Chelsea v Reading 22nd August K/O 7:45pm Online

pandaboy

titan18

Gbear wrote: »

I would've thought it would be fairly easy to use computers to tell if people are offside or not.

It's ludicrous to expect a person to be able to get off-side decisions correct. That they get as many as they do is incredible in itself.


Maybe add a bit of reflective plastic to to kits or something that can be detected by a computer connected to the myriad cameras at football matches.


I know FIFA's bottom line is terribly important to them and actually trying to make the sport better might eat into that a little but surely for the sake of the sport they could put in a little effort?

Tbh, if an official whose job is to get those decisions correct, can't tell that Torres was offside for that goal, he should not have that job. That's just useless

cgpg5

Federici is a clown alright. Was very poor last season think they could do with strengthening in that department surely someone on loan from bigger club anyway?

Hope Reading stay up though!

hullaballoo

Three major mistakes from Federici really helped there but Chelsea hammered the Reading defence for the last half hour of that game.

Hazard was brilliant tonight and Sunday, looks like a super signing.

BKC

cgpg5 wrote: »

Federici is a clown alright. Was very poor last season think they could do with strengthening in that department surely someone on loan from bigger club anyway?

Hope Reading stay up though!

They've just signed Stuart Taylor from Man City. He'll surely be starting at the weekend.

BetterCallSaul

Hardly a surprise that Hazard is quality.

Not many players get to choose between City, United and Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Torres is still useless.

HalloweenJack

Very happy with the result. Performance wasn't great but it's early days yet. Second half was excellent.

We're looking a bit shaky in defence and Cahill didn't look to be at his best. Although he made a howler, Cech did look a bit more comfortable towards the end. We were nervy in the final stages but still think we coped well enough with what came our way, like the time where Kanu (?) nearly broke through but Cahill took it off the tip of his foot and toed it back to Cech, who cleared.

Really impressed with Hazard, he looks immense, hard to believe it's only his second game, easily MOTM for me. Knowing what I did of his personality, I was really impressed to see him square it to Ivanovic, though he'd be the type to try dance round the defender and roll it in himself.

Mata, Torres and Sturridge impressed me today. Didn't get to see enough of Oscar, though. Mata wasn't at his best but still did well. Sturridge did seem to get his head up more often than usual and pulled off a few more passes. And that volley pass to Hazard was brilliant. Torres still looks low on confidence, even his finish was dodgy but it will be good to get a goal. He did do so good hold-up play, I thought. At one point, he did really well to win a 50-50 header.

Torres goal was offside but nothing we can do about that. At least the fourth goal might restrain the whinging somewhat.

Happy with the result and encouraged that we came through what turned out to be a tough game. Glad we handled that situation and got it out of the way before the trip to Newcastle. I think this game will be better preparation for that one than if we had won comfortably.

cgpg5

BetterCallSaul wrote: »

Hardly a surprise that Hazard is quality.

Not many players get to choose between City, United and Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Torres is still useless.

Can take players a while to adapt though!

Yes Chelsea are lucky they've ten days left in the window to bolster attack!

Luckycharms_74

Chelsea 6 goals
Hazard 5 assists
He is gonna be a some signing

BetterCallSaul

cgpg5 wrote: »

Can take players a while to adapt though!

Yes Chelsea are lucky they've ten days left in the window to bolster attack!

If you're already an established top quality player there's no reason you shouldn't hit the ground running. Refer to my earlier ranting about this in the transfer thread :pac:

cgpg5

Haven't seen as bad a start to a season for a keeper since Colin Doyle a couple of years ago. Screw it Doyle wasn't even that bad!!!

BetterCallSaul

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Glad we handled that situation and got it out of the way before the trip to Newcastle.

Newcastle game is at SB.

Gbear

titan18 wrote: »

Tbh, if an official whose job is to get those decisions correct, can't tell that Torres was offside for that goal, he should not have that job. That's just useless

You could say the same about goal-line mistakes, or at least a lot of them.

The bizarre thing is that I would think that far more goals are incorrectly given or not given because of off-sides than because of dodgy goal-line decisions but it's just shrugged off as "one of those things".

niallo27

Let's see how Hazard does against one of the big teams before we start the love in, he has played against two very poor defenses so far.

CSF

niallo27 wrote: »

Let's see how Hazard does against one of the big teams before we start the love in, he has played against two very poor defenses so far.

If he continually ramsacks the weaker teams in this manner, and doesn't really perform in the big games, that'll be still be fine for a first season

homer simpson

niallo27 wrote: »

Let's see how Hazard does against one of the big teams before we start the love in, he has played against two very poor defenses so far.

So are you saying he is a bad player? you come out with some clinkers

HalloweenJack

smokedeels wrote: »

Why did the Reading keeper come up, goal difference can decide who gets relegated, foolish thing to do in the second game of the season.

Final minute, last attack for them, he's scored a goal before in that situation and, at the end of the day, an extra point is more valuable than an extra -1 in GD.

niallo27

homer simpson wrote: »

So are you saying he is a bad player? you come out with some clinkers

How the hell did you get that from what I said, I said lets wait and see him for a few weeks before we overhype the **** out of him, he does look like a different class so far.

cgpg5

My own opinion is that when keepers come up like that they can be over eager to get to the ball and can tend to get in the way too much.

He paid the price anyway and looked a fool tbh. Summed up his night. All goals conceded add up and when you see how tight relegation has been in recent years...

titan18

Gbear wrote: »

You could say the same about goal-line mistakes, or at least a lot of them.

The bizarre thing is that I would think that far more goals are incorrectly given or not given because of off-sides than because of dodgy goal-line decisions but it's just shrugged off as "one of those things".

Tbh, that decision was as bad as the Mendes goal against Carroll. I don't actually see how the linesman can not see that's offside if he's doing his job properly

BetterCallSaul

niallo27 wrote: »

How the hell did you get that from what I said, I said lets wait and see him for a few weeks before we overhype the **** out of him, he does look like a different class so far.

He was player of the year last year in France, I think it's safe to assume that he's going to tear up the league. Cheick Tiote will sort em out on Saturday though :pac:

homer simpson

niallo27 wrote: »

How the hell did you get that from what I said, I said lets wait and see him for a few weeks before we overhype the **** out of him, he does look like a different class so far.

It was a question not a statement. I was thinking from the negative post that you weren't overly keen on his performance's, then thought you can't think that so asked the question.

I don't think anyone is overhyping him either TBH, he has played 2 cracking games, his first 2 proper games for the team, and he is getting the deserved credit for it, can't see anything wrong with that.

adamski8

BKC wrote: »

Probably going to be his last time starting for Reading! I'd say he wanted to score and make up for his first mistake...

doubtful, anyway i think it should be a rule that once past the 90th min all keepers have to go into the opposition peno area when their team gets a corner, its great drama!

donfers

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Very happy with the result. Performance wasn't great but it's early days yet. Second half was excellent.

We're looking a bit shaky in defence and Cahill didn't look to be at his best. Although he made a howler, Cech did look a bit more comfortable towards the end. We were nervy in the final stages but still think we coped well enough with what came our way, like the time where Kanu (?) nearly broke through but Cahill took it off the tip of his foot and toed it back to Cech, who cleared.

Really impressed with Hazard, he looks immense, hard to believe it's only his second game, easily MOTM for me. Knowing what I did of his personality, I was really impressed to see him square it to Ivanovic, though he'd be the type to try dance round the defender and roll it in himself.

Mata, Torres and Sturridge impressed me today. Didn't get to see enough of Oscar, though. Mata wasn't at his best but still did well. Sturridge did seem to get his head up more often than usual and pulled off a few more passes. And that volley pass to Hazard was brilliant. Torres still looks low on confidence, even his finish was dodgy but it will be good to get a goal. He did do so good hold-up play, I thought. At one point, he did really well to win a 50-50 header.

Torres goal was offside but nothing we can do about that. At least the fourth goal might restrain the whinging somewhat.

Happy with the result and encouraged that we came through what turned out to be a tough game. Glad we handled that situation and got it out of the way before the trip to Newcastle. I think this game will be better preparation for that one than if we had won comfortably.

I'm sorry but the two bolded statements lead me to believe you don't have a clue

mata, sturridge and torres were all poor, to say they did well is incredibly one-eyed

and then to say the fourth goal will stop people whinging about the third is just mindless - do you think Reading would have thrown their keeper up for a corner if it was 2-2?

fact is Chelsea were gifted all four goals, a silly penalty, a goalkeeping error, a mindbogglingly bad offside non-decision and then a keeper gone awol

they looked ponderous and have zero width to their play - they already look heavily dependent on hazard and their defense, a traditional strength looks vulnerable against pace


oh and a special word for the linesman, one of the worst decisions i have seen, no players blocking his view, torres on his side of the pitch and clearly beyond the straight line of Reading defenders and he still doesn't manage to raise the flag

i don't buy into the whole cheating, corrupt thing but he would want to be the most cross-eyed incompetent official around or you'd be tempted to believe Roman had thrown him a bung full of roubles with some complimentary vouchers to get two Russian escorts for the price of one

feel sorry for Reading, they deserved something from the game

but Chelsea rode their luck as they did to win the CL - it can't continue forever, if it does they are certainties for the Premier League

homer simpson

donfers wrote: »

....i don't buy into the whole cheating, corrupt thing but he would want to be the most cross-eyed incompetent official around or you'd be tempted to believe Roman had thrown him a bung full of roubles with some complimentary vouchers to get two Russian escorts for the price of one...

So you don't buy into the cheating but you'd be tempted to believe Roman bought the game via the linesman...

Sheesh make up your mind :pac:

BKC

adamski8 wrote: »

doubtful, anyway i think it should be a rule that once past the 90th min all keepers have to go into the opposition peno area when their team gets a corner, its great drama!

I know if I was Reading manager I certainly wouldn't be too keen on having him as number one. I'd definitely be giving Taylor a start at the weekend anyway.

donfers

homer simpson wrote: »

So you don't buy into the cheating but you'd be tempted to believe Roman bought the game via the linesman...

Sheesh make up your mind :pac:

i wasn't being serious during that part my friend - i take the contrary view that the linesman is just completely useless at his job

however idiots like that create more and more conspiracy nuts

if we had video technology we could be done with all this bs in a stroke

smokedeels

BKC wrote: »

Probably going to be his last time starting for Reading! I'd say he wanted to score and make up for his first mistake...

The manager would have had to give him a nod to go up.

I appreciated people saying that it was the last minute and a point away to Chelsea would be great for Reading, but imo, with a squad as weak as theirs, they should be more realistic and feel happy that they haven't been stuffed when playing one of the top 5.

BetterCallSaul

smokedeels wrote: »

The manager would have had to give him a nod to go up.

I appreciated people saying that it was the last minute and a point away to Chelsea would be great for Reading, but imo, with a squad as weak as theirs, they should be more realistic and feel happy that they haven't been stuffed when playing one of the top 6.

FYP.

smokedeels

BetterCallSaul wrote: »

FYP.

Cheers, I keep losing track of line between the "big boys" and the rest.

BKC

smokedeels wrote: »

The manager would have had to give him a nod to go up.

Oh yeah, I've no problem with that. It was just funny how it turned out.

He was at fault for crucial goals in both of Reading's two matches so far though.

Aidric

homer simpson wrote: »

I don't think anyone is overhyping him either TBH, he has played 2 cracking games, his first 2 proper games for the team, and he is getting the deserved credit for it, can't see anything wrong with that.

Against Wigan and Reading..two likely relegation candidates.

MUSEIST

donfers wrote: »

I'm sorry but the two bolded statements lead me to believe you don't have a clue

mata, sturridge and torres were all poor, to say they did well is incredibly one-eyed

and then to say the fourth goal will stop people whinging about the third is just mindless - do you think Reading would have thrown their keeper up for a corner if it was 2-2?

fact is Chelsea were gifted all four goals, a silly penalty, a goalkeeping error, a mindbogglingly bad offside non-decision and then a keeper gone awol

they looked ponderous and have zero width to their play - they already look heavily dependent on hazard and their defense, a traditional strength looks vulnerable against pace


oh and a special word for the linesman, one of the worst decisions i have seen, no players blocking his view, torres on his side of the pitch and clearly beyond the straight line of Reading defenders and he still doesn't manage to raise the flag

i don't buy into the whole cheating, corrupt thing but he would want to be the most cross-eyed incompetent official around or you'd be tempted to believe Roman had thrown him a bung full of roubles with some complimentary vouchers to get two Russian escorts for the price of one

feel sorry for Reading, they deserved something from the game

but Chelsea rode their luck as they did to win the CL - it can't continue forever, if it does they are certainties for the Premier League

What about the penalty on torres against wigan (one of the simplest decisions a ref could make) that was not given. Were we not unlucky there or are we just ignoring that for the sake of a flawed and bitter argument.

cgpg5

BKC wrote: »

Oh yeah, I've no problem with that. It was just funny how it turned out.

He was at fault for crucial goals in both of Reading's two matches so far though.

Exactly. I know you said they have acquired a keeper from City but surely they'd be able to attract a host of keepers for example from teams gone down/ championship sides/ reserves in bigger PL sides. A solid keeper could be the difference in staying up!

Crackle

donfers wrote: »

I'm sorry but the two bolded statements lead me to believe you don't have a clue

mata, sturridge and torres were all poor, to say they did well is incredibly one-eyed

I think that's a bit harsh. Torres, fair enough, didn't do much up to the goal. But "did well" is an adequate phrase for Mata & Sturridge's performances, in my opinion anyway.

oh and a special word for the linesman, one of the worst decisions i have seen, no players blocking his view, torres on his side of the pitch and clearly beyond the straight line of Reading defenders and he still doesn't manage to raise the flag

While offside is offside, you're over-reacting a bit to the decision. It's not like he was several yards off. Maybe he thought Torres was level with Cole, who knows?

Reading were unlucky not to get something from the game, not just because of the decision but their performance in general was good.

From a Chelsea perspective, there are positives and negatives. Hazard is off to a flyer (hope he sustains it), Torres got the first goal of the season thing out of the way. Negatives would be mainly defensive problems. And I'm really hoping Cech doesn't make mistakes like that a habit this season.

smokedeels

cgpg5 wrote: »

Exactly. I know you said they have acquired a keeper from City but surely they'd be able to attract a host of keepers for example from teams gone down/ championship sides/ reserves in bigger PL sides. A solid keeper could be the difference in staying up!

Good point, look at Wigan, Al Habsi is a massive reason why they are still in the PL.

BetterCallSaul

Ya, Michel Vorm last season for Swansea saved them a lot of points as well. Southampton and Reading could both do with new keepers.

cgpg5

BetterCallSaul wrote: »

Ya, Michel Vorm last season for Swansea saved them a lot of points as well. Southampton and Reading could both do with new keepers.

Especially when you factor in how important GD can be!

Duck Soup

Hazard's looking like signing of the season already. Still not convinced they've figured out how to get the best out of Torres - too many balls sprayed out wide by Lampard and then floated high into the box for a header, plus too often Torres receives the ball static with his back to goal. If they're going to build a team around him, they need more balls on the floor anticipating Torres' runs off the shoulders of defenders.

Not convinced about the defence to put it mildly. Too often tonight balls got lumped out by JT and Cahill to get picked up by Reading. What happened to playing your way out of defence? Oscar was trying too hard; needs to settle down and play those simple and smart early balls that he does so well.

Thought Torres did well with the service he had. Mata getting back to his best. But it's still a long way from tiki taka and fluid football. Not sure how Lampard fits into that plan.

Sgt Pepper 64

Duck Soup wrote: »

Hazard's looking like signing of the season already. Still not convinced they've figured out how to get the best out of Torres - too many balls sprayed out wide by Lampard and then floated high into the box for a header, plus too often Torres receives the ball static with his back to goal. If they're going to build a team around him, they need more balls on the floor anticipating Torres' runs off the shoulders of defenders.

Not convinced about the defence to put it mildly. Too often tonight balls got lumped out by JT and Cahill to get picked up by Reading. What happened to playing your way out of defence? Oscar was trying too hard; needs to settle down and play those simple and smart early balls that he does so well.

Thought Torres did well with the service he had. Mata getting back to his best. But it's still a long way from tiki taka and fluid football. Not sure how Lampard fits into that plan.

Chelsea have a very lop sided squad.
Only 2 recognised strikers? For a title chasing team?
RDM has spoken about the need for width yet we had 3 No10's on the pitch
Hazard always wants to cut inside, Mata was better on the left. Then we had Ramires a box to box midfielder, who RDM insists on playing on the right wing.
Although our players are versatile, still too many square pegs in round holes.
We have 2 genuine left wingers, one is injured and the other sent out on loan where he is currently doing well creating assists

Mata is knackered. RDM knows this and has said so and Mata will get a rest in September

If chelsea can sign the hulk and cesar, that will sort out our right side in the main
Our midfield of Lamps and Mikel is slow and ponderous and doesn have the intelligence of Barcas equally slow midfield.
Our defence cant cope with pace, that mutch is obvious. Luiz is our quickest defender and he was injured.

Theres still time left but even chelsea can or wont fix all the problems and will just attempt the right back and the striker and or striker\right attacker.
That will help. We really need someone amongst all those No10's to hold onto the ball, the way Drogba used to.
That isnt Cavani or Moses, or even Hulk

But we are getting away with it and it will take time to figure it all out

Still, top of the league to ya!

GavRedKing

Reading were unlucky not to get something and a 2-2 draw is something I wouldnt have begrudged them after seeing the extended highlights.

Agreed on Mata looking knackered, as soon as Oscar is up to speed and Marin is fit he can be rested for a few games and only played against the top clubs.

Happy with 3 points but we're still a bit behind City IMHO if we want to challenge them for the league.

Its only 2 games in and all but hopefully finish comfortably inside the top 4 and I'll be happy.

Delighted so far with Hazard but thats hardly surprising, very good footballer that guy is but every now and again hes bound to have an off day.

I wouldnt worry about width, as I've said before there is no point us using wingers when both strikers arent the best in the air, its not like we have Drogba upfront to fling crosses into.

Ivanovic chipping in with goals is always good, happy to see Lamps is on for another double figure for goals in the league.

Lot to build on and even more to do, should be an exciting season.

maximoose

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

Hazard 5 assists

Just on Hazard, someone asked me this morning and I wasn't actually sure.. does winning the penalty officially count as an assist if it is scored? I always thought yes but he's thrown some doubt in my head

GavRedKing

maximoose wrote: »

Just on Hazard, someone asked me this morning and I wasn't actually sure.. does winning the penalty officially count as an assist if it is scored?

If its given in Fantasy Football and it has, then it counts as an assist for me. :pac:

Not sure if the Official EPL stats agree with this though.

A case can me made that you directly assisted the scoring of the penalty by winning it but I'm not 100% if it counts towards the official stats.

titan18

Was the last goal offside aswell? Only one defender back and the ball goes forward.

MUSEIST

titan18 wrote: »

Was the last goal offside aswell? Only one defender back and the ball goes forward.

eh, no:o

GavRedKing

titan18 wrote: »

Was the last goal offside aswell? Only one defender back and the ball goes forward.

Dont think so because Ivanovic comes from behind the player with the ball and once hes behind the ball thats all that matters, if he was ahead of the ball and the ball was played to him he'd be offside then.

Could be wrong though.

titan18

GavRedKing wrote: »

Dont think so because Ivanovic comes from behind the player with the ball and once hes behind the ball thats all that matters, if he was ahead of the ball and the ball was played to him he'd be offside then.

Could be wrong though.

Ah, just looked again, and he's just behind Hazard as the ball is played

GavRedKing

titan18 wrote: »

Ah, just looked again, and he's just behind Hazard as the ball is played

Cleared up so.

MaroonAndGreen

People are saying its worrying for Chelsea that they conceded twice against Reading.

Well look at it this way, Pogrebynak's goal was a worldy to be fair, pure top class from Reading.
And Guthrie's goal was from a rare rare Petr Cech error that probably wont happen again for the rest of the season.

Reading had less than five shots all game, we defended alright I think!

SlipperyPeople

^ agreed.

in other news can people never say the word "worldy" ever again?