Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2016 - Mod Note in OP, 13/9

yabadabado

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

Were they all Van Gaal signings? bar Rooney obviously

Yup

yabadabado

stankratz wrote: »

Just so I'm clear, are there some proposing that Jose should be able to buy a starting 11 of his own before we can expect him to be successful at the club?

I'm not and doubt many believe that.

gosplan

Utd have lost something since Fergie, not sure exactly what, the will to win or something like that.

I really think that the focus needs to be on young hungry players.

Utd has to be the chance they've wanted all their lives to take.

Herrera, Shaw, Martial, Bailly, all good.

Schweinstwiger, ADM, Falcao, Zlatan not so good.

I'm not sure how it will work out under Jose, it seems not to be going quite right and usually he hits the ground running with new teams. However it's early days and it's all very new to everyone so it's way to early to judge.

Jose should full ok be able to buy a starting 11 and be given time but as long as he's not filling the club with stopgaps like Zlatan. It just kicks the problem down the road for a year.

deaddonkey15

adox wrote: »

Falcao,while an exciting signing at the time turned out to be an awful signing and certainly wouldn't be good enough for a top 4 club IMO. Schneiderlin hasn't impressed me at all since the day he signed and I wa delighted when we signed him. Jose doesn't seem to fancy him and I reckon he will be out the door.

Blind, although a good player, would be borderline for me and a no no if played at CB consistently. The rest I would agree with.

At the time they were all good signings, and some still are. Just because some turned out to be awful like Di Maria and Falcao, doesn't mean that they weren't good signings at the time or signed behind the managers back. There's definitely a place for Blind as DM/back up left back/emergency centre half in a top 4 squad, if not the first team.

The problem is we just don't have an effective style of play. As pointed out before, the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool all play a quick high press game with plenty of interchanging amongst their players. United just pass the ball out wide, hope Rashford or Martial can make some room for a decent cross, or get an overlap from the full backs, that will hopefully create a chance for Ibrahimovich. It's so painfully predictable. When I watch the likes of City or Arsenal play I'm expecting chances as any of their attacking players are capable of creating a chance out of nowhere for any of their other attacking players. There seems to be so many possibilities when those teams go forward. It all seems so rigid and slow and limited when I watch United in comparison.

StringerBell

stankratz wrote: »

Just so I'm clear, are there some proposing that Jose should be able to buy a starting 11 of his own before we can expect him to be successful at the club?

Don't think so. It certainly helps having every player be 100% one you choose and brought to the club I am sure, but he has never needed that before so not sure why he would require it now.

Though, I don't think you can say whether a manager is successful or not at the beginning of November.

TheDoc

At this point unless an absolute calamity ensues for the rest of the season, I need to accept Mourinho likely won't get most of these players ticking and will need the chequebook to get it right. And that is fine, it's what he does.

I do believe we have a squad performing absolutely shockingly below the sum of its parts and he's partially responsible for that. But we cannot keep sacking managers.

What I will say though, is the team look absolutely cluesless and void of ideas. He really needs to start showing SOMETHING constituting a plan or a shape, something. I can see why there is such a narrative this week about Mourinho being an outdated, time gone by manager. It's actually hard to defend, since I've no idea what he is doing and wants from this team.

Feels like we keep getting the right managers at the wrong time. Mourinho looks absolutely devoid of belief after that Chelsea escapade.

It's really difficult to fathom what is going if I'm honest.

Like Fergie is sitting around in the stands most weekends. Maybe we need to invite him down to training to outline to this squad how you play football in the final third?

adox

deaddonkey15 wrote: »

At the time they were all good signings, and some still are. Just because some turned out to be awful like Di Maria and Falcao, doesn't mean that they weren't good signings at the time or signed behind the managers back. There's definitely a place for Blind as DM/back up left back/emergency centre half in a top 4 squad, if not the first team.

I don't disagree and didn't intimate that they were bad signings at the time. In fact I even mentioned that I was excited when both Falcao and Morgan signed.

deaddonkey15

adox wrote: »

I don't disagree and didn't intimate that they were bad signings at the time. In fact I even mentioned that I was excited when both Falcao and Morgan signed.

Not saying you did, but a few posters have been suggesting that we've been wasting money recently. We've bought some very good players, we just need a system that gets the best out of them.

ericzeking

stankratz wrote: »

Just so I'm clear, are there some proposing that Jose should be able to buy a starting 11 of his own before we can expect him to be successful at the club?

I dread the notion of Mourinho being cut loose gutting the squad... we have a very good squad laden with young talent needing direction. Mourinho will replace them with short term functional players to implement his template.

More Zlatan... less Martial.

bangkok

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Yeah but I'm not sure the manager is signing the players e.g. Don't think Moyes wanted Mata, also lvg didn't want Shaw, Herrara Sneiderlin Falcao or Di Maria imo.

Mikey T? Certainly not a Mourinho player.

You trying to blame Woodward? Lol

bangkok

Lord TSC wrote: »

City just had a six match run without a win, Arsenal are Arsenal, not worried about Chelsea. Pool look very good. I'd also add Spurs. I put "easier" in quotations though because its still going to be very, very hard, but I'd still bet it would be easier to achieve than putting our eggs into the basket of a knockout tournament when we don't have the consistancy to go on a massive cup run against some of the best teams in Europe, especially at the latter stages...

I just didn't include Spurs as I think they will finish 5th. City are miles ahead of us. While on their winless run they were still top of the league and now also gundogan is 100%fit and he is a world class midfielder.

Chelsea hammered us 4-0, recently, have no European football and hazard and Costa are back to their best.

Hococop

Seems the right time

RoboKlopp

RoboKlopp wrote: »

He's not a good fit for your club.

I keep reading this and tbh I struggle to understand the logic behind it.

How is Man Utd some kind of magical club that Jose is destined not to succed at?

magnumbud

The commentators on the channel i was watching made the point that jose claimed the early goal against chelsea threw the gameplan out the window but they believed it must have been a pretty poor game plan if it was useless after a minute.

We need to give a manager time to build something but i really don't think thats jose. Sure if given time he may win a league but it would likely only be short term success and once its all gone to **** we'll be right back here sitting in 8th and struggling in a europa league group likely with rashford and martial pushed out of the team for efficent but not flashy players as it stands both are being played out of position.

DM_7

ericzeking wrote: »

I dread the notion of Mourinho being cut loose gutting the squad... we have a very good squad laden with young talent needing direction. Mourinho will replace them with short term functional players to implement his template.

More Zlatan... less Martial.

Bailly and Pogba were long term signings. The four players brought in this summer made a lot of sense and variety in where they are in their career.

Keep that up and it should help players like Martial.

sReq | uTeK

TheDoc wrote: »

At this point unless an absolute calamity ensues for the rest of the season, I need to accept Mourinho likely won't get most of these players ticking and will need the chequebook to get it right. And that is fine, it's what he does.

I do believe we have a squad performing absolutely shockingly below the sum of its parts and he's partially responsible for that. But we cannot keep sacking managers.

What I will say though, is the team look absolutely cluesless and void of ideas. He really needs to start showing SOMETHING constituting a plan or a shape, something. I can see why there is such a narrative this week about Mourinho being an outdated, time gone by manager. It's actually hard to defend, since I've no idea what he is doing and wants from this team.

Feels like we keep getting the right managers at the wrong time. Mourinho looks absolutely devoid of belief after that Chelsea escapade.

It's really difficult to fathom what is going if I'm honest.

Like Fergie is sitting around in the stands most weekends. Maybe we need to invite him down to training to outline to this squad how you play football in the final third?

The same out dated manager who won the league TWO seasons ago...Christ I'd hate to think what wenger should be labelled on that basis.

As for not performing..are we talking about this game or the season as a whole. Because if it's the latter we've improved and our attacking play has come on leaps and bounds.

We were poor tonight but it's hard with 10 players behind he ball. It was a good performance from fenerbache.
Again I'm not to bothered with the result as long as Saturday is a win that's all I care about

allthedoyles

I remember Jose saying before he got the Man U job that one of his best qualities was reading a game and making the appropriate changes to win.

Personally I think his reading of games has been a bit off the mark .

fuzzydunlop85

Swansea away this weekend with a 2 day turnaround, no Pogba (I'm assuming?), no Herrera and Rojo/Blind at cb. Hard to see us getting a result there. We will certainly concede and can't see us scoring twice away from home. Very depressing typing that, especially when 3 of our main rivals scored 4 away from home last weekend. Would love to see a front 4 of Mata, Mhki , Martial with Rashford up front, very unlikely though.

Mantis Toboggan

bangkok wrote: »

You trying to blame Woodward? Lol

Nah but there's something seriously wrong behind the scenes. LVG certainly didn't want Herrara, don't even think he knew who he was. I'd be looking into our scouting system and their influence over transfers. 500 Million spent in 4 years with very few players being a success. Somethings rotten.

Demosthenese

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Nah but there's something seriously wrong behind the scenes. LVG certainly didn't want Herrara, don't even think he knew who he was. I'd be looking into our scouting system and their influence over transfers. 500 Million spent in 4 years with very few players being a success. Somethings rotten.

A worldclass coach that cannot get the best out of 500mill is whats rotten. Very worrying. When a team like Fenerbache show more desire and will to win than you ... people will always question the coach - and rightly so.

bucketybuck

fuzzydunlop85 wrote: »

Swansea away this weekend with a 2 day turnaround, no Pogba (I'm assuming?), no Herrera and Rojo/Blind at cb. Hard to see us getting a result there. We will certainly concede and can't see us scoring twice away from home. Very depressing typing that, especially when 3 of our main rivals scored 4 away from home last weekend. Would love to see a front 4 of Mata, Mhki , Martial with Rashford up front, very unlikely though.

I can see us putting 4 past them. Thats where we are right now, very inconsistent and equally likely to play very well or utter crap.

Lord TSC

Demosthenese wrote: »

A worldclass coach that cannot get the best out of 500mill is whats rotten. Very worrying. When a team like Fenerbache show more desire and will to win than you ... people will always question the coach - and rightly so.

I swear, the figure is ever increasing.....

Adamocovic

fuzzydunlop85 wrote: »

Swansea away this weekend with a 2 day turnaround, no Pogba (I'm assuming?), no Herrera and Rojo/Blind at cb. Hard to see us getting a result there. We will certainly concede and can't see us scoring twice away from home. Very depressing typing that, especially when 3 of our main rivals scored 4 away from home last weekend. Would love to see a front 4 of Mata, Mhki , Martial with Rashford up front, very unlikely though.

I still expect us to win. Swansea have been very poor this season. Not the side that have caused difficulties in the past. Now maybe they might get fired up and have belief they can beat us but at the same time they haven't won at home yet this season and are lying far down in the table. They have struggled so much that this should be a fixture we go in expecting to come away with a result.

Even after tonight's game I would still expect us to beat Swansea. If we don't come away with 3 points it would have to be classified as a disappointment. Yes it's hard to know what sort of performance we will get with recent games, and anything can happen in football but personally if this is a game we consider hard to get a result in then what sort of expectations should we have for this season?

I'm hoping this weekend will give us the lift we need.

Liam O

It's honestly hard to know what keeps going wrong. I mean the 2 goals tonight were ridiculous. The sublime overhead and great FK even if it caught DDG napping were goals that wont be conceded every week but seem to keep coming.

Talk of gutting the team is silly. It just needs a bit of time to develop a style that suits it. It's still too based on the wide players putting in crosses from isolated positions. You start with Martial, Rashford and Rooney as the 3 forwards and they should play like forwards and not 2 wingers and a number 10.

The idea is for the likes of Schneiderlin and Herrera to cover the wings as these 3 interchange and come central. But nothing in the last 3 seasons indicate that these things are being worked on. When it gets wide there's nobody from midfield supporting which means it's either a hopeless cross or back to the full back for a hopeless cross against a set back line.

Throughout Moyes, LVG and now Mourinho it's remained the same. 3 very different managers but managers known for setting up a team with structure. United however need flair and freedom. At times the shackles have looked to come off but are back on again after 1 bad result. Either you commit to something or you don't. All 3 managers have gone to players that it looked like they didn't fancy at the start. Is it the pressure, bad planning or something above? It's hard to say but Mourinho was able to make Madrid, Inter and Chelsea solid if unspectacular in his first season at all 3 and that's not even happening this time. I still have hope but the season is starting to get away from them.

magnumbud

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

The same out dated manager who won the league TWO seasons ago...Christ I'd hate to think what wenger should be labelled on that basis.

As for not performing..are we talking about this game or the season as a whole. Because if it's the latter we've improved and our attacking play has come on leaps and bounds.

We were poor tonight but it's hard with 10 players behind he ball. It was a good performance from fenerbache.
Again I'm not to bothered with the result as long as Saturday is a win that's all I care about

the same manager who took his championship winning team to the worse title defense in PL history.

also how has our attack improved? we have scored a pitful 7 goals in our last 7 league games and 4 of them came in 1 game. our deference has gotten worse conceding 11 goals in the same time period

fuzzydunlop85

Adamocovic wrote: »

I still expect us to win. Swansea have been very poor this season. Not the side that have caused difficulties in the past. Now maybe they might get fired up and have belief they can beat us but at the same time they haven't won at home yet this season and are lying far down in the table. They have struggled so much that this should be a fixture we go in expecting to come away with a result.

Even after tonight's game I would still expect us to beat Swansea. If we don't come away with 3 points it would have to be classified as a disappointment. Yes it's hard to know what sort of performance we will get with recent games, and anything can happen in football but personally if this is a game we consider hard to get a result in then what sort of expectations should we have for this season?

I'm hoping this weekend will give us the lift we need.

I hope you're right because I think we have Arsenal, West ham at home then away to Spurs and Everton after the international break.

If he starts with Rooney and Ibra we won't win. Rashford or Martial seriously need a run up front, preferably Rashford as he looks lost out on the wing(Martial ain't pulling up trees either). Even if he just makes runs to stretch defenses and create space for others It would be better than the dross we are seeing now, you would get more movement out of a wheely bin than Zlatan at the minute. Everything just seems so static and congested with our attack at the moment, would really love to see the front 4 I mentioned earlier. Think that has the potential to be a lot more dynamic and expansive.

den87

Worst thing about United these days is fear.

There's always a pre-game fear amongst fans that we will lose/slip up no matter what team we are up against. Fans of a big club shouldn't have to fear EVERY game, Liverpool fans dont, City fans dont,Spurs fans dont so why should we?

There's also the fact that teams dont fear us anymore, not even a small bit and that needs to change. Jose needs to instill a new system and formation that plays to our strengths (yes, there are some) and make teams fear us again.

bucketybuck

Liam O wrote: »

You start with Martial, Rashford and Rooney as the 3 forwards and they should play like forwards and not 2 wingers and a number 10.

People say they don't see the need for us to continue spending but if that was our front three then I'm sorry, but it isn't good enough. We all would love Martial and Rashford to become world class but lets be honest, they are not proven quality at all, they are nothing but potential and not even in-form potential at that.

On one hand we want titles, cups and consistency, on the other hand we want two unproven kids to lead our attack, problem is those two things just don't go together. If we were a proper outfit they would be coming in and out of the team, not starting game after game and being expected to drag us forward.

We have spent €500m? Doesn't matter, if we want to get anywhere we will have to get a proper striker and stop pretending that two past their sell by dates and two unproven talents are going to be enough.

secman

Seriously....why do managers fck around with playing players out of position. What's so wrong with putting out a balanced side, people in their positions. Does my head in

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Glad I missed the game. We are horse****.

Liam O

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Glad I missed the game. We are horse****.

Didn't play terribly and 2 very good goals, one from a FK. Don't let the Liverbahce fans in the match thread get you down, it was hardly a pub team at home that United were playing. They basically scored with their only real attempts on goal upto that point.

Thought Pogba was starting to take over the game right before he went off too, shame.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Liam O wrote: »

Didn't play terribly and 2 very good goals, one from a FK. Don't let the Liverbahce fans in the match thread get you down, it was hardly a pub team at home that United were playing. They basically scored with their only real attempts on goal upto that point.

Thought Pogba was starting to take over the game right before he went off too, shame.

Sounds to me as if we couldn't beat a Europa level team. Excuses every week at this stage.

Hank Scorpio

Think we only had 2 shots on target, one a worldie from Rooney. Similar problems with LVG's rein with stagnant movement.

Most teams just sit deep against us now and there's nothing we can do.

spiralism

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Sounds to me as if we couldn't beat a Europa level team. Excuses every week at this stage.

To be fair, wins away to the big three in Turkey are a rare rare sight. We've like one in modern times iirc, a win away to Besiktas in 2009 (they subsequently beat us in the return fixture in Old Trafford). Strange things happen out there and it's hostile as ****.

But to be honest tonight is just another symptom of this problem at utd, which won't be easily fixed. Basically i dont think Mourinho's ever had as difficult a job as this, they're proving to be an exceedingly difficult bunch to motivate or instruct. Galactico syndrome has well and truly kicked in and a dearth of leadership does not bode well. You'd probably say Rooney, Herrera and Ibra are the alpha male personalities in the squad yet only Herrera has actually been leading (by actions or performances) this season really. Who's gonna pick the players up and drive them on like a Keano would have? Not Rooney, he's not got the ability any more to lead by example and it's debatable how much of a **** he gives anymore. Ibra is the type of player that would rather be in a side that drew 2-2 where he scored both goals than be involved in a win where he didn't contribute. We need to look at Herrera in this role and he's growing into it for sure but others need to step up. I don't think it's a coincidence that Schweini has been recalled to the first team squad as mourinho feels the need for more leaders in the squad. Don't be surprised if he starts getting games again soon

The players just seem to be a fragile little bunch of snowflakes who can't handle adversity very well at all, this has been going on for a couple of years now. Maybe it's the price tags, the egos or just moving on from the SAF era, i don't know. But there's as good a chance now that we'll concede a shockingly cheap goal against the run of play and go to bits completely as there is of us grinding out a performance. I'm not going to even list the examples under LVG and Mourinho but i'd say it's a good dozen at least where the above has happened. At some point you need to look at the players, they're the common denominator in all this.

I have faith in Mourinho to fix this, he fixed a similar issue in Madrid where they'd fallen well behind Barca and were in a champions league wilderness getting knocked out by relative lightweights and it was down to similar issues. It took time, especially early on but the results did follow. Let's keep the faith lads, i reckon he'll whip them into shape, one huge positive lately is that the football is improving drastically, it's the mental errors we need to cut down on now.

Bret Hart

Not great that our next game is away against one of our bogey sides. Important we come away with something,so we can at least,make sure we're not too far off the Europa spots come the New Year. Be amazing if we could get a win in the league,been a long time since I've been able to watch MOTD and of course the most important reason being,it's been over a month since our last league win.

dfx-

stankratz wrote: »

Just so I'm clear, are there some proposing that Jose should be able to buy a starting 11 of his own before we can expect him to be successful at the club?

This appears to be the latest defence of him alright. (and whether those upstairs can be kept away from buying the shiny name which has been a huge trait recently)

It's madness to suggest that he can't be expected to work with what he has.

You would swear last weekend never happened and we didn't create guilt edge chances multiple times.
Only problem was the finishing.
Rubbing my eyes in disbelief at some of the knee jerking going on.

Jose opted to leave out the creativity IE Mata at #10. And it showed in the first and second half until he came on. Link up play wasn't there. Team lost its shape due to forced subs anyway.
He chose to give others an opportunity in a game which should be considered less important regardless.

spiralism

dfx- wrote: »

This appears to be the latest defence of him alright. (and whether those upstairs can be kept away from buying the shiny name which has been a huge trait recently)

It's madness to suggest that he can't be expected to work with what he has.

I dont think anyones saying we should buy a new squad though, just that the players need to get their heads out of their collective arse and stop making basic mistakes and going to bits in big games. There's only so much he can do to drill this into their heads, they need to just step the **** up to be honest.

Rayne Wooney

If the players hadn't fcuked up against Stoke, Burnley and Chelsea we'd be right in the title race right now.

No other manager in the world changes the result of those games.

Mantis Toboggan

Liam O wrote: »

All 3 managers have gone to players that it looked like they didn't fancy at the start. Is it the pressure, bad planning or something above? .

This is what I cannot understand, we've made luke Shaw the most expensive left back in the world, Martial the most expensive teenager in the world, Pogba to most expensive player ever in the world but none of them are performing anywhere near the level expected.

When Moyes got sacked and before LVG was appointed we were actively pursuing players, so this begs the question of who's sanctioning these deals and how much input is each manager having.

bangkok

Carrick will start on Sunday and will bring a calmness to our play and we will win.

tigger123

Jose blaming the players, because it's what he does.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/03/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-fenerbahce

If he isn't careful the squad will turn their back on him.

He doesn't seem very happy these days, full stop, for whatever reason. For a job that he chased so badly he doesn't seem to be enjoying it.

Kirby

tigger123 wrote: »

Jose blaming the players, because it's what he does.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/03/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-fenerbahce

If he isn't careful the squad will turn their back on him.

He doesn't seem very happy these days, full stop, for whatever reason. For a job that he chased so badly he doesn't seem to be enjoying it.

Because he's losing games. A lot. Thats not fun no matter how much you are getting paid.

tigger123

Kirby wrote: »

Because he's losing games. A lot. Thats not fun no matter how much you are getting paid.

Yep, but why though? Why can't he do at Utd what he did at Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real and then for about 10 minutes again at Chelsea? I think he's lost his spark, or his mojo, or whatever you want to call it. Doesn't make sense that he can't rally the squad into a winning team. And throwing them under the bus with the press is not going to help things.

Rayne Wooney

tigger123 wrote: »

Yep, but why though? Why can't he do at Utd what he did at Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real and then for about 10 minutes again at Chelsea? I think he's lost his spark, or his mojo, or whatever you want to call it. Doesn't make sense that he can't rally the squad into a winning team. And throwing them under the bus with the press is not going to help things.

People said he lost his spark after Madrid and then he won a league title, it's bullshít as usual.

These players haven't reacted to being told they aren't playing well enough in private, there's been 3 years for that. It's about time the spotlight was on their performance, being mollycoddled hasn't worked.

magnumbud

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

If the players hadn't fcuked up against Stoke, Burnley and Chelsea we'd be right in the title race right now.

No other manager in the world changes the result of those games.

Sure if they hadnt messed up against city, watford and liverpool too we'd be running away. We have 1 league win in 7 games only 6 points in that time we have played well in maybe 2 of our 10 league games so far. At some point you have to think its not the players its the inept tactics. After swansea we have arsenal west ham everton and spurs at the rate we are going after those 5 games we'll be lucky to have 5 points and that cant all be blamed on the manager

tigger123

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

People said he lost his spark after Madrid and then he won a league title, it's bullshít as usual.

These players haven't reacted to being told they aren't playing well enough in private, there's been 3 years for that. It's about time the spotlight was on their performance, being mollycoddled hasn't worked.

But the manager he is now bears little resemblance to the manager he was at Porto and during his first stint at Chelsea; throughout both of those appointments he had a squad of players who would run through a brick wall if he asked them too. He had charisma. Now he's just f*ckin cranky and bitching and moaning about how his squad is rubbish, instead of using the resources at his disposal to win matches and build momentum behind the team.

crkball6

tigger123 wrote: »

Jose blaming the players, because it's what he does.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/03/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-fenerbahce

If he isn't careful the squad will turn their back on him.

He doesn't seem very happy these days, full stop, for whatever reason. For a job that he chased so badly he doesn't seem to be enjoying it.

I could have swore I heard Arsne doing this recently. Klopp naming and shaming. Koeman. Why is it just a "Jose" thing?

Sometimes when a performance is so lack luster there's nothing else to do but blame the players. It's not like they all put in 100% and got unlucky.

Why shouldn't they be called out? These are not sensitive 9yr olds togging out in bushy park.

Liam McPoyle

He is in the job about 6 months.

Last night only two of "his" players started the game and one of them went off injured.

We conceded to a freakishly good goal after two minutes.

I expect the usual nonsense from other teams fans but Christ on a bike some of the stuff being posted in here is pure gack.

Kerrydude1981

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

If the players hadn't fcuked up against Stoke, Burnley and Chelsea we'd be right in the title race right now.

No other manager in the world changes the result of those games.

Should have had 6 points from the two home games especially with all the chances that were missed,the Chelsea game was always going to be tough as they were on a good run and wont be too far off winning the league