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| Match Report: Chelsea 5-4 United |
Chelsea brought on Ramires in the beginning of the second half to replace Mikel and add more energy to the midfield. In the 51st minute, Chelsea won a corner that resulted in a goal. Juan Mata's delivery was met by Gary Cahill and despite Rafael's best attempts to clear it, the goal was correctly allowed to stand. 2-2 now Another change was made soon with Hazard coming on for Piazon. However, Chelsea conceded yet again when Nani ran around our non-existent defence and gave United the lead. In search of yet another equalizer, Chelsea went all out. Moses should have scored from a Hazard cross after the Belgian played a short corner with Mata, but the header went over. Minutes later Azpilicueta should have scored when the ball arrived at his head. He was unmarked, but the ball went over again. Di Matteo decided to go all out and brought on Oscar for Romeu. A flurry of chances were missed by and a Chelsea loss seemed imminent. However, Ramires won a penalty in stoppage time that was duly converted by Hazard. 3-3 now. Extra time.
First half (ET)
Chelsea started the first half positively, with Sturridge shooting twice but not managing to find a way past Lindergaard. However, he was not to be denied when a defensive error from Keane put him clean through on goal. He went around the keeper and calmly slotted the ball home. Chelsea had the lead for the first time in the match with the score at 4-3. Chelsea were now in control and dominating the game, but another goal was needed to seal the game. Sturridge won a free-kick that was taken by Luiz, but the Brazilian defender hit the crossbar with his effort. The first half ended Chelsea 4-3 United.
Second half
Chelsea were still looking for another goal and Sturridge nearly scored again but his shot went over. Moses had a chance to finish the game when he was one-on-one with Lindergaard but he couldn't convert. United were looking threatening at the other end, and a Ryan Giggs free-kick resulted in a corner. However, Hazard had a chance to break and he took it with both hands, eventually passing to Ramires who went around Lindergaard and scored. 5-3 now to Chelsea, and surely game over. However, that wasn't the case. United managed to win a last-minute penalty that Giggs duly converted. But there wasn't enough time for United to find an equalizer and Chelsea ran out 5-4 winners.
We drew Leeds United (away) in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup. This may be an understatement, but this game will be huge....
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I got two points after this win:
ReplyDelete1) Luiz is getting defensively erroneous due to his desire moving forward. Imagine that we play against very strong team like Barca, Real, or Bayern, how many goals we will concede due to his errors?
2) We need to utilize Moses more. His strength, dribble ability and defensive support will compensate for our fullbacks. One of Mata, Hazard, or Oscar can be dropped for him.
Another thing is where Marin is. He is already forgotten by RDM, isn't he?
We cant drop mata, oscar or hazard for moses. We better drop mikel and oscar to go back to central mid
DeleteYou can't drop Mikel for Oscar, that would be tactical suicide.
DeleteWhile I certainly appreciate the great job John Obi Mikel does for us in the pivot, I think a Ramires-Oscar double pivot could be really effective. I know that it looks very lightweight and overly offensive, not screening the defence, but there are advantages. Ramires and Oscar both have bucketloads of speed, stamina, skill and work-rate, and both can defend much better than they are given credit for for.
DeleteWith this pivot, which we saw for about 55 minutes against Man United, our counter-attack is devastatingly good, we can dominate possession and the transition from defence to attack is lightning fast. Man U weren't playing their strongest team, but there's no such thing as a weak United.
With the Mikel-Romeu pivot that started the game, we were continually being frustrated by the lack of spark from deep. There wasn't enough creativity and the midfield was sluggish at best with neither pivot player showing any adventure. At 1-1, having conceded due to Romeu dwelling on the ball too long, David Luiz identified the problem with our midfield and tried to solve them himself, but was caught out horribly when he lost possession and the pivot neither supported Luiz nor marked Anderson. 2-1. Clear problems.
But when Ramires and then Oscar came on for Mikel and Romeu, all those problems were solved without any intervention from the Geezer. We had creativity in spades, brilliant energy and weren't getting caught out at the back. In the 55 minutes of Ramires-Oscar, United were constantly being forced back, Chelsea were dominating the game and creating chance after chance after chance. 3 were put away, but we could have scored 8 in that time. Oscar's twists and turns out of danger were putting Oriol Romeu to shame. And United's only real chance in that time was the penalty needlessly given away by Azpi.
Total contrast to the Mikel-Romeu first half in which Fletcher, Giggs and Anderson completely overran Mikel and Romeu, and our only chances came from Moses, Sturridge and Mata hitting United on the counter.
A Ramires-Oscar pivot might flag up problems that we don't yet know about due to the very limited time that we've seen it in action. But I think this could well be Chelsea's best option.
Marin isnt risked beacuse of this injury problems ...he may be 100% fit but its better to wait till he's150% fit before thrfowing him in the action
ReplyDeleteour defense may not be well,but one good thing is that,now we are stronger than Man u.
ReplyDeleteI love Luiz(Geezer) but please tell the lad that he is no striker to run around with the ball. Overall too good for we have the "NEVER SAY DIE" spirit. KTBFFH!!! CTID! \m/>..<\m/
ReplyDeletewhat a sure way to shut dem mouth up.... oscar was thrilling .... ramires was superb, hazard was so toxic to touch i mean very good, mata controls d pace 4 surreal.... cecar is getting into shape ... moses shld be given more playing time.. to reawaken his spirit ... mak.t from nigeria
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call it revenge. Their centre backs aren't first team quality. We may march on and win the cup but we still didn't get the 3 points over the weekend that could be 3 points lost at the end of the season. In a realistic point of view,the Capital One Cup isn't important to the owner and the critizing media. Let's just hope Arsenal do us a favour this weekend.
ReplyDeleteSadly there is no chance of Arseanal doing us any sort of favour on Saturday. Howard Webb is the referee for that game. I really do feel genuinely sorry for Arseanal and Arsène Wenger, for once.
DeleteI'm hoping on collecting the three points at Old Traford. Last season, we were the better team there but lost. This time we win.
DeleteSweet victory for me considering the fact that we started without d trinity. This was Sturidge first start as a striker in Chelsea so there was some pressure anyway. Manu had their No1 keeper on the field as well as their No1 left and right back but they will deny since De Gea is starting to show why they bought him and Evra is back to being the best left back in the world. Fletcher, Anderson and Gigs ran the midfield and Hernandez, Welbeck and Nani can start for Manu and have all been genuine starters. We fielded players who have never convinced to start. Oscar and Harzard inclusive keeps the average age very low. I think injury forced Manu to field those players and I guess Fergusen has high hopes for them.
ReplyDeleteMate. I'm a Chelsea supporter and I'm definitely not biased when I say Cole is better than Evra. Evra is inconsistant and doesn't have that extra yard of pace Cole has. Don't get me wrong,Evra is up there as one of the best but not at Cole's level. One more thing. United always knew Chelsea would mainly play through the middle. Their full backs would never have been a defensive threat with our system unless if we went wide.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that all Man U fans felt they were cheated by the ref yesterday (albeit for correct PK decisions) was sweet enough revenge for me. The Chelsea fan that made monkey gestures at Wellbeck is a moron and doesn't love Chelsea
ReplyDeleteYes. He just added to the existing racism troubles Chelsea Football Club are dealing with already. When I read that this morning,my head fell with disgust and shame.
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