Such a strange game to try and rationalise. We missed sitters, bossed Chelsea for large periods of the game and the referee / lino were abysmal. That said, the goals were coming when Chelsea did score and you would be hard pressed to call them against the run of play in isolation. The first goal was the result of poor officiating and I'd say the third wasn't a foul leading up to it. So that's 2 goals as a indirect result of a bad decision from the officials. Chelsea players dropped like flys under any pressure whatsoever but they were always a threat going forward.
Silva looks like a school boy about to cry. It’s just unlucky. 4-2 flatters Chelsea. It happens. Even the best teams lose.
Excellent performance today. We really looked top level for 70 minutes, so disappointing to capitulate at the end. No doubt the withdrawal of Deeney hurt us. Carillo never really got in to the game so when the skipper went off it was poor Richarlison on his own trying to win the ball. It definitely pushed us back. But the defeat is a lot easier to stomach on the back of a great performance like that
At the risk of a need to remember where we came from. We need to do that. It’s a disappointing loss. But if you’re going to lose. Which teams do. This is the way to do it. On another day we would have won this 3 or 4-1. Away. At the champions. It’s all going to be fine. Relax guys
I didn't mind the Watson sub but it should've been for Cleverly who started to get knackered. Gray for Deeney and Richarlison where he is and we may have gotten something.
Wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. The misses were hard to bear but we are creating chances and on another day they will go in. Let's hope next week is that day and the week after....!
Of course it’s going to be fine. Of course our expectations are higher But it it’s still ******* annoying that having played so well to get to 2-1 up, we ******* threw it away. It’s not wrong to be pissed off
If we play like that every week we should be 7th by the end. Keeping that consistency and players fit will be the key to that.
It always hurts to lose, particularly when we've played so well, but we can take heart from the performance. If we can play like that against the likes of Stoke, Everton and West Ham over the coming weeks, it'll be 9 points in the bag.
Exactly this. Next four games are winnable. Play like we did today in those games then I'm confident we will get 9 to 12 points.
Gutted to lose that. We were the much better team and nothing about Chelsea was class. A goal from a corner that wasn't, a flick from Kabasele that set up their third up perfectly and a fourth from Britos thinking he is Messi and trying to loop it over the player rather than just pass. Rudiger should have been off and the ref bottled it at the bridge. I will take everything away from Chelsea with that win because they were absolutely outclassed by little old Watford in their own back yard. Hazard should be done for diving, Morata holding his face when Kabasele never touched and Rudiger doing the same. Pathetic bunch of players with absolutely the worst plastic fans in the world. Conte giving in large on the sideline when their third went in was hilarious to watch. The guy had multiple brown stains in his pants up until then. I hate Chelsea nearly as much as the scummers down the road, so them snatching a win like that has ticked me right off. The pundits will go on about "that's what champions do." I just hope their will be a few pundits that actually tell the truth of this game and that is that Watford were the better team for most of it, deserved a win and outclassed Chelsea in their own back yard. However I highly doubt anyone will say that because at the end of the day, it's the scoreline that matters. Sick to my stomach! Silva will learn from his mistakes, he always does. The issue will be picking up the players heads. This is a differently loss to the Man City one and we have to show our mental strength and beat Stoke at home next weekend. Proud of the boys though, can't fault them for the effort. We were the much better team and that is the moral high ground I am taking today after that loss. Glad Silva has come out already and stated the result doesn't reflect the game and we were the much better team. This is me right now
So proud of that performance. We matched them 2nd half, the Lino bottled the decision for the first goal, the ref blew up everytime a Chelsea played went down but we still powered on. We were unplayable 2nd half for 20 mins, they couldn't get near us. It was obvious we would regret richarlisons misses but Silva committed football suicide by taking off Deeney for Watson, we were never going to hold out for a point after that. Absolute scenes when that 2nd goal went in!!! Love this team! Chelsea hands down the worst fans iv seen. It's actually embarrassing. So many American accents after the game, coaches heading back to Devon - makes me so happy I'm a Watford fan.
I'm not a Deeney basher or blaming him for our loss, especially after last week I love his passion and grit. He has a totally different skill set to Gray but I just don't think he is fully match fit yet. He needs game time like any player but at present I think he only has an hour in the tank and could have come off 20 minutes earlier. Maybe today Silva didn't get his changes correct? Or Chelsea just have the more class and strength in depth but the signs are good as we didn't get totally outplayed like last season.
We just look so comfortable on the ball going forward. So good to see compared with last year when we seemed to treat it like a hot potato. Plenty of movement up front, Deeney aside, and stretched their star studded defence in all directions. I still think we just lack a goalscorer. Someone, who would create or anticipate space, take a gamble, and pick up from mistakes in the box. Players mostly chip in, I know, hence us having so many different players on the score sheet. But we need an out and out goalscorer.
Just looked at the table to cheer myself up. Still the best of the rest....unless Burnley beat Citeh.
It hurts, But we were due a loss and against a Top Six side like chelsea, Its understandable. However well we played. Next couple of games we should win, Stoke who have 0 Threat and a pretty average defence should be comfortable. Considering Crouch is there scapegoat.
I think Sky nailed it saying Chelsea made the right subs and we made the wrong ones. Again, gutting, but it happens. Nevertheless, we did ourselves very proud over the last 9 games and put ourselves on the world stage in the last 2. The only way is up. Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk
**** **** ******** **** ****** On the bright side for most of the 1st half and most of the second half thought we looked good. At end of day Chelsea have a lot of quality and in the 10mins of the match that they played they showed it. But we played some amazing one touch football particularly in the 1st half , Thing I like about watford now , last season I couldn’t see where the goals were going to come from , this season literally anywhere , I could even see Gomes getting one if we have a last min corner
Has no one pointed out Rudiger's intentional elbow on Kabasele in the build-up to Doucoure's goal? Clear red and coupled with him somehow not getting a second yellow for the late tackle on Richarlison really pisses me off.
Gutted that we lost but last 20mins apart that was an incredible performance . First half we contained a dangerous looking Chelsea side very well , looked to go at them and got the goal . I actually thought the three at the back worked well as although they got at us down our right in particular we defended their crosses well . First 20 minutes of the second half we really got at them and that combination of Pereyra with Femenia overlapping was causing Chelsea all sorts of problems. I'm concerned about Pereyras injury as he literally just looked like he's hitting his stride again ! Agree that the Watson substitution. was a bit baffling ,but not gonna be too hard on Silva, the way he's got us playing . Let's face it if we play like that week in week out we will Beat most teams . Chelsea aren't the side they were last season,but they have lots of quality players that can hurt you . Also, one of the things I haven't seen so much if this season is that quality final ball , as most of our goals have come from defensive,rebounds, or shots from distance , but we really had that in that second half and the second goal is one of my favourites this season for that reason .
We were na*ve today We're not used to being in a position to win these sorts of games against the best teams and it showed Next run of games are all comfortably winnable Just make it a 4231 please Marco eh? Enough of this 3 at the back nonsense.
Managed to get two tickets for this in the Chelsea game this morning. I was right in line with the linesman when hazard kicked it off the pitch. It was the most obvious decision in the world. And then to make matters worse, we weren’t prepared for the quick short corner, as many of our players had started to jog up the pitch in anticipation of the goal kick, which left a number of players unmarked. Quality finish, but a goal entirely of the officials making. As others have said, Femenia was absolute quality. Best player on the pitch. Doucoure and Richarlison were also so dangerous, even if it didn’t quite fall for the latter today. I do think the Watson sub was a poor one though. I’m sad, but I’m proud that we went to Stamford Bridge and played like we were the Champions at home. Sit back and just let that sink in.
Yes...it was a big moment. Chelsea should have gone down to ten men and I'm sure we'd have gone on to win. There has been quite a lot of bias officiating this season, more than I can remember from the previous two seasons. I think we've been done by Moss and Taylor this season, which coincides with games against big teams and our only two losses. The clearest illustration of this bias was Femenia being carded for kicking the ball away, but Hazard was not, for doing the exact same thing. This game was tight for so long and in a game like that the official has to be fair. When he repeatedly goes towards the bigger side then it becomes almost impossible. There were so many examples where our players were fouled and these were ignored and Chelsea were allowed to build an attack from it. There's nothing we can do about it, and it will probably never change, but it's no less frustrating when it clearly happens. Even the neutral BBC radio five live were commentating on how one-sided Moss was seeing the game.
The ending didn't have much to do with Watson, their introduction of Willian changed their mood and put us under massive pressure
Because we were sitting too deep - willian won't influence the game when we are in their final third. Watson should be nowhere near a Prem League squad. Loved what he did for us, but he's gone now
