Pre/Post Match Discussion: Premier League vs Chelsea (h)

[DaveMart]

City taking Sanchez?
Hilarious!

Their B team goalpost plays better.

[steve.crowford]

We'll definitely be in Top 4, Bissaka and Maguire as if always playing for us) Chelsea only really had a few chances.
Our new velvet four

[raycreative]

We'll definitely be in Top 4, Bissaka and Maguire as if always playing for us) Chelsea only really had a few chances.
Our new velvet four

Very bold statement after just one game
Strong as the defence appeared it was actually breached several times on Sunday.It will get better PROVIDED they do not get any injuries and they get somebody to track back at the relevant times and help Shaw out.He was badly exposed in the first half against Chelsea
When people talk about top 4 they are kidding themselves if they believe that.
The top 2 is booked for City and Liverpool and i honestly believe that Spurs are almost certain to take 3rd now that they have strengthened
That narrows it down to 4th place only
I now discount Chelsea,especially with the transfer ban so imo it is up for grabs between us and Arsenal who also started with a decent win
So i have to discount,at this stage "definately" and subsistute "possibly" and discuss again after 10 games

[Sigmar]

i hate to say it bu I agree with Ray, this is a great start, but lets all calm down a bit and see what happens over the next few games before we start talking where we chould/could/will finish. Bloody Sky putting a league tabl eout is nonsense, years ago you never saw one for the first five or six games.

[raycreative]

I think all of the summaries have got it spot on

My initial prediction was also spot on
Chelsea have a very poor defence and with the transfer embargo face a very long season
They are no longer a top side.
Like United they have not replaced a key player in Eden Hazard who was almost a one man team
The other key player Kante was just not fit
And yet they still dominated up to United scoring.
We could/should have been 3-1 down at half time so please don't think this was a quality performance
The two new players had dream debuts and i applaud them
Shaw looked a bit short at left back.He appeared to be getting no help from midfield

MacTominay was very average both going forward and getting back and tackling
Same comment with Periera which was why we were overun in midfield in the first half
Jesse did his headless chicken act and Pogba was mostly anonymous in the first half
Up front Martial and Rashford looked like they had never played together and often chased down the same channel
The biggest threat up front for us was Maguire who looks very strong at both ends

The second half changed because Pogba woke up and started spraying quality passes
Rashford and Martial ran different channels and gave Pogba more options
As predicted when James came on he had the shit kicked out of him
It won't go unnoticed by hardened professionals that he was slow to get up after being kicked by Kante

What we learned
1 We have two very strong defenders and the entire defence will get better as it learns how to play with each other
2 The midfield is very very weak and if the rumours that Pogba is still vulnerable to a transfer we will be in real trouble
3 Martial and Rashford will also get better

Shaw was being overwhelmed with 2 V 1 on the overlap because Rashford wasn't tracking back, that was put right and Chelsea had less going forward when we reverted to 4-4-2.
4-3-3 doesn't seem to work for us, we wre a lot more efficient with 4 in midfield.

James was fine, the rule now is to stay down until you are sure you can get up, Kante is an arse, the tackle was a red, Taylor went soft on him

I don't think Kante was an arse
He did what any top professional would do to let the kid know how to shit himself,which he did as was shown last night against Wolves.
James did not make one positive run forward did he against Wolves

All young players have to put up with this.
Ronaldo did and so did Best.I am not saying this kid is anywhere near the promise they showed at his age but i am sure you know what i mean.
It is not only young forwards that get this treatment
In the 1960's Law and Nobby Stiles and John Fitzpatrick used to dish it out

In the 1990's it was Keano and Nicky Butt

It is a professional game and how James reacts will show us his character.
I didn't see any positive reaction at Wolves last night which is a bit worrying