Chelsea vs Man United - 18/04/2015

Decent line-up, but we're going to miss Carrick a lot.

I hope McNair is up for it too. He has shown good things at times, but he has also been very shaky. I certainly won't blame him anyway, regardless of the outcome, but I hope he can have a solid display.

Win or lose, I want us to scare the hell out of Mourinho and show that we will be there next year.

Can't deny that I am disappointed. But this game was so predictable. United owning possession. Chelsea playing ugly defensive football. And nicking a goal in the process. Mourinho said post match that he doesn't care about possession stats and that was always going to be the case. Points was all that mattered.

LVG recognized that post match as well. And he was pretty condescending towards the reporter :lol:

At the end of the day, this doesn't change anything. Chelsea are going to win the title and LVG will learn that something different is necessary when playing Chelsea. Next season, hopefully we can grab 3 points when paying them a visit.

Frustrated is the word I'd use. Dominated but they allowed us to dominate to the extent they did as they know they can't compete with us in a possession based game. They sat back and hoped their solid defence and 2 holding midfielders would help keep us out and hoped to hit us on the break, which is exactly what happened.

We couldn't break them down which was due to numerous things, our poor decision making in the final 3rd, Chelsea's solid defence and the balance of our side being slightly off due to the injuries forcing position changes.

It's the sort of game I'll move on from with ease, we played well, kept up our recent form in terms of the performance. Nothing in that game that told me we won't still finish 2nd or made me doubt where we're going next season. The difference next season is the manager will have more of a plan/idea of how to break down these dull defensive sides.

It would have allowed Rooney to play up front and also meant we could have kept the 3 of Mata, Herrera and Valencia on the right. I think it COULD have made a difference but they'd still have been hard to break down no matter what.

I think lately we've focused more on attacking on the other side with Young and Blind. But you're right. The right side would have been a more attractive option with those players there.

I've got to say, the part that pissed me off most about the match was when ADM was waiting for Blackett to overlap him.

Was it Blackett who thought ADM was supposed to overlap him? ADM was shite again. He's starting games based on his reputation imo.

Frustrating outcome, but I am still glad at the immense progress we've made this season.
Our injuries didn't help, in the sense that we felt Rooney and Herrera were missing in their respective position upfront and in that box-to-box role. Yet they did both well today, same for McNair who was very good and tidy, and for Shaw whose confidence grew as the game went on.

I thought we had a solid game, it could have ended differently and we could have scored a couple as well. That's the type of defeat I am willing to accept because it's a step of our learning process. Their goal was pure naivety from our part and it will be a big lesson for the lads. On the other hand, I think we would have beaten the hell of that Chelsea team with a better attacking performance. I believe we must add a world-class attacker to our rank this summer.

Three things I take from this game:
- we're progessing, no doubt about that, and we will only get better with time and a few quality signings.
- I think this game has highlighted our shortcomings: we have a solid 11, but we may lack a bit of quality in depth to fit into LVG's system, because Di Maria just doesn't and I doubt he ever will, same for Januzaj.
- Teams are starting to fear us, retreating into their own half and defending deep, hoping to get something out of a counter: when we master this system, we will destroy the BPL.