what has happened which is favoring us? Man City lost to Brighton even after scoring first – that’s 3 very important points lost for them. Forest, which sits above us just lost to Newcastle. Aston Villa lost. And not that it’s important to talk about other small clubs but Tottenham just lost at home to Ipswich Town. All we have to do is win and we are back in the mix.
Line up is out. Odegaard is back and we have our strongest playing XI on the pitch against Chelsea. Timber and White on either side with Gabriel and Saliba in the center, a midfield of Partey, Rice and Odegaard with Martinelli, Havertz and Saka up top. That’s our best line up, may be Calafiori in place of White but there isn’t much drop in quality.
We will have to see whether Odegaard picks up his form after being side-lined with injury for couple of months now. We need him at his best though.
The only thing that’s wrong about today is Michael Oliver. After gifting City 9 extra minutes and a win against 10-men Arsenal, he has been rewarded to referee a London Derby which features Arsenal. Stay prepared to see some silly decisions.
Chelsea have improved massively under Maresca. Mikel, after our Champions League loss, said in the press conference that we can go and win at Stamford Bridge if we play the way we played against Inter Milan. I think it’s foolish to commit such statement against a rival for a Derby and when you are a visiting side. It just puts some un-needed pressure on the players, managers and everyone around the club. UNLESS you walk the talk.
Most importantly, we need to fix our basics and get back to the attacking football. That 10-men game against City has dented our confidence and we need to get out of it. We have failed to score against Inter, against Bournemouth and Newcastle and that’s not a good thing. Frankly, I love Marti but he should force his way to the middle and start contributing in terms of goals and assists. It’s not like he hasn’t got chances.
Right, a short one today. Game’s in 15 odd minutes and hopefully we paint the bridge red today. See you during the game.
Cheers
TRVL
We need them to pull a Fergie / Giggs and suddenly all be terribly injured for 10 days.
at least we’re looking to make some more direct passes on occasion
We look out of idea’s already. Full starting line up and it’s just cat and mouse.
what a weird period, it’s like both sides ran out of ideas
Tony—halfway around the world yet we’re still on the same page
Chess match TRVL who blinks first
maybe Rice has forgot how to play defence considering all his time further up the pitch
Rice needs to concentrate on his job and stop whining and moaning about something that happened 5 minutes ago.
We need our midfielders to on occasions run with the ball – we hardly ever seem to look to run with the ball from deep creating some space.
Frenetic first half by both teams so looks like I’ll have to stay up for this one.
On the first half basis it could go either way in the 2nd.
Ref is fishy. That was a legitimate push by Odegaard.
Their manager is a shade above El B. They could improve if Gusto is substituted because then Palmer might be utilised more.
Hoopah
The Chelsea manager is a different colour let alone shade above Arteta – he’s been in the job a couple of months and inherited a team that was a complete shambles.
finally some good numbers in the box, too bad White was a little late to get on the end of Mart’s cross
fortunate again…don’t know why we never have our defenders go hunting on occasion
Havertz is leaking again
what a moron
Some of our players really are thick as shit.
Who would anyone say we have on the bench who could change the game?
Ethan can pick a goal but I see no one except Jesus and Trossard who are hit and miss this season.
match is getting chippy…that could help us, as no team flops like ours nowadays
Rice’s dead ball skills have regressed