Independence Day somewhere. And probably the best chance of escaping relegation is if those aliens on the Moon decide that it's a good day to attack. What expectations do we have ? None. What hope is there ? None. What chance do we have of winning ? None. It will take a miracle to get something here to be perfectly frank. Given it takes the team 45 minutes to wake up each match (are they really professionals ?) and they only decide that it's worth attacking for 20 minutes after the break after having been roasted by Pearson before settling back into sloth like levels of mobility and awareness. There is no doubt something is rotten behind the scenes again. Gray's behaviour is one sign but the attitude of some others notably Capoue is another. To my mind NP should have been given a long term contract instead of an extension. That at least might fix some of the squads minds who seem to be on holiday still. Last week could have seen us comfortable with games coming up against Newcastle, Norwich and West Ham that are eminently winnable. Now they will be like the death struggles in the amphitheatre and given the lack of fibre this team has displayed for the fight we could well lose those as well. Had we been playing well we might even have considered a point away in both trips to London given that those teams were displaying signs of rust that now seem vanished. The home game against Abu Dhabi well we might as well play 10 on the goal line. The best we can expect is not to get hammered by ten the way they and we are playing. Sorry if this makes grim reading but having watched the worst most inept 45 minutes yesterday in years I cannot find any positivity. The only two players who have really tried to bust a gut and showed real fight have been Hughes and Sarr. They look disappointed when they have not managed to connect, missed a chance or failed to get something right. The rest seem to shrug their shoulders have a giggle or just sulk back. There is no anger. No recriminations. No organizing. Deeney looks like a spent force after having had the arrogance to think obtaining match fitness is a matter of turning up on the day. They all look woefully under prepared physically and mentally. How else do you explain not having had the ability to carry the game to Burnley with far more rest ? NP also has to carry the can. Poor tactics initially against Burnley. Then not having the bravery to get rid of Deeney. We are so predictable in our method of attack. Ninety nine times out of a hundred the ball is lost and possession is surrendered. Possession surely at this stage of the season should be nine tenths of the law. At least if we kept the ball we could minimize the opposition scoring. However we were doling it out the other day like wreckers discovering liquor on the shore. Have it, have some more. There's plenty more to go around. We badly miss Deulofeu partnering Sarr. So the aim should be to bring the same pace out wide. Pussetto/Pedro then. Welbeck in the middle. He will make runs. Albeit not a prolific scorer his best work is in creating space for others and intelligent off the ball play. And if need be play Doucoure closer as a second striker. Unusual perhaps but at least with those four across the front our press might work better too. Not to mention having at least 2 to aim for in the box rather than no one would also be a boon to Sarr. And surely Shakey can speak to the lad. You get to the byeline son with your pace. Job done.Don't just throw it in. A quick look beforehand. Maybe cut back inside and get into the box. Corner or penalty. Ask Barnes. Cally. And to Pereyra. Listen lad. You just don't have the pace to get away when you trick and knock it past a player anymore. Just get the ball in. It's a simple law of averages. Get more shots on target, crosses into the box and players waiting to receive it and you will get more chances and goals. God knew that. It's a shame this lot do not. As it stands we need a miracle in West London and we must beat Newcastle, Norwich and West Ham. No if's and buts. Just a fluke win for Villa, Bournemouth or West Ham could see us slide out of the division. And it would be a terrible blow for the progress of the club. We must stay up and overhaul the squad in the little time between this and the next season. But we must stay up. God knows how but we must. Shame he isn't here to provide words of wisdom.
More fight will be shown in the reopening pubs then it will at Stamford Bridge. A massacre unless Frank feels sorry for us. 5-0.
Chelsea will score as many goals as they feel like getting and our useless squad of gutless buffoons will just stroll around and let them while they wait for the final whistle so they can go home again.
Regardless of result, I just want to see Watford put in a spirited display, where they are at least a little competitive, rather than cannon-fodder for whichever club they are up against. No reaction to the Burnley game against Southampton......so I won't hold my breath to expect it this time around either. But, football is crazy. We all know that. How the hell could this Watford team thrash Liverpool 3-0 and the win should have been bigger. That just does not compute. So it can be done. Chelsea lost at home to equally woeful Bournemouth this season, so there is a smattering of hope to cling to. We may get some luck on the day, they may have a player sent off, or the biorhythms of all our players peak on the same day. The players may even be a little more relaxed playing a game they expect to lose. That can give you an attitude of "well it doesn't really matter as we're going to get beaten here" and that can lift the pressure. You see it a lot when a club gets relegated they suddenly start playing well and start winning games. It's all to do with fear. I think playing a no-hoper of a game is exactly what Watford need right now. It could lift off the pressure and what if they get a result at Chelsea? That could change absolutely everything. I've had a bellyful of pessimism and negativity and I predict Watford get a splendid narrow defeat, which will help our goal difference from being annihilated.
The Liverpool game was a stopped clock is right twice a day, monkey with a typewriter scenario. Play enough games and eventually you’ll get a good performance out of us, but there is no way it’s happening again this season.
Daft thing is we only need 1 or 2 anomoly wins with a scuffed winner or 30 yard deflection to be right back up with a chance. We can do that, but I'm not confident about this team forcing it.
Must must MUST win game. Chelsea's young fit skillful enthusiasts vs our aged surrender-monkeys. Chelsea 1 WFC 2 (Deeney 2) No seriously, Chelsea 4 Watford 0. However it's not all 100% pessimism as I do expect us to have a shot on target.
Smudger why put us through this again? C'mon sweetheart your better than this... I cannot really say much, but I will say it's not going to be pretty. No chance will the lads have a redemption in a weeks time and click into a Liverpool beating side again. Lampard is a good coach, Chelsea are going for CL and we are just a small bump in the road for them to achieve it. 4-0. Hard to see anything less than a pasting. We always get battered there lately so why change now?
The positive thing about this game is that it's at 8pm. I can therefore do my best to palm the boy off on the wife and in-laws and spent the day getting drunk so by 8pm I'll either be in a drunken slumber or probably forget the game is even on.
It's not if we get beaten it's by how many! Some others posted a front three of Pedro, Sarr and Welbeck. Why not at least it's a forward line with pace. Let's be honest could they do any worse?
Without any doubt we will be on the back foot for large parts so pace is an absolute must when we get the chance to break. We cannot start with Deeney and Pereyra. Is Pussetto quick? I would go for Pedro, Welbeck and Sarr with Cleverley behind. Hughes and Chalobah as defensive midfielders Foster Femenia (who else) Dawson Kabasele Holebas Hughes Chalobah Cleverley Sarr Welbeck Pedro
Just putting it out there - this is exactly the kind of game we tend to pull a world-class performance out of the ether and run out comfortable winners. The lower the expectations, the better our merry band of misfits decide to play. 3-1 to the orns.
Think we've beaten Chelsea a sum total of once since we were promoted, haven't we, and that was with 2/3rds of the game played against ten men.
There are two options for this: - either play the full first team and try to just keep the score down - or rest our key players for the vital game against Norwich three days later Either way we'll end up getting spanked.
I think we need to be compact keep things tight, I seen Villa do this to Chelsea recently and they almost got something, hopefully we can pick moments to counter attack.
Don't even care anymore. If there's any justice in the world we will be relegated. We are hopelessly pathetic.
My preference would be for saving them and their energy for Norwich. I'd probably start with a deep-sitting defensive lineup against Chelsea of something like: Foster Mariappa, Kabasele, Cathcart, Masina Pussetto, Cleverley, Chalobah, Capoue, Pereyra Deeney So that against Norwich we could go: Foster Femenia, Dawson, Kabasele, Holebas Sarr, Hughes, Capoue, JP Doucoure Welbeck
I hope we win this one and then win our remaining games to, stay up comfortably and then all the moaners on here can stuff it up there jumpers!!!! COYH YNWA!
That's easy. Dog ****. It's nasty, but cat **** is worse. Horse **** is the best. Or that Asian civet which poos expensive coffee.
by the way, shout out to @Smudger for doing the write ups. It can't be easy to motivate oneself to write a paragraph or two about these hopeless games for our ****** team. They don't really deserve such well thought out prose.
I thought about writing 'What a bunch of overpaid and underperforming winkers' at first as a summary. I don't think I have sworn so much and I promised I wouldn't to myself for several years as I did in those opening forty five minutes.
No ******* chance of a point, zero, zilch, nada, nought, nil, zip, mix, none at all. Best thing Pearson could do is start bedding in the players we think we might retain for next year.
We shall go on to the final whistle. We shall fight in Knightsbridge, we shall fight in the Olympic Stadium and The Emirates, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength for high balls in the air, we shall defend our goal, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the away grounds, we shall fight on the training fields and in the roads of Vicarage, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender......until kick off that is.
I have found the last three games (last minute equaliser aside) a tortuous watch. Not sure if I can put myself through that again. We are going to be embarrassed by Chelsea.
The players, stupid as ever are trying to force another manager they don't like out of the door by playing half paced Sannino hard line manager Mazzari hard line manager Flores stubborn manager Gracia hard line manager Welcome to the club Nigel...