My last proper match thread was Newcastle. Oh, how the optimism has faded! Well, what to think? Chelsea spectacularly imploded against Eddie Tracy's Bournemouth on Wednesday night whilst Watford ground out a dour nil-nil against a frankly useless Stoke side. If you were Lawro or Merse, you wouldn't think twice about putting this down for an away win. Chelsea fans are not quite so confident, many saying it is Conte's last chance saloon. Chelsea's injury problems may not go as deep as ours, but are critical in attack. Morata is still out reportedly, and Giroud is not fit enough to start, despite coming on for Arsenal's desperate last 10 minutes against Swansea. Batashuayi has gone to Borussia Dortmund on loan, so expect Hazard to start as a false 9. Christensen is also out - leaving Cahill in a holding midfield role or pressing Luiz and the risk of errors that that presents. However, any side that can call on Pedro, Willian, Hazard, Moses and Fabregas should in theory be able to get at our hitherto creaky defense - lets hope Gracia has been drilling them hard. Watford team news - no news on Cleverley's or Kabasele's injuries at Stoke. Gomes still doubtful with dodgy back, so Karnesis it is -he seems to have put his Everton nightmare behind him and has seemed pretty solid (although he needs to cut out pushing the ball into danger areas. Kaboul may well be available, so CBs from Prodl, Kaboul, Kabasele?, Mapps. RB from Mapps, Janmaat. LB from Holebas, Zeegelaar. If no Clevs, central midfield from Capoue, Doucoure, Pereyra plus Carillo if played more centrally. N'Dong still has a games suspension to serve we believe. Attack looks quite promising if any of them can find their shooting boots - Gray, Deeney, Richy, Okaka, Deulefeo, Lukebakio, (and Sinclair). So, glass half full says we can get something out of this. Chelsea massive bookies favourites - 'twas ever thus. If we could emulate Bournemouth you'll get 80-1 - it's like printing money. We still are due a result against Tottenham Chelsea and Man C in this PL sojourn; in spite of our rotten form and injuries this might still be a good time to tick one off against Chelsea. (I am spending all my optimism on the 'Orns, I have long since given up on the country)
Would take a point. Hazard playing as a false 9 scares the bejesus out of me, and they will have been really wound up by their pasting by our friends on the sth coast. 1-2 chelsea. If no Kabs&Clev, 1-4.
I still think they will have pace to spare against Deeney & Okaka. The 3-3-3-3-3 formation is also notoriously difficult to break down.
Let's hope their dismal performance against National Treasure Saint Eddie Howe's cloggers wasn't a one-off. 1-0 to the Golden Boys
2-2. Be nice to go into this game with a 3 or 4 point gap to 18th still. Takes the pressure off somewhat.
Javi was known for beating the top sides in Spain so it'll be interesting to see what we do. Fear injuries will scupper any chance of winning though.
Fancy a point here. We’re a pretty negative bunch so we might view the Bournemouth win as a bad thing, personally I see it as a good thing. So much of sport is in the mind, sometimes a team is half beaten before they even play a top side because they think it’s a forgone conclusion, seeing Chelsea beaten so well on Wednesday should give our players the belief that they can get a result. Also, all teams have a bad run of form, if this is Chelsea’s then it’s not inconceivable that we could beat them too.
Will he be wearing a no.6 shirt upside down? Seriously ive never heard that term before but having looked it up i see it's been around since the 1930's. I live a sheltered life
Do chelsea have the same sort of player power that we do? They managed to see off Jose so I wonder if they'll do the same to Conte. Theyve nothing to lose, and everything to gain in getting a new man before playing Barcelona
This will entirely depend on which Chelsea turn up. They don't seem to be united, with divisions between board and manager..........hmmm, that sounds familiar. Chelsea could be reeling from their Bournemouth embarrassment, and if that's the case they will probably take it out on us. However, if this is part of a glass mountain with moccasin situation (need Merson's view on this) then we could all be pleasantly surprised.
Difficult. Chelsea have never really Tonked us at home so it could be a tight game. Depending on what our team shape is could well dictate the game for them. What still concerns me is our home form. Aren’t we the team with the most goals conceded at home? Yes that was during King Cobra’s reign but this will be Gracia’s first home game and the lads would want to play well. I hope a good turn out on a chilly Hertfordshire evening will entice an exciting game with Conte shown his P45 at full time. 2-0.
Conte was under big pressure when we played at the Bridge and if we had won many believe he would have been sacked. So, it’s interesting he’s under the same big pressure again. Optimistically, I think we’ll finish the job we left undone and we get Conte fired. 2-1 the ‘Orns No idea who scores, safe bet it won’t be Deeney or Gray.
It´s funny to see people on here saying Chelsea are off form, how Conte is about to get the sack etc, etc. I have just googled the results of Chelsea and I see the previous 8 matches were 5 wins and 3 draws 17 goals and 3 against. Maybe Bournemouth are just very good.
I think it’s more that Conte wants out rather than the players not liking him isn’t it? He just wants to be sacked and get his payout. He’s not happy he doesn’t get a hand in signings, it’s very similar to Silva minus the unwarranted approach from another club.
Everyone said that Slavs speciality was beating the top teams so lets see what he can do in this one.
If history is anything to go by a draw would be a great success for us against Chelsea. In the 13 post millennium games against them we have lost 10 and drawn 3.. 5 of those games were in the FA Cup. Mind you our post millennium record across the rest of the big 6 hasnt been great.. Man City- P12 W0 D2 L10 Man United- P10 W1 D0 L9 Liverpool- P10 W1 D1 L8 Spurs- P10 W0 D3 L7 Arsenal- P10 W3 D0 L7 (our best record) So in total i make our post millennium record against the big 6.. Played 65- Won 5- Drawn 9- Lost 51. *This of course includes cup games.
We'll win this. 4-0 to the mighty 'orns. Chelsea have downed tools. They don't get stuffed by Bournemouth if they put a reasonable effort in.
As Gracia has played 4-4-2 against big teams in the past I'll go for something like: Karnezis Mariappa Prodl Kabasele Holebas Deulofeu Capoue Doucoure Pereyra Deeney Richarlison
The Slavs, or Russians, had a handsome win vs Napoleon’s French outfit & kept their 100% home record against the 1940s German squad. Hoping that Chelsea overextend their supply lines on Monday.
Footballers are one of those rare groups of professionals who don’t use tools. The ball isn’t theirs (it mysteriously appears on a plinth before the game) & you can’t really call footwear ‘a tool’.
I fancy our chances, far more than I did against Stoke. Aside from Spurs, there seems to be a great deal of instability amongst the bigger sides after the title was decided in October. Need Capoue to have his one decent game in 20
True enough. Maybe there was a lost in translation moment when he heard the rest of the squad were downing their tools after the Everton episode.
Since we reached the promised land with the Pozzo's we're yet to get 3 points off a top 4 team and I'm going to predict the same outcome this season. 1 0 the mighty Orn's Richarlison gifted a tap in by one of his future team mates
When we beat Arsenal if they’d won they would’ve been in the top four (at our expense, how depressing to think we were once fourth this season) so I’m counting that one!