Rick Rant - Chelsea

A full house at the Atlantic bar & Grill for the second game of the season. It was great to see some old friends like Jon Hewak who was our former barman.

We were away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge where we have a terrible record for positive results.

The games against Chelsea are rapidly becoming like a dormant volcano that could erupt at anytime. This time is was the managers and coaching staff that kicked off into a shoving match multiple times.

Obviously I’m going to blame Tuchel and in reality it was mostly his fault. He complained bitterly about of first goal because of a perceived foul on Havertz by Romero. Romero won the ball cleanly so I have no idea what he was moaning about. He complained bitterly about the little girl Cucurella having her hair pulled and he might have had point. He let that go and the fact that Kulu was getting unfairly mugged every time he got the ball with no fouls called.

If you want to know how much of a scumbag Tuchel is, I’ll explain. When Chelsea scored their second goal he ran down the touchline passed Conte and spat in his direction while gloating. At full time he shook hands with Conte but wouldn’t let go causing Conte to react trying to get loose. Both managers were red carded but it was completely Tuchel’s fault.

It should also be noted that the referee had a terrible game. He gave every minor foul to Chelsea and favored us in some big calls. It truly is a talent to be so bad that you annoy both sets of fans at the same time.

We started the game brightly but after 10 minutes we were lethargic and slow. We didn’t close down well or win 50/50 tackles and playing out from the back was fraught with mistakes.

I honestly think we didn’t react well to the extreme heat conditions. We were ponderous and lacking intensity. Because of this Chelsea had tons of possession while we were getting tired chasing the ball.

It should be noted however that even though we didn’t play particularly well we still had more shots on target than them. We got away with a 2-2 draw which we didn’t deserve and things only improved in the second half after a change of formation.

I really am not a fan of playing 3 center backs. It leaves us short in midfield in games like today where we were completely overrun. We are also missing a central midfield leader who can retain possession in a press and make quality passes.

I’m not going to disparage any of our players (Emerson) because I think most of the team didn’t play particularly well. It’s still obvious we need another center back and a central midfielder and if possible a solution to the right wingback position.

All in all it was a good result against a hated enemy in very hot conditions.

It’s obvious our hated rivals know how good we can be and will resort to fouling and spoiling tactics to disrupt us. We have to be technically good enough to deal with their crap however.

So onto the next game on Saturday 20th at home to Wolves. The game kicks off at 6:30am so set your alarms early.

COYS

Rick

P.S. Tuchel better not try that crap in the return fixture.